Irma Stern, Gerard Sekoto and Alexis Preller Artworks Break Records at London Auction

The works of artists Irma Stern, Gerard Sekoto and Alexis Preller fetched tidy sums at an auction in London on Wednesday. Stern’s Arab Priest sold for a record R34 million. Bonhams director of South African art, Giles Peppiatt, said that the recent hike in Irma Stern sales are indicative of a “growing appetite” for the artist’s works. Your wallet would be hurt less by obtaining the works in the books, Journeys to the Interior: Unseen works by Irma Stern 1923-1939, Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows and Gerard Sekoto: My Life and Work by David Krut Publishing.

South African paintings broke three records at an auction in London on Wednesday, said auctioneers Bonhams.

A painting by Irma Stern was sold for R34 million, one by Alexis Preller for R8,4m and another by Gerard Sekoto for R6.7m.

“The Stern was above her last record made at Bonhams’ October 2010 sale, where a painting titled ‘Bahora Girl’ sold for R26.6 million,” Bonhams director of South African art Giles Peppiatt said in a statement.

• Continue reading in the Sunday Times

Read a report on the London auction:

Seated Nude with Oranges by South African artist Irma Stern and a birthday card by another South African artist, Marlene Dumas, are to be auctioned in Bonham’s South African Art sale today for an estimated price of between £800,000 and £1,200,000.

Irma Stern was born in the Transvaal but spent much of her childhood in Germany where she studied art in Berlin and Weimar. In 1917 she met Pechstein and exhibited in the Berlin Sezession exhibitions in 1918 and 1920 , the year in which she returned to South Africa.

• Continue reading at Times of Malta

Lin Sampson is a “slave to humbug” when it comes to contemplating the art world and is scathing about the exorbitant cost of art:

Riding on the record-breaking Irma Stern painting, Bahora Girl, pulling in R26.6-million, London auction house Bonhams is holding an all-South African sale next week where startling prices are expected.

Contemplating the art world, I feel a slave to humbug and there is nothing I can do about it. If a painting goes for R35-million, that is what it is worth, and by saying I can’t believe that hideous picture/pile of bricks/crack in the wall fetched so much money one is simply showing oneself up as someone who is art-ignorant.

• Read the complete article in the Sunday Times

Book details

• Journeys to the Interior: Unseen works by Irma Stern 1923-1939 by Andrea Lewis, Shea Albert
  Buy the book from David Krut Publishing
  EAN: 0620364696

• Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows by Esme Berman
  Buy the book from David Krut Publishing
  EAN: 9781770100923

• Gerard Sekoto: My Life and Work by Barbara Lindop
  Buy the book from David Krut Publishing
  EAN: 9781874932093

SA Art Continues to Fetch Top Dollar at Home

Auctioneer Strauss & Co claim that art prices are often higher in South Africa than elsewhere in the world – including than in London. For example, last Monday an Alexis Preller intaglio titled Kouros (pictured) sold for R2.1-million – purportedly more than double what it would have fetched in the UK.

You can, of course, get in touch with Preller’s works for a fraction of either price, through the beautiful Alexis Preller: Africa, The Sun And Shadows, which captures the artist’s cryptic and enigmatic work and provides a detailed account of his life and artistic journey.

More on the prices that art fetches in SA, and around the world, here:

South African art sells best on home turf. That claim by fine art auctioneer Strauss & Co is hard to challenge – no two creations are identical, as there are few ways of comparing like with like. And, one supposes, it depends largely on whether you are a buyer or a seller.

Last Monday, an Alexis Preller intaglio titled Kouros , inspired, the Strauss catalogue said, by the Greek god Apollo, fetched R2.1-million. That, more or less, worked out at R700 a square centimetre.

• Read the complete article in the Sunday Times

Book details

• Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows by Esme Berman
  EAN: 9781770100923
  Purchase this book from David Krut Publishers

Image courtesy StraussArt