Danielle So
\nSpecialist, Head of Evening Sale
\n+852 2318 2027
\ndanielleso@phillips.com
\n

\n","circa","artistInscription","signed and dated 'Takeda Teppei [in Japanese] Takeda Teppei 2019.10.15' on the reverse","dimensions","91 x 72.7 cm. (35 7/8 x 28 5/8 in.)","medium","acrylic on paper mounted on wooden board","sigEdtMan","Executed in 2019.","provenance","Maho Kubota Gallery, Tokyo\r\nPrivate Collection, Japan\r\nAcquired from the above by the present owner","literature","Masanobu Sugatsuke, Joyce Lam eds, Paintings of Painting, Tokyo, 2019, n.p. (illustrated)","exhibited","Tokyo, Maho Kubota Gallery, Paintings of Painting, 3 September - 12 October 2019","preface","essay","mainImagePath","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/203980_001.jpg","additionalImagePaths",[295],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/203980_002.jpg","lotSymbols",[],"estimateSymbols",[],"enhancedLotComponents",[302],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":307,"_308":309,"_310":311},"isActive","componentType","RichText","componentId",18676,"title","DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 27580","componentItems",[312],{"_303":42,"_313":314,"_315":316,"_317":-5},"componentItemId",22425,"htmlCaption","

Teppei Takeda, born in 1978 in Yamagata City, has carved a niche for himself in the contemporary art landscape. The present lot Painting of Painting 026 marks the artist’s international auction debut. His idiosyncratic approach, especially evident in the Painting of Painting series, showcases a keen exploration of the painting process and reflects profound introspection. Graduating from Musashino Art University with a focus on Visual Communication Design, Takeda has developed a distinctive style that pushes the traditional boundaries of portraiture and abstract painting.

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\"\" — Artist’s studio
\nImage: © Teppei Takeda

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The Brushstroke Illusionist

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As one stands before Teppei Takeda's captivating canvases, a mesmerising illusion unfolds. Each bold, gestural brushstroke appears to be the spontaneous product of his creation, a well-blended mixture of colours and textures coalescing into an abstract portrait. Yet, upon closer inspection, a startling revelation takes hold: every stroke, every trace of paint, forms part of a meticulously rendered illusion, showcasing Takeda's virtuosic command of his medium.

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Takeda's artistic journey has been one of solitude and introspection. For over a decade, he toiled away in the confines of his studio in Yamagata, honing his craft and refining his vision, until he was ready to unveil his creations to the world in 2016. His approach to painting is a deeply philosophical one, rooted in a quest to capture the elusive essence of the creative act itself.

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Takeda's practice begins with a series of sketches, born from the vast reservoir of references he has absorbed over the years and guided by his desire to explore new artistic horizons. From a collection of 20 to 50 sketches (esquisse), a single image emerges, anointed as the ‘subject’ of his work. It is this subject that Takeda then translates onto canvas, embarking on a laborious process that culminates in a work that transcends the boundaries of representation.

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\"\" — Artist in action
\nImage: © Teppei Takeda

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Dissecting the Illusory Portrait

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In the present lot, a striking portrait with simple yet stark colours of black, white and red commands the viewer's attention. The bold, decisive strokes and vivid hues seem to capture the fleeting moments of the sweeping brush in the creation of this work, yet a closer examination reveals the meticulous nature of Takeda's execution. Viewer’s attentions are instantly captured by the minimalist composition and the intense colours, and mesmerised in the next moment by the absence of a face in this ‘portrait’. All these elements are at the artist’s disposal, conspiring to challenge the perception of senses and making viewers question what they see.

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\"\" — Present lot (left) installed at Maho Kubota Gallery, *Paintings of Painting.* Image: Maho Kubota Gallery, Artwork: © Teppei Takeda

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Collector’s Digest

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Teppei Takeda (b. 1978, Yamagata, Japan) is a contemporary Japanese artist known for his meticulously rendered illusionistic paintings that challenge the boundaries of representation and abstraction. After obtaining a Bachelor's degree from Musashino Art University in Tokyo (2001), Takeda returned to his hometown of Yamagata, where he spent over a decade refining his artistic practice before unveiling his captivating works to the world in 2016. His most recent exhibition is Recent Works solo exhibition at Maho Kubota Gallery, Tokyo, 2022. Takeda's first monograph, Paintings of Painting, was published in 2019.

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“This is an era of quick success and instant profit. So I will simply return what I have been given. If you want colour, I'll give you colour; if you want superficiality, I'll give you superficiality; if you want desire, I'll give you desire; if you want to pry, I'll let you pry. There is nothing to hide, any image can become a monument."
\n— Sun Yitian

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\nToys Or Art?

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\nBorn in Wenzhou and being exposed in her early life to local leather and plastic manufacturing, Sun Yitian’s roots in a landscape that is saturated with colourful, synthetic materials would later pervade her artistic vision. Her journey to crafting such a unique aesthetic and her rise to recognition began with a poignant visit to the bustling markets in Yiwu, China’s manufacturing hub for small, daily consumer products. This is where Sun's love affair with inflatable plastic toys first sprouted, transforming these banal everyday objects into profound commentaries on culture and consumerism. In her senior year at university, Sun embarked on her defining series "Artificial Objects"（人造物）, which marked a pivotal moment in her artistic career. The technique she meticulously employs places cheap plastic toys in staged settings and she then paints her subjects with such precision that they are often mistaken as photographs. This amalgamation of the coarse and the refined, the real and the surreal, invites viewers to question the authenticity of our visually saturated world.

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A Panther That Doesn’t Bite

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A Tender Panther stands out as a quintessential example of Sun Yitian's mastery in manipulating perceptions of material texture and light. At first glance, as a consistent feature of her works, the painting can easily be mistaken for a photograph due to its hyper-realistic portrayal. The panther, rendered in vibrant hues of yellow, black and red, exudes a tactile presence, with its glossy surface reflecting light as though it were a real, inflated balloon. However, upon closer inspection, Sun reveals to us the imperfections through her intentional brushstrokes—subtle seams and creases that run along the edges and trace the contours of the balloon animal, acting as a reminder that her subject is one that is manufactured.

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\nThe panther is more than just a subject in the present work and could readily be perceived as a commentary on the glossy façade of modern life. Placed under artificial lighting, the panther appears simultaneously misplaced and entirely comfortable, highlighting the reciprocal relationship between natural and human-made environments, which shapes the world we inhabit, as one that is of great complexity, with each exerting influence on each other. Sun's colour combination and dramatic shadows do not merely mimic reality, but magnify it substantially, drawing the viewer into her unique whimsical world and to questioning and challenging the blurred boundaries between the real and manufactured.

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From Canvas to Couture

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In this era of artistic experimentation and exploration, Sun Yitian's influence extends beyond the gallery walls into the realms of fashion and design, most notably through her recent collaboration with luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton. In this instance, fashion becomes a medium for artistic expression and this partnership saw Sun translate her distinctive visual language into a capsule collection that merged art with fashion, breathing life into her vibrant, fantastical creatures.

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The collaboration was not only a celebration of Sun’s artistic vision and Louis Vuitton’s craftsmanship, but it demonstrates the shared desire to push boundaries and explore new avenues of artistic expression. This fusion of art and fashion brings a fresh perspective and challenges traditional notions of what constitutes art and what belongs in fashion. As designers are incorporating elements of fine art, such as painting, sculpture, and conceptual ideas, into their garments and runway presentations as well as collaborating with visual artists to integrate their work into fashion shows and campaigns, artists are also embracing fashion as a means of conveying their artistic vision beyond the confines of a gallery or a museum. Sun’s iconic inflatable toy motifs were reimagined as intricate fabric patterns, transforming the French maison’s classic accessories and apparel into collectible pieces of wearable art. This endeavour broadened the scope of Sun's artistic influence and showcased her remarkable aptitude in navigating and harmoniously bridging diverse creative industries, which further cements her status as China’s “IT” artist.

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\"\" — Louis Vuitton in collaboration with Sun Yitian’s Peep at Two Worlds with One Eye series
\nImage: Artist’s Instagram

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\"\" — Louis Vuitton in collaboration with Sun Yitian, parfume Heures d'Absence

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Collector’s Digest

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Born in 1991 in Zhejiang, China, Sun Yitian graduated from CAFA, Beijing in 2015 and earned her Master's in 2018. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Literature at Tsinghua University. Sun employs painting, installation, performance, and fashion to explore themes of consumerism, labour, and production. Her photo-realistic works critically address the interplay between seduction, fear, as well as materiality. Her notable shows include Bordercrossing: Possibilities and Interactions at Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2023), "Projection" at Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing (2023), Nián Nián: The Power and Agency of Animal Forms, Deji Art Museum, Nanjing (2023) and The Infinite Conversation: 2022 Beijing Biennial Symbiosis, National Base for International Cultural Trade, Beijing (2022). Sun's works are held in prestigious collections such as White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney; Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar; By Art Matters, Hangzhou; Longlati Foundation, Shanghai; M WOODS, Beijing; Yuz Museum, Shanghai; Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing and Long Museum, Shanghai, etc.
\n

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"The twentieth century began with a sort of futuristic utopianism and ended in nostalgia. The faith in optimism about the future was discarded, like an outdated spaceship from the 1960s. Nostalgia itself has a kind of utopian dimension, only it no longer points towards the future."
\n— Svetlana Boym, The Future of Nostalgia

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Cui Jie stands out as a beacon of innovation in the contemporary Chinese art scene, particularly through her intricate explorations of urban architecture. Born in Shanghai in 1983, she has quickly risen to prominence with her distinctive painting style that combines architectural accuracy with an almost fiction-like futuristic impression, creating layered narratives that reflect and interrogate the transformative landscapes of modern Chinese cities. The present lot, S House #5, is a quintessential example of her work, offering a complex dialogue between the past and possible futures of urban environments.

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Masterful Techniques

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S House #5 presents an architectural form that strikes as alien and familiar at once, encapsulating Cui Jie’s fascination with the evolution of urban spaces. The painting portrays an imagined structure that blends elements of historical architectural styles with futuristic design. The sharp, precise lines suggest modernist influences, indicative of progress and the forward thrust of technology. In contrast, the softer, more fluid shapes hint at organic forms, perhaps echoing the unpredictability of nature and human life within these rigid frameworks.

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The colour palette in the present lot is restrained, with mostly shades of grey punctuated by stark whites and highlights of blue and yellow. This choice of colour combination focuses the viewer’s attention on the form and substance of the buildings rather than their ornamental aspects. Cui Jie uses light and shadow masterfully, creating a sense of depth and volume that makes the flat canvas pulsate with a life-like three-dimensionality. The viewer is drawn into a visual exploration of the structure from multiple angles, a testament to the artist’s skilful manipulation of perspective.

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The texture in the present lot adds a layer of complexity to the work. The surface of the painting suggests the use of mixed media although the only medium used on the canvas here is oil paint, which introduces a tactile dimension. This textural depth not only enriches the visual experience but also hints at the passage of time, suggesting the weathering of materials and the aging of architectural forms. This interplay between texture and form in Cui's work invites a deeper contemplation of the layers of history embedded within urban landscapes.

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Urbanisation and Alienation

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Cui Jie's artistic narrative is deeply rooted in her own cultural context, yet her themes have a universal appeal, particularly in her exploration of urbanisation and its impact on individual and collective identities. Her work reflects a keen awareness of various art historical movements, from the functionalist clarity of the Bauhaus, which emphasised the integration of technology and art, to the fragmented perspectives of Cubism, which broke down forms to view them from multiple vantage points.

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The masterful rendering of architecture is reminiscent of Edward Hopper’s House by the Railroad from 1925. Both artists use architectural motifs to explore broader social themes. Hopper’s painting captures the isolation and alienation brought about by modernity in America, using stark lighting and strong vertical lines to create a sense of separation between the house and the viewer. In contrast, Cui Jie’s work is dynamic, with its interplay of different architectural styles suggesting the complexity and layered nature of contemporary urban experiences in China.

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\"\" — Edward Hopper, *House by the Railroad*, 1925, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: © The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence, Artwork: © 2024 Heirs of Josephine Hopper / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Collector’s Digest

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Born in 1983 in Shanghai, Cui Jie’s artistic journey involves exploring the heterogeneous angles in the various geopolitical contexts. Her ability to articulate the specificities of the Chinese urban transformation within a framework that is accessible to the international audience demonstrates her profound understanding of both local and global contexts. Her most recent exhibition includes: Cui Jie: Species as Gifts, West Bund Museum, 10 November 2023 – 25 February 2024; Thermal Landscapes, Pilar Corrias Savile Row, 22 September – 4 November 2023. She also participated in the Taipei Biennial in 2020, where she presented five of her new works.

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“I’ve always been interested in portraying the relationships and states of minds of individuals, as there is a dramatic tension when the figures are placed face to face. The composition of back and front facing makes a great image.”
\n— Xia Yu

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In the present lot It’s Learning Time, Chinese artist Xia Yu renders a scene that is at once familiar and enigmatic. The work depicts two individuals engrossed in action within a softly illuminated room that suggests both comfort and confinement. Xia Yu’s chosen medium of tempera, with its capacity for intricate detail and vibrant colour, enhances the stillness of the moment, turning an ordinary scene into something that is to be pondered. Traditionally associated with precision and depth, the medium allows for a meticulous portrayal of the textures of the room — the grain of the texture, the fibrous quality of the curtain, and the soft weave of the garments. Each element is rendered with utmost care, emphasising the sanctity of the domestic sphere as a site of introspection and intellectual engagement, as the title suggests.

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The artist's philosophy that ‘the figures in his work are perpetually roaming between their residence and work, city and nature, and seamlessly shifting among chores and tasks, daydream and recreation, switching between various identities and roles in the interval of one living space after another,’ ⁱ is vividly depicted here. The figures are masterfully portrayed in a state of flux, caught between the act of actioning and dreaming. It is as though they are hovering on the cusp of decisive movement, their bodies imbued with a sense of anticipation and their minds adrift in a realm of possibilities. Their dual engagement with the environment and their inner worlds suggests a narrative of continual transition, where the very fabric of their personal identities is ceaselessly renegotiated. The artist adeptly captures the essence of this profound transformation, showcasing the intricate interplay between self-discovery, growth, and the ever-shifting nature of existence. Each brushstroke and contour allude to the profound journey of self-exploration as the figures navigate the intricate tapestry of their lives, straddling the realms of action and dreaming.

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Re-Interpreting the Gaze

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Art critic John Berger famously observed that a woman’s presence ‘expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her,’ ⁱⁱ and the present lot by Xia Yu invites a re-evaluation of how the female subject is depicted in art. Unlike the traditional portrayal of women as passive recipients of the artist’s gaze, Xia Yu’s subjects are instead active, engaged in the act of learning, which is both a personal and private endeavour.

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\"\" — James McNeill Whistler, *Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl*, 1872, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
\n Image: © National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Harris Whittemore Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington. D.C.

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In this intimate setting in Xia Yu’s work, the woman is presented not as an object to be viewed, but rather as a subject who commands her own space, one who actively gazes at her counterpart. Her engagement in her own tasks suggests a narrative in which gaze and perspective can be introspective, focusing on self-reflection and communication. In the composition of the present lot, the female figure seems to be directly engaging in eye contact with the man whereas he is almost avoiding her gaze. This inward-looking gaze challenges the traditional dynamics of power and perception in art, where women are often depicted through the lens of male expectations and desires. Xia Yu thus redefines the concept of the gaze, turning it into a tool for self-expression and autonomy. The woman in his painting does not merely exist within the gaze as she transforms it into a reflection of her own identity, desire, and complexity. This shift not only speaks to the empowerment of the subjects but also invites the viewer to engage with the painting on a deeper, more introspective level.

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Depiction of the Nude: A Contemporary Dialogue with Manet and Velázquez

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When placed alongside Édouard Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass, the present lot engages in a visual and thematic dialogue that spans centuries yet speaks to similar concerns. Radical in its time, Manet’s work depicted the raw realities of modern life by placing a nude woman alongside well-dressed men, posing a challenge to the conventions of the Parisian salon with its unidealised portrayal of contemporary social norms.

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\"\" — Édouard Manet, *Luncheon on the Grass*, 1862, Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
\nImage: Peter Barritt / Alamy Stock Photo

\n\n

Similarly, Velázquez's Venus at her Mirror introduces another layer of complexity with the subject’s back turned to the viewer, engaging with a mirror that reflects her face. This setup creates an intimate and somewhat secretive atmosphere, echoing the exchange of gazes in Xia Yu's work. The presence of the mirror in Velázquez’s composition enhances the theme of introspection and the fluidity of identity, paralleling the shifting roles and identities in Xia Yu’s depiction.

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\"\" — Diego Velasquez, *Venus at Her Mirror (The Rokeby Venus)*, 1647 - 1651, The National Gallery, London.
\nImage: Ian Dagnall Computing / Alamy Stock Photo

\n\n

While Manet’s focus was on the shock of the unconventional by emphasising the stark contrast posed by the figures, Xia Yu, on the other hand, focuses on the subtleties and activities of everyday life by placing the female figure inward. Subsequently, this difference in focus results in a different understanding of the relationship and power dynamic between the figures. The continuities and divergences in how artists have grappled with similar themes of gaze, presence, and social roles across time can be appreciated through Xia Yu’s works, for it not only captures a moment of quiet introspection, but also challenges the viewer to think about the ways in which art reflects and shapes our understanding of our presence in the world around us.

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In the contemporary dialogue with Manet and Velázquez, one can observe in Xia Yu’s use of a visual barrier which creates a voyeuristic experience for the viewer, making us uncomfortably aware of our role as onlookers. This sensation of voyeurism, much discussed in John Berger's Ways of Seeing, suggests that our discomfort arises not merely from the nudity itself but from the awareness of how we are engaging with it. In contrast to the secretive and intimate atmosphere in Velázquez's Rokeby Venus, where the nude is partially hidden and reflected through a mirror, Xia Yu's approach is more direct, yet sterile. The use of tempera adds a textured and fuzzy, almost screen-like quality that reflects contemporary life's mediated views of nudity, emphasising that we are not the only spectators; there are many others sharing this space and view.

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Xia Yu's portrayal of the nude is not just a depiction of the human form but an exploration of strength, elegance, and the complex dynamics of viewing and being viewed. This redefined gaze and the interplay of identities within the intimate confines of the depicted space challenge traditional views and invite a deeper engagement from the audience, encouraging us to reconsider our perceptions and the implications of our gaze.

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Collector’s Digest

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Born in Anhui, China in 1981, Xia Yu portrays glances of contemporary urban life through his signature tempera medium. The figures in his work are captured in the moments of daily life where the artist studies them in action. In the seemingly dull and mundane moments, Xia Yu aims to appreciate the unpretentious, joyous and truthful encounters. His recent exhibitions include: Glittering Light and Sunken Jade, Song Art Museum, 11 March – 16 April 2023 and Being of Evils, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2020 where the present lot was exhibited.

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ⁱHive Center for Contemporary Art, artist biography

\n\n

ⁱⁱJohn Berger on Male and Female Presence, from Ways of Seeing, On Art and Aesthetics, 12 January 2017

\n",{"_194":195,"_323":197},{"_185":482,"_187":59,"_189":483,"_224":499,"_226":227,"_228":500,"_230":-5,"_231":232,"_233":234,"_235":236,"_237":501,"_239":502,"_241":503,"_243":503,"_244":504,"_246":505,"_248":-5,"_249":250,"_251":-5,"_252":-5,"_253":33,"_254":33,"_255":506,"_257":507,"_259":33,"_260":33,"_261":42,"_262":33,"_263":33,"_264":508,"_266":-5,"_267":-5,"_268":-5,"_269":-5,"_270":-5,"_272":273,"_274":170,"_275":509,"_277":510,"_279":511,"_281":512,"_283":513,"_285":170,"_287":514,"_289":170,"_290":170,"_291":515,"_293":516,"_296":521,"_298":522,"_300":523,"_318":-5,"_37":319,"_39":320,"_321":531,"_324":170,"_325":42},"202209",{"_191":-5,"_192":484,"_202":486},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":485,"_200":455},550000,[487,489,492,495,498],{"_194":205,"_196":206,"_198":488,"_200":216},55600,{"_194":210,"_196":210,"_198":490,"_200":491},63600,40500,{"_194":214,"_196":215,"_198":493,"_200":494},64800,41300,{"_194":219,"_196":220,"_198":496,"_200":497},70500,44900,{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":485,"_200":455},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/kyle-dunn/202209","5","1-932TYV",15,"The Fool",22883,"Kyle Dunn",245000,482600,[],"signed, titled and dated '“THE FOOL”, Kyle Dunn 2021' on the reverse","152.4 x 121.9 cm. (60 x 48 in.)","acrylic on wooden panel","Executed in 2021.","Galerie Maria Bernheim, Zurich\r\nPrivate Collection, Zurich\r\nAcquired from the above by the present owner","Zurich, Galerie Maria Bernheim, The Fool, 11 June - 24 July 2021","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/202209_001.jpg",[517,518,519,520],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/202209_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/202209_003.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/202209_004.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/202209_005.jpg",[],[],[524],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":525,"_308":526,"_310":527},18674,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 96573",[528],{"_303":42,"_313":529,"_315":530,"_317":-5},22423,"

“I think of a lot of these paintings as love letters, a revision of a memory from my own experience, or simply a desire or fantasy made tangible through paint. They each have a loose narrative jumping off point, but I try to not fill in all the blanks.”
\n— Kyle Dunn

\n\n

Precisely composed yet beautifully silly and quietly horrifying, Kyle Dunn’s The Fool balances varying moods across a surreal but all-too-recognisable landscape. At first glance, it seems idyllic: an elfin, shirtless young boy, made to seem massive through a close and low perspective, skips across a Californian road at sunset, flanked by a rainbow and his dog. A small bungalow and a larger forest stretch behind him, all barely failing to conceal a growing wildfire in the corner, either causing or masked by the sky’s deep orange haze. Boy and dog are both caught in mid-air, with blissful expressions and limbs outstretched, but only the snapshot limits of the work protect them from imminent disaster -or, perhaps, they simply don’t care. The menace is pushed to the forefront in its companion picture, The Fool II, where a similar figure tramples plants against a demonic nightscape, but here it is only heightened by the smooth surfaces, camp poses, warm lighting, and subtle air of unreality.

\n\n

Perfect Forms

\n\n

Dunn’s theatrical, un-painterly aesthetic emerged through his experience working in other forms of media: he graduated with a degree in interdisciplinary sculpture and first came to prominence for his lurid and coral-like foam pieces, which combined recognisable figures with sensuous, fantastic shapes and colours. Many of his paintings, inspired by ancient bas-reliefs, project elements of the composition or shape the edges in irregular ways, creating unconventional yet comfortably individual spaces for his characters to inhabit. These experiments, however, also bind him to a specific direction once the process has begun, and so these dovetail with flat canvas painting, which offers more room for changes of plan.

\n\n

Furthermore, it allows him to focus more on the visual drama of still images: lighting, lines and poses are frozen into place, yet hint at deeper stories and future actions. The threatening undercurrent of this painting and the sense of danger behind the placid exterior calls back to one of his greatest inspirations, Paula Rego: ‘[her paintings], on the surface, are innocent enough, but seethe with psychosexual menace’. ⁱ

\n\n

Free Fooling

\n\n

A visual throughline throughout his oeuvre is the male body, viewed through an unusually tender, open lens much informed by his identity as a gay man. ‘Boys learn at a young age in [America] to not express emotion or show vulnerability. It’s a toxic cycle that stunts emotional growth and self-expression…I think it’s critical to explore alternatives to all this bravado.’ ⁱⁱ This painting, with its gentle, undignified, yet liberated protagonist is part of his campaign against this –‘In my paintings I think about men presenting themselves as desirable, as being soft and vulnerable, as a way to show the sky won’t fall if you let your guard down a little’ ⁱⁱⁱ. In this, he also takes inspiration from art history: he recently took part in a group exhibition themed around Elisabetta Sirani’s dynamic, sensual baroque portrait of David with the Head of Goliath.

\n\n

Dunn’s statement is tinged with irony by this painting: its very title indicates that the man, however happy, free, and admired by the artist, is unprepared for the world burning around him. In the frozen moment of Dunn’s art, his characters are able to live with comfort and pride in themselves, but it is not blind to greater threats -beauty and danger, adoration and fear, are always connected in it.

\n\n

\"\" — Elisabetta Sirani, *David with the Head of Goliath*, circa 1655-60

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Born in 1991 and based in Brooklyn, Kyle Dunn achieved his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, in 2012, and is known for his enigmatic, erotic, and highly stylised depictions of male solitude and intimacy. This work was the title piece of his first solo international exhibition, The Fool, at Galerie Maria Bernheim in 2021. He is represented by P·P·O·W, who have also held solo shows for him in New York in 2023 (Night Pictures, 7 April – 13 May) and 2020 (Into Open Air, 10 September – 17 October). His next exhibition, Kyle Dunn / Matrix 194, will be at the Wadsworth Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, from 7 June – 1 September. His works are also held in public collections worldwide, including the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami, Sunpride Foundation in Hong Kong, and X Museum in Beijing.

\n\n

ⁱKyle Dunn, quoted in Kyle Dunn: Ghost World, Interview by Jessica Ross, Juxtapoz

\n\n

ⁱⁱIbid.

\n\n

ⁱⁱⁱIbid.

\n",{"_194":195,"_323":197},{"_185":533,"_187":534,"_189":535,"_224":548,"_226":227,"_228":549,"_230":-5,"_231":232,"_233":234,"_235":236,"_237":550,"_239":551,"_241":552,"_243":552,"_244":553,"_246":554,"_248":-5,"_249":250,"_251":-5,"_252":-5,"_253":33,"_254":33,"_255":555,"_257":556,"_259":33,"_260":33,"_261":42,"_262":33,"_263":33,"_264":557,"_266":-5,"_267":-5,"_268":-5,"_269":-5,"_270":-5,"_272":273,"_274":170,"_275":558,"_277":559,"_279":560,"_281":561,"_283":562,"_285":170,"_287":170,"_289":170,"_290":170,"_291":563,"_293":564,"_296":568,"_298":569,"_300":570,"_318":-5,"_37":319,"_39":320,"_321":578,"_324":170,"_325":42},"202207",6,{"_191":-5,"_192":536,"_202":538},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":455,"_200":537},250000,[539,541,543,545,547],{"_194":205,"_196":206,"_198":216,"_200":540},25300,{"_194":210,"_196":210,"_198":491,"_200":542},28900,{"_194":214,"_196":215,"_198":494,"_200":544},29500,{"_194":219,"_196":220,"_198":497,"_200":546},32100,{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":455,"_200":537},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/francesca-mollett/202207","6","1-932TYX",16,"Cadence",25566,"Francesca Mollett",175000,952500,[],"signed, titled and dated '“Cadence”, Francesca Mollett 2022' on the overlap","139.5 x 105.3 cm. (54 7/8 x 41 1/2 in.)","oil and acrylic on calico","Executed in 2022.","The Artist Room, London\r\nAcquired from the above by the present owner","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/202207_001.jpg",[565,566,567],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/202207_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/202207_003.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/202207_004.jpg",[],[],[571],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":572,"_308":573,"_310":574},18680,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 90416",[575],{"_303":42,"_313":576,"_315":577,"_317":-5},22429,"

“I’d like for the viewer to feel an intensity of connection and potentiality within the things around them. When I leave exhibitions, one of the most stimulating feelings is to come out and feel like you have internalized the perception of the artist; you start seeing scenes as if they were paintings.”
\n— Francesca Mollett

\n\n

Though definitions for the word Cadence vary - from a melodic or harmonic resolution to a measured beat, to a modulation of noise - most relate to sound or music, and indeed Francesca Mollett’s painting has a direct, elemental power that defies restrictive description. Crashing, rhythmic contrasts in shapes and tones, reminiscent of the most exceptional Abstract Expressionist masterpieces, are given greater force by a mix of liquid acrylic and drier oil paints, layered over a charcoal sketch. Rendered in a large-scale format, sometimes left to flow and sometimes guided with a palette knife, Mollett’s layers are overwhelming and uneasy to navigate. These, along with the mountainous forms, gem-like details, and earthy colours all reflect her fascination with natural landscapes and history, seeing them as sublime, inhuman, and beyond direct understanding. Her profound connection to the natural world serves as the backdrop of her paintings and through her artistic prowess, she skilfully communicates her desire to capture its essence on canvas through the intricate depiction of landforms, flora and fauna, transporting the viewer into the heart of these landscapes, enveloped by their serene beauty and awe-inspiring expansiveness.

