GHEST TOTAL TO DATE FOR A DEDICATED SALE OF CONTEMPORARY ASIAN ART
YUE MINJUN’S FISH AND LENG JUN’S
FIVE POINTED STAR SET RECORDS FOR THE
ARTISTS AT AUCTION

　　New York, New York, March 21, 2007 – Today at Sotheby’s, following its pioneering sales of ontemporary Art Asia: China Korea Japan in New York last spring and fall, a spectacular work by Zhang，Xiaogang, one of China’s top figurative artists, entitled Bloodline Series: Three Comrades, 1994, sold for $2,112,000 to a European private collector over the telephone in Sotheby’s third sale in this category (lot 21, est. $1.5/2 million). In Bloodline Series: Three Comrades, one of the earliest paintings in the sale, Zhang sought the most pared down formula for the Bloodlines paintings and emphasized the haunting quality and harmonious connection between two men and a woman. The sale, which included 310 lots of works by Zhang Xiaogang, Yue Minjun, Yang Shaobin, Wang Guangyi, Qi Zhilong, Zeng Fanzhi, Tang Zhigang, Xu Bing, Ai Weiwei, Zhu Wei, Zhang Hongtu and Zhou Changjiang, among others, totaled $25,348,600 (est. $17.6/25.3 million*), and at least 20 artist records were set today, including records for Yue Minjun and Leng Jun.

　　Xiaoming Zhang, Specialist of the Chinese Contemporary Art department in New York, said: “We are thrilled to have achieved the highest total to date for a dedicated sale of Contemporary Asian Art. The market has reached a state of steady growth, and great works are achieving great prices. We have witnessed two major strengths in this sale: demand for post-1989 works, particularly for the early, rare and historically important, and for works of Chinese realism, which have proven desirable to both Western and Chinese collectors.”

　　Major works from the Post-89 movement continued to play a strong role in the New York sale. One of the highlights from this category was Yue Minjun’s Fish, which sold for $1,384,000, a record for the artist at auction (lot 53, est. $500/700,000), to an anonymous bidder on the telephone after a long battle between at least six bidders. Painted in 1993, Fish features Yue’s iconic laughing men, 16 of whom stand at attention at a balustrade peering down at a single fish, and it confirms the artist’s role as a central figure in the Cynical Realism movement of the early 1990s.

　　In addition to the stellar $2.1 million price achieved by Bloodline Series: Three Comrades, other works by Zhang Xiaogang from this series, in which the artist uses “bloodlines” to suggest familial bonds that bind the individual’s present to the country’s past, achieved top prices, including Bloodline Series: Comrade Boy, 2000, which brought $824,000, selling to a Korean-American private collector (lot 18, est. $600/800,000). Two paintings of infants, Bloodline Series: Pink Baby, 1998, and Bloodline Series: Yellow Baby, 1997, offering a contrast of identities born of age and sex, sold for $540,000 to the Korean trade, and $456,000 to an anonymous buyer, respectively (lot 17, est. $450/650,000 and lot 16, $350/450,000). Zhang’s Amnesia and Memory: 2002 sold for $480,000 to an anonymous buyer (lot 163, est. $400/500,000).

　　Works by Zeng Fanzhi sold particularly well, including his Mask Series 1997 No. 11, which sparked competitive bidding and brought $504,000, selling to a Korean-American private collector (lot 12, est. $150/250,000), and We Series – No. 9 (triptych), a major work of 2003 in which Zeng painted the images in decreasing focus, which sold for $420,000 (lot 13, est. $350/450,000).

　　For the first time, the sale featured a significant group of historically important Chinese artists practicing in the school of Realism. Inspired by a humanism that owes much to Western Old Masters, these artists strive for an exquisite verisimilitude that is impressive by any standards. Leng Jun’s Five Pointed Star, 1999, an important work within the artist’s oeuvre and within the Neorealist movement, commanded $1,216,000, a record for the artist at auction, selling to a Chinese private collector (lot 108, est. $350/450,000). The wrinkled, aged and battered surface of the star, with its crumpled edges and refractions of luminosity, stands as a centrally important signifier of China – despite the condition of the star and the humble medium of its tromp l’oeil construction. Wang Yidong’s magnificent and mysterious Yi River, painted in 1993, brought $801,600, selling to a Chinese private collector (lot 87, est. $400/600,000).

