The main paintings and prints session attracted keen interest at Stephan Welz & Co's Johannesburg decorative and fine arts auction this week.
Bidders spent 118.5-million in the room, on the phone or internet, 85 of 135 lots were sold and 70% of the art section found buyers. Imre Lamprecht, head of department for SA paintings, watercolours, sculptures and prints, said the art sessions over the auction's two days did better than expected.
"There are always works that don't sell, and nothing was necessarily surprising. All the Tretchikoff works sold — it seems the Tretchikoff market is still riding the wave of Chinese Girl— and a Battiss selling for a hammer price of R600 000 on an estimate of R200 000 to R400 000 was one of the highlights. "Also, of the international works, a Calder fetched R414 400 after an average estimate of just over half that."
Among other notable sales, David Hockney's Gregory Reclining lithograph sold for nearly three times its maximum estimate at R32 000. An exquisite Jules Girardet painting of a Moorish courtyard sold for nearly double its estimate at R220 000 and an Alexis Preller study of a halved pawpaw translated into R320 000.
The highest price of the evening was unsurprisingly fetched by an Irma Stern painting of cypress trees in Pretoria. A last-minute bidder with a well-timed pre-hammer call walked away with it for a cool RI-million. Walter Battiss proved a popular artist on the night, with several works exceeding their maximum estimates, including The Flower Picker, which went for R600 000, Umpundulu Birds for R50 000 and Abstract on a Blue and White Background for R200 000.
Anton van Wouw's The Dagga Smoker, a bronze statue 17cm high, sold for R250 000. Some Gerard Malanga photographs proved popular, selling for R16 000 each. Robert Hodgins proved popular, with a series of works going for R26 000 to R50 000 in one of the night's few proper bidding wars.
Malawi-born Johannesburg artist Billie Zangewa was in the audience to watch her If Not Now, Then When? sell for R75 000. Zangewa has exhibited round the world since graduating from Rhodes University with a major in print making.
She said attending auctions of her work was not something she relished. "It's the second time one of my works has been auctioned at Stephan Welz & Co, both from my gallery and not private collections, but this is the first time I've come along. I only attended because my friends pressured me. It was an education, but I won't make a habit of it."
Zangewa was happy with the price fetched, although it's a little over half the highest sale she's achieved to date. "A bidding war is flattering, but I'm really just happy with the publicity generated by having a piece sell at an auction."
Picture Caption :PRIZED: One of Billie Zangewa's pieces sold for R75 000 at an auction in Johannesburg Picture by: WALDO SWIEGERS
By: Brendan Peacock
Article Source: The Sunday Times