Sotheby’s will open its inaugural “Contemporary Curated: Asia” series in Hong Kong on June 18, in collaboration with Taiwanese singer and avid art collector Jay Chou.
The highly-anticipated auction offers up some of fine art’s most esteemed pieces, though there is one impactful work that is set to command the attention of potential buyers: Jean-Michel Basquiat‘s influential 1985 triptych, Untitled.
The masterwork, which features acrylic and oilstick on wood in three parts, leads the event with a HKD 350 million ($45 million USD) high price estimate.
The 1985 artwork holds sentimental value for its appearance in the background of Basquiat’s New York Times Magazine February cover in its seminal year. Additionally, Sotheby’s is also selling the originals chairs from the artist’s studio that appeared in the cover shoot as a separate entity.
“I have always believed in the power of art—a medium of expression that sees no boundary or limitation,” Chou said of the curation in a statement. “My dream is that this collaboration [with Sotheby's] will leave audiences with different ways of understanding and appreciating the art that surrounds us every day.”
Elsewhere in the sale, Pablo Picasso‘s Buste d’Homme (1969) is listed at a HKD 93 million ($12 million USD) low estimate, alongside Richard Prince‘s Runway Nurse (2005-2006), which is offered at an estimate of HKD 75 million ($9.6 million USD), just below the record $9.7 million USD that it sold for at Christie’s in 2016.
Frank Stella‘s electric acrylic painting, Untitled (1978), is seated at a HKD 32 million ($4.1 million USD) low estimate while Andy Warhol‘s renowned Cambell’s Soup I(1968), which arrives in a set of 10, is market at a low estimate of HDK 4 million ($520,000 USD), among several other works.
Each work will be on display at Hong Kong’s K11 Atelier and K11 Musea from June 12 to June 18.
An oil painting by Charles White has been introduced to the online Exceptional Worksviewing room at David Zwirner, which presents only one major work at a time to the secondary market. The untitled painting was completed between 1966 and 1967, and depicts a man with his hand outstretched, set against a “metaphysical” background, which, for White, connoted spiritual awakening.
As White was in the latter end of his career during the time of its creation, the work is a rare example of one of his final oil paintings, since his “health forced him to focus on drawing in the second half of his life,” according to the catalogue note.
Today, White is celebrated for his representation of the Black American experience, portraying strength and power in the face of racial and economic injustice in his artwork.
White’s work “affirms his deep concern for humanity, his love of man and life, and his belief that brotherhood is not just a catchword,” White’s gallerist and friend Benjamin Horowitz wrote in Images of Dignity: The Drawings of Charles White, according to the catalogue note.
White Cube recently launched its Online Viewing Room for Art Basel Miami Beach 2020. The blue-chip dealer is purveying new and rarely seen works by its roster of seminal artists including the late Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, John Chamberlain, Julie Mehretu, Antony Gormley, Sterling Ruby and much more.
One of the standout pieces in the digital presentation is an Untitled 1982 work by Basquiat made using oil stick on paper. The piece, which measures roughly 38 by 31 inches, features the legendary neo-expressionist painter’s unruly scrawling of an anonymous subject and is valued at $1,250,000 USD. The drawing has been in its private collection ever since June 1991 until it was recently purchased by the gallery. Another highlight is an installation by Emin titled Feeling Pregnant III made by the artist in 2005 which made its debut at the solo exhibition called “Tracey Emin/Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul” which highlighted the similarities between the two influential artists’ works. The mixed-media work features diverse women’s clothing mounted on wooden beams — a piece that resonates with the artist’s practice of championing femininity. It has a value of $550,000 USD.
In the paintings sector, the White Cube is spotlighting an oil on canvas piece by George Baselitz titled Mitten im Rosa made by the artist back in 2018. The 120 by 102 inch-work features two human figures illustrated upside down as if they are falling. It has a value of $1,850,000 USD. Moreover, Sterling Ruby’s SP232 spray paint on canvas artwork is also included in the lineup featuring an abstract composition of fiery yet subdued tones that evokes his longstanding interest in graffiti. It’s priced at $875,000 USD.
View select works in the slideshow above and then head to the White Cube’s websiteto check out all pieces in its Online Viewing Room for Art Basel Miami Beach 2020.
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