Phillips
Announces Highlights from the Hong Kong Spring Sales of
20th Century & Contemporary Art &
Design
Including Masterworks from
the Miles & Shirley Fiterman Collection
Other highlights by Zao Wou-Ki, Yoshitomo Nara,
George Condo and
Chu
Teh-Chun to Lead the Evening and Day Sales on 26 May 2019
Day Sale: 10am HKT | Evening Sale: 6pm HKT
Exhibition: 23-25 May
JW Marriott
Hong Kong
HONG
KONG –2 May 2019 – Phillips is
pleased to announce highlights from the upcoming Hong Kong spring sales of 20th
Century & Contemporary Art & Design. The Evening Sale will encompass modern and contemporary works by
an array of the
world's most sought-after artists, with
leading highlights by Zao Wou-Ki, Zhang Xiaogang, Yoshitomo Nara and Roy Lichtenstein. The Day
Sale will comprise works by blue chip names George Condo, Yayoi Kusama, alongside celebrated and exciting contemporary artists KAWS, Banksy and Tomoo Gokita. Design highlights include works from
the most prominent Danish and Italian designers such as Finn Juhl, Ole
Wanscher, Paolo Buffa and Max Ingrand. In addition to offering tightly curated
works, Phillips will also introduce a unique project “Pantone 561 by Alfred
Lam” this season.
Jonathan Crockett, Deputy Chairman and Head of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, Asia:
“Following
Phillips’ most successful year in company history, this season we are proud to
present an outstanding and diverse group of artworks in Asia, some of which have
never been presented before in the region. We are particularly excited to offer
a number of highlights from the extraordinary Miles &
Shirley Fiterman Collection, which incorporates exceptional examples of Pop Art
by Western artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Further,
the auction will feature prominent master pieces by Chinese modern and
contemporary artists Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun and Zhang Xiaogang, spanning over
50 years of Chinese art history. Additionally, we will present an array of rare
South East Asian works, as well as an impressive showing of Japanese art,
including important works by Yoshitomo Nara and seven works by Tomoo Gokita.”
EVENING SALE – 26 May at 6pm
The evening sale will
feature a number of works from the Miles and Shirley Fiterman Collection, one
of the most seminal groups of Pop Art to be collected in the United States. As
was previously announced,
Phillips will offer Property from the Fiterman Collection worth an estimated US$60
million across Hong Kong, New York and London throughout the year.
The collection is led by a
never-before-offered monumental work by Roy Lichtenstein. Head, represents
the sum of a prodigious career dedicated to interrogating the history of
painting whilst melding the aesthetic tendencies of popular culture and fine
art. Another work by Lichtenstein is a definitive bronze, Brushstroke Sculpture,
which ultimately challenges our ideas of representation and the stylistic
paradigms of 20th century visual culture. As the very first sculpture made by
Lichtenstein on the brushstroke motif, the present work is testament to the
prestige of the collection from which it originates.
Also being offered is a
preeminent example from one of Andy Warhol’s most iconic series of paintings, Flowers. The present work is one of only two 14-inch Flowers that are signed with a
dedication. Warhol dedicated this work to collectors Miles and Shirley
Fiterman, in whose collection it has remained since they acquired it shortly
after it was painted in 1964. Also from the Fiterman
Collection, Alexander Calder’s Higgledy Piggledy demonstrates, on an intimate scale, the
magic and lyricism of the artist’s celebrated ‘Mobiles.’
Around the mid-1950s, Zao’s
artistic style underwent a tremendous transformation as he was seeking to
invent a language that would no longer be confined by the choice of the
subject. He began to renounce the representational in his works, instead
returning to his cultural roots with the incorporation of ancient Chinese
hieroglyphic scripts found on oracle bones into his works.
During his ‘oracle bone’
period, Zao was inspired by the spirituality of these ancient inscriptions.
Rather than simply depicting these ideograms, Zao dissected, re-organised and
created unique scripts and symbols of his own. By then, the artist had
completely abandoned figurative painting, and now concentrated solely on abstraction.
The present work, Ailleurs, was completed in 1955 – during that key
moment when Zao’s style of painting underwent a crucial and decisive
transformation.
Ailleurs
was
originally in the collection of the Brazilian Surrealist sculptor Maria Martins
(1894-1973), who acquired the painting during her visit to Zao’s studio in the
late 1950s. This work remained in the collection of Martins and her family for
as long as sixty years.
In 1999 the
prolific Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara created one of his most iconic figures
and inaugurated his definitive
sculptural series: The Little Pilgrims (Night Walking). As a comprehensive example of this seminal moment, the
Complete Set of The Little Pilgrims (Night Walking) marks a crucial turning
point in the artist’s prodigious career, signifying the diversification of his
practice beyond its roots in the art of drawing, and thus solidifying the
importance of sculpture and installation as a means of realising his
idiosyncratic visions.
Coming from an
important Private European collection, Zhang Xiaogang’s Bloodline: Big Family, No. 11 was exhibited in the first solo show, “Les
Camarades”, dedicated to the artist in Europe in 1999 at Galerie de France.
