Christie's Hong Kong Autumn Auction and Modern and Contemporary Art Evening Sale will be held until 2 December. The modern and contemporary evening auction will be divided into three major units, namely the "Modern and Contemporary Art Evening Auction", which has been the focus of the Hong Kong Autumn Auction, the "Changyu Eight Tails Goldfish" special auction, which is the most important auction, and the "Hong Kong-New York: Modern and Contemporary Joint Night Auction", which continues the multi-site joint auction model.
Christie's December 2 modern and contemporary evening auction three special sessions, image source: Christie's official website
Not only that, this autumn auction is Christie's Hong Kong debut after forming a new global division "20/21st Century Art Department", and it is also the highest valuation in the history of Christie's Hong Kong Autumn Auction of Modern and Contemporary Art. Under the epidemic situation, Christie's showed the strength of head shooting, and the fire was full.
Before the start of the Autumn Auction, Art Market Newsletter interviewed Mr Pang Chi Fung, President of Christie's Asia Pacific region, and Ms. Lin Jiaru, Co-Director of The Asia Pacific Region of Christie's 20/21st Century Art Department, to answer hot questions in the market and the industry insights they shared as senior auction house practitioners.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right">Q&A</h1>
Pang Zhifeng and Lin Jiaru × Art Market Communications
Q: The transaction performance of the global art market has been greatly affected by the epidemic. However, at Christie's Hong Kong auction in July, the modern and contemporary art section was unusually strong, with a 94% turnover rate in the three related auctions. How did Christie's achieve such beautiful results?
Lin Jiaru: The auction house is a very important art trading platform under the epidemic. Due to the pandemic, art fairs and gallery activities have been greatly reduced, so auction houses have become one of the only channels for collectors to buy art.
We are also more cautious and careful in soliciting works. In the context of a more conservative market, Christie's focused on the representative works of important artists, while also providing collectors with very attractive prices, which was also reflected in this auction.
Q: In recent years, the collector community has tended to become younger, how will this affect Christie's in the selection and theme planning? What kind of work do they prefer?
Lin Jiaru: In the past few years, more and more young collectors in China have entered the market, which has also driven the market price of young artists, which is related to the age of new collectors and their ability to bear prices. Many generations of collectors have also been subtly influenced by the fact that young members of their families have begun to participate in the collection, and the direction of the selection has become more and more diverse. But in general, collectors are still very hungry for masterpieces.
Pang Zhifeng: There are two definitions of young collectors, including new collectors of a certain age and younger collectors.
If it is for young collectors, they grew up in the Internet age, so we need to understand their usual online buying habits and interact more with them, so that we can understand their preferences and better plan the auction theme.
And for new buyers who are just starting out in the collection, Christie's will provide them with the best art education. First, Christie's regularly hosts exhibitions that invite collectors to participate – sharing the lots and the stories behind them; second, Christie's team of experts has a wealth of artistic knowledge and professional experience to advise collectors on their professional collections; Christie's also runs a Christie's Academy of Fine Arts, which regularly holds online courses to bring together more art knowledge to share with collectors around the world. Over the past few decades, we have been with buyers, guiding them on how to collect their art and witnessing them as they move from fledgling to mature collectors.
Q: Under the influence of multiple factors such as different geographical locations, socio-economic and cultural environments, the collectors' collection tastes in different regions are different. For auctions in Hong Kong, what preparations and differences have Christie's made in the selection and planning?
Pang Zhifeng: The process of the art market and the degree of collection of collectors in different countries will vary. Japan, for example, has been keen to collect Western art as early as the 80s... In the past two decades, the Chinese art market has developed rapidly, the speed of collection has also advanced rapidly, and the types of collections are diverse, not limited to a single category. Some of them have mature collection concepts and patterns, and their collection context and collection vision are very broad, not only collecting Chinese art and Asian art, but also collecting Western art, from classical to modern and contemporary. To this end, Christie's has also brought a feast of art from East to West for Chinese and Asian collectors, of course, and will still focus on the works of Asian masters.
