Sotheby’s Hong Kong will hold its first Modern and Contemporary Art sale at its flagship gallery, the new Landmark Chater, on November 11 and 12.

Sotheby's flagship gallery focuses on epoch-making masterpieces from the East and the West, including Mark Rothko's two-meter-high "Untitled (Yellow and Blue)", which was painted at the peak of his artistic career. This work is estimated at HK$225 million to HK$275 million.This is one of the most expensive Western contemporary art works ever sold at auction in Asia, and is also the artist’s first work to appear at auction in Asia..

Mark Rothko's stunning Untitled (Yellow and Blue) was painted in 1954, the year in which he created a series of the most important paintings in his career. This work exudes a fascinating blue and yellow glow. 1954 was a key year in Rothko's career. He created a total of 22 paintings in 1954, 12 of which have been permanently collected by important museums around the world, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran, the Phillips Collection and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art.It is therefore rare for a Rothko work from this groundbreaking year to be offered at auction.Another work that opens a unique artistic dialogue with this work is the rare large-scale work "02.01.65" by the master Zao Wou-Ki, which is from the golden period of his "Cursive Period" and witnesses the profound influence of American abstract expressionism on the artist.

In the late 1950s, Zao Wou-Ki set out from Paris on a two-year global journey, during which he arrived in New York, a cultural metropolis that had risen after the war. At that time, many masters, rising stars, galleries and collectors gathered there, and Zao Wou-Ki got to know them. In particular, after meeting Samuel Kootz, the founder of the Kootz Gallery, who had represented American abstract expressionist leaders such as Mark Rothko, Zao Wou-Ki was deeply influenced and inspired by American avant-garde art, and thus developed a passion for creating large-scale works in line with the New York School of Painting, creating a series of majestic and heroic masterpieces during the "Cursive Period".This work presents the classic three-part composition of "Heaven and Earth" in the cursive period. The layered brown and golden background exudes a sense of simplicity and mystery. The rapidly expanding cursive ink lines intersect on the central axis of the picture, stirring up a heroic melody. In addition to the upper, middle and lower parts, the picture also constructs different levels of front, middle and back, advancing from the deep background and ink-black lines layer by layer, leading to a dazzling golden sacred light source in the center of the picture.During the seven years of Zao Wou-Ki’s time at the Kooze Gallery (1959-1965), there were only 15 162 x 200 cm oil paintings, an average of two per year. Most of them were exhibited in museum-level exhibitions of the artists at the time. Many of them have been collected by important museums and institutions around the world. The Centre Pompidou in France alone has three such masterpieces. It is rare to see such a large-scale masterpiece as “02.01.65” in private collections. In line with the outstanding achievements of Japanese art masters, this season will present Yayoi Kusama’s iconic painting “The Hat”, as well as the wonderful masterpieces of Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami, Kohei Nawa and Izumi Kato.

Yayoi Kusama's "The Hat", painted in 1980, is presented at auction for the first time. It is the largest known painting with a hat as the theme.Hats were first shown in the catalogue of the exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Obsession, held at Fuji TV Gallery in Tokyo in 1982. The exhibition was the first major exhibition held by Kusama after her return to Japan and received rave reviews, laying an important foundation for the artist's return to the international spotlight in the 1980s. Kusama's origins in painting hats can be traced back to the 1960s, when she founded Kusama Fashion Co., Ltd. in New York. In addition to setting up counters in major department stores to sell her fashion works, she also held fashion shows in many places in the United States and Europe. Therefore, clothing is a constant theme in Kusama's works, and the artist also appeared in various flash mob performances and fashion shows that year wearing eye-catching and gorgeous hats.This work was created at an important turning point in Kusama's artistic career.In the late 1970s, Kusama became more experimental in her medium and began to introduce bold, bright colors, a stark contrast to her earlier monochrome creations. She also began writing and publishing novels and poetry collections, which injected a different kind of storytelling and vitality into her still life figurative paintings of the 1980s.The composition of a pure infinity net covering a figurative still life is also extremely rare. The microbial-like net-like style of the background is common in the artist's early paintings when she lived in New York, while the harder geometric infinity net on the hat is more common in her paintings in the 1980s and 1990s.Hat is from the distinguished private collection of Dr. Ryutaro Takahashi, one of the world’s largest private collectors of Kusama’s works, a renowned patron of the arts and a long-time supporter of the artist. Dr. Takahashi has owned the work for over 25 years and is now releasing it to the public.

George Condo said: "I describe my style of art as 'psychological cubism'. Picasso painted a violin with four sides at the same time. I paint psychological states in the same way. There are four psychological states that can appear at the same time, like seeing someone on a bus laughing at a joke they heard on the phone, and someone else sleeping or crying - I put them all on the same face."George Condo's "Red, White and Black" presents two contradictory psychological states of passion and anger. Its style is wild and powerful, subverting the tradition of portraiture with a whimsical and absurd new context.Nearly half of the works in this season’s evening sales are new to the auction house, and two-thirds will be on public display for the first time. Works by Maria Kreyn, Eva Helene Pade, and William Brickel will also be offered at auction for the first time.

This season's Modern and Contemporary Art Day Sale also has many highlights, with works by masters such as Yayoi Kusama, Zao Wou-Ki, and Claude Monet gathering together to feast the eyes.

“This season’s Modern and Contemporary Art sales spotlight Asian artists who are highly sought after by local collectors, alongside Western masters who are now being offered at auction for the first time in the region, whose works are united by their power to capture emotion and inspire the spirit,” said Christine Ho, Chairman of Sotheby’s Modern & Contemporary Art, Asia, and Deputy Chairman, Asia. “Asia is an undisputed hub for these sales, and we look forward to unveiling this unparalleled selection of masterpieces at our new flagship gallery in Landmark Chater.”

Auction Schedule

Auction Preview: 

Evening Sale Highlights: November 4-10

Day Sale Highlights: October 31 - November 11

Live Auction:

Modern and Contemporary Art Evening Sale: November 11

Contemporary Art Day Sale: November 12

Modern Art Day Sale: November 12

Sotheby's Flagship Gallery

Opening hours:

Monday to Saturday | 11am to 7pm

Sunday and Public Holidays | 11am to 6pm

Address: Landmark Chater, 8 Connaught Road Central, Central, Hong Kong
 

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