Picasso visits Sandton

Fine art and design auctioneers in Sandton City, Stephan Welz and Co, displayed a piece of art by world-famous artist, Pablo Picasso, on 27 May and members of the public were able to view this iconic piece.

The painting will be auctioned during a Cape Town sale at Alphen Boutique Hotel in Constantia on 7 June.

Anton Welz, the divisional specialist head at Stephan Welz and Co said, “It is very significant having this drawing at auction. It’s the first genuine Picasso drawing to be offered at auction in South Africa. We have had ceramics and prints before, but never an original work.”

This piece of art is exceptionally valuable. Welz said, “The estimate of the value of the piece is R3- to R3.5 million. The drawing last sold in New York in 2006 for US $240 000 which, at the time, was almost R2 million.”

“Today US $240 000 is worth somewhere around R3.7 million, which means that even if it has not increased in value, it has more than doubled over the last 10 years in rand terms, hence the value,” he added.

Many have undermined the painting by saying that it looks like a child’s drawing. In response to this, Welz said, ” At first glance it does look simple, but if you look at the profile of the woman, how well it is drawn as well as the composition of the work you will understand the artwork more. There is perspective, depth, colour and line, all indicators that this was drawn by an artist who really knew what he was doing.”

Welz said that the piece was taken from a page of one of Picasso’s sketchbooks. “At the time of this artwork, Picasso made a number of drawings on the theme of the circus and this is one of them.”

He stressed the volume of the art that Picasso created and said, “He did almost 12 000 drawings during his lifetime, along with 1 885 oil paintings, a large body of work by anyone’s standards.”

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