Stern test of the market

Following recent international interest in the artist, the paintings to be offered at Strauss & Co’s October 21 auction at the Vineyard Hotel in Newlands, Cape Town, establish Irma Stern as a leading Modernist painter and, furthermore, as an intrepid collector of top quality African art.

“Stern’s 1923 painting, Composition (estimated at R9 million to R12 million), confirms the South African-born artist’s close links with German Expressionist artists,” says Emma Bedford, senior art specialist at Strauss & Co.

Composition encapsulates Stern’s visualisation of an African paradise. The central figure, a Zulu woman with beaded hair, is cocooned in a flame-coloured orange cloak. The young girl, left, reclines with her eyes closed as if dreaming while the child holds a yellow butterfly in one hand and a bunch of grapes in the other. Surrounded by proteas bursting through green foliage that frames glimpses of the mountains and ocean beyond, all are contained in a shallow space which, pressed against the picture plane, owes much to the development of early Modernism that Stern encountered during her years in Berlin.

Buli Stool with Fruit (R4 million to R5 million) is a remarkable still life painting, foregrounding the Buli stool that remains one of the most valuable items in Stern’s collection. This Luba caryatid stool originated from the village of Buli in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a number of exceptional carvings were produced in the late 19th and early 20th century by a master craftsman and his school.

Magnolias and Fruit (R8 million to R10 million) was painted in the late 1940s when Stern, was at the height of her powers. The substantial size of the painting gains even more impact from the scale of the flowers that appear to burst beyond the confines of the frame.

Their creamy, fleshy petals are accentuated by Stern’s superb impasto applied expertly with a palette knife. The deep green leaves with their contrasting sculptural forms and the bowl of fruit with ripening figs heighten the sensuality of this painting, embodying Stern’s visceral response to flowers and fruit.