Pierneef’s former home and studio is host venue for Strauss & Co’s debut Pretoria auction

Strauss & Co is pleased to share details of its first-ever auction in Pretoria, a two-part live sale of collectable ceramics and modern and contemporary art to be held at the former home of cherished landscape painter J.H. Pierneef. Due to be held on Sunday, 21 July 2024, the two sales acknowledge the centrality of Pretoria in the story of South African art.

The first sale, Sculpted Narratives: Contemporary South African Ceramics, which begins at 10am, features high-value sculptural ceramics by Astrid Dahl, Andile Dyalvane, Ian Garrett, Frances Goodman, Nesta Nala, Hylton Nel and Bonnie Ntshalintshali. It also includes work by three noted Pretoria artists – Walter Battiss, Esias Bosch and Robert Hodgins – as a well as a single-owner collection of Ardmore ceramic pieces acquired by diplomat and scholar the late Ambassador Lindiwe Mabuza.

This medium-specific sale is followed by the Pretoria Sale: Modern & Contemporary Art, which includes high-value works by Keith Alexander, William Kentridge and Portia Zvavahera. The catalogue for this spotlight sale also gathers important works by a cohort of celebrated Pretoria artists, among them Walter Battiss, Alice Elahi, Erich Mayer, Frans Oerder, Alexis Preller, Pieter Wenning, Anton van Vouw and, of course, J.H. Pierneef.

“It is an extraordinary privilege to present these two sales at Pierneef’s Kraal Guest Lodge in what was once the home and studio of a much-loved South African artist,” says Alastair Meredith, Head of Sale, Strauss & Co. “Henk Pierneef acquired the property beneath Lukasrand koppie on the then eastern outskirts of Pretoria in 1939. He named his home Elangeni, or place in the sun, and lavished great attention on creating an indigenous garden around his stone-and-thatch home. We are especially delighted to be offering a work depicting the artist’s garden at Elangeni.”

Painted in 1942 in an impressionist mode, with small flecks and swirls of pure colour, Garden at Elangeni (estimate R900 000 – 1.2 million) resembles the Karoo in spring and brings to mind Hugo Naudé’s best Namaqualand views. Other artists in the sale working with this hybrid botanical-landscape theme include Gregoire Boonzaier, William Kentridge, Erich Mayer, Frans Oerder and Moses Tladi. Vladimir Tretchikoff’s lively still life Red Hot Pokers (estimate R1.2 – 1.5 million) records a plant whose flower brings colour to rain-deprived winter gardens in Pretoria.

A preview exhibition of the sale Sculpted Narratives will be hosted at Strauss & Co, Johannesburg – (not in Pretoria). Wilhelm van Rensburg, Senior Art Specialist and Head Curator, Strauss & Co, will present a public talk titled “Sculpted Narratives: Contemporary South African Ceramics” at Strauss & Co in Johannesburg, on Tuesday, 16 July 2024, at 6pm. Activities will then move to Pretoria.

The public will be able to view a selection of works from the Pretoria Sale: Modern and Contemporary Art at Pierneef’s Kraal Guest Lodge in Lynnwood Manor on the following two days. Strauss & Co specialists will lead two walkabouts on Saturday, 20 July 2024, at 11am and 1pm. The live-virtual  auctions on Sunday, 21 July 2024 can accommodate in-person bidding. The public is encouraged to seize this opportunity to view Pierneef’s former home and studio.

The works in the Pierneef consignment for the Pretoria Sale include linocuts and works in oil. The two signature oils Bushveld Landscape with Trees (estimate R1 – 1.5 million) and Plaas Hartbeesfontein, Pretoria (estimate R1.2 – 1.8 million) capture Pierneef’s great affection for the savanna biome surrounding Pretoria. Alexis Preller’s untitled oil from 1963 depicting a musician (estimate R800 000 – R1.2 million) derives from the period he settled in a Norman Eaton-designed home, Dombeya, in the grassland landscape between Pretoria and Brits.

Both sales promise surprises and value for collectors of Pretoriana. A 1978 watercolour by Bransom Strapp details the Staatsmodel Skool on Skinner Street (estimate R2 000 – 3 000) where a young Pierneef received instruction in Dutch and British statesman Winston Churchill was imprisoned in 1899. The sale includes four drawings by Alexis Preller, two dating from the period he lived near Pierneef’s Elangeni in the suburb of Brummeria, adjacent the Pretoria National Botanical Garden. These works are expected to fetch between R5 000 and R12 000.

The catalogue for Sculpted Narratives includes a rare vase by Walter Battiss (estimate R25 000 – 35 000), as well as a fired-clay sculpture by Robert Hodgins titled The Senator from North Carolina (estimate R50 000 – 70 000). Both Battiss and Hodgins were art teachers in Pretoria. Esias Bosch, a Pretoria resident from 1955 to 1960, has three gorgeous pieces in the ceramics catalogue, notable among them a large hand-painted tile depicting purple crested loeries (estimate R200 000 – 300 000).

While strongly focused on Pretoria and its strong historic legacy of artists, both sales include strong consignments of contemporary work by artists from elsewhere. They include Johannesburg artist William Kentridge’s undated drawing Landscape with Billboard (estimate R2 – 3 million) and Zimbabwean painter Portia Zvavahera’s coloured woodcut Musingle a Kubuda (estimate R80 000 – 120 000).

Other than Zvavahera, who is 39, Strauss & Co’s two-part auction includes a number of so-called “ultra-contemporary” artists under the age of 40. They include the Zimbabwean painter Raymond Fuyana, ceramic artists Hannah Massey and Mpho Mokgatlhe, as well as Joy Mwali, Mellaney Roberts and Amo Maepa, all graduates of the Tshwane University of Technology ceramic department.