Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Irma Stern's 1930 portrait Cape Girl with Fruit headlines SA art auction

16/05/2024

Irma Stern's 1930 portrait Cape Girl with Fruit headlines SA art auctionAn Irma Stern painting from 1930 leads Strauss & Co's diverse catalogue of modern and contemporary art at its May sale in Johannesburg

by Garrin Lambley

16-05-2024 08:13

in Art and Artists

Irma Stern's 1930 portrait Cape Girl with Fruit headlines SA art auction. Image: Irma Stern museum

For generations of progressive South African collectors, the names Dumile Feni, Maggie Laubser, Esther Mahlangu, George Pemba, J.H. Pierneef, Alexis Preller, Gerard Sekoto, Lucas Sithole, Irma Stern, Anton van Wouw and Edoardo Villa have represented a rock-solid canon.

--

All these collectable modernist artists, many now receiving overdue international recognition, are represented in the catalogues for Strauss & Co's two-part Day and Evening auction of modern and contemporary art in Johannesburg on Tuesday, 28 May 2024.

Leading the 85-lot catalogue for the premier Evening Sale, which commences at 19:00, is Irma Stern's paradisiacal 1930 portrait of a seated young woman, Cape Girl with Fruit (estimate on request).

Made during a period of frequent travel across Southern Africa and regular exhibiting in Europe, this important, large-scale work records the early beginnings of Stern's celebrated and sensual mature style.

--

Paradise also looms large as theme in Alexis Preller's sun-drenched beach scene, Fisherman Mending Nets, Beau Vallon (estimate R3-4 million / $162 780 - 217 040), from his important visit to the Seychelles in 1949.

Preller, who is currently the subject of a career retrospective at Norval Foundation in Cape Town, has two works in the evening session.

Irma Stern has five paintings on auction Stern has five, including Still Life with Amaryllis (estimate R5 7 million / $271 455 $380 040), which was painted during a pause in her epic run representing South Africa at four editions of the Venice Biennale (in 1950, 52, 54 and 58).

--

More than a decade ago, The New York Times wrote that South African avant-garde painting of the 20th century had not loomed large in the international public imagination, which was perhaps true of affairs at the turn of this century but definitely does not apply today, says Dr Alastair Meredith, Head of Department of Fine Art, Strauss & Co.

South African modernists have in the last few years received growing recognition in international exhibitions and publications. The 2024 Venice Biennale, which features nearly a dozen of the country's best modernists, including George Pemba, Gerard Sekoto and Irma Stern, marks a further step in the international rehabilitation of our historical artists.

The Evening Sale offers a representative survey of South African art, from its early beginnings with painters like Frans Oerder and Pieter Wenning, through the emergence of the black modernist canon with figures like Pemba and Sekoto, up to the vibrant present day.

There are two high-value William Kentridge drawings: Preparing the Flute (estimate on request), related to his celebrated 2005 production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, and a WW1 battle scene (estimate on request) from his 2002 stop-animation film Zeno Writing.

As always, painting features strongly in both the online Day Sale and the live-virtual Evening Sale, with notable works by Walter Battiss, Peter Clarke, Robert Hodgins, Maggie Laubser, Nelson Makamo and John Meyer.

The estimate for Vladimir Tretchikoff's striking Chrysanthemums in a Vase (estimate R1.2 - R1.6 million / $65 090 - $86 785) reflects his evergreen status at auction.

George Pemba and Gerard Sekoto, who are currently enjoying premier billing at the Venice Biennale, have three and five works apiece in the Evening Sale.

Pemba's 1989 portrait, Author and Artist (estimate R200 000 - R300 000 / $10 865 - $16 300), depicts author Alan Paton.

Sekoto's works are dated 1960 to 1975, and include Mother and Child (estimate R400 000 - R600 000 / $21 730 - $32 595) from 1971.

Sculpture is not overlooked.

The evening session includes an important Nisini foundry casting of Anton van Wouw's bronze Slegte Nuus (estimate R3 - R4 million / $162 780 - $217 040).

Contemporary sculptor Dylan Lewis has three works in the Evening Sale.

The online-only Day Sale is especially strong on sculpture and includes bronzes by Deborah Bell, Andries Botha, Guy du Toit and Herman van Nazareth.

