An exhibition dedicated to the career of Valentino Garavani, “Valentino Retrospective: Past/Present/Future,” just opened in Singapore, having transferred from Queensland. On display are 100 haute couture pieces ranging from Valentino’s designs from his first collection in 1959 to present-day creations by current Creative Directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli. The pieces - suits, coats, dresses - are presented in minimalist glass cabinets. Some will look very familiar, such as the simple black and white dress worn by Julia Roberts at the Oscar. Over five decades the celebrated Italian designer has incorporate recurrent themes in this designs, such as geometric patterns and graphic prints, pleats, bows and flounces, the skilful use of fabric to create dramatic silhouettes and, of course, the distinctive palette of black, white and ‘Valentino red’. Valentino retired in January 2008 after presenting his final collection at the Musée Rodin in Paris. The fashion house is now owned by Permira private equity fund, the Marzotto family and their partners.
Galleries attending the inaugural Art Stage Singapore are starting to unveil the artists they will present. The 
A selection of intricate and varied Chess sets from around the world will be offered by Bonhams in the Chess, Games and Cards sale taking place on January 17th. East versus West can be seen in one of the highlights of the sale from Asia: a Cantonese chess set made in 1820. King George III and Queen Charlotte are represented in the white figures, with bishops as clergy and knights as horsemen, whilst the Chinese Emperor and Empress, with bishops as mandarins and rooks as elephants with flags are represented as the red figures. All the pieces have been mounted with decorative glass “gems” and the set is estimated at £3,000 – 5,000. 
From Africa there is a 1950s Tribal African hardwood chess set from Makondi with the chieftain Kings and Queens bearing cooking pots on their heads and tribal markings on their faces. The unusual ensemble includes the bishops as witch doctors, knights as giraffes, rooks as tribal huts and pawns as tribesmen.
From the Americas, a 20th century Ecuadorian metal, folklore chess set has the Kings represented as Atahualpa, the legendary last King of the Inca Empire and the Queens as his wife, Pacha, complete with lamas for horses. 
Comprising paintings, extensive diary entries and a documentary film by iconic Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Hometown Boy offers a complete perspective on the artistic practice of Liu Xiaodong, one of China's most respected painters. Liu approaches his work much like a filmmaker. Whether on paper and canvas, or on video and film, he documents each step of the creative process, recording his methods, motives, observations and impressions, so that each component forms an integral part of the final work. He is the artist-as-director: the people he paints are his actors, and we, the observers, are the audience.
Liu Xiaodong was only seventeen when he left his hometown of Jincheng to study art in Beijing. Despite his travels to exotic and familiar locales and the many portraits painted over the years, Hometown Boy marks the artist's first extended trip home in three decades. His landscapes of Jincheng, a small town built around a paper mill, and portraits of his boyhood friends are based not on what he remembers, but on what he observes. Hometown Boy is Liu Xiaodong’s most conscious effort yet to create a dialogue between past and present.
”From my world to yours” is a new exhibition by Japanese born, NY based artist and illustrator Yoko Furusho. This young artist has already had a few shows and I love the details and fantasy of her ink and acrylic. Inspired by Alice in the Wonderland, one of her favourite stories, she composes her own wonderland, re-interpreting the classic story with a distinctive style. There is all sort of merchandising which lend themselves well to this type of art-cum-illustration, from a T-shirt to a tote bag - perfect little gifts for art lovers.
Ancient rock carvings from Dazu, a world heritage site near Chongqing, will be exhibited at the National Museum Cardiff from Jan 26. Dating from the 9th to the 13th centuries, the rock carvings comprise some 50,000 figures, some of which are now detached from their original setting. The show will also have replicas of some of the most important sculptures still in situ and dramatic large-scale images, to give some idea of what it is like to visit these spectacular places.
A new exhibition about one of Singapore’s lesser known pioneer artists, “Chen Chong Swee: A legacy in Truth, Goodness and Beauty” is opening on Dec 23 at NAFA Galleries. The exhibition presents over 50 Chinese ink, watercolour and oil paintings by the prolific artist, some of which have never been seen in public and spanning nearly his entire lifetime in Singapore.
