Sur les Traces (also known as Transformation) to be
Included in the
20th
Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in Hong Kong in November
HONG KONG – 8 November 2018 – Phillips will offer Cuban-Chinese
artist Wifredo Lam’s representative work, Sur
les Traces (also known as Transformation), as a leading highlight of the 20th
Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in Hong Kong on 25 November 2018. Painted
in 1945, this work exemplifies the transculturation of the artist’s practice,
integrating Afro-Cuban and Chinese elements with imaginative and far-ranging
freedom.
Isaure de Viel Castel, Head of Department, 20th Century &
Contemporary Art Department, and Senior Director, said: “Phillips is thrilled to be entrusted with the
sale of ‘Sur les Traces’ by Wifredo Lam. Working closely with the Lam family,
we have been able to trace the creative path of the artist together in great
depth. This black and white exemplary work is one of the finest examples from
the 1940s executed at the peak of Lam’s career, reflecting his Chinese heritage
intertwined with his enormous multicultural exposure. Lam’s works have been
exhibited widely internationally, most recently in the major retrospective at
Tate Modern in London, Centre Pompidou in Paris and Reina Sofia Museum in
Madrid. Following the 2016
Wifredo Lam travelling exhibition to Mainland China, the appearance of ‘Sur les
Traces’ at auction serves as a rare opportunity to acquire one of the artist’s
most important works from the period and illustrates the growing popularity of
his works in Asia.”
Sur les Traces was painted in 1945 at the height of Lam’s
career. That same year, the work was among the sixteen paintings included in
the artist’s seminal solo exhibition, Lam
Recent Paintings, at the acclaimed Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York, and
his iconic painting The Jungle (1943)
was acquired by the MoMA, New York, making Lam the first Chinese artist to
enter the museum’s collection.
During 1945-1946, when the present painting was
completed, Lam immersed himself in the study of religion and mysticism, drawing
liberally from African, Caribbean and Asian sources. In Sur les Traces specifically, the exquisite, stippled surfaces of
his black and white paintings from the mid-1940s recall the precision and
nuanced tonality of ink wash painting, brought to expressive heights by Southern
School painters in China. It further evokes the enigmatic script of Shang
oracle bones, used in ancient China for divination, fortune telling and
astrology; like Zao Wou-Ki a decade later, Lam may have channeled these
inscriptions as a means of accessing his Chinese heritage. Influenced by
Santeria and Cuban magic, Sur les Traces
also distills the incantatory power of Lam’s supernatural figures as they enter
into a state of transformation. The spare monochromatic palette intensifies the
sense of foreboding: gradations of black paint fade into a numinous ground,
spectral presences that hover between states of being. Their imprint alone
remains, indicated by vestigial and esoteric traces – votive candle, tapering
horns, diamond-shaped faces, three egg-like forms – that denote the passage
between physical and metaphysical worlds.
Download Day Sale catalogue and Evening Sale catalogue
Phillips Hong Kong
Autumn Sales 2018
20th
Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, 25 November 2018, 6pm HKT
20th
Century & Contemporary Art and Design Day Sale, 26 November 2018, 10:30am
HKT
Jewels
and Jadeite, 26 November 2018, 2:30pm HKT
The
Hong Kong Watch Auction: SEVEN, 27 November 2018, 12pm HKT
Location: Mandarin Oriental
Hong Kong, 5 Connaught Road, Central,
Hong Kong
Asia Preview Tour - 20th Century &
Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Singapore
Four Seasons Hotel Singapore, 190
Orchard Boulevard, 248646, Singapore
3 – 4 November, 2018, 11am
– 6pm
Shanghai
Capella
Shanghai, Jian Ye Li, 480 West Jianguo Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai 200031,
China
9 – 10 November 2018, 11am – 6pm
Taipei
Bellavita
Gallery, B1/F, No. 28, Songren Road, Taipei, Taipei City, Taiwan 110
17 – 18 November
2018, 11am – 6pm
Hong Kong
Mandarin
Oriental Hong Kong, 1/F & 2/F, 5 Connaught Road Central, Hong Kong
22
– 26 November 2018, 10am – 6pm
HKT
###
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