Entering the auction season of April and May, major auction houses have successively announced this season’s collection lineup! The Hong Kong Sotheby’s Modern Art Evening Auction will be held at the end of this month, bringing masterpieces of modern art from both the East and the West to collectors, including many pieces comparable to museum-level collections. Here are some selected exquisite works for everyone’s introduction.
右：藝術家過往繪畫多拉‧瑪爾的肖像作（非本季拍品）
Picasso’s museum-level portrait “Dora Maar,” featuring the theme of the lover Muse Goddess, is one of the leading works of this season, with an expected selling price of up to 138 million Hong Kong dollars. Created in 1939, at a time when Europe was on the brink of war, Picasso used a bold crimson background to depict the lover in a blue gown. In the semi-abstract contours, the facial features of the woman in the painting are particularly prominent, with deep eyes conveying a kind of cold and glamorous beauty.
The artist’s two works created during the same period, “Portrait of Dora Maar” and “Head of a Woman (Dora Maar),” have been included in the collections of major international museums, citing the museum-level quality and collection value of this work.
右：吳冠中《西雙版納村寨》 油畫畫布 1994年 76.5 x 60.5 公分 估價：12,000,000 – 22,000,000 港元
Another highlight of this season’s auction is Wu Guanzhong’s “Red Plum.” This is a top masterpiece of the artist in the 1970s, depicting blooming plum blossoms in full glory, unparalleled in terms of color, composition, and subject matter on the international auction market. The main color tone of “Red Plum” is a gorgeous and striking peach red, presenting a blooming wax plum tree with scattered plum blossoms, exuding a sense of beauty and vitality, symbolizing the arrival of spring after winter and the renewal of all things.
The artist’s another piece that appeared in the auction is the landscape painting “Xishuangbanna Village” created in 1994, showing Wu Guanzhong’s reverence for nature and deep love for the mountains and rivers of his motherland. By stacking high-saturation color blocks, he further expresses the idealized beauty of abstraction, which is the peak of his landscape painting creation.
The debut work “Facing the Wind” was created in 1989, and it is also the artist’s largest dual-screen masterpiece created in the 1980s and before. The work’s rich play of light and shadow is particularly dazzling in peacock blue tones, blending Eastern calligraphy as its foundation and Western abstraction as its expression in brushwork, reflecting the artist’s aesthetic ultimate in every aspect.
估價：18,000,000 – 28,000,000 港元
右：Marc Chagall《牡丹》 油彩、蛋彩及木屑於畫布 1969 年作 92 x 73 公分
估價：12,000,000 – 18,000,000 港元
When it comes to depicting the female form, the Impressionist master Renoir is unparalleled. “Seated Bather” showcases Renoir’s extraordinary skill in portraying the alluring figure of a woman, making it a masterpiece in the nude female theme.
“The Peony” is full of Xiaogal’s classic visual elements, including a pair of lovers soaring in the sky, proud flying birds, a violinist playing in mid-air, a vague village scene, and a huge cluster of flowers – under a blue starry sky, the artist unfolds a romantic dream.
估價：1,500,000 – 2,500,000港元
In addition to the above masterpieces, this auction also presents the collection of Sir Run Run Shaw, spanning modern art, Chinese calligraphy and painting, as well as exquisite jade treasures, with the highlight being the century masterpiece “Night Banquet” by Chen Yifei, and five exquisite works by Southeast Asian master Adrien Jean Le Mayeur.
This season’s auction will bring together many important collections comparable to museum-level pieces. The Hong Kong Sotheby’s Modern Art Evening Auction will be held on the evening of April 27, 2022 at 6 pm. Stay tuned!
Image source and learn more: Sotheby’s Hong Kong
