HONG KONG.- Phillips will present its first auction of 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design in Asia on 27 November 2016. The sale offers international modern and contemporary art and design, together with selected pieces of photographs and editions. Comprising over 50 lots, highlights include 20th Century Western paintings by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Keith Haring; important artworks by Asian artists Yoshitomo Nara, Yayoi Kusama, Zeng Fanzhi and Zao Wou-ki; and pieces by celebrated contemporary international figures Anish Kapoor, Adrian Ghenie and Michaël Borremans. The selected group of important design works include pieces by Jean Prouvé, Finn Juhl, Alessandro Mendini and Wendell Castle. Also included are photographs by masters of 20th Century and Contemporary photography Irving Penn, Nick Knight and Hiroshi Sugimoto, and editions by Yves Klein and Roy Lichtenstein. The sale is expected to realise in excess of HKD100 million.
Jonathan Crockett, Head of 20th Century & Contemporary Art and Deputy Chairman for Phillips Asia: “Over the past few years there has been a significant transformation in the buying habits of Asian collectors, who are becoming increasingly interested in art from around the world. We are therefore excited to launch with a fresh approach with an auction that is removed from traditional constraints. Alongside our curated offering of international 20th Century and Contemporary art, we are pleased to bring to the Asian market an exceptional group of important international design works for the first time. We believe this carefully selected group of highly desirable art and design from across Asia, North America and Europe, reflect and will have strong appeal with the globalised collecting habits of collectors in Asia today.”
Modern & Contemporary Masters: Leading Figures from Across the Globe
The sale will be led by Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild 776-1, an important example from one of the artist’s most celebrated abstract cycles (estimate: HKD 18,000,000 - 25,000,000, illustrated page one). Executed in 1992, the glistening ribbons of brilliant colour contrast with the more subdued violet background to form an eye-catching interplay of light, texture and rhythm. Richter uses his unmistakable squeegee technique to create sinuous columns of Prussian blue fused with vivid chartreuse. Richter famously employed the ‘squeegee’ as a tool for painting to remove the artist’s hand from his compositions. They have become an almost iconic aspect of his work.
Roy Lichtenstein’s Landscape with Grass stands at almost three metres tall and leads the viewer into a monumental and highly stylised landscape. Painted in 1996, the present work is an example from the series called ‘Landscapes in the Chinese Style.’ This was a powerful series of large-scale works created in the mid-1990s that appropriated the motifs of the classical landscape painting of the Song dynasty (960–1279). Lichtenstein has allowed empty areas to evoke layers of cloud, playfully using minimal means to convey meaning and a vastness of nature. Down one side of the picture, a light yellow band evokes the mounting techniques used in hanging scrolls of classical Chinese and Japanese traditions.
Daydreamer is the largest work on paper by Yoshitomo Nara to come to auction in recent years. Encompassing the entire composition with her large head, abbreviated body and mesmerising eyes, the young figure drawn against a simple pastel background is an outstanding example of Nara’s signature motif. Nara is known for integrating the multifaceted and even contradictory qualities inherent in children – their being at once naïve and precocious, complicated yet carefree, sweet though wicked. This painting depicts a relatively calm figure who gazes gently but nevertheless relentlessly at the viewer. The work fully demonstrates Nara’s superb painting skills, control over the medium, and finesse in his use of colours on paper.
For the first time at auction in Asia, the November sale includes a selected group of works by emerging voices within the sphere of contemporary art, representing the sea-change in the buying habits of Asian collectors. Michaël Borremans’ The Painting draws the viewer into a world of quiet, timeless mystery. The picture shows a man contemplating a scroll or piece of material, potentially the painting of the title. Focusing on figurative compositions, often using photographs of his own making as his sources, Borremans explores the ambiguities that arise through the very act of painting.
Exceptional 20th Century Design at Phillips
The sale presents a selected group of important works of 20th Century Design and a great opportunity to represent the current and refined tastes of Asian collectors. Featuring works of Danish, Italian, French and American design, highlights include important pieces by Jean Prouvé, Finn Juhl, Alessandro Mendini, Wendell Castle and Lucie Rie.
Included in the auction is a superlative example of the "Chieftain" armchair designed by the famous Danish architect Finn Juhl in 1949, and handcrafted by the master cabinetmaker Niels Vodder. A rare example executed in Brazilian Rosewood, which was personally selected and exquisitely handcrafted by the cabinetmaker. This fine example has been part of the Vodder family collection since its inception in the early 1950s.
Dame Lucie Rie is widely regarded as one of the most important modernist potters in Britain. Her "once-fired" technique was developed in an attempt to minimise the inevitable casualties incurred whilst transporting her fragile un-fired pots between her workshop and kiln across the cobbled streets of 1930's Vienna in her bicycle basket. Throughout Lucie Rie's work, during the firing the body and glaze are in lively conversation with each other, mineral elements mixed into the clay burst through the glazed surface during the firing to create pitting, flashes of colour. Glaze inlaid into marks incised by hand reveals itself, sometimes blending and flowing in combination with contrasting layers of glaze above and reacting to the body beneath. The 'Knitted' bowl takes this conversation between body and glaze to an extreme conclusion, the surface is almost entirely inlaid, allowing a richness and depth to the glaze and an integration with the body unusual even in Lucie Rie's work.
