BUSINESS ART Fine Art Auction highlights

Business Art STRAUSS & CO.

Strauss & Co to host a comprehensive single-artist auction of works by Irma Stern

www.straussart.co.za

Strauss & Co is proud to announce details of a single-artist sale of the highly important artist Irma Stern, to be held at Welgemeend Manor House in Cape Town on Wednesday, 8 June 2022. Titled Irma Stern: Time | Line, this boutique sale of 140 works from the Irma Stern Trust Collection and other private properties will feature rare paintings, drawings, prints, books and a stoneware piece that collectively span the entirety of Stern’s prolific and distinguished career.

The bulk of the works in Irma Stern: Time | Line are derived from the Irma Stern Trust Collection. To commemorate 56 years since inception of the Irma Stern Trust, Nedgroup Trust (Pty) Ltd, Trustees of the Irma Stern Trust, have released 124 artworks from its Collection, many of which have never been exhibited before. The benefit of this sale will be to strengthen the Collection for the future by preserving the Collection and making it accessible by developing the existing Irma Stern Trust website into an important research resource. In doing so, the trustees bring Irma Stern’s aim of promoting fine arts within and outside South Africa to fruition, as is stipulated in the artist’s final will and testament.

(A detailed explanation of the Trust’s formation and mandate appears in the print catalogue and e-catalogue for Irma Stern: Time | Line, and is also available on request.)

The contents of Irma Stern: Time | Line will be presented chronologically and opens with seven lithographs from the artist’s print portfolio Visionen (Visions), published in 1920 by the Berlin-based Hesperiden Verlag. The sale features works made in every decade from 1920 until the artist’s death in 1966, with many of her major themes covered, notably portraiture, travel pictures, nudes, religious subjects and marine scenes.

Right: Irma Stern, SOUTH AFRICAN 1894-1966, Wood Carriers, signed and dated 1960, ballpoint pen and gouache on sketchbook paper sheet size: 28 x 24cm, R 150 000 - 200 000 Above: Irma Stern SOUTH AFRICAN 1894-1966, Seated Zanzibar Woman, signed and dated 1942, gouache on paper on a raffia mount, 38 by 27,5cm, R 200 000 - 300 000. Opposite Page: Irma Stern, SOUTH AFRICAN 1894-1966, Portrait of a Girl, signed and dated 1953, oil on board, 60 by 39,5cm , R 500 000 - 700 000

Above: Irma Stern, SOUTH AFRICAN 1894-1966, Woman in Black Dress, signed and dated 1936, oil on canvas, 56,5 by 51cm, R 2 500 000 - 3 500 000. Opposite: Irma Stern, SOUTH AFRICAN, 18941966, Portrait of a Woman in a Sari: Roza, signed and dated 1929, oil on canvas, 76 x 68cm, R 4 000 000 - 6 000 000

Irma Stern, SOUTH AFRICAN 18941966, Woman Carrying Pot, signed

and dated 1927, charcoal on paper 152 x 55,5cm, R 400 000 - 600 000 Irma Stern, SOUTH AFRICAN 1894-1966, Vase in Female Form,

signed and dated 1951 underneath , glazed and incised terracotta, height: 28,5cm; width: 12cm; depth: 10cm, R 40 000 - 60 00

Irma Stern, SOUTH AFRICAN 1894-1966, Psychic: An Old Malay Woman, signed and dated 1941, oil on canvas, 68 x 68cm, R 7 000 000 - 9 000 000

Irma Stern: Time | Line includes a strong selection of female subjects representing various ages, ethnicities and races. Strauss & Co is privileged to be offering a number of major oils depicting singular and powerful women. They include Stern’s 1929 portrait of charismatic Capetonian Roza van Gelderen (1890–1976), a life-long friend of the artist and important model (estimate R4 – 6 million), and Psychic: An Old Malay Woman (estimate R7 – 9 million), a portrait of Cape Muslim sitter made in 1941 that is notable for its lavish use of pink.

