Warren Siebrits & The Art of Collecting

Warren Siebrits is a prominent South African art collector, historian, curator, and art dealer who has worked in the art industry his entire career, spanning more than 35 years.
As a young adult, Siebrits fostered a passion for art and music, and in 1989 at just 20 he began working for the legendary South African art auctioneer Stephan Welz at Sotheby’s/ Stephan Welz and Co, Rosebank, Johannesburg. Siebrits worked in the painting and book department, where he learned to value both art and books. He held his position there for three years, during which he absorbed as much as he could from some of the most experienced art world professionals of the time. He also found that he had a natural affinity for the work, helped along by his own enthusiasm for South African art and his uncanny ability to understand historical context. Having always been an avid music lover and collector of vinyl records, Siebrits now began to add art to his collecting practice, purchasing his first silkscreen by William Kentridge for R100 in 1990.
Siebrits had entered the art world and was now rubbing shoulders not only with those involved in the tertiary art market but also with contemporary artists and gallerists in Johannesburg. In 1992, he left the auction business and began working for Everard Read Contemporary in Rosebank, where he promoted the work of contemporary artists such as Simon Stone, Belinda Blignaut, Wayne Barker, Steven Cohen and Kendell Geers. Siebrits worked there for the following three years, establishing himself as a knowledgeable and passionate art expert.
His next career move saw him shift into the role of independent art advisor, shaping the extensive Gencor Collection (1995-2000), which, at the time, consisted of 800 works, including 100 by William Kentridge. Siebrits was also instrumental in assembling the Gauteng Legislator collection, consisting of more than 400 works of South African contemporary art and craft.
The period from 1995 to 2001 saw Siebrits dabble in various projects. He worked as an independent art advisor to a number of large corporate and government collections around the country including the Sandton Convention Centre. He also established the “cult” shopfront display, Galerie Metroplex, in Rosebank, showing works by Wopko Jensma, Robert Ryman, Andy Warhol, Jeff Mills, William Kentridge and Sandile Zulu. In 1997 Siebrits curated the seminal exhibition Confluence which took place at the Sandton Civic Gallery and included influential modern and contemporary South African artists such as George Pemba, John Maufangejo, Fred Page, Willem Boshoff, Kendall Geers, Gladys Mgundlandlu amongst others.
In 2001, Siebrits collaborated on the exhibition titled Aspects of South African Art 1903-1999 with fellow art dealer Johans Borman. The exhibition held at the now-defunct Sandton Civic Gallery was accompanied by a publication of the same name. This was the first time that Siebrits was able to write and publish a book of his own. As an art dealer, gallerist and art historian who acquired the bulk of his own professional knowledge through access to published material in books, publishing was something that would become a very important part of his work.
In 2002, Siebrits opened Warren Siebrits Modern and Contemporary Art, a commercial art gallery situated on Jan Smuts Avenue in Johannesburg. During the gallery’s lifetime, Siebrits and Lunetta Bartz (his wife and partner) hosted 51 exhibitions and published 32 related books. Besides being a space where Siebrits could showcase the many works of modern and contemporary South African art that he passionately collected in his pursuit to better understand the South African context, Warren Siebrits Modern and Contemporary Art was also home to some of South Africa’s most exciting and influential artists at the time. They worked with artists such as Gerard Marx, Jo Ractliffe, Alfred Thoba, Jonah Sack, Sabelo Mlangeni, Stefanus Rademeyer, Konrad Welz and Santu Mofokeng. It was a perfect confluence of elements, and Siebrits and his team worked tirelessly until the gallery’s closure in 2009.
The gallery may have closed, but this did not see Siebrits resting on his laurels. In the years after its closure, Siebrits has continued to work as an art dealer and art historian. From 2012 to 2019, Siebrits published weekly email newsletters relating to South African art, music and politics under the name Warren Siebrits and the Art of Collecting. In 2016, he curated the retrospective exhibition of South African modernist painter and print-maker Walter Battiss, Walter Battiss: ‘I Invented Myself’, which first opened at the Wits Art Museum (WAM), and would later travel to the Rupert Museum, Stellenbosch (February – May 2018).
In 2019, Siebrits was invited to compile a catalogue raisonné of William Kentridge Prints and Posters. This project, which is ongoing, has resulted in the publication of two of the five volumes of the Prints and Posters Catalogue Raisonné, volume one in 2022 and volume two in 2026, as well as three related smaller books: William Kentridge: Domestic Scenes (2022), William Kentridge: Carlton Centre Games Arcade (2025) and William Kentridge: Muizenberg (2025). The catalogue raisonné project is ongoing with the final number of volumes estimated at five.