\n\n

Light, Earth, and Water

\n\n

A graduate of both the Royal Drawing School and the Royal College of Art, Mollett began working in figuration, later shifting to abstraction where ‘there was more freedom to transform things rather than thrusting them into the recognisable’ⁱ. Material feminists and working outdoors had a large influence on this, driving her to focus more on materials and phenomena as in her statement for the RCA in which, she envisions ‘the human intermingling with the more-than human as I paint, suggestive through corporeal marks, geological textures, and meteorological transparencies’ⁱⁱ.

\n\n

As such, nature and atmospheric effects are often a source of inspiration, in which she had one solo show themed around light-and-moss-covered surfaces, but whilst her oeuvre is undeniably rooted in tradition, her artistic vision is informed by a multitude of artists who have come before her, as well as her contemporaries. A frequent visitor to London’s National Gallery, aside from looking at 15^th century Italian artists Giovanni di Paolo and Piero della Francesca, one of her favourite paintings is one by French painter Édouard Manet of his wife with his cat, in which she had noted that ‘her body has very gestural flowing brush marks and everything around it is quite solid.’ⁱⁱⁱ.

\n\n

Encouraged by the arts led regeneration project ‘7 Bridges’ in Loughborough Junction near her studio - which aims to turn disregarded bridges into a sequence of events that evoke a sense of community - particularly with mosaic artist Tamara Froud’s created fossils at the Cambria Bridge, Mollett moves toward depicting new and less familiar forms in a recent show, exploring how the effects of time impact the fissured, subterranean landscapes.

\n\n

\"\" — Edouard Manet, *Woman with a Cat*, circa. 1880-2, National Gallery, London.
\nImage: Uwe Deffner / Alamy Stock Photo

\n\n

Spiral-Walker

\n\n

However ineffable Mollett’s paintings may seem, they are also heavily inspired by literature. At the time she was making this painting, she had a deep affinity with American experimental poet Fanny Howe’s essay in 1999, ‘Bewilderment’. Howe envisioned a writing process that seeks to mimic the strangeness of the dream world and how one surrenders to the subconscious. Mystery, randomness, and bewilderment were not weaknesses but a means through which powerful pieces can be crafted.

\n\n

By exposing oneself to the subconscious, one can arrive closer to the truth of the feeling, which is often random, contradictory, and non-linear. Along with her conception of bewilderment, Howe combined the idea of gyres or spirals, writing 'For to the spiral-walker there is no plain path, no up and down, no inside or outside. But there are strange returns and recognitions and never a conclusion.' ^vi One is reminded of how spiralling paths move in dream vision narratives and Mollett certainly finds synchroneity in Howe’s figure of the spiral walker and explores bewilderment as a way of navigating between thoughts and images as she grapples with storytelling, material and abstraction.
\n“Q--the Quidam, the unknown one--or I, is turning in a circle and keeps passing herself on her way around, her former self, her later self, and the trace of this passage is marked by a rhyme, a coded message for ‘I have been here before, I will return’.
\nThe same sound splays the sound-waves into a polyvalence, a daisy. A bloom is not a parade.”
\n— Fanny Howe

\n\n

In her own painting, Mollett tries to replicate this by using a palette knife to ‘entangle part of the paintings back around on themselves’^v, suggesting a multitude of perspectives in order to disorientate the viewer further. Deeply immersive and hard to take in everything all at once, her paintings remind us of the great, incomprehensible depths beneath the world and art alike, all whilst expressing a distinctly personal and complex creative vision.

\n\n

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Born in Bristol, 1991, and based in London, Francesca Mollett graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2020 and has quickly garnered acclaim for her mercurial, nature-inspired abstract paintings. Since then, her work has appeared in distinguished international collections, including the K11 Art Foundation in Hong Kong, Kunstmuseum in The Hague, and the Green Family Art Foundation in Miami. She recently exhibited in Hauser & Wirth’s group show, Present Tense, in Somerset (27 January – 28 April), and will soon host a New York solo show, Corso (10 May – 22 June), with her gallery representative GRIMM. Solo exhibitions in 2023 include Noon at Pond Society in Shanghai, Halves at GRIMM in Amsterdam, and Low Sun at Micki Meng in San Francisco. Phillips has sold all four of her highest-valued works, with the record being Two Thistles in London, October 2023, for £250,000 GBP -over ten times its low estimate.

\n\n

ⁱ Francesca Mollett in conversation with Alex Needham, ‘Francesca Mollett Brings Abstract Art Back to Life’, W Magazine, 12 January 2023.

\n\n

ⁱⁱFrancesca Mollett, quoted in her artist statement at Royal College of Arts.

\n\n

ⁱⁱⁱ Francesca Mollett, W Magazine.

\n\n

^ivFanny Howe, Love and I, Graywolf Press, 2019

\n\n

^vFrancesca Mollett in conversation with Rory Mitchell, ‘Francesca Mollett in the Studio’, Ocula, 17 November 2022.

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“Yes, these interiors exist or once existed, in life and in photographs, but they persist as paintings, evoking a sutured space of history and memory.”
\n— Michael Ned Holte

\n\n

A Calming Interior

\n\n

Jonas Wood’s art has a captivating ability to disorient our perception of reality. With a quiet presence, his paintings often delve into detached scenes set in ubiquitous domestic interiors. However, beneath their seeming humbleness and simplicity, Wood’s paintings are charged with layers of experiences and memories.

\n\n

Executed in 2011, Wimbledon 1 is a lovable work that presents a refreshing and intriguing vignette, inviting viewers to momentarily escape into Wood’s tranquil domestic corner devoid of human presence. At first glance, it may appear to be a portrait of a resting tennis player. The full-bodied figure, dressed in sports attire with protruding Nike logos on both his sweatshirt and shoes, is holding one of three tennis balls, who takes up the center of the composition. However, upon closer inspection, one realises that this figure is a portrait hung within a larger interior.

\n\n

This realisation creates a sense of unease that prompts us to re-evaluate the distorted space in which we are situated. The pronounced linear angles shaping the interior emphasise the absence of human presence, while a second frame discreetly placed on the left margin suggests that we are observing a specific area within a larger setting. Although the composition draws our attention to the imposing figure of the tennis player, the presence of several plant branches with large green leaves in the lower left foreground, partially obscuring the portrait, prevents us from delving further into the interior. Wood’s graphic design language and use of clear-cut geometric shapes contribute to the flattening of the space. The only indication of depth is a rigid shadow cast by the hung painting on its right side, suggesting that the viewer approaches the scene from a rightward angle. Within this single, flat composition, Wood evokes a complex narrative that straddles multiple timelines and invites different interpretation: Are we faced with the portrait of a tennis player? Or is it to be merely understood as a decorated interior?

\n\n

Wimbledon 1 is one of two works of very similar iterations in Wood’s oeuvre, both titled ‘Wimbledon’ and numbered 1 and 2 respectively, and certainly a nod to the artist being a huge sports fan. In his own words, he describes how his earlier tennis court series came about: 'I began to paint tennis courts, which came from photographs of turning the lights off and taking pictures of my TV during tennis matches and loving how it looked.'ⁱ The present lot can be seen as an extension of his tennis court series, in which he subtly refers to the official Slazenger tennis balls used in the world-famous British tennis championship Wimbledon, replicating them meticulously here as three balls, close to the figure in the portrait hung on the wall. Wood goes on further to explain his love for the subject, 'In the tennis courts, it’s more about composition, abstraction, and repetition. The floating […] tennis balls, or anything else makes me happy.' ⁱⁱ His later iteration of Wimbledon 2 sees slight alterations made, with minor changes in the objects and linear perspectives, most evident in the addition of a tennis racket and sweatshirt by well-known sports label Prince. Both works are a testament to Wood’s strength in the flattening of compositions in a most-instantly recognisable aesthetic.

\n\n

Portraiture within the Interior

\n\n

“There's so much more to art than just what it ends up aesthetically looking like or feeling like…I think that there's a lot of value in seeing things from a different perspective.”
\n— Jonas Wood

\n\n

Wood’s unique inclusion of a portrait within the painting enables him to transcend the boundaries of representation and delve into the conceptual realm. His distinct graphic style imparts a fictional quality to the scene, suggesting a speculative and surreal undertone. In this way, Wood’s approach shares similarities with renowned figurative artists in art history, including that of Henri Matisse, Alex Katz, and David Hockney, who all have similarly explored the subject of daily life through transformed shapes and vibrant color palettes, evoking a surreal interpretation of reality. By acknowledging these predecessors as his artistic inspirations, Wood situates himself within an art-historical lineage that seeks to capture the deeper inner quality underlying contemporary life.

\n\n

\"\" — Alex Katz, *Gray Interior*, 1968, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
\nArtwork: © 2024 Alex Katz / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

\n\n

In Wimbledon 1, the artist skilfully creates a balanced ecosystem of his own experiences and subtle sources of inspiration. Subjects engaged in Wimbledon 1 —portraits, interiors, sports, and plants—are not only recurring themes that dominate Wood’s oeuvre, but also hold deep significance within the artist’s everyday life. These personal connections are intricately layered and translated through Wood’s unique artistic process. Prior to painting, Wood uses a camera to capture everyday scenes from various perspectives as reference images. These photographs then serve as a foundation for him to reconstruct and abstract the imagery into layered composition on canvas. The resulting artworks, exemplified by Wimbledon 1, exist in a constant interplay between depth and surface. They carry profound personal and art-historical significance while establishing an ongoing dialogue between the present and the past, the here and the there. As Michael Ned Holte notes, 'Despite his recurring use of photography, it would be misleading to assign too much credit to the source image, rather than the painter translating it. Yes, these interiors exist or once existed, in life and in photographs, but they persist as paintings, evoking a sutured space of history and memory.' ⁱⁱⁱ

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Born in 1977, the Los Angeles-based artist Jonas Wood creates paintings spanning diverse genres, such as portraits, still-lifes, landscapes, and interior scenes. Grounded in his personal interests and experiences, Wood’s art consistently captures a distinct and contemporary perspective on the world. His warm and quasi-abstract approach, evoking graphic design and popular visual culture, deconstructs images into layered compositions of geometry, patterns, and colors. He navigates the boundary between the strange and the familiar, engaging with emotionally charged material from the everyday realm. Jonas Wood is known as the 'reigning prince of contemporary painting.' In May 2021, his still life piece Two Tables with Floral Pattern set a new auction record at Christie’s, fetching an impressive $6,510,000. The price exceeded the initial estimate for the artwork by more than three times. Jonas Wood has held solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions, such as the Dallas Museum of Art. Works have been collected by Guggenheim and Hammer Museums.

\n\n

ⁱ Jonas Wood, quoted in 'Artist Jonas Wood Discusses His Latest Exhibition Focused on His Drawing Practice, ‘The Backbone of His Studio Practice’, ARTnews, 7 August 2023

\n\n

ⁱⁱIbid.

\n\n

ⁱ Michael Ned Holte, ‘Rooms’, Interiors: Jonas Wood', New York, p. 7.

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Anonymous street artist Banksy first turned to graffiti as a miserable fourteen year old disillusioned with school. Inspired by the thriving graffiti community in his home city, Bristol, Banksy's works began appearing on trains and walls in 1993, and by 2001 his blocky, spray-painted works had cropped up all over the United Kingdom. Typically crafting his images with spray paint and cardboard stencils, Banksy is able to achieve a meticulous level of detail. His aesthetic is clean and instantly readable due to his knack for reducing complex political and social statements to simple visual elements.

\r\n\r\n\t\t\t

His graffiti, paintings and screenprints use whimsy and humour to satirically critique war, capitalism, hypocrisy and greed — with not even the Royal family safe from his anti-establishment wit.

",1975,"British","signed 'Banksy' lower right; further signed and dated 'Banksy 2016' on the reverse","148 x 172 cm. (58 1/4 x 67 3/4 in.)","acrylic on ply, in artist's frame","Executed in 2016, this work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Pest Control.","Acquired directly from Pest Control Office by the present owner","Bethlehem, The Walled Off Hotel, March 2017 - March 2019","PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE ASIAN COLLECTION","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201957_001.jpg",[675,676,677,678,679],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201957_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201957_003.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201957_004.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201957_005.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201957_006.jpg",[681,682,683],"Ο","◆","✱",[],[686],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":687,"_308":688,"_310":689},18689,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 2316",[690],{"_303":42,"_313":691,"_315":692,"_317":-5},22439,"

“The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It's people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.”
\n— Banksy, Wall and Piece 2005

\n\n

The present lot The Leopard and Lamb by Banksy is a captivating portrayal that seamlessly integrates the biblical symbolism with the artist’s contemporary socio-political commentary. Exhibited at Banksy’s renowned Walled-Off Hotel in Bethlehem, situated close to the separation wall, and captures a moment of harmony. The work depicts a leopard lying peacefully beside a lamb, invoking the prophetic imagery from Isaiah 11:6: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat.” This visual metaphor not only enriches the biblical reference of natural enemies in serene coexistence but also subtly critiques war and conflict, urging a reflection on the universal hope of peace.

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Walled-Off for Peace

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Born in Bristol, UK, Banksy’s identity remains shrouded in mystery, enhancing the enigmatic appeal of his work. Emerging from the graffiti scene in the early 1990s, Banksy's distinctive stencilling technique has been pivotal to contemporary art. Notably, the Walled-Off Hotel encapsulates a blend of art, politics, and tourism, engaging its guests with original artworks by Banksy. The hotel also houses a museum which commemorates the centennial of British control over Palestine, highlighting the prolonged period of turmoil and conflict that ensued. The hotel also supports local culture through an exhibition space for Palestinian artists. In building this hotel, the artist is once again proactively reflecting his consistent anti-war theme throughout his career. This project aims to potentially map and eliminate conflicts between the two countries, and to enhance and promote the development and tourism in the region.

\n\n

The composition, set against a stark background filled with signature graffiti, draws the viewer’s focus immediately to the central figures, encapsulated with a golden frame that adds an element of sanctity and preciousness. Lying together in tranquil pose, the seemingly predator and prey serve as a powerful allegory of reconciliation and cohabitation. The visual composition is stark and powerful, with the lustrous frame that elevates the symbolic gravity of the scene. Banksy’s use of a muted palette and the soft contrast between the sleek fur of the leopard and the soft wool of the lamb enhances the painting’s dreamlike and poignant quality, suggesting that such peace could be both a vision and an attainable reality.

\n\n

\"\" — The present lot installed at Walled-Off Hotel

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Banksy’s Framed Works and Editions

\n\n

Banksy’s oeuvre as a highly renowned street artist is punctuated with a variety of unique framed works, each distinct in its thematic exploration and execution. Unlike his art on the streets, these framed pieces allow the artist to delve deeper into the nuances of his subjects, offering a more controlled and refined commentary. The rarity of such works adds to their allure and significance, making them highly celebrated objects. The present lot also stands as a testament to this important aspect of his practice, showcasing not only his artistic versatility but also his act of engaging with the complex, philosophical and social issues within the confines of the canvas and frame. Similar to the present lot as a unique work, Phillips had previously offered Forgive Us Our Trespassing, featuring a young boy in a pose of prayer, set against a backdrop of imposing stained glass, merging themes of innocence with institutional critique. Additionally, the Banksquiat series pays homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat, confronting issues of identity, fame, as well as the themes of injustice in society. Like the present lot, these works showcase the artist’s adeptness at harnessing art as a tool for social commentary, while also engaging with the broader narratives of art history and its contemporary implications.

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\"\" — Left: *Forgive Us Our Trespassing*, sold by Phillips London, 13 October 2023
\nRight: *Banksquiat. Boy and Dog in Stop and Search*, sold by Phillips New York, 17 May 2023

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During the same period as the creation of the present lot, Banksy was actively engaging in street art projects that addressed socio-political issues, notably around the refugee crisis in Europe. For instance, his 2016 mural ‘Les Misérables’ at the French Embassy in London critiqued the use of tear gas on refugees at Calais, highlighting the disparity between human rights ideals and reality. This piece, like the present lot, employs potent symbols—the tearful face of Cosette against the backdrop of the French flag—to provoke public discourse on pressing humanitarian issues. At the heart of Banksy’s practice lies a profound advocacy for peace. The Leopard and Lamb encapsulates this vision as in many of his projects on the streets, proposing an ideal where adversaries not only coexist but do so in peaceful accord. This artwork serves as both a hopeful aspiration and a critical reflection on the state of global conflicts, particularly in the setting of the divide. By invoking such powerful symbolism, Banksy not only challenges viewers to reconsider their own views on peace and conflict but also elevates the discourse around what role art can play in the international arena of dialogue and reconciliation.

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\"\" — Banksy, *Les Misérables*, 2016
\nArtwork: Courtesy of Pest Control

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Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Banksy is one of the leading and most provocative street artists of his generation. His stencils are amongst the most instantly recognisable and defining images of contemporary British art, contributing to Banksy being voted the nation’s favourite artist in 2019.

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Inspired by the thriving graffiti community in his home city, Bristol, Banksy's works began appearing on trains and walls in 1993, and by 2001 his blocky, spray-painted works had cropped up all over the United Kingdom. Typically crafting his images with spray paint and cardboard stencils, Banksy is able to achieve a meticulous level of detail. His aesthetic is clean and instantly readable due to his knack for reducing complex political and social statements to simple visual elements.

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One of the most famous American artists of all time, Jean-Michel Basquiat first gained notoriety as a subversive graffiti-artist and street poet in the late 1970s. Operating under the pseudonym SAMO, he emblazoned the abandoned walls of the city with his unique blend of enigmatic symbols, icons and aphorisms. A voracious autodidact, by 1980, at 22-years of age, Basquiat began to direct his extraordinary talent towards painting and drawing. His powerful works brilliantly captured the zeitgeist of the 1980s New York underground scene and catapulted Basquiat on a dizzying meteoric ascent to international stardom that would only be put to a halt by his untimely death in 1988.

Basquiat's iconoclastic oeuvre revolves around the human figure. Exploiting the creative potential of free association and past experience, he created deeply personal, often autobiographical, images by drawing liberally from such disparate fields as urban street culture, music, poetry, Christian iconography, African-American and Aztec cultural histories and a broad range of art historical sources.

",1960,1988,"American","signed, titled, dedicated and dated '\"NATIVE CARRYING GUNS + BIBLES AMORITES ON SAFARI\" Jean-Michel Basquiat 1982 to Glenn O'Brien' on the reverse","183.2 x 182.2 cm. (72 1/8 x 71 3/4 in.)","acrylic and oil stick on canvas on wood supports","Executed in 1982.","Glenn O’ Brien, New York (acquired directly from the artist)\r\nAnnina Nosei Gallery, New York (acquired from the above)\r\nFrancesco Pellizzi, New York (acquired from the above in 1983)\r\nThence by descent to the present owner","Helen A. Harrison, \"Anthropologist Collects With a Passion\", The New York Times, 30 April, 1989, p. 23 \r\nBell Hooks, \"Altars of Sacrifice, Re-membering Basquiat\", Art in America, vol. 81, no. 6, June 1993, pp. 71-72 (illustrated, p. 72) \r\nRichard D. Marshall and Jean-Louis Prat, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Paris, 1996, fig. 37, pp. 40–41, 48–49 (illustrated, p. 40) \r\nJean-Michel Basquiat, exh. cat., Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, 1996, fig. 37, p. 116 (illustrated)\r\nTony Shafrazi, Jeffrey Deitch and Richard D. Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, New York, 1999, pp. 164, 315 (illustrated, p. 164) \r\nRichard D. Marshall and Jean-Louis Prat, Jean-Michel Basquiat, vol. II, Paris, 2000, fig. 35, no. 5, pp. 44–45, 140–141 (illustrated, pp. 45, 140) \r\nHenry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Books Higginbotham, African American Lives, New York, 2004, p. 54 (illustrated) \r\nTimothy Bewes, The Event of Postcolonial Shame, Princeton and Oxford, 2011, n.p. (illustrated on the front cover) \r\nDoris Berger, Projected Art History: Biopics, Celebrity Culture, and the Popularizing of American Art, New York and London, 2014, p. 270, note 29\r\nJordana Moore Saggese, Reading Basquiat: Exploring Ambivalence in American Art, Berkley and Los Angeles, 2014, pl. 13, pp. 34-35, 122, 207 (illustrated, n.p.) \r\nRuth E. Iskin, ed., Re-envisioning the Contemporary Art Canon. Perspectives in a Global World, New York and London, 2017, p. 66 \r\nJean-Michel Basquiat, exh. cat., Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, 2018, no. 5, pp. 302-303 (illustrated, p. 303) \r\nHans Werner Holzwarth, Benedikt Taschen and Eleanor Nairne, eds., Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Art of Storytelling, Cologne, 2018, pp. 170, 494 (illustrated, p. 170)","Hempstead, Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University; Bethlehem, Lehigh University Art Galleries, 1979–1989 American, Italian, Mexican Art from the Collection of Francesco Pellizzi, 16 April–2 November, 1989, no. 3, p. 58 (illustrated on the front cover) \r\nNew York, Whitney Museum of American Art; Houston, The Menil Collection; Des Moines Art Center; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Jean-Michel Basquiat, 23 October, 1992–9 January, 1994, pp. 138, 264 (illustrated, p. 138) \r\nHouston, The Menil Collection, 17 Contemporaries: Artists from America, Italy, and Mexico - the Eighties, 11 June–15 August, 1999 \r\nBrooklyn Museum; Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art; Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts, Basquiat, 11 March, 2005–12 February, 2006, pp. 68, 224 (illustrated, p. 68) \r\nHouston, The Menil Collection, NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith, 27 June–21 September, 2008, pl. 95, p. 14 (illustrated, n.p.) \r\nLiverpool, Tate Museum, Afro-Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic, 29 January–25 April, 2010, pp. 18, 138-139, 214 (illustrated, p. 139) \r\nNew York, The Brant Foundation, Jean-Michel Basquiat, 6 March–14 May, 2019","BASQUIAT’S WORLD: WORKS FORMERLY FROM THE COLLECTION OF FRANCESCO PELLIZZI","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201290_001.jpg",[739,740,741,742,743,744],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201290_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201290_003.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201290_004.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201290_005.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201290_006.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201290_007.jpg",[681,682,683],[],[748,755,766],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":749,"_308":750,"_310":751},18789,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 48920",[752],{"_303":42,"_313":753,"_315":754,"_317":-5},22542,"

In Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, 1982, a Black figure dominates the canvas, arms raised to the sky, confronting a colonial poacher. The present artwork evinces Basquiat's visual poetry, as layered linguistic meaning intertwines with vivid imagery to provoke thought and reflection on themes including slavery and empire. The exposed stretcher enhances its gritty narrative, infusing it with a raw, unrestrained essence and a near-sculptural presence characteristic of Basquiat’s celebrated stretcher paintings. Reduced to caricatures, Basquiat’s figures symbolise 'native' and 'coloniser.' They stand as a poignant critique of colonial commerce, encapsulating broader themes of colonisation, commercialisation, and African American history. In Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, Basquiat's art amalgamates diverse cultural influences, ranging from the Bible to African tribal masks, with textual references to money, value, authenticity, and ownership. This synthesis creates a unique iconography reflective of his New York experience as well as his Caribbean ethnicity and West-African heritage.

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\"\" — Present work installed at The Brant Foundation, Jean-Michel Basquiat, March 6 – May 14, 2019. Image: Tom Powel Imaging, Artwork: © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York

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The present work was created in 1982, a significant year in Basquiat's career marked by his first solo show in the United States, staged at Annina Nosei Gallery in New York. The work was first owned by the influential author Glenn O’Brien (and is in fact dedicated to him on the reverse), before being acquired by Francesco Pellizzi in 1983. An inspired collector and friend of the artist, Professor Pellizzi was the co-founder and editor of the journal Res, Anthropology, and Aesthetics, published by the Peabody at Harvard and Chicago University Press. Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari was first showcased in an exhibition dedicated to the Collection of Francesco Pellizzi, held at the Hofstra Museum in New York in 1989. It is prominently featured on the cover of the accompanying catalogue. The painting has been extensively discussed in the broader scholarly literature on the artist and has been featured in numerous highly acclaimed traveling retrospectives, including exhibitions organised by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 1992, the Brooklyn Museum in New York in 2005 and, most recently, the Brant Foundation in New York in 2019 where it was part of a dramatic salon-style wall grid of wooden support paintings from 1982.

\n\n

"In Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari…it is the white explorer-trader-anthropologist (with his gun)—paired with the artist’s own grotesque black-self-caricature-as-the 'native'—that is nothing but a diaphanous outlined ghostly presence, framed by the evocation, in the surrounding ironic-sarcastic text of disjointed fragments of colonial 'history,' where narratives of invasion, exploitation, oppression, and slavery flicker about as remnants of half-learned, half-forgotten pedagogical chronicles."
\n— Francesco Pellizzi

\n\n

\"\" — Francesco Pellizzi seated in front of *Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari*, 1982, n.d. Photograph by Jeannette Montgomery Barron. Image: © Jeannette Montgomery Barron / Trunk Archive, Artwork: © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York

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Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari belongs to a distinctive group of paintings executed during Basquiat's meteoric ascent in 1982. This important work, distinguished by its exposed stretcher bars fixed at the corners, belongs to a series lauded by art critic Richard Marshall as Basquiat's 'most important group of paintings.'ⁱ Painted after severing ties with his former dealer and facing criticism from critics who argued that his rising international fame and ties to SoHo galleries were causing his work to lose its edge, the adoption of this daring new format signified that the young artist was unwilling to adhere to conventional norms.ⁱⁱ Basquiat introduced the first stretcher-bar paintings in an anarchic and intentionally 'messy' installation at his debut solo show at Patti Astor’s Fun Gallery on the Lower East Side in November 1982. The reception of the new work was overwhelmingly positive. Critic Nicolas Moufarrege proclaimed at the time that, 'the paintings [were] more authentic than ever.'ⁱⁱⁱ Examples of the exposed stretcher bar paintings can be found in esteemed museum collections worldwide, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Broad Art Foundation in Los Angeles, the Menil Collection in Houston, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

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\"\" — The present work illustrated on the cover of *1979–1989 American, Italian, Mexican Art from the Collection of Francesco Pellizzi,* Hempstead, Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University; Bethlehem, Lehigh University Art Galleries, 1989

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Marshall enthused that works with this unique construction embody Basquiat's deliberate dismantling of traditional canvas painting, infusing it with a raw, primitive aesthetic reminiscent of African shields and Spanish devotional objects.^iv The visible stretcher on Basquiat’s canvas serves as the antithesis of a frame; it dismantles and de-frames the already unframed picture-object. Informal and overtly handmade, this structure imbues the history of painting on canvas—directly linked to the Western tradition of art—with a more sculptural, decorative, or functional legacy aligned with non-Western artistic practices. Additionally, it nods to a material vocabulary of assemblage and the found object, famously championed in postwar American art by neo-Dada practitioners like Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.

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“Basquiat produced unprecedented combinations of words and images…that are actually sign-constructions, which, as representational wholes, acquire the disquieting nature of 'speaking objects' ... [The visible stretchers] also stress the work's character as a receptacle of signs… by Basquiat's implicit admission [this] would not have been possible without the precedent of Rauschenberg's vertiginously innovative and wholly American 'naïveté'”
\n— Francesco Pellizzi

\n\n

\"\" — Original Polaroid taken by Annina Nosei of the present work installed at her Prince Street gallery in the early 1980s. Artwork: © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York

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The present work was completed in October 1982 at Basquiat’s new Crosby Street studio. Stephen Torton, his former studio assistant, was entrusted with sourcing materials to build the stretcher. 'I would go out in the middle of the night and find the stuff,' Torton recalls, likening the process to making sculpture.^v Indeed, the simplicity of the support structure in the present work enhances the credibility and legitimacy of its raw expression. In conjunction with Basquiat’s opening at Fun Gallery a few weeks later, Rene Ricard highlighted the shift in the artist’s practice, writing a feature for the November issue of Artforum that exclaimed, 'He’s finally figured out a way to make a stretcher that…is so consistent with the imagery… They’re like something left in a small town after the carnival pulled out, hung in a shack, like a billboard in a migrant worker’s shed in a Walker Evans photo; they do look like signs, but signs for a product modern civilization has no use for.'^vi

\n\n

Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari brims with insouciant energy, characterised by drips, scrawls, outline used in suggestion of form, and textual interventions reminiscent of Basquiat’s past output as a street artist in the late 1970s. During this time, he gained prominence as a street poet using the pseudonym SAMO©, leaving his mark as a relentless tagger across the city's deteriorating infrastructure. Though the present work is executed on canvas rather than a public wall, Basquiat’s incorporation of visible wooden supports, extending beyond the picture plane and interacting with the surrounding space, powerfully evokes his deep-rooted connection to the urban environment, reminiscent of his formative years when the cityscape served as his primary canvas.

