Strauss & co - Review 2018

In November, Strauss and Co made a bold attempt to address historical oversights by organising a sale session that presented works by a broad and non-racial selection of artists who worked during the tumultuous period between 1910 and 1994. Titled “Unsung History”, this themed – and gently “activist” – session in the November sale included work by Jackson Hlungwani, Noria Mabasa, John Koenakeefe Mohl, Ephraim Ngatane, Cyprian Shilakoe, Winston Saoli and Lucas Sithole. Moses Tladi, Mountain Landscape (Mont-aux-Sources) Sold R455 200, 12 November 2018 WORLD RECORD Inspired by curator Steven Sack’s landmark 1988 exhibition The Neglected Tradition , the sale established a new world record for early landscape painter Moses Tladi. His small scale oil depicting Mont-aux-Sources sold for R455 200, well in excess of estimates. Not every lot found a buyer, but predictability is not a given in any business. Assumptions need to be tested. The huge public response to this sale was genuinely encouraging. 21