Baltis,"Cat in the Mirror III.", oil on canvas, 200×195cm, 1989-1994, Yongle 2021 autumn auction transaction price: about 167 million yuan
In the 2021 autumn auction season, Yongle ended with a total transaction of more than 1.1 billion yuan, including one of the works of more than 100 million yuan and 11 works of more than 10 million, which attracted much attention, and this is also the first autumn auction since Peng Zhaojun, managing director of Yongle Culture, took office. From workplace experience to collector service and team building, she clearly outlines the present and future of Yongle.
"Thirty years, years of accumulation"
During the Waxing Moon season, beijing's winter is cold and lonely, but walking into the Yongle auction office in Chaoyang Park is a completely different picture. Warm, quiet and organized, everyone from the front desk to the office area to the meeting room is meticulous, focused and energetic. Indoors, it transforms into a small art museum exhibition hall, and the walls are hung in turn with the key works of the autumn auction that have just ended, and the scenes on the shooting field seem to be vividly remembered.
In the "International Perspectives – A Global Night Show of Modern and Contemporary Art" that ended in December last year, the most impressive was Baltis's last complete oil painting " Cat in the Mirror III " , which was sold for about 167 million yuan after half an hour of fierce competition from 15 collectors around the world. This not only set a new record for the artist's highest price at public auction, but also made the painting the most expensive Western artwork ever sold Chinese mainland.
Yongle 2021 autumn auction scene
Behind this highlight moment is an efficient team of about 60 people led by Peng Zhaojun, managing director of Yongle Culture. Since taking office in June last year, Peng Zhaojun has participated in several art fairs and prepared two four-season auctions, and with 30 years of rich work experience and nearly a decade of experience in the top auction houses in China, Peng Zhaojun has been able to present an art feast for collectors and art lovers with ease. No wonder Zhao Xu, the founder of Yongle, described her as the "East Wind" that "everything is ready, only owes the East Wind" - Yongle's extraordinary business strength coupled with a sound management system will surely add wings to the tiger.
Entering Peng Zhaojun's office, the first thing that catches the eye is the artist Chen Chunmu's large-scale work "Hymn-06", which makes people think of another "east wind": "the east wind thaws, the stings begin to vibrate, and the fish is on ice." "------------------------------------------ This is also her first impression: fierce, full of spirit, and full of affinity.
As 2022 comes, in addition to the review summary, she also wrote a handwritten letter to each member of the team, or expressed encouragement and blessings, or looked forward to the future. This style of treating people and things is also reflected in her communication and refined service to collectors, giving people a glimpse of Yongle's team management and development positioning.
Harper's BAZAAR ART conducted an exclusive interview with Peng Zhaojun to conduct an in-depth dialogue on the unique positioning and team building of Yongle Auction.
Peng Zhaojun, Managing Director of Yongle Culture
BAZAAR: Tell us a little bit about your personal experience and background.
Peng Zhaojun: My experience can be summarized in the "three decades": the first decade of financial management; the second is related to auditing, compliance and financial management; and the third is the art auction industry.
Previously, I didn't know much about art auctions, but my last eight years in Hong Kong have cultivated a new understanding and international perspective on the industry. Personally, first, I am adaptable, although I am financially born, but I have held management positions since my second year of work and continue to this day; second, I am willing to change myself; third, I am very good at learning and like challenging work.
Although art auctions were a new field for me at the time, fortunately, I loved the industry and was able to quickly discover how different it was from my previous work – non-standardized, with each piece and each section having its own characteristics. This requires more refined management, more systematic service, and more international concept.
Jia Aili", "Purple Crazy Scene", oil on canvas, 263×203cm, 2009, Yongle 2021 autumn auction transaction price: 16.1 million yuan
Zhang Peili", oil on canvas, 83× 130cm, 1984, Yongle 2021 autumn auction transaction price: 7.475 million yuan
" Rigorous, Refined and International "
Ten years of grinding a sword, the frost blade has been tried. With more than 10 years of finance-related work and nearly eight years of management experience in Hong Kong companies, Peng Zhaojun has naturally developed the habit of rigor, professionalism and attention to detail, and she has accumulated extremely rich and advanced management experience. This is reflected in all aspects of her work – whether it is improving the institutional system, establishing a brand culture and balancing revenue and expenditure, or team building and training, which are issues that she pays close attention to.
