It was the year South African female artists soared to bold new heights in terms of value and esteem.
In October a painting by Irma Stern fetched the highest price on auction in local history. Her 1939 Gladioli sold for R13,4-million at a Strauss & Co spring auction in Cape Town.
Art investors and aficionados were ecstatic that the value of important historical works had virtually doubled in less than a year. In May Stern’s Still Life with Gladioli and Fruit (1934) was auctioned at over R7-million, a record at the time.
Critics and specialists were rhapsodic about Gladioli, describing it in terms as floral as its subject. Emma Bedford, senior specialist of paintings at Strauss & Co, wrote that the work was ‘a celebration of so much that [Stern] loved — fresh flowers, ripe fruit and vegetables, and favourite ceramics — brought together under her astute but loving gaze”.
2010 was Stern’s year. In late October a work dating to her time spent painting the locals in Zanzibar fetched a record international price at auctioneer Bonhams in London.
Titled Bahora Girl and painted in 1945, it fetched £2,4-million (R26,4-million), prompting Bonhams’s South African art specialist, Hannah O’Leary, to note that the auctioneer’s mission has been to bring lesser-known artists from marginal areas like South Africa to the attention of the world’s major art markets.
The gradual, consistent rise in the value of South African art will have locals scampering for their vaults and cupboards, where many a treasure is buried, waiting for this moment in history.
In a surprise move a relatively unknown woman, Alida Louw, came forward in November with what is considered the earliest work in existence by expatriate South African artist Marlene Dumas.
The humble work, a birthday card painted for Louw’s 16th birthday in 1971, will be auctioned at Bonhams in March and is expected to fetch between £7 000 and £10 000. Dumas’s work has commanded the highest price in the world for a living woman.
In 2005 Christie’s in London auctioned Dumas’s 1987 work The Teacher for a record $3,34-million.