Strauss & Co November Flagship Sales offer landmark museum-exhibited South African modern art including Pemba, Laubser and Preller

4 Nov 2025

A major event in the Johannesburg auction calendar, Strauss & Co’s November Flagship Sales (17–19 November 2025) will showcase the finest South African modern and contemporary art across four auctions. The live-virtual Evening Sale (Tuesday, 18 November, 7pm) features landmark works from museum retrospectives of Maggie Laubser, George Pemba and Alexis Preller.

Art critic Esmé Berman described Alexis Preller’s 1972 retrospective at the Pretoria Art Museum as “a treasury encrusted all around with lustrous gems”. Among the 195 works on view were The Hay Cart, 1952 (estimate R500 000 – 700 000 / US$29 000 – 40 000) and Shells with Red Egg, 1949 (estimate R150 000 – 200 000 / US$9 000 – 12 000).

Laubser and Preller are among the ten most valuable artists sold by Strauss & Co. Since 2009, the company has sold 5 501 lots by Laubser, Preller, Walter Battiss, Robert Hodgins, William Kentridge, J.H. Pierneef, Cecil Skotnes, Irma Stern, Vladimir Tretchikoff and Anton van Wouw. The combined sales of these ten artists totals R2.178 billion / US$125.6 million (2009–2025). All ten artists are represented in the November Flagship Sales, which will be hosted at Strauss & Co’s auction room at 89 Central Street, Houghton, Johannesburg.

The scarcity of Gerard Sekoto’s paintings on the secondary market accounts for his absence from this elite group. Since 2009, Strauss & Co has offered 128 lots, achieving R46 million / $2.7 million from 80.47% lots sold. The current catalogue includes Three Women in Conversation (estimate R1 – 1.5 million / US$58 000 – 86 000), a major composition that is fresh to market and based on a recurring figural motif in his celebrated oeuvre

Alexis Preller’s Still Life with Flowers, 1951 (estimate R1 – 1.5 million / US$58 000 – 86 000), a chromatically distinct work dominated by peach pink and muted greens, leads a strong consignment by the artist. The catalogue also includes smaller oils of great finesse, including The Shells, 1957 (estimate R550 000 – 650 000 / US$32 000 – 37 000) and Still Life with Mangoes (estimate R200 000 – 300 000 / US$12 000 – 17 000).

Leading the contemporary consignment is an edition of William Kentridge’s White Iris, 1998 (estimate R600 000 – 800 000 / US$35 000 – 46 000), part of a highly collectable print series that introduced rich colour into the artist’s printmaking. Conrad Botes’ untitled portrait of a tattooed man with red hands from 2017 (estimate R120 000 – 160 000 / US$7 000 – 9 000) reworks his 2005 lithograph Secret Language, an edition acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Ayanda Mabulu’s Portrait of a Woman (estimate R150 000 – 200 000 / US$9 000 – 12 000) continues the vibrant lineage of figural subjects since Sekoto and Pemba

The sculpture consignment spans more than a century of high-quality output. The highlights of the modernist selection are two bronzes by Anton van Wouw: Shangaan (estimate R600 000 – 800 000 / US$35 000 – 46 000), conceived and first modelled in the artist’s Doornfontein studio in Johannesburg in 1907, and Bushman Hunter (estimate R500 000 – 700 000 / US$29 000 – 40 000). Sydney Kumalo and Edoardo Villa, mid-century modernists, are represented respectively by Mourning Woman (SK45) (estimate R400 000 – 600 000 / US$23 000 – 35 000) and Reclining Figure (estimate R200 000 – 300 000 / US$12 000 – 17 000).

The diversity of contemporary sculpture is embodied by Dylan Lewis’s Leopard Grooming (S118) (estimate R220 000 – 280 000 / US$13 000 – 16 000), Claudette Schreuders’ 2012 painted bronze depicting a solitary female figure (estimate R200 000 – 300 000 / US$12 000 – 17 000), Conrad Botes’ painted wood tableau from 2018 featuring a tattooed male figure and skull (estimate R60 000 – 90 000 / US$3 000 – 5 000), and Lucinda Mudge’s hand-painted and glazed ceramic I’m Leaving… So Winter Never Comes, 2013 (estimate R60 000 – 80 000 / US$3 000 – 5 000).

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Johannesburg Flagship Week 2025

LIVE

Evening Sale

Modern and Contemporary Art

7:00pm Tue, 18 Nov 2025 SAST

ONLINE

Day Sale

Modern and Contemporary Art

Closes 2:00pm Tue, 18 Nov 2025 SAST

The Starcke Collection of African Art

Closes 2:00pm Wed, 19 Nov 2025 SAST

William Kentridge Drawings

From the Engen Collection

7:00pm Mon, 17 Nov 2025 SAST

Open for Viewing daily from 9 – 4

Saturday 15 November 9 – 4

Sunday 16 November 9 -4

Join the Art Specialist team on Saturday the 15^th & 16^th November at 11am for an in-depth exploration of the art and artists featured in the Johannesburg November 2025