Strauss & co - 2015 Mid-year Review

Athi-Patra Ruga The Brute Sold R181 888, 1 June 2015 RECORD FOR THE ARTIST Ernest Mancoba Musician Sold R613 872, 1 June 2015 RECORD FOR THE ARTIST In the same time frame, one of the more dramatic returns of recent years was recorded by long exiled painter and sculptor Ernest Mancoba – one of the very few black expatriates to explore an essentially African consciousness through the elusive languages of abstraction and visual rhythm – whose sculpted image of a musician sold for R613 872 (against an estimate between R70 000 and R100 000) in Johannesburg on June 1, the highest price ever realised for a Mancoba at auction. I could go on, but the above is enough to make the point that we are looking here at a market that is dynamic and flexible, and perhaps most strikingly, a market that is confident. It is continually scanning and rescanning available art to reinterpret and reposition it and to develop and more closely articulate its overarching narratives and imperatives. 10