Year: 2020

The July 2020 Online Auction is the Decorator’s dream.

Sensitive to the current COVID-19 situation and in full compliance with the restrictions that have been imposed, Strauss & Co is forging ahead with the programme of Online auctions. It is indeed encouraging to note that, despite all the gloom and doom, there is unwavering interest in the arts, both fine and decorative.

The cover lot of Strauss & Co’s winter Live Virtual auction, due to be held over three days from 26 to 28 July, is a monumental bushveld scene by JH Pierneef. Painted in 1953, Bosveld (estimate R9 – 12 million) is a masterpiece from this coveted painter’s late period and originates from a superb single-owner collection that includes museum-quality works by Gregoire Boonzaier, Dylan Lewis, Alexis Preller, Gerard Sekoto, Irma Stern and Edoardo Villa, among others.

Works by acclaimed artists Wim Botha, William Kentridge, Misheck Masamvu, Athi-Patra Ruga, Penny Siopis and Portia Zvavahera – artists who have all exhibited at the prestigious Venice Biennale – form part of the extensive contemporary art offering from Strauss & Co’s forthcoming winter Live Virtual sale, due to be held over three days from 26 to 28 July. Bidding for the contemporary consignment will commence on Monday, 27 July at 4pm with a work on paper by Kentridge, Telegrams from the Nose (estimate R90 000 – 120 0000).

Strauss & Co established a new South African wine-auction record when a rare vertical tracking three decades of Kanonkop’s Paul Sauer, South Africa’s most iconic red wine, sold to an online bidder for R546 240 at the start of its three-day virtual auction. The exceptional offering of 19 large-format bottles of Kanonkop’s signature Bordeaux-style wine attracted considerable interest and eventually sold for double the pre-sale estimate.

The emergence of a new class of younger collectors coupled with a strong showing by auction favourites J. H. Pierneef and Irma Stern enabled Strauss & Co to achieve solid results from its three-day live sale of South African fine wine and Modern, Post-War and Contemporary art. The sale was live-streamed from Strauss & Co’s offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town to an international audience and it attracted a large cohort of online and telephone bidders. The sale, which concluded on Tuesday evening with Session 5, earned a total of R66.9 million with a satisfying lot sell-through rate of close to 80%.

Strauss & Co is pleased to announce details for North/South, an exciting weeklong virtual sale of art, fine wine and decorative arts due to be held over five consecutive days from 8–12 November 2020.

Strauss & Co’s forthcoming auction of modern, post-war and contemporary art, decorative arts and fine wine (27 August – 7 September) coincides with a felicitous change in mood signalled by the easing of lockdown restrictions, imminent arrival of spring and launch of the 2020 edition of the RMB Turbine Art Fair. Art highlights from this online-only auction include works by auction evergreens Walter Battiss, Peter Clarke, William Kentridge, Nelson Makamo, J.H. Pierneef and Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi.

Time-honoured customs may have been upended by a global pandemic, but Strauss & Co is once again participating in the annual RMB Turbine Art Fair with a vigorous programme of contributions to this year’s virtual edition. These contributions include a talk by Strauss & Co chairperson Frank Kilbourn and two-person exhibition devoted to Gladys Mgudlandlu and Maggie Laubser.

In what can only be read as an affirmation of South African art and artists, Strauss & Co posted a new record turnover for an individual online-only sale. Timed to coincide with its parallel participation in the virtual edition of the recent RMB Turbine Art Fair (27 August – 2 September), Strauss & Co’s fifth online-only auction of 2020 grossed R7 288 495.