Collectable investments
SOME WORKS MAY FETCH R1 MILLION ʂ Other important contemporary works include Peter Clarke’s
Refugees From The Drought-Stricken Zone and The Fire in the Borgo by Robert Hodgins.
ook to Kentridge, Clarke, Hodgins and other contemporary artists as the momentum of contemporary South African art sales, which are set to further increase in 2016. So says Anton Welz, auctioneer at Stephan Welz & Co.
Some of the highly collectable artists with works going under the hammer include Robert Hodgins, Peter Clarke and William Kentridge. Kentridge’s Arc Procession 2 is one of a number of studies exhibited at Cassirer Fine Art in 1990. Many panels were exhibited overlapping to form large arcs of figures in processional combinations, and the head of a figure, possibly a miner, wearing a visor appeared in a number of the large works and studies. This work is one of the very few to be offered from the Arc Procession series. It was gifted by the artist to the current owner and will be offered for the first time on the auction market at an estimate of R500 000 – R700 000.
Other important contemporary works include Peter Clarke’s Refugees From The Drought-Stricken Zone and The Fire in the Borgo by Robert Hodgins. The much-loved Peter Clarke has proven to be one of South Africa’s leading artists, with prices for his paintings having risen dramatically in the past five years. Stephan Welz & Co. hold the artist’s record of R700 000, paid for Landscape with Sheep in October 2014.
Refugees From The Drought-Stricken Zone is Clarke’s 1958 copy of a work from Candido Portinari’s Retirantes (Refugees) series. Like Portinari, Clarke has captured the suffering of the poor and the horrors of war – in this case, an old man with a walking stick with woman and child.
Robert Hodgins, whose The Fire in the Borgo is also up for auction, was one of South Afriinfo ca’s leading contemporary artists up until his death in 2010. It was at Wits University – where he was lecturing on painting – that he met art historian Elizabeth Rankin, the owner of the work for sale, which was painted between 1976 and 1986. Prices for works by Hodgins have increased over the past five years, with five paintings
Some of the highly collectable artists with works going under the hammer include Robert Hodgins, Peter Clarke and William Kentridge
The Stephan Welz & Co. Decorative and Fine Art Auction will take place in The Great Cellar, Alphen Estate, Alphen Drive, Constantia on Tuesday 1 and Wednesday 2 March 2015. Pre-auction viewing is open to the public from Wednesday to Sunday, February 28, 10am – 5pm, and a cocktail event will take place on February 23. Catalogues will be available from both the Cape Town and Johannesburg offices, as well as the Stephan Welz & Co. website www.stephanwelzandco.co.za.
Anyone who can’t attend the
selling over the R1 million mark on the auction market since 2012. The Fire in the Borgo is valued at R200 000 – R250 000.
There are also a number of works by contemporary and 20th century international artists, such as Mr Brainwash, Salvador Dali, Alexander Calder and Pavlos Dinyssopoulos.