Art lives through encounters – with a work, with an artist, with the past and with the future. Recent weeks have brought three events that show this idea in completely different forms: a major auction in Cape Town, an exhibition at London’s Barbican Centre, and a reflection on the role of perspective in shaping artistic experience.
Cape Town Auction – Tretchikoff and Stern in the Spotlight
Strauss & Co has announced a spectacular modern and contemporary art auction in Cape Town (16–18 September 2025). The catalogue features works that already electrify collectors.
The greatest attention is drawn to two icons of South African art: Vladimir Tretchikoff and Irma Stern. Tretchikoff’s Malay Girl, painted in his characteristic cool tones, is valued at 4–6 million rand. Stern presents Fishing Harbour, Algeciras (1958) – a work created during her travels in Europe, capturing Mediterranean port landscapes full of light and motion.
But the auction goes far beyond these two names. Works by Pierneef, Sekoto, and van Wouw will also be shown, as well as contemporary masters like William Kentridge, Pieter Hugo, and Mikhael Subotzky. For the first time, an entire auction will be dedicated to Andrew Verster – the Durban-based painter and activist whose art boldly combined creativity with social engagement.
Giacometti and Hatoum – Art as an Existential Dialogue
At the same time, London has opened the second part of the Encounters series, prepared together with the Fondation Giacometti. The exhibition Encounters: Giacometti x Mona Hatoum (3 September 2025 – 11 January 2026, Barbican Centre) pairs the classic sculptures of Alberto Giacometti with installations by one of the most important contemporary artists, Mona Hatoum.
Giacometti, known for his elongated, fragile figures, explored alienation and solitude. Hatoum, using installations and everyday objects, often addresses violence, trauma, and the loss of a sense of safety. Her works such as Remains of the Day or Orbital immerse viewers in a world where home and body are fragile shelters.
This encounter is not a simple confrontation of styles but a conversation across time. As Émilie Bouvard points out, the exhibition shows art as a spiritual and emotional meeting – a space where alienation and violence become starting points for reflection on the human condition.
Perspective as an Artistic Tool
Both the Cape Town auction and the Barbican exhibition highlight something essential: art does not exist in a vacuum. It creates perspectives that transform how we see history and the present.
The works of Tretchikoff and Stern transport us into the world of South African modernism – filled with color, travel, and local identity. Hatoum and Giacometti, in turn, provoke questions about human fragility in a world of violence and uncertainty. Each perspective resonates differently with the viewer – some seduce with aesthetics and collector’s value, others compel reflection and self-confrontation.
Art as Encounter
On the surface, these events have little in common – geography, form, context. Yet they share one unifying element: encounter. The Cape Town auction is a meeting of generations of artists and collectors, who in the works of Stern and Tretchikoff rediscover the region’s heritage. The Barbican exhibition is a dialogue across decades – between a contemporary artist and a modernist classic, telling stories of universal fears and hopes.
For the viewer, each of these events is a chance for their own encounter – with a painting, a sculpture, an installation. And perhaps this is the greatest power of art: its ability to create dialogue that does not end in the auction room or gallery but continues in our thoughts.
👉 And you – which perspective do you choose today: the explosion of color and history from Cape Town, or the existential questions of Hatoum and Giacometti?