Strauss & co - 2017 Mid-year Review

More thrilling than capricious: navigating the contemporary In the lead-up to the Johannesburg sale in June, which included a number of iconic works from the 1990s, Strauss & Co hosted a talk with Claire Johnston and John Leyden of Mango Groove. The conversation, which included Lorna Ferguson, artistic director of the first Johannesburg Biennale in 1995 and was moderated by Sean O’Toole, aimed to highlight the productive energies that emerged out of the period when South Africa transitioned to a non-racial democracy. The talk was however also aimed at drawing attention to two charcoal drawings by William Kentridge specially made for a music video to accompany Mango Groove’s 1993 ballad, Another Country . Johnston delighted audiences by recalling Kentridge’s precise directions. The two works, both dated 1994 and depicting key motifs typical of Kentridge’s peri-urban landscape studies of the period, fetched R2 159 920 each. The sale also included an important early Kentridge drawing, Dancing Couple , which sold for R4 092 480 (high estimate R2 000 000). William Kentridge Untitled Drawing for Mango Groove Music Video (Drive-In Screen and Megaphone) Sold R2 159 920 William Kentridge Untitled Drawing for Mango Groove Music Video (Megaphone on Pylon) Sold R2 159 920 14