JOHANNESBURG.- With African modernist artists beginning to receive long-overdue international recognition, Strauss & Co.’s major Johannesburg sales on Tuesday 28 May will offer works by Dumile Feni, Maggie Laubser, Esther Mahlangu, George Pemba, J.H. Pierneef, Alexis Preller, Gerard Sekoto, Lucas Sithole, Irma Stern, Anton van Wouw and Edoardo Villa.

“South African modernists have in the last few years received growing recognition in international exhibitions and publications”, says Dr Alastair Meredith, Head of Department of Fine Art, Strauss & Co. ”The 2024 Venice Biennale, which features nearly a dozen of the country’s best modernists, including George Pemba, Gerard Sekoto and Irma Stern, marks a further step in the international rehabilitation of our historical artists.”

The 28 May sale is led by Irma Stern’s paradisiacal 1930 portrait of a seated young woman, Cape Girl with Fruit (estimate on request). Made during a period of frequent travel across Southern Africa and regular exhibiting in Europe, this important, large-scale work records the early beginnings of Stern’s celebrated and sensual mature style.

Alexis Preller’s sun-drenched beach scene, Fisherman Mending Nets, Beau Vallon (estimate R3 – 4 million / $162 780 – 217 040), is from his important visit to the Seychelles in 1949. Preller, who is currently the subject of a career retrospective at Norval Foundation in Cape Town, has two works in the evening session.

The Evening Sale offers a representative survey of South African art, from its early beginnings with painters like Frans Oerder and Pieter Wenning, through the emergence of the black modernist canon with figures like George Pemba and Gerard Sekoto, up to the vibrant present day. Pemba and Sekoto, who are currently enjoying premier billing at the Venice Biennale, have eight works in the sale. Pemba’s 1989 portrait, Author and Artist (estimate R200 000 – 300 000 / $10 865 – 16 300), depicts author Alan Paton. Sekoto’s works are dated 1960 to 1975, and include Mother and Child (estimate R 400 000 – 600 000 / 21 730 – 32 595) from 1971.

Two high-value William Kentridge drawings: Preparing the Flute (estimate on request), relate to his celebrated 2005 production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and a WW1 battle scene (estimate on request) from his 2002 stop-animation film Zeno Writing.

As always, painting features strongly in both the online Day Sale and the live-virtual Evening Sale, with notable works by Walter Battiss, Peter Clarke, Robert Hodgins, Maggie Laubser, Nelson Makamo and John Meyer.

Sculpture is not overlooked. The evening session includes an important Nisini foundry casting of Anton van Wouw’s bronze Slegte Nuus (estimate R3 – 4 million / $162 780 – 217 040). Contemporary sculptor Dylan Lewis has three works in the Evening Sale.