798 District Blog

HONG KONG— Yesterday’s “Fine Chinese Paintings” auction at Sotheby’s proved once again that traditional painting holds the strongest sway over the imagination of Chinese art connoisseurs — and over the Chinese market. While sales results in other sectors, such as contemporary and modern Chinese art, have been uneven this season, the results for Chinese painting at this auction were so impressive that works reaching merely their highest estimate seemed to be failures. Lot after lot, the hammer fell on prices that were multiples of the high estimate.

The star painting of the day — Fu Baoshi’s “Court Ladies” (1945) — was hammered down for HK$29 million ($3.7 million), three times its high estimate of HK$7 million. Ninety one percent of the lots today were sold above the high estimate, and only three out of 270 works on offer were unable to find buyers. All of this added up to the best result ever achieved by Sotheby’s for a various owners sale of fine Chinese paintings, with a total haul (including buyer’s premium) of HK$407 million ($52 million)

The sale also installed five particular artists at the top of the market for traditional painting: Fu Baoshi, Qi Baishi, Wu Guanzhong, Xu Beihong, and Zhang Daqian. Of these five, four were represented in the auction’s top ten lots.

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LONDON (AP).- The Tate Britain museum is to exhibit works being considered for this year’s Turner Prize.

Four artists are competing for Britain’s best known contemporary art prize, which in the past has often been controversial.

The exhibit will open Tuesday, with the winner to be announced at the museum in early December.

The four artists on the shortlist include painter Dexter Dalwood, painter and sculptor Angela de la Cruz, sound artist Susan Philipsz, and the artist-led collective The Otolith Group.

The competition is open to artists under 50 who were born, living or working in Britain. It carries a 25,000 pound ($39,600) prize.

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ROME – Imagine being so close to Botticelli’s Venus that you can see the strands of her blond hair, the shades of pink in her cheeks, the cracks in the centuries-old paint.

That sensation is now just a click away.

This week, an Italian company put online high-resolution images of “The Birth of Venus” and five other masterpieces from the Uffizi gallery in Florence, including works by Caravaggio and Leonardo da Vinci.

By zooming in with the click of a mouse, the smallest details can appear — even ones that aren’t typically visible when viewing artworks at the distances required by museums for security.

Mario Resca, a Culture Ministry official who worked on the project, says it’s like looking at a painting “with a giant magnifying glass.”

In Caravaggio’s “Bacchus,” for example, the trace of a tiny self-portrait that the artist painted in the wine jug becomes detectable, as do the wine bubbles on the rim of the jug. In Leonardo’s “Annunciation” computer users can see the brush strokes in the maritime background and the delicate patterns of the cloth underneath the Bible.

HONG KONG—Next Monday the fall auction season begins in China with a jam-packed day of sales in Hong Kong. Sotheby’s will begin the market event in the morning with modern and contemporary Southeast Asian paintings, but most collectors will be focused on the afternoon sales, when Sotheby’s and Seoul Auctions will both offer highly-anticipated lots of recent Asian and Western art.

Hitting the block at Sotheby’s will be 20th-century Chinese art, a sector which consistently attracts spirited attention from Chinese mainland collectors and which provided the star lot in Christie’s spring auctions in Hong Kong, when Chen Yifei’s “String Quartet” sold for a new auction record of HK$7.85 million (US$1.01 million). The auction house’s slate this fall is particularly strong. Headlined by Sanyu’s gorgeous painting “Pink Nude on Floral Sheet” (HK$12–18 million or $1.5–2.3 million), the sale also includes masterworks by members of China’s “School of Paris,” including Zao Wou-ki and Chu Teh-chun, as well as an important 1970s work by the late great Wu Guanzhong, “A Mountain Village in the North,” that is estimated at HK$5–7 million ($644-902,000).

