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The Oliver Powell and Timely Investments Trust Collection explores innovation and tradition in South African painting

6 Sep 2022

Presented in a standalone evening session on Tuesday, 20 September 2022 at 7pm, this impressive collection of post-war and contemporary art includes works by revered names like Deborah Bell, Kate Gottgens, Robert Hodgins, William Kentridge, John Mohl, Fred Page, Stanley Pinker, Jo Ractliffe, Simon Stone and Alfred Thoba.

Powell began acquiring works for the collection in the early 1990s. His principal focus has been South African painting, sculpture and works on paper made since 1950, with a particular emphasis on contemporary painting. Informed by his personal relationships with important artists and dealers, notably Robert Hodgins and Louis Schachat, amongst others, the 110 lots on offer reveal Powell’s consistent focus on the human figure as well as his preference for bold colour, graphic ingenuity and emotional weight.

“Your moods and tastes change over time as a collector, but there is a foundation that remains, which for me it is the figure,” says Oliver Powell. He stresses the importance of his many encounters with artists for shaping his collecting practice. “There is so much value in meeting an artist. Aspects and details of their life are reflected in what and how they paint.”

Works by Robert Hodgins form the largest holding by a single artist in the collection. “You can see the agony of Robert’s tough childhood in his work,” says Powell, who knew the artist personally. Strauss & Co is very pleased to be offering 13 works by Hodgins, including eight fresh-to-market paintings acquired by Powell in London when Hodgins exhibited in his birthplace in 2003 and 2008. Highlights include A John Webster Painting: A Grinning Skull Wrapped in a Shroud (estimate R350 000 – 500 00) and Twenty Pedestrians (estimate R300 000 – 400 000).

“The Oliver Powell and Timely Investments Trust Collection is an expression of Oliver Powell’s refined taste for modern and contemporary painting,” says Kirsty Colledge, Head of the Art Department, Strauss & Co, Cape Town. “The broad range of works in this collection provides an important reference of developments in South African painting since 1950. It includes works by George Pemba and John Mohl, pioneer black modernists who have delivered increasingly strong results to market. The competitive estimates for the 110-lot consignment will be attractive to new and seasoned collectors looking to acquire benchmark paintings like Simon Stone’s The Soldier Who Lost his Rifle and Deborah Bell’s Velázquez-inspired Witness: Midbrain.”

The presentation of The Oliver Powell and Timely Investments Trust Collection has been carefully curated by Strauss & Co to highlight ten important artists held in the collection. Effectively functioning as mini surveys, these in-session artist focuses will draw attention to Deborah Bell, Robert Hodgins, Fred Schimmel, Alfred Thoba, Fred Page, Simon Stone, Kate Gottgens, Brett Murray, Warrick Kemp and Jo Ractliffe.

Notable high-value works on offer include William Kentridge’s important 1988 screenprint on brown paper, Art in a State of Siege (estimate R400 000 – 600 000), and Stanley Pinker’s Boating (estimate R400 000 – 600 000), a dreamy portrayal of a boat outing. Also acquired in London, Karel Nel’s 2015 composition Dish (estimate R400 000 – 600 000) centrally depicts an unusual wooden dish produced by the Dan people of Liberia. Bidding for works from the Oliver Powell and Timely Investments Trust Collection will open with Georgina Gratrix’s 2016 portrait, Another Loud Man in a Suit, a sardonic figural study that declares Powell’s sharp eye for innovation and tradition in South African painting.