\n\n

\"\" — Andy Warhol, Little Electric Chair, painted in 1964-1965. Formerly in The Collection of S.I. Newhouse. Sold for $8,220,000 in Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale on 15 May 2019 at Christie’s in New York. Artwork: © 2024 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

\n\n

Juxtaposing the rough-hewn materiality of the present work’s construction, its imagery is elegantly suspended within a clear and refined pictorial space. The syncopated rhythm of line, language, and insignia set against a spare, flat expanse of adobe or clay-like color conjures the flattened profile and hieratic logic of hieroglyphics or ancient cave paintings. Artist and critic Lorraine O’Grady recalls a conversation at Basquiat’s loft on Crosby Street sometime in the Spring of 1983 where he 'talked about art, performance, and the places he’d been.' O’Grady explains that, as they talked, 'he sat in the middle of a canvas writing with oilstick.'^vii 'I’m not making paintings,' he said, 'I’m making tablets.'^viii

\n\n

“I’m always amazed at how people come up with things. Like Jean-Michel. How did he come up with the words he puts all over everything, his way of making a point without overstating the case, using one or two words he reveals a political acuity, gets the viewer going in the direction he wants, the illusion of the bombed-over wall.”
\n— Rene Ricard

\n\n

Words in Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari wield as much power as his graphic iconography. By merging the 'cut-up' method popularised by poet William Burroughs with the sampling techniques pioneered by early hip-hop artists like Fab 5 Freddy, Basquiat fashioned artwork that was uniquely innovative yet deeply grounded in a rich linguistic legacy. In the present work, Basquiat leverages the inherent flexibility of language to forge a lyrical fusion of poetry and street-action art transposed onto canvas. Art historian Robert Storr termed the effect 'Eye Rap' in reference to the captivating visual rhythm and syncopation of Basquiat’s inimitable dialect.^ix In Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, Basquiat’s painted rap challenges linguistic representations of subjugation, oppression, and genocide. He scrawls 'MISSIONARIES,' 'POACHERS,' and 'CORTEZ,' inviting contemplation of the narrative associations evoked by these words.

\n\n

The canvas is replete with billboard-style proclamations advertising '$KIN$' and 'TUSK$,' while the painting’s protagonist holds up his own sign-within-a-sign in the form of a crate with 'ROYAL SALT INC©' emblazoned on the front. This signboard, remarkably similar to the smaller works in Basquiat's stretcher-bar painting series, adds a captivating layer of comparison and self-referential imagery to the composition. Arrows and lines provide a semblance of order or enumeration, yet their rationale is solely visual; words are struck through, revised, hemmed in, punctuated, and underlined. At the bottom, beneath his crown, copyright claim, and codes of currency, Basquiat wryly opines 'I WON’T EVEN MENTION GOLD (ORO),' a fitting phrase for an artist who – even at the height of his success – delighted in questioning the value and nature of art.

\n\n

"I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them."
\n— Jean-Michel Basquiat

\n\n

Basquiat's aesthetic sensibilities were shaped by his upbringing in a richly diverse immigrant milieu, and his artistic concerns encompassed not only the enduring legacy of Africa in North America, but also extended to all forms of oppression and exploitation. In a comparably charged 1982 piece, The Whitney Museum of American Art’s Untitled (Plaid), Basquiat confronts the exploitation of Chinese labor in America by intertwining currency symbols with the stark declaration that the construction of the Western United States railroad was 'BUILT BY MEN OF CHINA FOR CHUMP CHANGE OF 1850.'

\n",{"_303":42,"_304":756,"_306":757,"_308":758,"_310":759},"RichTextCarousel",18791,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 82376",[760,763],{"_303":42,"_313":761,"_315":762,"_317":-5},22544,"

\"\" — Jean-Michel Basquiat, *Untitled (Plaid)*, 1982.
\nThe Whitney Museum of Art, New York. Image: Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala, Artwork: © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York

\n\n

\n",{"_303":42,"_313":764,"_315":765,"_317":-5},22545,"

\"\" — Robert Rauschenberg, *K 24976 S*, 1956.
\nPhiladelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania.

\n\n

\n",{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":767,"_308":768,"_310":769},18790,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 39466",[770],{"_303":42,"_313":771,"_315":772,"_317":-5},22543,"

Through an integration of image and text in Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, Basquiat directly addresses the conflicted history of Black and indigenous labor at the service of its own exploitation. Above the figures of a Black native and a white settler, the top text reads 'COLONIALIZATION: PART TWO IN A SERIES, VOL. VI,' connecting the image to an ongoing history of racial violence. Basquiat’s use of language was largely poetic and functioned as a commentary on the power of words to shape our understanding of the world. It becomes important to note specific connotations of meaning. While colonization is the process of establishing a colony, 'COLONIALIZATION' refers to 'the act of bringing into subjection or subjugation by colonializing,' implying the suppression of a people, in addition to the appropriation of pre-populated land.^x

\n\n

“In The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin declared that ‘for the horrors’ of black life ‘there has been almost no language.’ He insisted that it was the privacy of black experience that needed ‘to be recognized in language.’ Basquiat’s work gives that private anguish artistic expression.”
\n— Bell Hooks

\n\n

In Natives Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, Basquiat undertakes a poignant exploration of the problematic concept of Primitivism within the context of colonialism. Through a masterful interplay of symbols and references, Basquiat deconstructs and confronts the notions of power, subjugation, and cultural erasure inherent in colonialist ideologies. The title itself, with its deliberate use of the term 'Natives,' immediately invokes the dehumanising lens through which colonial powers viewed indigenous peoples, relegating them to the status of the 'primitive' or the 'noble savage.' Basquiat astutely critiques this perspective by juxtaposing guns and Bibles, representing tools of physical and psychological control wielded under colonial rule. The presence of these objects underscores the dual mechanisms of coercion and cultural imperialism employed by colonisers. Compounding this, Basquiat incorporates a potent biblical allusion by referencing the Amorites, an ancient civilisation known for its classical culture and eventual conquest by the Hittites. By drawing parallels between this historical narrative and the contemporary realities of colonialism, Basquiat highlights the destructive impact of colonisation on indigenous cultures and traditions.

\n\n

Charting a course from '~~JOLLY~~ GOOD MONEY IN SAVAGES' to 'GOD,' 'TUSK$,' and '$KIN$,' Basquiat’s use of dollar signs in place of s’s serves to ironise the exploitative ownership of both indigenous peoples and natural resources by colonial powers and Western capital. The deletion of the crown above the Black man's head, typically used by Basquiat to signify royalty, further serves as a potent commentary on the erasure of indigenous sovereignty and agency under colonial rule. He cites the names of historical colonisers, repeating variations of 'CORTEZ' like an incantation illustrating the interlocking presence of religion in the violent conquest of the Americas. An arrow points to 'GOLD, (ORO),' implicating Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conquistador responsible for the fall of the Aztec Empire in the 16th century. Above, 'LANDAU, BISHOP' has been crossed out, referencing Diego de Landa Calderón, a bishop of the Franciscan order and leader of the Spanish Inquisition in Yucatán who instituted a campaign against idolatry in the name of the church.

\n\n

\"\" — Left: Faustino Pérez, Solidarity with Zimbabwe, 1970. Published by OSPAAAL (The Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa & Latin America). The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
\nRight: Detail of the present lot

\n\n

Central to the composition are two figures: a Black man holding a wooden sign bearing the logo 'ROYAL SALT INC©' and a heavily armed white man wearing a pith helmet of the kind routinely issued to European military personnel serving overseas in hot climates from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Here, Basquiat employs 'INC©' to imply the economic and political significance of controlling the distribution of natural products, linking it to human subjugation through his use of 'SALT' (followed by another, crossed-out copyright symbol) as a commodity reference. The symbol itself connotes a legally binding lifetime ownership, while the implication of its excessive use in this case evokes a nightmarish satire of greed. Primarily associated with the British Empire, the pith helmet, which Basquiat mocks in the present work with his reference to monarchy and use of the partially crossed-out Britishism '~~JOLLY~~ GOOD,' has come to be seen as an archetypal symbol of colonial power. In the 1970s, it even featured in poster art produced by OSPAAAL (The Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa & Latin America). Basquiat, born to Puerto Rican and Haitian parents, lived in Puerto Rico from 1974 to 1976, overlapping with the end of the island's Golden Age of Political Poster Art (1957–1973).^xi This likely heightened his awareness of the highly politicized Puerto Rican art scene, particularly its focus on the colonial condition.

\n\n

In her 1993 essay for Artforum, where she deconstructs dismissals of Basquiat’s paintings by white critics who found them derivative or 'primitive,' Bell Hooks discussed Basquiat’s fragmented portrayal of the Black body as being 'half-formed or somehow mutilated.'^xii Of the present work, she expounds that 'the black male body becomes, iconographically, a sign of lack and absence…The painting Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari (1982) graphically evokes images of incomplete blackness.'^xiii The Black figure in the scene is simultaneously richly described and rigidly posed, an extension of the framing device holding a facsimile of itself, and still somehow fading away. The most detailed passage of multicolored acrylic and oilstick, the neck and head, still appears skeletal and see-through, with visible vertebrae and facial bones. More mask-like than human, it conjures a vocabulary of archetypal images rich with anthropological resonance.

\n\n

He formed a strong and lasting bond with Robert Farris Thompson, a prominent scholar of African art, who, captivated by Basquiat's dynamic painting style, analyzed his work within the framework of post-colonial thought. Thompson acknowledged the potency of pieces like Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, describing them as: 'Incantations of [Basquiat’s] blackness, incantations of what he was afraid of… He’s like a classical African drummer, just translating his nervousness into art. It was as if he was trying to turn his fears into creative energy.'^xiv

\n\n

“I’ve never been to Africa. I’m an artist who has been influenced by his New York environment. But I have a cultural memory: I don’t need to look for it, it exists. It’s over there, in Africa. That doesn’t mean that I have to go live there. Our cultural memory follows us everywhere, wherever we live.”
\n— Jean-Michel Basquiat

\n\n

In Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, Basquiat adopts a visual language used earlier by Picasso and the Cubists: facial features are simplified to a few shapes, including an exaggerated triangle nose and large rounded eyes, rendered deliberately in a 'primitive' style. In 1983, Diego Cortez, curator of New York/New Wave, bestowed upon Basquiat the title of the 'Black Picasso,' an association that was intended to be flattering but was ultimately demeaning. Nevertheless, the moniker was echoed by critics during his lifetime, who equated Basquiat’s rapid rise to widespread fame to Picasso’s celebrity, as well as mutual aesthetic interests. However, Basquiat’s engagement with European modernism is far from straightforward; it presents a complex, ambivalent relationship that defies easy classification. This complexity is exemplified in the present work, where Basquiat's intentionally 'primitive' rendering of facial features reflects his interest in non-Western masks as a means of cultural exploration from the perspective of a man of African descent. Concurrently, his engagement with the aesthetics of primitivism represents a self-aware critique of modernism's appropriation of such imagery. Thomas McEvilley fittingly described this as 'a canny reversal of tactics,' highlighting Basquiat's ironic subversion of European art history's influence. Basquiat here challenges established narratives, rewriting the dialogue to assert his own cultural perspective.

\n\n

Through its poignant critique of the imposition of Western ideologies onto indigenous cultures, Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, lays the groundwork for Basquiat's deeper engagement with grand historical themes. It foreshadows Basquiat's large-scale history paintings of 1983, which explore themes of the Black diaspora, power dynamics, and racial inequality, echoing concerns raised in the present work. As an important precursor to his iconic multi-panel narrative paintings, this painting exemplifies Basquiat's commitment to challenging dominant narratives and provoking critical reflection on history and society through his distinctive visual language.

\n\n

Collector's Digest

\n\n

Kevin Young is the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. He previously served as the director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. An award-winning author of fourteen books of poetry and prose, Young also serves as the poetry editor of the New Yorker. In 1991, just three years after Jean-Michel Basquiat’s death, Young began writing a series of poems inspired by the artist’s dynamic work. Individual verses from this series have appeared in The New Yorker, Grand Street, Gulf Coast, Hambone, and Global City Review. The following poem, inspired by the present work, is reproduced from the 2001 anthology To Repel Ghosts, Young’s ambitious homage to Basquiat’s life and legacy.

\n\n

$\"\"$

\n\n

In 2021, a notable collaboration between Tiffany & Co. and the estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat brought the artwork Equals Pi into the public eye through an advertising campaign. Tiffany & Co. has also launched an Advents Calendar featuring the painting. Equals Pi, completed in the same prolific year as Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, was previously unseen by the public and had been part of Tiffany's private collection. Equals Pi shares several thematic and stylistic elements with Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari. Both canvases are imbued with Basquiat's iconic visual language, which includes a complex interplay of text, vibrant colour, and symbolic imagery. In Equals Pi, Basquiat's use of cryptic symbols and equations challenges the viewer's perceptions of logic and mathematics, fields traditionally viewed as absolute and unerring. This interrogation of accepted norms mirrors the thematic challenge against historical narratives and colonial histories evident in Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari. This collaboration vividly demonstrates how Basquiat’s legacy remains highly influential, not only in terms of aesthetics and art history, but also how he is still an active participant in the ongoing conversations about the intersections of art, culture, luxury and commerce.

\n\n

ⁱ Richard D. Marshall and Jean-Louis Prat, Jean-Michel Basquiat, vol. II, cat. Rais., Paris, 2000, p. 279.

\n\n

ⁱⁱM. Franklin Sirmans, ed., 'Chronology from exhibition Jean-Michel Basquiat at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York October 23, 1992-February 14, 1993,' The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat, updated 2018.

\n\n

ⁱⁱⁱ Nicolas Moufarrege, quoted in Pat Hoban, Jean-Michel Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art, London, 1998, p. 145.

\n\n

^ivRichard D. Marshall, 'Repelling Ghosts,' in Exh. Cat., Jean-Michel Basquiat, Palacio Episcopal de Malaga, Malaga, 1996, p. 140.

\n\n

^vStephen Torton, quoted in Pat Hoban, Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art, London 1998, p. 172 and p.106

\n\n

^vi Rene Ricard, 'The Pledge of Allegiance,' Artforum, vol. 21, no. 3, November 1982.

\n\n

^vii Lorraine O’Grady, 'Basquiat and the Black Art World,' Artforum, vol. 31, no. 8, April 1993.

\n\n

^viiiJean-Michel Basquiat, quoted in Ibid.

\n\n

^ix Dieter Buchhart, ed., Words Are All We Have: Paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat, exh. cat., New York, 2016.

\n\n

^xAs defined in Collins English Dictionary

\n\n

^xiWilliam Cordova, 'The Price of Chaufa: Sacred Cinema and the Roots of Revolutionary Celluloid,' The Brooklyn Rail, September 2022.

\n\n

^xii Bell Hooks, 'From the Archives: Altars of Sacrifice, Re-membering Basquiat,' Art in America, June 1, 1993.

\n\n

^xiiiIbid.

\n\n

^xivRobert Farris Thompson, cited in Phoebe Hoban, Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art, New York 1998, p. 249.

\n",{"_194":195,"_323":197},{"_185":775,"_187":240,"_189":776,"_224":793,"_226":227,"_228":794,"_230":-5,"_231":232,"_233":234,"_235":236,"_237":795,"_239":796,"_241":797,"_243":797,"_244":798,"_246":799,"_248":-5,"_249":250,"_251":-5,"_252":-5,"_253":33,"_254":33,"_255":800,"_257":801,"_259":33,"_260":33,"_261":42,"_262":33,"_263":33,"_264":802,"_266":-5,"_267":803,"_268":-5,"_269":-5,"_270":271,"_272":273,"_274":170,"_275":804,"_277":805,"_279":358,"_281":806,"_283":807,"_285":170,"_287":170,"_289":808,"_290":170,"_291":809,"_293":810,"_296":814,"_298":815,"_300":816,"_318":-5,"_37":319,"_39":320,"_321":824,"_324":170,"_325":42},"203712",{"_191":-5,"_192":777,"_202":780},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":778,"_200":779},20000000,13000000,[781,784,786,789,792],{"_194":205,"_196":206,"_198":782,"_200":783},2020000,1310000,{"_194":210,"_196":210,"_198":651,"_200":785},1500000,{"_194":214,"_196":215,"_198":787,"_200":788},2360000,1530000,{"_194":219,"_196":220,"_198":790,"_200":791},2560000,1670000,{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":778,"_200":779},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/yayoi-kusama/203712","11","1-932TZD",21,"Pumpkin",3748,"Yayoi Kusama",9100000,13760000,[],"

Named "the world's most popular artist" in 2015, it's not hard to see why Yayoi Kusama continues to dazzle contemporary art audiences globally. From her signature polka dots—"fabulous," she calls them—to her mirror-and-light Infinity Rooms, Kusama's multi-dimensional practice of making art elevates the experience of immersion. To neatly pin an artistic movement onto Kusama would be for naught: She melds and transcends the aesthetics and theories of many late twentieth century movements, including Pop Art and Minimalism, without ever taking a singular path.

\n\n

As an nonagenarian who still lives in Tokyo and steadfastly paints in her studio every day, Kusama honed her punchy cosmic style in New York City in the 1960s. During this period, she staged avant-garde happenings, which eventually thrust her onto the international stage with a series of groundbreaking exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in the 1980s and the 45th Venice Biennale in 1993. She continues to churn out paintings and installations at inspiring speed, exhibiting internationally in nearly every corner of the globe, and maintains a commanding presence on the primary market and at auction.

\n\n

\n","signed, titled and dated 'Yayoi Kusama 2000 Pumpkin [in Kanji] on the reverse","37.7 x 45.5 cm. (14 7/8 x 17 7/8 in.)","Painted in 2000, this work is accompanied by a registration card issued by the artist's studio.","Keio Department Store, Tokyo\r\nPrivate Collection\r\nPrivate Collection (acquired from the above)\r\nSotheby's, Hong Kong, 6 October 2022, lot 532\r\nAcquired at the above sale by the present owner","PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE ASIAN COLLECTION","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/203712_001.jpg",[811,812,813],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/203712_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/203712_003.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/203712_004.jpg",[683],[],[817],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":818,"_308":819,"_310":820},18688,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 85",[821],{"_303":42,"_313":822,"_315":823,"_317":-5},22438,"

“Pumpkins bring about poetic peace in my mind.
\nPumpkins talk to me.
\nPumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins.”
\n— Yayoi Kusama

\n\n

Genesis of an Icon

\n\n

Yayoi Kusama’s lifelong journey into art is intertwined with her personal experiences, particularly her struggles with mental health and her unique perceptions of the world around her. Born into a conservative family in rural Japan, Kusama was exposed early on to the seed nurseries owned by her family, where she first encountered the natural shapes and forms that would permeate her work later on. It was in these fields that Kusama first found solace in the patterns of nature, particularly in pumpkins, which struck her with their intriguing bulbous forms and tessellated skins.

\n\n

From a young age, Kusama experienced vivid hallucinations which involves lights, auras and dots. These visions both terrified and fascinated her, leading her to seek refuge in art where she could express and process these experiences. This compulsive repetition of patterns in her work is not only a reflection of her hallucinatory experiences but also a therapeutic practice, acting as a way for her to exert control over her overwhelming visions by confining them within the canvas.

\n\n

\n\n

Pumpkins, Nets, Dots

\n\n

The present lot stands as a quintessential representation of Kusama’s mature practice. The work captures the viewer’s attention at the first glance with its stark, vibrant, and contrasting colours as well as the hypnotic patterns. Rendered in an almost surreal shade of yellow, the background and the polka dots are in a striking deep black, contrasting life and oblivion.

\n\n

Most notably, the present lot encapsulates three most desirable Kusama elements: pumpkin as a subject, filled with polka dots, and rendered in an infinity-net background. The polka dots here are more than decorative, they are one of the mediums through which Kusama explores the concept of infinity. As the dots expand over and beyond the pumpkin’s form, they suggest a continuity that extends beyond the tangible world into the infinite. Kusama's use of the pumpkin—a humble, earthy vegetable often associated with growth and harvest—further imbues the painting with themes of life cycles, rebirth, and connectivity with nature.

\n\n

“I adore pumpkins.
\nAs my spiritual home since childhood,
\nand with their infinite spirituality,
\nthey contribute to the peace of mankind across the world
\nand to the celebration of humanity. And by doing so,
\nthey make me feel at peace.”
\n— Yayoi Kusama

\n\n

\"\" — *All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins*, Yayoi Kusama, 2016. Artwork:
\n© YAYOI KUSAMA

\n\n

The crisp texture of the present lot, achieved through layers of thickly applied acrylic, adds a tactile dimension to the subject. The interactivity of her art and the command of her works upon viewers transcend the physical and emotional, which makes Kusama’s works ever so transformative. The pumpkin motif, as a result, acts as a portal through which one can explore the deeper questions of existence, reflecting Kusama’s lifelong fascination with the cosmic and the personal, the infinite, and the intimate.

\n\n

Enduring Influence and Lasting Legacy

\n\n

Following her voluntary admission into a psychiatric institution in the 1970s, the Center for international Contemporary Arts Retrospective in 1989 marked Kusama’s return to the international art stage. This was also the same decade in which she created a variety of pumpkin works. In 2000, when the present lot was created, she not only received the Minister of Education’s Art Encouragement Prize as well as the Foreign Minister’s Commendation in Japan, but also participated in the Biennale of Sydney in where she presented inflatable works at the Customs House.

\n\n

Kusama’s influence on contemporary art extends far beyond her iconic elements. Spanning over seven decades, her career has seen a constant innovation in pushing the boundaries of what art can be and do. Her commitment to art has never wavered, despite the hardships she encountered in her personal life, and her art certainly seeks to serve both as her connection to the world and her escape from it.

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

One of the most prominent and prolific artists working today, Yayoi Kusama’s practice blends painting, installation, sculpture, and performance to powerful effect. After moving to the United States in 1958, she became a leading member of the New York avant-garde art scene. She returned to Japan in the 1970s, choosing to reside in a mental health facility and work in a studio during the daytime. Kusama’s largest retrospective in Asia, Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now, at the M+ Museum in Hong Kong ran from 12 November 2022 to 14 May 2023. The exhibition featured 3 new works, and over 200 works across various international collections, the M+ collection as well as the artist’s own collection. This retrospective also travelled to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. In 2023, Kusama collaborated with Louis Vuitton, which encompassed over 450 individual items. The collaboration involved giant statues of the artist outside of the boutiques, with the artist’s signature motif, painted dots as the recurring theme.

\n",{"_194":195,"_323":197},{"_185":826,"_187":107,"_189":827,"_224":840,"_226":227,"_228":841,"_230":-5,"_231":232,"_233":234,"_235":236,"_237":842,"_239":843,"_241":844,"_243":844,"_244":798,"_246":799,"_248":-5,"_249":250,"_251":-5,"_252":-5,"_253":33,"_254":33,"_255":845,"_257":846,"_259":33,"_260":33,"_261":42,"_262":33,"_263":33,"_264":847,"_266":-5,"_267":803,"_268":-5,"_269":-5,"_270":271,"_272":273,"_274":170,"_275":848,"_277":849,"_279":358,"_281":850,"_283":851,"_285":170,"_287":852,"_289":853,"_290":170,"_291":854,"_293":855,"_296":858,"_298":859,"_300":860,"_318":-5,"_37":319,"_39":320,"_321":868,"_324":170,"_325":42},"204054",{"_191":-5,"_192":828,"_202":830},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":829,"_200":778},30000000,[831,833,835,837,839],{"_194":205,"_196":206,"_198":832,"_200":782},3030000,{"_194":210,"_196":210,"_198":834,"_200":651},3470000,{"_194":214,"_196":215,"_198":836,"_200":787},3540000,{"_194":219,"_196":220,"_198":838,"_200":790},3850000,{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":829,"_200":778},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/yayoi-kusama/204054","12","1-932TZO",22,"INFINITY NETS (ZGHEB)",14000000,25860000,[],"signed, titled and dated 'Yayoi Kusama 2007 \"INFINITY-NETS ZGHEB\"' on the reverse","194 x 194 cm. (76 3/8 x 76 3/8 in.)","Painted in 2007, this work is accompanied by a registration card issued by the artist's studio.","Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney\r\nAcquired from the above by the present owner","Sydney, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Yayoi Kusama, 26 April - 19 May 2007","PROPERTY FROM AN ESTEEMED PRIVATE COLLECTION","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/204054_001.jpg",[856,857],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/204054_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/204054_003.jpg",[683],[],[861],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":862,"_308":863,"_310":864},18673,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 80205",[865],{"_303":42,"_313":866,"_315":867,"_317":-5},22422,"

“This was my epic, summing up all I was. And the spell of the dots and the mesh enfolded me in a magical curtain of mysterious, invisible power.”
\n— Yayoi Kusama

\n\n

Yayoi Kusama’s iconic Net paintings have continually captivated audiences with their breathtaking aesthetics, intriguing psychological depths, and profound philosophical undertones. Beneath their stunning surfaces lies the boundless life energy that Kusama channels to thrive through her near century-long journey across hope and darkness, love and pain. The present lot, INFINITY NETS (ZGHEB) from 2007, envelops viewers within a sea of turbulent grey misty swirls, serving as a remarkable testament to Kusama’s skillful manipulation of touch, rhythm, and depth, infusing her art with renewed vitality.

\n\n

Kusama’s Life-long Mark-Making

\n\n

Kusama’s art is one deeply preoccupied with the building of her personal marks, achieved through her repetitive and nearly obsessional engagement with singular motifs, which usually begins with tiny painterly or sculptural units and moves on to take over the full body of the artistic medium. The net, which evokes notions of infinity, interconnectedness, and dissolution of self, is the earliest pattern that Kusama has been engaged with since 1958. The practice started as Kusama’s struggle with her mental illness, especially hallucinations that violently threatened her psychological entity: 'They began to cover the walls, the ceiling, and finally the whole universe. I was always standing at the center of the obsession, over the passionate accretion and repetition inside of me.'ⁱ Kusama’s earliest corpus of net paintings, for example, Untitled from 1959 (which achieved a remarkable record-breaking price of US$10.5 million at Phillips's New York auction in 2022), features tiny looping strokes in creamy white color, which gradually penetrate and overwhelm the monumental presence of a large dark canvas. Caught between a clinically clean monochrome surface and a turbulent plane interrupted by flicks of strokes, the painting is imbued with Kusama’s intense inner struggle and urgency.

\n\n

\"\" — Yayoi Kusama, *Untitled*, 1959
\nSold by Phillips New York, 18 May 2022
\nArtwork: © YAYOI KUSAMA

\n\n

Kusama’s impulse to imprint personal marks in her art was also informed by various factors within her life trajectory. Belonging to Japan’s first generation of trained women artists after the country’s 1945 educational reform, Kusama had to confront and navigate gender prejudice within the male-dominated art scene. She was often downplayed as a jōryū (womanly) artist, emphasising her feminine identity and categorising her work as separate from the mainstream art discourse. Furthermore, during her brief stay in Seattle in 1957, Kusama was caught in an Orientalist curiosity from the Western world, labeled as a 'Japanese ‘Doll’' and reduced to a stereotypical image of a silent figure posing in a traditional kimono for local media.ⁱⁱ These experiences likely fuelled her drive to establish her own artistic identity and challenge the preconceptions and limitations imposed upon her. Kusama’s relocation to New York in 1958 marked a significant turn in her career. The art scene in late 1950s New York was characterized by the rise of avant-garde movements that sought to question and reinvent traditional artistic paradigms. It was a time of artistic experimentation and rebellion, providing a fertile ground for Kusama's artistic vision to flourish. In this new context, Kusama’s net paintings eventually became a part of a broader dialogue that made up the pivotal turn in the history of painting, together with other contemporary artists and movements, including Pop Art, Minimalism, and Abstract Expressionism.