The Seoul Auctions afternoon sale — which opens a scant hour after Sotheby’s — covers modern and contemporary art from Asia and the West. The respected Korean auctioneers have pioneered the sale of Western art in Hong Kong and this event, with a total estimated value of HK$100 million ($12.9 million), takes their efforts to a new level with the inclusion of a beautiful late-period Marc Chagall titled “Bestiare et Musique” (1969), which is making its auction debut, carrying a HK$31.2 million ($4.0 million) estimate. This is seen as something of a litmus test for the development of the Chinese market, where collectors have almost exclusively focused on Chinese art as dealers and auction houses continue to hope that the region embraces Western art with the enthusiasm that marked Japan’s entry into this market in the 1970s.

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LONDON.- A collection of drawings, pastels and ceramics by the French poet, filmmaker, playwright and novelist, Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), brought together by the late business tycoon and founder of Gucci timepieces, Severin Wunderman (1939-2008), made a remarkable £430,000 today (23 September) at Bonhams, Knightsbridge, with 90% sold by value.

Just an hour earlier, a selection of prints, ceramics and silver by the artistic master of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso, fetched a total of £220,812, with 85% sold by value.

Cocteau met Picasso in 1915 and the pair remained close friends for nearly 50 years. Their artistic relationship can be characterised by two comments: according to Arnaud, Picasso was “forever at the heart of Cocteau’s creative pantheon”, while Picasso was once heard to comment that “Cocteau is the tail of my comet.”

Highlights of the Picasso sale were two silver plates that he designed in the mid 1950s. Joueur de flute et Cavalier fetched £21,600 (estimate £10,000 – 15,000) and Dormeur sold for £19,200 (estimate £10,000 – 15,000). The highest selling ceramic was a platter entitled Tête de chèvre de profil (£12,000) and the top selling print was Le Cavalier (£6,240).

The best-seller in the Cocteau sale was Jeune Fille de Milly, 1951, which was painted at the house Cocteau bought with Jean Marais in Milly-la-Foret in 1947. It sold for £48,000 against a pre-sale estimate of £8,000 – 12,000.

Top prices were also paid for Les Gémeaux, which made £15,600 (estimate £7,000 – 10,000); Le Clown au Chapeau Rouge, which sold for £14,400 (estimate £5,000 – 7,000); and Portrait of Pablo Picasso, which made £10,800.
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LONDON.- Christie’s announce an exciting series of public exhibitions, events and auctions from 10 October to 18 October in London coinciding with the Frieze Art Fair. The week will be highlighted by the Post-War & Contemporary Evening Auction and The Italian Sale on 14 October at 6.30pm, which will offer 51 and 45 lots accordingly and which will include an extremely strong section of photography, and the most important work by Damien Hirst to be offered at auction since September 2008 (estimate: £2.5 million to £3.5 million).

Francis Outred, Head of Post-War & Contemporary art, Christie’s Europe : “Every year in October in London, the Frieze art fair gathers art lovers from around the world for one of the most enthusiastic and vibrant celebrations of Contemporary art. This year we will be opening our salerooms and presenting one of our busiest and most accessible ever weeks of events, public exhibitions and sales; from the evening auction of Post-War & Contemporary art and Italian art, to highlights from the forthcoming season of sales in New York and the ‘Multiplied’ print fair hosted at South Kensington, there will be art to see, admire and buy from under £100 to over £3 million.”

POST-WAR & CONTEMPORARY EVENING AUCTION
Exhibition: 10 to 14 October
Auction: 14 October at 6.30pm
The highlight of the week, the Post-War &Contemporary Evening Auction will offer 51 lots with a combined estimate of £15,950,000 to £22,710,000. The auction is led by I am become death, shatterer of worlds, the largest sized butterfly painting to have been executed by Damien Hirst (b.1965). The most important work by the artist to be offered at auction since Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, the artist’s solo auction in London in September 2008, it is expected to realise £2.5 million to £3.5 million. Over 5 metres wide, the title reflects the words uttered by J. Robert Oppenheimer following the detonation of the Atomic bomb.

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PARIS - Future historians may retain the 25th Paris Biennale, which closes its doors at the Grand Palais on Sept. 22, as a watershed in the history of Western culture.

This gigantic show put up by 80 galleries from Europe and America mirrors better than any event on the world scene our new approach to art.

