New Chinese Painting
1988 The Promising Appearance of Zhang Xiaogang
2011 SOLD 79 MHK$ including premium
China has undergone great changes during the fifteen years that followed the death of Mao Zedong: political, demographic, economic, cultural.
In 1982, the population reached one billion people. Hua Guofeng implements the policy of one child, this confusing reform intended to control growth. The market economy promoted by Deng Xiaoping brought hope of expression freedom, and a new generation of artists appeared.
Among them, Zhang Xiaogang questioned China and the world. In 1988, he is 30 years old. His paintings Forever Lasting Love show humans, naked or half naked, front side, ostensibly facing toward the viewer. Of varied races, these characters symbolize an earthly paradise that irresistibly evokes Gauguin, and that appeals to a golden time from before the reforms.
On April 3 in Hong Kong, Sotheby's sells a triptych of unequal individual sizes (129 x 99, 123 x 97, 125 x 97 cm), estimated HK $ 25M. An oil on canvas, 129 x 99 cm, sold HK $ 12.6 million including premium by Christie's on May 27, 2007 appears to be strictly identical to the left side of the triptych.
After 1988, Zhang deliberately turns to his country. In 1992, his series Chapter of a New Century - Birth of the People's Republic of China shows a bright yellow naked baby beside an open book in front of a wall covered with family photos. One of these works was sold HK $ 52M including premium by Sotheby's on October 4, 2010.
The Bloodline series (Big Family or Comrades) for which the artist is best known now is the logical continuation of this approach. The reference to family pictures is a pretext to show groups of individuals undifferentiated in the vastness of the population.
I recommend reading the article by ARTINFO, where the triptych is shown, and which analyzes the reasons why this work from the Ullens collection is now on the market.
POST SALE COMMENT
Let's start by reading the catalog, which was not available when I prepared my article.
Each element of the triptych is announced at 125 x 98 cm. The left side made much more than "looking like" the lot sold at Christie's in 2007: indeed it is the same piece! The three elements have been united again thanks to that sale!
This triptych has an iconic value, reflecting the beginnings of a young Chinese artist who is one the most valued on the market. It was sold HK $ 79 million including premium.
In 1982, the population reached one billion people. Hua Guofeng implements the policy of one child, this confusing reform intended to control growth. The market economy promoted by Deng Xiaoping brought hope of expression freedom, and a new generation of artists appeared.
Among them, Zhang Xiaogang questioned China and the world. In 1988, he is 30 years old. His paintings Forever Lasting Love show humans, naked or half naked, front side, ostensibly facing toward the viewer. Of varied races, these characters symbolize an earthly paradise that irresistibly evokes Gauguin, and that appeals to a golden time from before the reforms.
On April 3 in Hong Kong, Sotheby's sells a triptych of unequal individual sizes (129 x 99, 123 x 97, 125 x 97 cm), estimated HK $ 25M. An oil on canvas, 129 x 99 cm, sold HK $ 12.6 million including premium by Christie's on May 27, 2007 appears to be strictly identical to the left side of the triptych.
After 1988, Zhang deliberately turns to his country. In 1992, his series Chapter of a New Century - Birth of the People's Republic of China shows a bright yellow naked baby beside an open book in front of a wall covered with family photos. One of these works was sold HK $ 52M including premium by Sotheby's on October 4, 2010.
The Bloodline series (Big Family or Comrades) for which the artist is best known now is the logical continuation of this approach. The reference to family pictures is a pretext to show groups of individuals undifferentiated in the vastness of the population.
I recommend reading the article by ARTINFO, where the triptych is shown, and which analyzes the reasons why this work from the Ullens collection is now on the market.
POST SALE COMMENT
Let's start by reading the catalog, which was not available when I prepared my article.
Each element of the triptych is announced at 125 x 98 cm. The left side made much more than "looking like" the lot sold at Christie's in 2007: indeed it is the same piece! The three elements have been united again thanks to that sale!
This triptych has an iconic value, reflecting the beginnings of a young Chinese artist who is one the most valued on the market. It was sold HK $ 79 million including premium.
