The Gertrude Agranat Bequest to The Haenggi Foundation Inc.
Who was Gertrude Agranat?
Born in Vienna on 26th May, 1921, as Gertrude Feit; married to Barnes Agranat, Johannesburg 1944-1949; at first lived in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, admitted to the U.S.A. as immigrant, 1958; returned to Johannesburg 1963; lived in an apartment at Killarney, Johannesburg, until she passed away in 1989. During her younger years, she was an artist in her own right and exhibited at various times, such as in March, 1946 at the Gainsborough Galleries, Johannesburg, in August/September, 1949, at the Duncan Hall, Johannesburg (Jewish Art Exhibition).
Gertrude Agranat was an avid collector of fine arts, crafts and books - she regularly saw exhibitions at both the Goodman Gallery and Gallery 21 in Johannesburg, arranging beforehand to be collected. In spite of her very limited funds available, she managed to cover her apartment walls with a great number of fine art works, original graphics and paintings by South African and international artists. Her flat was filled with sculptures, ceramics and a great number of books on the fine arts, books on different crafts, design, carpets, antiques et al.
In terms of her Last Will, she left her whole collection of works of art, ceramics and books to The Haenggi Foundation Inc., Johannesburg, of which she had been a member over a number of years.
Lesser artworks and ceramics were then sold through Gallery 21 and net proceeds used to acquire two small sculptures by Lucas Sithole, which were donated by The Haenggi Foundation Inc. to the Johannesburg Art Gallery in her memory. All other suitable artworks were donated by The Haenggi Foundation Inc. to various museums in South Africa including the University of Fort Hare, Alice, as part of the PELMAMA PERMANENT ART COLLECTION. The fifty-one selected ceramics were donated to the Pretoria Art Museum as part of the Gertrude Agranat Bequest. Part of her book collection was donated to the Johannesburg Public Library during 1989 and to the Oliewenhuis Art Museum Bloemfontein in 2006 and 2009.
To see a short list of artists represented in Gertrude Agranat's original private collection - artists marked with an (*) - please go to http://www.pelmama.org/PELMAMA_AlphabeticalList-allArtists.htm.
Some of the works from her bequest are reproduced on this website, images of others may be requested from The Haenggi Foundation's office in Basel, or from the museums directly. Included is a selection of works by the following artists:
This page last updated 13th December, 2015