On 30 and 31 March, Phillips is going to present a selection of modern and contemporary artworks at the Hong Kong 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening & Day Sales. Works by blue-chip contemporary masters, such as David Hockney, will be presented alongside various latest recognized talents and rising stars in the art world, from Matthew Wong and Louis Bonnet to William Monk and Liu Ye. The Evening & Day Sales will be the inaugural auctions held in person and streaming live from Phillips’ new Asia headquarters.
Phillips is moving into a new era during its eighth year in the region with a new Asia headquarters in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and LAAB Architects. The new Asia headquarters features over 52,000 square feet over six adjacent floors, from the ground floor level. Phillips will be the first auction house in Hong Kong to have a permanent purpose-built exhibition space with salesroom, offices, café and VIP lounge, allowing for year-round events and auctions in its own space.
LARRY’S LIST has highlighted 10 lots to watch out for at these upcoming auctions.
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, 30 March 2023:
Flagship No. 1, 1997
acrylic and oil on canvas
29.2 x 22.2 cm. (11 1/2 x 8 3/4 in.)
Estimate
HK$ 4,000,000 – 6,000,000
US$ 513,000 – 769,000
Liu Ye is a significant contemporary Chinese artist whose recent exhibition “Storytelling” took place at the Fondazione Prada in Milan in 2020-2021, following an exhibition in Shanghai in 2018. “Flagship No.1”, the first piece from a series depicting sailors pulling back velvet curtains to reveal warships, was part of this exhibition and is now being auctioned after almost a decade of private ownership. Liu’s works are highly regarded by critics and sought after by collectors, with many of his works held in prominent collections.
Outside the Window, 2022
oil and acrylic gesso on canvas
180 x 250 cm. (70 7/8 x 98 3/8 in.)
Estimate
HK$ 2,000,000 – 4,000,000
US$ 256,000 – 513,000
Chen Ke’s “Bauhaus Gal” series showcases her unique spatial delineation and portraiture mastery. “Outside the Window” is a defining example sharing the similarities with the series and the first to be auctioned. This pastel-hued artwork interweaves whimsical references to the Bauhaus movement, memories, and cinematic cues with surreal undertones. Chen’s works are highly sought after and found in prestigious collections worldwide, including the Franks-Suss Collection in London, BSI Art Collection in Lugano, Switzerland, M+ Sigg Collection in Hong Kong, and the Minsheng Art Museums in Shanghai.
The Velour Jumpsuit, 2016
oil on canvas
182.9 x 152.4 cm. (72 x 60 in.)
Estimate
HK$ 800,000 – 1,200,000
US$ 103,000 – 154,000
Louise Bonnet, a Swiss painter based in Los Angeles, creates surrealist and meticulously rendered paintings that combine humor, beauty, and monstrosity and evoke emotions of shame and revulsion. Her work features oddly contorted bodies with misplaced organs and appendages, rendered with the attention to light and texture of the Renaissance masters. “The Velour Jumpsuit”, created in 2016, is a striking example of her unique style. The pale purple velvety jumpsuit serves as a backdrop for a digestive organ placed outside the body, which is exquisitely rendered in chiaroscuro and tied to the suit with a rope.
Our Eyes Our Open/Are Eyes Are Open, 2017
acrylic on canvas
127 x 106.7 cm. (50 x 42 in.)
Estimate
HK$ 1,600,000 – 2,600,000
US$ 205,000 – 333,000
Christina Quarles is a contemporary artist whose works explore the complexities of identity through abstract, line-drawn, and fragmented bodies. Her entangled figures are often enclosed within graphical space and feature a patchwork of color, pattern, and perspectives, creating a physical tension with the viewer. Quarles investigates the universal experience of being in a body and how race, gender, and sexuality intersect to form complex identities. Her work is housed in acclaimed public collections, including Centre Pompidou in Paris, Guggenheim Museum in New York, Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C., Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and Tate Modern in London.
Global Warming, 2018
acrylic on canvas
200.2 x 130.4 cm. (78 7/8 x 51 3/8 in.)