1990-1999 The Poem of the Snow
2016 SOLD for HK$ 92M including premium
The art of Chu Teh-Chun is devoted to the beauty and poetry of nature which he expresses in the form of abstract landscapes. He has retained both the subtlety of the brushes and wash of the Song artists and the sensory memory of Nicolas de Staël.
From a trip to the Alps in 1965, Chu sometimes introduces snow into his views. In December 1985 his train crosses a snow storm. Highly inspired by this unforeseen experience, he explores until 1990 the theme of the white winter.
Despite their geographical separation Chu had remained in close relationship with Wu Guanzhong whom he had known for nearly half a century. Wu is the great experimenter of the artistic synthesis between East and West. In 1983 he used the point and the line to construct a landscape.
Chu does the same to express the unlimited variety of snow. It is light or dense and floats in sunlight, and becomes mist or frost. It is the main actor of the scenery by masking the features of the landscape. The artist prepares the canvas with a bright wash that will provide an overall impression. If the effect of this texture pleases him, he paints his points and lines, more or less large and more or less dense.
He also appreciates the advantage of very large formats to express his poetic emotion but the lift of his building in the suburbs of Paris is too small to carry large canvases. For this reason his widest snow scenes are made as diptychs. Inspiration Hivernale, 195 x 260 cm, finished in 1990, was sold for HK $ 28.7M including premium by Sotheby's on April 4, 2011.
Vertige Neigeux, 200 x 400 cm, is the ultimate achievement of this series. From 1990 to 1999 Chu meticulously modifies this painting until obtaining a perfect satisfaction. It was sold for HK 45.5M including premium by Christie's in Hong Kong on November 29, 2009 and is again listed in the same auction room on November 26, 2016, lot 2508.
From a trip to the Alps in 1965, Chu sometimes introduces snow into his views. In December 1985 his train crosses a snow storm. Highly inspired by this unforeseen experience, he explores until 1990 the theme of the white winter.
Despite their geographical separation Chu had remained in close relationship with Wu Guanzhong whom he had known for nearly half a century. Wu is the great experimenter of the artistic synthesis between East and West. In 1983 he used the point and the line to construct a landscape.
Chu does the same to express the unlimited variety of snow. It is light or dense and floats in sunlight, and becomes mist or frost. It is the main actor of the scenery by masking the features of the landscape. The artist prepares the canvas with a bright wash that will provide an overall impression. If the effect of this texture pleases him, he paints his points and lines, more or less large and more or less dense.
He also appreciates the advantage of very large formats to express his poetic emotion but the lift of his building in the suburbs of Paris is too small to carry large canvases. For this reason his widest snow scenes are made as diptychs. Inspiration Hivernale, 195 x 260 cm, finished in 1990, was sold for HK $ 28.7M including premium by Sotheby's on April 4, 2011.
Vertige Neigeux, 200 x 400 cm, is the ultimate achievement of this series. From 1990 to 1999 Chu meticulously modifies this painting until obtaining a perfect satisfaction. It was sold for HK 45.5M including premium by Christie's in Hong Kong on November 29, 2009 and is again listed in the same auction room on November 26, 2016, lot 2508.
1992 Zeng Fanzhi begins with the Hospital
2013 SOLD 113 MHK$ including premium
When Zeng Fanzhi left the art school, he was much influenced by expressionism. The society of humans is cruel, and painting shall not be complacent.
In 1992, aged 28, he took as a theme the hospital of incurable illness (Xiehe hospital) close to his home. Many patients without psychological identification are queuing for their drug, infusion or injection. The mind of each of them is focused on the vain hope brought by the therapy.
Same as the German characters by Dix or Grosz, these Chinese men are ugly in their banality. Their life is already artificial. Zeng will soon afterwards vary the situation of his characters by the unlimited possibilities of the theme of the mask.
For displaying his tragic vision of mankind through the hospital, Zeng made three triptychs in oil on canvas. The second, especially morbid, 179 x 465 cm overall, was sold for £ 2.76 million including premium by Phillips de Pury on October 13, 2007.
On November 23 in Hong Kong, Christie's sells the Hospital Triptych No. 3, 150 x 345 cm overall. Here is the link to the catalog .