\n\n

“I would cover a canvas with nets, then continue painting them on the table, on the floor, and finally on my own body. As I repeated this process over and over again, the nets began to expand to infinity. I forgot about myself as they enveloped me, clinging to my arms and legs and clothes and filling the entire room.”
\n— Yayoi Kusama

\n\n

Painting Infinitely

\n\n

Kusama’s psychological struggle is substantiated by an intense investment in physical labor. Beneath the mesmerising beauty of Kusama’s net paintings lies a bodily commitment to the laborious painting process. With each net painting she creates, Kusama dedicates hours of concentration, repetitively drawing the looping marks on the canvas, until it occupies and even goes beyond the monumental meters-long canvas. As she executes the small circular strokes, the entire process is imbued with restless and almost mechanical energy.

\n\n

In the case of the present lot, there is even greater dedication on display as Kusama expands beyond her earlier monochromatic approach to incorporate more subtle tonal gradations and spatial senses. The enriched color palette adds layers of expressive potential. Each stroke is meticulously applied, one after another, resulting in a careful build-up of the swirls, their directions and fluctuations. This simultaneous demonstration of extreme control and the surrendering of bodily autonomy creates an internal tension that evokes contemplation and reflection in viewers. The interplay between meticulous precision and the inherent organic nature of the artistic process invites viewers to engage in a deeper level of introspection and interpretation.

\n\n

Expanding Universe

\n\n

“How deep was the mystery? Did infinite infinities exist beyond our universe?”
\n— Yayoi Kusama

\n\n

The expansion of Yayoi Kusama’s artistic universe transcends far beyond the boundaries of the painterly surface. Throughout the decades, her obsessive engagement with net paintings has evolved into a practice of world-making, extended to a wide range of formal elements such as polka dots and mirror balls, taking more diverse forms such as prints, sculptures, installations, and so forth. These elements penetrate both the natural and artificial, as well as the internal and external realms of her life. Over nearly half a century, they have built up together an otherworldly Kusama universe, manifesting meta-reflections of her entire lived experience.

\n\n

The present lot is among a more contemporary corpus that propels the ceaseless expansion of the Kusama universe to new heights. In these recent developments, she fearlessly transcends earthly confines, embracing the vast expanse of the celestial realm. One of these pieces, Nets in the Night (TPXZZOT), featured in Phillips’s latest Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, 14 May, New York, presents a profound darkness punctuated by glistening touches of white, reminiscent of distant constellations in the cosmos. When viewed alongside, the swirling and misty nets depicted in INFINITY NETS (ZGHEB) take on an ethereal quality, as if filling the void of the universe with their vibrant energy. The net motif, in this context, becomes the very conduit through which Kusama constructs her own 'theory of everything' to embrace the vastness and interconnectedness of existence.

\n\n

\"\" — Yayoi Kusama, *Nets in the Night (TPXZZOT)*, 2007
\nSold by Phillips New York, 14 May 2024 for $1,875,000
\nArtwork: © YAYOI KUSAMA

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Born in 1929, in Japan, Yayoi Kusama is among the most internationally acclaimed Japanese artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, best known for her nearly obsessional use of motifs, such as nets and polka dots, to develop large-scale immersive paintings, sculptures, and installations.

\n\n

Kusama’s works have been collected and exhibited in renowned institutions worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Tate Modern in London, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the National Gallery of Modern Art in Tokyo, among others. In 1993, Kusama was selected to represent Japan’s participation at the 45th Venice Biennale. More recently, from 2022 to 2023, M+, Hong Kong, presented Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now, marking the largest retrospective of the artist in Asia outside Japan.

\n\n

Net paintings are among Kusama’s most sought-after series in the art market. In May 2022, at Phillips’s New York Evening sale, Untitled from1959 achieved a remarkable record-breaking price of US$10.5 million, establishing the highest price ever paid for a work by a female artist.

\n\n

ⁱYayoi Kusama, Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, London, 2011, n.p.

\n\n

ⁱⁱLouis R. Guzzo, “Japanese ‘Doll’ Speaks Through Her Painting,” in Seattle Times, December 8, 1957, quoted in Nakajima Izumi 中嶋泉, Anti-Action: Nihon sengō ega to josei gakaアンチ・アクション : 日本戦後絵画と女性画家 [Anti-Action: Postwar Japanese Painting and Women Artists], Tokyo, 2019, p.180.

\n",{"_194":195,"_323":197},{"_185":870,"_187":400,"_189":871,"_224":885,"_226":227,"_228":886,"_230":-5,"_231":232,"_233":234,"_235":236,"_237":887,"_239":888,"_241":889,"_243":889,"_244":890,"_246":891,"_248":-5,"_249":250,"_251":-5,"_252":-5,"_253":33,"_254":33,"_255":607,"_257":892,"_259":33,"_260":33,"_261":42,"_262":33,"_263":33,"_264":893,"_266":-5,"_267":-5,"_268":-5,"_269":-5,"_270":-5,"_272":273,"_274":170,"_275":894,"_277":895,"_279":358,"_281":896,"_283":897,"_285":170,"_287":170,"_289":170,"_290":170,"_291":898,"_293":899,"_296":904,"_298":905,"_300":906,"_318":-5,"_37":319,"_39":320,"_321":914,"_324":170,"_325":42},"200070",{"_191":-5,"_192":872,"_202":874},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":873,"_200":585},3000000,[875,877,880,882,884],{"_194":205,"_196":206,"_198":876,"_200":589},303000,{"_194":210,"_196":210,"_198":878,"_200":879},347000,231000,{"_194":214,"_196":215,"_198":881,"_200":595},354000,{"_194":219,"_196":220,"_198":883,"_200":598},385000,{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":873,"_200":585},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/hans-hartung/200070","13","1-932TZT",23,"T1989-U28",169,"Hans Hartung",1778000,[],"signed and titled 'HARTUNG T1989-U28' on the overlap","162 x 130 cm. (63 3/4 x 51 1/8 in.)","Painted in 1989, this work is registered in the archives of the Fondation Hartung Bergman under archive number T1989-U28, and is included in the artist's catalogue raisonné prepared by the Fondation Hartung Bergman.","Galerie Patrice Trigano, Paris\r\nPrivate Collection\r\nChristie's, Paris, 11 December 2007, lot 67\r\nGalleria Il Castello Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Milan\r\nPrivate Collection, Europe\r\nNahmad Contemporary, New York\r\nAcquired from the above by the present owner","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200070_001.jpg",[900,901,902,903],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200070_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200070_003.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200070_004.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200070_005.jpg",[],[],[907],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":908,"_308":909,"_310":910},18671,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 67635",[911],{"_303":42,"_313":912,"_315":913,"_317":-5},22420,"

“[My paintings] allow me to evoke atmospheric and cosmic tensions, the energies and forces that govern the universe. These are the vital, natural, and physical forces that I have always expressed in the gesture…I like the gesture to be definitive; I don’t want to have to come back to it, unless of course it didn’t come out quite right. From this improvisation on the canvas, this spontaneity comes the rhythm and the intensity.”
\n— Hans Hartung

\n\n

\"\" — Hans Hartung producing his art works during the late 1980s.
\nImage: © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

\n\n

The Pursuit of Expression

\n\n

\nHans Hartung, alongside Pierre Soulages, are among Picasso’s most admired abstract artists. His journey of painting goes beyond a mere career, but rather a migration of the soul. Born to the bustling scene of the early 20th century Germany, Hartung found himself at odds with the conventional German art scene. His brush, eager to transgress the boundaries of realism, was drawn to the abstract whispers of the future. While some of his contemporaries waded through the tangible, Hartung was conversing with the intangible, teasing out the emotional resonance locked within the free spirit of colours and forms.

\n\n

\nParis, with the bustling scene of artistic expression, beckoned Hartung like a siren’s call. It was there he found his sanctuary, a place where the shackles of tradition slowly faded away and the canvas lay bare, ripe for his innovation. The city, a melting pot of avant-garde thoughts, welcomed Hartung’s iconoclastic visions. He started to absorb the rhythm of the contemporary spirits, the cadence of the Seine, and the whispers of the past echoing from the walls of Montparnasse. It was here, in the embrace of Paris, that Hartung’s idiom of abstraction began to sing.

\n\n

\nYet, the world around him was descending into literal chaos. The Second World War ravaged the land, leaving scars both on the earth and in the hearts of those who witnessed its fury. Hartung was not spared. The war claimed his right leg, but in place of despair, he found a wellspring of fortitude. The physical loss became a catalyst for ingenuity. The limitations of his body forced him to explore new avenues of creation, pioneering techniques that would become hallmarks of his work.

\n\n

\nIn the theatre of his studio, Hartung engaged in a ballet of gestures, replacing traditional brushes with the tools of an alchemist. Brooms and branches became his instruments, and the canvas, a vast ocean, surged with the currents of his sweeping motions. Paint, once a mere medium, was now an active participant in a performance that transcended the act of painting. It was a communion of artist and essence, and from this union, masterpieces were born. Hartung's work became an act of defiance, a declaration that art could thrive even in the face of adversity.

\n\n

\"\" — Hans Hartung, *T1989-U40*, 1989
\nSold by Phillips Hong Kong in June 2021 for HK$ 4,284,000
\nArtwork: © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

\n\n

\nThe Symphony of T1989-U28

\n\n

In the twilight of his life, Hartung composed an eloquent display of imagery that resonated with the experiences of his journey in T1989-U28. The present lot was an affirmation to a lifetime spent in pursuit of a dialogue with the abstract. The painting, with its dramatic interplay of blue, beige, and black, clashing and conversing against a stark backdrop, was a manifestation of Hartung’s internal symphony. It was as if each stroke was laden with the weight of his biography—every hardship, every revelation, every moment of transcendence. The canvas feels incredibly alive with movement, each line and colour imbued with a sense of momentum that defies the stillness of the medium.

\n\n

\n\n

The work is pulsed with a vitality that belied the artist’s years. The canvas is as much a palimpsest, a storied parchment telling tales of past and present, and archaeology, with each layer being a stratum of time and each colour a sediment of memory.

\n\n

\nHartung’s approach to T1989-U28 was akin to a maestro to his orchestra—intuitive, impassioned, and precise. The gestural coils that catapulted across the canvas spoke of freedom, with the artist’s hand liberated from the constraints of convention. His use of impasto incorporated a textural depth, creating a topography of emotion where shadows and light moved in a dynamic dance. Echoing the restless spirit of its creator, here was a piece that defied the static - a work that seemed to be in perpetual motion.

\n\n

A Legacy Carved in Abstraction

\n\n

Hans Hartung’s oeuvre, particularly his late works like T1989-U28, stands as a monolith to the resilience of the human spirit. His art, born from the crucible of his experiences, was both a shelter and a battlefield, a place where he grappled with the forces of life and emerged triumphant. The paintings from his final years are replete with the vigour of an artist who, even in the face of physical decline, chose to engage with the act of creation with unwavering passion.

\n\n

\nHis legacy is not confined to the canvases he left behind but is woven into the very fabric of abstract expressionism. Hartung's language of abstraction spoke to the ineffable, to the silent spaces between thoughts and feelings. He taught us that art could be a force of nature, as potent and as varied as the elements themselves.

\n\n

\nIn T1989-U28, as in all his works, Hartung captured something elusive—a fleeting moment, a surge of emotion, a gust of wind. His paintings invite us to pause, to witness the beauty of the gestural and the grace of the impromptu. They challenge us to listen to the harmony of colours and to feel the rhythm of lines as they intertwine.

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Hans Hartung was the subject of a major retrospective in 2019-2020 mounted by the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, as well as a major show presented at the Kunstmuseum Bonn in 2018, which focused exclusively on the artist’s works from 1962-1989. His works are part of the collections of Paris’ Centre Pompidou and Musée d’Art Moderne, London’s Tate Modern, and New York’s MoMA, Guggenheim Museum of Art, and Metropolitan Museum of Art.

\n",{"_194":195,"_323":197},{"_185":916,"_187":451,"_189":917,"_224":935,"_226":227,"_228":936,"_230":-5,"_231":937,"_233":234,"_235":236,"_237":938,"_239":85,"_241":939,"_243":939,"_244":940,"_246":941,"_248":-5,"_249":250,"_251":-5,"_252":-5,"_253":33,"_254":33,"_255":942,"_257":-5,"_259":33,"_260":33,"_261":42,"_262":33,"_263":33,"_264":943,"_266":-5,"_267":-5,"_268":-5,"_269":-5,"_270":-5,"_272":273,"_274":170,"_275":944,"_277":945,"_279":409,"_281":946,"_283":947,"_285":948,"_287":170,"_289":949,"_290":170,"_291":950,"_293":951,"_296":956,"_298":957,"_300":958,"_318":-5,"_37":319,"_39":320,"_321":966,"_324":170,"_325":42},"192113",{"_191":-5,"_192":918,"_202":921},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":919,"_200":920},10000000,6000000,[922,925,928,931,934],{"_194":205,"_196":206,"_198":923,"_200":924},1010000,607000,{"_194":210,"_196":210,"_198":926,"_200":927},1160000,694000,{"_194":214,"_196":215,"_198":929,"_200":930},1180000,707000,{"_194":219,"_196":220,"_198":932,"_200":933},1280000,769000,{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":919,"_200":920},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/zao-wouki/192113","14","BoughtIn","1-932TZV","30.09.97",5342,"Zao Wou-Ki",4200000,[],"signed 'Wou-Ki [in Chinese] ZAO' lower right; further signed and titled 'Zao Wou-Ki 30.09.97' on the reverse","101 x 102 cm. (39 3/4 x 40 1/8 in.)","Painted in 1997, this work will be accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the Fondation Zao Wou-Ki after the sale. This work is referenced in the archives of the Fondation Zao Wou-Ki and will be included in the artist's forthcoming catalogue raisonné prepared by Francoise Marquet and Yann Hendgen. (Information provided by Fondation Zao Wou-Ki.)","Private Collection, Asia\r\nChina Guardian, Hong Kong, 7 April 2014, lot 407\r\nPrivate Collection, Asia\r\nRavenel International Art Group, Taipei, 4 June 2017, lot 320\r\nAcquired at the above sale by the present owner","Galerie Thessa Herold, Zao Wou-Ki, Paris, 1997, p.69","PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT ASIAN COLLECTION","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/192113_001.jpg",[952,953,954,955],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/192113_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/192113_003.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/192113_004.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/192113_005.jpg",[],[],[959],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":960,"_308":961,"_310":962},18667,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 27032",[963],{"_303":42,"_313":964,"_315":965,"_317":-5},22416,"

“I paint my own life, but I also try to paint an invisible space, a dream space, a place where one always feels harmonious, even in the turbulent form of opposing forces.”
\n— Zao Wou-KiIn the context of Chinese contemporary art, few have managed to bridge the gap between Eastern philosophy and Western abstraction with the same grace and sophistication of Zao Wou-Ki. Wou-Ki, resonant with the Taoist idea of the infinite, is an exemplification to the infinite universe and the artist’s infinite exploration of it, which is so vividly manifested in this painting. The present lot is an outstanding embodiment of the harmonious symphony that attempts to portray a glimpse of our cosmos and is reminiscent of the dynamic forces that shape it.

\n\n

Born in Beijing in 1920, Zao Wou-Ki’s art has mirrored the ever-changing landscapes of his era via his artistic journey, which is a tale of integration and evolution, as seen in his lyrical abstraction which is so deeply rooted in Eastern sensibilities. His synthesis of Eastern and Western art was not merely a choice out of stylistic considerations, but rather the result of his life’s upheavals and cultural migrations, which led to a profound reflection on life and the mystery of universal philosophies.

\n\n

1990s: Serenity, Tranquillity and Grace

\n\n

\nBy the 1990s, Zao has distilled his life journey into a visual language that was tranquil and self-aware, which is a completely unique way of expressing himself. His artistic approach, which had been constantly evolving, had fully matured into lyrical abstraction by the 1960s. Moreover, the 1970s witnessed a revisiting of ink wash integrated into his oil paintings, a blending of mediums that further set his mastery apart even more. The 1981 solo exhibition at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais marked a significant personal triumph, as well as a milestone for Chinese artists on the international art stage.

\n\n

\nA fusion of blue, yellow, white and green hues, the present lot evokes the limitless depth of a landscape resembling sea and sky. The colours on canvas blend and separate with a rhythm that intends to capture life’s perpetual motion, devoid of stagnation. The rose tints on the top and the centre, are rich and meticulously layered. They add a dimension of mystery that invites the viewers to further explore and discover the subtle intricacies within the canvas. Each element within the painting – be it a stroke, a splash, a blend – becomes an integral part of a larger constellation that contributes to the overall harmony of the present lot. In a way, it is a cosmos where every detail is an exploration in itself, every colour a different wavelength of rich emotion, and every form a different expression of inner thought. One could argue that Zao's canvas is a tribute to the eternal that invites us to contemplate a universe untethered by time, roaming freely between the celestial and the terrestrial.

\n\n

\nYves Bonnefoy, the esteemed poet and art critic, has made an observation of how Zao's paintings move beyond mere colour and form to orchestrate a symphony of ever-fleeting shapes and hues, constantly in motion, hinting at a wondrous dawn beyond our everyday perception. Zao's artistry is not a simple observation but a complex coordination, a composition that is alive, it moves and breathes, giving us a glimpse into the profound.

\n\n

\n“In his paintings, Zao Wou-Ki is not in the slightest just making simple observations of colour and form using his feelings. Rather, it is about his ability to coordinate. The shapes and colours are used but not stabilised. They coordinate with each other in the composition, moving continuously, tying together, expressing, and appearing fleetingly in the visible world… Around the edges of dissolving objects, they give us a peek at an amazing dawn unknowable in our usual lives.”
\n— Yves Bonnefoy

\n\n

Zao Wou-Ki and Turner: Fascination with Light and Atmosphere

\n\n

\"\" — Joseph Mallord William Turner, *The Lake of Zug*, 1843, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image: © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Marquand Fund, 1959, 59.120

\n\n

Upon gazing, the British painter Joseph Mallord William Turner's seascapes and skies are filled with a radiant luminosity that prefigures the impressionist masters. In a way, it resonates with Zao’s own abstract landscapes as they both delve into the ephemeral, and intend to capture not the tangible, but the felt. By doing so, they allow the viewers to partake in an experience of the sublime conveyed by their canvases.

\n\n

\nWith canvas filled with light, water and air, Turner’s elemental energy and Zao’s solemn serenity may seem conflicting. However, they both convey the profound turmoil and tranquillity of nature. Both masters’ use of light is almost cinematic in scope, yet intimate in effect with each brushstroke a monument to their respective explorations to capture the imperceptible spirit of our surroundings.

\n\n

\nZao Wou-Ki’s 30.09.97 works way more than just a painting; it is a canvas where the spiritual meets the sensory. In a way, viewers are invited to a pilgrimage, across the vastness of emotions and imagination. In the interplay of light and colour, we observe Zao’s efforts to offer a glow that guides us through a magnificent yet mysterious world. Through the painting, the artist reminds us that art is not just a reflection of reality, but more of a window into the depths of our own existence, and an endless journey through the landscapes of the soul.

\n\n

Zao Wou-Ki painting in his Paris studio

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Zao Wou-Ki's personality and mastery have forged a vast network of friendships within the art community, solidifying his status as a leading figure among Chinese painters of his era. His blend of Eastern and Western artistic principles and philosophies gained significant worldwide recognition, earning him awards in both Europe and Asia, and the rare honour of a Chinese-born artist joining the prestigious Académie des beaux-arts in Paris. Zao's artistic versatility is celebrated worldwide, with exhibitions of his oil, watercolour, and ink works in prestigious venues like the Musée d’art moderne in Paris and the Asia Society Museum in New York; Notably, his major centennial retrospective exhibition The Way Is Infinite held in his alma mater, China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, has gained critical success over the period from September 2023 to February 2024, with visitors from worldwide. With a global presence, Zao's creations are part of over 150 public collections in 200 countries, including prominent institutions like MoMA, the Guggenheim, and Tate Modern, underlining his profound influence on contemporary art and future generations of artists. Zao Wou-Ki was a central figure in a vibrant circle of influential creatives and intellectuals, including Jean-Paul Riopelle, Alberto Giacometti, and I.M. Pei, which contributed to his reputation as a preeminent painter of his generation.

\n\n

\n",{"_194":195,"_323":197},{"_185":968,"_187":551,"_189":969,"_224":986,"_226":227,"_228":987,"_230":-5,"_231":232,"_233":234,"_235":236,"_237":988,"_239":989,"_241":990,"_243":990,"_244":991,"_246":992,"_248":-5,"_249":250,"_251":-5,"_252":-5,"_253":33,"_254":33,"_255":993,"_257":994,"_259":33,"_260":33,"_261":42,"_262":33,"_263":33,"_264":995,"_266":-5,"_267":-5,"_268":-5,"_269":-5,"_270":996,"_272":273,"_274":170,"_275":997,"_277":998,"_279":999,"_281":1000,"_283":1001,"_285":170,"_287":1002,"_289":170,"_290":170,"_291":1003,"_293":1004,"_296":1008,"_298":1009,"_300":1010,"_318":-5,"_37":319,"_39":320,"_321":1018,"_324":170,"_325":42},"196261",{"_191":-5,"_192":970,"_202":973},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":971,"_200":972},5500000,3500000,[974,976,979,982,985],{"_194":205,"_196":206,"_198":975,"_200":881},556000,{"_194":210,"_196":210,"_198":977,"_200":978},636000,405000,{"_194":214,"_196":215,"_198":980,"_200":981},648000,413000,{"_194":219,"_196":220,"_198":983,"_200":984},705000,449000,{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":971,"_200":972},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/park-seobo/196261","16","1-932U01",26,"Écriture No. 67-78-79",13818,"Park Seo-Bo",2450000,4191000,[],"Korean","signed, titled, and dated 'PARK SEO-BO \"Écriture No. 67-78-79\" 1978-1979 [in Hanja and English]; further inscribed 'Seoul, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Park Seo-Bo Retrospective, 25 October - 24 November 1991; Seoul, Gallery Hyundai, Park Seo-Bo Écriture: 1967-2001, 20 March - 7 April 2002; London, White Cube, Écriture: 1967-1981, 15 January-12 March 2016' [in Hanja] on the reverse.","130 x 162.5 cm. (51 1/8 x 63 7/8 in.)","pencil and oil on canvas","Executed in 1979.","White Cube, London\r\nAcquired from the above by the present owner","Seoul, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Park Seo-Bo Retrospective, 25 October - 24 November 1991\r\nSeoul, Gallery Hyundai, Park Seo-Bo Ecriture: 1967-2001, 20 March - 7 April 2002\r\nLondon, White Cube, Ecriture: 1967-1981, 15 January-12 March 2016","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/196261_001.jpg",[1005,1006,1007],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/196261_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/196261_003.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/196261_004.jpg",[],[],[1011],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":1012,"_308":1013,"_310":1014},18668,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 4230",[1015],{"_303":42,"_313":1016,"_315":1017,"_317":-5},22417,"

“What I’ve realised over the years is that I must empty myself to soak up elements that I need, and to make myself more whole. And in order to empty myself, I must perform repetitive actions. It’s something I realised after countless discussions with the Buddhist nun […].”
\n— Park Seo-BoWith the restrained, meticulously choreographed lines on the backdrop, the present lot Écriture 67-78-79 is one of Park Seo-Bo’s magnificent works from his signature Écriture series. Park Seo-Bo, born in Yechon, South Korea in 1931, is a master whose work reflects the Korean spirit and its aesthetics in the post-war era. His early life was affected by the devastations of conflict, which heavily influenced his artistic practice over the years. He emerged as a central figure in the Dansaekhwa (monochrome painting) movement, pioneering Korean abstract art and sought to repair and redefine cultural identity in the post-war, post-colonial era. Widely recognised for the linkage of his art with Korean heritage while also engaging with broader international philosophical and artistic discourses, his works, particularly his Écriture series, continue to be highly celebrated for the meditative nature and innovative approach to the traditional East Asian aesthetics.

\n\n

Dansaekhwa

\n\n

\nDansaekhwa, the Korean monochrome painting movement which emerged in the 1970s, represents a critical moment in the history of contemporary Korean art. It marked a period of cultural introspection and resurgence in post-war era and the resulting need to rebuild national identity in the aftermath of colonialism. Representational Dansaekhwa artists such as Park Seo-Bo pursued a visual language that attempted to embody the traditional Korean spirit. Additionally, this movement eschewed the narratives of Western post-war art, focusing instead on meditative practices, materiality, and constant repetition. This movement was characterised by its embrace of minimalistic and distinctive use of colours, in particular white, which symbolises pureness and a blank canvas for cultural re-imagination.

\n\n

The significance of Dansaekhwa in the global art scene is also crucial. It shared formal similarities with the Western minimalist movement, but it was rooted in a distinctly East Asian experience and philosophical foundation. It representes a synthesis of the past and present, where Park included elements from his cultural heritage, such as the meditative nature of calligraphy and the importance of repetition, into his avant-garde practices.

\n\n

Park Seo-Bo’s Ecriture Series: a Form of Self-Cultivation

\n\n

“In contrast to Western artists, painting for me is a tool for self-cultivation and self-discipline. The traces, or remnants, of this action result in a painting. In this context, Ecriture signifies an endless repetition. The materiality or physicality that rises out of repetitive action—the ridges and furrows formed in the paintings after the hanji and paint are continuously pressed together—must be spiritualised. Only then does one understand Écriture.”
\n— Park Seo-BoPark Seo-Bo’s philosophical journey and artistic evolution are encapsulated in the Écriture series, a signature body of work that serves as a spiritual compass guiding us through his meditative practice as well as the essence of the Dansaekhwa movement. Since the mid-1960s, Park Seo-Bo embarked on a transformative exploration after delving into the ancient philosophies of Chinese masters Laozi and Zhuang Zhou. This intellectual pivot fortified the philosophical foundation of his art, also marking a departure from his earlier Primordialis series to a practice characterised by a calmer, more repetitive rigour such as the present lot.

\n\n

‘Écriture’, meaning 'writing' in French, integrates the act of painting with calligraphy, a practice rooted in East Asian tradition. Park uses a pencil to create patterns on white canvases, forming a rhythmic interaction of fine lines reminiscent of calligraphic strokes. This repetitive process is a manifestation of Park's philosophical shift towards deconstructing the self and embracing non-purposefulness for the liberation of self and mind. The works become a record of the artist's physical and mental engagement rather than an expression of subjective imagery. Park's approach, drawing upon the meditative repetition and material specificity of Korean art, stands in contrast to Western Minimalism's logic and rationality.

\n\n

\"\" — Park Seo-Bo, *Écriture series,* exhibited at Johyun Gallery at Art Basel 2024
\nImage/Artwork: Courtesy of the artist and Johyun Gallery

\n\n

Erasure and Creation

\n\n

\nPark Seo-Bo’s art can be viewed as both an erasure and a creation, because the act of painting also becomes a means of wiping away in order to achieve a purer form of expression. His meticulous lines on the canvas echo the disciplined practice of East Asian calligraphy, but he transcends the copying of words into an act of capturing the essence of being and harmony. As a result, the present lot serves as a typical exploration of self, culture and East Asian philosophy.

\n\n

Park’s Ecriture series, particularly the masterly Ecriture 67-78-79, stands as one of the best examples to a pivotal moment in the artist’s career, showcasing the disciplined calligraphic practice and the ritualistic repetition that defines the Dansaekhwa movement. His work during this era exemplifies the movement’s core principles—neutrality, spiritual transcendence, and the search for a new Korean aesthetic.

\n\n

In the studio with Park Seo Bo, video courtesy of Art Drunk

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Notably, Park Seo-Bo represented Korea at the 3rd Paris Biennale in 1963 and the 8th and 13th São Paulo Biennales in 1965 and 1975. He has also exhibited on a global scale, at prominent institutions including, Korea: The Trend for the past 20 Years of Contemporary Arts at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul in 1978; Working with Nature - Traditional Thought in Contemporary Art from Korea at Tate Gallery Liverpool in 1992; and Transcendence: Modernity and Beyond in Korean Art at Singapore Art Museum, Singapore. Moreover, his works are widely recognised and included in numerous significant collections, including the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Abu Dhabi; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; M+, Hong Kong; and The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea.

