Recognition for Tretchikoff

ICONIC: NOW SEEN AS TRAILBLAZER WHO MADE WORKS 'DEMOCRATIC' IN THEIR AVAILABILITY

- Citizen reporter

The astonishing shift, over the last decade and a half, in the reputation and value of one of South Africa's most iconic and recognisable artists, Vladimir Tretchikoff, is nothing short of remarkable.

Once dismissively relegated by critics as 'The King of Kitsch', he is now recognised as a trailblazer who produced works that were at once democratic in their availability in the form of prints, and a painter of imagination and skill - quite unlike his contemporaries, who took every effort to marginalise the inroads he was making in producing vibrant, accessible and aesthetically engaging work.

The sale at Strauss & Co earlier this year of Lady from the Orient (1955), which sold for R31 110 000, smashed the record for any South African artist on the continent and cemented Tretchikoff's place as an artist of note in the history of art.

At Strauss & Co alone, sales of his works have touched upon R99 million, with an 83.9% sell-through rate.