The estimate is not published although this lot is offered with a third party warranty. The reasons may be altogether the extreme rarity of these triptychs and the enthusiasm created by the sale of the Last Supper by Sotheby's for HK $ 180M including premium on 5 October 2013.
POST SALE COMMENT
The increase is confirmed for Zeng's rating : HK $ 113M including premium for this triptych.
In 1992, aged 28, he took as a theme the hospital of incurable illness (Xiehe hospital) close to his home. Many patients without psychological identification are queuing for their drug, infusion or injection. The mind of each of them is focused on the vain hope brought by the therapy.
Same as the German characters by Dix or Grosz, these Chinese men are ugly in their banality. Their life is already artificial. Zeng will soon afterwards vary the situation of his characters by the unlimited possibilities of the theme of the mask.
For displaying his tragic vision of mankind through the hospital, Zeng made three triptychs in oil on canvas. The second, especially morbid, 179 x 465 cm overall, was sold for £ 2.76 million including premium by Phillips de Pury on October 13, 2007.
On November 23 in Hong Kong, Christie's sells the Hospital Triptych No. 3, 150 x 345 cm overall. Here is the link to the catalog .
The estimate is not published although this lot is offered with a third party warranty. The reasons may be altogether the extreme rarity of these triptychs and the enthusiasm created by the sale of the Last Supper by Sotheby's for HK $ 180M including premium on 5 October 2013.
POST SALE COMMENT
The increase is confirmed for Zeng's rating : HK $ 113M including premium for this triptych.
1994 Shuangyan by Wu Guanzhong
2018 SOLD for RMB 113M including premium by Poly
Link to post sale release.
1995 The Big Family of the Red Guard
2014 SOLD 94 MHK$ including premium
Zhang Xiaogang started in 1993 his great series named Bloodlines - Big Family. Based on the model of ancient family photos, these groups of two, three or four individuals express the contradiction between the political requirement of an undifferentiated behavior and the need for everyone to live his own life.
Zhang groups multiply in 1994, all of them morally similar but physically different.
In 1995, the social revolution brought about by the events of Tiananmen Square is already lasting since six years. Zhang added only five paintings to his series but in very large size, 180 x 230 cm.
The Bloodline - Big Family No. 3 of 1995 displays three characters. The facial lines are the same as if the individuality of the father, mother and unique child required by the authority were crushed by the system. Mao collar tunics are dull and military. The gaze is sad and the mouth is dumb.
The younger is slightly smaller in the middle. For preparing the future, he has been enlisted with the Comrades : he exhibits the Mao badge and the red armband. This family reveals in silence the social and political scream of Zhang: the dehumanized future that is offered to the Chinese is not acceptable.
This oil on canvas was sold for HK $ 47M including premium by Sotheby's on April 9, 2008. It is estimated HK $ 65M, for sale by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on April 5, lot 145 in the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
This key artwork of the new Chinese painting was sold for HK$ 94M including premium.
Zhang groups multiply in 1994, all of them morally similar but physically different.
In 1995, the social revolution brought about by the events of Tiananmen Square is already lasting since six years. Zhang added only five paintings to his series but in very large size, 180 x 230 cm.
The Bloodline - Big Family No. 3 of 1995 displays three characters. The facial lines are the same as if the individuality of the father, mother and unique child required by the authority were crushed by the system. Mao collar tunics are dull and military. The gaze is sad and the mouth is dumb.
The younger is slightly smaller in the middle. For preparing the future, he has been enlisted with the Comrades : he exhibits the Mao badge and the red armband. This family reveals in silence the social and political scream of Zhang: the dehumanized future that is offered to the Chinese is not acceptable.
This oil on canvas was sold for HK $ 47M including premium by Sotheby's on April 9, 2008. It is estimated HK $ 65M, for sale by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on April 5, lot 145 in the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
This key artwork of the new Chinese painting was sold for HK$ 94M including premium.
1996 Group with the Red Scarf
2017 SOLD for HK$ 105M including premium
In his early series on Hospitals and Meats, Zeng Fanzhi brings a cruel vision of the relationship between suffering and indifference, and between human beings and flesh. A native of Wuhan, Zeng moved to Beijing in 1993. Like Kirchner in Berlin in 1911, he did not succeed in establishing in the big city a network of social relations that met his emotional need.
