16 ★ FTWeekend 21 March/22 March 2020
Collecting
While Europe and the US grapple with
rising cases of coronavirus, Hong Kong
and its cultural community are
beginning to see the light at the end
of the tunnel.
“People are getting out and about
again,” says Alice Mong, executive
director of the Asia Society Hong Kong
Center, an independent non-profit
institution.
Mong is on the working group for Art
Power HK, a collaborative effort from
about 70 art galleries, auction houses
and other private arts organisations
that has pooled event information and
online projects on a website launched
this month (artpowerhk.com). The
group plans an in-real-life arts event
in May. The community campaign
began to take shape after the
cancellation of the Art Basel and Art
Central fairs that were due to take
place this week.
“This would have been our busiest
time of year,” Mong says. However, she
adds: “While the international events
have helped make Hong Kong’s art
scene bigger and more dynamic, a lot
of us have always been here and are
still here.” Mong plans a soft opening of
the postponedNext Act: Contemporary
Art from Hong Kongexhibition at the
Asia Society on March 31.
Hong Kong’s government is still
encouraging social distancing, but its
galleries — many of them closed since
February — are beginning to come out
of hibernation for small events. This
week, White Cube reopened its Hong
Kong space (“by appointment only”, its
website says), while it simultaneously
closed temporarily in London.
Art Basel Hong Kong, the replacement
for the cancelled physical fair, went
online to VIPs on Wednesday, and —
despite a 15-minute glitch when the
server was initially overloaded — seems
well supported by its 231 exhibiting
galleries (artbasel.com/viewing-rooms,
March 20-25). “It’s a first initiative,
we’re all trying our best,” said Rita
Targui, director at the Singapore
gallery STPI. “Our expectations were
moderate but the feedback has been
great.” She was speaking on a virtual
walk-through organised with Antenna
Space, Boers-Li Gallery, Lisson Gallery,
Tina Keng Gallery and TKG+, one ofCarlos/Ishikawa sold one of its new
paintings by the in-demand Issy Wood
for $45,000.As seemed increasingly likely, Frieze
New York, due to take place May 7-10,
is the latest major art fair to cancel
because of Covid-19. The Frieze
Sculpture display at Rockefeller Center
will still go ahead, but has been delayed
until the summer. A statement
expresses regret at the situation,
saying: “We are hugely grateful to
everyone who has worked so hard in
preparation for this year’s fair.” Other
May events that were nixed this weekinclude Photo London and
the inaugural Eye of the
Collector, both postponed
until the autumn.One of the side effects of art
sales moving online is a
growing price transparency.
For the Art Basel Hong Kong
viewing rooms, all works
were displayed with their
price, or at least a price
range. It’s not perfect —
price ranges are still the
majority and can be as
broad as $500,000-$1m —
but it’s a big leap in a
healthy direction. “We can
see that there are more than
70 pieces priced over $1m
and that the total value of
about 2,060 works on sale is
around $270m,” says Marc
Spiegler, global director of
the Art Basel fairs. “It’s an
estimate, but more of an
estimate than we’ve ever
had for an art fair before.”
Spiegler cites data from
online resource Artsy last
year showing that a work uploadedto
its site with a publicly available price
was up to six times more likely to sell
than one with its price hidden.It’s goodbye for now to auctions as we
know them, as Christie’s, Sotheby’s and
Phillips this week all postponed the
majority of their sales for the next
month at least (Phillips has paused all
auctions until mid-May). The last
hurrahs included Bonhams’ Modern
and Contemporary African art sale in
London on March 18, estimated to
make up to £2.8m. Among the more
unusual items on offer was an archive
of 1,126 loose images plus four albums
with about another 692 snaps from the
South African studio of ZJS Ndimande
& Son (active 1940-83, est £6,000-
£9,000). The black-and-white images,
taken by Richard Ndimande during the
apartheid era, are portraits of mostly
local Zulu clients who wanted a
memento, often to give to loved ones.
Writer and author Ekow Eshun
writes in Bonhams magazine: “Within
the confines of the studio, a state of
utopia reigns, free from the politics of
race and space that governed daily life
for black South Africans.”
