What the Fook? A landmark single-artist auction from Strauss & Co celebrates the inspired life of Walter Battiss 

12 Jun 2025

CAPE TOWN – Strauss & Co is proud to announce What the Fook? The Life and Work of Walter Battiss, the first-ever single-artist auction in South Africa devoted to South African artist Walter Battiss (1906–1982). This timed-online sale, which runs from 12 to 30 June 2025, honours Battiss by showcasing his core practice: painting, printmaking and drawing. 

“What the Fook? celebrates the life and work of Walter Battiss, a protean and prolific figure in the story of twentieth-century South African art,” says Leigh Leyde, Head of Sale, Strauss & Co. “As well as being an important artist, Battiss was an influential teacher, archaeologist, critic and publisher. In 1938 he cofounded the New Group a vibrant collective of burgeoning South African artists united by a shared desire to challenge and transcend the prevailing conservative art conventions of the time. His Fook Island project of the 1970s cemented his status as a boundary-breaking visionary and critic of censorship. His spirit of renewal and optimistic worldview remains deeply resonant today.” 

The catalogue for What the Fook? spans more than four decades of Battiss’s career, from 1938 until his death in 1982, with a focus on his prolific Pretoria years. The works on offer include oil paintings, watercolours and screenprints, many drawn from notable private collections, including those of art historian Murray Schoonraad and composer Robert Schröder – both former students of Battiss at Pretoria Boys High School. 

The sale is led by the The Spirit of Africa (estimate R 900 000 – 1.2 million), a powerful figural diptych from c.1960 that was originally commissioned for a modernist residence in Kimberley. Works like the double-sided composition Ndebele Village / Abstract African Figures (estimate R150 000 – 200 000) is a good example of his mature figurative painting, which often featured gregarious assemblies of figures. 

What the Fook? also includes strong examples of Battiss’s abstract painting. A painter of elusive diversity, Battiss’s understanding of art was radically reshaped in 1938 – the year he co-founded the New Group and travelled abroad for the first time. The Early Men and Women (Cave) (estimate R15 000 – 20 000), painted in this pivotal year, reflects his shift toward visual traditions rooted in the ancient cultures of southern Africa. 

Battiss’s fascination with early image-makers saw him meticulously document the region’s rock paintings and engravings for over two decades. His contributions to the field of visual archaeology remain significant. Wartrail, Barkly East (estimate R30 000 – 50 000), a watercolour from the Schoonraad Collection, showcases his observational diligence and virtuosity with the brush. 

But it is the invention of Fook Island in the 1970s a fantastical island with its own unique history, currency, language, and culture, which became a prominent feature of his later exhibitions. This fictitious utopia of free-spirited creativity and anti-authoritarian joy – that has secured Battiss’s place in the popular imagination. A screenprint from the Schoonraad Collection, detailing the geography and heraldry of Fook Island (estimate R8 000 – 12 000), offers a glimpse into this vividly imagined universe. Battiss’s “orgy” scenes – two of which feature in the sale, notably Orgy 4 (estimate R20 000 – 30 000) – formed part of his late-career testing of public morality. 

Although often remembered for his eccentricities, Battiss was a deeply serious thinker and a dedicated artist who made painting and printmaking the cornerstone of his practice. With rare-to-market works spanning the entirety of his career, What the Fook? is both a celebration and a rediscovery. It is an opportunity for collectors and new audiences alike to engage with Walter Battiss, a South African original. 

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