Strauss & co - Review 2020

In summary: • The ten top-earning lots in 2020 were all paintings, six of them by Irma Stern, and together brought in a combined R67.1 million • Along with Stern, results by JH Pierneef, Alexis Preller and Gerard Sekoto affirmed the durability of modernist painting at market • New collectors are driving interest in contemporary artists like Nelson Makamo and Simphiwe Ndzube • There is still an appetite for bronze sculpture, albeit highly selective; peak examples fared better at auction • There is significant scope for growth for undervalued media, notably ceramics A review of the top-selling lots of 2020 presents a story in continuity. Of the ten most expensive individual lots sold at auction in 2020, all ten were paintings and six were by Irma Stern. Long established as South Africa’s foremost artist at auction, international interest in Stern is once again on the rise. The artist is the subject of two new international monographs – by American art historian LaNitra Berger and South African art critic Sean O’Toole – and also features in a new novel by best- selling Swedish author Jonas Jonasson. Stern’s Still Life with Lilies , a gorgeous confection of hot orange painted in 1947, was the most expensive individual lot sold at Strauss & Co in 2020, fetching R14.8 million in May. Stern’s Zanzibar Arab , an umber-hued portrait of a Zanzibar elder painted in 1939 at the start of her golden period, sold for R11.4 million at the same sale. A Stern forest scene painted during the artist’s second trip to the Belgian Congo in 1946 sold for R8.5 million in July. The remaining three high-value Stern lots all sold at NORTH/ SOUTH in November. Well known for her still lifes, two top works in this genre – painted in 1937 and 1945 – earned just short of R4 million each. Still Life of Dahlias in a Vasewith a Basket of Apples from 1945 formed part of an important 75-lot consignment by the Tasso Foundation Collection of important South African art assembled by the late businessman and collector Giulio Bertrand of Morgenster. This single-owner collection also included Stern’s 1927 portrait of a Swazi woman , which achieved R2.85 million. Art auction highlights from a tumultuous year A review of the top-selling lots of 2020 presents a story in continuity. Of the ten most expensive individual lots sold at auction in 2020 all ten were paintings and six were by Irma Stern. Irma Stern Still Life with Lilies Sold R14 794 000 18