With a low estimate of £2.8m for total sales, Sotheby’s first auction of Modern and contemporary African art on 16 May is due to smash the £1.6m hammer record, set by Bonhams a year ago.
The London auction is jam-packed with well-known names from across the continent and across generations, from Meschac Gaba and Nicholas Hlobo to Ablade Glover and William Kentridge. One of the most striking aspects is the variety of objects, media and styles on offer, including Modernist painting, drawing, photography, ceramic sculpture and found objects.
Equally noteworthy is the range of prices. The most expensive lot is a bottle-top hanging by the Ghanaian-born artist El Anatsui, which is expected to sell for between £650,000 and £850,000. The least expensive is a black-and-white photograph by the South African artist Roger Ballen of a dog sat beside a homeless man lying under a blanket (£1,000-£1,500; edition of 20).
“We have works by some big names starting at £5,000,” says Hannah O’Leary, Sotheby’s head of Modern and contemporary African art. “It’s where a lot of the market is right now, but it won’t stay that way for long.”
Indeed, art from the continent has never been more popular. The French luxury goods billionaire Bernard Arnault this week opened a three-part exhibition devoted to African art at his Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris (until 28 August). And in September the much anticipated Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Mocaa) is due to open in Cape Town.
Nonetheless, African artists still account for just 0.01% of the international art market, according to Sotheby’s. This is something O’Leary aims to rectify. “El Anatsui and William Kentridge are the only names that tend to come up in contemporary sales,” she says. “There’s a need to give a platform to more of these artists. Many are collected by institutions, but aren’t familiar on the auction circuit.”
First-timers at auction include the Congolese painter Eddy Ilunga Kamuanga and the Zimbabwean artist Virginia Chihota, while a number have appeared only a handful of times including Léonce Raphael Agbodjelou, Dawit Abebe and Boris Nzebo.
“People are always looking for something new in the contemporary art world. We want to expose these artists to new audiences, and the artists want the same thing,” O’Leary says.