Fibre & Form – Celebrating Africa’s Vibrant Woven Traditions

In recent years, African material culture has been rediscovered for its extraordinary skill, symbolic depth, and aesthetic refinement. What was once undervalued or narrowly categorised is now recognised as a field of genuine conceptual sophistication. A convergence of scholarship, connoisseurship, and market interest has brought new visibility to fibre-based and traditional sculptural practices, fuelling demand for works that embody centuries of accumulated knowledge, technique, and meaning.

A strong contemporary thread runs throughout the sale, rooted in long-standing tradition. Works from Frances van Hasselt Studio, including the significant piece Radio Sonder Grense, continue the momentum of last year, offering hand-woven compositions that quietly explore landscape, materiality, and ecological attention. Leila Walter’s natural-fibre works bring a contemplative sensitivity, using texture and restraint to evoke states of interior and environmental stillness.

Contemporary textile practice is further represented by Sett & Beat, whose large-scale Children of the Same Sun echoes traditional West African strip-weaves while advancing a socially engaged approach to fibre. Through the inclusion of works from Mogalakwena Craft Art Development Foundation, Tintsaba and Mapula we recognise the contribution of rural initiatives to the fibre arts of Southern Africa. Amy Rusch’s works in synthetic materials offer pointed commentary on waste and evoke geological time, inviting viewers into a slowed, reflective encounter. Patrick Bongoy’s sculptural forms in recycled rubber extend the conversation into environmental materiality.

Selective historic textiles offer a vital counterpoint and illuminate the deep sources that continue to inspire contemporary makers. A focused group of Mbuti barkcloth, Kubavelvets, and Ewe prestige cloths appears not as an ethnographic survey but as a set of works whose abstraction, geometry, and surface intelligence remain profoundly influential.

Fibre links to Form through finely crafted personal objects, including nineteenth-century wirework on Zulu snuff gourds and a Zulu wire-bound prestige club. The category is further represented by a rare nineteenth-century figurative pipe, bone snuff spoons, prestige staffs, and other notable carved works. Of particular importance are the published Zulu headrests from the Bruce Goodall Collection, admired for their sculptural balance and architectural clarity.

The sale also includes contemporary fibre spanning to form sculptural contributions, including Walter Oltmann’s evocative work, Ferox, and a nature inspire couch from the Casamento studio.

 

Woven Legacies: Fibre & Form 2026 positions Africa’s fibre artists and makers as leading voices in contemporary material culture, affirming that textile and tactile expression -whether woven, embroidered, coiled, carved, or sculpted -remains one of the most dynamic and innovative fields in African art today.

On view at Strauss & Co in Cape Town and online.  The auction closes at one-minute intervals from 2pm on 24 February 2026.