The leading art auction house in Africa, Strauss & Co., is hosting their flagship live-virtual Evening Sale in September, headlined by works from some of South Africa’s leading women artists, including Maggie Laubser, Penny Siopis, and Irma Stern.

Here’s everything fine art lovers and collectors need to know.

Learn more about the Evening Sale

The programme includes a timed online auction, known as the Day Sale, from 19 August until the live, virtual auction on the evening of 15 September 2026. A preview exhibition of highlights from the sale is currently on show at Strauss & Co.’s gallery in Woodstock.

The works from Laubser and Stern are undoubtedly two of the main attractions at the Evening Sale, with highly sought-after paintings from the 1930s, estimated in the millions of Rands, being presented.

Irma Stern was one of the pioneers of modernism in South African art, with many crediting the icon as introducing avant-garde sensibilities to the local scene in the mid-20th century. Most of her works on auction are her classic portraits, still lifes, and marine landscapes, including 1935’s Dahlias which is estimated to be valued at R8 – 10 million.

Maggie Laubser is another artist celebrated for bringing Expressionism to the then-conservative South African art landscape, and renowned for her ability to capture rural African landscapes using bold colours and simplified lines. Her work Portrait of a Woman with Headscarf Holding Flowers shows these hallmarks (estimated value around R1 million), as does her double-sided composition Portrait of a Woman and Child; A Landscape with Houses in the Background (R400k – R600k), both available at auction. The Evening Sale also includes a broad selection of gouaches on paper from both remarkable women.

Moving into contemporary works by some of the most celebrated living artists in the country, Penny Siopis’ beloved and vibrant diptych, Swarm is estimated around R500 000 – R700 000 after exhibiting in both the Iziko South African National Gallery and Wits Art Museum over a decade ago. Other, more recent highlights of the Evening Sale include Georgina Gratrix’s colourful Jewel Face (R300k – R500k) and Kate Gottgens’ abstract The Big Rip (R160k – R200k).

These beloved and in-demand works showcase the talent of women in South African art, from the expressionist trailblazers of yesteryear to the newer artists who carried the torch of boundary-pushing work in future generations. They are accompanied by other modernist pieces by similarly influential male artists.

Featured in this section is the flowing branches of Trees in a Landscape from J.H. Pierneef (R800k – R1.2m), Wolf Kibel’s colourful portrait Young Boy, and the striking portrayal of community in Communal Supper from George Pemba (R300k – R500k). After Stern’s Dahlias, the highest valuation goes to the social realist masterpiece The Mother on the Road (R1.5m – R2m) by the legendary Gerard Sekoto.

The in-demand sculpture selection from the auction includes Lucas Sithole’s Medicine Man (R200k – R300k), Dylan Lewis’ Leopard Fragment II (R500k – R700k), Edoardo Villa’s Standing Figure (R30k – R50k), and William Kentridge’s Female on Podium, Shadow Quartet (2) from 2003 (R600k – R800k).

The Dylan Lewis work is one of seven works at the Evening Sale whose purchase supports Dassenberg Horse and Dog Rescue Centre on Touchwood Farm, a social programme that looks after and cares for abused and abandoned horses and dogs across Atlantis and Malmesbury. The other artists are Velaphi Mzimba, Blessing Ngobeni, Caryn Scrimgeour, Paul Sekete, Helmut Starke, and Vivien van der Merwe. Interested parties can learn more about the auction on the website.

The Mid-Century Modern auction

These landmark pieces at the Evening Sale are presented in conjunction with Strauss & Co’s Mid-Century Modern auction that explores the evolution of the 20th century modern aesthetic, from Art Nouveau in the late 1800s to Postmodernism in the 1970s. The Strauss & Co gallery’s September exhibition includes furniture and design objects from the Mid-Century Modern auction, curated by Marc-Anthony Hewson of LIM.

The trio of Mid-Century Modern auctions includes a live sale on Tuesday, 16 September 2026 at 7pm and two online sales running from 18 August to 16 September 2026.

Get involved today

From highly-valued works from some of South Africa’s women art pioneers to contemporary pieces from newer artists and physical fragments by beloved local sculptors, The Evening Sale presents fine art lovers the opportunity to acquire flagship pieces that could headline any enthusiast’s collection.

When: 15 September 2026, from 7pm (Live Virtual Auction | 19 August – 15 September 2026 (Timed Online Auction)
Where: Strauss & Co, 2nd Floor Brickfield Canvas, 35 Brickfield Road, Woodstock

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