Art for South Africa: The Mimi Coertse Collection

Daily Maverick

16-07-2025

Mimi Coertse, famed opera singer, is universally known as 'The Voice for South Africa', a title she earned in the 1950s, 60s and 70s when she indefatigably sang the most famous soprano roles on international opera house stages, defying the global cultural boycott against South Africa at the time. Few know that she was also an avid art collector. Her voice exemplified the misfortunes of many well-known female roles in the best-loved operas: the perturbation of Lucia; the despair of Norma; the sorrow of Konstanze; the dirge of Violetta.
All these and many more captured audiences all over the world. She sang in no fewer than 29 operas in her lifetime, on world stages in Austria – her favourite, the Viennese Opera House – Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Spain, England, France, Hungary and the United States.
Small wonder that Mimi's taste in art reflects a proclivity for women artists: Cecil Higgs, Irma Stern, Maud Sumner, and Marjorie Wallace, certainly her favourites. The Sumner, the jewel in the crown of her art collection, dating from the artist's most fruitful sojourn in Paris in the 1930s, 40s, and early 50s, depicts Sumner's typical subject matter of the time: intimate interiors with a model surrounded by an abundant flower still-life on the table in front of her. Other notables in the Mimi Coertse collection include such artists as Walter Battiss, Carl Büchner, W.H. Coetzer, and Maurice van Essche.
After Mimi's permanent return to South Africa in the 1970s, her 'Voice' contributed in a significant way to the building of a new South Africa. She knew Nelson Mandela well and was honoured by the ANC. Even though her music room in Waterkloof, Pretoria was burned down by cowardly white racists, she initiated various projects that promoted opportunities especially for singers of other races in the country. Her involvement with Afrikaans literature is also legendary. A true icon with an iconic art collection.
A true icon with an iconic art collection, Mimi Coertse's legacy continues to resonate across the arts. The upcoming sale of her collection forms part of a larger celebration of South African creativity and is preceded by Contemporary South African Ceramics: New Perspectives, an auction that spotlights innovation and craftsmanship in the country's rich ceramic traditions. DM
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