Sotheby’s Autumn Contemporary Art Sales Exhibition

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Major artworks from Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Sale auction will be on preview at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 7 to 12 October.

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 Untitled (Red Warrior) – one of just a handful of works left in private hands from the artist’s celebrated ‘Warrior’ paintings – will lead Sotheby’s Hong Kong Contemporary Art Evening Sale this autumn. Painted when Basquiat was aged 22, during a year that he would later describe as his best ever, the canvas has never before appeared at auction. Estimated at US$19-25 million (HK$150-200 million), it will keep company in Hong Kong with a roster of standout works by both established names and other relative newcomers to the Asian auction market who are nonetheless equally in demand.

Early paintings by Chinese contemporary masters, including Liu Wei, Yue Minjun and Zhang Xiaogang, will be offered alongside important works by Western artists from Joan Mitchell, Adrian Ghenie, Roy Lichtenstein and Banksy to Nicolas Party, Amoako Boafo and Loie Hollowell, who together will form part of what is set to be the strongest year ever for Western art in Asia at auction.

Mitchell’s canvas leads further offerings by in-demand women artists including Cecily Brown, Claire Tabouret, Jennifer Guidi, and Jadé Fadojutimi who, at the age of 28, is the youngest artist to be included in the permanent collection of the Tate, London. In just one year, the artist’s auction record has been broken on four occasions, most recently in her auction debut in Asia (US$730,679 / HK$5.7 million) this June.

With sweeping strokes of soothing blue cascades, Fadojutimi’s painting Under the Weather will be offered alongside works by other young artists, who in recent times have seen pronounced interest from Asian collectors in particular. Among them are Hollowell, Boafo and Shara Hughes, all of whom have achieved record prices in Hong Kong since the beginning of 2020.

Making their debut in Asia this time is Louis Fratino – whose poignant paintings typically explore queer identity – and Spanish artist Rafa Macarrón, with a dreamscape littered with a cast of uncanny characters. Elsewhere is Joel Mesler’s 2019 Untitled (Hopes and Dreams) canvas that incorporates words and images into playful ruminations of childhood memories.

The Contemporary Art Evening Sale will be followed by the Contemporary Art Day Sale on October 10, highlighted with works by George Condo, Yoshitomo Nara, Zhou Chunya and Cecily Brown.

Register here: https://rsvp.theworldsbest.events/_7746k

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