He then begins his series of the Masks showing the dissimulation of people behind social conventions applicable to all, erasing the originality of each personality. At the same time Zhang Xiaogang's Big Family expresses a similar discomfort of identifying the personality but in an opposite way : individuals are all physically different but their bleak lives are interchangeable.
The red scarf of the Young Pioneers is a rallying symbol of Zeng's masked characters. It also expresses the pride and unease of his own difference. This recruitment is offered to almost all schoolchildren as an incentive to enter the party line but the young Zeng, too bad a pupil or perhaps too emotional or undisciplined, never got it.
It is usually difficult to decide in a Zeng Mask image whether or not we see the real face of a character. This rule has two rare exceptions: self-portraits without the artificial smile and groups where the repetition of the same lines on all the figures reveals the presence of the masks.
Mask 1996 No. 6 is an oil on canvas in diptych for a 200 x 360 cm total size. Eight young Chinese people with the same smiling face, differentiated by their height and their hairstyle, are lined up like for a group photography, with hands on the shoulders of others to simulate their comradeship. Everyone has the red scarf confirming their lack of freedom.
Sold for HK $ 75M including premium by Christie's on May 24, 2008 from a lower estimate of HK $ 15M, No. 6 suddenly attracted the attention of the art market on the young painters of the Chinese social mockery, Zeng, Zhang and Yue Minjun, obscuring for a few years the variety of Chinese painting subsequent to the events of Tiananmen Square. No. 6 is back, to be sold on April 3 by Poly in Hong Kong, lot 173.
He then begins his series of the Masks showing the dissimulation of people behind social conventions applicable to all, erasing the originality of each personality. At the same time Zhang Xiaogang's Big Family expresses a similar discomfort of identifying the personality but in an opposite way : individuals are all physically different but their bleak lives are interchangeable.
The red scarf of the Young Pioneers is a rallying symbol of Zeng's masked characters. It also expresses the pride and unease of his own difference. This recruitment is offered to almost all schoolchildren as an incentive to enter the party line but the young Zeng, too bad a pupil or perhaps too emotional or undisciplined, never got it.
It is usually difficult to decide in a Zeng Mask image whether or not we see the real face of a character. This rule has two rare exceptions: self-portraits without the artificial smile and groups where the repetition of the same lines on all the figures reveals the presence of the masks.
Mask 1996 No. 6 is an oil on canvas in diptych for a 200 x 360 cm total size. Eight young Chinese people with the same smiling face, differentiated by their height and their hairstyle, are lined up like for a group photography, with hands on the shoulders of others to simulate their comradeship. Everyone has the red scarf confirming their lack of freedom.
Sold for HK $ 75M including premium by Christie's on May 24, 2008 from a lower estimate of HK $ 15M, No. 6 suddenly attracted the attention of the art market on the young painters of the Chinese social mockery, Zeng, Zhang and Yue Minjun, obscuring for a few years the variety of Chinese painting subsequent to the events of Tiananmen Square. No. 6 is back, to be sold on April 3 by Poly in Hong Kong, lot 173.
1997 The Zhou Village by Wu Guanzhong
2016 SOLD for HK$ 236M including premium by Poly
1997 Abstraction in the Lotus Pond
2016 SOLD for HK$ 106M including premium
Wu Guanzhong assured the transition between classicism and modernism in Chinese graphic art. He was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution and the works of his early career are barely known. Like Zhang Daqian before him he had the merit of being a complete artist able to master a variety of techniques, styles and themes.
Wu was watching the earth as an environment for the lifestyle, from wide landscapes around the world up to tiny details in the blossoming trees. He successfully practiced oil painting and returned to the traditional ink when he wanted to position spots of pure colors.
1997 is a year of great creativity. Freed of threats at 78, he continues to explore many possibilities of the artistic language. The Zhou Village, sold for HK $ 236M including premium by Poly in April 2016, is an oil on canvas, the highest recorded auction price for a Chinese painting in that technique.
