From October 25 to 26, "20th Century and Contemporary Art and Design" Hong Kong Autumn Auction Mainland Tour Preview kicked off at Rosewood Beijing. The preview is led by masterpieces such as Yayoi Kusama's Golden Accumulation (1) and "Red Boots", as well as young Western female artists such as Lucy Bull, Christina Quarles and Emily Mae Smith, as well as Zeng Fanzhi, Wong Yuxing, Rafa Macarrón and Bernard Buffet) and other works by Chinese and Western modern and contemporary artists.
The Beijing preview of the Hong Kong Autumn Auction "20th Century and Contemporary Art and Design" jointly presented by Phillips and Wing Le Auction. (Anya/photo)
Presented by Phillips and Yongle Auction, the exhibition will be held at Contemporary Art Shanghai from November 10 to 13 after the Beijing preview. The Hong Kong auction "20th Century and Contemporary Art and Design" will then be held from 30 November to 1 December.
At 93 years old, Kusama is one of the most influential and influential Asian artists in art history. In May this year, at the New York Spring Auction of Fuyis, his works sold for nearly 10.5 million US dollars (about 75.45 million yuan), setting a world auction record for Yayoi Kusama's works. The exhibition "Golden Accumulation (1)" was completed in 1999, at an important time when Kusama's works were widely exhibited around the world. The dotted pattern of the painting is one of the core elements of Kusama's work. For her, the dot is not only a creative theme, but also a strong self-description, representing the interpretation of her life that has been occupied by hallucinations since childhood. Created in 1979, "Red Boots" is the result of an uncertain period in Kusama's life, when she returned to Japan from New York for six years and spent two years in a mental sanatorium in Tokyo to combat mental illness. Featuring a red high-heeled boot, the painting is full of Kusama's signature creative elements, with polka dots and botanical motifs reflecting scattered seeds and the artist's connection to the natural world.
Red Boots, Yayoi Kusama, 1979. (Photo courtesy of the organizer)
According to the organizers, Kusama's lead work "GMBKA" will also be unveiled at the evening auction of "20th Century and Contemporary Art" this season. Created in 2013, GMBKA is Kusama's best-known work in the Infinity Web series, representing Kusama's maturation of using acrylic pigments instead of oil paints, a shift that marks a pivotal shift back to water-based pigments as a medium, harking back to her original use of traditional watercolor paints to create Japanese paintings. The work is meticulously painted on a canvas based on black pigment with bright pink, with each individually drawn line expanding and contracting on the large canvas with steady pulsations, creating a captivating visual sense. The constant repetition of each touch point under the brush forms a seductive pictorial space, a meticulous arrangement that presents a continuous quality that displays a dazzling technique that envelops the viewer and the artist in the concept of "infinity".
Infinity Web (GMBKA), Yayoi Kusama, 2013. (Photo courtesy of the organizer)
In recent years, the works of female artists have attracted much attention and popularity, and post-90s artist Lucy Bull is one of them. The forward-looking young artist from the Rhode Island School of Design in the United States made its debut in Asia at this year's Fuyisi Spring Auction, where Bull's work "8:50" debuted in Asia and sold for more than HK$11 million (about 10.07 million yuan). In Boole's abstract painting The Tree of Love, the artist uses dynamic texture, weight, and space to create an intoxicating visual experience. Another young female artist, Christina Quarles, "I Can Only Feel What Touches Me," explores the human body form through highly abstract brushstrokes in a surreal, deliberately ambiguous visual language, and the twisted, fluid portrait of the human body shows the self-perception and social belonging that has nowhere to be placed under multiple identities and roles.
The Tree of Love, by Lucy Bull, 2019. (Photo courtesy of the organizer)
Spanish artist Rafa Macarrón's work features a surrealist style and whimsical figures that are highly sought after by collectors around the world. Trained as a physiotherapist, Macaron uses his understanding of the morphological structure of the human body to shape his alien-like characters, showing the artist's meticulous observation of everyday life and human existence. He once said that depicting the flaws of the human body is like "creating its own characters, each with its own soul and personality". The painting "Atmosphere II" in this exhibition reveals that each person in the real world is similar to each other but not the same, and the uniqueness of the individual should be valued.
Atmosphere II, Rafa Macaron, 2015 (Anya/photo)
Born in Paris in 1928, Bernard Buffet, a French artist known as one of the most important French artists of the twentieth century, is dominated by figurative graphics, combining distinctive expressionism and powerful, angular black silhouettes against a dimly colored backdrop with rich and deep tones but delicate brushstrokes. The tulip symbolizes perfect, pure love and is a frequent visitor in the artist's floral collections. The auction featured Buffy's 1982 Tulip Bouquet, eight tulips blooming against the artist's usual olive-yellow background, which is the most sincere and frank portrayal of the artist's heart.
Written by/He An'an
Editor/Wang Qing
Proofreader/Lin Zhao