HONG KONG.- On 12 and 13 July,
Poly Auction Hong Kong will present its first ever Modern and Contemporary Art Evening Sale and Day Sale to celebrate its first 10th Anniversary. The sales will offer an extraordinary selection of Western and Asian works, comprising of over 150 art masterpieces with unprecedented diversity. The two sales will have a combined total estimate of over HKD 300 million, establishing the highest Modern and Contemporary Art pre-sale estimate record in the auction house’s history. The sales will offer works of 20th Century Modern Art, and Eastern and Western Contemporary Art with a variety of museum-quality masterpieces, covering breath-taking works by iconic artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Wayne Thiebaud, Adrian Ghenie, Wu Guanzhong, Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun, Yayoi Kusama, Yoshitomo Nara, to name a few, offering collectors an exceptional opportunity to collect. To continue on the successful highlights previews in Hong Kong last month, Poly Auction Hong Kong’s Taipei Highlights Preview will be held between 18 and 19 June at Breeze Exhibition Centre in Taipei.
Jamie Yu, Head of Modern and Contemporary Art Department, Poly Auction Hong Kong, commented, “Over the past decade, we stand side-by-side with the Asian art market and have exhibited steady growth in performance. With the special occasion of 10th Anniversary Auctions, we are deeply honoured to present Day Sale and our very first Evening Sale, marking our highest pre-sale record with a total estimate of over HKD 300 million. Led by the western masterpieces Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled and Wayne Thiebaud’s Encased Cakes, the sales will offer an array of 20th to 21st Century important works from east to west, to further interpret the time transcending connotations in the crux of the modern and contemporary art scene, ushering Poly Auction Hong Kong into a new era.”
Western Contemporary Masterpieces
Poly Auction Hong Kong’s first Evening Sale will offer over 30 lots, including various western contemporary masterpieces. Led by Untitled executed in 1981, a masterpiece by Jean-Michel Basquiat, marking his signature visual symbols with the Black face and the three-pointed crown, and presenting Basquiat’s extraordinary and unique aesthetic sensibilities, this work remained unseen for more than 20 years.
Executed in 1984, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Logo perfectly reflects his later works’ exploration of the deconstruction and remodelling of advertisements, trademarks, symbols, comics, and texts. He creates a cigarette logo that will never be printed on a cigarette packet with the image of a Black man. In this playful logo, Basquiat uses childish humour to allude to the brutal system of Black slavery and the origins of the tobacco theme, as well as the reality of Black labour on the plantations of the American South. Basquiat gives the power of reading and information to Logo, unlocking a critical social reality with an honest and lyrical writing style, while unleashing his sense of responsibility for his own background.
The Evening Sale is further distinguished by Encased Cakes created from 2010 to 2011, a collection of the twists and turns of Wayne Thiebaud’s creative processes. The original mundane desserts are transformed into pairs of shapes, colours, light and perspective exploration. According to the public auction records, only two works featuring the window dessert cabinets of Wayne Thiebaud have ever been sold, one of which is presented in this auction, which is the record of the artist in that year. The other one is Bakery Counter, created in 1962. If we compare the two works, we can see the breakthrough in terms of the richness of colour, the delicacy of brushwork and the expression of texture. Encased Cakes can be said to be a masterpiece based on the composition of Bakery Counter, and then a collection of his lifelong painting achievements and style evolution. It can be regarded as a perfect conclusion and review of the artist’s creative process and a masterpiece of his career.
Another highlight to be offered at the Evening Sale is Lidless Eye by Adrian Ghenie. A young contemporary artist born after the 70s in Romania, Adrian Ghenie is a new generation of superstars in the art world. He is highly acclaimed at present and has been recognized both academically and in the collector’s market. Lidless Eye, created between 2016 and 2018, is Adrian Ghenie’s self-portrait and the largest self-portrait of the artist that has appeared in the Asia collector’s market to date. This is the most potent work demonstrating Ghenie’s artistic inspirations from Vincent Van Gogh, Francis Bacon, and then Gerhard Richter, which has been transformed into his own unique language. It is also the best expression of the artist’s grand ambition to create an era of painting that belongs to Ghenie in the footsteps of his predecessors. Throughout his career, Ghenie has learned from a series of influential figures from various periods and fields, exploring the collective memory of people through his paintings. Van Gogh was cast as the most profound influence on young Ghenie. The latter’s artistic career, from being unnoticed to becoming world-famous, can be mirrored Van Gogh’s life journey, which enables him to resonate more with the inner world of Van Gogh. This self-portrait, depicting Van Gogh in his later years, is an important work in which Ghenie communicates with art history and projects himself into the contemporary world.
