Strauss & co - Review 2024

19 CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT 2024 18 CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT 2024 Collectable art is the bedrock of our business Strauss & Co is diversifying its offering, but the fact remains that the sale of modern and contemporary art remains our most important single source of revenue. The ten top-earning artists sold at auction in 2024 together generated nearly half the com- pany’s entire income. Strauss & Co earned R195 082 543 from 232 lots sold by Keith Alexander, Marc Chagall, William Ken- tridge, Maggie Laubser, Pablo Picasso, J H Pierneef, Alexis Preller, Gerard Sekoto, Irma Stern and Vladimir Tretchikoff in 2024. J H Pierneef, Alexis Preller and Irma Stern have been auc- tion bellwethers for decades now and were the aggregate top earners in 2024, too. Preller placed second after Stern in total earnings. This is a satisfying return to prominence following an unstable period. Undoubtedly, Mythical Lexicon , the major retrospective on Preller at Norval Foundation curated by senior curator and celebrated artist Karel Nel contributed to bringing impetus to the Preller market. The on-going momentum around painter Keith Alexander is also encouraging. It speaks to sustained collector enthusiasm since his first headline sale at Strauss & Co in November 2017, as well as growing diversity in the art market generally. It fur- ther suggests growth opportunities for realist painters like Neil Rodger and John Meyer. Gerard Sekoto’s presence in the top ten of aggregate earners came off a relatively low base. The 10 Sekoto lots sold in 2024 were all exile-period works made after 1947. Two works painted roughly twenty years apart, one a beach scene from the early 1950s, the other a split-view scene from 1973 showing Dakar and Paris, fetched R476 700 / $26 483 apiece. Sekoto, whose 1947 self-portrait appeared in the main exhibition at the 2024 Venice Biennale, remains an artist to watch at auction. The same holds true of George Pemba and Vladimir Tret- chikoff, too. The top-earning work by Pemba was a 1989 portrait of the artist with author Alan Paton, sold for R531 415 / $29 523 in May. As with Pemba and Sekoto, turnover of new-to-market works by Tretchikoff is relatively low. Tretchikoff’s Balinese Girl , a gorgeous portrait of a self-assured Indonesian woman painted circa 1954–56, sold to a telephone bidder in September for R5 625 000 / $324 842. The sale established a new South African auction record for the painter. Irma Stern’s The Smoker (1945), a portrait from the artist’s prized Zanzibar period, topped the individual rankings, earning R17.2m. Ten artworks made between 1930 and 1974 brought in the largest individual amounts at auction in 2024. Four of those works were by Stern and two by Preller. The list of top 30 indi- vidual artworks sold at auction in 2024 provides a better sense of the diversity and change characterising the art market. The top 30 works spanned a period from 1902 to 2020 and encom- passed artists as diverse as Keith Alexander, Lisa Brice, William Kentridge, Dylan Lewis and Anton van Wouw. In November, Van Wouw’s remarkable study of an art stu- dent at work, cast in Rome in 1902, achieved R2.7m / $149 710, more than double the high estimate. The result underscores the enduring appeal of South Africa’s old masters. Unfortunately, the market for Hugo Naudé and Pieter Wenning – artists whose rep- utations and sales once rivalled Van Wouw – remains relatively weak. In May we sold an undated Wenning still life, Nasturtiums in a Ginger Jar , for R404 338 / $ 22 463. Works by these artists pre- sent great value for money at current price levels. Strauss & Co’s inaugural International Sale in 2023 provided insightful lessons that culminated in a successful second edition in 2024. Works on paper by Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso topped the 2024 auction results. Czech artist Zdeněk Burian and Edward- ian painter Harrington Mann emerged as unexpected sleepers, both artists attracting multiple bids. The two-part sale drew bid- ders from 20 countries, created over 160 new clients and earned a combined revenue of R24.9 / $1.4 million from 71% of lots sold. The salesmechanismof competitivebidding–be it ina liveenvi- ronment or online – is the foundation of our business. It provides a time honoured and transparent trading model. Being responsive to client needs for confidentiality, as well as the opportunities pre- sented by travelling exhibitions to close deals, we appointed Kirsty Colledge, a senior art specialist, to handle private sales. Results are encouraging. In 2024, we achieved R54.5m in private sales. Alexis Preller  South African Beauty Sold R3 431 250 / $192 281 19 march , modern and contemporary art