Having remained in Europe ever since, Phillips presents it for the first time
in Asia this season. The painting hails from the artist’s most compelling body
of works – the Bloodline (1993-1999)
series. This iconic series borrows the language of photography to represent
individual histories within the strict confines of formula and has come to
embody the collective vision of socialist China and Zhang Xiaogang’s own
dissonant voice.
DAY SALE – 26 May at 10am
Among the leading
lots in the 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Day Sale is George
Condo’s Jean Louis with one Ear &
Jean Louis’ Wife's Sister. The present lots hail from George Condo’s
seminal early portraiture series, Existential Portraits, a small handful
of works that the artist created which investigated the human psyche. Having hosted two very successful Banksy exhibitions in Hong Kong and Taipei
recently, the Hong Kong Day Sale will also see Banksy feature again with Ballerina
CP/03. As part of the artist’s Better
Out Than In residency in 2013, a month-long show that took place in New
York’s Central Park where Banksy unveiled at least one work of art daily, this
work was one of the authentic signed canvases sold at the stall.
Phillips
will present 6 works from an Important Hong Kong Collection across the Evening
and Day Sales. The works hail from a collection spanning nearly four decades,
one which features a singular preoccupation on fine art created by the world’s
most renowned Asian artists that resided and worked in postwar Europe. These
pioneering artists, including Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun and T’ang Haywen,
brought with them to Europe a multitude of Eastern traditions that were central
to their thinking. The present work, Chu Teh-Chun’s Éclat passager, displays the artist’s meticulous artistry with its
elaborate details filling the composition mapped across the entire canvas. With
the artist’s dexterous mastery of the contrasts between light and dark, the
work fully conveys the poetic essence of traditional Chinese ink painting. The
unbridled, broad brushstrokes roam in the background, while the foreground is
enriched with colours, embodying the height of pastoral beauty.
Coming from the personal collection of Singaporean modernist painter Liu
Kang’s family, the present lot is an early, rare and striking work from 1933 by
the artist, whose unrivalled influence in the establishment of the Nanyang
style of painting in Singapore is uncontestable. Painted in the very same year
that Liu Kang began his professorship for Western art at the Shanghai Academy
of Fine Arts, the scene was most likely painted during one of the outdoor
excursions that Liu led pupils to, at the famed West Lake in Hangzhou. West Lake represents what Liu laid down
as the key principles of his artistic practice: “a sense of ethnicity,” “time,”
“place,” and “character.”
Important Modern Design
In
1949 Finn Juhl designed the model ‘FJ 49 A’ armchair, which became primarily
known as the ‘Chieftain,’ a title rarely used by the architect as he referred
to it as the ‘Big Chair’. When first exhibited at the Cabinetmakers’ Guild, the
‘Chieftain’ was well received. Finn Juhl designed some of his finest
cabinet-made furniture for the Cabinetmakers’ Guild and the ‘Chieftain’ must be
considered one of his most accomplished designs.
Pantone 561 by Alfred Lam
This
season Phillips will partner with Hong Kong-based interior designer Alfred Lam
for a unique project “Pantone 561 by Alfred Lam”. Lam is the founder of Studio
1618, and is an
award-winning interior designer behind some of the most sophisticated
residential and retail spaces in the city. He will be given a dedicated area at
Phillips’ Hong Kong preview at the JW Marriott, to curate a selection of
furniture and art pieces from the Day Sale, matching the space painted in a
pantone colour of his choice. The unique and visually stunning curated space
will display Lam’s vision and show visitors how art and design can complement
each other in an interior
Phillips Hong Kong Spring Sale 2019
Location: JW Marriott, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong
|
Date |
Auction |
|
26 May |
20th
Century & Contemporary Art & Design Day Sale: 10am |
|
27 May |
Jewels and Jadeite: 2:30pm |
|
28 May |
The Hong Kong
Watch Auction: EIGHT: 12pm |
20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Day and Evening Sale: Asia
Preview Tour
|
Date |
City |
|
3-4 May |
Shanghai |
|
18-19 May |
Taipei |
|
23-25 May |
Hong Kong |
|
|
PRESS CONTACT:
HONG KONG – Ingrid Hsu, Public Relations Director, Asia IngridHsu@phillips.com
+852 2318 2043
ABOUT PHILLIPS
Phillips is a leading global platform for buying and selling 20th and 21st
century art and design. With dedicated expertise in the areas of 20th Century
and Contemporary Art, Design, Photographs, Editions, Watches, and Jewelry,
Phillips offers professional services and advice on all aspects of collecting.
Auctions and exhibitions are held at salerooms in New York, London, Geneva, and
Hong Kong, while clients are further served through representative offices
based throughout Europe, the United States and Asia. Phillips also offers an
online auction platform accessible anywhere in the world. In addition to providing selling and buying
opportunities through auction, Phillips brokers private sales and offers
assistance with appraisals, valuations, and other financial services.Visit www.phillips.com for further
information.
*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium; prices achieved include the
hammer price plus buyer’s premium.
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