Notwithstanding her decades-long reputation as the most expensive South African artist at auction, the range of works released by the Trust will cater to a broad spectrum of collectors. The sale includes a number of etchings and drawings of female subjects from the 1950s with estimates starting at R10 000. The sale also includes a selection of Stern works drawn from private collections, among them an outstanding terracotta vase in a female form from 1951 (estimate R40 000 – 60 000) from the Shill Collection.

Irma Stern: Time | Line is supported by a detailed print catalogue (also available to download at www.straussart.co.za), exhibition and education programme. The public is invited to view works from Irma Stern: Time | Line at a special preview exhibition at Welgemeend Manor House (2–8 June 2022). Dr Kathy Wheeler, curator of the Irma Stern Trust Collection, will be in conversation with Strauss & Co senior art specialist Matthew Partridge on Saturday, 4 June at 10am at the exhibition venue. The talk will be followed by a walkabout with Strauss & Co specialists at 11 am.

The auction starts at 6pm promptly on Wednesday, 8 June 2022 and will be run as a live virtual auction. www.straussart.co.za

Business Art STEPHAN WELZ & CO.

Cape Town June Auction 20 – 23 June 2022

www.swelco.co.za

Stephan Welz & Co. is delighted to present its June auction which features works from an Old Master, an Abstract Expressionist, the most notorious YBA, a French Pop Artist and various other works. Our Cape Town auction is set to tantalize even the most seasoned collector.

We are particularly pleased to be handling an Albrecht Dürer woodcut, ‘The Holy Family with Three Hares’ (circa 1497-98). A leading figure in the Northern European Renaissance, this religious work is a fine example of Dürer’s contribution to culture and history.

Another pivotal moment in the development of print-making is Joan Miró’s work. Red Sun illustrates the development of printing in the early 20th Century. This signed Joan Miró lithograph captures the multiple modes of technique, influence, and symbolism that singles the artist out. The Surrealist piece incorporates recurring motifs such as birds, eyes, and the sun, as well as a Fauvist use of colour.

Unlike Miró, Damien Hirst prefers butterflies as a recurring motif. As one of the most recognizable, but possibly most notorious of the Young British Artists, Hirst’s Valley of Death is our next auction highlight. Death and the fleeting nature of life have always been central themes in Hirst’s oeuvre. Our latest offering does not stray far from these ongoing themes and is an intriguing addition to any collection.

The mercurial Thierry Guetta or better known as ‘Mr Brainwash’, is an example of a contemporary artist that explores the intersection of street art and print-making. Mr Brainwash has seen a surge in popularity in recent years and we are pleased to present Pup Art to our June sale.

OPPOSITE PAGE: Joan Miró (Spanish 1893 - 1983) Le Soleil Rouge (The Red Sun), R40 000 – R60 000 Albrecht Dürer (German 1471 - 1528) The Holy Family With The Three Hares, R50 000 – R70 000

Ai Weiwei (Chinese 1957 - ) History Of Bombs, R8 000 – R12 000

Damien Hirst (English 1965 - ) VALLEY OF DEATH, 2010,

R8 000 – R12 000

Mr. Brainwash (French 1966 - ) Pup Art (Blue), R40 000 – R60 000

Despite being revered or reviled because of his relation to Banksy, he is undoubtedly gifted with the ability to push boundaries.

In contrast to Dürer, Miró and Mr Brainwash, Ai Weiwei’s art is fleeting; his works are often time and site-specific. However, this print, accompanied by a certificate of authentication, from his History of Bombs installation at the Imperial War Museum gives the art appreciator a tangible piece of his work. The installation of bomb and weapon renderings, illustrating munition development in the 20th Century within the context of the Museum, demonstrates Weiwei’s ongoing provocation and his continued examination of the harm humans cause each other. Four artists, four prints, four viewpoints, four examples of wonderful works on the Stephan Welz & Co. June auction. We are pleased to invite the public to view the works on offer from the 17th to the 19th of June, 10am—5pm at our Claremont showrooms, Cape Town. Join our specialists and the Hazendal Wine Estate team for a glass of wine on Saturday. The auction catalogue can be viewed on our website and the live auction will start on the 20th of June. Please direct any queries or condition report requests to ct@swelco.co.za or 0217946461.