Lin Jiaru: Auctions in Hong Kong are different from London and New York, and there will be different strategies in terms of options. Auctions in Hong Kong are dominated by customers in Asia. The rise of young collectors in recent years has become a significant feature of the Asian market – online footage focuses on millennial collectors, so we will add more young artists to our hong Kong auction options.
On the other hand, the collection interests of domestic collectors are becoming more and more diversified, and the collection orientation is increasingly tending to cross-category collection. In this preview exhibition in Beijing and Shanghai, we also select the preview works according to the tastes and preferences of domestic collectors, although the number of works is not very large, but it can be said to be the best of the best. There are top works by Chinese contemporary artists, such as Zhang Xiaogang's landmark masterpiece "Bloodline - Big Family No. 2", which was one of the highlights of Christie's Hong Kong Modern and Contemporary Art Evening Sale on December 2. There are also Zhao Wu's large-scale triad "15.01.82". At the same time, in order to cater to the diverse tastes of collectors, it also brings Western artworks and works by popular overseas contemporary artists, such as Cecily Brown's "Reward", George Condor's "Smoking Sailor", And Kusama's "A-PUMPKIN-SPW". There are also works by young Chinese artists such as Hao Liang and others.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > key lot analysis</h1>
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120 million valuation
Multiple cover works
A favorite in line with Chinese
Changyu Eight-tailed Goldfish theme is the only creation
Chang Yu "Eight Tails Goldfish"
Oil on canvas
73.8×50.2 cm
Painted in the 1930s-1940s
Estimate: HKD 120,000,000 - 180,000,000
Chang Yu's "Eight Tails Of Goldfish" is the highestest estimated lot at Christie's Hong Kong Autumn Auction and will be unveiled in the evening auction on December 2 in a special format, which shows that Christie's attaches great importance to this.
In the past two years, the market of Changyu can be described as a brilliant. Following the 2019 "Five Nudes" set a new auction record for artists at HK$304 million and the most expensive "Nude" theme creation, in July this year Christie's pushed Chang Yu's "Chrysanthemums blooming in blue flower pots" to set a new auction record for artists' still life paintings for HK$192 million. During the period, Many of Changyu's lots were sold over 100 million yuan.
Chang Yu Five
Oil on the fiberboard
120x172 cm
Painted in the 1950s
Price realised: HKD 303,985,000
Chang Yu "Chrysanthemums Blooming in Blue Flower Pots"
Oil on the splint
110×60 cm
Painted in the 1940s-1950s
Price realised: HKD 191,620,000
The "Eight Tails Goldfish" filmed this time is a relatively rare creative theme in Chang Yu's artistic career. According to the first and second volumes of the Complete Works of Chang Yu Oil Paintings, Chang Yu had only eleven oil paintings with the theme of "fish" in his lifetime, and four are now in the permanent collection of the National Museum of History in Taipei. And "Eight-tailed Goldfish" is the only work with the theme of eight-tailed goldfish, so it is unattainable.
Chang Yu "Eight Tails Goldfish" (partial)
The work caters very well to Chinese buyers – goldfish symbolize wealth and are full of gold and jade. The number "eight" harmonic "hair" has an excellent meaning. It has been auctioned twice, both as cover lots, and has achieved excellent results - in 1997, it was sold at Sotheby's Taipei for more than NT$6 million; 16 years later, in 2013, the game changed hands again at Sotheby's Hong Kong for HK$67.32 million, a premium of 10 times. This time Christie's gave an ultra-high valuation of 120 million, which shows its confidence in its transaction.
rare
Estimated at over 100 million
Zao Wou-Ki's triptych masterpiece
Zao Wou-Ki, "15.01.82"
Oil on canvas (triptych)
Each: 195 x 130 cm, overall size: 195 x 390 cm
Painted in 1982
Estimate: HKD 70,000,000 – 120,000,000
This "15.01.82" is Zao Wou-Ki's extremely rare triptych painting. There are only 20 triptych masterpieces created by Zao Wou-Ki in his lifetime, of which 3 are collected by museums, 6 are collected by the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation, the remaining 11 are scattered in the hands of private collectors, and there are only 4 records in circulation, so every appearance in the auction hall will stimulate buyers to bid and chase.
