Abstract Visions Realised: Engen Collection achieves R1.7 million at Strauss & Co

25 Jun 2025

CAPE TOWN – The Engen Collection, a dynamic corporate collection of mostly abstract expressionist paintings reflecting a distinctive trend in late 1980s South African art, drew strong interest when it went under the hammer during Strauss & Co’s June ART Auction week in Cape Town. Offered as a standalone session, the live-virtual sale realised R1.7 million, with nearly three-quarters (74%) of the 102 lots sold. The top earner was Wedding Dance, a milestone 1986 work by David Koloane, which achieved R175 875.

Assembled in the early 1990s and formerly displayed at Engen’s Cape Town headquarters, the collection was notable for its support of abstract painters working at scale and often in flamboyant colour. Large-format works by Bill Ainslie, Kevin Atkinson, Ricky Burnett, Nel Erasmus, Charles Gassner, Ruth Levy, Sam Nhlengethwa, Jenny Stadler, Simon Stone and Andrew Verster, among others, featured prominently.

The sale offered a vivid snapshot of a patrician cohort of artists, many at the height of their powers. Bill Ainslie’s symphonic abstract Tsitsa I sold for R82 075. Ainslie, a pivotal figure in South African art education, founded the Johannesburg Art Foundation, which trained artists such as Burnett, Koloane and Nhlengethwa. The latter’s striking Abstract in Four Colours (Black, White, Red and Pink) also achieved R82 075.

A respected critic and influential arts administrator, Andrew Verster saw his 1984 composition Interior Scene with Flower Vase, Fan and Lamp fetch R46 900. Nel Erasmus served as director of the Johannesburg Art Gallery from 1966 to 1977, while Kevin Atkinson was an important educator and later director of the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town. Landscape works by Adriaan Boshoff, John Kramer, Pieter van der Westhuizen and Nico Verboom also performed solidly.

The Engen Collection sale formed part of Strauss & Co’s broader June ART Auction series, which includes three online-only sales still open to bidders:

• What the Fook?, the first single-artist auction dedicated to much-loved painter and printmaker Walter Battiss, closes on Monday, 30 June 2025.
• South African Design: Past & Present, spread across two sessions, offers a rich selection of furniture and interior pieces and concludes on Wednesday 9 July 2025.
• The Mary Eleanor Hibbert Cape Silver Collection, a focused group of 40 lots, features high-value works such as an 18th-century Cape silver sugar basket (estimate R250 000 – R300 000), and closes on Wednesday, 9 July 2025.