Tretchikoff: New Discoveries of Exceptional Beauty

9 Sep 2025

The astonishing shift, over the last decade and a half, in the reputation and value of one of South Africa’s most iconic and recognisable artists, Vladimir Tretchikoff, is nothing short of remarkable. Once dismissively relegated by critics as ‘The King of Kitsch’, he is now recognised as a trailblazer who produced works that were at once democratic in their availability in the form of prints, and a painter of imagination and skill – quite unlike his contemporaries, who took every effort to marginalise the inroads he was making in producing vibrant, accessible, and aesthetically engaging work.

The sale at Strauss & Co earlier this year of Lady from the Orient (1955), which sold for R31,110,000, smashed the record for any South African artist on the continent and cemented Tretchikoff’s place as an artist of note within the history of art. At Strauss & Co alone, sales of his works have touched upon R99 million, with an 83.9% sell-through rate. Tretchikoff was not an exceptionally prolific artist, and the Evening Sale: Modern and Contemporary Art, (Tuesday, 16 September at 7pm), which features a focus on the artist, offers an unprecedented opportunity to acquire a number of works of the highest quality by him.

According to Andrew Lamprecht, curator of the ground-breaking Tretchikoff retrospective at the Iziko South African National Gallery in 2011:

“Malay Girl,1951, (estimates R4 000 000 – R6 000 000), is an exceptionally important work in the artist’s oeuvre, showing, as it does – possibly for the first time – the full development of his experimentation with subtle skin hues of green and blue that would, in time, become the artist’s hallmark and an artistic innovation that would define how he imparted a sense of otherness and beauty to his female sitters.”

This would be seen to full effect in Chinese Girl (1952) of the following year, a work closely related to the present lot. Throughout his career, Tretchikoff had an almost obsessive interest – rarely publicly exhibited – in creating paintings that showed nature at odds with natural disasters. One of these uncommon works, Glowing, 1975, (estimates R300 000 – R500 00), is to be seen in this artist focus: a powerful canvas displaying the burned-out stumps of trees – with almost human figuration – fighting bravely against an oncoming forest fire. Only a handful of these deeply personal works have come onto the market in the past.

Tretchikoff’s celebrated studies of Africa’s people are represented by a dignified portrait of a Kenyan warrior in Masai, (estimates R800 000 – R1 200 000), which shows the statuesque face of the subject from a low perspective, lit by blue highlights against a contrasting pink background that is classic Tretchikoff. The artist focus includes one of a handful of Tretchikoff self-portraits – Self-Portrait with Muse, 1948, (estimates R800 000 – R1 200 00); this one, made soon after his arrival in South Africa, shows him working eagerly at his easel, being inspired by the massive face of his muse, whose hair is imbued with thick brushstrokes of all the colours of the rainbow.

The artist focus rounds off with a rare work from the artist’s formative Java period: Bleeding Lily (estimates R500 000 – R800 000), a painting rich in symbolism and displaying the artist’s concern with nature and the fact that all living things – plants included – are subject to humanity’s cruelty, while simultaneously showing the beauty of flowers. This concern with botanical subject matter can also be seen in Poinsettia, 1949 (estimates R250 000 – R350 000), dating from the time of Tretchikoff’s first South African exhibitions. Perhaps the final word for this artist focus should go to fashion icon Marianne Fassler, undoubtedly one of the artist’s greatest champions: 

“His works are unashamedly beautiful. How can anyone ever think otherwise?”

-Marianne Fassler

Strauss & Co’s Live Virtual Auction Evening Sale: Modern and Contemporary Art takes place on Tuesday, 16 September 2025 at 7pm.

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