Renowned South African artist Irma Stern’s “Children Reading the Koran” painting of 1939 has made history on the auction market on the African continent after it was sold for R22.3 million.
Stern was known for her artwork produced around South Africa and her work can be seen at major South African embassies in Europe and her home in Rosebank in Cape Town, which has been turned into a museum.
It was a record price for Stern at Strauss & Co’s sale and affirms South Africa’s status as the best marketplace to trade artworks by premium South African modernists.
According to a statement released by Strauss & Co, Stern’s “Children Reading the Koran” (1939) sold for R22.3m ($1.227m), a new African auction record for artwork sold at auction on the continent.
Strauss & Co chairperson Frank Kilbourn said: “It is an outstanding price for an African modernist at auction and underscores Strauss & Co’s place as a custodian of value for important moderns like Irma Stern.
“The quality of our offering resulted in one of the strongest sales we have seen in some time.
“There was strong demand throughout the auction for revered South African painters, with especially competitive bidding for important works by Freida Lock, Hugo Naudé, JH Pierneef, Alexis Preller, Vladimir Tretchikoff and Pieter Wenning.
“There can be no doubt that South Africa remains the best marketplace to trade artworks by the country’s premium modernists.”
Bina Genovese, managing executive, Strauss & Co, said they were impressed with the outcome. “I was very encouraged by the consistently animated bidding in our new saleroom,” said Genovese, who knocked down the winning bid for Stern’s “Children Reading the Koran”.
“We delivered exceptional results for our clients, achieving robust prices for modernist paintings by Hugo Naudé, JH Pierneef and Irma Stern.
“Our contemporary offering also did remarkably well, with strong results for David Goldblatt, William Kentridge, Dylan Lewis and Sethembile Msezane, as well as a new record price for a painting by Ruby Swinney.”
Strauss & Co said the catalogue for its first marquee live-virtual auction of 2023 encompassed an exceptional range of works made between 1897 and 2019.
The oldest lot was Hugo Naudé’s 1897 marine scene, “The Old Pier, Cape Town”, from the collection of the technology company Naspers, which sold for R293 125 ($16 110).
The auction heralded the revival of Naudé at market, with his vibrant impressionist landscape “Namaqualand, Springtime”, also from the Naspers Collection, selling to an online bidder for R866 438 ($47 625).
Part of an exciting new generation of South African painters, Ruby Swinney’s “Kindergarten”, an ethereal diptych from 2019, sold for R175 875 ($9 665).
Bidding was especially firm for works by JH Pierneef, confirming sustained demand following Strauss & Co’s highly successful single-artist auctions for Pierneef in 2021 and 2022.
In 2011, Strauss & Co sold Irma Stern’s “Two Arabs”, also linked to her 1939 Zanzibar trip, for R21.2m, a record price now surpassed by the sale of Stern’s “Children Reading the Koran” for R22.3m.