Sotheby's Hong Kong to Stage Contemporary Asian Art Spring Sale on April 6th

Written by rubin Tuesday, 10 March 2009 01:27

HONG KONG - On 6th April 2009, Sotheby's Hong Kong will stage the Contemporary Asian Art Spring Sale at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Highlighting this sale is a sophisticated selection of seminal contemporary creations that underscore the exceptional artistic expressions by prominent Chinese, Japanese and Korean artists. Over 155 works will be offered and the sale is expected to achieve in excess of HK$61 million. Of particular note, Sotheby’s Hong Kong will present for the first time a remarkable array of contemporary Hong Kong artworks, bringing Hong Kong’s dynamic art scene to the international stage.

Evelyn Lin, Sotheby’s Head of Contemporary Asian Art Department, said, “By bringing together a fine selection of high-quality works of great breadth, depth and creativity, this season’s sale will broaden the horizons of avid art collectors and connoisseurs. Amongst the highlights are exhilarating conceptual works, installations, and three-dimensional art by internationally acclaimed artists from Asia, all injecting new vigor into the market.”

CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE ART
Pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) (est. HK$1.5-2million); one of the greatest living contemporary Japanese artist, attracts the limelight in this season’s sale. Many of Kusama’s creations over the last thirty years are covered in the hallucinatory dots that have obscured her vision and mind since childhood. One of them deserving special mention is a mirror room filled with life-size pumpkin sculptures, a successful project for which she was chosen to represent Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1993. Since then, the pumpkin has become a form of ‘alter-ego’ of herself.

Created in 2007, the present work Pumpkin carries a bright yellow skin covered with an intricate pattern of black polka dots, easily capturing the imagination of anyone who casts its eyes upon it. Pumpkin is a prime example of the artist’s work and succeeds in projecting her obsession with repetition, pattern and accumulation. The current work is one of a limited series of seventeen pumpkin sculptures produced by the artist, each unique in colour and dotted pattern.

Yoshitomo Nara (b.1959)’s Peace (est. HK$700,000-900,000) is another highlight of the Japanese section. Like many of Nara’s creations, here a lone child figure is represented by a simple but disproportionate portrait. In Peace, the subject has an overwhelmingly large head with the rest of her body abbreviated. This imparts an innocuous air to the child, cumulating in a cuteness that is thoroughly infectious. Nara suggests in this work how a grown-up might learn from these children in tackling the onslaughts of the harsh reality by being innocent yet unruly, vulnerable yet fearless.

CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ART
This season’s sale will feature a series of captivating conceptual art works, highlighted by Sixty-Year Cycle Chariot by Huang Yongping (b. 1954) (est. HK$1-1.5 million). Huang is a leading artist in the New Wave Art Movement that flourished in China in the mid-1980s. He has since produced ambitious works that challenge the established belief of the art world, the individual and society itself.

Zeng Fanzhi (b. 1964)’s Mask Series has become one of the most powerful and expressive signature motifs that populate contemporary Chinese art. The masked figures represent the artist's creative energies for an eight-year period since 1994. Featured in this sale is one of the finest examples by Zeng created in the mid-period of this series. Completed in 1998, the present Mask Series (est. HK$2-3 million) boasts a rare composition among single-figure Masks, depicting a man holding a rose and gazing at the viewer, thereby transforming the masked man into a valentine. It attempts to depict the perception of love amongst urbanites and encapsulate the urbanization of China during the 1990’s.

Also on offer are Table with Three Legs by Ai Weiwei (b. 1957) (est. HK$500,000-600,000) and Un-interrupted Voice by Chen Zhen (1955-2000) (est. HK$450,000-500,000).

CONTEMPORARY HONG KONG ART
Sotheby's Hong Kong will offer a collection of contemporary Hong Kong artworks for the first time. Of outstanding quality, the art is homage to the distinguished artists from the city. This is the first time any auction house has ever presented a series dedicated to Hong Kong art in a contemporary art sale. The section will showcase the diversity of media and methods which Hong Kong artists employ, as well as how Hong Kong art leaves a unique and original mark on the metropolis.

Chow Chun Fai (b. 1980) is one of the most illustrious young artists in Hong Kong. Frequently set in Hong Kong, his works depict the myriad segments of urban landscape and capture many neglected parts of our daily life from a different perspective. Little Cheung, “This is Kowloon City” (est. HK$40,000-60,000) is a fine example of his acclaimed Painting on Movie Series.

KOREAN ART
Leading the Korean section in the sale is Watching Buddha by Nam June Paik (1932-2006) (est. HK$800,000–1.2 million). Paik began his artistic journey with music. The random quality of television soundtracks initially appealed to him and precipitated his foray into video art. Over the following three decades, he was to pioneer new uses of television technology as an art form, earning himself the title of ‘father of video art’.

Control by Gwon Osang (b. 1974) (est. HK$250,000-350,000; pictured on p.6) is from Gwon’s Deodorant Type series, for which he creates life-size sculptural forms from hundreds of photographic fragments. Control, a superb “photography sculpture”, expresses Gwon's viewpoint on how today’s force-fed consumer culture affects us. Nowadays, our identities are often not decided by ourselves, but affected by the way we are modelled and fashioned under the influence of the consumer brands. Through this work, the artist questions and criticizes the consumer culture of the 21st century that controls our identity more than we do.

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