RUDD’S ATLANTIC ART GALLERY SALE | BUSINESS ART
Rudd’s Atlantic Art Gallery Auction Sale a Success Rudd’s auction of the contents of the Atlantic Art Gallery on the 30th January 2013 in Cape Town proved to be a success for all concerned. Riva Cohen and her family were delighted with the outcome. One hundred artists were represented from across the Cape Town Art scene over the past forty years therefore offering without doubt a choice for all tastes and pockets. Thanks to the assistance of The Art Times through both their hard copy and digital magazine the public were given every opportunity of finding works that they may not normally have seen. Artists of note included Fred Schimmel, sold for R16,000, Gail Catlin pictures from R6000 to R20,000, Cecily Sash for R22,000, Lionel Abrams from R11,000, Andre van Zyl for R15,000, Sidney Goldblatt for R13,000, Carl
Letter to The Editor
ANC Art Investment Game It is difficult to understand the reason why so called “art experts” are baffled by the R3.7 million paid for a painting of Nelson Mandela at fundraising auction. (SA Art Times February) . J Brooks Spector of the Daily Maverick also projects himself as yet another “art expert” His qualifications in the arts do not appear to be any better than ANC Treasurer General, Zweli Mkhize. It would also be interesting for the so called highly experienced academic who professes to specialise in contemporary work to explain why he was , “frankly horrified after reading about the R3.7 million picture and its price tag”.. The price was after all only 1% of the R370 million price paid for Andy Wahrol’s, Statue of Liberty at Christies New York in February or a quarter of the R15 million Rand paid for a Tuna fish in Tokyo in January and just about equal to the R3.7 million paid for a bottle of whisky in 2010. The list is endless ! Is the learned academic also horrified about these prices? The ANC should be praised for it’s effort to increase the price of South African Art and not derided . South Africa has a surplus of struggling artists. At the last count I recall the figure amounted to 8000 Of these 99% will never make the cut to the top few. The ANC is doing more than most of the so called South African art experts SA ART TIMES. March 2013
Buchner for R17,000, Robert Slingsby for R8,000, and Olive Scholnick at 17,000 to name just a few. This may be the end of one gallery owner’s illustrious career but Cape Town is lucky to have young and exciting new artists being given their chance in the many new galleries opening up throughout the city. Rudd’s next catalogue sale of important Antiques and Fine Art takes place on the 19th March and will include both South African and International Artists including Johannes Meintjes, Frans Claerhout, William Timlin, Otto Klar, Terence McCaw, Jan Dingemans, William Coetzer, Christo Coetzee, Edward Roworth, Erik Laubscher, Rose-Innes, Peter Clarke, Walter Wiles, Maud Sumner, Sydney Carter, Rupert Shepherd, Hardy Botha, Robert Slingsby, Uwe Pfaff, A. J. Basson, Jean Doyle. Visit www.rudds.co.za for details and academics to elevate and increase the stature of local art. It is wonderful that they have selected art and not some other asset class such as fish or liquor and have selected some relatively unknown names for development. The ANC can hardly be expected to select and would achieve nothing by promoting Pierneef at this time. Personally I do not like Sifiso Ncogobo’s work nor for that matter do I care much for William Kentridge. Many will argue that much of his painting amounts a some random doodling on discarded newspaper or book pages, nor am I particularly enamoured with the subject matter of many of Irma Stern works. But who cares; fortunately we all have different tastes or the world would be terribly dull and boring. Taste in art can be nurtured and developed over time and it is important that the ANC be encouraged in this field. The time has come for our art experts and academics to work together to help increase the price of top South African art not find reasons why prices should be low. By comparison the Christies Post War and Contemporary art sale in New York on 13 February 2013 achieved a record breaking USD 412 million for the 67 works sold. This converts to R3.5 BILLION Rands ! The average price achieved for each of the 67 paintings sold converts to R52 million. This is five times higher than the highest price achieved for an Irma Stern at the last Strauss auction in Cape Town and around double the all time record for the artist. The total sales at this one auction on 13 February at Christies amounted to double the entire amount of all art sales by auction in South Africa during the past ten years. This comes back to the relevance of the South African art market as well as the relevance of the opinions of the self styled experts and academics The bottom line is that the so called art experts in South Africa should be horrified at the low prices achieved for top South African art rather than falling over themselves and squabbling about the merits of Paul Emsley’s rendition of Kate Middleton or the “artistic merit” of Sifiso Ngcobo’s work. The ANC Treasurer General Zweli Mhikize showed more astuteness than the rest of the South African art community when he said that the bid for the Ngcobo was simply too good to be allowed to go to waste and he would arrange a second copy of the painting to be commissioned for the under bidder. Zweli Mhkize should be appointed South Africa’s Minister of Finance Anthony Silberberg 45