798 District Blog

Date: Apr 29–Aug 31, 2010

Venue: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, Japan

‘Alternative Humanities’ is a large-scale exhibition devoted to Jan Fabre and Katsura Funakoshi – two of today’s most influential artists.

Born in Belgium, Fabre remains attuned to the religious paintings of 15th and 16th century Flanders, while exposing the contradictions of human existence through pictures drawn with his own blood and sculptures employing stuffed animals, animal bones, and other organic materials.

The figurative sculptures that Funakoshi carves from camphor wood speak eloquently of the interior landscape of people in our times. They also resonate with the complex emotions visible in images of the Kannon Bodhisattva of the late Edo/early Meiji period – a major turning point in Japanese culture.

Gathering some 190 works in a meeting of East and West, past and present, the exhibition will transcend time and place to inquire into state of the human spirit today.

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Collectors spent big money at Christie’s postwar and contemporary art auction on Tuesday, led by Jasper Johns’ pop art painting “Flag” from a collection that had belonged to best-selling author Michael Crichton, which sold for a record $28.64 million.

The $232 million total from the auction, including commission, marked the third consecutive night at which Christie’s and rival Sotheby’s met or exceeded pre-sale estimates for the annual spring sales. Of the 79 lots on offer, only five failed to sell.

Crichton’s collection, one of the season’s star estate sales, soared to $93.3 million — half again the pre-sale estimate — and achieved the highest ever total for a post-war collection, officials said.

While foreign buying has helped drive the market’s recovery, nearly three-quarters of the buyers were American, as expected for what Christie’s described as “a quintessentially American sale.”

Amy Cappellazzo, Christie’s international co-head of post-war and contemporary art, said the market, seemingly well on its way to recovery, now seemed “more sober.”

“There’s not this irrational exuberance,” she said, comparing it to the late years of the boom before the economic crash in 2008. “It’s strong, but selective.”

Well-heeled collectors showed enthusiasm, and readiness to pay, for rare works like Johns’ “Flag” and Andy Warhol’s “Silver Liz,” which fetched more than $18 million.

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A rare Song Dynasty hand scroll, classified as a grade one cultural relic of the State, fetched 79.52 million yuan ($11.6 million) on Saturday at China Guardian’s Spring Auction.

The scroll by an anonymous painter of Southern Song Dynasty (AD 1127-1279), entitled A Copy of Guo Zhongshu’s Four-Hunter Painting, vividly portrays four nomadic horsemen who are respectively riding to the field, training an eagle, hunting and resting.

Paintings of the ethnic groups who lived on the vast grasslands of northern China, became a distinct category of painting in the late Tang dynasty (AD 618-907). The painting, part of the treasure trove of the Qing (1644-1911) royal court, was smuggled out of the palace by Emperor Puyi as a reward to his brother in 1922 and was later transported overseas.

Another royal treasure of the Qing court, Listening to Spring by Jin Tingbiao, sold for 45.13 million yuan ($6.6 million). The painting portrays a scholar sitting by a stone among pine trees. It was completed shortly after Jin served as a royal court painter.

Other items that came under the hammer at the auctions included a Qianlong Tibetan-Style Ewer with under-glazed blue and iron red dragon and cloud motif, which fetched 35.84 million yuan ($5.2 million), and Shi Chong’s oil painting Present Landscape that was sold for 26.09 million yuan ($3.8 million).

More than 6,600 lots of Chinese painting and calligraphy, oil painting, sculptures, antique, stamps and coins are going under the hammer at Guardian’s Spring Auctions, which last until Tuesday.

“Global auctioneering came to a standstill last year. But against that backdrop the Chinese auction market has achieved notable growth, and our annual proceeds established a new record,” says Wang Yannan, president of China Guardian Auctions.

