Hazel Friedman
A RECORD price has been paid for a Pierneef painting overseas, suggesting that boom times are ahead for South African art. Entitled Transvaal Landscape (1929) the painting was sold last week by Christies in London for the whopping sum of 58 000 (R430 000).
The price more than doubles the previous amount of R209 000, jointly held by Pierneef and Irma Stern. And although the highest price ever paid at an auction for a South African artwork stands at R935 000 – for Frederick Timpson I’Ons’s The Old Settler, which was painted in 1836 – the Pierneef sale is indisputably the highest sum ever paid for a 20th-century South African work.
Other 20th century South African artists whose works have fetched over R100 000 are:
Irma Stern’s Young Man with Orange Turban (1942), sold for R209 000 in May 1995; Gerard Sekoto’s Sixpence a Door (1946 to 1947), sold for R180 000 in April 1991; Anton Von Wouw’s Miner with Machine Drill (1926), sold for R154 000 in May 1997; Jean Welz’s Seated Nude (1949), sold for R143 000 in June 1993; Peter Wenning’s Malta Farm (1917), sold for R143 000 in June 1993; Alexis Preller’s The Island, Seychelles (1950), sold for R115 500 in November 1994.
“We are delighted with the sale,” said a spokesperson from Christies, in Cape Town, after the auction house clinched the deal.
“Normally South Africa’s Museum and Heritage Acts prevent us from sending South African art to be auctioned overseas. Fortunately, this particular painting was the property of a British family trust.”
South African art dealers and auctioneers agree that the Pierneef windfall is part of a general trend towards investing in South African art.
“The last year has seen the market improve greatly for South African art, particularly on the part of South African buyers,” says Stephan Welz who heads Sotheby’s.
“The decreasing value of the rand has also helped persuade South African art collectors to look homewards for art as an investment.”
Ironically, while the world in general celebrates the products of the new and improved South Africa, art investors are putting their money into the old guard nationalists of South African visual culture. Although work by contemporary South African artists is currently fetching much higher prices than in previous years, they pale in comparison to sums paid for works produced by their predecessors. For example, Norman Catherine – who exhibits at the Goodman Gallery – has seen the value of his output literally double in the last two years. In 1994 he commanded R20 000 for a painting. Today, R40 000 is not out of the norm. And mixed media artist Willie Bester’s most expensive works sell from R40 000 to R100 000.
South African contemporary artists have yet to top the R100 000 price tag for a single work.
“It is a worldwide phenomenon that living artists command far less for ther work than their deceased counterparts,” explains Stephan Welz. “That’s why, when Van Gogh was alive he solHazel Friedmand not a single work. Yet today his paintings still command the highest prices.”