HONG KONG.- Phillips will present highlights from Disruptors, Evening Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, Design and Watches. Curated in partnership with Blackbird founder TK Mak, the sale is a celebration of creators who have bucked the status quo and changed the course of art and design culture and history. Taking place at 6:30 pm HKT on 25 May, the Evening Sale features over 60 lots of exceptional works of art, design and watches, ranging from paintings and sculptures by sought-after artists such as Yayoi Kusama, Anish Kapoor, Nicolas Party, Takashi Murakami and KAWS, as well as important pieces by iconic designers including Ron Arad, Gio Ponti and Hans J. Wegner. Speaking to his cross-disciplinary interests as a collector, TK Mak has also curated a noteworthy mixture of timepieces to be offered in this sale, most notably by the world's most established watchmakers such as Patek Philippe, Rolex, and Cartier. All works from the sale will be on view at Phillips’ Hong Kong galleries in the West Kowloon Cultural District from 18-25 May.
Anastasia Salnikoff, Head of Mid-Season Sales, Phillips Hong Kong said, “After two highly successful sold-out collaborations, we are delighted to partner with Blackbird and its founder TK Mak for the third and final time with this exciting multi-category offering. This sale is a testament to the incredible range and diversity of contemporary creativity, highlighting works by zeitgeist-defining visionaries whom have left their mark in their respective fields of art, design, and watches, etching their names into modern history. Phillips Asia has organised well recognised cross-category sales and we are excited to partner with Blackbird and TK to explore and develop new dialogues around collectibles. We look forward to welcoming the international community of collectors to the preview and auction in our new space and saleroom in West Kowloon.”
TK Mak, Founder of Blackbird said: “It is with great pleasure that we present Disruptors, the finale of our three-part collaborative project with the highly regarded team of specialists at Phillips at their incredible new premises at the West Kowloon Cultural District. In this offering, we have finally been able to curate a sale that I believe represents the true modern and contemporary cross-category collector. At Blackbird, we have strived to set new standards and unapologetically redefine the status quo - every single artist or designer or watchmaker represented in this offering has pursued their craft just as we have done. It is truly a privilege to be able to offer this unique, one-of-a-kind selection representing the best of contemporary art, design objects and timepieces together to celebrate a retrospective of disruptors past and present.”
Among the highlights of the cross-category sale is Nicolas Party’s Trees, 2014, which comes to the auction market for the first time. As one of the largest paintings by the artist to come to the market in the past couple of years, the work featured in Party’s seminal solo show L’heure mauve (Mauve Twilight) at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2022, and the artist’s solo exhibition titled Trunks and Faces at Münster in Germany in 2014. A classically trained painter, Party has grounded nearly his entire oeuvre in rendering established aesthetic motifs of still life, portraiture, and landscape. The present work exudes a brilliant palette of blazing crimson red trees set against an ethereal royal blue background. It exquisitely illustrates the timeless appeal of Party’s surreal landscapes, one of the artist’s most iconic series.
Another highlight of the sale is COMPANION, an instantly recognisable major work by KAWS, one of the most forward-looking artists of our present age. Since their inception in 1999, COMPANION works have come to be recognised as among the artist’s most prized motifs. Recreated in fiberglass at a monumental scale, standing at over 2 metres tall, this large-scale version of the KAWS COMPANION is both rare to auction and from an exclusive series of only three. Another edition of the present work was exhibited at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2013-2014.
With its glossy, shining sliver surface, renowned British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor’s fresh-to-market Non Object (Mirror), offered in the sale seduces the viewer into irresistibly hypnotising realms. Kapoor commenced his elegant and eloquent series of concave mirrors in the mid-1990s, and rapidly gained international recognition henceforth. With a diameter of 180 cm. and a surface of polished stainless steel, the present work is the same colour as the majority of Kapoor’s top ten mirrored pieces sold at auction, and was presented at the Royal Academy of Arts in London during Kapoor’s important solo show there in 2009.
Other highlights include Yayoi Kusama’s I Who Sing in Celebration of Humanity, which contains all of Kusama’s signature motifs tracing to the beginning of her career: pumpkins, hearts, faces, disembodied eyes, etc. Prominently exhibited internationally in London and Brisbane, the present work is a pioneering work of Yayoi Kusama’s large scale colourful square canvas series named My Eternal Soul which began in 2009, the same year the present work was executed.
The Evening Sale also brings together rare and important works of 20th and 21st Century design from designers and manufacturers who stylistically defined the international design landscape. Among the highlights of the sale is Ron Arad’s 'Big Easy Volume 2' armchair, made with polished stainless steel and patinated mild steel, creating fascinating light and colour. Arad’s work and career is characterised by his movement between modes and constant experimentation. Born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1951, the artist began his practice in London in the early 1980s and focused on limited edition objects. A persistent theme throughout his work is innovation and the idea of the "new." Arad also continually experiments with materials and has an exceptional skill to coax volume and undulation out of them, with a particular affinity for metal.
Leading the watch section is Patek Philippe reference 5207P-001 cased in platinum, which is now discontinued, making this highly complex wristwatch extremely desirable, and only 15 examples have surfaced on the market so far. Released in 2008, reference 5207 was at the time of its launch the top three most complicated wristwatches Patek Philippe ever produced. The reference features a minute repeater and a tourbillon with an instantaneous perpetual calendar with leap year, day/night indication and moon phases all in a 41mm diameter case, which is simply stunning and a jewel among any Patek Philippe collection.
Another highlight is a vintage Rolex Cosmograph Daytona reference 6241. The reference 6241 was launched in 1965 and remained in production for only four years until 1969. Produced during the last two years of the production run, as indicated by its serial number and fitted cal. 722-1, the present reference 6241 cased in 18K yellow gold is complimented by a stunning champagne dial contrasted against the striking black subdials, and features the Daytona signature sitting above the hour totalizer curve which further enhances its rarity.
Also among the sale is a dazzling Cartier Crash from 2010 which exudes an element of glamour and sophistication. A swanky icon from the swinging sixties, the Cartier Crash is arguably one of the most disruptive designs in the horological world since its debut in 1967. Very rarely do watches of such beauty appear on the market, this gorgeously preserved timepiece not only possesses the sinuous curves of the iconic model, but is also framed in a white gold and diamond set case that is destined to turn heads.
