Christie’s Hong Kong marquee spring sales are just around the corner. This season’s rebranded 20th and 21st Century Art Evening Sale features a much more diverse lineup, one that converges swathes of cross-genre artists of different eras.
Avid collectors and art enthusiasts alike, by now, should be no stranger to the mashup hybrid sale format that was perhaps emerged from the pandemic. Similar to Sotheby’s ICONS cross-category evening sale in Hong Kong last month, just about any top-tier lots by pick-and-mix artists will be presented in a single sale.
Next week’s catch-all evening sale will be spearheaded by a splashed ink scroll painting by Zhang Daqian, which carries an unpublished estimate of HK$100m (US$12.9m). Hailed as “Picasso of the East” - whose work often go under the hammer in Chinese paintings sales instead - will be met by the Picasso, alongside other familiar evening sale stalwarts such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sanyu, Matthew Wong, Yoshitomo Nara, one of Vietnam’s most prominent modern artists Le Pho, among others.
Lot 22 | Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), Temple at the Mountain Peak
Dated 1967
Hanging scroll, ink and color on gold paper
Dimensions: 127.7 x 63 cm
Provenance: (organized by The Value)
- Previously in the collection of Li Zulai (1910-1986) and Li Deying
- Christie’s Hong Kong, Fine 19th and 20th Century Chinese Paintings, April 18, 1996, lot 280
- Christie's Hong Kong, Fine Chinese Modern Paintings, November 30, 2010, lot 2644 (Price realized: HK$61,140,000 / US$7,872,200)
Estimate on request (expected to be in the region of HK$100,000,000 / US$12,874,700)
The present lot by Zhang Daqian, one of the most prominent Chinese painters of the 20th century, portrays a staggering mountainscape that melds the painter’s travels and Chinese roots.
Ever since Zhang relocated to Brazil with his family in 1954, the lush Chinese garden that he built, the Garden of Eight Virtues, became more than his abode, but a source of inspiration across his oeuvre.
Zhang Daqian at the Lake of Five Pavilions
Painted in his Brazil studio, on the Lake of Five Pavilions in the garden, Temple at the Mountain Peak was executed in 1967, when Zhang began to take a departure from his well-versed detailed style and experiment with the splashed ink and color techniques, initially to cope with his deteriorating eyesight, but later, developed into his signature pomo style - one that not only revived a Tang dynasty artistic tradition, but renewed with modern enthusiasm.
With roots firmly grounded in the Chinese landscape painting tradition, the present painting also harkens back to the eighth-century artists who spilt ink onto silk in a drunken stupor. Zhang’s take demonstrates a more sophisticated control of ink and pigments.
Closer looks at Temple at the Mountain Peak
Wet ink was directly poured onto sized gold paper before whirling swathes of azurite and malachite color on top. The flow is controlled by rotating the paper on which the shimmering surface peeks through from the mysterious hues to mimic the glow of the setting sun.
Last went on the auction block more than a decade ago and was sold for HK$61.1m (US$7.9m), this time around, according to our source, the scroll carries an unpublished estimate in the region of HK$100m (US$12.9m).
The present lot was held in the collection of the artist’s lifelong friends Li Zulai and Li Deying, well until its auction debut in 1996. Li Zulai’s parents had hosted him in Shanghai, and his sister, Li Qiujun was described by Zhang as his “soulmate for life.”
Closer look at the present scroll’s blue-and-white cloisonné-enamel ends
Measuring 127.7 by 63 cm, Temple at the Mountain Peak is one of the most important works created during the pinnacle of the artist’s career, also one of his personal favorites. It was sent to his studio in Japan for mounting on a special scroll that blue-and-white cloisonné-enamel ends, decorated with a pattern inspired by the eaves tiles of Chinese architecture, and inscribed with the artist’s signature, “three thousand Daqians.”
The watershed event this season will see an array of artists appearing side-by-side, from blue-chip sensations to British street artist Banksy, French impressionist figures Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bernard Buffet, contemporary Romanian painter Adrian Ghenie, and Indonesian expressionist painter Affandi.
