Strauss & co - Review 2022

Alexis Preller  Abstract with the Family Sold R170 700 ($10 069) 19th Century, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art with a dedicated session titled ‘In/Tangible: South African Abstract Art’ Maggie Laubser  Portrait of a Woman  Sold R304 850 ($17 981) Online, 25 October, Impression/Expression Notable curated auctions from 2022 (excepting wine) included: • In April, Figuration: Past and Present comprised a 79-lot showcase of the figure in modern, post-war and contemporary art. It included an artist focus on George Pemba. Irma Stern’s Dakar Woman (1938), a masterful portrait study of a Senegalese woman, sold for R10 469 600 ($612 130). • Also in April, Strauss & Co devoted two sessions of its online-only sale to South African artists who exhibited in the Venice Biennale and artists inspired by Venice. The sale coincided with the launch of the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale, where Strauss & Co was the headline sponsor of the African Art in Venice Forum 2022. • In May, Surrealism featured a diverse roster of South African artists grouped into Surrealist-inspired themes such automatism, the uncanny, dreamscapes, and resistance and revolution. Informed by a recent global interest in this art movement, the auction saw William Kentridge’s enigmatic and surrealistic drawing The Highveld Style Masked Ball (1988) sell to an online bidder for R3 641 600 ($212 915). • In June, the 100-lot auction In/Tangible: South African Abstract Art gathered works in various styles of abstraction. Artists represented included Dumile Feni, Esther Mahlangu, Maja Marx and Kagiso Pat Mautloa, among others. Alexis Preller’s Abstract with the Family (n.d.) was the top lot, selling for R170 700 ($10 069). 32