Reports artasiapacific.com^49ZENG FANZHI
MASK SERIES 1996 NO. 6
1996
Oil on canvas, 199 x 358.6 cm.
Courtesy Poly Auction Hong Kong.painted fabric, sold for USD 11,300,
falling within its presale estimates.
With the sale achieving a USD
4.7 million total, the priciest work
was unsurprisingly Yayoi Kusama’s
cover lot, Field (1989), a painting
of grapes and corn. The work sold
for USD 411,000, nearly double its
high estimate.
The five-day marathon of sales
at Sotheby’s Hong Kong (4/1–5)
picked up a week later. Last October,
Asian collectors were eager to bid
on Western art in a sale curated by
Korean pop star T.O.P, so there was
much buzz surrounding the Modern
and Contemporary Art evening
sale on April 2, which included
contemporary works from Western
artists, including Andy Warhol,
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Adrian
Ghenie, a sign that the auction
house is diversifying its offerings in
Asia. However, during the evening
sale, Andy Warhol’s highly plugged
red silk-screen of Mao Zedong,
created in 1973, barely skidded past
its low estimate, selling at USD 12.7
million to an Asian buyer. Though
Mao was the highest-earning lot
of the evening, there was an air of
disappointment on the bidding floor.
Perhaps mainland Chinese buyers
are presently laying low on acquiring
works depicting the founder of the
Communist Party of China—in 2012,
during Warhol’s traveling exhibition
“15 Minutes Eternal,” 10 silk-screen
portraits of Mao were removed
from the show’s iterations in Beijing
and Shanghai, though they were
presented in Hong Kong. Jean-
Michel Basquiat’s Water-Worshipper
(1984), a figurative painting, fell
within its estimates of USD 4.5
million to 5.5 million, attaining the
hammer price of USD 5.4 million.
One untitled canvas work from 1982
by Keith Haring had its turn on the
auction block, but courted no bids.
During the evening sale, four new
auction records were made for Hsiao
Chin, Le Pho, Joseph Inguimberty
and Vicente Silva Manansala. Le
Pho’s canvas Family Life (c. 1937–39),
capturing a tender moment between
a mother and child using emerald
greens and peach hues, sold for an
astounding USD 1.2 million, more
than triple its high estimate of USD
308,900. Though the total for this
59-lot evening sale added up to
USD 74 million, down from the
USD 78 million tally from last year,
there was an uptick from Sotheby’s
Hong Kong sale from last October,
which earned USD 65.5 million.
Riffing off last year’s exhibition
centered on the calligraphic aesthetic
found in postwar abstraction,
Sotheby’s Hong Kong organized
“Brushwork II – All the World’s
a Stage,” featuring 25 paintings.
The white-glove sale reaped USD
11.5 million. Gutai artists Shozo
Shimamoto, Sadamasa Motonaga
and Atsuko Tanaka, as well as
calligrapher Shiryu Morita, all
secured new auction records.
Several day sales followed, taking
turns with modern and contemporary
Southeast Asian art, contemporary
Asian art, contemporary ink art
and more. Poly Auction celebrated
its fifth anniversary in Hong Kong
in April. Its spring auction (4/2–4)
again offered a broad selection of
goods, including whiskey, jewelry,
jade, ceramics, watches, handbags
and modern and contemporary art.
An April 3 evening sale of Chineseand Asian modern and contemporary
art presented 100 lots. The priciest
work, estimated around the figure
of USD 10.3 million, was Zeng
Fanzhi’s 3.5-meter-wide Mask Series
1996 No. 6 (1996), a boldly hued
painting of his signature figures,
whose faces are covered by masks
with static smiles. Zeng began this
series in 1994 to comment on the
disillusionment he experienced in
a rapidly modernizing China. The
last time it was on the market, it
sold for USD 9.7 million at Christie’s
Hong Kong in May 2008. The work
exceeded expectations and sold for
an astounding USD 13.5 million, a
handsome 40 per cent increase for
the seller. Moving beyond works by
Chinese artists, Poly Auction has
also included pieces by Korean artist
Lee Bul, as well as Japanese artists
Tatsuo Miyajima and Yuken Teruya.
While these works did not sell, their
inclusion shows how the auction
house is testing the market with
artists beyond its usual purview. The
tally for this sale was USD 52 million,
slightly higher than the USD 51
million total achieved a year prior.
All told, spectacular records were
announced in New York and Hong
Kong amid otherwise tepid sales.
*All prices include buyer’s premium.