Established in 2014 by art collector Frank Kilbourn and auctioneer Stephan Welz, Strauss & Co’s founding director who passed away in 2015, the initiative aims to shore up support for Welgemeend, a historic home on the slopes of Table Valley built in the 18th century and subsequently enlarged by the Hofmeyr family.
Welgemeend was declared a national monument in 1944. It is owned and managed by Jan van Riebeeck Hoërskool, in collaboration with the Friends of Welgemeend. August Art Month is an important source of revenue for the maintenance and preservation of this landmark Cape property.
“In en Om Ons/ In and Around Us”
6 August – 5 September 2025
Drawing on the extensive Kilbourn Collection of modern and contemporary South African art, the exhibition In en Om Ons/ In and Around Us explores what it means to be an artist working after the advent of photography. The exhibition – a cornerstone of Welgemeend Art Month, now in its 12th year – will feature select paintings and photographs from the Kilbourn Collection that explore ideas of subjectivity, consciousness, home, play and work.
The artist selection ranges from important modernists Enslin du Plessis, David Goldblatt, Wolf Kibel, Francois Krige, Jürgen Schadeberg and Maude Sumner to contemporary painters Hugh Byrne, Norman Catherine, Richard Mudariki, Deborah Poynton and Asha Zero, as well as photographers Lien Botha, Lunga Ntila and Jo Ractliffe. The exhibition will explore how photographers and painters share ways of seeing and recording the world, but just as often diverge in these portrayals.
In en Om Ons/ In and Around Us will also include a concise selection of contemporary sculpture from the Kilbourn Collection. The selection emphasises shared interests in form, time and abstraction. Featured artists include Juliet Armstrong, Dominique Edwards, Robert Hodgins, Warren Maroon, Hylton Nel and Rina Stutzer, among many.
Frank and Lizelle Kilbourn will this year collaborate with writer and curator Sean O’Toole in developing the focus and theme for the 2025 exhibition at Welgemeend Art Month.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The Friends of Welgemeend was established in 2007 as a voluntary association. An extract from the Friends’ Constitution summarises its main purpose:
- To support and participate in the advancement, promotion and preservation of the historic homestead of Welgemeend (birthplace of Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr in 1845) and that of the artworks, books and documents known as the Boerneef Collection (donated by the author I.W. van der Merwe, whose nom-de-plume this was) and other artworks, books and documents housed there and in the adjacent buildings of the Hoërskool Jan van Riebeeck.
- To foster a wider public interest, firstly in both the Homestead and the Art Collection, and secondly a wider appreciation both of the visual arts and of early Cape architecture and other related fields of interest.
“(Un)known | (On)bekend” – August 2024
Strauss & Co is pleased to announce that it will once again collaborate with art collectors and philanthropists Frank and Lizelle Kilbourn in hosting August Art Month at Welgemeend, a vibrant month-long programme of activities at Welgemeend manor house in central Cape Town. A joint initiative of the volunteer group Friends of Welgemeend and Kilbourn family, the eleventh edition of this boutique arts and culture event will run from 1–31 August 2024. As is tradition, the 2024 edition of August Art Month at Welgemeend is anchored by a curated exhibition of modern and contemporary art from the Kilbourn family collection.
This year’s exhibition is titled (On)bekend / (Un)known and will showcase lesser known and under-estimated artists as well as sometimes atypical examples of work by acclaimed artists like Cathy Abrahams, Norman Catherine, Willem Boshoff, Igshaan Adams, Walter Meyer, Karel Nel, Berni Searle, Jarryd Ginsberg and Moses Tladi.
