African Art goes under the hammer at Sotheby’s London online auction

This month, Sotheby’s London is delighted to present their Modern & Contemporary African Art Auction, taking place in their new on-live sale format in their New Bond St Galleries on Friday.

This auction will feature a diverse array of artworks, from significant pieces by established masters to innovative creations by emerging artists. Highlights include works by Lisa Brice, Eduardo Villa, David Goldblatt, Irma Stern, Ben Enwonwu, Michael Armitage, Meleko Mokgosi and Gavin Jantjes.

Irma Stern

Lady of the Harem, 1946 Estimated £600 000 to £800 000 (about R14 million to R18 million). Leading this season’s sale is Irma Stern’s Lady of the Harem (estimated at £600 000 to £800 000).

Stern explores the effects of slavery in Zanzibar and the limited lives of the women of the local harems. Stern’s striking portrait of a member of a Zanzibari harem captures her constrained history, giving her agency at a time when she had none.

Also featured in the auction is Gerard Sekoto’s Portrait of a Boy (estimated £18 000 to £25 000). Executed shortly after the artist’s arrival in Paris, Portrait of a Boy by South Africa’s foremost modernist was gifted to the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in 1959 by Dr & Mrs Edgar Berman of Baltimore, Maryland.

Sekoto’s work is centred on the exploration of the human spirit through the lens of social realism.

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Zanele Muholi

Sasa, Bleeker, New York, 2016, Somnyama Ngonyama Series, 2012-2018 (estimated £5 000 to £7 000).

Zizipho Poswa

Magodi, 2020 (estimated £12 000 to £18 000).

Accompanying these notable masters is an iconic Cape Farmhouse scene by Jacob Hendrik Pierneef. Over his long and hallowed career, which mirrored the rise of Afrikaner nationalism in the wake of independence from the British, Pierneef would come to refine the South African landscape painting of the era.

His distinctive style, characterised by geometric simplification and dramatic use of light and colour, captured the essence of the South African highveld and established him as one of the country’s most iconic artists.

Gerard Sekoto Portrait of a Boy, 1950s (estimated £18 000 to £25 000).

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These tour de force works share the spotlight with a thoughtfully curated assortment of the most sought-after contemporary artists working today, including Untitled (from the Sex Show series) (estimated £7 000 to £9 000), a 1992 work by Lisa Brice, whose world record piece No Bare Back, After Embah sold at Sotheby’s in 2021 for $3.16 million.

Sotheby’s is also delighted to include the work of ceramist Zizipho Poswa, who makes her Frieze Sculpture debut in London this month, and whose piece Magodi (estimated £12 000 to £18 000) is inspired by Xhosa hairstyles.

Also included are works by Zanele Muholi, Athi Patra Ruga, Jack Kabangu, Bambo Sibiya and Toyin Ojih Odutola.

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Information about auction

• Catalogue can be viewed online.
• The auction will be open for online bidding on Thursday, 26 September, and will close with a live bidding session on Friday,27 September.

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