Perception is changing. Interest in subtle nuances is receding as our attention span shortens. Awareness of this trend probably accounts for the recent art trade emphasis on clarity and monumentality and the striking progression of 20th-century modernity.

Visitors stepping into the Rond Point, the focal center of the Biennale show, will be unable to ignore the display on the stand of Marlborough, whatever their personal interests. Three gigantic works are visible from afar. On one wall, “Three Studies in the Human Body,” an enormous triptych painted by Francis Bacon in 1970, seems to echo the nightmares that still haunted Europe a quarter of a century after World War II and its extermination camps.

Across the stand, another huge painting greets, or rather hits, the eye. Done in 1958 by Georges Mathieu, the abstract composition is enigmatically titled “Hugues de Payens fonde le temple.” Spiky dashes of black color spurt across the red ground. An even larger painting by Andy Warhol, “Double Hamburger” - 294.6 by 614.7 centimeters, or 116 by 242 inches - covers the back wall. Done in the American artist’s spoofy manner inspired by his early career in advertising, big block letters run between two hamburgers cursorily dashed off.

With Marlborough’s appearance in the Biennale, the art of the later 20th century spectacularly breaks into what remained until recently the preserve of French artistic traditionalism.

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WASHINGTON, DC.- The bizarre yet scientifically accurate composite heads painted by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526-1593) will be exhibited together for the first time in the United States, at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from September 19, 2010 through January 9, 2011. Arcimboldo, 1526-1593: Nature and Fantasy includes 16 of the most spectacular of these paintings of heads composed of plants, animals, and other objects. They are joined by 32 additional works, such as drawings by Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Durer, small bronzes, illustrated books and manuscripts, and ceramics, to provide a context for Arcimboldo’s inventions, revealing his debt to established traditions of physiognomic and nature studies.

Arcimboldo, 1526-1593: Nature and Fantasy was selected in part from a larger exhibition held at the Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, in 2008. After Washington, the exhibition will be on view at the Palazzo Reale, Milan-Arcimboldo’s birthplace-from February 27 through May 8, 2011.

“From his own time as a court painter in 16th-century Prague and Vienna to his rediscovery by 20th-century surrealists, Arcimboldo has been famous for these extraordinary heads,” said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. “The Gallery is honored to be the only institution in the United States to host this exhibition and we are thankful to the many lenders, both public and private.”

Painted singly or in a series, the heads are composed of imaginative combinations of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and other objects appropriate to the themes Arcimboldo depicted, such as the Four Seasons and the Four Elements (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water). Highlights of Arcimboldo, 1526-1593: Nature and Fantasy include the complete series of paintings of the Four Seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter) from the Louvre, two Seasons and two Elements from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, as well as heads portraying various professions constructed from materials that signify those occupations. Also featured are several of the artist’s so-called “reversible” paintings, such as The Vegetable Gardener (c. 1590), where a bowl of vegetables turned upside-down becomes the image of a gardener. In the exhibition space, mirrors are installed beneath these paintings so that visitors can experience the Arcimboldo effect.

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LONDON.- Following the resounding successes achieved in the field of Islamic Art at Sotheby’s, the company’s forthcoming biannual Arts of the Islamic Works Sale in London, which presents more than 400 lots, on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 will be the company’s strongest ever staged. The auction contains a fine selection of rare objects, including weaponry, textiles, metalwork and manuscripts, ceramics, and paintings, which encompass a wide range of periods, spanning the 7th century through to the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The sale is expected to realise in excess of £10 million.

Commenting on the forthcoming series of Islamic Art sales, Edward Gibbs, Senior Director and Head of the Middle East Department at Sotheby’s, said: “The market for Islamic Art continues to grow in strength and with each sales season Sotheby’s has established new records and benchmarks in several different areas of the Islamic field. Innovative and leading museums, such as the Museum of Islamic Arts in Qatar, have played a significant role in the increased global awareness and strength of this area of the art market. We very much look forward to showcasing in Doha, from September 20th to the 21st, a selection of remarkable objects which highlight Sotheby’s forthcoming Islamic Art Sales in London.”