In 2018 and 2019, Zao Wou-Ki's two triptych paintings "June to October 1985" and "Triptych 1987-1988" were auctioned one after another, and sold for HK$510 million and HK$178 million respectively, confirming the truth that "things are scarce and expensive".
Zao Wou-Ki, June-October 1985
280×1000cm
Painted in 1985
Price realised: HKD 510,371,000
Zao Wou-Ki, Triptych 1987-1988
Each: 200×162cm, overall size: 200×486cm
Painted in 1987-1988
Price realised: HKD 178,000,000
The triad "15.01.82" was created in the 1980s, and the momentum of the first solo exhibition held by the artist in France in more than 30 years has been held at the Grand Palais de Paris, and the first time in decades that Zao Wou-Ki has returned to the motherland for a series of important exhibitions in the Straits and Straits, witnessing the artist's artistic career climbing to the peak.
In addition, Christie's also brought two other works by Zao Wou-Ki from the 60s. In contrast, we can see the changes and breakthroughs in zao wou-ki's creation in the two eras. Zao Wou-Ki, who is in his 40s, is more dashing, and in the year of Ear Shun, Zao Wou-Ki's paintings are more calm and calm, and there are more technical breakthroughs in addition to content expression - you can see different levels of dot-like textures from the close picture, which are processed by using different techniques over and over again.
Zao Wou-Ki,09.03.65
130x162 cm
Painted in 1965
Estimate: HKD 60,000,000 - 80,000,000
Zao Wou-Ki, "12.1.67"
150x162 cm.
Painted in 1967
Estimate: HKD 58,000,000 - 78,000,000
The work was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong 40th Anniversary Evening Sale in 2013 for HK$85.24 million. Now, after seven years of re-auctioning, Christie's has given a very sincere estimate of between 70 million and 120 million Hong Kong dollars, echoing the very attractive price that Ms. Lin Jiaru mentioned in the interview will give collectors.
Appearance at the Venice Biennale
Establish the status of Chinese contemporary art
Zhang Xiaogang's artistic career was at its peak
Zhang Xiaogang "Blood - Big Family No. 2"
Oil painting Canvas
180 x 230 cm
Painted in 1995
Estimate: HKD 38,000,000 - 48,000,000
Since the Venice Biennale in 1995, Zhang Xiaogang's "Bloodline - Big Family No. 2" has been collected by the famous American director Oliver Stone, and as a key work, it has participated in "Metamorphosis and Breakthrough: Chinese New Art" touring exhibitions at the PS1 Branch of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA PS1) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) from 1998 to 1999.
In 2013, "Bloodline - Big Family No. 2" was selected as the cover of the global re-edition of Lü Peng's monograph "History of Chinese Art in the 20th Century", which shows the important position of this work in the history of Chinese contemporary art. Lü Peng has done a lot of research on Zhang Xiaogang's "Blood" series, and published the book "History of Blood Relationship 丨 Zhang Xiaogang Before 1996".
According to the book, 1993 was an important turning point in Zhang Xiaogang's creative career- he began to slowly move away from the expression of personal thinking and philosophy, and turned to explore history and collective memory.
Cover of Lü Peng's "History of Chinese Art in the Twentieth Century", image source: Christie's
Lü Peng," "History of Blood 丨 Zhang Xiaogang Before 1996", picture source: Dangdang.com
1994-1996 was the most mature and most influential representative period of Zhang Xiaogang's "Blood - Big Family" series. Created in the three years, the "Blood - Big Family" series of works has an auction rate of 84%, and a total of 14 lots (19 times) have been auctioned.