\n\n

Significantly, the artist has had many solo exhibitions in recent years. In 2016, White Cube Mason's Yard London held his solo exhibition Ecriture: 1967-1981 in which the present lot is featured. In 2019, Galerie Perrotin Paris held his solo show, Ecriture, featuring works from the artists seminal series, having previously been shown around the world in New York, Hong Kong and Daejeon. In 2021, White Cube held an impressive solo exhibition for the artist at their Bermondsey, London space. Most recently, White Cube Palm Beach held a solo exhibition Park Seo-Bo from February to April 2023. During Art Basel Hong Kong 2024, Johyun Gallery presented a recent series of paintings by the artist, which showcased the remarkable physicality, rhythm and technique that has come to define his oeuvre.

\n\n

\n",{"_194":195,"_323":197},{"_185":1020,"_187":1021,"_189":1022,"_224":1038,"_226":227,"_228":1039,"_230":-5,"_231":232,"_233":234,"_235":236,"_237":1040,"_239":634,"_241":1041,"_243":1041,"_244":1042,"_246":1043,"_248":-5,"_249":250,"_251":-5,"_252":-5,"_253":33,"_254":33,"_255":1044,"_257":1045,"_259":33,"_260":33,"_261":42,"_262":33,"_263":33,"_264":1046,"_266":-5,"_267":-5,"_268":-5,"_269":-5,"_270":1047,"_272":273,"_274":170,"_275":1048,"_277":1049,"_279":409,"_281":1050,"_283":1051,"_285":170,"_287":1052,"_289":170,"_290":170,"_291":1053,"_293":1054,"_296":1058,"_298":1059,"_300":1060,"_318":-5,"_37":319,"_39":320,"_321":1068,"_324":170,"_325":42},"196680",17,{"_191":-5,"_192":1023,"_202":1025},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":972,"_200":1024},2800000,[1026,1029,1032,1035,1037],{"_194":205,"_196":206,"_198":1027,"_200":1028},352000,282000,{"_194":210,"_196":210,"_198":1030,"_200":1031},406000,325000,{"_194":214,"_196":215,"_198":1033,"_200":1034},414000,331000,{"_194":219,"_196":220,"_198":984,"_200":1036},359000,{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":972,"_200":1024},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/lucy-bull/196680","17","1-932U03","Claps Jaw",23608,"Lucy Bull",1960000,3556000,[],"United States","signed with the artist's initials and dated 'LB '19' on the reverse","82 x 126 cm. (32 1/4 x 49 5/8 in.)","Painted in 2019.","Air de Paris, Paris\r\nAcquired from the above by the present owner","Paris, Air de Paris, El oro de los tigres, 12 January–14 March, 2020","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/196680_001.jpg",[1055,1056,1057],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/196680_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/196680_003.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/196680_004.jpg",[681,682],[],[1061],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":1062,"_308":1063,"_310":1064},18669,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 68243",[1065],{"_303":42,"_313":1066,"_315":1067,"_317":-5},22418,"

“It's more about psychic energy than anything. I allow myself to get lost in the making of the paintings, which allows me time to enter this sort of fugue state and get lost in the sauce. It can be so tempting to take it further, because you can always just keep going, opening up new avenues of exploration.”
\n— Lucy BullLucy Bull’s practice is one that reflects the visceral experience of colour and form, engaging with an abstract colour palette, evoking a response that is more sensory than rational. Her works, rich in chromatic complexity, invite viewers to a realm of visual meditation, where the act of viewing becomes an experience in itself. Claps Jaw shines as a strikingly vibrant example of the artist’s profound dedication to abstraction and the exploration of colours, in which her canvas transforms into a captivating realm of visual stimuli, eliciting a mesmerising interplay with the senses.

\n\n

\n\n

An Enigmatic Oasis

\n\n

\nThe present work instantaneously draws one into the untamed depths of a lush wilderness. As the title suggests, a jaw clap is usually perceived as an aggressive signal made by animals to ward off danger and establish territorial boundaries. Lucy Bull has created a symphony of motion and intensity to draw the viewer into a visual feast, reminiscent of the expansive wilderness oasis of untamed and unspoiled natural beauty. The colours appear to be in a constant state of flux, akin to mesmerising kaleidoscopic patterns that effortlessly dance and shift before our eyes. The opulent greens, and chartreuse yellows intertwine with deliberate strokes of mahogany and tantalising hints of peacock blue, creating a dynamic dimension that defies static interpretations. The landscape unfolds in Claps Jaw, where Bull conjures up an imaginary world of dense forests with towering trees and a rich variety of flora and fauna, with majestic mountains piercing the sky and pristine lakes and rivers meandering throughout. Each brushstroke, meticulously choreographed, adds to the captivating allure of Claps Jaw. Just like the enchanting wilderness, the present work exudes an awe-inspiring enigma with Bull’s mastery of colours and forms, evoking a raw power that resonates deep within.

\n\n

A Symphony of Colours

\n\n

“I am a representational painter, but not a painter of appearances. I paint representational pictures of emotional situations.”
\n— Lucy BullDelving into the realm of emotional expressions, one cannot help but be reminded of the captivating spirit of the Lyrical Abstraction movement. This artistic endeavour sought to encapsulate the raw spontaneity of artists’ emotions and gestures, infusing each brushstroke with a profound sense of vitality and unrestrained creative energy. Like the works of Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell, the artist prioritises emotional intensity over figurative accuracy. The gestural brushwork and the richness of the visual field can draw a parallel with the Abstract Expressionists, who embraced the canvas as an arena to act upon. As witnessed in Joan Mitchell’s Grandes Carrières, her treatment of the intense colours, gestural brushstrokes, and the mystifying dimensions on the canvas are all well echoed in the work of Lucy Bull. The rich tapestry of blues, reds, greens, and yellows are masterfully orchestrated, evoking a sense of liberated spirituality. The colours dance harmoniously and mirror the boundless freedom of the human spirit.

\n\n

\"\" — Joan Mitchell, *Grandes Carrières*, circa 1962, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image/Artwork: © Estate of Joan Mitchell

\n\n

A Transcendent Journey through Time

\n\n

“Film is probably what inspires me most. It’s my biggest hobby. It’s also my favorite thinking space. I love going to the movies and being in a crowd of strangers with the lights out, surrounded by color. Afterwards, I always have so many ideas- usually intangible sensations that I want to explore. The mere attempt to translate those fleeting sensations can be a starting point for me.”
\n— Lucy Bull

\n\n

\nThe uniqueness of Claps Jaw lies in its ability to partake in an enthralling “timed release” of visual experiences. Much like how a film unfolds over time, with its narrative revealed gradually, Claps Jaw slowly unveils its profound depth and intricate complexity, unfurling all sorts of associations the longer one gazes upon its mesmerising details. This temporal element in Bull’s work holds utmost significance as it beckons the true essence of the piece to be discovered not in a passing glance, but through prolonged and sustained engagement. She creates a possibility in which her painting morphs and transforms through the colour and also the mark making, with all the repetition beginning to act like fractals so that one gets lost in the static texture. In this immersive interaction, the viewer transcends the role of a mere observer and becomes an active participant, continuously being welcomed into the ever-unfolding narrative of the work. Similar to how psychedelics open up a different part of one’s brain, Lucy Bull’s sonic landscape like Claps Jaw opens up a myriad of sensory experiences that explores the unknown.

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Lucy Bull, born in New York in 1990 and currently resides in Los Angeles, emerged as one of the rising figures in the world of contemporary art. After earning her BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2012, her paintings have been sought after for their ebullient and psychedelic qualities. Her creations recall the likes of Surrealistic landscapes, loose brushwork in opaque, unrealistic combinations, apparently products of a process-based meditation between impulse decision and proposed thinking. Recently, she had a solo exhibition at the Long Museum Shanghai, with Venus World, Jun.-Aug. 2023. Her work was also featured in the NGV Triennial at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne in 2023. Bull’s paintings reside in numerous institutional collections, including MAMCO Geneva, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, among others.

\n\n

\n",{"_194":195,"_323":197},{"_185":1070,"_187":603,"_189":1071,"_224":1084,"_226":227,"_228":1085,"_230":-5,"_231":232,"_233":234,"_235":236,"_237":1086,"_239":696,"_241":1087,"_243":1087,"_244":1088,"_246":1089,"_248":-5,"_249":250,"_251":-5,"_252":-5,"_253":33,"_254":33,"_255":1090,"_257":1091,"_259":33,"_260":33,"_261":42,"_262":33,"_263":33,"_264":1092,"_266":-5,"_267":1093,"_268":-5,"_269":-5,"_270":-5,"_272":273,"_274":170,"_275":1094,"_277":1095,"_279":409,"_281":1096,"_283":1097,"_285":170,"_287":1098,"_289":170,"_290":170,"_291":1099,"_293":1100,"_296":1104,"_298":1105,"_300":1106,"_318":-5,"_37":319,"_39":320,"_321":1114,"_324":170,"_325":42},"201785",{"_191":-5,"_192":1072,"_202":1074},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":485,"_200":1073},450000,[1075,1077,1079,1081,1083],{"_194":205,"_196":206,"_198":488,"_200":1076},45500,{"_194":210,"_196":210,"_198":490,"_200":1078},52000,{"_194":214,"_196":215,"_198":493,"_200":1080},53000,{"_194":219,"_196":220,"_198":496,"_200":1082},57700,{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":485,"_200":1073},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/lauren-quin/201785","18","1-932U06","Second Mercury Mounts",22836,"Lauren Quin",315000,762000,[],"

Lauren Quin (b. 1992) lives and works in Los Angeles, California. She holds an MFA from the Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL. She forms her canvases by painting repeated, intercepted, and reconnected shapes and colors. She is most known for the “tube” shape throughout her compositions. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions including her first US museum show My Hellmouth, Nerman Museum of Art, Overland Park, KS (2023); Sagittal Fours, Pond Society, Shanghai, China (2022); Pulse Train Howl, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA (2022), and group exhibitions such as Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami’s Collection, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL (2022); and On Boxing, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA (2021).
\n
\nHer work is held in numerous public collections including the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Long Museum, Shanghai, China; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ; Smart Museum, Chicago, IL; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN and Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China.

\n\n

\n","signed 'L Quin' on the reverse","182.9 x 182.9 cm. (72 x 72 in.)","Painted in 2020.","Downs & Ross, New York\r\nAcquired from the above by the present owner in 2020","New York, Downs & Ross, When Above, 10 December 2020 - 16 January 2021","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201785_001.jpg",[1101,1102,1103],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201785_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201785_003.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/201785_004.jpg",[],[],[1107],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":1108,"_308":1109,"_310":1110},18678,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 96714",[1111],{"_303":42,"_313":1112,"_315":1113,"_317":-5},22427,"

“I was really thinking about the tube as an artery and different cuts of the body that show the body cut vertically and splayed open –not in a grotesque way necessarily, but in a way that is aware of the microscopic possibilities of the body.”
\n— Lauren QuinWitnessed firsthand, Lauren Quin’s Second Mercury Mounts leaves a staggering impact on the viewer, akin to the power of music, with its masterful composition and a plethora of evocative and ineffable intellectual stimuli. The myriad of colours and lines evoke the freedom of the Abstract Impressionists in the 1940s, jazz-like in their energy, rhythm, and figurative weightlessness, yet Quin takes these influences and infuses them with her unique artistic vision, resulting in an even more diverse range of features and characteristics in her work: seemingly three-dimensional Day-Glo tubes intertwine throughout her sharp black pencilled sketches, creating a dynamic explosion of colours and multi-layered symmetries of shape Second Mercury Mounts is pleasingly organic with a natural ebb and flow all the while exuding an element of shock and unpredictability akin to the surreal nature of a waking dream.

\n\n

Neo-Tubism

\n\n

Though Quin’s rise to artistic prominence has been swift - her first solo shows debuted as she was finishing her MFA in her late 20s - it has undoubtedly been achieved through great practice, experience, and study. Initially taught by her father, she earned degrees from both the Art Institute of Chicago and Yale School of Art, but dreamt up her trademark imagery during an artist residency in Maine, walking at night in the woods: ‘I had never experienced pitch black as I did [then]… Your sense of depth is completely removed. You have to turn your flashlight off, because the light attracts bugs, and just remember that you’re on a path. I kept feeling like things were flying at me and I was being pushed through a tube’ⁱ. Even now, she continues to try and replicate this sublime feeling in her work: ‘it’s like the painting falls off the edges, and I keep moving into the center’ ⁱⁱ.

\n\n

Soon after, further examples and counterexamples from art history shaped her unique artistic depiction of the aforementioned experience. As she perused the galleries at Yale, she was especially struck by one painting there by Fernand Léger, whose cylindrical, industry-inspired Modernist work was scorned as ‘Tubism’ for its apparent disorganisation and unreality. Having felt a profound impact from The Railway Crossing (Sketch), it left a lasting impression on her, in that she would begin to adopt Léger's tubular shapes while drawing inspiration from the intricate tunnels and networks within the human body, resulting in works that were an absolute visual feast that captured the dreamlike essence she had been longing to achieve as she inflated the shapes until they greatly altered the depth of her paintings.

\n\n

\"\" — Fernand Léger, *The Scaffolding (First State),* 1919, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Image: Philadelphia Museum of Art, A.E. Gallatin Collection, 1952, 1952-61-57. Artwork: © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

\n\n

Multi-Layered Method

\n\n

Alongside this wealth of influences, Quin’s massive and multi-form paintings require various specific techniques that are carefully structured yet allow for great improvisation. Tubes always make up her base layer, with smaller intersecting lines building up to bigger, sprawling ones. Over this, she repeats a wide range of visual material sourced from her personal archive -ranging from baroque mythological paintings to animal features to model’s hands- as both line drawings, and then carvings made with knives or spoons, and finally a print pressed onto the canvas with ink-covered glass.

\n\n

\n\n

The frustration stemming from the limited opportunity for viewers to experience her artwork up close during the pandemic has served as a catalyst for Quin's decision to create larger-scale paintings. This newfound inspiration has led her to explore the expansive dimensions of her canvases in order to provide viewers with a heightened sense of presence and engagement. Like in the present lot Second Mercury Mounts, the larger dimensions certainly offer an opportunity to appreciate the intricate details, textures, and nuances of her work from a closer perspective despite physical distancing limitations at the time. Whatever inheritances her work may carry from Léger or explosive personal favourites Albert Oehlen and Charline von Heyl, she most admires them for their unpredictable mindset -‘Just always making a left turn, you know?...There’s always something destructive’ⁱⁱⁱ- and it is this exact quality that she best emulates in her transcendent body of work.

\n\n

\"\" — Albert Oehlen, *Untitled*, 1998.
\nSold by Phillips London, 16 October 2014
\nArtwork: © 2024 Albert Oehlen / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Born in 1992 in Los Angeles and still based there, Lauren Quin quickly followed a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with rapid success in the art world, gaining both an MFA from Yale School of Art and having had her first exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York in 2019. Her striking, fully-realised aesthetic of rhythmically interlocking tubes has continued to meet with wide notice and great acclaim. She held her first solo museum exhibition, My Hellmouth at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas, alongside a Tokyo gallery show (Salon Real at Blum & Poe) in 2023, and has also exhibited in Stockholm, Miami, and San Francisco. Her next exhibition, Logopanic, will be held at 125 Newbury in New York from May 3^rd until June 15^th. Her current auction record is held by Phillips New York with Airsickness, which sold for $587,451 USD -over ten times its low estimate- in March 2022. Another, Third Belly, sold for $1,905,000 HKD -over twice its high estimate- in March 2023 at Phillips Hong Kong. Her work is featured in public collections worldwide, including the Yuz and Long Museums in Shanghai, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

\n\n

ⁱLauren Quin, quoted in Stephanie Eckhardt, “In the Studio With Lauren Quin, the Painter Doing Abstraction Her Own Way,” W Magazine, July 8, 2021 online.

\n\n

ⁱⁱ Ibid.

\n\n

ⁱⁱⁱ Lauren Quin, quoted in Michael Slenske, “Lauren Quin’s Kaleidoscopic Paintings Rethink Abstraction,”, Artsy, July 14 2024, online.

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“Whirlpools represent the trials and adversities of life; the river represents time and the journey of life; and bubbles represent the connection between living individuals and the universe. As my understandings of life are condensed and refined into painterly elements, a mutually inclusive relationship exists between the two, each echoing the other.”
\n— Huang Yuxing Deceptively simple and straightforward in its title content, Huang Yuxing’s Bubbles yields a mesmerising vision to the viewer, layering subtle variations of shape and colour onto each other to produce a rich field of visual stimuli. Vast enough in size to fill their view completely, it offers enough striking combinations of lines and paints in every corner to never be monotonous, or bore with repeated examinations. Neither a cynical light show, or a lazy imitation of the Abstract Expressionists, it represents a spectacular cohesion of Huang’s influences, both artistic and spiritual -from the western Fauvists to his native China’s landscapes, to the spiritual outlook of Tibetan Buddhism- in a transcendentally vivid style that could only be his.

\n\n

Ephemeral Beauty

\n\n

\nThe painting’s monumental size may be a testament to an early part of Huang’s artistic education: graduating from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in his native Beijing, he studied in the Mural Painting Department, which likely influenced his preference for grand, large-scale works. Unsatisfied with classroom education alone, his studies were paired with a long stay in Lhasa, where he immersed himself in Tibet’s culture and religion, and found a greater clarity of purpose. Not wanting to represent those traditions in ‘superficial’ ways, he has instead channelled their deeper messages into this, and his parallel River series: ‘The long river of history keeps flowing forward, people or other creatures live a short life and are swiftly extinguished, too many things are full of variables, and it all depends on what perspective you look at it from.’ ⁱ

\n\n

\"\" — Huang Yuxing, *River*, 2015. Sold by Phillips HK in December 2022.
\nArtwork: © Huang Yuxing

\n\n

\nThis farsighted view of the world, with each life taking up a tiny part of history before others take its place, finds a perfect vehicle in the dainty bubbles, whose short but spectacular lives remind us how disposable, yet precious, everything in the world is.

\n\n

Modern Fluorescence
\n“Fluorescent colors are colors that belong to our time, just as mineral colors belong to Dunhuang, to that period, when they pursued the stability of colors and the confrontation with time. And fluorescent colors are independent color systems that stimulate the senses and are unique to our time”.
\n— Huang Yuxing

\n\n

Simultaneously, his ability to bend light, material, and colours in endlessly wonderful ways creates an entirely unique world of artistic vocabulary, evoking an ethereal and otherworldly effect. This was reached after encountering many personal difficulties: his early works were in a gloomier black-and-white style and upon experiencing financial downturns and yet another journey to the Himalayas in 2009, it prompted him to reintroduce a previously ‘repressed desire and understanding of color’ back into his work, finding it ‘even more intense and gorgeous than before’ ⁱⁱ.

\n\n

\nTo produce the most intense effects possible, the artist alters the viscosity of his paints drastically: sometimes leaving open pots out for a week to dry them thoroughly, then applying them under wetter oils to make them shine brighter. The surreal glow of his scenes, heightened by minute contrasts from stroke to stroke, has shades of the Post-Impressionists, and Huang has indeed cited Picasso and Van Gogh among his favourite artists.

\n\n

\"\" — Vincent van Gogh, *Wheat Field with Cypresses*, 1889, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, The Annenberg Foundation Gift, 1993, 1993.132

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Born in 1975 in Beijing, Huang Yuxing studied mural painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 2000. Following more severe initial work, he developed a distinctive ‘fluorescent’ style, influenced by Fauvism, Expressionism, and further spiritual studies in Tibet, that has won him worldwide prestige. Following two successful solo exhibitions at the Minsheng Modern Art Museum and the Yuz Museum in 2015, he has been honoured with further shows with Almine Rech in Brussels (2021) and New York (2022) and Galerie Perrotin in Hong Kong (2016), and most recently a career-wide retrospective at the Long Museum in Shanghai (West Bund, 2023-24). This has been accompanied with extraordinary sale results: at Phillips Hong Kong in March 2023 a similar work of his, also titled Bubbles (2018), exceeded its $1.5-2.5 million estimate, selling for $2.6 million HKD. High-profile commercial projects have also increased his statue, including a collaboration with Louis Vuitton in 2021 and an NFT project in 2022, which sold out within a minute of launching. In 2023, the artist collaborated with the Hermes-owned Chinese designer brand SHANG XIA and launched a limited-edition collection comprising of furniture and accessories, incorporating his representative artistic elements into the classic SHANG XIA home furnishings collection, in which his abstract aesthetics and detailed imageries are constructed.

\n\n

ⁱ Shu Wen, ‘Huang Yuxing: Painting is an intuition’, Artnow, May 2022.

\n\n

ⁱⁱ Ibid.

\n",{"_194":195,"_323":197},{"_185":1161,"_187":718,"_189":1162,"_224":1176,"_226":227,"_228":1177,"_230":-5,"_231":232,"_233":234,"_235":236,"_237":1178,"_239":97,"_241":1179,"_243":1179,"_244":1180,"_246":1181,"_248":-5,"_249":250,"_251":-5,"_252":-5,"_253":33,"_254":33,"_255":1182,"_257":608,"_259":33,"_260":33,"_261":42,"_262":33,"_263":33,"_264":1183,"_266":-5,"_267":-5,"_268":-5,"_269":-5,"_270":-5,"_272":273,"_274":170,"_275":1184,"_277":1185,"_279":409,"_281":1186,"_283":1187,"_285":170,"_287":1188,"_289":170,"_290":170,"_291":1189,"_293":1190,"_296":1195,"_298":1196,"_300":1197,"_318":-5,"_37":319,"_39":320,"_321":1205,"_324":170,"_325":42},"204360",{"_191":-5,"_192":1163,"_202":1166},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":1164,"_200":1165},3800000,1800000,[1167,1169,1171,1173,1175],{"_194":205,"_196":206,"_198":883,"_200":1168},182000,{"_194":210,"_196":210,"_198":1170,"_200":404},443000,{"_194":214,"_196":215,"_198":984,"_200":1172},213000,{"_194":219,"_196":220,"_198":1174,"_200":879},487000,{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":1164,"_200":1165},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/zhang-enli/204360","20","1-932U0A","The Water (3)",13554,"Zhang Enli",1260000,[],"signed and dated 2013 Enli [in Chinese] lower right; further signed, titled, dated and inscribed '\"The Water 2013, number 3\" [in Chinese], 300 x 250 cm, 2013, Zhang Enli [in Chinese] on the reverse","300 x 250 cm. (118 1/8 x 98 3/8 in.)","Painted in 2013.","Acquired directly form the artist by the present owner","Changsha, Hunan Museum, 2022 Art Changsha - Zhang Enli, 12 November 2022 - 5 February 2023","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/204360_001.jpg",[1191,1192,1193,1194],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/204360_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/204360_003.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/204360_004.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/204360_005.jpg",[369],[],[1198],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":1199,"_308":1200,"_310":1201},18686,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 75477",[1202],{"_303":42,"_313":1203,"_315":1204,"_317":-5},22436,"

\n\n

“The way to understand painting is through memory and feeling. The most important thing is to feel life. It is not about culture itself, or explicit symbols.”
\n— Zhang Enli

\n\n

A Confluence of Traditions

\n\n

Born in 1965 in Jilin, a province in Northeast China, Zhang Enli is considered a significant voice in Chinese contemporary art, adept at merging the fluid grace of traditional Chinese painting with the bold abstractions of contemporary art. His artistic journey reveals a deep engagement with the materiality of paint and the possibilities in abstraction to evoke emotions rather than to depict objects. The Water (3), painted in 2019, is a compelling embodiment of this exploration, showcasing Zhang's approach to the theme of water—an element deeply embedded in the symbols of Chinese culture and acts as a personal metaphor for the artist.

\n\n

This work forms a critical part of Zhang’s broader ‘Water’ series, through which he transcends literal interpretations and ventures into the abstract, inviting viewers to explore water not just as a physical substance but as a dynamic, life-giving force that flows through the collective human experience. In doing so, Zhang not only captures the physical fluidity of water, but also its symbolic association with change, purity, and the unconscious.

\n\n

A Luminous Complexity of The Water

\n\n

The Water (3) stands out in its intricate play of colour and form. Dominated by a palette of shades of greens, the painting evokes the serene yet powerful presence of water, captured in a deep pond. The canvas comes to life as an exuberant dance of movement unfolds across its surface —the strokes are broad, overlapping and infinitely varied, mimicking the ceaseless motion of water. This movement is not at all chaotic, but is incredibly rhythmic, much like the natural currents that guide rivers and streams.

\n\n

Zhang’s technique involves layering translucent and opaque paints to achieve a depth that suggests the endlessness of a body of water. These layers create a visual effect in which the boundaries between colours are simultaneously defined and diffused, mirroring the way water blends into the sky at the horizon or how ripples merge into one another. The brushwork, reflective of his Chinese painting background, emphasises the fluidity of his medium, allowing the paint to flow freely across the canvas, whilst controlling it enough to form compelling patterns and textures. The vastness of the canvas and water as an enduring subject was widely celebrated by literati painters, reminiscent of the Southern Song master Ma Yuan’s famous scroll Water.

\n\n

\"\" — Ma Yuan, *Water*, ca. 1222, The Palace Museum, Beijing

\n\n

The interaction of light and shadow in the present lot further enhances its dynamic quality. Zhang skilfully manipulates shading to give the illusion of light reflecting off of the water's surface, inviting the viewer to feel the visibility and obscurity that water naturally embodies. This technique not only deepens the visual impact of the painting but also invites the viewer to deeply contemplate what lies beneath the surface.

\n\n

Thematic Resonance

\n\n

At its core, Zhang’s work is an exploration of impermanence and fluidity. Water, in Zhang's abstraction, becomes a metaphor for life's transient moments and the nature of human emotions—ever-changing, elusive, and deep. This thematic choice resonates with the philosophical underpinnings of Chinese art, in which nature is often a conduit for deeper reflections on human life and its transient beauty.

\n\n

Zhang's choice to depict water—an element known for its capability to adapt and transform—mirrors his own artistic evolution. His artistic evolution from figurative painting to abstract expressionism is vividly captured in the fluidity of water depicted in the painting, defying any rigid attempts at definition or confinement. It flows beyond the confines of form and invites viewers to allow their perceptions to shift and change as they immerse themselves in the work.

\n\n

While deeply rooting his paintings in the aesthetics of Chinese art, Zhang readily explores themes of the global world. With an ability to capture the essence of everyday scenes through having a keen eye for detail and meticulous observation, he imbues his subjects with a sense of profound meaning and elevates his work to a realm of extraordinary beauty, making them universally accessible and poignant. By exploring mundane subjects with a heightened attention to detail, Zhang brings significance in the ordinary and indirectly invites viewers to contemplate larger themes of the passage of time, the transience of existence, and the interconnectedness of humanity.

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Based in Shanghai, Zhang Enli has held numerous solo exhibitions worldwide such as at the Long Museum, Chongqing, China; K11 Foundation, China; Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan; ICA Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK; and more. His works are in the permanent collections of K11 Foundation, China; Tate London, UK; and more. He has had a solo exhibition with HEM He Art Museum in Guangdong, China. Featuring over 50 paintings and site-specific installations, the exhibition was held between 17 February –14 May 2023. Most recently, he has held a solo exhibition Faces at Hauser & Wirth in Hong Kong from 24 January to 9 March 2024.

