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March 20, 2010 by
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HONG KONG.- Seoul Auction, Korea‟s leading auction house, will offer an unrivalled selection of 80 works in its Modern and Contemporary Art Spring Sale in Hong Kong on 4 April 2010 at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong. Expected to realize in excess of HK$60 million (US$8 million), the sale features works by leading Western and Asian masters, as well as up and coming artists from Korea, Japan, China and Indonesia, reflecting the dynamic vibrancy of contemporary Asian art.
Mr Jun Lee, CEO of Seoul Auction, said: “In our debut sale in Hong Kong in October 2008, Seoul Auction played a pioneering role when we offered significant Western masterpieces, as well as Asian artworks, at auction for the first time. In view of the appetite of discerning Asian collectors with sophisticated tastes, our strategy has been to introduce a wider variety of artworks by internationally renowned artists to the Asian marketplace. In our October 2009 sale, The Importance of Elsewhere –The Kingdom of Heaven from the renowned British artist Damien Hirst‟s celebrated Butterfly Series achieved HK$17,222,000 (US$2,236,623), establishing a record as the most expensive work by Damien Hirst ever sold at auction in Asia. In the same auction, we also brought to the Asian auction market for the first time a remarkable work Untitled by the UK-based Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor which realized HK$6,508,000 (US$845,195).
“We are witnessing a growing interest and a greater level of appreciation of Western contemporary art among Asian collectors. Seoul Auction is proud to have a long history of over 10 years of selling Western art in Asia, and to have been the first auction house to bring Western contemporary art to Hong Kong. We are delighted to provide a platform and introduce a wider range of both Western and Asian art to Chinese connoisseurs.
“This Spring also marked a new milestone in the history of Seoul Auction as we held our first auction preview of our Hong Kong Sale in Beijing in March, in addition to our customary sale previews in Seoul and Taipei. We have seen a rapidly increasing interest in Western contemporary art within the past couple of years amongst collectors in Mainland China, and we believe that China is a highly significant market with vast potential for this collecting category.”
Chinese Art
Leading the Chinese section is Girl and Peaches by Wang Yidong (born 1955), a significant figure in the history of modern Chinese realist painting (Estimate: HK$3,100,000-3,800,000/US$400,000-500,000). This is the first time that this masterpiece by Wang has been offered in the auction market. Wang Yidong‟s subject matter mainly derives from the village culture of the Yi-meng mountain region in his native Shandong province. Since the 1980s, Wang Yidong has sought to capture the life and customs of the region, reflecting the artist‟s pursuit of purity and timelessness through his dedicated portrayal of simple yet venerable human characters and their rituals. Girl and Peaches is a perfect example demonstrating Wang‟s mastery of composition, portrayal of light and his superb command of painting technique and capturing of details. The peaches on the table symbolize the girl‟s deliberation about marriage, which is a common theme employed by Wang. The slip of paper placed next to the peaches may very well be an amorous note from the young girl‟s beloved.
Also making its first appearance at auction is an important wooden sculpture from Zhu Ming‟s (b. 1938) Taichi Series (Estimate: HK$1,300,000-1,600,000/ US$170,000-210,000). Zhu Ming is renowned as Asia‟s most pre-eminent living sculptor, having forged a signature style that is recognized throughout the art world. He is best known for his iconic Taichi Series, powerful and often monumental figures in both wood and bronze, which were inspired by the ancient martial art of tai chi chuan and which celebrate both the physical and spiritual aspects of this age-old Asian practice. His timeless, universal Taichi sculptures are characterized by a sense of balance, control and gracefulness.
Another prized offering in the sale is Mask Series no.21 3-1 by Zeng Fanzhi (born 1964) who is recognized as one of the most iconic and expressive painters of the contemporary Chinese avant-garde art movement (Estimate: HK$1,100,000-1,300,000/US$140,000-170,000). In 1993, Zeng moved from his native Wuhan to Beijing and in 1994 embarked on his famous “Mask” series which expressed both his personal inner feelings of loneliness and isolation in a new big city, and the alienation of the individual in Chinese society in general. In this series of paintings, Zeng used expert line and brushwork to depict smartly dressed figures wearing white masks with blank expressions. He wished to express his feeling that in Beijing in the 1990s, people were starting to wear suits and ties, effecting an outward change into new social roles, but one which was artificial. Thrown into this new modern environment, individuals suffered feelings of social isolation and could not connect with each other. The mask is emblematic of the barrier between them. The number of people in the paintings is reduced to a small group, or a solitary person.
Other highlights include works by young emerging artists, including Happy Face by Gao Yu (Estimate: HK$150,000-180,000/US$20,000-24,000) and A Smooth Run by Chen Ke (Estimate: HK$300,000-400,000/ US$39,000-52,000).
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