Last year, three pieces of Chinese painting and calligraphy heralded the arrival of a 100 million yuan ($15 million) era for the classical Chinese art market, including one item Writings by Prominent Personage in the Song Dynasty on Attendant Xu’s Seal Character, featuring calligraphy by seven renowned scholars, such as Zhu Xi and Zhang Jingxiu, that was sold at Guardian’s autumn auction.

“As a warm-up for the spring auctions, our auctions in March yielded a turnover of 262 million yuan ($38.4 million). It further increased collectors’ confidence in the market,” Wang says.

One work that is expected to set a new record is Zhang Daqian’s Austrian Lake, a painting in a series inspired by the maestro’s two-day stay at the Achensee Lake in Austria, when he traveled through Europe with friends in 1965. The painting to be auctioned is widely believed to be one of the largest and most brilliant of the series.

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LONDON. Christie’s sale of International Modern and Contemporary Art held in Dubai on 27 April proved a success, leapfrogging three times over its low estimate to total over $15m (presale $4.8m-$6.6m). This was a sharply improved result compared to last year’s sale, which made just $4.8m.

The strongest bidding in this year’s sale was for 25 modern Egyptian artworks consigned by a respected Saudi collector, Dr Mohammed Farsi. This was expected to make $1.2m-$1.7m, but racked up $8.7m, with all the lots sold.

The collection was said by trade sources to have been offered to Qatar—whose Museum of Modern Arab Art is due to be inaugurated in a temporary space this December—but finally went to auction at Christie’s.

Prominent among Christie’s staffers taking telephone bids at the sale was Isabelle de la Bruyère, glamorous director for the Middle East, who was previously Dr Farsi’s daughter-in-law. She snaffled a number of lots including the evening’s prize, the Egyptian artist Mahmoud Said’s “Les Chadoufs”, 1934, which sold for a startling $2.4m, almost ten times its high estimate (est $150,000-$200,000). Trade sources said that it was destined for Qatar.

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LONDON.- Iniva presents new work by two contemporary Chinese artists at Rivington Place, with the European premiere of a film by Lu Chunsheng who showed in the Serpentine Gallery’s exhibition of contemporary Chinese art at Battersea Power Station. This is also the first solo exhibition in Europe, “Make Believe…”, by emerging artist Jia Aili. Both artists reflect on industrial progress, social corrosion and the individual’s struggle in the machine age.

Lu Chunsheng’s film, “The first man who bought a juicer bought it not for drinking juice”, mixes documentary and fantasy to theatrical effect. The characters in the film are both human and mechanical, and represent the consequences of the globalised era in their repetition of senseless acts. Orson Welles’ fictional account of an alien invasion in “The War of the Worlds” which was mistaken for a real news item, is the impetus for the film. It illustrates the influence of technology, mass media and the power of fear.

The two protagonists in the film are a reaper machine, used for harvesting grain, which is given Frankenstein-like characteristics, and a mechanic who cares for and repairs it. The film casts a relationship between man and machine in which humanity is denigrated to serve an alien species born from its own hands.

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NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s Asia week sales concluded this week realizing the combined total of $22,574,864, well over pre sale expectations (combined est. $10.6/15 million). The top selling lot of the week was Two Mynas on a Rock, a 1692 masterpiece by Bada Shanren which sold for $3 million – many multiples of the pre-sale estimate and a new record for a Classical Chinese Painting sold at Sotheby’s in the US – in the Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art sale. Bada Shanren, Two Mynas on a Rock, sold for $2,994,500 (est. $400/600,000) Manjit Bawa, Untitled, Sold for $602,500 (est. $200/300,000) There were also several exceptional prices in the Indian and South East Asian Art sale where a record was set for a painting at auction by Manjit Bawa when Untitled sold for $602,500 – double the pre-sale high estimate (est. $200/300,000). Further highlights included an Untitled work by MF Husain which fetched $1,058,500, over five times the high estimate (est. $150/200,000). Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Discussing the Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art sale, Dr. Caroline Schulten, Head of the Chinese Works of Art Department at Sotheby’s New York, said “We are delighted with the result of the spring sale. The price of nearly $3 million for Bada Shanren’s Two Mynas on a Rock is a reflection of the compelling beauty of the painting. We are thrilled to have achieved such a stunning price for this masterful depiction of two birds that has not appeared on the market for over 25 years. Jades, ceramics and furniture also performed well with particularly strong prices for fresh to the market works priced conservatively.”