\n\n

\n",{"_194":195,"_323":197},{"_185":1207,"_187":796,"_189":1208,"_224":1225,"_226":227,"_228":1226,"_230":-5,"_231":232,"_233":234,"_235":236,"_237":1227,"_239":146,"_241":1228,"_243":1228,"_244":1229,"_246":1230,"_248":-5,"_249":250,"_251":-5,"_252":-5,"_253":33,"_254":33,"_255":384,"_257":1231,"_259":42,"_260":33,"_261":42,"_262":33,"_263":33,"_264":1232,"_266":-5,"_267":-5,"_268":-5,"_269":-5,"_270":-5,"_272":273,"_274":170,"_275":170,"_277":1233,"_279":1234,"_281":1235,"_283":1236,"_285":170,"_287":170,"_289":170,"_290":170,"_291":1237,"_293":1238,"_296":1242,"_298":1243,"_300":1245,"_318":-5,"_37":319,"_39":320,"_321":1253,"_324":170,"_325":42},"200409",{"_191":-5,"_192":1209,"_202":1211},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":785,"_200":1210},1000000,[1212,1215,1218,1221,1224],{"_194":205,"_196":206,"_198":1213,"_200":1214},151000,101000,{"_194":210,"_196":210,"_198":1216,"_200":1217},174000,116000,{"_194":214,"_196":215,"_198":1219,"_200":1220},177000,118000,{"_194":219,"_196":220,"_198":1222,"_200":1223},192000,128000,{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":785,"_200":1210},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/liu-wei/200409","21","1-932U0D","Purple Air III No. 2 (diptych)",13849,"Liu Wei",1524000,[],"each 301.6 x 190.4 cm. (118 3/4 x 74 7/8 in.)\r\noverall 301.6 x 380.8 cm. (118 3/4 x 149 7/8 in.)","oil on canvas, in 2 parts","Painted in 2006.","Wedel Fine Art, London \r\nPrivate Collection (acquired from the above) \r\nPhillips de Pury and Company, London, 29 June 2009, lot 129 \r\nPrivate Collection, Asia \r\nChristie's, Hong Kong, 26 November 2016, lot 16 \r\nPrivate Collection, Hong Kong \r\nPhillips, Hong Kong, 26 May 2019, lot 19 \r\nAcquired at the above sale by the present owner","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200409_001.jpg",[1239,1240,1241],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200409_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200409_003.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200409_004.jpg",[369],[1244],"•",[1246],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":1247,"_308":1248,"_310":1249},18665,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 63685",[1250],{"_303":42,"_313":1251,"_315":1252,"_317":-5},22414,"

“The painted canvases seemed so beautiful, so unlike life, so I called this series ‘Purple Air.’ In the Chinese classics, this idea of purple air also refers to a state of haze, a lack of clarity, but actually full of vitality. There are so many problems, but it is still lovely.”
\n— Liu Wei

\n\n

Monumental in size and layout yet vibrant in its rhythmic variations of lines and colours, Purple Air III No. 2 forms an indelible part of Liu Wei’s dreamlike cityscape series, and his brilliantly inventive, ever-updating revisions of the modern urban world. Towering, dull-coloured vertical lines crowd out our view of a similarly grey sky, giving the impression of an inhuman, over-developed metropolis, with many drips of paint melting across the canvas as if they were still wet and other brighter colours like yellow and green break up the monotony with an expressionist flair. Though the relentless parallel shapes overlap and overwhelm our vision, they exude an exhilarating sense of imaginative freedom and act as a reminder of how art can reshape the world in new ways.

\n\n

Ever-Changing Landscapes

\n\n

The series’ title derives from a traditional Chinese saying: ‘purple air comes from the east’（紫氣東來）, first used to herald the Tao Te Ching’s legendary author. The colour also represents a key Taoist deity who controlled the North Star, and his palace complex in the heavens, the model for the Forbidden City in Liu’s hometown of Beijing. Shades of this prestigious history appear in Liu’s paintings - there is certainly something unearthly in his luminous, floating skyscrapers - but his priority has always been the here and now, the China of his own time: ‘It’s all coming from reality; they are all things you can see …. Cities are reality, all of China is a city under construction ⁱ‘.

\n\n

Far from a stable classical past, Liu grew up in an urban and social world constantly undergoing change, which was never more apparent than in the concrete edifices springing up and down all over Beijing, with every skyline altering in any given year. Rather than countering this process in his art, Liu’s work has reflected the ever-changing landscape in his mercurial artistic methods, taking on new media and forms to re-envision urban and modern China in ever-surprising ways. His Library series, for example, moulded massive city ruins out of paperback books, while his famous Landscape photograph (2004), as part of the M+ Sigg Collection, mimicked a traditional Chinese landscape using upturned human buttocks.

\n\n

A Modern Method

\n\n

“It’s all coming from reality; they are all things you can see. I don’t see making art as a question of creativity, because you can’t really create anything. Everything already exists; it’s just a question of how you see it, from which perspective, good or bad.”
\n— Liu Wei

\n\n

Though it uses the more familiar medium of oil on canvas, the Purple Air series is no exception to this practice. Always starting from his immediate world, Liu begins each painting by taking photographs of Beijing’s cityscape, which become references for a digital drawing on his computer. His many assistants then transfer the lines onto canvas under his careful supervision, given a much greater scale and dynamism in the process. Striking a balance between spontaneity and precision, the bright colours recall Mondrian’s Transatlantic Paintings - made with meticulous technique and influenced by modern city life- but Liu’s style is more modern still, in tune with the computerised age, closely tied to the changing concrete jungle around him, and visually rhythmic in an ever-unfamiliar manner.

\n\n

\"\" — Piet Mondrian, *Composition with White and Red*, 1936, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Image: Philadelphia Museum of Art, A. E. Gallatin Collection, 1952, 1952-61-89

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Liu Wei was born in 1972 in Beijing, where he still lives and works, and graduated from Hangzhou’s China Academy of Art in 1996. He has garnered worldwide acclaim for his vast, multifaceted interpretations of modern urban life, winning the Award of Art China and Artnet Artist of the Year awards in 2016. His work has been collected by public institutions on multiple continents, including the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, M+ in Hong Kong, the DSL Collection in Paris, National Gallery Victoria in Melbourne, and the Fosun Foundation in Shanghai. He has participated in group exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York (2017) and Whitechapel Gallery in London (2015), and has been honoured with solo exhibitions at the Long Museum in Shanghai (2020) and White Cube galleries in Florida (2022) and London (2021). His Purple Air paintings are among his most lucrative, with the present work selling for HK$4,350,000 at Phillips Hong Kong in 2019.

\n\n

ⁱJérôme Sans, ‘Liu Wei, an interview’, in China Talks, Beijing, 2009, p. 40.

\n\n

\n",{"_194":195,"_323":197},{"_185":1255,"_187":843,"_189":1256,"_224":1264,"_226":227,"_228":1265,"_230":-5,"_231":232,"_233":234,"_235":236,"_237":1266,"_239":82,"_241":1267,"_243":1267,"_244":1268,"_246":1269,"_248":-5,"_249":250,"_251":-5,"_252":-5,"_253":33,"_254":33,"_255":352,"_257":1270,"_259":33,"_260":33,"_261":42,"_262":33,"_263":33,"_264":1271,"_266":-5,"_267":1272,"_268":664,"_269":-5,"_270":728,"_272":273,"_274":170,"_275":1273,"_277":1274,"_279":1275,"_281":1276,"_283":1277,"_285":170,"_287":170,"_289":1278,"_290":170,"_291":1279,"_293":1280,"_296":1283,"_298":1284,"_300":1285,"_318":-5,"_37":319,"_39":320,"_321":1293,"_324":170,"_325":42},"200498",{"_191":-5,"_192":1257,"_202":1258},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":330,"_200":331},[1259,1260,1261,1262,1263],{"_194":205,"_196":206,"_198":334,"_200":335},{"_194":210,"_196":210,"_198":337,"_200":338},{"_194":214,"_196":215,"_198":340,"_200":341},{"_194":219,"_196":220,"_198":343,"_200":344},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":330,"_200":331},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/katherine-bernhardt/200498","22","1-932U0F","C'est Très Chic",5416,"Katherine Bernhardt",825500,[],"

Katherine Bernhardt, whether in her paintings or make-shift Moroccan rugs, is rapt by neons and geometries. The artist, who works in New York, takes an almost hasty-flick of a brushstroke that lands as a jagged architectural form — figures cut in space and in buzzing colors that leave a mental trace.

Seemingly each month, multiple galleries, museums or art fairs across the world exhibit Bernhardt's large-scale fantasies and rug-centric installations, as seen in 2017 at Art Basel and with a solo retrospective at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth. "I think the best painters don't intellectualize their own art—they just make stuff," she says; but with sharks circling trash in the water in today's climate, as is depicted in Sharks, Toilet Paper and Plantains, it's not hard to see Bernhardt's deeper meanings.

","signed, titled and dated '2016 Katherine Bernhardt C'est Très Chic' on the reverse","198.4 x 182.9 cm. (78 1/8 x 72 in.)","acrylic and spray paint on canvas","Executed in 2016.","Xavier Hufkens, Brussels\r\nAcquired from the above by the present owner","PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN COLLECTION","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200498_001.jpg",[1281,1282],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200498_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200498_003.jpg",[],[],[1286],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":1287,"_308":1288,"_310":1289},18666,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 44960",[1290],{"_303":42,"_313":1291,"_315":1292,"_317":-5},22415,"

“Painting is a practice that I follow; and it chooses its own way. It is impossible to predict where it will go, just as it is impossible to predict what kinds of pop culture will emerge in the future or which colors will naturally pool together on a flat canvas on my studio floor. The only constants in a true painting practice are evolution and change.”
\n— Katherine Bernhardt

\n\n

One of her many monumental takes on the Pink Panther, the present lot C’est Très Chic by Katherine Bernhardt carries the familiar Pop Art practice of reshaping mass-produced images, but with a vibrant command of fluorescent paint that makes it more stylish than ever. Cryptic academic commentaries or broad statements are not the artist’s intentions: instead, the character, so often blandly cut and pasted onto merchandise and TV, is rendered in brilliant shades of his iconic colour on a massive scale. Big, sweeping acrylic brushstrokes leave drops and trails across the canvas, seemingly bright and shiny as if they had just been freshly painted, offset by drier, smokier fields of spray paint. Flanked by repeated French phrases and with one hand on the hip, the panther strives to appear cool and smooth - but the work has the heedless joy and creativity of a child’s first painting.

\n\n

\"\" — Katherine Bernhardt, *Laundry Day*, 2017.
\n Sold by Phillips at HK Evening Sale for HK$ 2,142,000, 22 June 2022
\nArtwork: © Katherine Bernhardt

\n\n

Influences Everywhere

\n\n

Though Berhnardt cites several major artists as influences, such as the Colour Field painter Helen Frankenthaler, she looks to symbols of pop culture as sources of inspiration, conjuring up equally dazzling paintings. Her 2023 exhibitions in Hong Kong and New York, for example, respectively took on Pokémon cards and Bart Simpson for inspiration, transfiguring their overfamiliar forms into similarly dazzling visions. Travels in Morocco have inspired Bernhardt's love for African fabrics and their geometric patterns and bright contrasts clearly bleed into her painting as the minutiae of daily life - showers, cigarettes, and even cleaning products- recur throughout, taking on a similar visual rhythm.

\n\n

A Memorable Stay

\n\n

Her paintings of the Pink Panther were inspired by a stay at a hotel in Honolulu, known as the Pink Palace. In the Pink Palace, pink suffused the towels, the sheets, the décor, and even the food, while the TV sets showed her son’s beloved The Pink Panther Show. Originally created for the opening titles of a Europe-set, high-society heist comedy (echoed in the work’s suave title), Bernhardt found the svelte character a much welcomed contrast to her other previous muses such as the rotund but endearing Garfield and the chic models, thus promptly devoting a whole series of paintings to the Pink Panther.

\n\n

“Everything was pink. I thought, Oh my God, that’s awesome. I should start making all-pink paintings."
\n— Katherine Bernhardt

\n\n

A Mercurial Technique

\n\n

To give her work its signature brightness and fluidity, Bernhardt uses a strikingly unique method. Re-examining Abstract Expressionists’ practice of pouring paint from above and allowing the canvas absorb it, she paints on the floor ‘so [she] can use lots of liquid and so that it doesn’t drip, it pools instead’ ⁱ. This creates flowing, spontaneous patterns throughout the composition, giving it a liveliness still palpable in the end result. With her mass-media archetypes, minute lines and spots streaked around in irreplicable patterns, it is only Bernhardt who can dazzle us with her spectacularly playful subjects.

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Born in St Louis, 1975, Katherine Bernhardt has gained strong praise from critics for her vivid, freeform paintings of pop culture figures and equally dazzling, Morocco-influenced carpet installations.
Having received a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and MFA from New York’s School of Visual Arts, she broke out with a solo exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in 2017, with other shows in New York, London, Brussels, and Panama City since.
Jointly represented by David Zwirner, which most recently exhibited her work in Hong Kong last year (Dummy doll jealous eyes ditto pikachu beefy mimikyu rough play Galarian rapid dash libra horn HP 270 Vmax full art, May – August 2023), and CANADA Gallery.
Her art features in notable public and museum collections, including the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, High Museum of Art, Atalanta, and Mohammad and Mahera Abu Ghazaleh Foundation, Amman, Jordan.

\n\n

ⁱKatherine Bernhardt, quoted in an interview with Maria Vogel for Art of Choice website, June 4 2018, online.

\n",{"_194":195,"_323":197},{"_185":1295,"_187":888,"_189":1296,"_224":1313,"_226":227,"_228":1314,"_230":-5,"_231":232,"_233":234,"_235":236,"_237":1315,"_239":59,"_241":1316,"_243":1316,"_244":1317,"_246":1318,"_248":-5,"_249":250,"_251":-5,"_252":-5,"_253":33,"_254":33,"_255":1319,"_257":1320,"_259":33,"_260":33,"_261":42,"_262":33,"_263":33,"_264":1321,"_266":-5,"_267":1322,"_268":1323,"_269":-5,"_270":728,"_272":273,"_274":170,"_275":1324,"_277":1325,"_279":358,"_281":1326,"_283":1327,"_285":170,"_287":1328,"_289":1278,"_290":170,"_291":1329,"_293":1330,"_296":1334,"_298":1335,"_300":1336,"_318":-5,"_37":319,"_39":320,"_321":1344,"_324":170,"_325":42},"200500",{"_191":-5,"_192":1297,"_202":1300},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":1298,"_200":1299},12000000,7500000,[1301,1304,1306,1309,1312],{"_194":205,"_196":206,"_198":1302,"_200":1303},1210000,757000,{"_194":210,"_196":210,"_198":607,"_200":1305},872000,{"_194":214,"_196":215,"_198":1307,"_200":1308},1410000,884000,{"_194":219,"_196":220,"_198":1310,"_200":1311},1540000,962000,{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":1298,"_200":1299},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/kaws/200500","23","1-932U0H","PAY THE DEBT TO NATURE",4271,"KAWS",5250000,5969000,[],"

To understand the work of KAWS is to understand his roots in the skateboard and graffiti crews of New York City. Brian Donnelly chose KAWS as his moniker to tag city streets beginning in the 1990s, and quickly became a celebrated standout in the scene. Having swapped spray paint for explorations in fine art spanning sculpture, painting and collage, KAWS has maintained a fascination with classic cartoons, including Garfield, SpongeBob SquarePants and The Simpsons, and reconfigured familiar subjects into a world of fantasy.

Perhaps he is most known for his larger-than-life fiberglass sculptures that supplant the body of Mickey Mouse onto KAWS' own imagined creatures, often with 'x'-ed out eyes or ultra-animated features. However, KAWS also works frequently in neon and vivid paint, adding animation and depth to contemporary paintings filled with approachable imagination. There is mass appeal to KAWS, who exhibits globally and most frequently in Asia, Europe and the United States.

",1974,"signed, titled and dated 'KAWS '10 \"PAY THE DEBT TO NATURE\"' on the reverse","213 x 305 cm. (84 x 120 in.)","Painted in 2010.","Galerie Perrotin, Paris\r\nAcquired from the above by the present owner","Paris, Galerie Perrotin, Pay the Debt to Nature, 6 November 2010 - 23 December 2010\r\nFort Worth, Modern Art Museum; Shanghai, Yuz Museum, Where the End Starts, 20 October 2016 - 22 January 2017; 28 March - 31 July 2017, p. 110 - 111 (illustrated), p.194.","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200500_001.jpg",[1331,1332,1333],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200500_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200500_003.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/200500_004.jpg",[],[],[1337],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":1338,"_308":1339,"_310":1340},18670,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 32145",[1341],{"_303":42,"_313":1342,"_315":1343,"_317":-5},22419,"

“You know, I think it’s more of the visceral feelings of cartoons, the flat colors, that I relate to. When I’m doing a painting there’s no narrative or anything like that. It’s just sort of, ‘This composition feels good. These colors feel good.’”
\n— KAWSPAY THE DEBT TO NATURE was the title piece for KAWS’s late-2010 exhibition at Galerie Perrotin in Paris. Its ominous name refers to a quote from Gravity’s Rainbow - ‘Death is a debt to nature due, which I have paid, and so must you’- a common 18th century epitaph given new life in Thomas Pynchon’s landmark psychedelic novel, and enriched again in this mercurial, multicoloured dreamscape. All at once, the artist animates the memento mori, a classic trope of the Old Masters, with the elastic freedom of colour and line his early graffiti work carried, and his usual wry inversions of pop culture icons. He calls to mind an enormous range of creative influences, but his work is not bound to a set story or line of art history -even his own- and so continues to surprise.

\n\n

KAWS’s unique way of refining culture also bears out in this composition, a homage to one of his favourite 20th century artists. In 2001, he discovered the work of the sculptor H. C. Westermann, alongside four other artists who revealed a braver, wilder, and less categorisable side of art history: ‘These were all the artists I was interested in—it was a great opportunity to see all that work together’ ⁱ. Particularly enraptured by Westermann’s drawings and watercolours, he started collecting them for 10 years before moving on to his sculptures: the former includes Drawing of a Man Underwater, Sea of Cortez, where the artist, as his lounge lizard alter ego, sees himself threatened by a hammerhead shark. KAWS closely transplants this unsettling silhouette onto the canvas in the present lot - only this time, a large-gloved and shoed mascot resembling Mickey Mouse (or KAWS own Companion) is the aggressor.

\n\n

\"\" — H.C. Westermann, *Drawing of a Man Underwater, Sea of Cortez*, 1974.
\nImage: Courtesy of the artist’s Instagram. Artwork: Artwork: © Estate of H.C. Westermann / Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York

\n\n

Embracing Diverse Mediums
\n

\n\n

One of the most incredible aspects of KAWS’s career and practices is his adventurousness: there is no method of making art that he is not willing to explore, giving him a vast range of tools and influences throughout his rich career. It began with graffiti on the streets of New York as a child, which continued with an illustration degree at its School of Visual Arts, integrating his own designs into the billboards and advertisements of the city. Collaborations with photographers, fashion designers, and toy manufacturers have let him cannibalise multiple forms of established media, injecting his morbid-yet-friendly aesthetic in a similarly disruptive manner and unsettling their cultural dominance in a similar manner to Warhol. Having briefly worked as a background painter for Disney, he takes on the colour... the below work PINCH showcases Mondrian-esque distortions of SpongeBob Square Pants in his rendering of the KAWSBOB character.

\n\n

\"\" — KAWS, *PINCH*, 2010, sold by Phillips Hong Kong in March 2023. Artwork: © KAWS

\n\n

Their uniform, readymade shapes are further meticulously broken down in the present lot. In the exhibition PAY THE DEBT TO NATURE at Galerie Perrotin, it is portrayed as ‘a man captured and manhandled by Nature, which has reclaimed its rights’ ⁱⁱ, yet just as the title suggests, the ‘debts to Nature’ is rendered as faceless and depthless cutouts, filled by single and unmoderated colours. Aside from a jagged, similarly monotone tree branch bending down on said man, the landscape and objects around them have little suggestion of the real world: amorphous blobs and stalagmitic downward spikes fill the black background.

\n\n

Still Untethered

\n\n

"Abstraction always interested me, […] probably because it relates to design logos, and, in a very basic way, animation. Drawing itself is an abstract process until it becomes something recognisable."
\n— KAWSBy mixing this abstract free play with vaguely cartoon figures, KAWS shows us the shared freedoms of popular animation and high art, without being bound by either label. Both can defy standard realism and figuration to show us incredible new creative visions, but can also become trapped and stale through mass-reproduction, academic sermonising, and overfamiliarity. KAWS allows us to see their potential again: ‘This is not a simple mixing of the cartoon figure with the abstract, but a blurring of the two, bringing to light the abstract nature of cartoons, as well as the figural possibilities of abstraction’.ⁱⁱⁱ His uncontainable oeuvre, constantly introducing new mediums and methods rather than keeping to the familiar, only heightens this effect.

\n\n

In this way, his painting continues to introduce revelatory new sights and connections, while carrying over a practice from the outset of his career. As his early graffiti work introduced unexpected colours, patterns, and characters into familiar commercial environments, his painting -executed with the same precise wildness- strands mass-media figures, broken down and recoloured, in the world of the art gallery, where they can inspire and provoke again. For all his prestige, success, and global ubiquity, KAWS is still finding ways to make art feel exciting and new.

\n\n

\"\" — KAWS’s signature graffiti tag on a MetLife billboard, 1995. Artwork: © KAWS

\n\n

Collector’s Digest
\n

\n\n

The present lot was exhibited at Paris, Perrotin, Pay the Debt to Nature, 6 November 2010 - 23 December 2010. KAWS’s versatility with high and low art, and ability to give any artistic project his own distinct identity, has made him a highly valued name among collectors and institutions. Critical plaudits and high bids have gone hand in hand with big name collaborators, including Uniqlo and Pharrell Williams, keeping his work accessible to a wide audience. He recently finished a solo exhibition of his work at the Art Gallery of Ontario (September 2023 – March 2024 [it finishes on the 21st]) and in May 2024, The Andy Warhol Museum of Pittsburgh will host an exhibition of his work alongside Warhol’s. Other solo shows have been hosted worldwide, including at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Qatar Museums, Doha (both 2019), Brooklyn Museum, New York (2021), and the Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2017). His work also inhabits permanent collections on a similar level of prestige, including the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas, the Rosenblum Collection in Paris, and the CAC Malaga in Spain.

\n\n

ⁱ KAWS, quoted in an interview with ARTNews, September 24 2019.

\n\n

ⁱⁱ Press release for KAWS’s Pay the Debt to Nature exhibition at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris (6 November – 23 December 2010).

\n\n

ⁱⁱⁱ Michael Auping, ‘America’s Cartoon Mind’, in Where the End Starts KAWS, eds. Andrea Karnes and Marla Price, Texas, 2017, p. 71.

\n",{"_194":195,"_323":197},{"_185":1346,"_187":85,"_189":1347,"_224":1359,"_226":227,"_228":1360,"_230":-5,"_231":232,"_233":234,"_235":236,"_237":1361,"_239":534,"_241":1362,"_243":1362,"_244":1363,"_246":1364,"_248":-5,"_249":250,"_251":-5,"_252":-5,"_253":33,"_254":33,"_255":1365,"_257":1366,"_259":33,"_260":33,"_261":42,"_262":33,"_263":33,"_264":1367,"_266":-5,"_267":-5,"_268":-5,"_269":-5,"_270":-5,"_272":273,"_274":170,"_275":1368,"_277":1369,"_279":358,"_281":1370,"_283":1371,"_285":170,"_287":1372,"_289":1373,"_290":170,"_291":1374,"_293":1375,"_296":1380,"_298":1381,"_300":1382,"_318":-5,"_37":319,"_39":320,"_321":1390,"_324":170,"_325":42},"203211",{"_191":-5,"_192":1348,"_202":1349},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":330,"_200":434},[1350,1352,1355,1357,1358],{"_194":205,"_196":206,"_198":1351,"_200":496},90600,{"_194":210,"_196":210,"_198":1353,"_200":1354},105000,81900,{"_194":214,"_196":215,"_198":340,"_200":1356},82700,{"_194":219,"_196":220,"_198":343,"_200":446},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":330,"_200":434},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/andre-butzer/203211","24","1-932U0J","Untitled",5574,"André Butzer",490000,1270000,[],"signed and dated 'A.Butzer ‘20' on the reverse","175 x 255.2 cm. (68 7/8 x 100 1/2 in.)","Painted in 2020, this work is registered in the André Butzer Archive and will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné.","Max Hetzler Gallery, London\r\nAcquired from the above by the present owner","London, Galerie Max Hetzler, Karel Appel, Andre Butzer, William N. Copley, Ida Ekblad, Jeff Elrod, Walton Ford, Tursic & Mille, 1 - 19 September 2020","PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTION","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/203211_001.jpg",[1376,1377,1378,1379],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/203211_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/203211_003.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/203211_004.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/203211_005.jpg",[],[],[1383],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":1384,"_308":1385,"_310":1386},18682,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 96437",[1387],{"_303":42,"_313":1388,"_315":1389,"_317":-5},22431,"

“I can’t accept the term ‘pure abstraction’ nor the conception of having four people painted on top of a canvas, as if this was the motif of the painting. What helps me is the ever-lasting peaceful conception of the image itself… There’s nothing painted on top of that entity”.
\n— André Butzer

\n\n

André Butzer’s Untitled assembles four of his most potently symbolic characters for what could be a pleasant group outing, or a medieval dance of death. At the centre are two childlike, smiling human figures backed against each other: both resembling his golden woman, who ‘embodies the vital force to overcome the disunion between good and evil, creation and destruction, life and death’ⁱ. Their neighbour on the left resembles both a candy and a cartoon alien with its round, colourful head: this is one of his Friedens-Siemens-children, named for both the German word for peace and the electronics corporation, said to bridge historical extremes. Their storybook smiles sharply contrast with the jagged features, grinning mouth, and blank eyes of the last figure, alternately known as the ‘Shame-Man’ and the ‘Wanderer’, who carries depths of history and loneliness throughout his endless travels. The latter, older two were once painted by Butzer in much rougher, gloomier styles -and even now, it is unclear whether they are ambushing the middle two or being led to a brighter future.

\n\n

\"\" — Asger Jorn, *Letter to my Son*, 1956-1957, Tate Collection, London. Artwork: © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

\n\n

The Wanderer

\n\n

This rich personal mythology is rooted in Butzer’s personal journey and his conflicted relationship with the modern world. As the son of an IBM electronics employee in Stuttgart, the home of Porsche, he felt surrounded by ‘the tragic tendency of industrialism’ⁱⁱ, and searched for a means of escape: chief among this was California, a bigger and brighter vista illuminated by Hollywood’s magic, and second was painting, particularly the surging, emotional, and mysterious figurations of Edvard Munch and Asger Jorn. Once he was able to live in Los Angeles decades later, he discovered similar levels of automation and banality - calling it ‘death in the sunshine’ⁱⁱⁱ, and left, following it with a longer series of dark, minimalistic ‘N-Paintings’. More recently, he has attempted living there again for its endless opportunities of plein-air painting, resulting in the bright, bold simplicity of this work alongside a further development of his personal mythology.

\n\n

Small World After All

\n\n

“For me, it should be something eternal, like an expressive machine that works and calculates in an irrational manner. An eventful, but calm element between life and death that measures the future. The term science fiction caught my eye, since we do not know what it truly is but the term extends to our present nonetheless.”
\n—André Butzer

\n\n

Alongside this, Butzer gravitated away from the visceral abstractions of earlier artists, instead deciding to confront the bland simplifications of modern media directly: ‘I understood that I had to go where the enemy was and not attack from the outside…embrace negative things and integrate them into my art’^iv. In a style he dubs ‘Science-Fiction Expressionism’, he gradually fills his work with recurring characters in the manner of a comic or franchise, each taking on increasing cultural weight through the artist’s storied influences and shifting contexts.

\n\n

All inhabit a space colony called NASAHEIM, whose etymology incorporates elements from NASA, Disneyland’s location in Anaheim and the German word for home, contradictorily blending its warmth and domesticity with the coldness and distance of space and an illusory paradise on Earth. Utopian hopes and the simple childhood pleasures referenced by the illustration-like style are contaminated by corporate repetitions and banality.

\n\n

Shades of his earlier, more violent work also intrude through the Wanderer figure: he was jointly inspired by The Scream, an insignia of 90s rock band Melvins, and Hölderlin’s Romantic novel Hyperion. He has been savagely distorted in earlier paintings, with splayed innards and harsh skeletal features standing in for traumas of the past, and incidentally an individual with no home anywhere. Even in Butzer’s sunnier recent style and being surrounded by happier characters, he strikes an ominous note: the mystery of how and where he belongs there remains unanswered, contributing to a style that rivals Munch in its mysterious, many-storied symbolism.

