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Strauss & Co Contemporary sale features globally acclaimed young artists

27 Jan 2020

“This is our third standalone sale of contemporary art, and our largest to date,” says Strauss & Co joint managing director Bina Genovese. “The growing importance of this annual sale, to be held in Quay 7 Warehouse at the V&A Waterfront, is confirmed by an important consignment of pan-African art from a collector. We are very excited to be offering this bold collection of 22 lots. It is an important affirmation of the role played in the secondary market by Strauss & Co. We are committed to continue strengthening the secondary market for contemporary art and in so doing supporting the primary market.”

The collection of an unnamed collector includes a 2012 photograph by renowned Senegalese photographer Omar Victor Diop, a homage to the murdered US teenager Trayvon Martin (estimate R150 000 – 200 000). An edition of this vivid work was exhibited to great acclaim at Autograph, London, in 2018, and currently appears in a large-scale exhibition curated by legendary French curator André Magnin for Norway’s Astrup Fearnley Museum.

In the last few years London has emerged as an important marketplace for contemporary South African art. In 2018, an edition of Berni Searle’s eight-part photographic installation Still (estimate R200 000 – 300 000) appeared on an exhibition of pioneering feminist artists at art fair Frieze London. Searle’s work received favourable notices in the Financial Times and New York Times, the latter characterising her as “a towering figure in the world of Cape Town art schools”.

Last year, painter Lisa Brice was heaped with praise for her solo exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. Following shortly on her 2018 solo exhibition at Tate Britain, Brice’s paintings of women at rest and at play, notably in blue, were described by Time Out as prizing this colour “out of the rigor mortis grip of the past and imbuing it with new meaning.” Brice’s 2005 oil on canvas Untitled E (estimate R150 000 – 200 000) shows her early affinity for the colour blue.

Mary Sibande’s first UK solo exhibition, held at Somerset House in 2019, introduced London audiences to the artist’s avatar, Sophie, a domestic worker transformed into an elegant superhero. Strauss is offering I have not, I have (estimate R120 000 – 160 000), an early photo of Sophie taken in 2010, a year before Sibande exhibited in the South African Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale.

Strauss & Co’s catalogue for its forthcoming contemporary sale includes a number of South African artists whose work has appeared in the Venice Biennale. Aside from Searle and Sibande, they include Willem Boshoff, Wim Botha, Nicholas Hlobo, William Kentridge, Moshekwa Langa, Mohau Modisakeng, Zanele Muholi, Athi-Patra Ruga and Mikhael Subotzky.

Athi-Patra Ruga’s monumental 2014 tapestry, Touched by an Angel (estimate R700 000 – 900 000), explores themes of ritual and pageantry that memorably saw the artist cruise the Grand Canal in a balloon costume during the 2013 Venice Biennale. Zanele Muholi’s self-portrait Isililo XX (estimate R40 000 – 60 000) is from the same on-going series that was prominently featured in the 2019 Venice Biennale’s main exhibition. The artist is the subject of a mid-career survey exhibition at Tate Modern, London, opening on 29 April.

Cinga Samson is another artist whose star is rising in 2020. In late February, this young Cape Town painter will present his debut solo exhibition at Perrotin, New York. Untitled (estimate R70 000 – 90 000) is a rare example of Samson’s interpretation of a canonical subject: the floral still life. A New York regular, Pieter Hugo is currently showing new portraits from Mexico at Yossi Milo Gallery, until end February. Strauss is pleased to offer Hugo’s portrait Julia Clark, Cape Town, 2001 (estimate R100 000 – 150 000); the lot forms part of a strong photography focus in the sale.

Los Angeles now rivals New York as a global art city. Two artists featured in the sale, Georgina Gratrix and Simphiwe Ndzube, both showed in Los Angeles in 2019, in exhibitions at influential tastemaker Jeffrey Deitch. Strauss & Co is delighted to offer Ndzube’s In Search Of (estimate R120 000 – 160 000), an early-career photo triptych announcing subjects and themes of his current painting practice. Gratrix’s 2012 oil on canvas, Happy Couple (estimate R180 000 – 240 000), typifies her “tremendous bonhomie” and capacity to imbue her paintings with “joy and physicality” – to quote an appreciative Los Angeles critic on her work.

Two drawings by William Kentridge, South Africa’s most celebrated contemporary artist, carry the highest pre-sale valuations. Fish and Chips (estimate R2 – 2.5 million) depicts a homeless man astride a hyena. Small Koppie 2 (estimate R1.5 – 2 million), from the property of a collector, describes the low hill near a mine owned by Lonmin in the Marikana area, where police killed 34 miners in August 2012. Kentridge visited the site to make this important drawing.

Strauss & Co’s sale of contemporary African art is preceded by three public lectures. Artist Karel Nel will offer a glimpse of his life and practice on Sunday, 9 February, at 11 am. Matthew Partridge, a contemporary art specialist at Strauss & Co, will discuss the impact of new practices of collecting contemporary art on Thursday, 13 February, at 10.30 am. Wilhelm van Rensburg, a senior art specialist at Strauss & Co, will consider how identity and globalism inform contemporary African art practices on Friday, 14 February, at 10.30 am.

Strauss & Co’s contemporary art sale takes place on Saturday, 15 February 2020 at 6pm at Quay 7 Warehouse in the V&A Waterfront, Cape Town.