In the wake of the record-breaking success achieved by Sotheby’s in both London and Doha for Safavid textiles, the forthcoming auction will present for sale the “Karlsruhe” Safavid Niche Rug from Central Persia (above). This rug, which dates from the second half of the 16th century, is one of a very important group of Safavid Persian niche rugs previously referred to as the ‘Topkapi’ or ‘Salting’ rugs, named after a carpet bequeathed to the Victoria & Albert Museum by George Salting upon his death in 1909. Revered by early scholars such as A. U. Pope, F.R. Martin, F. Sarre, E. Kühnel, W. von Bode and G. Migeon they are considered superb examples of Safavid court workmanship. When these rugs first appeared on the market in the early 20th century they were purchased by renowned collectors with several of them now in institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Carpet Museum in Tehran. Safavid prayer rugs such as the example offered here rarely appear on the market and this fine example is estimated at £1-1.5 million.

A further highlight is an exceptionally rare and important Ear-Dagger, from 15th century Nasrid Spain. Ear daggers are considered the most important contribution to the Nasrid panoply of arms and armour. Ear Daggers probably originate from North Africa and were widely used in Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries, before being introduced to Christian Europe. Daggers of this type were once extremely fashionable among great nobles, and there exists a portrait of the young King Edward VI of England, now in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, clutching an Ear Dagger at his waist. Deriving its name from the striking design of the hilt pommel, the Ear Dagger (dague à oreilles in French and alla Levantina in Italian) comprises two flattened discs which resemble ears, issuing from either side of the grip and which show Arabic and Latin inscriptions. The damascening around the forte of the blade in the present example comprises the figure of a man with a crossbow in chase of numerous animals including a lion. There exists the possibility that the lion as quarry depicted in the damascened decoration is a metaphor for Castile-Leon, the Christian neighbours of the Nasrids. Leon (lion) united with Castile (castle) in 1037 AD. Castile- Leon became the most extensive of the Christian Kingdoms in Spain, taking a leading part in the conquest of the Muslim south. Only a handful of comparable examples of the dagger exist, and all in museum collections. The dagger is estimated at £600,000-800,000.

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NEW YORK, NY.- The first exhibition in the United States to present a comprehensive overview of the development of woodcut prints in China over the last 70 years will be on view at China Institute Gallery from September 16 through December 5, 2010. Woodcuts in Modern China, 1937-2008: Towards a Universal Pictorial Language surveys 68 woodcuts, ranging from formative early work, when artists in China first began experimenting with western-style techniques, to the work of important artists working today such as Xu Bing and Zhang Minjie. An illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

Chronologically, the first section of the exhibition Woodcuts in Modern China, 1937-2008: Towards a Universal Pictorial Language incorporates 34 works drawn from an important collection of over 200 woodcuts dating from 1937 to 1948. Donated to the Picker Art Gallery at Colgate University by Theodore Herman, professor of geography emeritus, who acquired them from the artists in 1948, this collection is considered to be unparalleled in the United States. “As historical documents, they offer a unique perspective on World War II…and especially on the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists (1946-1949). At the same time, the prints present the mastery of a new medium at a point when western techniques had been absorbed and transformed by Chinese artists…,” notes Leslie Eliet, who contributed an essay to the catalogue and has collaborated with Dr. Herman over the past 30 years. The remaining 34 works are from 11 important contemporary artists who, after reviewing the Herman collection, selected works that “they felt expressed their reverence for the older masters, engaging them in a dialogue across time,” as Renee Covalucci, co-curator of the exhibition, writes in the catalogue.

Willow Hai Chang, director of China Institute Gallery, states, “Although woodcuts in China have a history of more than a thousand years, modern Chinese woodcuts, often inspired by political events, appeared only in the early 1930s. This unique exhibition covers nearly the entire evolution of these new woodcuts in Chinese modern and contemporary art and shows their extraordinary importance in Chinese art history.”

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