Goat Girls (estimate R150 000 - R200 000 / $8 150 - $10 865) is a collaborative work by Diane Victor and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren from their Scapegoat Series.

The catalogue also includes painted wood pieces by Norman Catherine and an early work by Gerhard Marx.

EXHIBITION VIEWING TIMES Weekdays from 09:00 to 16:00

Weekend (25/26 May) from 09:00 to 16:00

Venue: Strauss & Co, 89 Central Street, Houghton, Johannesburg

Art Day Sale: E-CATALOGUE

Evening Sale: E-CATALOGUE

Looking to buy a good quality pre-owned vehicle, CLICK HERE!
LINK: https://www.thesouthafrican.com/culture/art-artists/irma-stern-1930-po...
See more stories from thesouthafrican

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

01/04/2026

DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION

January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...

12/03/2026

Disney+ Goes Vertical with Verts

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/03/2026

LTN and Appear Collaborate to Enable Scalable IP-Native L...

Appear's high-performance, ultra-low latency encoding platform augments LTN's fully managed global IP network and orchestration platform LTN, a leader ...

12/03/2026

Boland Communications to Showcase New OLED Displays and V...

2026 NAB Show Exhibitor Preview April 18-22 Las Vegas Booth C3519 Summary: At the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, Boland Communications will be showing the bro...

12/03/2026

Riedel Expands Managed Technology Division in the America...

Riedel Communications today announced the continued expansion of its Managed Technology Division in the Americas and the appointment of Jan Schaffner as Vice Pr...

12/03/2026

Grass Valley Powers Hybrid IP Game-Day Production Hub for...

Grass Valley and integration partner Tab M Solutions have completed Phase 1 of a new broadcast production control room for the University of Illinois Division o...

12/03/2026

NAKIVO Expands Platform Support and Elevates Security in...

NAKIVO, a global provider of backup and ransomware recovery solutions, announces the general availability of NAKIVO Backup & Replication v11.2. This release exp...

12/03/2026

BIScience Adds Linear TV to its AdClarity Analysis Platform

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/03/2026

Gray Stresses Importance of DRM for NextGen TV in FCC Sports Probe

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/03/2026

Nebraska's HuskerVision Deploy Lawo IP Tech for Studio Upgrade

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/03/2026

Comcast NBCU, Telemundo Station Group Announce $600,000 In Grants

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/03/2026

EditShare To Highlight Analytical AI Capabilities At 2026 NAB Show

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/03/2026

FreeWheel Launches AI Agent Infrastructure

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/03/2026

COW Jobs: Editor de Vdeo - Direct Response, Performance Ads - Brazil, Remote

COW Jobs: Editor de V deo - Direct Response, Performance Ads - Brazil, Remote Brie Clayton March 11, 2026 0 Comments Editor(a) de V deo (Direct Respon...

12/03/2026

Avatar: Fire and Ash Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio

Avatar: Fire and Ash Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio Brie Clayton March 11, 2026 0 Comments Colorist delivers premium cinematic color across 2D, 3D...

12/03/2026

Boston Conservatory to Timothe Chalamet: We Care About Ballet and Opera

Boston Conservatory to Timoth e Chalamet: We Care About Ballet and Opera Boston Conservatory at Berklee students and faculty respond to the actors recent comm...

12/03/2026

Into the Omniverse: How Industrial AI and Digital Twins Accelerate Design, Engineering and Manufacturing Across Industries

Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on ...

12/03/2026

Jam-packed weekend of Irish entertainment, sport and music across RT for St Patrick's Day

The Late Late Show Show St Patrick's Day special Dancing with the Stars f...

12/03/2026

GeForce NOW Raises the Game at the Game Developers Conference

GeForce NOW is bringing the game to the Game Developers Conference (GDC), running this week in San Francisco. While developers build the future of gaming, GeFor...

11/03/2026

Calrec To Unlock Hybrid Workflows At 2026 NAB Show

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/03/2026

Matrox Video Enables the Next Era of Software-Defined Med...

Matrox Video will showcase its vision for the future of live production at NAB 2026 in Las Vegas, April 19-22, highlighting how broadcasters and media organizat...

11/03/2026

GlobalM Showcases Distributed Video Gateway Architecture...

Geneva-based technology company, GlobalM SA, is presenting its GMX Distributed Video Gateway, a software-defined IP media transport platform designed to replace...