Wu also resolutely entered contemporary art through his practice of very large formats. I had previously discussed in this column an ink and colors on paper 144 x 368 cm also from 1997 that remained unsold at Poly in Beijing on 2 June 2012. Although I can not firmly prove it, I am convinced that it is the same artwork that is coming for sale by Poly in Hong Kong on October 3, lot 139.
The theme of the lotus pond is an excuse for a color balance that comes close to abstraction. The field is unlimited as in a Pollock. The bright spots compensate for the lack of perspective by suggesting the depth of the bottom. The leaves and their reflections are interwoven in a tight pattern.
Wu was watching the earth as an environment for the lifestyle, from wide landscapes around the world up to tiny details in the blossoming trees. He successfully practiced oil painting and returned to the traditional ink when he wanted to position spots of pure colors.
1997 is a year of great creativity. Freed of threats at 78, he continues to explore many possibilities of the artistic language. The Zhou Village, sold for HK $ 236M including premium by Poly in April 2016, is an oil on canvas, the highest recorded auction price for a Chinese painting in that technique.
Wu also resolutely entered contemporary art through his practice of very large formats. I had previously discussed in this column an ink and colors on paper 144 x 368 cm also from 1997 that remained unsold at Poly in Beijing on 2 June 2012. Although I can not firmly prove it, I am convinced that it is the same artwork that is coming for sale by Poly in Hong Kong on October 3, lot 139.
The theme of the lotus pond is an excuse for a color balance that comes close to abstraction. The field is unlimited as in a Pollock. The bright spots compensate for the lack of perspective by suggesting the depth of the bottom. The leaves and their reflections are interwoven in a tight pattern.
1997 The New Chinese Beauties
2018 SOLD for HK$ 83M including premium
Chen Yifei loved beautiful women and beautiful clothes. Trained in oil painting by a Soviet artist, he abandons without regret the political themes after the Cultural Revolution but maintains a fully realistic line with shimmering colors.
Returning to Shanghai in 1990 after ten years in the United States, Chen observes that women are badly dressed. He will devote a considerable energy to remedy it while reviving ancient traditions.
He paints groups of beauties who would have their place in a fashion show. He also became a filmmaker, created the Layefe brand first for elegant and affordable clothing and then also for interior design, piloted a model agency and died of overwork in 2005.
In his paintings graceful women let themselves be quietly admired in the manner of the Japanese geishas. A gathering around the tea table, 170 x 244 cm painted in 1996, was sold for RMB 150M including premium by China Guardian on December 19, 2017.
On May 26 in Hong Kong, Christie's sells as lot 30 a 190 x 208 cm oil on canvas painted in 1997, displaying four standing women with sophisticated and colorful long gowns. The artwork is titled Beauties on Promenade by reference to a poem by Du Fu of the Tang era that glorified the elegant fashion of his time with embroidered silk dresses and jade ornaments on heads.
Returning to Shanghai in 1990 after ten years in the United States, Chen observes that women are badly dressed. He will devote a considerable energy to remedy it while reviving ancient traditions.
He paints groups of beauties who would have their place in a fashion show. He also became a filmmaker, created the Layefe brand first for elegant and affordable clothing and then also for interior design, piloted a model agency and died of overwork in 2005.
In his paintings graceful women let themselves be quietly admired in the manner of the Japanese geishas. A gathering around the tea table, 170 x 244 cm painted in 1996, was sold for RMB 150M including premium by China Guardian on December 19, 2017.
On May 26 in Hong Kong, Christie's sells as lot 30 a 190 x 208 cm oil on canvas painted in 1997, displaying four standing women with sophisticated and colorful long gowns. The artwork is titled Beauties on Promenade by reference to a poem by Du Fu of the Tang era that glorified the elegant fashion of his time with embroidered silk dresses and jade ornaments on heads.
2001 The Traitor with the Yellow Tie
2013 SOLD 180 MHK$ including premium
The mask in the series of paintings by Zeng Fanzhi is used to express what is artificial in the integration of young Chinese into globalization.
The mask is worn by a single character or by all characters in a group. In the latter case, the political message of the artist becomes stronger and more readable.