Born in Chenghai County, Guangdong, China, Chen Chong Swee (1910 – 1985), also known as Chen Khai, was trained as a Chinese ink painter at Xinhua Art Academy Shanghai and came to Singapore in 1932. Like many of his peers, Chen was trained in both the Western style of artistry and the fundamentals of traditional Chinese genres which enabled him to use different techniques to render landscape and figurative paintings of local and South East Asian scenery. He was influenced by Realist works and believed that paintings were expressive vehicles for ideas and intense feelings about art and life. His early landscapes of the 1940s and 1950s drew inspiration from the coastal and urban environments of Singapore as well as community living in the ‘kampongs’. In 1953, he travelled to Bali with fellow pioneers Liu Kang, Cheong Soo Pieng and Chen Wen Hsi. But if he espoused the Nanyang style, a term coined during the 1950s to denote the depiction of South East Asia using a mix of traditional Chinese and Western techniques and medium, it’s not quite evident in the works on show. Personally, I think his most interesting and accomplished works are his detailed ink and colours, which often have a whimsical appeal.
The newly opened Sky on 57 restaurant at the Marina Bay Sands hosted last night the Sovereign Art Fund Singapore Gala Dinner and Auction. About 20 artworks by Singaporean artists were up for grabs for a good cause (Art Outreach, which offers free art appreciation program to local school). Top lots were Ian Woo's abstract The Map That Went Out of Hand, which sold for $15,000, followed by Ong Hui Har's Moment in a Chess Game, a Pop Art piece showing a young Lee Kuan Yew with his family which sold for $10,000.
A new private museum at 27A Loewen Road opened earlier this month. The Museum of Contemporary Arts (MOCA) was developed by Linda Gallery, which also runs an auction house 33Auction. For the first exhibition, MOCA is featuring two of China’s most established contemporary sculptors: Jiang Shuo and her husband Wu Shaoxiang. The exhibition "Going Forward, Going For Money –The New Biography of Veterans Wu Shaoxiang and Jiang Shuo" is curated by Liao Wen, a well know curator of Chinese Contemporary Art. 
Jiang Shuo's funny Red Guard sculptures cast in the ancient lost wax technique are full of expression despite the lack of facial features. The almost faceless guards with their wide-open mouths recall the period of turmoil in China when the spouting of slogans and mindless indoctrination was the path to survival. But today, the wheels have turned and what these red guards used to criticize during the Cultural Revolution they are now desiring.Meanwhile, Wu Shaoxiang is famous for his ‘Coining’ series, where he explores human form made out of bronze-cast US dollar notes and coins, a witty commentary on the endless pursuit of monetary gain.
A blue and white porcelain Dragon jar sold for $7.656 million in the Fine Asian Works of Art sale oat Bonhams & Butterfields in San Francisco. The 360-lot sale brought more than $19 million with the vast majority of the lots fetching multiples of their estimates. There was much anticipation and deliberation over the Dragon jar. Following careful pre-sale research and consultation, the firm described the jar conservatively as Qianlong Mark, Late Qing/Republic Period and gave it a pre-sale estimate of just $10,000-15,000. Ultimately, two key bidders backed their own judgment and the Dragon jar sold for a remarkable $7.66 million. Lucky seller! Dessa Goddard, Vice President and Director, Asian Works of Art, commented, “The jar proved to be a puzzle for several clients with whom I spoke who all declared it to be unique. Without a consensus of opinion we felt obliged to be cautious with our attribution.The sale provided a fantastic slice of auction drama that our clients and staff will remember for many years to come.”
The blue and white porcelain jar measures an impressive 14 inches high and is decorated with bands of plantain leaves, waves, and a cloud-collar at the waisted neck and broad shoulders. The sides are densely painted with six meticulously rendered five-clawed dragons portrayed emerging from crashing waves and flying amid stylized clouds and flames.
China Guardian will hold an interesting auction on Dec 20 in Beijing, with students artworkd of Chinese Art Colleges. This is the opportunity to discover the next Zeng Fanzhi of tomorrow, but also get an idea of what the new generation of Chinese artists is coming up with. Like any students show there is really a bit of everything, but mainly focusing on realistic portraits and landscapes. Technically strong, conceptually weak still. Unfortunaly, I can't post photos, but have a look on http://www.cguardian.com/
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In 2010, Sotheby’s Hong Kong wine sales totalled $52.4 million , compared with $14.3 million. Sotheby’s Hong Kong has maintained 11 consecutive 100%-sold wine auctions in Asia since 2009 – the only major auction house with this record.
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| 24th Cartier Polo on Snow, St. Moritz |
Snow polo originated in the Swiss winter resort of St. Moritz in 1985 and is considered the pinnacle of the polo sport for its spectacle. The game is contested by three players on each side with an orange ball slightly bigger than is traditionally played on grass.
