Publications
- Art auctioneers and consultants Strauss & Co announced details of its upcoming marquee live-virtual auction of modern and contemporary art, fine wine and decorative arts.
- The auction includes five paintings from the Naspers Collection.
- Strauss & Co will present the stunning consignment of modern and contemporary artworks in a live-virtual session on Tuesday, 28 March, at 19:00.
Art auctioneers and consultants Strauss & Co announced details of its upcoming marquee live-virtual auction of modern and contemporary art, fine wine and decorative arts at its new premises in Woodstock, Cape Town.
The auction will "handle works from the Naspers Collection and Stellenberg Collection," said Bina Genovese, Managing Executive, Strauss & Co, in a press statement.
"Naspers Limited is a venerable South African company with an impressive holding of art to match its long trading history. We are delighted to present five paintings from the Naspers Collection, including works by Gregoire Boonzaier, Hugo Naudé and Irma Stern."
Also included in the auction is JH Pierneef's serene ravine painting, Red Kloof, produced 13 years after Naspers was founded in 1915.
Five artworks from the Naspers Collection to be auctioned:
Lot 31 - The Old Pier, Cape Town by Hugo Naudé
Estimated value: R120 000 - R160 000
Lot 37 - Namaqualand, Springtime by Hugo Naudé
Estimated value: R300 000 - R500 000
Lot 38 – Red Kloof by Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef
Estimated value: R5 million - R7 million
About the piece: Pierneef experimented with various new visual languages: impressionism, pointillism, and abstraction, to varying degrees following his return from England and Europe in 1926. Red Kloof, dating from 1928, is a large-scale painting rendered in stylised simplicity, emphasising the monumental mountainous landform and is a precursor to the Johannesburg Station Panels, which he began in 1929.
Lot 41 – Malay Quarters by Irma Stern
Estimated value: R800 000 - R1.2 million
About the piece: Stern was a versatile painter who consistently produced nudes and landscapes in addition to her extraordinary portraits and flower still lifes. The depiction of everyday panoramas observed from life was essential to Stern's conservative German education. This landscape, which includes Lion's Head in silhouette, appears at first to be devoid of human presence. A closer inspection reveals a figure in red. This anonymous pedestrian is evoked in what Heather Martienssen appreciatively describes as Stern's 'facile scribble'.
Lot 44 – A View of St Georges Cathedral from Wale Street by Gregoire Boonzaier
Estimated value: R350 000 - R450 000
Strauss & Co will present the stunning consignment of modern and contemporary artworks in a live-virtual session on Tuesday, 28 March, at 19:00.
"It is an honour to handle these privately-owned treasures and to assist their sellers in finding new custodians for these important works," said Jean le Clus-Theron, Head of Sale, Strauss & Co, in the statement.
The auction forms part of Cape Town Art Week from 26 to 28 March.
The preview exhibition for Cape Town Art Week is open to the public from 13 to 28 March 2023 at Strauss & Co's public gallery at Brickfield Canvas, 35 Brickfield Road, Woodstock, Cape Town.
News24 reached out to Naspers asking why it's selling the art, and why these specific pieces. Naspers declined to comment.
