The show starts from the moment you walk into the exhibition space. Held in the impressive structure that is Brickfield Canvas in Woodstock, Cape Town, the Strauss & Co showroom is a marvel of sights: huge windows displaying 360º views of Cape Town’s city, lights, champagne, party dresses, and, of course, the incredible artworks that fill the walls.
Every corner turned reveals a new, spectacular work. Spot a Maggie Laubser to your right; round the corner and come face to face with Irma Stern’s
Roses in a Chinese Jar, or a large and arresting Cecil Skotnes; Gerard Sekoto’s
The Gossips huddle in the corner. And of course, the prize jewel, hanging next to two of 12 rare Thomas Bowler 17th-century oil paintings, Jacob H Pierneef’s
Rising tide: African art fetches double the estimates at Sotheby s
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Irma Stern s landmark Arabian portrait at Bonhams African sale
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, Arab with Dagger (1945), Modern and Contemporary African Art, Bonhams, London, 17 March. Estimate: £700,000-£1m
The South African artist Irma Stern painted this dagger-brandishing rogue during a six-year period between 1939 and 1946, when she travelled frequently to the island of Zanzibar and spent time with its Arab community. The picture’s frame was repurposed from one of the many distinctively decorated door frames found throughout Zanzibar. The work reflects “the fatalism and deep spirituality that the artist found among the Arab people”, says Giles Peppiatt, the director of the Modern and Contemporary African Art department at Bonhams. Works from Stern’s Zanzibar period are among her most coveted Arab Priest (1945) achieved £3m in 2011 at Bonham’s in London, which was an auction record for Stern. It was bought by the Qatar Museums Authority and will be part of the collection of the Orientalist Museum in Doha, when it eventually opens.