Collectors of SA modern and contemporary art had their eyes on auctioneers Strauss & Co last week, with more than 300 lots going under the hammer in a series of sales.
The first event boasted a suite of early drawings by William Kentridge, commissioned in 1985 by Mobil SA for its Cape Town headquarters, which would, a few years later, become the home of Engen. These 15 “wildlife” drawings, in charcoal, pastel and pen, have no doubt left many energy executives feeling a little uncomfortable over the years. Whatever misgivings the young Kentridge may have had about taking Mobil’s doubly dirty apartheid oil money appear to have been channelled into the works themselves, which resist corporate décor’s easy aesthetics and instead present images of animals that range from gently satirical to grimly prescient, as we witness ecocide about four decades later.
Kentridge is also well represented in the pair of modern and contemporary art auctions that follow. Maggie Laubser, George Pemba and Alexis Preller are prominent, but many celebrated names are among the lots: JH Pierneef, Vladimir Tretchikoff, Gerard Sekoto, Eduardo Villa, Anton van Wouw, Maud Sumner, Gregoire Boonzaier, Sydney Kumalo, Robert Hodgins, Norman Catherine, Cecil Skotnes, Walter Battiss, Esther Mahlangu, Deborah Bell, Diane Victor … it’s quite a list.
And, of course, there were a few Irma Sterns to bid on. They won’t fetch anything near the price of her 1946 painting Malay (Black Headdress), which recently sold for R21.7m — double the pre-auction estimate — but Stern is a cornerstone of the SA market, and Strauss & Co has been particularly active in promoting her among local and international collectors.
Stern museum closing
Stern’s status was underscored by cries of concern when it was disclosed towards end-October that the Irma Stern Museum would be closing indefinitely. On her death in 1966, Stern bequeathed to the wider public The Firs, her home in the Cape Town suburb of Rosebank, with her collection of art, furniture and objects from around the world acquired over the course of her travels. The University of Cape Town (UCT) has been the custodian of the building for half a century, while the Irma Stern Trust (administered by Nedbank) has been responsible for the contents.
Evidently the cost of looking after the house and bringing it up to current museum-grade standards is more than UCT can justify in a context of constrained spending for universities worldwide. The trust, having previously commissioned an architectural assessment of the property, appears to have decided some time ago to take ownership of it and to undertake refurbishment, though whether this decision was taken with a view to exhibiting the Stern collection there in the future remains unclear.
It is one of many details about which the trust has been rather cagey in media engagements and statements since the announcement about the museum’s closure. The collection is being taken offsite to “a custom-designed facility dedicated to conservation and restoration”, where it will apparently remain available to researchers; what happens after this is anyone’s guess.
While there is no reason to question the trustees’ bona fides — they are clearly following their remit to protect and preserve Stern’s work, as well as her wider collection — the affair has been a lesson in how not to communicate a significant development in the visual arts sector. Among many less eloquent complaints, mostly on social media, Strauss & Co chair Frank Kilbourn was moved to write a media release in his capacity as a member of the Irma Stern Museum committee.
It turns out that this body, which falls under the aegis of UCT, was not consulted while the university and the trust were negotiating their agreement — a lapse that Kilbourn diplomatically describes as “regrettable”, pointing out that UCT and the trust also failed to seek “the input of industry leaders and interested parties that have dedicated significant time, capital and energy in furthering Irma Stern’s legacy”.
The trustees have belatedly committed to a process of wider consultation, which started this week with an energetic public meeting at Nedbank’s offices in Cape Town. As for Stern’s paintings, it seems only likely that their value at auction will continue to rise.
This article was first published in Business Day.
