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One painting by Irma Stern, in particular, fetched well above the pre-auction estimate. Lot 84, Cape Malay woman in red, went for £230 000 (estimate £80 000-£120 000).
The top price was £320 000 for lot 79, an Irma Stern still life with chrysanthemums and a pumpkin, which was at the upper end of the estimate of £250 000-£350 000. (All prices quoted, by the way, are the so-called hammer prices, which exclude the buyer's premium auction houses now charge. As an indication, including the premium pushes the price the buyer actually pays up to £378 000).
The Irma Sterns were clearly the highlights of the show, confirming her status as SA's highest-priced artist. Other reasonable results for Sterns include lot 81, Grape pickers, £180 000 (estimate £180 000-£200 000), lot 82, Girl eating grapes, £180 000 (estimate £180 000-£200 000), and lot 86, Portrait of a Dakar woman, £100 000 (estimate £80 000-£120 000.
But some fell below estimate, including lot 78, Portrait of a Pondo woman, £280 000 (estimate £300 000-£500 000), and lot 80, Pondo girl, at £190 000 (estimate £200 000-£300 000).
Of other top names, JH Pierneef was represented mainly by graphic works and three not particularly impressive oils, which all went at the bottom of their estimates: lot 38, Olifants River, £90 000 (£90 000-£120 000), lot 39, Acacia trees on the veld, £68 000 (£60 000-£90 000), and lot 40, Willow tree, GBP50 000 (£50 000-£80 000).
Maggie Laubser's lot 65, The harvesters, fetched an impressive £, against an estimate of only £25 000-£35 000. But her other lots, and those by the likes of Boonzaaier, Gwelo Goodman and Maud Sumner were mostly at mid-e3stimate or below.
Contemporary artists included sculptor Dylan Lewis and - of course - William Kentridge.
Those who marveled at the prices at Dylan Lewis' recent show by the Everard Read Gallery at Sandton Convention Centre will be interested in how he fared: lot 288, Cheetah sitting, £26 000 (£25 000-£35 000); lot 289, Black rhino maquette, £7 000 (£8 000-£12 000); lot 290, Sitting leopard maquette, £2 600 (£3 000-£5 000); and similar results for two other maquettes.
Kentridge's eight mask designs for a charity dinner in aid of the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 1991, failed to sell. He was represented by a number of graphics, of which some didn't sell and others went in the middle or below of the estimates. But half a dozen Ardmore ceramic pieces were popular, going for between £600 and £1 700, only one failing to reach at least the top estimate.
Overall, it was a respectable rather than exciting auction, given that the volatile international financial climate may have had a dampening effect.
Certainly, though, while this may have moderated the rate of price increase, it has not yet led to any significant deterioration in the market, and the results confirm that SA art is increasingly saleable abroad.
- Fin24
