Phillips’ Modern & Contemporary Art Spring Sales in Hong Kong to be Led by Fresh-to-Market Works by Prominent Artists

Phillips’ Modern & Contemporary Art Spring Sales in Hong Kong to be Led by Fresh-to-Market Works by Prominent Artists

A 1982 Seminal Work Formerly from the Collection of Francesco Pellizzi by Jean-Michel Basquiat to Lead the Evening Sale on 31 May, Offered Alongside Works by Gerhard Richter, Yayoi Kusama, and Banksy

Day Sale on 1 June to Feature a Diverse Range of Modern Masters and Contemporary Talents, with a Strong Focus on Asia

HONG KONG – 20 May 2024 – Phillips is pleased to announce additional highlights from the Modern & Contemporary Art Spring Auctions in Hong Kong, with the full sales now available online. Taking place on 31 May, the Evening Sale will feature a remarkable selection of paintings by the most prominent artists, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Gerhard Richter, Banksy, and Yayoi Kusama, marking the first time that these works will be offered at auction. Alongside these masterpieces, there are exceptional examples by abstract masters such as Zao Wou-Ki, Park Seo-Bo, and Hans Hartung, as well as in-demand contemporary talents including Lucy Bull, Cui Jie and Sun Yitian. Boasting an extensive selection of artworks, the Day Sale on 1 June ranges from established modern masters, blue-chip contemporary artists, to emerging names. Amongst the Modern highlights are outstanding works by Zao Wou-Ki, Park Seo-Bo, and the Japanese Gutai group, seamlessly intertwined with works by sought after contemporary artists such as Yoshitomo Nara, Hernan Bas, Zhang Enli and Ding Yi.

Meiling Lee, Head of Modern & Contemporary Art, Asia, said: “On the heels of the successful results achieved for the works by Jean-Michel Basquiat in New York, formerly in the Collection of Francesco Pellizzi, we are thrilled to present a third work from the same collection, also dating from 1982, marking the momentous occasion of it being the only seminal work by the artist and the highest estimated modern & contemporary piece that is to be offered at auction in Hong Kong this Spring. Alongside this star lot, we are extremely excited to present superb examples by other established artists and in-demand, emerging newcomers, with 80% of the lots in our Evening Sale being fresh to the market. We look forward to connecting with the collecting community in the coming weeks when we open the doors to our galleries in the West Kowloon Cultural District for the auction preview, running from 22 May to 1 June.”

Art World Legends  

As previously announced, leading the Evening Sale is Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, 1982, by Jean-Michel Basquiat, formerly from the original collection of Francesco Pellizzi and the Pellizzi Family.

Offered in the Evening Sale, Banksy’s The Leopard and Lamb, 2016, was exhibited at his 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 being in serene coexistence but also subtly critiques war and conflict, urging a reflection on the universal hope of peace.

Executed at the height of Andy Warhol’s pivotal career, Dollar Sign highlighted in the Day Sale is an instantly recognisable work by the artist, hailing from his iconic and eponymous series. Coming to auction for the first time, the present work executed in 1981 was gifted to the present owner by the artist. Drawing from Warhol’s lifelong fascination with commodity culture, it encapsulates the inextricable relationship between art and wealth through his implementation of the ubiquitous ‘$’ motif. Warhol’s earlier painting series confronted the dichotomy between high and low art, which ultimately came to define his significant oeuvre. In Dollar Sign, the artist takes the same approach by borrowing noticeable images, whereby reinventing the dollar symbol and amplifying it as Pop Art.

Abstract Masters

Another leading highlight in the Evening Sale is Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (947-5), 2016 which represents a significant phase in the artist's illustrious career as he returned to abstract painting. After experimenting with digital technologies and chance-based lacquer techniques in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Richter re-embraced the brush and squeegee in 2014, two years before the present work was painted. Differing from his initial abstract works, his movements are less restricted in parallel paths, resulting in free gestural movements across the canvas. The work immediately strikes for its vibrant, chaotic yet orderly interplay of colours, textures, and movements.

Yayoi Kusama’s iconic Net paintings have continually captivated audiences with their breathtaking aesthetics, intriguing psychological depths, and profound philosophical undertones. Offered in the Evening Sale, 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. In the present lot, Kusama expands beyond her earlier monochromatic approach and incorporates more subtle tonal gradations and spatial senses. It is among a more contemporary corpus that propels the ceaseless expansion of the Kusama universe to new heights. In May 2022, Phillips sold Kusama's earliest corpus of Net paintings, Untitled, 1959, for a record-breaking price of US$ 10.5 million.

