Sidney Goldblatt: Experiments in Colour and Form

10 Oct 2026

Strauss & Co is pleased to present a selection of paintings and drawings by Sidney Goldblatt in the focus sale Experiments in Colour and Form: Works from the Wendy Goldblatt Collection (22 September – 14 October 2026). The collection comes from the late artist’s widow, Wendy Goldblatt, who has worked to preserve his artistic legacy. We had the privilege of interviewing Wendy, who tenderly reflected on her late husband’s commitment to his art practice and the influences that shaped his career. Wendy Goldblatt has had an inspiring career herself. She has been a practising ceramicist and ceramics teacher for over 40 years and has participated in numerous exhibitions in South Africa and overseas. Wendy has also championed South Africa’s vibrant crafts industry through her roles at the National Crafts Council of South Africa and the World Crafts Council.

“He was very adamant about one thing. He would not be tied down to any one style,” emphasised Wendy as she offered insight into what set Goldblatt’s art apart. Hisrefusal to be put into a box is reflected in the intriguing range of subject matter and variety of mediums in the collection,which includes artworks in oil, watercolour, ink, and mixed media. Wendy and Sidney met while she was visiting South Africa from England. Goldblatt had recently returned from the Anglo-French Art Centre in London and was teaching parttime while building his art career. “He was very encouraging as an art teacher,” shared Wendy, recalling those early years and the consideration Sidney always offered his students. The pair married in 1955, after just six months of knowing each other, and honeymooned in Eswatini (then Swaziland). This was the first of many trips Wendy and Sidney would take together.

“Sidney felt the necessity to travel,” expressed Wendy. Following an early return to Johannesburg from his studies abroad due to his father’s illness, Goldblatt felt a deep desire to return to Europe. So, after a year of saving, they set off for England by boat in 1957, which was the beginning of a year-long adventure through London, France, Spain, Switzerland and Italy.

The figures and landscape in the focus auction (lots 718 and 723) speak to Goldblatt’s engagement with the people and scenery he encountered during his travels. Most notably, Goldblatt drew and painted Spanish coastal towns including Marbella, where he and his wife lived for six months. These striking paintings of boat scenes, local fishermen and clustered rooftops won Goldblatt much acclaim upon his return from Spain, a highlight being his inclusion in the South African pavilion at the 1958 Venice Biennale.

The abstracted figures on horseback (lots 716 and 717), and the abstract masks in the sale (lots 703, 710, 711, 712 and 714), carry the geometric compositional quality of his praised Spanish works.

Wendy Goldblatt shared that it was a series of paintings made in response to the 1973 Yom Kippur War that led Sidney down the path of working in an abstract manner. The Yom Kippur artworks have a distinctively lyrical quality, as they were made while Goldblatt listened to radio reports on the conflict. Similar sweeping brushstrokes of colour can be seen in the abstract compositions of lots 705 and 725.

Sidney Goldblatt, Horses

Many works in the sale, including the standout abstract lots 707, 708 and 709, feature robotic forms that are linked to Goldblatt’s exploration of the impact of mechanisation on human beings and the natural world. Alongside this, the fluorescent animal studies (lots 719 and 720) are connected to Sidney Goldblatt’s love of nature. “His animal drawings were marvellous,” said Wendy Goldblatt as she shared a heartwarming memory of how their children would often come back from school and request drawings of animals from their father.

“I always feel very sad because I feel he died so young. He would have done so much, and he still had so much to give,” shared Wendy. Poignantly, several of the artworks in the focus sale were made in 1978, the year before Goldblatt unexpectedly passed away. Sidney Goldblatt’s early passing contributed to him being under appreciated within South Africa’s art-historical landscape, especially compared with peers such as Cecil Skotnes and Douglas Portway. Therefore, we are particularly pleased to offer the collection in this focus sale, as it showcases Goldblatt’s innovative use of colour and form and honours his lifelong commitment to artistic freedom.