Terrific South African Art for Big Prices at Upcoming Auction

Oct 31, 2015

A statue by Anton van Wouw that was originally won with a 10 cent raffle ticket could fetch half a million rand in a Johannesburg auction next week of major South African artworks.

Paintings and sculptures by luminaries such as Maggie Laubser, Jan Hendrik Pierneef, Irma Stern, Ephraim Mojalefa Ngatane, Lucas Sithole and William Kentridge are among more than 200 pieces coming under the hammer in the Strauss & Co summer auction at the Wanderers Club on 9 November.

The Van Wouw sculpture, ‘The Dagga Smoker’, was donated by the artist as a raffle prize to raise funds for the Dutch Relief Fund during World War 2. Tickets cost one shilling (10 cents at the time) and the sculpture was valued at about 60 pounds.

230 Irma Stern SOUTH AFRICAN 1894-1966 Meinkie 3-4 million — Irma Stern, 1894-1966, ‘Meinkie’, estimated to fetch R3-R4 million. The 1948 painting of a Malay woman has caused much excitement before the auction.

Several records were broken at Strauss & Co’s spring auction earlier in October, where ‘Still Life of Fruit and Lilies in a Jug’ by Irma Stern fetched R4,547,200.

Irma Stern's 'Still Life of Fruit and Lilies in a Jug'. — Irma Stern’s ‘Still Life of Fruit and Lilies in a Jug’, which sold in October for R4,5 million.

Anton van Wouw SOUTH AFRICAN 1862-1945 The Dagga Smoker — Anton van Wouw, 1862-1945, ‘The Dagga Smoker’. The sculpture was sold at auction for R180,000 in 2010 and is estimated to fetch R350,000-R400,000.

220 Alexis Preller SOUTH AFRICAN 1911-1975 The Creation of Adam I 3-4m — Alexis Preller, 1911-1975. ‘The Creation of Adam I’, estimated to fetch R3 million-R4 million. This is one of Preller’s ‘intaglio’ works, part painting and part sculpture.

193 Jurgen Schadeberg SOUTH AFRICAN 1931- Mandela in His Cell, Robben Island Signed by Nelson Mandela and dated 29.9.99 — Jurgen Schadeberg, born 1931. ‘Mandela in His Cell, Robben Island’, signed by Nelson Mandela and dated 29.9.99. Estimated to fetch R60,000-R90,000.

279 William Joseph Kentridge SOUTH AFRICAN 1955- Woman with Pink Knees 1.5-2.5m — William Joseph Kentridge, born 1955. ‘Woman with Pink Knees’ is probably the most anticipated sale of the artist’s works on auction, where he combines collage and charcoal, employing the technique of chine collé, a kind of collage developed in the nineteenth-century to bond thin Chinese and Japanese papers onto paper. Expected to fetch R1.5 million-R2.5 million.

Pierneef’s ‘Houtbos, Transvaal’ is remarkably similar to one of the famous Station Panels commissioned for the Johannesburg Station Concourse in 1929, and now kept at the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch. Strauss says that Pierneef is enjoying a critical renaissance since the large exhibition of his work at the Standard Bank Gallery this year, A Space for Landscape: The Work of JH Pierneef.

217 Jacob Hendrik Pierneef SOUTH AFRICAN 1886-1957 Houtbos, Transvaal 500k-800k — Jacob Hendrik Pierneef,1886-1957. ‘Houtbos, Transvaal’, expected to fetch R500,000-R800,000.

In this video Strauss MD Stephan Welz describes Pierneef’s ‘Houtbos’

216 Maggie (Maria Magdalena) Laubser SOUTH AFRICAN 1886-1973 Landscape with Cow, Trees, Huts and Figures 350k-500k — Maggie (Maria Magdalena) Laubser, 1886-1973. ‘Landscape with Cow, Trees, Huts and Figures’, estimated to fetch R350,000-R500,000.

“The results of the Spring auction confirm the strength of the South African art market,” said Strauss & Co managing director, Stephan Welz. “There is an undeniable appetite for high-quality art that represents the best of an artist’s work.”