The premier African auction house Strauss & Co wrapped up their days-long retinue of auctions with an evening sale of Modern and Contemporary Art, held in Cape Town, South Africa on March 28. The stand-out piece was undoubtedly Irma Stern's (1894-1966) painting Children Reading the Koran from 1939, which realized a price of ZAR 22.3 million(about $1.2 million), double the estimate of ZAR 10,000,000-11,000,000 (about $550,000-600,000). Selling to a buyer in the room, the artwork set the record for the highest auction price for a work sold on the continent of Africa.
Stern, born in South Africa to German parents who traveled frequently between Germany and Cape Town with their children, sought out success in both countries, and while she found some in Germany, her work was initially derided by South African audiences. However, it began to catch on beginning in the 1940s, and she has since become established as an important and influential South African artist, reflected in auction results, where her works regularly achieve high prices, particularly in the British and South African markets.
Related: Irma Stern: A South African Superstar
Children Reading the Koran reflects a major element of Stern's work: depictions of the Islamic communities and culture found throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. The painting specifically depicts the children of Zanzibar, an archipelago off the coast of Tanzania with a population that is nearly entirely Muslim. The style of the work also reflects Stern's involvement in the German Expressionist movement.
Other South African modernist artists including Freida Lock, Hugo Naudé, J.H. Pierneef and Pieter Wenning also saw success at the 110-lot evening sale, which earned a combined ZAR 70,455,935 ($3.8 million). Works by South African contemporary artists such as Sethembile Msezane and William Kentridge had good performances as well.
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These results, said Frank Kilbourn, Chairperson of Strauss & Co in a press release, show that "there can be no doubt that South Africa remains the best marketplace to trade artworks by the country’s premium modernists.”