At present, Yongle's expert team comes from different international and domestic head auction houses, and most of them are senior experts with relatively high ranks, while 90% of the members are under the age of 40, young and diverse. On this basis, Peng Zhaojun said that the company's system will be systematically sorted out and readjusted in terms of employee promotion, rank and evaluation. "This kind of appraisal is not only a one-way appraisal of employees by leaders, but also a two-way one-way appraisal - employees will also evaluate the comprehensive quality, communication and collaboration ability of senior executives such as company leaders."
Yongle 2021 autumn shooting team photo
Secondly, Peng Zhaojun believes that "it is also very important to continuously train employees, such as management, legal affairs, corporate value analysis and other courses." At present, I am also studying at the EMBA of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, and while I have personally grown and improved, I ultimately hope to help our team develop rapidly. "Last year, Yongle held a total of two big auctions, three small auctions and seven expo exhibitions, excluding auction previews, which can be imagined as efficient and professional.
Yongle Booth, 2021 Shenzhen DnA Expo
Yongle Booth, ART021 Shanghai 2021
At the same time, she has also been advocating "to be a company with temperature, to be a person with temperature", which is reflected in the details of equipping pantries, afternoon tea, overtime suppers and so on, "I hope that everyone in the team is happy, passionate and respected when working." It is these seemingly trivial behind-the-scenes work that has built the values and brand culture of an auction company, and also laid a solid foundation for the future development of Yongle.
In addition, years of working in auction houses have also formed Peng Zhaojun's international vision - insight into the consumption of art markets in different regions, and refined services for collectors of different ages, tastes and new entries every season, which also points out the direction for Yongle's future strategic positioning.
Zeng Fanzhi, "Mask Series 1997 No. 3", oil on canvas, 150× 129.9cm, 1997, Yongle 2021 autumn auction transaction price: 17.825 million yuan
BAZAAR: At present, what is the proportion of Chinese and foreign collectors in Yongle? What is the difference in their consumption habits?
Peng Zhaojun: Mainland collectors account for about 60%. In terms of consumption habits, according to past experience and observations, in the past, the modern and contemporary art section was still dominated by overseas collectors, and the proportion of mainland collectors was relatively small, possibly because of the issue of customs clearance. However, traditional paintings, calligraphy and antiques are still dominated by the mainland. Judging from the situation in Yongle in the past two years, the domestic young collectors in the contemporary section have made rapid progress in purchasing power, number and frequency, and I expect that international convergence will become faster and faster. In addition, these young people prefer the works of new artists such as the post-70s and post-80s generations.
Qin Qi's "Paradise", oil on canvas, 300×750cm, 2016, Yongle 2021 autumn auction transaction price: 3.45 million yuan, a new record for the artist's personal works
Chen Ke", "Mother", oil on canvas, 100×100cm, 2006, Yongle 2021 autumn auction transaction price: 1.38 million yuan
BAZAAR: At the end of the year, the major auction houses will show the war report, slightly "inner volume" meaning, do you think this data is necessary?
Peng Zhaojun: Yongle's total turnover last autumn auction exceeded 1.1 billion, and the number of works and turnover were slightly lower than before, and there were also differences compared with other auction houses. But our own team, shareholder directors, are very satisfied with this result because it is the result of strategic adjustments.
The primary work after the autumn auction is the auction settlement, which has been completed 30% in one month, and the progress and speed of the auction settlement are directly related to the customer experience, and it is also one of the focuses of Yongle's work in collector services.
Yongle 2021 autumn auction preview site
"Do something, don't do something"
"In the new year, Yongle's business ideas can be summarized by 'doing something, not doing something'. In terms of the core business of lot collection, we will definitely put time, energy, manpower and financial resources in the key categories of advantages. Some sections are not currently Yongle's strengths or are in a state of market adjustment, which may be cancelled directly or slowly planned. For the development direction of Yongle next year, Peng Zhaojun gave a clear answer.