On 24 May 2008, Christie's sold HK $ 75M including premium Mask Series 1996 No. 6, oil on canvas 200 x 360 cm. Eight Chinese are aligned and facing the viewer as happy members of a winning sports team. The smile is an effect brought by the mask, but the red scarf recalls the harsh realities of their social condition.
On October 5 in Hong Kong, Sotheby's sells The Last Supper. This oil on canvas was painted in 2001 in large format, 220 x 400 cm. This is in some way the political and artistic culmination of the entire Mask series, and the auction house expects more than HK $ 80M. The artwork comes from the Ullens collection. It is illustrated on the release shared by ArtDaily.
It is a remake of Leonardo's Last Supper. Behind the masks, the thirteen characters are young Chinese, still recognizable by their red scarves. The traitor has no scarf but a golden tie. He has already decided to imitate the West and sell himself to capitalists.
The next step could be a question: who is right between the twelve traditionalists and the traitor, regarding the development of contemporary Chinese civilization?
POST SALE COMMENT
Introduced as the culmination of the first part of Zeng's career, this painting was sold for HK $ 180M including premium.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
The mask is worn by a single character or by all characters in a group. In the latter case, the political message of the artist becomes stronger and more readable.
On 24 May 2008, Christie's sold HK $ 75M including premium Mask Series 1996 No. 6, oil on canvas 200 x 360 cm. Eight Chinese are aligned and facing the viewer as happy members of a winning sports team. The smile is an effect brought by the mask, but the red scarf recalls the harsh realities of their social condition.
On October 5 in Hong Kong, Sotheby's sells The Last Supper. This oil on canvas was painted in 2001 in large format, 220 x 400 cm. This is in some way the political and artistic culmination of the entire Mask series, and the auction house expects more than HK $ 80M. The artwork comes from the Ullens collection. It is illustrated on the release shared by ArtDaily.
It is a remake of Leonardo's Last Supper. Behind the masks, the thirteen characters are young Chinese, still recognizable by their red scarves. The traitor has no scarf but a golden tie. He has already decided to imitate the West and sell himself to capitalists.
The next step could be a question: who is right between the twelve traditionalists and the traitor, regarding the development of contemporary Chinese civilization?
POST SALE COMMENT
Introduced as the culmination of the first part of Zeng's career, this painting was sold for HK $ 180M including premium.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
2006 Landscape in Snow by Cui Ruzhuo
2014 SOLD 184 MHK$ including premium by Poly
Shared by Blouin Artinfo Hong Kong.
2013 Eternal Snows of Today
2016 SOLD for HK$ 306M including premium
Cui Ruzhuo assembles polyptychs composed of vertical panels painted in ink and wash. A single gigantic work may occupy a full wall in an exhibition. His inspiration may be compared to the circular room of the Grandes Décorations of Monet's pond while a direct influence of Monet's art on Cui is unlikely.
The themes chosen by Cui appeal to the Chinese sensitivity and his art is virtually unknown outside China. On the theme of the lotus, an assembly of eight scrolls 247 x 123 cm each was sold for HK $ 123M including premium by Christie's on 29 November 2011, the very year of the creation of that work.
The favorite theme of Cui is the unlimited landscape of snowy mountains, eternally indifferent to men. A set of eight panels made in 2005 for a total size of 202 x 988 cm was sold for HK $ 77M including premium by Christie's on May 28, 2013.
Poly Auction regularly includes in its sales a session entirely devoted to Cui. An unfragmented hand scroll of snowy mountains 36 m long made in 2006 was sold for HK $ 184M including premium on April 7, 2014.
On April 4 at Hong Kong, Poly sells 'Grand snowing mountains' inspired by Jiangnan, mounted set of eight panels made in 2013 to an overall size of 300 x 873 cm, lot 1213 estimated HK $ 150M, illustrated in Section V of the press release of the sale.
This work had been sold for HK $ 236M including premium by Poly on 7 April 2015. Announced at that time as a record for the artist, this result is not quoted in the press release of the next sale. I guess that it is listed again because it had not been paid. The similarity between the two lots leaves no doubt that it is the same piece.
The themes chosen by Cui appeal to the Chinese sensitivity and his art is virtually unknown outside China. On the theme of the lotus, an assembly of eight scrolls 247 x 123 cm each was sold for HK $ 123M including premium by Christie's on 29 November 2011, the very year of the creation of that work.
