Strauss & co - Review 2019

Painting and photography performed equally well. A colour- drenched landscape by Robert Hodgins, painted in 1997, was the top-earning painting, selling for R1.02 million. A 2008 portrait by the Cape Town-born painter Mustafa Maluka, a bold colourist who now lives in Turku, Finland, sold for R477 960, a world record for the artist. Collector interest in Georgina Gratrix remained high, with two works by this internationally collected Cape Town painter placing in the top ten lots sold. The sale confirmed the auction status of Zander Blom, and also established credible benchmark prices for emerging painters Alexandra Karakashian, Banele Khoza, Simphiwe Ndzube and Pierre Vermuelen, all of whose works sold far in excess of their pre-sale estimates. Until very recently photography was the Cinderella medium of South African art, at least at auction. In 2011, two important vintage prints by David Goldblatt, a master documentarian, fetched only modest sums at Strauss & Co auctions. Until 2018, at the company’s maiden contemporary art auction, a 2007 colour photo by Goldblatt portraying an extensive landscape at Nqondwana, near Port Edward, sold for R329 672. That momentum was sustained in 2019. Goldblatt’s 1975 black-and-white photograph of two park-bench sitters in Johannesburg was the first lot to go under the hammer and fetched R170 700, well above estimate. A 2006 colour photo by Goldblatt of a farm at Seweweekpoort, near Ladismith in the Western Cape, sold for R341 400, a new South African record. Sadly, Goldblatt died in June 2018. Photographs by Jane Alexander, Zanele Muholi, Mary Sibande and Wolfgang Tillmans also performed well. A close friend of Goldblatt, Muholi’s masked self-portrait Isililo XX unexpectedly sold for R113 800, far in excess of the pre-sale estimate. Mustafa Maluka You Say the Things You Think You Have to Say Sold R477 960 World record for the artist Georgina Gratrix Bride Dressed as Cake Sold R261 740 30