Catherine Lim has enjoyed two parallel lives as a Singaporean writer. She has written five novels and more than 10 collections of short stories, some of which are now used as literature texts in the city state's education system's O-level examinations. She is also a well-known political commentator whose writings have at times caused a stir. Up to now, she has kept fiction and politics separate but for her sixth novel, 'Miss Seetoh in the World', Lim blurs the two. A school teacher, a fictitious prime minister, the ‘great TPK,’and a bankrupt opposition leader, V.K. Pandy are the main charaters of her new book. Sounds familiar, but the plot is so far fetched this is no roman a cle. Read the whole story in the SCMP.
Xu Lei, the art director of the Today Art Museum, has designed a lovely label for Bordeaux wine producer Château Mouton Rothschild, a ram (Rothschild’s emblem) perched on a rock in an overall blue decor. Since 1945 the winemaker has invited each year one artist to design a label, but Xu Lei is only the second Chinese artist invited to do so after Gu Gan in 1996. Needless to say, the move is a shrewd one, given the importance of the Chinese consumer for wine merchant. Still he’s a bit of an odd choice, given the previous luminary line up which includes Joan Miro, Chagall, Dali, Kandinsky, Warhol and Picasso. When I think of top Chinese contemporary artists, his name certainly isn’t there yet. That said, last year’s “artist” was the Prince of Wales…
Indian artistic duo Thukral & Tagra have opened an exhibition at the UCCA Middle Room in Beijing. Match Fixed is a wickedly playful exhibition about social hypocrisy, sexual double standards and the clash of culture, tradition and global aspiration in modern-day India. It satirizes marriage practices in India’s northern state of Punjab, where many young men immigrate abroad to realize their career ambitions, and yet are pressured by their families into arranged matches and sham weddings with nice “suitable” local girls. All too often, the fantasy wedding and honeymoon scenario is followed by an absentee husband who, having enjoyed his holiday and pocketed the dowry, returns to an overseas job
Christie’s has wrapped up largest auction season ever in Hong Kong with sales of HK$ 3.23bn (US$414m), an increase of 41% over Spring 2010 and 95% over Autumn 2009!Chinese Art especially attracted collectors from Greater China, who accounted for 97% of the value of the Chinese paintings auction and 90% of the value of the Chinese 20th century art Day Sale.
Sotheby’s will sell the work of Chinese contemporary artist Haji Noor Deen Mi Guang Jiang in its first-ever sale devoted to calligraphy ‘Hurouf: The Art of The Word’ in Doha Dec 16. The ink and watercolour on paper mounted on canvas work, Khariytah Al-'Alam (The Map Of The World), is one of the largest, at 142 by 247cm, and finest examples by the artist ever to appear on the auction market. The artist's work is already very popular throughout the Middle East due to the regional |
| Ming style moonflask from the Qialong period |
At $146 million, Christie's fall series of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art is the most successful ever held at Christie's worldwide. This day-long series of sales features two white gloves sales and nearly three-quarters of the works sold over their high estimate with 27 works selling for over US$1million.
The day started with the Greenwald Collection, a private collection featuring Ming and Qing imperial porcelains that was 100 percent sold and totaled $15.3 million. Leading the collection was a rare pair of cloud-decorated doucai water pots from the Yongzheng period that sold for $1.67 million and a Ming style moonflask from the Qialong period that sold for $2.4 million - more than six times its estimated and an indication of the incredible demand for the day's other moonflask vases to come.
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| Qialong moonflash |
The collection of Walter and Phyllis Shorenstein, which comprised of a comprehensive collection of Chinese glass, totaled $31 million. The top lot - and one of the most sought-after lots of the season - was a magnificent pink-enameled blue and white Qianlong moonflask which soared above its pre-sale estimate to sell for $15.9 million, attracting bids from established collectors from all over the world.
