Making art walkabout a lively event: Touring the Strauss & Co July sale with senior art specialists

Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

In the past five years, I have been in and out of the huge Strauss &Co Gallery, 89 Central Street Houghton, Johannesburg. In fact, I have been there so many times that I have lost count. The reason being there could have been for an award ceremony, an art talk, or even a book launch. But most times, it is because there was a preview of their regular auction sale, where the media gets to view the new acquisitions that will go under the hummer in a few weeks, even days. At such events, you can never predict, what you will encounter in the gallery, as there is always a surprise. For example, a never-seen-before art work by a famous artist.

I was there last week Thursday, 9 July, 2026, where I joined other arts media. But something this time was different. “We have four shows this time that will go on sale before the end of July,” explained Strauss &Co. publicist Marina Smithers. “Oh, well, that is bingeing,” I found myself remarking. “It is in fact, a bumper sale,” Marina retorted.

I did not change my mind. I was looking forward to bingeing on the art work on display. Ready to go under the hammer. In fact, I looked forward to the experience to feast with my eyes and other senses on this latest show. Even if you cannot afford them, at least you can view for free.

Walkabouts at Strauss &Co. are never boring. After all, the team that leads the walkabouts –Wilhelm van Rensburg and Dr. Alastair Meredith know their story. Listening to them take you talk about art that has been consigned and is ready for auction is an experience on its own.

Who needs to go to university to study history of art when you have the two take you through the works, ready, to be on auction. They are so knowledgeable and always research extensively the work that has been consigned to an extent that it almost feels like one is at a university art history class. In fact they are a university themselves, with Meredith holding a PHD in art history from Cambridge, and van Rensburg being a former university art lecturer.

Thursday’s walkabout was as illuminating as it was informative about the art works that form these multiple sales featuring interesting art works up for grabs. There were even moments of humour.

And what is particularly notable and therefore interesting about these talks, is that Whelm and Meredith have a way of talking about art in a way that makes you see the lives of those artists that may even have passed away, including their personalities.

For example, after taking the media team through one work on the walls by Maggie Loubser, a portrait of a rural woman, a clearly an unusual creation by the artist whose work has always been associated with abstract oil painting, Meredith gave us a few titbits of the art politics of the Modernist period in South African art history.

Pointing out to two art works on the other side of the wall near the entrance, both oil abstract paintings also by Loubser, Meredith had something to say about the life lived by Loubser and Irma Stern, one of the leading icons who together with Loubser were part of the impressionist artists in South Africa.

“Of course, those two paintings by Loubser are different from this portrait. This is an early work by the artist. Loubser along-side Irma Stern were influenced by the Impressionist painters in Germany. So this portrait by Maggie Loubser is an early work. Maggie was essentially a rural artist whereas Irma Stern was an urban artist. In fact, it is said that she was ruthless when it comes to the business of art, particularly in as far as Loubser’s art practice was concerned,” he said.

Here, Meredith is referring to the rumoured rivalry between these two artists at the time.

Personally, I wanted more of the politics, but Meredith had other ideas as instead, he took us through first one particular work J.H Pierneef, a large work on the wall, painted in late in 1952. The work is titled, Bushveld Landscape, Approaching Storm, Sabi Sands (1952),.

“This work has not been seen before. It comes from several generations of one family. This work, it is believed, was created in one of his several trips into the countryside. He painted this work when he was staying with that family as a friend of theirs,” he said.

This is really an interesting painting, a typical Pierneef, complete with the Transvaal bush veld well rendered, and above there seemed to be clouds gathering, a sort of impending storm. This is really a beautiful rendering of the Transvaal bush veld. I could not help, but check the starting price on this one.

If you have ambition to acquire this one, well, you need to have at least R5 million in your account. It is likely to go up during a fierce bidding, as Pierneef alongside Irma Stern for the longest of time have been popular with collectors here in South Africa and around the world.

Hung next to this one, is however another painting, not by Pierneef, but it has connection to Pierneef’s career as a painter. It is a painting by Pieter Wenning, a Dutch artists who came to South Africa those years, not as an artist, but to work in a shop in Pretoria selling painting material.

“’Wenning had a huge influence on Pierneef. He is one artist who influenced the direction of Pierneef’s art practice in a significant way,” Meredith explained.

That is of course in addition to the dominant role of another Dutch artist whose influence on Pierneef was monumental. The Dutch artist and theorist, Willem van Konijnenburg, marked influence on Pierneef that has resulted in a greater abstraction of nature by Pierneef.

However, what I am talking about above is one of four sales. The other portions constituted constituting the four sales.

The Willem Boshoff Collection Collection, features his own collection, as well as works by other artists he has collected over the years. I was however, particularly struck by three sculptures by the late legend Jackson Hlungwani. The three sculptures stand proudly in the space with grace and dignity seeming to dominate this section of the sale. There is also a rarely publicly seen print of Hlungwani in this section, that the senior art specialists admitted is a museum quality art work.

Hlungwani’s work is infused with his particular mix of Christianity, traditional Tsonga beliefs and a personal revelation theology. He had no formal training as an artist but was taught wood carving by his father. He worked briefly in Johannesburg but returned to his home in Gazankulu, a former apartheid-era ‘homeland’ in the then Northern Transvaal, after losing a finger in an industrial accident.

Essential the A monumental Bushveld Landscape, Approaching Storm, Sabi Sands(1952), leads Strauss & Co’s July auction week in Johannesburg, on 21–22 July 2026. Estimated to fetch R5–7 million / $302 298 – 423 216, the painting headlines a strong Evening Sale of fresh-to-market modern and contemporary art.

The arboreal subjects of Pierneef’s various linocuts, etching, caseins and oils in the Evening Sale, including Bushveld Landscape with Autumn Leaves (estimate R1 – 1.5 million / $60 460 – 90 689) find a contemporary interpreter in the recent work of William Kentridge. The catalogue includes two large examples of William Kentridge’s technically accomplished works on paper: The Old Gods Have Retired, dated 2022 (estimate R1.2 – 1.5 million / $72 552 – 90 689), and You Who Never Arrived, dated 2021 (estimate R850 000 – 950 000 / $51 391 – 57 437).

The public offering of these lots by Pierneef and Kentridge concludes a diverse programme of consecutive live-virtual auctions on Tuesday, 21 July 2026. The day begins with the sale of works from the Willem Boshoff Collection (at 2pm), followed by a focus on South African ceramics (at 5pm) and concluded with the premier Evening Sale (at 7pm).

This live programme is complemented by a single-owner collection of drawings and paintings by Gregoire Boonzaier, presented as an online-only sale that concludes on Wednesday, 22 July 2026. The Boonzaier focus continues in the tradition of Strauss & Co’s popular winter single-artist auctions, which previously highlighted the output of John Muafangejo, Hylton Nel and J.H. Pierneef. 

“The wide-ranging selection of works by Henk Pierneef in the Evening Sale is justifiably led by his majestic oil on canvas Bushveld Landscape, Approaching Storm, Sabi Sands,” says Dr. Alastair Meredith, Director and Head of Sale, Strauss & Co. “Produced in 1952, during a visit to friends on their game farm in the then recently incorporated Sabi Sands Game Reserve, the work has hung in a single-family collection for decades.”