Warhol and Stern headline Strauss &Co’s superb 70-lot catalogue for its live-virtual auction this June

By CityLife Arts Writer

Two giants of twentieth-century art, Andy Warhol and Irma Stern, lead the catalogue for Strauss &Co’s upcoming live-virtual auction of modern and contemporary art, to be held on Tuesday, 24 June 2025 in Cape Town. The 70-lot sale brings together a compelling selection of established names and emerging voices, including high-value works by William Kentridge, Erik Laubscher and Alexis Preller, alongside two floral still lifes by in-demand painter Vladimir Tretchikoff.

“The cover lot for our winter sale is Andy Warhol’s Vesuvius (estimate R1.2–1.5 million / $67 650–84 560), a striking screenprint depicting the famed Italian volcano near Naples,” says Elmarie van Straaten, Head of Sale at Strauss & Co. “Created in 1985, this late work reflects Warhol’s deepening engagement with themes of mortality and legacy. Combining beauty, violence and repetition, the piece stands as a powerful meditation on the anxieties of modern life. Although by no means a regular in our auctions, Strauss & Co have an excellent track record handling his work, with 87% of lots offered finding new homes.”

A highlight from the South African selection is Irma Stern’s Still Life with Lemons (estimate R2–3 million / $112 750-169 125), painted in 1954 during a period of remarkable creative energy. Then aged 60, Stern was widely regarded as “an indefatigable ambassador of South African art,” and undertook extensive travels to the Belgian Congo, France, Germany, Israel, Italy and Turkey. As with much of her still life work, this composition reflects on the quiet harmony between the cultivated and the organic, the human and the natural.