Online art auction highlights as chosen by Strauss & Co’s art experts

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There could hardly be a better time to get bidding in one of Strauss & Co’s innovative online auctions, which returns this month from April 6-14. After all you have plenty of time at the computer screen at home to follow the bidding closely and in times like these we all need a little more art in our lives!

There are seven different sessions running in the April online art and fine wine auction, with more than 700 lots including painting, sculpture, works on paper, fine wines, oriental decorative arts, vintage jewellery and luxury accessories.

The first auction session consists of 48 favourites selected by Strauss & Co’s team of art experts that includes contemporary and historic painting, photography and jewellery as well as antiques, vintage wines and stunning designer scarves.

The auction is open for bids until 20:00 on Tuesday April 14. Browse all the works included in the auction and register to bid online at straussart.co.za/straussonline.

Make sure to also check in to the Strauss & Co Zoom link every day at 16:00 to hear the Strauss & Co team talking about the artists and works featured in a free virtual art talkabout. Join the Zoom talkabouts here.

Here’s a look at some favourites as chosen by the Strauss & Co team

Keiskamma Art Project – embroidered fabric, Vultures (one of two), starting bid R10,000

“The Keiskamma Art Project is an organisation that is doing truly amazing things to uplift a community through the creation of art. I love how in these embroideries, birds which we would ordinarily see as being very ugly, such as vultures, have been made beautiful through the lush backgrounds and extraordinary embroidery.” – Dr Gera de Villiers

Lake Kivu by Clement Serneels. Oil on canvas, starting bid R18,000

“This is a rather rare work and as an artist one I find particularly inspiring. It has very energised brushstrokes, exquisite mark making on the trees and I love the contrasts of the baked earth tones and the cool reflections of the water and sky. It’s fairly abstract in its rendering and I find I can look at it for a long time without ever tiring of it.” – Ian Hunter

Dog Watch by Norman Catherine. Starting bid R80,000

“I love the ambiguity of this two-headed hybrid human-dog figure. Is it startled or alert? What of the scars on the face of the head that sits on the back? Who is watching who? It’s also large, about the size of an actual dog!” – Marion Dixon

Cape Town Docks by Walter Gilbert Wiles. Oil on board, starting bid R12,000

“I was immediately taken with this interpretation of a familiar subject, the Cape Town harbour. I love how the atmosphere in this picture is so completely different to how we see the waterfront today. It’s almost unbelievable to see just how different it was less than a century ago”. – Ann Palmer

A set of seven Japanese red and gilt lacquer bowls and saucer dishes. Estimate R4,000

“I really like the dual qualities of these bowls – their functionality and their decorative appeal. Each item has been individually painted by hand and is totally unique.” –
Sophie-Louise Fröhlich

Did Blak Lives Ever Matter? mixed media by Ayanda Mabulu. Starting bid R20,000

“This is a really important example of contemporary African art. It reminds of many recent resistance movements such as #BlackLivesMatter, #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall and portrays the contemporary political thinking of the world right now” –
Wilhelm van Rensburg

‘Blue Figure’ by Norman Catherine. Starting bid R20,000

“The idiosyncratic and colourful works of Norman Catherine always make my list! As a personal favourite, his satirical, comical and idealistic dark humour never fails to amuse” – Arisha Maharaj

An Hermès multicoloured ‘Au Fil du Carré’ silk scarf – starting bid R2,000

JH Pierneef Houses with Trees, Derdepoort (Nilant 46), linocut. Starting bid R7,500

Sea Curl by Cecil Higgs, oil on board, starting bid R20,000

Marinescape by Peter Clarke, linocut. Starting bid R10,000

LXiii, monoprint by Richard Penn. Estimate R3,000

Receding Landscape oil on canvas by Wim Blom. Starting bid R4,000

Diedrick During – Guitar Player, oil on board. Estimate R30,000

Gerhard Batha, Camps Bay – gouache on paper. Estimate R8,000

Johnny Fortune by Mikhael Subotzky. Starting bid R6,000

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