The favorite theme of Cui is the unlimited landscape of snowy mountains, eternally indifferent to men. A set of eight panels made in 2005 for a total size of 202 x 988 cm was sold for HK $ 77M including premium by Christie's on May 28, 2013.
Poly Auction regularly includes in its sales a session entirely devoted to Cui. An unfragmented hand scroll of snowy mountains 36 m long made in 2006 was sold for HK $ 184M including premium on April 7, 2014.
On April 4 at Hong Kong, Poly sells 'Grand snowing mountains' inspired by Jiangnan, mounted set of eight panels made in 2013 to an overall size of 300 x 873 cm, lot 1213 estimated HK $ 150M, illustrated in Section V of the press release of the sale.
This work had been sold for HK $ 236M including premium by Poly on 7 April 2015. Announced at that time as a record for the artist, this result is not quoted in the press release of the next sale. I guess that it is listed again because it had not been paid. The similarity between the two lots leaves no doubt that it is the same piece.
2013 The Art of the Five Vidyas
2015 SOLD for $ 10.2M before fees
The Vidyas are the concepts that oppose ignorance to explain the universe. The five major Vidyas are logic, healing, communication, art and enlightenment. Wan Ko Yee is a master of the Vidyas. Doctor in Buddhism, philosophy, art, calligraphy and painting in 1999, he is also a fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts. He lives in California.
This highly respected personality is recognized since 2008 as an incarnation of the most important Buddha and is now named His Holiness Dorje Chang Buddha III. In 2011 he received the World Peace Prize, an interfaith prize that is often awarded to heads of state. A museum is dedicated to his art and to his cultural work in Covina CA.
His graphic art is varied and fits into the modern world while respecting traditional techniques. His favorite themes are plants, animals and landscapes. His use of inks in vibrant colors is in the following of the Chinese art of the twentieth century by Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian and Wu Guanzhong, for example.
The figuration of simple themes is an opening to the complexity and subtlety of nature. Lotus Ink expresses how beauty can come out of chaos. This artwork was sold for $ 16.5 million before fees by Gianguan Auctions in March 2015.
On September 12 in New York, Gianguan Auctions sells Loquat, ink and color 80 x 70 cm on paper hanging scroll painted in 2013, lot 79 here linked on the Invaluable bidding platform, estimated $ 9M.
The image shows the fruits, leaves and branches of a loquat. The intention of the artist is to demonstrate that perfection can be reached in a light and airy composition. It is confirmed by a calligraphic text that subtly takes the shape of an additional branch of the plant.
His Holiness is a skilled artist whose hand does not shake. Loquat was realized without a preliminary drawing and without rework, with a nice contrast of ink density in twigs and leaves.
This highly respected personality is recognized since 2008 as an incarnation of the most important Buddha and is now named His Holiness Dorje Chang Buddha III. In 2011 he received the World Peace Prize, an interfaith prize that is often awarded to heads of state. A museum is dedicated to his art and to his cultural work in Covina CA.
His graphic art is varied and fits into the modern world while respecting traditional techniques. His favorite themes are plants, animals and landscapes. His use of inks in vibrant colors is in the following of the Chinese art of the twentieth century by Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian and Wu Guanzhong, for example.
The figuration of simple themes is an opening to the complexity and subtlety of nature. Lotus Ink expresses how beauty can come out of chaos. This artwork was sold for $ 16.5 million before fees by Gianguan Auctions in March 2015.
On September 12 in New York, Gianguan Auctions sells Loquat, ink and color 80 x 70 cm on paper hanging scroll painted in 2013, lot 79 here linked on the Invaluable bidding platform, estimated $ 9M.
The image shows the fruits, leaves and branches of a loquat. The intention of the artist is to demonstrate that perfection can be reached in a light and airy composition. It is confirmed by a calligraphic text that subtly takes the shape of an additional branch of the plant.
His Holiness is a skilled artist whose hand does not shake. Loquat was realized without a preliminary drawing and without rework, with a nice contrast of ink density in twigs and leaves.
