I have been waiting on the edge for some sign (or signs, if I could be granted providential permission to exercise a little greed) that Asia’s art markets are finally emerging from its Lehman-Morgan-Merrill-AIG-induced doldrums.
Last evening’s Christie’s Asian Contemporary Art and Chinese 20th Century Art sale in Hong Kong, saw 34 or its 38 lots sold. Raking in a total of HK$181.7m, the spectacular auction results outperformed pre-sales estimates by close to double. Just when industry know-it-alls were coming out to dismiss Asian contemporary art as nothing more than an irrational speculative fad, a streak of optimism in the horizon appeared to suggest otherwise.
As with all financial markets, crises are natural check-and-balance mechanisms that sift out the larger, coarser speculative grains, leaving the valuable fine, finer and finest ones for investment.
This sale saw top lots by the Masters including my favourites: Zheng Fan-Zhi, Cai Guo-Qiang and Paris-based Zao Wou-Ki who scored 2nd, 3rd and 4th place with three of his finest works executed in the 1950s.
Check out the Top 5 Performers:
1. Sanyu 常玉
Cats and Birds
Oil on Masonite, 1950s
Realized Price: US$5.4m
2. Zao Wou-Ki 趙無極
Nous Deux
Oil on Canvas, 1957
Realized Price: US$4.6m
Top Estimate: US$1.9m
3. Zao Wou-Ki
Bateaux au Clair de La Lune
Oil on Canvas, 1952
Realized Price: US$1.8m
Top Estimate: US$1.3m
4. Zao Wou-Ki 趙無極
Vent et Poussière (Wind and Dust)
Oil on Canvas, 1957
Realized Price: US$1.2m
Top Estimate: US$1.2m
5. Cai Guo-Qiang 蔡國強
Rebuilding the Berlin Wall: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 7
Gunpowder and Chinese Ink on Japanese paper, mounted on wood framed screen (set of 7 panels), executed in 1990
Realized Price: US$1.1m
Top Estimate: US$1m
If I were lucky enough to have been touched by Midas, my hands would have barbarically reached out for an auction paddle in time for this sale. And my BBgun bids would have single-mindedly pursued a winning bid for Zao Wou-Ki’s Bateaux au Claire de La Lune (Number 3 above).
What draws me to the painting? The sketchily drawn boats set against washed-out cracklines and earthern-coloured walls remind me of the primitive yet profound paintings found in the Lascaux Caves in France. This raw quality is seemingly juxtaposed against a modern circular illumination at the center of the painting – as if I were viewing the scene from a distance through a periscope.
It’s as if I were looking at an Impressionist’s rendition of a Paeleolithic painting.
Midas touch me please… For all I can afford now, is a multi-coloured Paddle Pop.
(images from www.christies.com)
thangdynasty is a work-in-progress maintained by an accidental equity trader whose brief foray into the world of investments turned out… not so brief.
Although unmotivated by the senseless pursuit of money in and for itself, she remains sadistically intrigued by the complex anatomy stealthily at work behind the whole spectrum of Markets – Fine Art, Financial, Fish and Fools.
A budding art collector and supporter of emerging artists, she slogs to prevent collateral damage to her bank account resulting from occasional manic art buying sprees.