20th Century Chinese Art
Modern and Contemporary Art Evening Sale also covers 20th century Chinese art, including works by Wu Guanzhong, Chu Teh-Chun, Zao Wou-Ki and many more. Emerged perfectly from Traditional Chinese and Western aesthetics, this stunning collection of works blooms with the glory of Chinese legendary art masters. Under the spotlight is Wu Guanzhong’s Warm Spring in the Mountain Village, painted in the spring of 1976. In the 1970s, Wu Guanzhong had several experiences of “going to the countryside”. Depictions of the landscape had expressed the emotions in the heart of the artist, therefore making the 1970s the most important period to inherit the past and usher in the future for his oil painting creations. Warm Spring in the Mountain Village is the best example of his depiction of rural mountain scenes.
In 2016, Chu Teh-Chun broke his auction record with Snowy Vertigo (1991-1999) and rose to become a multi-million-dollar artist. Since then, collectors have taken a greater interest in the works of the 1990s, which are rich in natural energy. Subtiles Nuées, created in 1991, is a work from the same period, with its large scale and silvery-grey backdrop evoking the touch of a snowstorm in the Alps in Swiss. The translucent colours at the junction of light and dark overlap, revealing the clear sky that is cleaned by the rains. “The colour of the Ru kiln should be just like the sky being washed after the rain” is used to describe the bluish and greenish colour used in this painting. Chu Teh-Chun not only creates an infinite space with various shades, renderings and brushstrokes, but also implies the Chinese view of nature and philosophical concepts of the vast universe and subtle life.
Created in two different periods, Zao Wou-Ki’s 23.6.66 and 6.11.7, feature powerful yet abstract brushstrokes, both masterworks perfectly reflect the art master’s inner self. 23.6.66 was created in the late 1960s, this piece of work not only possesses the majesty and literati spirit that is unique to his art works, but also carries his deep love for his beloved wife and his thoughts on life, presenting a lyrical beauty that strikes the soul.
Zao Wou-Ki’s oil paintings from 1971 to 1972 are relatively rare, and 6.11.72 was created during this period. The artist used the traditional ink painting techniques to control the oil paints, adding turpentine to make the oil more flexible and stretchable to create a more ethereal and elusive atmosphere on the canvas. 6.11.72 was an attempt by Zao Wou-Ki in the early 1970s to move beyond the figurative expression of landscape to a more profound expression of the abstract space, movement, rhythm, light and shadow that lie within it. With his mental image as a reference, he shapes an entirely abstract formal world, leaving the viewer with immense freedom of imagination.
Asia Contemporary Masterpieces
Asia contemporary art is led by some of the most sought-after names in the market, including Yayoi Kusama, Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami, Mr. Doodle and more, presenting visually striking works with signature symbols. Yayoi Kusama’sInfinity Nets (BSGK) is a reproduction of the concept of the “Infinity Nets” series of net patterns that began in 1959. Created in 2015, this is a series of hand-painted nets in red on a bright yellow background, with repeated and continuous movements, departing from the purely monolithic layering of fine nets to outline curves of varying degrees of density, filling up the space with recklessness and implying infinite vitality to expand freely in the painting. The complex creation techniques are the testimonies of the artist’s ability to deduce logic, and a testament to her more mature aesthetic expression.
Yoshitomo Nara’s Stars was created in 2012 and compiles many of his classic symbols into one story. The innocent-looking child embodies much symbolism with significance to life because the children that Nara creates are never just about cute appearances. Through these naive child-like images, the artist makes a call for social care, hoping to resonate with viewers and evoke more thoughts and exploration about invisible elements on a more complex and deeper level.
