Coming to the second day of Sotheby’s Hong Kong spring sales, the auction house continued to pull off an impressive sale performance with several new auction records. Following the success of KAWS’ The KAWS Album which sold for recording-breaking HK$115.9m (US$14.78m), Yayoi Kusama’s Interminable Net #4 from 1959 also smashed the artist's record after it sold for HK$62.43m (US$7.96m).
Interminable Net #4 is one of the examples from the white Infinity Nets executed at end of the 1950s and start of the 1960s, from the early period of Kusama’s career. Kusama Yayoi first arrived in New York City in June 1958 and she aspired to grab everything that went on in the city and become a star. She began work on what would become her most renowned series of white Infinity Net canvases, in which other examples are now in the collections of major museums like Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York etc.
Kusama created her renowned series of white Infinity Net canvases
Kusama created her renowned series of white Infinity Net canvases
Kusama referred to her work as self-therapy, a way of escaping her mind through infinite repetition. Interminable Net #4 at once acts as a means of depersonalized self-annihilation while also re-asserting the artist’s hand in the labor-intensive monotony of the painting’s production. Connecting her body, subconscious, and spirit to the painting in the most compelling visual manner, Kusama’s Interminable Net #4 is a study in psychological complexity.
Patti Wong, Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia
Alex Branczik, Head of Contemporary Art, Europe.
Started at HK$40m, the painting elicited strong interest from room bidders, online bidders and telephone bidders. The price went up to HK$50m in a blink and the bidding became a battle between the telephone bidders represented by Patti Wong, Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, and Alex Branczik, Head of Contemporary Art, Europe.
Kusama's previous auction record was held by White No. 28, which sold for US$7.1m at Christie’s New York in 2014
Interminable Net #4 was hammered down at HK$53m and sold for HK$62.43m (US$7.96m) to Patti Wong’s client. The painting set a new auction record for the artist and obliterated the previous record held by the artist’s White No. 28, which sold for US$7.1m at Christie’s New York in 2014.
Another Kusama’s painting ‘Pumpkin (TWPOT)’ sold for HK$54.46m (US$6.9m) and became the second top lot of the sale.
Embodying an iconic, charismatic and highly personal motif, Kusama’s pumpkins are universally emblematic of her oeuvre. Rendered in a shade of golden-orange, Kusama deliberately painted Pumpkin (TWPOT) in the gourd’s essential colour with a direct semblance to a sweet, tender and luscious kabocha.
Boris Cornelissen, Deputy Director and Specialist of Contemporary Art, Sotheby’s London
Wendy Lin, Deputy Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia
Carrying an estimate of HK$12m-22m, the painting started the bidding at HK$9m. The price soared up to 40m as the bidding escalated into a bidding war between the three main telephone bidders, respectively represented by Patti Wong, Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, Wendy Lin, Deputy Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, and Boris Cornelissen, Deputy Director and Specialist of Contemporary Art, Sotheby’s London.
Patti Wong gained victory for her client with a hammer price of HK$46m, winning the battle with HK$54.4m (US$6.9m) after premium. Propelled by two Kusama masterpieces, the sale achieved a total of HK$440m, selling 37 of all 41 lots offered.
Top five lots
Kusama Yayoi. Interminable Net #4
Lot no.: 1144
Created in: 1959
Size: 143.5 x 108.6 cm
Provenance:
- Arman Collection (gift from the artist as an artist exchange)
- Fuji TV Gallery, Japan
- Private Collection, Japan
- Acquired by the present owner from the above
Estimate: HK$50,000,000 - 70,000,000
Hammer price: HK$53,000,000
Price realised: HK$62,433,00 (US$7,959,583)
Kusama Yayoi. Pumpkin (TWPOT)
Lot no.: 1138
Created in: 2010
Size: 130 x 162.5 cm
Provenance:
- Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo
- Acquired by the present owner from the above
Estimate: HK$12,000,000 - 22,000,000
Hammer price: HK$46,000,000
Price realised: HK$54,460,00 (US$6,943,105)
Julie Mehretu. Black Ground (Deep Light)
Lot no.: 1161
Created in: 2006
Size: 182.9 x 243.8 cm
Provenance:
- The Project, New York
- White Cube, London
- Private Collection, UK
- Acquired by the present owner from the above
Estimate: HK$14,000,000-20,000,000
Hammer price: HK$37,000,000
Price realised: HK$44,209,000 (US$5,636,205)
Mark Grotjahn. Untitled (Yellow White Butterfly)
Lot no.: 1139
Created in: 2005
Size: 170.2 x 127 cm
Provenance:
- Blum & Poe, Los Angeles (acquired directly from the artist)
- Acquired from the above by David Teiger in 2005
Estimate: HK$24,000,000 - 30,000,000
Hammer price: HK$22,000,000
Price realised: HK$26,575,00 (US$3,388,047)
Nara Yoshitomo. Adieu Fille D'automne
Lot no.: 1153
Created in: 2014
Size: 227.5 x 182cm
Provenance:
- Blum & Poe, Los Angeles (acquired directly from the artist)
- Acquired from the above by David Teiger in 2005
Estimate: HK$15,000,000 - 20,000,000
Hammer price: HK$22,000,000
Price realised: HK$26,575,000
Auction summary
Auction house: Sotheby’s Hong Kong
Sale: Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Sale date: 1 April 2019
Lots offered: 41
Sold: 37
Unsold: 4
Sold by lots: 90.2%
Sale total: HK$440,799,500