\n\n

\"\" — Edvard Munch, *The Dance of Life*, 1899-1900, National Museum of Art, Norway
\n

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Recently turned 50 and the subject of a major monograph from Taschen, Stuttgart-born André Butzer has become an established giant of the art world through his storybook-like yet intellectually complex painting style. Leading international collections hold examples of his work, including the Art Institute of Chicago, YUZ Museum in Shanghai, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Museo Novocento in Florence. Phillips holds his auction record, with Chips und Medizin (Das Glück), which sold for £403,200 in London, October 2021. The second-highest, an untitled four-figure painting like this work, sold for $3,276,000 HKD in May 2022: over three times its high estimate. He is currently hosting four solo exhibitions in Europe, including a double 52-work retrospective in Florence at the Museo Stefano Bardini (… und der Tod ist auch ein Leben, 1 March – 9 June) and Museo Novocento (Liebe, Glaube, und Hoffnung, 22 March – 9 June).

\n\n

ⁱ H. Eckstein, 2023, quoted at Galerie Max Hetzler’s page on Andre Butzer, online.

\n\n

ⁱⁱAndré Butzer, quoted in Michael Slenske, ‘Expressionism, Now with Added Black’, Vice, 11 September 2017, online.

\n\n

ⁱⁱⁱIbid.

\n\n

^ivIbid

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“Having this jumping off point that’s often pulled from modern masters … I’m able to ground the viewer in this familiar space where they might know what to expect narratively, but then push it into a direction that is more contemporary or specific to my lived experience—to the woman painter living in New York in 2020.”
\n— Danielle Orchard

\n\n

Danielle Orchard, a contemporary artist with a distinct voice in the contemporary art scene, skilfully revisits and refreshes the principles of 20th-Century Modernism. Born in 1985 in Michigan City and now working from her studio in Pelham, Orchard's work delicately explores the nuanced realms of intimacy and femininity. Her 2019 piece, Parade Float, while being her largest work to be offered at auction, serves as a prime example of her approach, merging vibrant narrative depth with a keen art historical awareness. This painting came into the spotlight during Orchard's time at the Tamarind Institute, where she was the third recipient of the prestigious Frederick Hammersley Artist Residency.

\n\n

Dissecting the Dreamlike Parade

\n\n

The present lot captures a scene that is simultaneously ordinary and surreal, marked by the artist’s signature use of vibrant colours and fragmented, dissected forms. Typical of Orchard’s body of work, she depicts a series of female figures engaged in a celebration or a private moment of theatrical display in Parade Float. The setting is ambiguous yet intimate, enhancing the dreamlike quality of the work. Notably, the title directly refers to the festive nature of parade floats during celebrations, and by placing female nudes on a parade float it marks the artist's bold gesture in putting the female figures front and center, not shying away from public gaze. Orchard employs a range of hues from deep blues to bright reds and oranges, which not only draws the viewer’s eye across the canvas, but also layers the painting with added depth. Her use of colour not only defines the space, but also highlights the emotional states of the figures, suggesting a narrative beyond the immediate visual encounter.

\n\n

\n\n

Orchard's approach to form and space in this painting reflects a clear reference to Analytical Cubism. The figures and objects are broken up and reassembled in an abstracted, dissected manner, allowing multiple perspectives to coexist within a single frame. This fragmentation creates a sense of movement and dissonance, challenging the viewer’s perception and inviting them to piece together the narrative from the visual clues provided. The brushwork oscillates between deliberate, controlled lines in the depiction of the figures and more spontaneous, expressive strokes in the background and surrounding elements. This technique creates a dynamic tension between the subjects and their environment, emphasising the constructed nature of the scene and the painterly process itself.

\n\n

Cubism Reimagined Through Her Lens

\n\n

Cubism, pioneered by artists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in the early 20th Century, revolutionised the way in which artists represented reality. It emphasised the flat, two-dimensional surface of the canvas, deconstructed objects into geometric forms, and presented them from multiple angles simultaneously to convey more information and emotional impact.

\n\n

Danielle Orchard’s Parade Float echoes these Cubist principles through its fragmented forms and multiplicity of viewpoints. However, Orchard diverges significantly in her approach to narrative and emotional connectivity. Whereas Cubism often leaned towards the abstract and the analytical, detaching objects from their traditional context and emotional weight, Orchard re-infuses her abstracted forms with a palpable emotional depth and narrative intrigue. Her work is as much about the inner lives of her subjects as it is about formal experimentation.

\n\n

\"\" — Pablo Picasso, *Les Demoiselles d'Avignon*, 1907, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: © The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence, Artwork: © 2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

\n\n

Orchard’s use of colour starkly contrasts with the often-muted palettes of early Cubism, which primarily focused on monochromatic and earth tones to emphasise structure over sensation. Orchard’s vivid coloration brings a new layer of interpretation and feeling to the Cubist technique, making the subjects of her paintings resonate with contemporary audiences on both an aesthetic and a visceral level.

\n\n

Additionally, while Cubism was predominantly a male-dominated movement that sometimes objectified its subjects, Orchard’s focus on female figures and experiences places her in a dialogic position against this historical backdrop. She challenges the traditional narratives and representations of women in art, offering a modern reinterpretation that is both empowering and critically engaging.

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

Born in 1985 in Michigan City, Danielle Orchard currently lives and works in Pelham, MA, USA. She received her MFA in Painting from Hunter College, New York, in 2013 and BFA from Indiana University, Bloomington, IN in 2009. Known for her modern-era painter influences like Picasso and Matisse, Orchard's work involves abstract portrayals of female nudes, using a multi-perspectival Analytic Cubist style and vibrant, solid contours. Her recent exhibitions include Is it Light Where You Are?, Perrotin, Shanghai, March 15, 2024 - May 25, 2024, You Are a Serpent Who’ll Return to the Ocean, Perrotin, New York, April 26, 2023 - June 10, 2023, as well as a forthcoming solo show at Perrotin, Tokyo in 2024. Her works are part of several prominent collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and Pérez Art Museum, Miami.

\n",{"_194":195,"_323":197},{"_185":1440,"_187":989,"_189":1441,"_224":1454,"_226":227,"_228":1455,"_230":-5,"_231":232,"_233":234,"_235":236,"_237":1456,"_239":581,"_241":1457,"_243":1457,"_244":1458,"_246":1459,"_248":-5,"_249":250,"_251":-5,"_252":-5,"_253":33,"_254":33,"_255":1460,"_257":405,"_259":33,"_260":33,"_261":42,"_262":33,"_263":33,"_264":1461,"_266":-5,"_267":-5,"_268":-5,"_269":-5,"_270":728,"_272":273,"_274":170,"_275":1462,"_277":1463,"_279":1464,"_281":561,"_283":1465,"_285":170,"_287":170,"_289":170,"_290":170,"_291":1466,"_293":1467,"_296":1473,"_298":1474,"_300":1475,"_318":-5,"_37":319,"_39":320,"_321":1503,"_324":170,"_325":42},"198927",{"_191":-5,"_192":1442,"_202":1444},{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":1210,"_200":1443},750000,[1445,1447,1449,1451,1453],{"_194":205,"_196":206,"_198":1214,"_200":1446},75700,{"_194":210,"_196":210,"_198":1217,"_200":1448},87200,{"_194":214,"_196":215,"_198":1220,"_200":1450},88400,{"_194":219,"_196":220,"_198":1223,"_200":1452},96200,{"_194":195,"_196":197,"_198":1210,"_200":1443},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/joel-mesler/198927","26","1-932U0N","Untitled (Hugs)",19346,"Joel Mesler",525000,[],"signed and dated 'Joel Mesler 2022' on the overlap","213.4 x 165.1 cm. (84 x 65 in.)","pigment on linen","Rental Gallery, New York\r\nAcquired from the above by the present owner","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/198927_001.jpg",[1468,1469,1470,1471,1472],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/198927_002.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/198927_003.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/198927_004.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/198927_005.jpg","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/HK010124/198927_006.jpg",[],[],[1476,1483,1496],{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":1477,"_308":1478,"_310":1479},18662,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 81395",[1480],{"_303":42,"_313":1481,"_315":1482,"_317":-5},22409,"

“I like the fact that there are many layers to my work. I enjoy knowing that there may be several interpretations of the works…many layers of truth and reality.”
\n— Joel Mesler

\n\n

From Dealer to Artist

\n\n

Born in 1974, Los Angeles artist Joel Mesler’s life journey has been as colourful and vibrant as his body of work. Graduating from the Sonoma State University and receiving his MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute, he spent two decades as a successful art dealer in both Los Angeles and New York, seeking ways to make a small gallery successful from renting out his space to other galleries to going into business with more successful ones. Painting used to be a pastime for Mesler, overshadowed by his career of discovering and selling other artists. Yet, undergoing a period of personal turmoil in 2014 which precipitated his dive to the bottom, it marked his triumphant return to painting. In his journey to sobriety, Mesler filled the void with paint and soon found himself garnering much success and acclaim in the art world as an artist.

\n\n

Mesler uses hand-dyeing techniques on his linen canvases, which brings a unique vitality to his work. As seen on his canvases, they are filled with rich visual elements, drawing from the childhood memories of his affluent upbringing in the 1980s alongside cultural touchstones. His visually polished paintings are deeply rooted in the legacy of Pop Art, whilst his use of typography aligns him with the likes of artists such as Ed Ruscha and Christopher Wool. Although his works appear to be light-hearted and humorous at first through a combination of popular icons and text, Mesler delves into profoundly universal issues of identity, pain, healing, and acceptance.

\n\n

Transcending the “Eye Candy”

\n\n

Characterised by bold colours, stylised patterns, and unique text, the present lot Untitled (HUGS) is representative of the artist’s recent large-scale masterpieces that reveal aspects of his personal and artistic growth. It exudes an ‘eye candy’ aesthetic with incredible vitality through the lustrous, bold metallic red balloons as the focal point floating amidst a host of playful, free-floating motifs including the sun, the rainbow, the iconic Martinique banana leaf-like pattern, the pool, the kids pool floaties in various shapes and forms, the playball, and the signature red snake that slithers throughout.

\n\n

Set in an imagined environment of the lush jungle and the aqueous pool, Untitled (HUGS) is at first glance a visual feast that dazzles, yet there is much more than that first ‘eye candy’ attraction on a surface level as Mesler uses his image to provide an intimate glimpse into the dichotomies of his own life – his relationship with his parents, his father’s drug abuse and his parent’s divorce. Whilst he taps into some of the joy that he experienced as a child, Mesler also recalls his pool parties during his younger days being a lot more than the gloss and the glory: “For instance, the pool party: when I was young, my mom would throw pool parties for my brother and I, but also for her friends, and I had no idea what was really going on. All I saw were noodles and floats. But really, it was an excuse for my mother to get the parents together and gossip and drink. And there was this kind of underbelly of something else.”ⁱ

\n\n

\n\n

Similarly, the aesthetic banana leaf pattern that Mesler is so partial to employ here, reminiscent of the beautiful leafy and lush Beverly Hills Hotel wallpaper called Martinique created by CW Stockwell and introduced by decorator Don Loper in 1949, was the exact location where a volatile family episode had transpired and still haunts him to this day. He had a family Easter brunch there that ended with his father tossing the table, splattering eggs Benedict on his mother’s lap and shouting “I can’t take it anymore!”ⁱⁱ As the artist put it himself, “For so long that carried such heaviness, trauma and sadness. I joke about it because if I didn’t, I’d probably still be crying about it. But there is also this sense of emotional, psychological and financial profit from the trauma I was subjected to from my parents. So, I then decided to use those motifs and to reappropriate them for myself and then use them in order to create my own language.” ⁱⁱⁱ

\n\n

\"\" — Interior of the Beverly Hills Hotel, Los Angeles, showcasing the famous Martinique wallpaper print

\n\n

It is indeed through this juxtaposition of celebration and happiness with loneliness and darkness that Mesler encourages self-knowledge, reflection and healing.

\n\n

The Power of Art for Self-Restoration

\n\n

Much of Mesler’s inspiration has derived from his “journey of presentness”, a mentality of appreciating the present moment and living by the mantra “one day at a time”. Taking inspiration from the trauma and memories of his personal life, it draws many parallels to American contemporary artist Jeff Koons, in particularly with his Celebration series that was first conceived in 1993. Like Mesler’s pictorial images, though Koons’ pieces appear simplistic and cheerful at first glance, this body of work references a darker life milestone from his own biography. Koons had a volatile relationship with Ilona Staller, Italy’s most celebrated adult actress and his wife at the time, which resulted in separation within two years of their marriage, a divorce six years later and a rather ugly custody proceeding of their son Ludwig. The creation of the Celebration series was Koons’ way to move forward and heal. It consisted of 16 monumental sculptures including his Balloon Dog, Diamond and Ribbon. Referring to his inflatable characters, Koons had said, “I’ve always enjoyed balloon animals because they’re like us… We’re balloons. You take a breath and you inhale, it’s optimism. You exhale, and it’s kind of a symbol of death.” ^iv

\n",{"_303":33,"_304":756,"_306":1484,"_308":1485,"_310":1486},18663,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 76798",[1487,1490,1493],{"_303":42,"_313":1488,"_315":1489,"_317":-5},22410,"

\"\" — Jeff Koons, *Balloon Dog,* 1995-1998
\nArtwork: © Jeff Koons

\n\n

\n",{"_303":42,"_313":1491,"_315":1492,"_317":-5},22412,"

\"\" — Jeff Koons, *Balloon Dog (Blue)*, 2021
\nSold by Phillips Online for HK$203,200, November – December 2023
\n Artwork: © Jeff Koons

\n\n

\n",{"_303":42,"_313":1494,"_315":1495,"_317":-5},22411,"

\"\" — Jeff Koons, *Balloon Dog (Magenta)*, Pinault Collection
\nImage: © Jeff Koons

\n\n

\n",{"_303":42,"_304":305,"_306":1497,"_308":1498,"_310":1499},18664,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 68367",[1500],{"_303":42,"_313":1501,"_315":1502,"_317":-5},22413,"

Despite their different approaches in the art form, both works share the power to evoke nostalgia and tackle profound issues of identity, pain, healing, and acceptance. They beckon viewers to simpler times although it might serve as traumatic memories for them, suggesting that joy can be found in the simple pleasures of self-reflection and self-restoration.

\n\n

By gazing at the playful imagery created by Mesler in Untitled (HUGS), he invites viewers to consider the ways in which art can distil the complexities of human emotion into universal symbols. He further challenges us to reconsider the objects and experiences that we hold dear, prompting us to reflect on our own human connections. In the interplay of Mesler's raw emotions laid out on his canvas, a sense of harmony comes to light through the juxtaposition of both happy and sad memories and serves as a reminder that positivity and rebirth comes at each new day.’ The present work stands as a testament to his most defining and expansive pictorial works, not only departing from his formative examples, but also bearing a myriad of insights that encourage healing and self-recovery.

\n\n

\"\" — Installation view of the *Untitled (Hugs)* (another version) shown at *Joel Mesler: Spiritual Journey*, 2023.2.19－2023.4.18, Long Museum West Bund, Shanghai. Artwork: © Joel Mesler

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Collector’s Digest

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Born in Los Angeles in 1974, Joel Mesler started concentrating directly on his own art practice in 2015 after having already developed a career as an art dealer. In recent years, Mesler has exhibited internationally, including his 2022 solo exhibition with LGDR, Hong Kong. His most recent exhibition, Joel Mesler: zrikha sheqi’att hashemesh (Sunrise Sunset) was on view at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles, took place from November 11 – December 16, 2023. He has had an institutional show, Joel Mesler: Spiritual Journey at the Long Museum in Shanghai from February to April in 2023.

\n\n

Mesler, quoted in The New York Times, 'How an Art Dealer Became an Up-and-Coming Painter,' https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/t-magazine/joel-mesler-art.html

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ⁱJoel Mesler, quoted in LUX Magazine, 'Joel Mesler: What Lies Beneath The Eye Candy', 2023

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ⁱⁱ Mesler, quoted in 'How an Art Dealer Became an Up-and-Coming Painter', The New York Times, 19 June 2018, online.

\n\n

ⁱⁱⁱMesler, quoted in LUX Magazine, 'Joel Mesler: What Lies Beneath The Eye Candy', 2023

\n\n

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JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, 1982

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KYLE DUNN The Fool, 2021

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XIA YU It's Learning Time, 2020

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CUI JIE S House #5, 2016

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FRANCESCA MOLLETT Cadence, 2022

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LAUREN QUIN Second Mercury Mounts, 2020

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ANDRÉ BUTZER Untitled, 2020

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KAWS PAY THE DEBT TO NATURE, 2010

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Danielle So, Head of Day Sale.

\n\n

Auction: 31 May 2024 7pm HKT

\n\n

G/F, WKCDA Tower, West Kowloon Cultural District, No. 8 Austin Road West, Kowloon, Hong Kong (map)

\n\n

Viewing: 22 May–1 June
\nMonday-Sunday 11:00am–7:00pm

\n\n

Recommended Reading

\n\n

The Icons of an Icon >

\n\n

\n\n

Born in Beijing in 1920, Zao was deeply rooted in Eastern sensibilities. His work resonates with the Taoist idea of the “infinite,” exemplifying both the infinite universe and his infinite exploration of it as an artist. The artist arrived at his East-meets-West synthesis less out of stylistic considerations than as a result of the upheavals and cultural migrations in his life.

\n\n

30.09.97 is a fusion of blue, yellow, white, and green hues, evoking the limitless depth of sea and sky. The rhythmic blending and separation of colors captures life’s perpetual motion. Meticulously layered rose tints add mystery, inviting viewers to explore the painting's subtle intricacies. It is more than a painting; it is a journey through emotions and imagination and a window into the depths of existence.

\n\n

Created in 1997, the present work represents the culmination of insights, techniques, and life experiences Zao accumulated over 50 years. By the 1980s and '90s, the artist had achieved international recognition in Europe, the U.S., and Asia. His later works from this period retain the tension of those of the 1960s while simultaneously elevating the expression of space. His trips to China in the 1980s and 1990s provided Zao renewed inspiration, as he moved away from the interwoven lines and symbols of his earlier works and came to focus on a richer inner world, embracing negative space to capture the true essence of abstract painting.

\n\n

\n\n

Zao Wou-Ki, 25.11.81, 1981. Estimate: HK$7,000,000 – 10,000,000 / US$897,000 – 1,280,000. Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, 1 June.

\n\n

Fresh to the market, 25.11.81 was painted in 1981 during an important period of creation for the Chinese-French Modern master Zao Wou-Ki. This was the year that the artist was honored with his first major retrospective in France, a testament to his having achieved the heights of international recognition. By this time, he had already been in Paris for over thirty years. One sees the refined yet confident brushwork of a mature master.

\n\n

A beautifully intricate horizontal band of detail runs across the picture pane, with dark strokes of oil paint resembling both calligraphy and the shapes of the natural world. As one scans the canvas, a vast stretch of verdant mountains emerges. Zao employs a linear perspective to create the illusion of atmospheric depth, using nuanced strokes of autumnal green and milky white to reveal and conceal subtle layers of ochre and mustard yellow. This piece exemplifies Zao’s exploration of the compositional challenges in abstraction. Mastery of such detail requires a deep understanding of both Eastern and Western art sensibilities — which Zao was among the first to bridge.

\n\n

With an immense global presence, Zao's creations are part of over 150 public collections in 200 countries, including prominent institutions like MoMA, the Guggenheim, and Tate Modern.

\n\n

Gerhard Richter

\n\n

\n\n

Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild (947-5), 2016. Estimate: HK$26,000,000 – 36,000,000 / US$3,330,000 – 4,620,000. Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, 31 May.

\n\n

“With a brush you have control. The paint goes on the brush and you make the mark. From experience you know exactly what will happen. With the squeegee you lose control.” — Gerhard Richter

\n\n

A tremendously influential powerhouse of contemporary art, Gerhard Richter was born in Dresden in 1932 and came of age during a period of intense political and cultural change. A towering figure in contemporary art, his Abstraktes Bild series has attracted widespread interest from many prestigious collections.

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Richter marries chance and control, utilizing techniques like squeegeeing, blurring, and layering to create complex surfaces. His process involves etching, scraping, and smearing paint across the canvas, revealing underlying layers. This meticulous yet spontaneous technique results in a harmonious blend of intention and serendipity, where each element contributes to a captivating whole.

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Abstraktes Bild (947-5) comes from a significant phase in the artist’s career, marking his decisive return to abstract painting after experimenting with digital technologies and chance-based lacquer techniques in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Picking up the squeegee again, he combines vibrant and subdued hues to generate tension and harmony. The painting’s richly textured surface invites close examination, with translucent and opaque layers creating depth and visual intrigue. This work stands as a testament to Richter’s mastery, pushing the boundaries of abstraction and inviting viewers into a world of contemplation and introspection. Today, he continues to explore the relationships between color and form, abstraction and representation, and remains a paragon of the genre in art history.

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Park Seo-Bo

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Park Seo-Bo, Écriture No. 67-78-79, 1979. Estimate: HK$3,500,000 – 5,500,000 / US$449,000 – 705,000. Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, 31 May.

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“What I’ve realized over the years is that I must empty myself to soak up elements that I need, and to make myself more whole. And in order to empty myself, I must perform repetitive actions.” — Park Seo-Bo

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A pioneering figure of the Dansaekhwa movement, South Korean artist Park Seo-Bo is renowned for his Écriture series, which he began in the early 1960s. This series reflects a meditative and spiritual journey, where the act of repeatedly drawing lines becomes a practice akin to breathing. Park's work embraces the tactile qualities of Dansaekhwa and the Korean philosophy of harmony with nature, creating a timeless visual language.

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In Écriture, which means 'writing' in French, Park combines painting with the rhythmic patterns of calligraphy. Using a pencil, he creates meticulous lines on the canvas, a practice rooted in East Asian tradition. This repetitive action is not merely for aesthetic pleasure but serves as a meditative process, deconstructing the self and embracing non-purposefulness.

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Écriture No. 67-78-79, a quintessential example of his signature Écriture series, is both an erasure and creation, echoing the disciplined practice of calligraphy while transcending it to capture the essence of being. Perfectly capturing the artist’s philosophical journey and artistic evolution, the present work was widely shown as part of the ‘Park Seo-Bo Retrospective’ in the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul in 1991.

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Atsuko Tanaka, 88D, 1988. Estimate: HK$1,400,000 – 2,400,000 / US$179,000 – 308,000. Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, 1 June.

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“Tanaka’s paintings deeply affect the viewer’s spirit, suggesting that the boundary of ‘self’ can be changed, structuring a new relationship to the world.” — Mizuho Kato

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Atsuko Tanaka was a pivotal forefront member of the legendary Gutai group — Japan’s first post-war radical art movement, which was founded in 1954 — and she is renowned for embodying the group’s innovative and experimental spirit in her work. During the Second Gutai Exhibition in 1956, the artist famously engaged in a captivating dance, drawing lines and shapes in the air with the flashing neon light of her Electric Dress. This provocative performance — with its intense weight, heat, and luminosity — boldly challenged preconceived notions of the relationship between oneself and the material, placing Tanaka’s own subjectivity within a precarious state.

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Tanaka’s exploration of painting following her involvement with Gutai translates the ephemeral and immaterial Electric Dress performance into a tangible form. Despite being a two-dimensional piece, 88D is full of drama with vivid colorization in black, blue, orange, and yellow. With each brushstroke, Tanaka immerses herself more fully in the canvas, leaving behind not only physical traces of her engagement but also marks that measure the spatial and temporal reach of her corporeal presence.

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\nAnna Park

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Anna Park, Untitled, 2021. Estimate: HK$1,200,000 – 2,200,000 / US$154,000 – 282,000. Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, 1 June.

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“My work now operates from the memory of people or places and what that distortion feels like, as opposed to a depiction of reality. Our memories are intrinsically fragmented, discombobulated.” —Anna Park

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Park's work captures the fragmented, discombobulated nature of memory, creating compositions that are both unsettling and intriguing. In Untitled, the composition features a spectacled grinning face here; a coy side-eye there; a set of bared teeth over there. The overall result is one that is phantasmagoric, discombobulated, and filled with dizzying intrigue — a compelling snapshot, perhaps, of contemporary life.

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Working primarily in monochromatic tones, Anna Park's charcoal and graphite creations straddle the line between reverie and memory, combining figuration and abstraction through a flurry of rhythmic lines, shapes, and tones.

