Masterworks on sale

NOVEMBER FLAGSHIP: CELEBRATING SOUTH AFRICAN ART ICONS >>→ From Laubser to Mabulu, four auctions trace century of brilliance.

- Citizen reporter

A major event in the Johannesburg auction calendar, Strauss & Co's November Flagship Sales - from 17 to 19 November - will showcase the finest South African modern and contemporary art across four auctions.

The live-virtual Evening Sale on Tuesday, 18 November at 7pm features landmark works from museum retrospectives of Maggie Laubser, George Pemba and Alexis Preller.

Maggie Laubser's double-sided painting Coloured Woman with Cottage / Portrait of a Lady (estimated between R800 000 – R1.2 million) and Portrait of a Woman (estimated between R300 000-R500 000) both featured in her 1969 retrospective at the South African National Gallery, Cape Town.

George Pemba's 1996 career survey at the same institution included the ravishing watercolours Seated Xhosa Woman and Xhosa Woman, both 1955 (estimated between R120 000 – R180 000, each), as well as The Angry Gamtoos River, 1994 (estimated between R400 000-R600 000).

Art critic Esmé Berman described Alexis Preller's 1972 retrospective at the Pretoria Art Museum as "a treasury encrusted all around with lustrous gems".

Among the 195 works on view were The Hay Cart, 1952 (estimated between R500 000 - R700 000) and Shells with Red Egg, 1949 (estimated between R150 000 - R200 000).

Laubser and Preller are among the 10 most valuable artists sold by Strauss & Co.

Since 2009, the company has sold 5 501 lots by Laubser, Preller, Walter Battiss, Robert Hodgins, William Kentridge, JH Pierneef, Cecil Skotnes, Irma Stern, Vladimir Tretchikoff and Anton van Wouw. The combined sales of these 10 artists totals R2.178 billion (2009-2025).