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| Pair of imperial cloisonné enamel double cranes censers from the Yongzheng period |
Among the day’s most exceptional works of art were those from the famed Fonthill collection, one of the most important 19th century English collections of Chinese art. Consigned directly from descendants of Alfred Morrison and offered for the first time in 150 years, the collection is known for superb famille rose porcelains, and indeed the two examples in this sale achieved record prices. The pair of imperial cloisonné enamel double cranes censers from the Yongzheng period were among the most highly-anticipated lots offered this season and sold to Joseph Lau for $16.7 million, setting a new auction record for cloisonné enamel. The afternoon's various-owner auction featured a wide range of superb works of art, including an underglaze-blue facetted moonflask from the Yongzheng period which sold for $10.2 million. Superbly painted with geese and quails, the only other vase of this pattern, and possible its pair, is found in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
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| Cai Gui Qiang |
If Lorenzo Rudolf can deliver his vision for Art Stage Singapore, then the new fair set to take place Jan. 12 to 16 should quickly find its place on the international art calendar. Mr. Rudolf, who transformed a modest art fair into Art Basel in the 1990s and developed the concept for its little sister, Art Basel Miami Beach, has always dreamed big. For his latest project, he is hoping to bring together for a few days some of Asia’s top artists — including Ai Weiwei, I Nyoman Masriadi, Subodh Gupta, Fang Lijun and Takashi Murakami — as well as some of the world’s top collectors, promising a fair with a clear Asian identity. In addition to attracting many of the most notable galleries in Asia, Mr. Rudolf has organized a number of high-profile events. There will be special projects created for the fair (for example, the Taiwanese artist Michael Lin will do a site-specific installation for Eslite Gallery) and unusual ancillary events like a museum exhibition of large contemporary Asian works owned by important collectors and a private trip for V.I.P. collectors to Indonesia to meet top artists there. Mr. Rudolf is hoping this mix will ensure that international collectors take notice.
About 85 percent of the 90 galleries participating in the fair are from Asia-Pacific, and the list of exhibitors reads like a who’s who of the region, with Contrasts Gallery in Shanghai, Arario Gallery in Seoul, Schoeni Gallery in Hong Kong, Eslite Gallery in Taiwan, Nature Morte in New Delhi and Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo. But Art Stage Singapore will face steep competition. “This year, the third edition of Art HK was very, very strong, and from all reports 2011 will be even bigger and better, with many more international galleries coming in,” said Howard Rutkowski, director of Fortune Cookie Projects, a curatorial and art advisory consultancy based in Singapore. “Any other fair in the region will have a tough time competing.” Read the full story in the
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| Raw Canvas, Jane Lee Collection of Jackson See |
Come January, followers of contemporary art will get a unique peak into some of Asia’s top private collections, thanks to an innovative museum exhibition organized by ArtStage Singapore. Fair director Lorenzo Rudolf wanted something non-commercial on the side of the fair that would complement it.
He opened his coveted contact book and contacted some of the biggest collectors in Asia asking them if they would agree to lend some of their treasures for the show at the Singapore Art Museum. The result, Contemporary Asian Masterpieces From Private Collections, will be an unparalleled occasion for art lovers to experience, first-hand, iconic works of contemporary Asian art drawn from distinguished private collections. This will include works from the collection of the Devi Art Foundation, the first private contemporary art museum in India founded by Lekha and Anupam Poddar, Budi Tek’s Yuz Foundation, Dr Oei Hong Djin, one of Indonesia most influential collectors, and well-known Korean collector Kim Chang-il, the owner of Arario Gallery, and Singaporean collector Jackson's See. Around 30 to 40 works will be presented, spread between the Singapore Art Museum and HT Art Space, Tanjong Pagar, where the larger, more industrial space will provide a better setting for large installations. Read the whole story about which artists these collectors will be showing in Prestige magazine this month.
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| Ba Da Shanren's Mynah, poem in running script calligraphy |
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| Fu Baoshi The Song of the Pipa Player |
Christie's HK sale of fine chine classical paintings, calligraphy and fine Chinese modern patintings performed extremely well, bringing in $86.2 million with 95% of the lot sold and 95% sold by value. This season's results reflect a 92% increase from last year's Autumn sale, while the average lot value also increased by 42% compared to last year. The auction house said the Mainland Chinese
buyers had been a clear force driving this category, taking nine out of the top ten lots in our Chinese Classical Paintings sale.
Competition was keen, resulting in many lots selling well over the high estimate, for example in the Classical session, nine lots sold ten times over the estimate, and works by Chen Jiru and Xiang Yuanbian sold 15 times of the estimate. The top lot - Ba Da Shanren's Mynah, poem in running script calligraphy - sold for 1.4 million (nearly 9 times over estimate), while works by other artists such as Ni Yuanlu, Hua Yan, Lan Ying also sold three to twelve times over the estimate.
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| Zhang Daqian Temple at the Mountain Peak |
After fierce bidding, Fu Baoshi's The Song of the Pipa Player finally sold for $9 million , making it the most expensive lot of the day and creating a new world auction record for the artist. Zhang Daqian's Temple at the Mountain Peak, which sold for $7.8 million (15 times over the estimate), also proved to be immensely popular. In addition, a new milestone was achieved for Zhang Xue Liang, whose Calligraphic Couplet sold 63 times over the estimate.
Chinese buyers are getting it right when they're placing more value on the works of artists long gone than on those that are still churning paintings off their easel (sometime factory like)