Strauss & Co: Art and jewellery auction: Exhibition

Strauss & Co, Africa’s leading auction house specialising in art, jewellery, fine wine and design, presents a curated exhibition ‘The Face of the 40s: Early Modernist Art in South Africa’ highlighting artists who produced significant portraiture during that era. A standout of the exhibition includes the return of Gerard Sekoto’s Self Portrait to South Africa, a work that was the face of Paris Noir: Artistic Articulations and Anti-Colonial Resistance, 1950 – 2000 – a groundbreaking Centre Pompidou exhibition held in Paris earlier this year.

This work sits alongside a series of works by Irma Stern, showcasing her significant portraits from the 1940s—her golden period, exhibited in parallel with a major Stern exhibition, “Irma Stern: A Modern Artist between Berlin and Cape Town” on view at Brücke-Museum in Berlin until 2nd November 2025. As the record holder, in Africa, for the highest sale of an Irma Stern work (Children Reading the Koran, which sold for R22.3 million in 2023), Strauss & Co continues its contribution to the legacy of the artist.‘The Face of the 40s: Early Modernist Art in South Africa’ brings together important works from both local and international collections, with several works available for acquisition.The presentation will also feature highlights from the upcoming flagship art and jewellery auctions, including works from a major sale in Johannesburg this November, and the highly anticipated October International Art Auction in Cape Town, featuring museum-quality works by acclaimed artists—some on public view for the first time.