Strauss & co - 2016 Review

Walter Battiss Red Rock Sold R1 818 880, 14 March 2016 Demand for post-war painters continues to grow. Walter Battiss, a contemporary of Preller, performed well in 2016. A prolific artist whose output varied in media, scale and ambition, Battiss is attractive to both entry-level buyers interested in his vivid graphics, as well as serious collectors seeking examples of his innovative melding of indigenous idioms with modernist painting styles. Two undated oil compositions, Rock Art Composition I and II , firmly catered to buyers in the latter category. Repatriated from Australia, they jointly achieved a total of R3 751 440. Two other Battiss paintings surpassed the R1 million mark in 2016: Limpopo (R1 045 856) and the seminal 1949 work, Red Rock (R1 818 880). 24