Here are the highlights of the sale:
Lot 67 | Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), Untitled (One Eyed Man or Xerox Face)
Painted in 1982
Acrylic, spray paint, oilstick and Xerox collage on panel
Dimensions: 182.9 x 121.9 cm
Provenance:
- Annina Nosei Gallery, New York
- Private Collection, USA
- Sotheby’s New York, November 5, 1987, lot 209
- Galerie Willy D'Huysser, Brussels
- Private Collection, Belgium
- Private Collection, Paris
- Gagosian Gallery, New York
- Private Collection
- Sotheby’s London, March 8, 2017, lot 13
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: HK$140,000,000 - 170,000,000
Lot 26 | Sanyu (1895-1966), Potted Chrysanthemums
Painted circa 1950s
Oil on masonite
Dimensions: 91.5 x 48 cm
Provenance:
- Private collection, France (acquired directly from the artist by the previous owner)
- Anon. Sale, Christie’s Hong Kong, May 24, 2014, lot 23
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$78,000,000 - 120,000,000
Lot 54 | Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Nu couché à la libellule
Painted on 9 October 1968
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 97 x 162 cm
Provenance:
- Galerie Louise Leiris [Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler], Paris
- Private collection, Switzerland
- Van de Weghe, New York
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$52,000,000 - 68,000,000
Lot 24 | Zao Wou-ki (1920-2013), 24.01.63
Painted in 1963
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 115 x 88 cm
Provenance:
- Blair Lang Galleries, Toronto, Canada
- Acquired from the above in 1963 and thence by descent to the previous owner
- Anon. Sale, Christie’s Hong Kong, May 25, 2013, lot 2
- Private collection, Asia
- Acquired from the above by the current owner
Estimate: HK$50,000,000 - 80,000,000
Lot 48 | Adrian Ghenie (b.1977), Collector I
Painted in 2008
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 200 x 290 cm
Provenance:
- Nolan Judin Gallery, Berlin, Germany
- Private collection, USA
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$45,000,000 - 65,000,000
Lot 53 | Yoshitomo Nara (b. 1959), Untitled
Painted in 2007
Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 162 x 145.5 cm
Provenance
- Galerie Zink, Munich, Germany
- Anon. Sale, Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 3 April 2016, lot 1061
- (Acquired from the above by the previous owner)
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: HK$45,000,000 - 65,000,000
Lot 68 | Banksy (b.1974), Sale Ends Today
Painted in 2006
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 213.4 x 426.7 cm
Provenance:
- Lazarides Limited, London
- Private Collection
- Anon. Sale, Sotheby’s New York, 13 May 2009, lot 314
- Private Collection
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$21,000,000 - 28,000,000
Lot 50 | Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Nu couché (Odalisque couchée)
Painted in 1914
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 37.8 x 50.5 cm
Provenance:
- Maurice Gangnat, Paris; his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 25, 1925, lot 56
- M. Lübeck, by whom acquired at the above sale
- Private collection, Paris
- Private collection, Switzerland
- Galerie Daniel Malingue, Paris, by November 1981
- Mr and Mrs Sigmund A. Rolat, New York; sale, Sotheby's, New York, May 17, 1990, lot 32
- Galerie Deux, Tokyo
- Michel Cohen, New York
- Private collection, America, by whom acquired from the above on February 8, 1999; sale, Christie's, London, June 23, 2010, lot 2
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: HK$12,000,000 - 18,000,000
Lot 37 | Le Pho (1907-2001), Jeune femme attachant son foulard (Young Lady Tying Her Scarf)
Painted circa 1938
Ink and gouache on silk
Dimensions: 59.5 x 48.5 cm
Provenance:
- Property from an important Asian private collection
Estimate: HK$6,800,000 - 8,800,000
Lot 62 | Matthew Wong (1984-2019), NIGHT 2
Painted in 2018
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 152.5 x 152.5 cm
Provenance:
- Massimo De Carlo, Hong Kong
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$6,800,000 - 8,800,000
Lot 32 | Affandi (1907-1990), Pasar di Bawah Pohon (The Marketplace Under the Tree)
Painted in 1964
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 100 x 135 cm
Provenance:
- Private Collection, Asia
Estimate: HK$2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Lot 49 | Bernard Buffet (1928-1999), Tête de Clown
Painted in 1999
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 116 x 81 cm
Provenance:
- Galerie Maurice Garnier, Paris.
- Galerie de Souzy, Paris.
- Private collection, Europe, by whom acquired from the above in 2009; sale, Sotheby's, London, June 22, 2016, lot 440
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: HK$2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Lot 41 | Amoako Boafo (b.1984), Justine Mendy
Painted in 2018
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 160 x 133 cm
Provenance:
- Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner
Estimate: HK$800,000 - 1,500,000
Preview: (By appointment only)
Dates: May 20-26, 2021
Venue: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, No. 1 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Auction Details:
Auction house: Christie’s Hong Kong
Sale: 20th and 21st Century Art Evening Sale
Date: May 24 | 7:30pm (local time)
Venue: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, No. 1 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Total number of lots: 75