ASIAN ART The newspaper for collectors, dealers, museums and galleries • june 2005 • £5.00/US$8/€10 THE NEWSPAPER FOR COLLECTORS, DEALERS, MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES • NOVEMBER 2017 • £5.00/US$10/€10


Brush Washer Creates World Auction Record


THE HONG KONG sales have shown their might again with an extraordinary price paid for a ru ware vessel at Sotheby’s on 3 October. Possibly the most celebrated of Chinese ceramics, the dish was made during the Northern Song (960-1127) exclusively for the court. Ru ware ranked among the Ding, Jun, Guan and Ge as the ‘five classic wares’ of the Song dynasty (960-1279) and began to be collected as early as the Southern Song (1127-1279) and, as the rarest of all surviving classical wares, they were passed from generation to generation. Te guanyao brush washer, from


the Taiwanese Le Cong Tang Collection, sold for HK$294,300,000 (about


US$37.7 million) to an


anonymous buyer. Te transaction made this small, 900-year old vessel the most expensive Chinese ceramic to sell at auction to date. Ru guanyao, the court ware of the late Northern Song (960-1127) is considered to be the most revered of the five great


kilns. Its quasi-mythical status over the centuries can perhaps be attributed to its short-lived production period, generally


believed to not have


exceeded 20 years. Te washer is one of only four


known heirloom Ru wares in private hands and was formerly in the collection of the Chang Foundation in the Hongxi Museum, Taipei. Te previous auction record for Chinese ceramics was set by Sotheby’s in Hong Kong in April 2014 when the Meiyintang Chenghua ‘Chicken Cup’ sold for HK$281.24 million (US$36.05 million).


For Song


ceramics, the previous world auction record was set again by Sotheby’s in Hong Kong in April 2012, when a ruyao washer from the Northern Song dynasty sold for HK$207.86 million (US$26.65 million). At the autumn sales, 16 auction


records were set during Sotheby’s autumn Hong Kong sales in October, including an imperial white jade and


cloisonné enamel ram-head teapot and cover from the Qing dynasty, which sold for HK$75.5 million, setting a new auction record for a jade carving. In the Contemporary Ink Art sale an auction record was set for the artist Inoue Yuichi with Yume (Dream), from 1966, which sold for HK$1.5 million, nearly four times its pre-sale estimate.


Elsewhere, Li Keran’s


Magnificent Mountains with Gushy Cascades sold for HK$122 million, and Fu Baoshi’s Trekking Over Mountains in Moonlight tripled its pre-sale high estimate to achieve HK$93 million. In Hong Kong, Christie’s will be


offering more ceramics from the Le Cong


Tang collection on 27


November with the highlight of the sale being a Jiajing six-character mark wucai fish jar and cover (1522-1566), estimate on request. Christie’s sales run from 24 to 29 November and cover the key categories of Asian 20th Century and Contemporary Art,


Chinese Classical and Modern Paintings, and Chinese Ceramics and Works of Arts. A first for Christie’s is the collaboration between the Chinese paintings and works of art departments to produce Court,


NEWS IN BRIEF THROCKMORTON FINE ART


MUSEUM MACAN, JAKARTA Indonesia’s first museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN), is scheduled to open to the public this month. Te inaugural exhibition, which features pieces from the museum’s collection, will showcase artworks by Indonesian masters and leading international artists alike, setting the precedent of a programme that will continue to highlight local talents alongside a diverse range of global names. Te museum was founded by Indonesian philanthropist and collectorHaryanto Adikoesoemo, whose decade long vision for a permanent arts space in Jakarta and whose collection forms the basis for the institution’s collection and mission. Te opening coincides with the Jakarta Biennale and Biennale Jogja. More information on museummacan.org


CHINA


Head of a Buddha, Tang Period 618-907 CE Marble


H: 11½ in.


ULLENS CENTER, BEIJING Te Ullens Center has finally found a buyer in the form of a group of Chinese investors that include an education business called Future Edutainment and Jason Jiang, a media/advertising Chinese billionaire, amongst others. Te space, which receives over a million visitors a year, is rented from the Sevenstar Group (the owner of the 798 Art District), and will continue its programming as usual. Te current director, Philip Tinari, remains in position and will run the art programmes, but in a new non-profit foundation. Tis new structure more closely resembles the model favoured by international foundations running private museums. Te centre is soon to undertake major renovations and the refurbished space will reopen under the same name with a major solo exhibition by Xu Bing in the summer of 2018 to celebrate the event.


Continued on page 2 145 EAST 57TH STREET, 3RD FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10022 TEL: 212.223.1059 FAX: 212.223.1937 www.throckmorton-nyc.com info@throckmorton-nyc.com asianartnewspaper.com Join us @ Asian Art Newspaper Follow us @ AsianArtPaper


Studio, and Atelier (works from the Ming dynasty), on 27 November. A feature on ru ware can be found in the March 2010 issue of Asian Art Newspaper. • For more auction news, see page 19


Inside 2


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Ru guanyao brush washer, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), diam. 13 cm, sold for


HK$294,300,000 (est in excess of HK$100 million), at Sotheby’s Hong Kong 3 October


Profile: the Chinese painter, photographer, and installation artist, Ni Youyu


Viva Arte Viva, this year’s Venice Biennale


Three artists from Hangzhou Polished to Perfection, Japanese cloisonné in Ohio


Illusion and Disillusion in the Art of Chen Hongshou, a 17th-century Chinese artist


The Korean ceramicist Yoo Euijeong New York auction reviews Auction preview, Newbury Hong Kong auction reviews Gallery shows: Afruz Amighi in London; and Reza Derakshani and Alfred Basbous in Hong Kong Takashi Murakami in Boston, Raghubir Singh in New York, Risham Syed in Manchester. Japan season at the Pompidou Centre-Metz


21


22 23


Indian season at the Science Museum in London and ikats in Hong Kong Listings


Islamic Arts Diary


Next issue December 2017 Our Winter Quarter, featuring travel, people, books, and more ...


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