{"id":764447,"date":"2026-06-27T09:53:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T09:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/764447\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T09:53:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T09:53:30","slug":"irma-sterns-malay-woman-sold-for-r5m-at-virtual-art-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/764447\/","title":{"rendered":"Irma Stern\u2019s \u2018Malay Woman\u2019 sold for R5m at virtual art sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Strauss & Co\u2019s June Spotlight Sale wrapped up with R12.7 million raised from 52 lots sold, with one very compelling portrait of a Cape Muslim woman bringing in the lion\u2019s share.<\/p>\n

The portrait in question was Irma Stern\u2019s \u2018Malay Woman<\/a>\u2019, painted in 1936 and estimated at between 3 and R5 million. It sold to a telephone bidder for R5,032,500, hitting the top of its estimate and walking away as the undisputed star of the sale.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many art aficionados describe the painting as a work that combines the quiet intensity of a Picasso Blue Period composition with Irma\u2019s distinctly South African eye.<\/p>\n

\"Irma
\nSupplied I Strauss & CoIrma Stern’s Malay Woman <\/p>\n

While Irma Stern topped the bill, the June Spotlight Sale had plenty more going on. Gerard Sekoto\u2019s Pensive Young Woman,<\/a> a tender early oil likely painted between 1939 and 1941, sold for R577,625.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maggie Laubser\u2019s Portrait of a Woman with Head Scarf<\/a> also found a buyer at R369,680.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cumulative efforts to enhance our digital systems and refine our client engagement continue to yield positive results, with new buyers accounting for a fifth of successful bidders,\u201d said Frank Kilbourn, Chairperson of Strauss & Co.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Gerard
\nSupplied I Strauss & CoGerard Sekoto\u2019s Pensive Young Woman <\/p>\n

The legacy behind the lot<\/p>\n

Irma Stern needs no introduction in South African art circles, but the scale of her market is worth pausing on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Born in 1894 to German-Jewish parents, she trained under Expressionist influences in Germany before returning to Cape Town. Critics initially savaged her work, and the public was largely baffled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She persisted. Decades later, Irma had exhibited at the Venice Biennale four times, won the Peggy Guggenheim International Art Prize, and sold work to Queen Elizabeth for her personal collection.<\/p>\n

By the time she died in 1966, the artist had cemented herself as one of Africa\u2019s defining modernists. The auction market has been making that point ever since.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her Arab Priest sold at Bonhams London in 2011 for around R34 million at the time, setting the global record for a South African painting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On home soil, her 1939 Zanzibar masterwork, Children Reading the Koran, achieved R22.3 million at Strauss & Co in 2023.<\/p>\n

Against that backdrop, R5 million for the Malay Woman looks like a bargain. It\u2019s also a reflection of how deep and sustained the appetite for her Cape portraits remains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Strauss & Co sold her Malay Girl (1938) for R11.7 million back in 2013. The market hasn\u2019t cooled since.<\/p>\n

A new home for Irma Stern\u2019s collection<\/p>\n

In October last year, the local art community was up in arms following the abrupt closure of the Irma Stern Museum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since then, the Norval Foundation unveiled \u2018Irma Stern: A Life of Displacement\u2019, a new exhibition of her works, which will run until 17 August 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Irma
\nPhotograph: Norval FoundationIrma Stern exhibit at Norval Foundation <\/p>\n

The exhibition is the first in a four-part series that will run over the next two years, while the Irma Stern Trust arranges a new permanent home for the works. <\/p>\n

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