　　The painting, among the most outstanding paintings in the artist’s oeuvre, depicts a young woman balancing on a small rock in transparent, placid water at the river’s edge and achieves a serene harmony, combining references to the tradition of Western paintings and Chinese folk art. Chen Yifei’s Father and Son, 1995, a roughly painted double portrait, sold for $540,000 to a Chinese private collector (lot 99, est. $500/700,000).

　　In 2006, Sotheby’s worldwide total for dedicated sales of Contemporary Asian Art was $70,331,730, establishing Sotheby’s as the global leader in this category. Sotheby’s regularly holds dedicated sales of Contemporary Asian Art twice each year in both New York and Hong Kong and also offers lots in evening and day sales of Contemporary Art in both New York and London. Sotheby’s began holding sales of Chinese Contemporary Art in Hong Kong in fall 2004 in response to a dramatic increase in client demand for such works, and sales volume and totals have grown steadily since then. In spring 2006, Sotheby’s was the first to hold dedicated auctions of Contemporary Asian Art in New York in a watershed sale that broke at least 20 artist records.

　　Upcoming Hong Kong Highlights

　　Sotheby’s Hong Kong sale of Contemporary Chinese Art is divided into contemporary and modern section. There will be approximately 180 lots with the total sales estimated from HK$128,000,000 to HK$150,000,000 (est. USD $16.6/19.5 million).

　　Highlighting the Modern section of the sale is famous realist artist Xu Beihong’s Put Down Your Whip, 1939, which was executed at the highest peak of his artistic powers and hasn’t been seen since its 1954 appearance (estimate upon request). The scene for the painting originated in an anti-Japanese street drama with the same title that Xu watched while in Singapore in 1939. The drama was set in the post “918 incident” period during the Second Sino-Japanese War when Japan started her invasion into China while many Chinese were living in exile. Such an explicitly patriotic subject matter is absolutely unique in Xu’s entire production, making this work, without doubt, the most important of his career.

　　The Contemporary section of the sale will feature Liu Ye’s Sinking Ship, 1995 (pictured here, est.HK$2/3 million / US $260,000/390,000). Executed immediately after Liu Ye completed his MFA at the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin, The Sinking Ship stands as a major early example of the style in which the artist continues to work today, composing a fantasia with a sense of unique calmness by placing the symbol of a demon with the symbol of an angel in the form of the boy and the girl, respectively.

　　Also included in the April sale is Zhang Xiaogang’s Tiananmen, executed in 1993 (est. HK$5/7 million / US$ 650,000/910,000).

　　*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium

Sotheby’s New York Spring 2007 Asian Art Auction Schedule:
Monday, March 19, 2007………….The Concordia House Collection: Fine Chinese Jades and Important Works of Art from A Midwestern Family
Monday, March 19 and Tuesday, March 20, 2007…………Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works Of Art, Including Property of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Wednesday, March 21, 2007……...Contemporary Art Asia: China Korea Japan
Thursday, March 22, 2007………...Indian Art, Including Miniatures and Modern Paintings
Friday March 23, 2007…………….Indian and Southeast Asian Works Of Art, Including Property of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Sotheby’s Hong Kong Spring 2007 Auction Schedule at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre:
Saturday, April 7, 2007…………….Contemporary Chinese Art
Sunday, April 8, 2007………………Important Chinese Art from the Collection of a Parisian
Connoisseur
Sunday, April 8, 2007………………By Heavenly Mandate - Important Historical Works of Art
of the Qianlong Reign
Sunday, April 8, 2007……………...Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
Monday, April 9, 2007……………...Fine Chinese Paintings
Monday, April 9, 2007………………Important Watches
Tuesday, April 10, 2007…………….Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite
Sotheby’s London Spring 2007 Asian Art Auction Schedule
Wednesday, May 16, 2007………….Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
Thursday, May 17, 2007…………….Japanese Works of Art, Prints and Paintings
Sotheby’s Paris Spring 2007 Asian Art Auction Schedule
Thursday, June 14, 2007……………Art d’Asie

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