Estimate
HK$ 1,200,000 – 2,200,000
US$ 154,000 – 282,000
Trey Abdella is a New York-based artist whose work explores themes such as identity, memory, and perception. He incorporates images from cartoons, advertisements, and social media into his paintings to create a twisted catalogue of digital ciphers and cultural references, which challenge the traditional notion of “original” artwork and break down the boundaries between high and low culture. He takes thousands of screenshots daily from Instagram feeds, weaving them into an amalgamous tapestry of kitsch. His art is included in important collections such as the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami, the Perez Museum in Miami, and X Museum in Beijing.
20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale:
The Painter, 2016
acrylic on canvas
50.2 x 60.8 cm. (19 3/4 x 23 7/8 in.)
Estimate
HK$ 3,000,000 – 5,000,000
US$ 385,000 – 641,000
“The Painter” is a captivating artwork featuring a dreamlike landscape of rocks, brambles, and trees with a red sky bursting out towards the center. The yellow and green road cascading towards the lower right corner leads to a solitary painter delicately working on a brown flower and sun, possibly a self-portrait of the artist Wong who passed away in 2019. The signature small wanderers in his works, meandering in and out of verdant fields and labyrinthine pathways, reflect his fantastical visions. His art is held in permanent collections in major museums worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Untitled, 2015
oil on canvas
132 x 113.3 cm. (51 7/8 x 44 5/8 in.)
Estimate
HK$ 3,000,000 – 4,000,000
US$ 385,000 – 513,000
Jia Aili is a new generation of Chinese painters who focuses on the metaphysical reflection of the human condition through a subtle narrative. He incorporates a wide range of stylistic elements and inspiration from art history and daily life to push the boundaries of what painting can be. In his artwork “Untitled”, a barren landscape is depicted with a storm emerging from the far-right distance and a lone figure walking across the wasteland. Jia’s paintings possess an eternal sense of wandering and melancholy, reflecting a Freudian context placed within a Dali-esque landscape.
Untitled (zip) III, 2020
oil on canvas
35.1 x 59.5 cm. (13 7/8 x 23 3/8 in.)
Estimate
HK$ 200,000 – 300,000
US$ 25,600 – 38,500
Living and working in New York, British artist William Monk is known for his atmospheric landscape paintings that explore the cycle of life, death, and transcendence. His works aim to create a connection between the object and the viewer, and he sees his paintings as objects, figurations, and models that act as vibrations to reach somewhere beyond ourselves. His works are part of the collections of a range of institutions, such as the Kunstmuseum in the Hague, HE Art Museum in Foshan, China, AkzoNobel Art Foundation in Amsterdam, and Roberts Institute of Art, London.
Duke’s Mound, 1998
oil on linen
40.6 x 45.7 cm. (16 x 18 in.)
Estimate
HK$ 400,000 – 600,000
US$ 51,300 – 76,900
Scott Kahn is an American painter whose oeuvre is a visual diary inspired by life and experiences, reflecting people and places. His work has a dream-like, surreal quality, drawn from memory and imagination. Kahn has exhibited extensively in New York and internationally, and his work is included in the collections of major corporations, two museums in China including the Long Museum, and the ICA Miami. His work is also held in the collection of the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater.
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) – 19 April, 2011
iPad drawing in colours on wove paper
140.1 x 105.2 cm. (55 1/8 x 41 3/8 in.)
Estimate
HK$ 700,000 – 900,000
US$ 89,700 – 115,000
One of the most influential and widely recognised artists of our time, David Hockney’s vibrant and innovative art has enchanted audiences for over 50 years. “The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) – 19 April” is one of the 61 iPad drawings that Hockney created in anticipation of his 2012 retrospective “A Bigger Picture” at the Royal Academy in London. The drawings chronicle the changes from winter to spring in the East Yorkshire landscape near his mother’s home. The current drawing showcases Hockney’s technical mastery and connections to art historical precedents, particularly the Impressionists’ meditations on light and atmosphere. The iPad’s backlighting enhances the luminosity of Hockney’s compositions.