Among them, the five works "Blood - Big Family" exhibited at the 1994 São Paulo Biennale in Brazil and the 1995 Venice Biennale have been unanimously recognized by collectors and scholars at home and abroad. Through the series "Blood Lineage – Big Family", the Western art world has seen the appearance of Chinese families after the Cultural Revolution, including only children, military uniforms and other very typical Chinese social symbols, which has aroused the interest and attention of international curators and collectors in Chinese contemporary art.
In 1995, Zhang Xiaogang held his daughter who was almost 1 year old before exhibiting works at the completed Venice Biennale, Source: Zhang Xiaogang: Works, Documents and Research 1981-2014
Three of the five works have been auctioned off, and all of them have sold for more than 10 million yuan. At the same time, two of them were repeatedly auctioned, with an average annualized yield of up to 39%, which shows its market recognition.
In recent years, the auction market has begun to focus on re-excavating those artists who have made important contributions to art history but have been forgotten by the times. As a representative of the first generation of contemporary artists in China, Zhang Xiaogang's typical works of the most important creative series of his artistic career must be of great collectibility.
Outstanding market performance
Representation of women artists
Cecily Brown "Rewards"
121.5 x 152.5 cm.
Painted in 2004
Estimate: HKD 16,000,000 - 22,000,000
Women artists have been the object of continuous attention in the art world in recent years. Christie's Hong Kong Autumn Auction brought "Rewards" by Cecily Brown, a female artist who has been prominently represented in the market in recent years.
In the context of the strong revival of painting art in the 1990s, Cecily Brown from the United Kingdom, with her vibrant artistic characteristics, became one of the key figures in the world art world. As an outstanding female artist, Cecily Brown's work has earned freedom and independence for feminist art, gaining her own place in the international art world.
Cecily Brown in her studio, 2001. Image source: Gagosian
Cecily Brown's most famous collection is painting on large canvases with gorgeous brushstrokes that give a visual magic. Her work not only challenges the gender status quo in the art world, but also enriches the overall face of Abstract Expressionism, which is seen as a symbol of male totalitarianism.
Her work is often compared to some of the most eminent masters such as Willem de Kooning, Frances Bacon and Joan Mitchell. More market experts see her as the next person with the potential to break the record of the British female artist market.
Cecily Brown, "The Year of the Scavenger" in her studio, Marco Anelli, © Credit: Sotheby's
Among Cecily Brown's many works, the creations around 2000 were the most popular in the market and were also the period when her personal style was highlighted.
Created in 1997-1998, The Pyjama Game sold for more than $39 million (about $5 million) in 2007, more than double the pre-auction highest estimate; in November 2018, the "Nightwear Game" sold again at an auction in Seoul for HK$39 million (about $5 million), a premium of more than 2 times in just 11 years.
Another work, created in 1999, Suddenly Last Summer, fetched $6.776 million at Sotheby's in New York, setting a new record for his most expensive work. The seller bought it in 2010 at Sotheby's in New York for $1.08 million (HK$53.19 million). In just eight years, it has increased by 6 times.
Cecily Brown, "Summer Obsession"
Oil on canvas
254 x 280 cm
Painted in 1999
Realized Price: USD 6,776,200 (HKD 53,192,491)
Also adding nearly six times more value is Night Passage, created in 1999. The work was sold at Phillips for £468,000 in 2007 and £3,131,000 (HK$32.37 million) at Christie's in 2019.
Cecily Brown," "The Night Road"
254 x 279cm
Realized price: GBP 3,131,250(HKD 32,371,801)
This series of price changes reflects the strong upward trend and good market performance of works in this creative stage. The work "Reward" was created in 2004. Two works, also created in 2004, I Will Not Paint Any More Boring Leaves (2) and Park, sold for US$5.07 million (ABOUT HK$39.29 million) and HK$19.375 million at Christie's in New York and Sotheby's in Hong Kong this year. This can be used as a price reference.
Cecily Brown, "I Don't Paint Boring Leaves Again (2)"
203.2 x 214 cm
Realized price: USD 5,070,000 (HKD 39,291,992)
Cecily Brown "The Park"
196 x 279 cm
Price realized: HKD 19,375,000
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