In the more than half a year since taking office, this idea of "grasping the key points, less but fine" has taken shape in Peng Zhaojun's mind. "At last autumn auction, Yongle's modern and contemporary section presented a total of 167 works, and it was originally planned to launch 300 works. However, after many discussions by the management team, we decided to select works that are suitable for the market and meet the needs of buyers and sellers, rather than rushing quantities. At the same time, Peng Zhaojun also gave Yongle a choice for the collection of works of different types and levels.
Huang Yuxing,"Night Sky", acrylic oil on canvas, 85×85cm, 2016, Yongle 2021 autumn auction transaction price: 2.817 million yuan
BAZAAR: In terms of works collection, which is more difficult, the head work or the middle and low parts? What is the specific gravity of the head?
Peng Zhaojun: The difficulty of collecting middle and low parts is greater than that of head works. First, the number of head works auctioned each quarter is limited, and too much investment cannot be invested at the same time, which is responsible for the client, the work, and the market. Second, the head collector knows all kinds of analysis and transactions in the industry, so he will consider the auction house comprehensively.
As for the proportion, Yongle has a plan for each auction and each category, and will strictly control the proportion of the number of heads and middle and low parts. For example, in this autumn auction, there are 167 pieces of modern and contemporary art sections, and about ten heads, that is, less than 10%. At the same time, we also hope that there will be at least five works by artists with an international perspective in each show, especially representative or market-trending works, such as Damien Hirst's "Five Aspects of God" series in last autumn auction.
Top: Damien Hurst, "The Five Aspects of God: Butterfly Kaleidoscope", Composite Materials On Canvas Collage: Butterflies, Leaves, Dirt, Pins, Paper, Household Gloss Lacquer, 212×212cm, 2007
Center and right: Damien Hirst, "The Five Aspects of God: Resurrection", "The Five Aspects of God: The Cross", "The Five Aspects of God: The Trinity", 274.3× 182.9cm (middle 1), 243.8×213.4cm (center 2), 304.8× 152.4cm (right), composite materials, cloth collage: butterfly, leaf, clay, pin, paper, household gloss lacquer, 2007
Bottom: Damien Hirst's "Five Aspects of God: Butterfly Triptych", comprehensive materials cloth collage: butterflies, leaves, dirt, pins, paper, household bright lacquer, 181×363cm, 2007, Yongle 2021 autumn auction transaction price: 21.85 million yuan
BAZAAR: In the spring auction of 2022, has Yongle already started preparations?
Peng Zhaojun: Yes, the basic plan of the spring auction is not much different from the autumn auction, but we will also continue to adjust according to the collection situation, and perhaps strengthen the overseas collection. Yongle Hong Kong originally planned to start after the switch, but now it seems full of uncertainty. However, Yongle's office in Taiwan has already been established, and it was recently announced that Ms. Grace Zhang will be appointed as yongle auction's European business representative. We will also continue to expand our business scope, especially for overseas customers.
Zhang Enli", oil on canvas, 250×200cm, 2006, Yongle 2021 autumn auction transaction price: 2.645 million yuan
Through the four seasons, Yongle Auction has taken the modern and contemporary art section as the starting point with a new look and strength that cannot be underestimated, and the total turnover has reached 6.6 billion yuan, becoming an indispensable new force in the Chinese and even international art market.
Peng Zhaojun, who served as the managing director of Yongle Culture last year, will give full play to his rich experience in rigorous, meticulous and international vision over the past 30 years, adhering to the serious attitude of being responsible for every work, every collector and cultural market, from the front of the stage to the backstage, from collector service to team building, building Yongle into a brand with both professionalism and temperature. In the new year, what more surprises will Yongle bring? Let's wait and see!
Editor, interview, article Zhang Jianlei
This article is original by Harper's Bazaar Art Department and may not be reproduced without permission