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Despite her young age, Park's mature oeuvre has already garnered much recognition, with pieces included in the collections of notable figures like Brian Donnelly (KAWS) and institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

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現代及當代藝術香港拍賣預展

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在抽象藝術的領域，真正的創意不僅體現在最終的構圖之中，也在私密的創作行為之中呈現。富藝斯香港2024年現代及當代藝術春季拍賣深入探討了如此複雜過程，突出藝術家應用媒材時留下的實體和情感印記。每件作品均是藝術家存在的證明，而每個筆觸和紋理更捕捉了藝術家的精髓。

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每一標記和每一筆觸承載著藝術家內心的思想與情感，邀請觀者參與深刻的共同體驗。

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草間彌生

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草間彌生，《無限網（ZGHEB）》，2007年作

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估價：20,000,000 – 30,000,000港元 / 2,560,000 – 3,850,000美元

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現代及當代藝術晚間拍賣，5月31日

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「我會用網子覆蓋畫布，畫著畫著，接下來就會從桌子延伸到地板，最後一路到自己身上。在這個不斷重複的過程中，這面網不知不覺間延伸至無限，從手到腳、到身上所穿的衣服，乃至房間裡的一切，都被它所覆蓋。」—— 草間彌生

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草間彌生 1929 年出生於日本，是 20 和 21 世紀最受國際讚譽的日本藝術家之一，她以近乎執迷地以網格和圓點等圖案來創作而聞名。網紋是草間彌生自1958年以來常見於其創作的圖案，而這個視覺特色始於草間彌生長期與精神疾病的鬥爭，尤其是被幻覺纏身以至讓她的精神頻臨崩潰。

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草間彌生的強烈心理掙扎反映在她對藝術的實體奉獻之上。令人著迷的網畫背後蘊藏著藝術家全情投入艱苦創作過程的身體力量。在她創作的每一幅網畫中，草間彌生都會投入長時間的極度專注，在畫布上重複繪製密密麻麻的標記，直到標記完全佔據數米長的巨型畫布。整個過程瀰漫著不安的、近乎機械的能量。

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拍品展現了草間彌生的演變，融入了色調漸層和空間感。每一漩渦反覆交疊接替，讓張力從內生成，令人沉思。網紋成為管道，致使藝術家建構個人「萬有理論」，以擁抱存在的廣闊性和相互關聯性。一絲不苟的細節與創作過程的有機本質發揮相互作用，邀請觀者作更深層的內省和了解。

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草間彌生的《無限網》是在藝術市場上最受歡迎的系列之一。2022年5月，在富藝斯紐約晚間拍賣會上，創作於1959年的《無題》以1050萬美元的驚人價格成交，創下了女性藝術家作品的最高成交紀錄。

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草間彌生，《南瓜》，1982年作

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估價：3,200,000 – 4,200,000港元 / 410,000 – 538,000美元

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現代及當代藝術日間拍賣，6 月1 日

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當前作品創作於1982年，屬於圓點南瓜系列的早期作品。拍品以強烈的紅白色調呈現，與黑色背景和白色網狀空間形成鮮明對比。作為她的另一個標誌性主題，網紋既象徵著異想天開的破壞者，又像徵著宇宙的統一者，反映了她將自己融入宇宙的願景。

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「我在寫作和藝術作品中不斷重複著相同的模式或圖像，這是疾病產生的行為。彷彿夢境和幻覺成真一般。我將得到的病轉化為畫布上不斷重複的圖形，這對我來說是無法取代的事情。」 —— 草間彌生

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當前作品畫面中每個部分對藝術家而言皆有深刻意義，植根於她在二戰期間於日本農村長大的童年經歷，當時她和祖父一起散步時第一次遇到南瓜。對於草間彌生來說，南瓜喚起了珍貴的童年記憶，也是她最喜愛的主題之一，幾乎具有神話般的意義。她從小就開始經歷心理創傷幻覺，而這些與南瓜的早期接觸為她舒緩不少精神壓力。

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趙無極

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趙無極，《30.09.97》，1997年作

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估價：6,000,000 – 10,000,000港元 / 769,000 – 1,280,000美元

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現代及當代藝術晚間拍賣，5月31日

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趙無極在1920年生於北京，他的藝術深深植根於東方精神的抒情抽象主義。「無極」一詞源於道家觀念，也是呈現宇宙無限和藝術家無窮盡地上下求索的典範。他對東西方藝術的融合不僅是出於風格上的考慮，而是自身充滿動盪與文化遷徙的生活歷程的自然結果。

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《30.09.97》融合了藍、黃、白、綠等色調，喚起了彷如大海與蒼天一般的無限深邃風光。畫布上的色彩體現了交融與離散的動態，旨在捕捉生命的無窮變化。畫面頂部與中心分別有一縷玫瑰色調，增添了一種神秘感，邀請觀眾進一步探索及發現畫布中的微妙細節。趙無極的《30.09.97》超越了一幅畫所能及，邀請觀眾穿越情感和想象，展開一次朝聖，更是一扇通向我們自身存在深處的窗口。

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拍品創作於1997年，也是趙無極五十多年來所累積的見解、技巧和生活經驗的結晶。1980年代和 1990年代標誌著藝術家在歐洲、美國和亞洲獲得國際認可，而該段時期的後期作品保留了1960年代作品的張力，同時提升了空間的表現力。1980年代和1990年代的中國之行為他的作品提供了全新靈感來源，在畫布上實現了更豐富的內心世界，擁抱負空間，擺脫了早期作品的交織線條和符號，捕捉了抽象繪畫的真正本質。

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趙無極，《25.11.81》，1981年作

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估價：7,000,000 – 10,000,000港元 / 897,000 – 1,280,000美元

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現代及當代藝術日間拍賣，6 月1 日

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《25.11.81》是首次亮相拍賣市場的作品，於1981年創作。1981年標誌了趙無極藝術事業中的一個重要年份：此時，他已在巴黎三十多年，可見其成熟筆觸的精緻與自信。同年，法國大皇宮國家畫廊還為趙無極舉辦了他的首個大型回顧展，也是一項偉大的成就，凸顯了他如何真正達到國際認可的高度。

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這件作品有著美麗而複雜的水平細節，貫穿整個畫面；畫中的深色筆觸既類似於書法，又讓人想起自然世界的形態。從左到右掃視畫布，一片廣闊的青山綠水浮現眼前。趙無極在《25.11.81》中巧妙地運用線性透視，在二維表面製造了關於深度的錯覺。蘊含秋意的墨綠與乳白色的粗獷筆觸交織，而底端的赭紅色與芥末黃微妙地若隱若現。這件作品體現了趙無極對抽象構圖挑戰的探索，而掌握如此細節需要對東西方藝術情感有深刻的理解，而趙無極是最早彌合這種連結的人之一。

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趙無極的作品被全球200個國家的超過150多個公共收藏機構所收藏，其中包括紐約現代美術館、古根海姆美術館和泰特現代美術館等。

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格哈特·里希特

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格哈特·里希特，《抽象畫（947-5）》，2016年作

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估價：26,000,000 – 36,000,000港元 / 3,330,000 – 4,620,000美元

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現代及當代藝術晚間拍賣，5月31日

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「使用畫筆時你是擁有掌控的。顏料從畫筆中流出，你畫下標記。你可以根據經驗確切地知道接下來將會發生什麼。使用刮板時你就失去了掌控。」—— 格哈特·里希特

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格哈特·里希特是一位極具影響力的當代藝術巨擘，1932年出生於德累斯頓，成長於政治和文化劇烈變革的時期。他的《抽象畫》系列引起許多著名收藏家的興趣。

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里希特是機會與控制大師，採用各種技術：刮刀、糊化、分層等，以創作複雜畫面。藝術家刮擦、厚塗和塗抹畫布來顯露底層，而這種細緻而即興的技巧延伸出意圖與恬靜的微妙糅合，其中每個元素渾然天成，引人注目。

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《抽象畫（947-5）》代表著里希特輝煌職業生涯中的一個重要階段，作品代表著藝術家決定回歸抽象畫。在2000年末和2010年初嘗試數位和漆藝技術後，藝術家重拾刮刀後，利用活力充沛的明亮色調到更加柔和且大方的色調，在構圖中產生高度張力卻又和諧。拍品所見的豐富紋理值得仔細觀察，其中半透明和不透明層相互作用帶來深度和吸引力。《抽象畫（947-5）》證明了藝術家成熟和細緻的技法，實屬非凡作品，既突破了抽象的界線，也邀請觀眾深思和反省。他不斷探索色彩與形式、抽象與表現之間的關係，至今仍是藝術史上的典範。

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朴栖甫

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朴栖甫，《描法第67-78-79號》，1979年作

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估價：3,500,000 – 5,500,000港元 / 449,000 – 705,000美元

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現代及當代藝術晚間拍賣，5月31日

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「這些年來我所領悟的是，為了吸收所需的元素和讓自己更完整，我必須將自己清空。而要清空自己，我必須做出重複性的行動。」—— 朴栖甫

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南韓藝術家朴栖甫是單色畫運動的核心人物，以1960年代初創作的《描法》系列聞名於世。這個系列反映了冥想精神之旅，而不斷重複畫線條的藝術表達形式就像呼吸一樣。藝術家的作品融合單色畫的觸覺品質，以及與自然和諧相處的韓國哲學，創造了一種永恆的視覺語言。

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作品標題「描法（Écriture）」在法語中意為「書寫」，朴栖甫將繪畫行為與書法互相結合。如此實踐植根於東亞傳統，朴栖甫用鉛筆在畫布上創作類似書法筆觸的細線。這種重複的過程並非只為美學，而是朴栖甫的哲學轉向：試圖解構自我，接受無目的性。

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《描法67-78-79》是《描法》系列的卓越典範，既是擦除也是創造，不僅呼應了書法的嚴謹，也致力於捕捉存在的本質。拍品於1991 年在首爾國立現代美術館舉辦的《朴栖甫回顧展》展出，並擁有豐富展覽歷史；完美捕捉藝術家的哲學之旅和藝術演變。

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朴栖甫，《描法第110507號》，2011年作

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估價：1,800,000 – 2,800,000港元 / 231,000 – 359,000美元

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現代及當代藝術日間拍賣，6 月1 日

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《描法110507號》充滿視覺吸引力，來自朴栖甫最享負盛名的系列；以熾熱的紅色呈現，靈感來自日本秋葉。如此顏色選擇立即與同系列中的其他作品區分開來，並邀請觀衆踏上一趟心靈之旅，反映了藝術家冥想式創作過程。

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「在我的畫作中，過程比結果更為重要。」—— 朴栖甫

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拍品創作於2011年，來自朴栖甫《描法》系列的後期作品，而當時藝術家開始通過使用韓紙。韓紙帶來更豐富的質感，令重複標記散發著活力動感。藝術家將韓紙小心翼翼地塑造成長條狀的皺紋，而這些標記直接反映了朴於繪畫時的動作，並進而誘發出正負空間中的治癒平衡。以上過程成就了沿著整個畫布支撐的線性脊線，為原本的二維作品增添了美麗的三維效果。

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朴栖甫的作品獲得全球各大機構收藏，包括古根漢美術館、紐約現代美術館等。他在白立方畫廊和香港巴塞爾藝術展的個展，突出其藝術之旅的持久相關性和深遠影響。

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露西·布爾

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露西·布爾，《下顎拍擊》，2019年作

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估價：2,800,000 – 3,500,000港元 / 359,000 – 449,000美元

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現代及當代藝術晚間拍賣，5月31日

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「我的作品更多關乎精神能量而遠勝其它。我讓自己完全沈浸在繪畫過程中，慢慢進入一種神遊狀態並迷失其中。」—— 露西·布爾

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露西·布爾的實踐邀請觀眾進入顏色和形式的感性體驗，結合抽象的調色，誘發更多感官甚於理性的反應。她的2019年作品《下顎拍擊》正是一幅矚目典範，她將畫布轉化爲飽含視覺刺激的迷人場域，其觸發的感官效果使人目眩神馳。

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當前拍品即刻將觀眾帶入鬱鬱蔥蔥的荒野深處，猶如一曲富含動感與強度的交響樂。華美的綠色、泛著螢光的黃色、精湛的紅木色筆觸與誘人的孔雀藍互相交織，而這些顏色似乎處於持續變化之中，就像萬花筒圖案。《下顎拍擊》的每一筆觸均是精湛鋪排，就像那迷人的荒野般，喚起觀眾內心深處的原始共鳴。

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布爾的藝術讓人想起抒情抽象，優先考慮情感強度而甚於形象的準確性，例如海倫·弗蘭肯塔勒和瓊·米切爾的作品。她的手勢筆觸和豐富視野編織了鮮豔色彩，亦讓人想起喚起了精神上的解放。

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勞倫·奎恩

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勞倫·奎恩，《第二水星之升》，2020年作

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估價：450,000 – 550,000港元 / 57,700 – 70,500美元

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現代及當代藝術晚間拍賣，5月31日

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勞倫·奎恩的《第二水星之升》便會被其精湛的構圖和無數的複雜色彩刺激，留下驚人的影響；明亮的Day-Glo 管在她銳利的黑色鉛筆草圖中交織在一起，喚起了抽象印象派的自由和能量。畫中色彩及多層次對稱形狀掀起動感，散發著如夢似幻的有機氣氛，猶如醒著的超現實夢境。

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儘管奎恩非常迅速的在藝術界崛起，她無非是透過大量的學習和練習以取得經驗。她在緬因州一次藝術家駐留期間開始夢想自己的獨特風格，其中黑夜的木林啟發屬於個人標誌性意象的靈感。奎恩深受費爾南·雷捷的管狀形狀所影響，在作品中加入人體內部錯綜複雜的管道，以及潛意識的超現實本質。

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在奎恩多層法的繪畫中，管子總是構成畫作的底層，由較小的相交線逐漸擴張變大，並且反覆利用來自她個人檔案中的各種視覺材料。先是線條，然後用刀或勺子雕刻，最後將印刷品壓在畫布上，讓觀眾更有臨場感和參與感。大尺寸的《第二水星之升》，也讓觀眾欣賞作品中複雜的細節和紋理，以及與多層敘述互動。

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勞倫·奎恩作品曾於世界各地多處展出，並被公共機構納入典藏。

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安迪·沃荷

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安迪·沃荷，《美元符號》，1981年作

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估價：2,800,000 – 3,800,000港元 / 359,000 – 487,000美元

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現代及當代藝術日間拍賣，6 月1 日

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「我喜歡把錢掛到牆上。譬如說你打算去買...一幅畫。我覺得你應該拿著那些錢，把它綑成一綑，掛到牆上去。」——安迪·沃荷

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創作於安迪·沃荷職業生涯巔峰時期的《美元符號》是其標誌性系列作品之一，通過「$」符號探索沃荷對商品文化的終身迷戀，體現了藝術與財富之間密不可分的關係。沃荷在創作中重複使用這個美元標誌，挑釁對高雅與低俗藝術的二分法。

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美元符號是沃荷最有力的重要圖像之一，直接呼應了其1962年《坎貝爾湯》系列，均為可接受的藝術形式大膽作出了重新闡釋。沃荷透過《美元符號》毫不掩飾地表示：「一流的藝術是一流的金錢」，並以他直言不諱地將金錢的象徵描繪成藝術的象徵。

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相反，由於其鮮豔色彩和奢華的設計繪製，《美元符號》在結構上同時具有非凡的藝術性。類似於沃荷最偉大的作品，拍品同時剝離和美化主體，使其既平凡又迷人。

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田中敦子

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田中敦子，《88D》，1988年作

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估價：1,400,000 – 2,400,000港元 / 179,000 – 308,000美元

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現代及當代藝術日間拍賣，6 月1 日

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「田中敦子的畫作在觀者的精神層面上有著深遠的影響，暗示我們固定的『自我』邊界在實際上是可以改變的，並可以與世界建立一種全新的關係。」—— 加藤瑞穗

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田中敦子是具體派的核心人物。「具體派」正式名稱為「具體藝術學會」，成立於1954年，是日本戰後首個前衛藝術群體，致力追求創新和實驗性的創作方式。1956年第二屆具體美術展期間，田中敦子親自穿戴作品《電器服》上場，在迷人的舞蹈下劇烈旋轉，閃爍的霓虹燈畫出線條和形狀。作品在重量、熱度和亮度的衝擊下，大膽挑戰自身與物質關係中既定的概念，主體之間存在的一種不安、不穩定狀態促使田中思考。

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田中在加入具體派後對繪畫的探索將短暫的、不具實體的《電器服》表演轉化為有形的創作。雖然拍品《88D》只是平面的油彩畫布作品，它卻體現了類似的張力，以黑色、藍色、橙色和黃色交織，充滿了戲劇性的鮮豔色彩。每一次下筆，田中都將自己完全沉浸在廣闊的畫布中，不僅留下了她與媒介接觸的物理痕跡，更是丈量她自身在時間與空間存在的標記。

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安娜·帕克

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安娜·帕克，《無題》，2021年作

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估價：1,200,000 – 2,200,000港元 / 154,000 – 282,000美元

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現代及當代藝術日間拍賣，6 月1 日

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「現在的我試圖根據記憶中的人或地方，藉著這種扭曲的感覺著手創作，而不是對現實的描述。我認為我們的記憶在本質上是支離破碎的、混亂的。」——安娜·帕克

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帕克的作品捕捉了記憶片段化、混亂的本質，創造出意想不到的、時而令人不安的作品。從《無題》可見，這裡有著一張戴著眼鏡狡猾的笑臉；那裡有靦腆的側眼；某處又露出一排牙齒。整體的效果與幻覺並無二致，搖晃不定令人眼花撩亂，猶如一幅當代生活的快照。

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安娜·帕克常以單一色調作畫，炭筆和石墨創作模糊遐想與記憶之間的分界，透過一系列有節奏的線條、形狀和色調，遊走在具象與抽象間。

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儘管年紀輕輕，帕克在藝術界嶄露頭角，其成熟之作獲得肯定並被著名的布萊恩．唐納利（KAWS）所收藏，同時也被休士頓美術館等公共機構納入館藏。

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現代及當代藝術晚間拍賣，5月31日 7pm HKT

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現代及當代藝術日間拍賣, 6 月1 日 2pm HKT

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相關文章

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被選中的時代面孔>

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Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, 1 June.

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“I’m not seeing SpongeBob at all... I’m abstracting it and making it more about color and SpongeBob shape.” — KAWS

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Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, 1 June.

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Kenny Scharf’s Quark bursts with energy and creativity, embodying his signature blend of pop culture and abstract expression. The title, referencing the fundamental particle of matter, also nods to James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, reflecting Scharf’s eclectic inspirations. Scharf, who mixes European artistic influences with mass media, transforms abstract paintings into lively compositions by adding alien-like faces, surrounded by luminescent patterns — a nod to his background in graffiti and street art.

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Quark features swirling lines and vivid hues, creating a dynamic, fractal-like playground where cartoonish faces emerge, echoing the exuberant grotesquerie of Basil Wolverton and the whimsical creations of Hanna-Barbera. This fusion of styles and influences results in a visually striking tableau that invites viewers to find new patterns and details with each viewing. Scharf’s art, rooted in his childhood fascination with deconstructing popular images, continues to evolve, maintaining its joyous, uncontainable force and defying traditional artistic boundaries.

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Discover More >

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克里斯蒂娜·夸爾斯的《你不想摘我蘋果樹上的果實》以流動的抽象形態讓觀眾自行尋找意義。她的人體四肢消失並看似交織在軀體的表面上，融合在充滿活力的非傳統色彩圖案之中。夸爾斯的作品挑戰傳統的性慾和性別標記，創造不斷轉變的動態場景。

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夸爾斯出生於不同種族的父母，並為酷兒女性，利用個人經驗挑戰了傳統藝術史敘事和社會規範。她的作品經常打破觀眾的期望，而她挑釁性的風格容易與阿希爾·戈爾基相提並論，突破具象藝術和肖像藝術的界限。作品標題取材自艾瑞卡·巴杜在1990年代的熱門騷靈單曲《蘋果樹》，而這是一首歌頌個性和自信心的歌曲：「我挑選我的朋友就像我挑選水果一樣……我工作是為了取悅我自己，因為我不能取悅你」以上歌詞與夸爾斯的自力更生和個人賦權的主題產生強烈共鳴。

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奈良美智，《O.T (N.G)》，1993年作
\n估價：2,500,000 – 3,500,000港元 / 321,000 – 449,000美元

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現代及當代藝術日間拍賣，6月1日

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引人注目的《O.T (N.G)》是奈良美智的典範之作，展示了這位日本藝術家最受尊敬的多樣獨特視覺語言。畫面中央是一個看似天真的孩子，梳著紅色小辮，著一襲藍色小裙，與簡約而鮮豔的柑橘色背景相映成趣。這個角色的拘謹姿勢、泛紅臉頰暗示一種純潔感。然而，其敘事卻比表面上看起來要更為複雜，尤其見於這孩子發起對峙的杏仁形眼睛。畫中的童年純真與複雜脆弱之情感形成強烈對比，更是奈良美智標誌性肖像畫的明確印記。

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小女孩的頭上似乎頂著是一個有生命物，看似倒置的睡蓮葉。同一主題讓人想起僅在日本北部才有的特定物種，但也作為象徵成年主題的隱喻。《O.T (N.G)》中的女孩以濃重的黑色輪廓為框架，也是他這一時期的作品標誌；而她所居住的空間無縫地連接了平面繪畫、充滿活力的插圖漫畫世界，以及豐富的繪畫質感。

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奈良的藝術經常反映其孤獨的童年，充滿反叛及自我隔離。奈良美智曾於杜塞爾多夫的藝術學院學習，並在新表現主義畫家A.R. 彭克的指導下，更進一步以單色背景簡化和突出他的主題，與他早期的複雜構圖對比呈現了重大變化。

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KAWS，《非常清晰》，2010年作
\n估價：2,500,000 – 3,500,000港元 / 321,000 – 449,000美元

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現代及當代藝術日間拍賣，6月1日

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「我完全沒有看到海綿寶寶......我正將它抽象化並使它更凸顯顏色和形狀」。— KAWS

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現代及當代藝術日間拍賣，6月1日

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肯尼．沙夫的《誇克》設想了一個在各個層面都充滿活力和創意的自由世界，體現了其流行文化與抽象表達的標誌性融合。作品標題引用形成各種物質的亞原子，但這個詞本身來自詹姆斯．喬伊斯的《芬尼根的守靈夜》，反映了沙夫不拘一格的靈感。沙夫融合歐洲藝術影響與大眾媒體，透過添加外星人般的面孔，將抽象繪畫轉化為生動的構圖。同時，這些外星面孔被發光圖案包圍，向他的塗鴉藝術和街頭藝術背景致敬。

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《誇克》以旋轉線條和生動色調為特色，創造一個動態的分形遊樂場，其中出現了卡通面孔，呼應了巴素·禾費頓的豐富怪誕和漢娜·巴伯拉的異想天開式創作。這種風格和影響的融合，產生了視覺上引人注目的畫面，邀請觀者在每次觀看時發現新的模式和細節。沙夫的創作靈感來自童年時期的視覺解構習慣，並且不斷發展，保持難以遏制的歡樂力量，挑戰傳統藝術的界限。

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現代及當代藝術晚間拍賣，5月31日 7pm HKT

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現代及當代藝術日間拍賣, 6 月1 日 2pm HKT

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相關文章

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代代相傳的標記：藝術家筆下軌跡>

\n","2024-05-27T06:44:26.000000Z",[],"https://www.phillips.com/article/144991300/faces-throughout-the-eras-mca-052024-cn",2180,4581,144991300,{"_1859":1929,"_1861":72,"_1862":1930,"_308":1931,"_1865":1932,"_1867":1933,"_1869":1870,"_264":1934,"_1872":1873,"_1874":250,"_1875":1935,"_239":59,"_1877":1936,"_1879":1937,"_1881":1938},"https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/basquiat-lead-2-fcfe7377-97c4-4052-8049-496eb68ebbf2_s600x0.jpg","\nLegendary gallerist Annina Nosei joins Phillips’ Scott Nussbaum at 432 Park Avenue to discuss her memories of Jean-Michel Basquiat and the artist’s three magnificent paintings on offer at Phillips this spring.","VIDEO: Annina Nosei on Basquiat","

Annina Nosei at Phillips New York with Scott Nussbaum, Deputy Chairman, Americas and Senior International Specialist, Modern & Contemporary Art.

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Jean-Michel Basquiat, Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, 1982 is on offer at Phillips’ Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale on 31 May in Hong Kong.

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Jean-Michel Basquiat, Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, 1982. Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale Hong Kong.

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Discover More >

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Recommended Reading

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The Icons of an Icon >

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BASQUIAT: Property from the Collection of Yusaku Maezawa >

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\n","2024-05-17T13:45:49.000000Z",[],"https://www.phillips.com/article/144637303/video-annina-nosei-on-basquiat-art-auction-hong-kong",2162,4568,144637303,{"_1859":1940,"_1861":72,"_1862":1941,"_308":1942,"_1865":1943,"_1867":1944,"_1869":1889,"_264":1945,"_1872":1873,"_1874":250,"_1875":1946,"_239":534,"_1877":1947,"_1879":1948,"_1881":1949},"https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/basquiat-lead-2-fcfe7377-97c4-4052-8049-496eb68ebbf2-e2c67cf9-4a63-4695-b4f4-6aed7d292ef2_s600x0.jpg","巴斯奇亞首位經理人安妮娜·諾賽伊（Annina Nosei）與富藝斯的Scott Nussbaum於紐約公園大道432號的富藝斯紐約總部會面，諾賽伊回憶她與巴斯奇亞之間的點滴，以及於1980年代初把藝術家的三幅傑作售予給弗朗西斯科‧佩利齊的經過。","精選視頻: 畫廊主理人Annina Nosei 的巴斯奇亞故事","

巴斯奇亞首位經理人安妮娜·諾賽伊與富藝斯的Scott Nussbaum暢談她與巴斯奇亞之間的點滴，以及春季拍賣的三幅巴斯奇亞作品。

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富藝斯於5月31日香港晚間拍賣呈獻尚·米榭·巴斯奇亞1982年作品《亞摩利人獵遊》。

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尚·米榭·巴斯奇亞，《亞摩利人獵遊》,1982年作.

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現代及當代藝術香港晚間拍賣

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《亞摩利人獵遊》的畫中主角是一名高舉雙臂的黑人，與畫面描繪的偷獵者對峙。此作將複雜的繪圖技巧與街頭藝術的姿態融為一體，並探討了帝國與奴隸制度等歷史議題。透過繪圖與文本的結合，巴斯奇亞評論殖民商業，並廣泛探索殖民化、商業化及非裔美國人歷史等主題。畫面中漫畫似的人物肖像象徵著「土著」與「殖民者」，藉此強而有力的視覺表達，明確地批判了白人帝國優越主義。《亞摩利人獵遊》反映藝術家對社會文化環境的敏銳認知，亦是巴斯奇亞極具代表性的作品，捕捉其具有強烈時代感的美學及藝術視野。

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了解更多

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\n","2024-05-24T04:31:19.000000Z",[],"https://www.phillips.com/article/144885657/video-annina-nosei-on-basquiat-art-auction-hong-kong-cn",2176,4575,144885657,{"_1859":1951,"_1861":72,"_1862":1952,"_308":1953,"_1865":1954,"_1867":1955,"_1869":1870,"_264":1956,"_1872":1873,"_1874":250,"_1875":1957,"_239":1409,"_1877":1958,"_1879":1959,"_1881":1960},"https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/basquiat-install-b21fe7d7-e62a-4033-82a0-b0b93fd7fde8_s600x0.jpg","Decoding the symbols and meanings in three remarkable works by Jean-Michel Basquiat from 1981–1982.","The Icons of an Icon","

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (Portrait of Famous Ballplayer), 1981 (left) and Untitled (ELMAR), 1982 (right) on view at Phillips New York. Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale New York.

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The symbols seen in the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat form a visual lexicon that has become a ubiquitous part of contemporary culture. From crowns, masks, and skulls to snakes, warriors, and ballplayers, his iconography endures well beyond the canvas, adorning luxury items and mass market goods alike. But what are the connotations of these symbols and are the associations they seem to denote what Basquiat directly intended by them?

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The implementation of these “speaking objects” within the context of Basquiat’s spontaneous and improvisational painting practice presents further opportunity for musical analogies that can help decode the artist’s use of a characteristic iconography. In a sense, Basquiat assembled this set of icons, signs, and symbols as part of a personal repertoire, much in the way a jazz musician collects melodic fragments, musical scales from various cultures, and ways of subverting the traditional functions of harmonies — each with a set of connotations that are masked by the musician’s internalization of these sounds within their own musical identity. The directness of both examples stems from an impression that these building blocks of a style or language are primal and innate rather than learned, whereas in fact, the musical materials assembled in the inner ear of a great jazz musician like Basquiat’s hero Charlie Parker were carefully studied, referential to generations of culture, and intentionally prepared to be deployed on the artist’s instrument in a flurry of spontaneous improvisation. For Basquiat, we can see that the same was true, including the creative impulse and directness of approach, but it would be shortsighted to assume his visual materials had not been carefully studied and considered as they were internalized over the years of his practice. And in both cases, the immediate yet ostensibly unrefined nature of the final creative act showcases just how thoroughly each artist absorbed these allusions and reference points within their own expressive identities.

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These three works stand as a testament to how compelling and communicative Basquiat’s idiomatic visual language can be. Seen together, the function of iconography in them holds up to the very best of the artist’s works, encompassing imagery that is elemental and allusive. What is perhaps most extraordinary is that though these works draw from and are indebted to a multiplicity of traditions within visual culture, they are not remotely derivative of any one of them, as Basquiat’s cultural receptivity was as strong as his faith in his own artistic identity. With these three paintings, Basquiat absorbed a rich cultural history and weaved it into his own visual signature, creating enchanting works that possess an unquestionable power of voice.

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The Brushstroke Illusionist

Dissecting the Illusory Portrait

Collector’s Digest

\nToys Or Art?

A Panther That Doesn’t Bite

From Canvas to Couture

Collector’s Digest

Masterful Techniques

Urbanisation and Alienation

Collector’s Digest

Re-Interpreting the Gaze

Depiction of the Nude: A Contemporary Dialogue with Manet and Velázquez

Collector’s Digest

Perfect Forms

Free Fooling

Collector’s Digest

Light, Earth, and Water

Spiral-Walker

Collector’s Digest

A Calming Interior

Portraiture within the Interior

Collector’s Digest

Walled-Off for Peace

Banksy’s Framed Works and Editions

Collector’s Digest

Collector's Digest

Genesis of an Icon

Pumpkins, Nets, Dots

Enduring Influence and Lasting Legacy

Collector’s Digest

Kusama’s Life-long Mark-Making

Painting Infinitely

Expanding Universe

Collector’s Digest

The Pursuit of Expression

\nThe Symphony of T1989-U28

A Legacy Carved in Abstraction

Collector’s Digest

1990s: Serenity, Tranquillity and Grace

Zao Wou-Ki and Turner: Fascination with Light and Atmosphere

Collector’s Digest

Dansaekhwa

Park Seo-Bo’s Ecriture Series: a Form of Self-Cultivation

Erasure and Creation

Collector’s Digest

An Enigmatic Oasis

A Symphony of Colours

A Transcendent Journey through Time

Collector’s Digest

Neo-Tubism

Multi-Layered Method

Collector’s Digest

Ephemeral Beauty

Collector’s Digest

A Confluence of Traditions

A Luminous Complexity of The Water

Thematic Resonance

Collector’s Digest

Ever-Changing Landscapes

A Modern Method

Collector’s Digest

Influences Everywhere

A Memorable Stay

A Mercurial Technique

Collector’s Digest

Embracing Diverse Mediums\n

Still Untethered

Collector’s Digest\n

The Wanderer

Small World After All

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Dissecting the Dreamlike Parade

Cubism Reimagined Through Her Lens

Collector’s Digest

From Dealer to Artist

Transcending the “Eye Candy”

The Power of Art for Self-Restoration

Collector’s Digest

Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama, INFINITY NETS (ZGHEB), 2007. Estimate: HK$20,000,000 – 30,000,000 / US$2,560,000 – 3,850,000. Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, 31 May.

Embracing Diverse Mediums
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Collector’s Digest
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