The sale also included 17 lots (out of
111) sold with the majority of proceeds
to benefit The African Arts Trust and
Virgin Unite. These included work by
the Ethiopian artist Elias Sime and the
Nigeria-raised Nnenna Okore, who
trained with the sculptor El Anatsui.Art powers
up online
The Art Market| Hong Kong starts to come out of
hibernation; Art Basel’s virtual fair keeps business
ticking; Frieze New York cancelled; apartheid-era
photographs at Bonhams.Melanie Gerlis eportsr
From left:
Elias Sime’s
‘Landscape 1
Min Neber’,
which sold for
£21,300 at
Bonhams;
untitled 1974
work from the
studio of ZJS
Ndimande &
Son, also at
Bonhams;
Robert
Rauschenberg’s
‘Rice Wine Dog’,
(1990) at
Thaddaeus
Ropac
Bonhams; Thaddaeus RopacThe eight-man world
championship Candidates
has begun this week in
Ekaterinburg, Russia, amid
controversy over whether it
should have been postponed
and doubts as to whether it
will survive the virus until
its planned finish on April 4.
Three Russians, two
Chinese, and one each from
the US, Netherlands and
France are competing in the
€500,000 event for the right
to meet Norway’s Magnus
Carlsen for the global crown
at Dubai in December. Even
before a pawn was pushed,
Azerbaijan’s Teimour
Radjabov withdrew after his
request for a postponement
was refused. China’s world
No3 Ding Liren arrived two
weeks early formandatory
quarantine whilecompatriot
Wang Hao came from Japan
but arrived without his aides
due to quarantine and visa
problems.
Wang Hao had also
wanted a postponement, so
was not in the best mentalstate for the first round,
when the rules stipulate that
compatriots should play
each other. But contrary to
expectations, Dingmishandled the white pieces
andwasconvincinglybeaten.
The games are free and
live to watch onlinewith
move by move grandmaster
and computer commentary,
starting 11am GMT.
2359
White (to move) is
threatened with instant
mate by Qh2 or Qh1. How
does he turn the tables and
win? This ancient puzzle is
from the 1745 bookThe
Noble Game of Chess.
Solution, back page1.
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1 The hero of Orwell’s novel
Nineteen Eighty-Four ( 7, 5 )
7 An Indian grass related to
sugar cane (4)
11 A long tubular wooden
instrument used in
mountainous areas (7)
12 A race in which runners-up in
the eliminating heats compete
for a place in the final (9)
13 A hypothetical massless
subatomic particle believed to
bind quarks together (5)
14 Plant also known as mother-
in-law’s tongue (11)
15 The title given to Schumann’s
Symphony No 3 (7)
16, 28 Painter and follower
of Caravaggio; she was
raped by her tutor who was
subsequently prosecuted (9,11)
17 Indian political leader
generally regarded as the
originator of Pakistan (5)
19 A pouch or sac, esp one
containing viscid lubricating
fluid at points of friction (5)
21 A city in northern Iraq on the
Tigris across from the ruins of
Nineveh (5)
23 A small sweet yellow plum
used for making a liqueur (9)
26 A dashing and fashionable
gentleman (7)
28 See 16
30 A compound extracted from
coal tar and used in perfumery
and medicine (5)
31 Prolonged retention of larval
or immature characteristics or
features in the adult form. (9)
32 A breed of domestic fowl (7)
33 A battle of the Crimean War
(4)
34 Another term for branks (6,6)DOWN
1 The northernmost city of
North Island, New Zealand (9)
2 A remote planet of the solar
system, discovered in 1846 (7)
3 Character played by Cary
Grant in North by Northwest
(9)
4 Byname of Dhondu Pant, a
prominent leader of the Indian
Mutiny of 1857 (4,5)
5 A sweet rice wine used in
Japanese cookery (5)
6 Composer of the oratorio A
Child of Our Time (7)
8 Partial or total blindness
without visible change of the
eye (9)
9 Czech composer of the cycle
of tone poems Ma Vlast (7)
10 Naval battle of 31 BC in which
Octavian defeated Mark
Antony (6)
16 The peculiar sensations that
precede an attack of epilepsy
or migraine (5)
18 Israeli pianist and conductor
who co-founded the West-
Eastern Divan Orchestra (9)
20 Sharp pinnacles of rock in a
mountain range (9)
21 The county town of
Westmeath in the Republic of
Ireland (9)
22 19 34 French film set on a canal
barge and directed by Jean
Vigo (9)
23 A deep purplish red colour (7)
24 Author of the book Out of
Africa (6)
25 French physician who invented
the stethoscope (7)
27 A robot in human form (7)
29 A South Asian building divided
into many separate tenements
(5)The first correct entry drawn on
Wednesday April 1 wins a copy
of The Chambers Dictionary.
Entries should be addressed to
Polymath No 1,066, Weekend
FT, 1 Friday Street London
EC4M 9BT. Solution and win-
ner’s name on April 4.The 13th edition (2014) retains the much-loved features of The Cham-
bers Dictionary, including the unique quirky definitions for certain words.