11/03/2026

Video is King - 2026 Iconik Media Stats Report Finds Vide...

Backlight (booth #N2829), the company behind Iconik and Wildmoka, which power video workflows for large media and entertainment organizations, has released the ...

11/03/2026

QuickLinks Latest StudioEdge Models to Make North America...

QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, presents its latest StudioEdge models at The NAB Show ...

11/03/2026

Telestream Expands Its Cloud Services with the Introducti...

Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, today announced the expansion of Telestream Cloud Services with the introduction of UP, a new cloud-...

11/03/2026

Operative Launches AOS Configuration for Digital-First Mo...

Operative, the preferred advertising management provider for the world's leading media brands, today announced the launch of AOS for digital media, an AI-po...

11/03/2026

Calrec Redefines Broadcast Workflows at NAB 2026

Calrec will be located in Central Hall, on Booth C6907 Choice without compromise The broadcast industry is going through a rapid evolution that s signalling a...

11/03/2026

Worldstream and Cubbit launch sovereign S3 cloud storage...

The new service is hosted and operated entirely in the Netherlands, combining data sovereignty, resilience, scalability, and predictable costs without relying...

11/03/2026

Ease Live powers interactive Premier Padel experiences on...

Ease Live, an Evertz company and leader in interactive graphical overlays, today announced the successful deployment of its platform on Red Bull TV for Premier ...

11/03/2026

Mediagenix Title Management Accelerates Content Monetizat...

Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, is advancing its Semantic Intelligence cap...

11/03/2026

Emergent Launches Fusion- The Interactive Anything Platfo...

Emergent, a leading provider of AI-enhanced media production solutions, today announced the official launch of Fusion, a powerful, no-code application builder d...

11/03/2026

Techex Names Matt McKee as Senior Director of Sales, Americas

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/03/2026

IAB Tech Lab Announces Content Monetization Protocol for AI LLMs

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/03/2026

Mondae Hott Joins Kokusai Denki as Northeast Sales Manager

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/03/2026

Gray Media to Air Cincinnati Reds' Games on WXIX FOX19

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/03/2026

Shure Audio Solutions Deliver Super Bowl Win

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/03/2026

UK's First Live Broadcast Using New n40 Private 5G Spectrum

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/03/2026

Utah Scientific Expands Technology Partner Program With I...

Utah Scientific today announced the expansion of its Technology Partner Program with the addition of Audinate, Bitfocus, and Skaarhoj, three industry leaders wh...

11/03/2026

DigitalGlue Ends the Post Production Tax creativespace In...

DigitalGlue, creator of the creative.space on-premise managed storage platform, today revealed plans to launch creative.space Intelligence (CSI) at NAB 2026 (Bo...

11/03/2026

Maxon and Tencent Cloud Partner to Integrate HY 3D into C...

Maxon, maker of powerful, approachable software solutions for creators working in 2D and 3D design, motion graphics, visual effects, gaming, and more, has annou...

11/03/2026

NUGEN Audio Halo Vision Plug In Serves as Spatial Compass...

Composer and Re-recording Mixer Michael Phillips Keeley has built his career around immersive storytelling. Working from his Dolby Atmos-equipped studio, Sound ...

11/03/2026

YES selects Synamedia Iris to power advanced advertising

Leading video software provider Synamedia today announced that YES, the pay-TV subsidiary of the telco Bezeq (TASE: BEZQ), has selected Synamedia Iris to delive...

11/03/2026

Cost Savings Scalability and Smarter Monetization Viacces...

As media companies face increasing cost pressures and operational complexity, at the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, Viaccess-Orca (VO), a global leader in OTT / TV...

11/03/2026

Digital Alert Systems Unveils Version 6 Software for DASD...

Digital Alert Systems, a global leader in emergency communications solutions for media providers, today announced the release of Version 6 software for its DASD...

11/03/2026

SES Brings Satellite Connectivity to Refugees in Chad

First Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) deployment of the emergency.lu platform for refugees and their host communities' use provides dependable broadband for humani...

11/03/2026

Foundry releases Nuke 17.0

Foundry releases Nuke 17.0 Brie Clayton March 1, 2026 0 Comments Native Gaussian Splat support, new 3D system based on USD, expanded machine learning ca...