The Day Sale on 1 June will be led by Zao Wou-Ki’s 25.11.81 which stands as an arresting and mesmerising archetype of the artist’s celebrated corpus of monumental abstract landscapes. Remaining in the same private collection since its execution in 1981, a significant year for Zao’s artistic career when he received his first major retrospective in France at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. Focusing on the interplay of light and space, the present painting deviates from the explosive energy of the artist’s Hurricane Period and demonstrates his arrival at a more tranquil and sublime view of the universe. Suggestive of Zao’s own self-awareness, 25.11.81 presents a delicate balance between the natural elements, harbouring moments of spontaneity and poeticism within a single canvas.

Chinese Contemporary Artists 1960s to 1990s

Phillips is delighted to present a selection of Chinese contemporary works produced by artists born in the 1960s to 1990s across the Evening and Day Sales this season, including Zhang Enli, Ding Yi, Huang Yuxing, Liu Wei, Chen Ke, Xia Yu, Cui Jie, Sun Yitian, Zhang Zipiao, and more.

Cui Jie stands out as a beacon of innovation in the contemporary Chinese art scene. 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. Offered in the Evening Sale, S House #5, is a quintessential example of her work, offering a complex dialogue between the past and possible futures of urban environments. Known as China’s “It” artist, Sun Yitian’s influence extends beyond the gallery walls into the realms of fashion and design, most notably through her recent collaboration with Louis Vuitton. A Tender Panther presented in the Evening Sale stands out as a quintessential example of Sun’s mastery in manipulating perceptions of material texture and light. The 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.

Zhang Enli is globally revered for his painted depictions of everyday objects rendered with fluid gestures inspired by traditional Chinese brush painting, as seen in Thrum (1) presented in the Day Sale. The composition is both quiet and evocative, as Zhang focuses on the essence of sensory experience to unveil the subtle beauty of objects often looked, thereby opening the viewers’ eyes to a more poetic way of experiencing our world. Ding Yi is considered a pioneer in abstract art in China. Over the past decades, the artist has gained recognition in the art world for his signature style, which typically involves the use of crosses and grids. This season’s Day Sale offers an iconic work which hails from the artist’s ‘Appearance of Crosses’ series. His crosses are more than just a pattern; they are a meditation on urbanisation and the transformation of Chinese society. They invite the viewer to discard preconceived interpretations and to be fully present in the act of observing.

Evolution of Japanese art 

Founded in 1954, the ‘Gutai’ group officially known as the Gutai Art Association became Japan’s first post-war radical art movement that was characterised by its innovative and experimental approach to art making. In this season’s Day Sale, Phillips presents works from a group of renowned Gutai artists such as Kazuo Shiraga, Atsuko Tanaka, Sadamasa Motonaga, and Tsuyoshi Maekawa who often placed emphasis on the materiality of art as this enabled them to discover new artistic avenues and expand the possibilities of artistic expression. A pivotal member of Gutai and the group’s forefront female member, Atsuko Tanaka has made significant contributions with her radical works that vividly exemplify Gutai’s contradictory and almost self-destructive materialist aesthetics. 88D embodies a similar tension with its organically tangled composition of circular shapes and uneven linear strokes, as if capturing the glaring lines of lights created by the spinning electric circuits during the performance.

Yayoi Kusama’s many acrylic paintings of pumpkins rank among her best-selling works. The present 1982 work offered in this season’s Day Sale shows her opposing and harmonising three of the most vivid, personally resonant, and publicly recognisable motifs of her life in an especially striking manner. It lacks the warm yellow tones familiar to many of the other entries, instead rendering the vegetable in a violent shade of red against white, contrasting with both the sharp angles of the infinity net surrounding it and the ominous black space behind both.

Yoshitomo Nara’s O.T (N.G) features the iconic Nara girl wearing a baby blue Alice in Wonderland style dress, the same as in three of the artist's top ten results at auction. The painting assembles some of the most desirable Nara girl traits: a full body portrait, almond shaped downturned eyes, a non-descript background of colour built up from numerous layers of paint. The girl wearing a black crown that looks like sprouting seeds, which echoed the motif that Nara has explored numerous times throughout his oeuvre, bringing to mind themes such as progress, evolving, the natural world and rebirth.

Marking his international auction debut outside of Japan, Teppei Takeda Painting of Painting 026, featured in the Evening Sale is a striking portrait with simple yet stark colours of black, white and red, commanding the viewer’s attention. Known for his meticulously rendered illusionistic works, Takeda has developed a distinctive style that pushes the traditional boundaries of portraiture and abstract painting.

Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, 31 May 2024, 7 pm HKT

Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, 1 June 2024, 2 pm HKT

Auction Viewing: 22 May - 1 June 11am – 7pm

Location: G/F, WKCDA Tower, West Kowloon Cultural District, No. 8 Austin Road West, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Please download images of highlights here.