Blue-chip names headline Christie’s Hong Kong sales

Christie’s will offer a stellar selection of Modern and contemporary art at its 20th- and 21st-century marquee auctions in Hong Kong on 29 and 30 September, led by major works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Yayoi Kusama and Zao Wou-Ki. The sales will place a particular emphasis on artists with strong markets in Asia, including Chu Teh-Chun, Liu Ye, Wu Guanzhong and Park Seo-Bo.

The 20th/21st Century Evening Sale on 29 September is led by Basquiat’s large-scale composition Ancient Scientist (1984), which is estimated to sell for between HK$56m and HK$76m ($7.1m-$9.7m). The mixed-media work combines acrylic, oilstick and Xerox paper collage on canvas, and features one of Basquiat’s most enduring motifs, a human skull.

Kusama’s A-Pumpkin (YHP) (2011), with an estimate of HK$48m to HK$68m ($6.1m-$8.7m), is another top lot in the sale. The large-scale canvas features one of the artist’s signature pumpkins, rendered in yellow with black polka dots against a prismatic Infinity Net backdrop. Kusama, who passed away in August at age 97, created pumpkins throughout her career, both on canvas and as large-scale sculptures, praising their “generous unpretentiousness”.

Asian Modernism is represented in the sale by Zao Wou-Ki’s Voie lactée - 09.11.56 (Milky Way - 09.11.56) (1956), estimated at between HK$45m and HK$75m ($5.7m-$9.6m). The painting comes from the Chinese French artist’s celebrated ‘Oracle Bone’ period, when he was inspired to transform ancient Chinese scripts into abstract compositions. Its title refers to the Milky Way, while its abstract forms meld elements of calligraphy and astronomy.

Chu Teh-Chun’s Automne (autumn, 1985), estimated at HK$25m to HK$35m ($3.2m-$4.5m), will make its auction debut. According to Christie’s, the large diptych is the only snow scene from the artist’s Snow Landscape series to use an autumnal colour palette. Its flowing configuration of aqueous yellows, saturated reds and faded greens makes it seasonally perfect for a late-September auction.

Liu Ye’s Blue Sea (1998), estimated at HK$16m to HK$26m ($2m-$3.3m), is among the artist’s largest naval paintings. Most of the two-metre-wide composition is taken up by an expansive, deep-blue area evocative of abstract masters like Yves Klein and Mark Rothko, even as it is framed by figurative details. Blue Sea forms part of the sales’ Chinese contemporary offerings, alongside works including Liu’s Dissolve (2003), which will be offered in the 21st Century Day Sale with an estimate of HK$3.5m to HK$6m ($450,000-$770,000).

Paul Cezanne’s L’Assiette bleue (1878-80) carries an estimate of HK$25m to HK$35m ($3.2m-$4.5m). The still-life, which depicts peaches on a cutting board and the titular blue-rimmed plate, has been widely exhibited internationally but is making its Christie’s Hong Kong auction debut. Other major Western works on offer include Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (1991), estimated at HK$38m to HK$55m ($4.8m-$7m), one of only 27 red-dominant abstractions the artist made that year; and Henri Matisse’s Jeune femme au canapé (1944), estimated at HK$20m to HK$30m ($2.6m-$3.8m).

The day sales on 30 September broaden the regional and international Asian offerings from Christie’s Hong Kong. The 20th Century Day Sale is led by another Richter, Abstraktes Bild (1990), estimated at HK$8m to HK$12m ($1m-$1.5m), alongside works by Zao Wou-Ki, Marc Chagall, Paul Delvaux and the Singaporean Modernist artist Cheong Soo Pieng, among others.

The 21st Century Day Sale is headlined by Yoshitomo Nara’s typically playful canvas Q&A (1995), estimated at HK$12m to HK$18m ($1.5m-$2.3m). It also includes a smaller Kusama pumpkin composition on canvas, A PUMPKIN (TSS) (2003), estimated at HK$9m to HK$12m ($1.2m-$1.5m), as well as works by Liu Ye, Christine Ay Tjoe, Jonas Wood and Andy Warhol.

The sales will also feature Between Worlds: Property from a Distinguished Private Collection, with works by artists including Wang Guangyi, Derek Fordjour and Harold Ancart offered across the evening and day auctions. Preview exhibitions of works featured in the September sales—which are part of a year-long celebration marking Christie’s 40th anniversary of operating in Asia—will be on view at the auction house’s headquarters in Central until 29 September.

• Public preview 22–29 September
• Live auctions 29-30 September
• 6/F The Henderson, 2 Murray Road, Central, Hong Kong
• www.christies.com