Notes

The 1950s saw no slackening in Irma Stern’s legendary vigour and drive. She travelled extensively and painted prolifically. She also exhibited widely. Critic Deane Anderson, an admirer of Stern’s ‘vital and undisciplined’ style of painting, in 1956 likened her annual exhibitions at the SA Association of Arts in Cape Town to ‘the triumphs of a Roman proconsul – that is to say, they are studied gestures designed to indicate some new point of departure either in geography or craftsmanship’.¹ But certain aspects of Stern’s shifting style and subject matter were not subject to overhaul. Matthys Bokhorst praised Stern’s flower pieces ‘in her well known flamboyant style’ from her 1955 Cape Town exhibition, further characterising them as ‘a luxuriant effusion of glowing colours’.²

Stern’s eminence in South Africa was secure, but in Europe, especially Germany, she was still rehabilitating her pre-war reputation. Stern had not shown in Germany since 1932. In 1955, Stern announced that she would be exhibiting in Linz and Munich. ‘This trip will bring back to me many memories of my first exhibition in Berlin as a young girl,’ she told a reporter.³ This lot formed part of Stern’s multi-city German comeback. It first went on view in Munich with dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt, who in 1919 gave Stern her first solo at his Berlin gallery. Stern characterised Gurlitt, an early champion of Matisse and Pechstein, as ‘one of the foremost art personalities in Europe today’.⁴ It then travelled to Linz and Berlin, where it appeared with 34 paintings and drawings at Gallery Wasmuth. Stern’s work was praised in a Berlin radio broadcast as sounding ‘a completely modern note’.⁵

This lot returned to South Africa and was shortly exhibited in Cape Town. Reviewing her 1958 Association exhibition, Anderson wrote of the difficulty painters have in sustaining ‘an emotional temperature at white-hot level’, adding that Stern was exceptional in this regard. Three out of the 84 works on view stood out. Of this exceptional work he noted that it possessed ‘all the voluptuous vitality which mark her best work in this genre.’⁶

^1. Deane Anderson (1956) ‘Irma Stern’s New exhibition emphasises exotic scenes and portraits’, The Cape Argus, 21 March.
^2. Matthys Bokhorst (1955) ‘Arts and crafts on view’, Cape Times, 18 March.
^3. – (1955) ‘Two European exhibitions’, Cape Times, 25 June.
^4. – (1955) ‘Art personality’s offer to Irma Stern’, Cape Times, 15 October.
^5. – (1956) Irma Stern praised in Berlin’, The Cape Argus, 29 November.
^6. Deane Anderson (1958) ‘Irma Stern’s show is vigorous as a bougainvillaea’, The Cape Argus, 7 March.

The Estate of the late Mrs Nedra Jooste
21.04.1940 – 12.12.2022

An overriding interest of the late Mrs Nedra Jooste was travel, and together with her husband, Jannie Jooste, they travelled extensively both for business and pleasure. She was fascinated by beautiful places, architecture, art and collectables, and this permeated every aspect of her life. She also had a passion for creating beautiful homes and gardens, and entertaining friends and family.

Upon meeting the petite and stylish Nedra, one would not immediately have guessed that throughout her life she was heavily involved in her and her husband’s considerable business interests, predominantly transportation and farming.

She met her Namibian-born husband in Cape Town and after they were married they settled in Namibia, first in Windhoek and later in Grootfontein where they lived and worked for more than 20 years, and where their two sons were born.

Over the years they hankered after the Western Cape and at the end of 1982 they moved to the Somerset West wine farm Villa Cordoba nestling at the foot of the magnificent Helderberg mountains with breathtaking views of the Cape Peninsula. Not long after, in 1983 they acquired the adjoining farm Voet van Helderberg, later renamed Cordoba in keeping with the brand name of their wine.

After her husband passed away in 2008 she continued to run their business enterprises and to pursue her many interests.

Provenance

Dennis Hotz Fine Art, Johannesburg, 1990.

The Estate of Nedra Jooste.

Exhibited

Gallerie Wolfgang Gurlitt, Munich, 1955.

Stadt Museum, Linz, 1956.

Berlin Festival Exhibition, 1956.

Gallery Wasmuth, Berlin, 1956.

South African Association of Arts Gallery, Cape Town, 1958.

Rembrandt Art Centre and Pretoria Art Museum, Johannesburg and Pretoria, Homage to Irma Stern, 1968.