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NEW YORK, NY.- Eli Klein Fine Art presents Zhao Bo’s second solo exhibition in New York, his first at the Gallery. Through his paintings, Zhao Bo records the monumental cultural and political shifts in China, shown from the perspective of Chinese people. China’s opening to the West in the late 1980s ushered in a new era and these paintings provide a snapshot into this unique period. He clashes Communist and contemporary icons together in the same scene, revealing that Chinese society is more interested in adapting to contemporary culture than adhering to staid traditionalism.

Mocking the social realist propaganda of Communist China, Zhao Bo replaces the ideal Chinese worker or citizen with an ostentatious cartoon. The bright colors and enthusiastic poses express the vitality and exuberance of this new Chinese generation. Rather than revering Chairman Mao and principles of Communism, these wide-eyed figures revel in the glow of billboards and luxury goods. Yet, their placement in front of important Communist markers, such as Mao’s tomb or signs proclaiming, “Long live the people,” is a constant reminder of the government’s presence.

Zhao Bo received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in Chongqing, China. His works have been exhibited in museums in China and the United States including the Denver Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Art Museum of Shanghai, the He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen, and the Art Museum of Chongqing.

The exhibition will be on view at Eli Klein Fine Art through April 22, 2010

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NEW YORK, NY.- An exceptionally broad range of pre-modern Japanese art will go on view this March during New York City’s Asia Week in two exhibitions held by JADA, the Japanese Art Dealers Association.

The works of art range from a 12th century Buddhist sculpture to satirical ephemera of the 18th century and a four-foot tall model of pagoda once owned by New York railroad baron E. H. Harriman and later in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In addition, the exhibitions will present a complete suit of armor formerly in the collection of Japan’s leading Hokosawa clan (one of three works of art once in the possession of the millennia-old ruling family to be presented). Also in the exhibitions will be goldleaf screens, sculptures, prints, lacquers, and hanging scrolls that illustrate a reverence for nature as well as those that illuminate Japanese artists’ love of humor.

JADA 2010: An Exhibition by the Japanese Art Dealers Association
Among the earliest works in JADA 2010, an episodic survey of traditional Japanese art, is a Standing Jizō Bosatsu (Skt. Ksitigarbha), a wood sculpture that dates from the Heian period, 12th century. The delicate hands, facial features, and the shallow carving of the drapery mark this work as stylistically related to the work of Jōchō, whose famous image of the Buddha Amida is worshipped at the temple Byōdō’in near Kyoto. Jizō, a merciful protector of abandoned souls, appears again in a 16th or 17th century elaborate, intact traveling shrine. Decorated with a robe with cut gold, the figure holds both a crystal jewel and staff, Jizō stands on a lotus and cloud base within a shrine that features interior gilding.

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HONG KONG.- Sotheby’s Hong Kong will hold the Fine Chinese Paintings 2010 Spring Sale on 6 April at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Building on the success of the thematic collections offered in previous seasons, Sotheby’s will again present distinguished private collections that boast immaculate provenance and quality this spring. The collections presented include: ‘Exquisite Paintings and Calligraphy from Studio Ling Ou’, ‘A Collection of Calligraphy Couplets of Eminent Statesmen in the Late Qing Period’ and ‘Calligraphy Works from Prominent Figures of Wang Jingwei’s “Puppet Government”’. On the same day, Sotheby’s will also hold the sale of ‘Important Chinese Paintings from the Robert Chang Collection (Part 3)’. The total of over 260 lots in both sales is expected to fetch in excess of HK$200 million*.

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