There are more than 1,000 new words and meanings, and there is also a
new Word Lover’s Ramble, showing how English words and definitions
have changed over the history of the dictionary.Crossword 16,431 Set by Mudd
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for French republican (7)
5 erformance backfiring after P
touring Guernsey etc (7)
9 Pink champagne primarily for
the mouth! (5)
10 Little blossom in Italy’s cut (9)
11 Greek character not long ago
collecting small pieces of paper
(9)
12 Large wife served with a
religious decree (5)
13 Tramp left, getting up,
clutching nothing (5)
15 Driving book (2,3,4)
18 Ashes evidently lost, did you
say, for group of stars? (5,4)
19 Novelist, certainly English (5)
21 Weapon trademarked, and
stunning errant rogues, initially
(5)
23 ree service’s ending, pay F
ladies and gentlemen to go
ahead (9)
25 arts attached to side of head, P
each terribly precise (9)
26 ury has no limits after a F
second affair (5)
27 Kind of dog, someday barking
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28 Fish caught by female bird (7)DOWN
1 All to win, flag best raised (7)
2 Steroid forming nice torso (9)
3 A hunk climbing in wood (5)
4 Hit yourself (6,3)
5 Hot wingers in rugby? (5)
6 Indifferent about Michael Caine
film – the pits? (9)
7 Portrait in the end, relative
insult (5)
8 Haul fish up with the current
(7)
14 Doctor in a pretty kind of suit
(9)
16 Those shelled, when bombed
resist too (9)
17 Sick of Man United say, old
menace (3-6)
18 Weak – becoming wk? (7)
20 Heading for execution, relative
hiding in tree – that’s hairy! (7)
22 Fight delicious? O my! (5)
23 Up-ended drink dealt with (5)
24 Far Eastern city in Nepal has
appeared (5)Copies of The Meaning of Everything: The
Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon
Winchester, published by Oxford University Press,
will be awarded to the senders of the first three
correct entries opened on Wednesday April 1.
Entries marked Crossword 16,431 on the envelope,
should be sent to Weekend FT, 1 Friday Street,
London EC4M 9BT. Solution on April 4.WINNERSJotter pad
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James Simpson, France; Hugh Guilford, Buckinghamshire, EnglandPolymath 1,064: ichael Foottit, LondonMIf you’re not reaching a
seemingly unmakeable slam
occasionally, you’re
probably living too sheltered
a life — but to make good on
the daredevilry is the
ultimate intellectual thrill.
Opposite North’s Weak
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forcing raise to 3H; North
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which West had to win.
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was forced to play another
diamond, allowing declarer
to ruff in dummy, and
discard his losing 5♠ romf
hand. How did South know
West would be outofspades?
He didn’t, but playing for a
ruff and discard is his only
chance — and he took it.BRIDGE AUL MENDELSONP
South found it irresistible to
go for slam. West led Q♦ nda
declarer was soon looking
down the barrel of two stark
losers: the third round ofdiamonds and the third
round of spades. With no
intermediate cards in either
suit to help, the experienced
declarer tried an endplay —
and it worked beautifully.
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trumps, cashed♣AK and
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Q 9Hong Kong viewing room, he offered
three works for more than $1m,
including Robert Rauschenberg’s “Rice
Wine Dog, Tuak Hudok-Iban (ROCI
MALAYSIA)” (1990, $1.35m).
Early sales were relatively few —
though this is not so surprising, given
the more static nature of looking at art
through a screen and registering an
interest before buying a work, never
mind the catastrophic economic
backdrop. But David Zwirner gallery,
which also used its own virtual
platform, reported “brisk interest” and
a few sales, including Marlene Dumas’s
“Like Don Quixote” (2002) for $2.6m.many adaptive initiatives in this new-
style art market.
Gallerist Thaddaeus Ropac has also
been pleasantly surprised by the
experience. “I’ve always been a bit
old-fashioned and focused on bringing
people into the galleries, but now I’m
really embracing it,” he says. Ropac
had to close all five of his galleries in
Salzburg, Paris and London this week
but also took the opportunity to launch
the gallery’s first online viewing room
on March 16. “It’s a way to stay in
contact with people and to engage,
which is one of the most important
things at the moment,” he says. For hisMARCH 21 2020 Section:Weekend Time: 3/202019/ - 17:13 User:paul.gould Page Name:WKD16, Part,Page,Edition:WKD, 16, 1