LuxArtAsia

Xu Beihong, Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, 1947

Xu Beihong: Pioneer of Modern Chinese Painting is the first exhibition in the United States to explore the work of the 20th century artist who is widely recognized as the father of modern Chinese painting. This landmark exhibition at the Denver Art Museum offers a rare opportunity to see major works by the artist, most of which have never before been on view in North America.

How designers are using a traditional craft to give it a contemporary relevance.

Starry Night - Vincent Van Gogh

Masterpieces from the Musee D'Orsay are currently on show at the National Museum of Singapore. These paintings from the late 19th century and early 20th century have long been ambassadors of the French artistic genius of the time. What makes the exhibition especially interesting is the intelligent curation that juxtaposes the two main French schools of the late 19th century: the Academics and the Avant-garde with the Impressionists, as they address common themes.

Local couture buyer Dr. Georgia Lee opened the show courtesy Senatus.net

The Paris-based Brazilian Grand Couturier Gustavo Lins unveiled at the Haute Couture Week in Singapore a new collection which had been inspired by his visit to the country in September.

Be ready to be dazzled with the return of the biennial Jewellery Time by Cortina Watch from today until November 6 at Paragon Shopping Centre, Singapore. Now running for its sixth edition , visitors will get to see more than 300 jewellery timepieces with serious bling bling from 14 brands (Audemars Piguet, Baume & Mercier, Bvlgari, Cartier, Chopard, Chronoswiss, Corum, Girard Perregaux, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Milus, Montblanc, Omega, Piaget and Zenith.)

Sotheby’s Geneva autumn sale on Nov 13 will have some very interesting pocket watches including a whole section dedicated to watch made for the Chinese market. The oldest piece in the sale is a
French early oval gilt‐metal pre‐hairspring verge watch with alarm made by Estienne Papon in Gien
circa 1574 (photo)

Untitled (1951)

Christie's HK will auction a series of extremely important and rare works by Zao Wou-Ki on Nov 26-27. With chefs-d’oeuvres from the early 1950s "still life and landscape" period and the mid-1950s "oracle" works and "abstract landscapes" from the mid-1960s, the sale traces Zao’s creative expedition from figurative representation to abstraction, presenting collectors with a profound insight into the most crucial transitional phase in the evolution of Zao’s career.

Cai Guoqiang - Imagining the Universe

On Nov 26, Christie’s Hong Kong will auction Faces of the New China: An Important Private Collection, in a stand-alone sale within the prestigious Evening Sale and with a total estimate in excess of HK$150,000,000.

The single owner collection comprises 14 iconic works by preeminent contemporary Chinese artists including Zhang Xiaogang, Yue Minjun, Cai Guoqiang, Liu Ye and Tang Zhigang. Representing the pinnacle of the earliest years of Chinese avant-garde art, these pieces epitomize the period when the artists established their creative paths and idiosyncratic styles.  

Ode to Joy

The Morikami Museum & Japanese Gardens is presenting an exhibition of Japanese Snuff Bottles from the Trammell and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art until January 22, 2012.

Established Thai luxury fashion label FLYNOW has opened its first standalone boutique outside of Thailand, choosing Singapore as its first stepping stone on the international scene. The label used to regularly showed during the London Fashion Week in the 90s, but retreated on itself after the Asian financial crisis.

Do Ho Suh, Gate Photo by Nathaniel Wilson

The Seattle Art Museum has opened Luminous: The Art of Asia, an exhibition that showcases the institution's diverse Asian collections with a presentation of nearly 200 works from Chinese bronzes and Japanese lacquers to Korean ceramics and South Asian sculpture and painting. One of my favorite Korean artist Do Ho Suh installed a multimedia gate, especially commissioned for this exhibition and provides a contemporary response to the historical material.

Fly For Me, Paris, 2004 © Yian Huang

"The intimate moment," an exhibition by Singaporean photogaprapher Yian Huang, will open at Galerie Steph at Helustrans on Nov 3. Formerly based in New York and Paris, the intimate moment will be Yian’s homecoming exhibition in Singapore.

Wang Duo

Chinese calligraphy is a unique and abstract art form that had its beginnings thousands of years ago. Its emphasis on motion and form to express pictorial and semantic meanings has long been a source of fascination to collectors . Especially significant was the Ming dynasty (15th to 17th century) which saw the heyday of the literati. On Nov 28, Christie’s HK will offer several interesting works for sale
by many key artists representative of this period

Acker Merrall & Condit will hold an extensive sale of Burgundy wines in Hong Kong on Nov 4 & 5. The 1,276 lots are expected to raise over HK$100 million/ US$12.8 million. The centre-stage will be the unparalleled collection of Don Stott, the world’s foremost Burgundy collector. Boasting an unrivalled breadth and depth, Stott’s collection has already aroused tremendous interest from discerning collectors and connoisseurs from around the world.

gilt-bronze cloisonné enamel tiger waterpot and cover, Qianlong mark and period,

Sotheby's London will present for sale a range of Imperial porcelain, monochrome ceramics, bronzes and jades in its biannual sale of Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art on November 9th. The auction will comprise 560 lots, estimated to realise in the region of £12 million. Highlights include a superb gilt-bronze and cloisonné enamel tiger waterpot of Qianlong mark and period from the collection of Sir Peter Moores at Parbold Hall in Lancashire and a group of Qing dynasty monochrome porcelains from the renowned collection of Richard Fairfax William Cartwright at Aynhoe Park near Banbury.

Snow: Poem of Mao Zedong, 1958

The Cleveland Museum of Art is showcasing works by Fu Baoshi, one of the most preeminent figures in twentieth-century Chinese art. Chinese Art in an Age of Revolution: Fu Baoshi (1904-1965) is the first retrospective in the Western Hemisphere of the artist who revolutionized the tradition of Chinese ink painting.

Gottwaldov, 1957

Trump Tower Manila - The Swimming Pool

Versace, Missoni, and Trump are some of the international brands to have recently licensed their names for use with luxury residential properties being developed in Manila, underlining the continuing demand for branded high-end properties that started with the introduction of the Raffles Residences Makati in 2007.

Drunken-Mouton Rothschild, 2011, digital print

This new exhibition will open at Sundaram Tagore Galleries in Hong Kong on Oct 18. For his two new series, Fragile and Drunken, Korean artist Kim Joon composes appealing landscapes of porcelain-like human bodies tattooed from head to toe in the brand imagery. Using digital prints exploring he explores universal human themes of fragility, seduction and imperfection.

Mystery clock

 From December 14, the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands will present “Cartier Time Art”, a travelling exhibition (now in Zurich) that will take visitors on a journey to the heart of Cartier watchmaking. The 158 timepieces to be presented at the museum will range from an array of vintage Cartier pocket watches and clocks to present day wristwatches.

photo by Kentaro Hirao ©2011 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved

On Nov 9, Christie's New York will auction important works donated by several top contemporary artists, selected personally by Takashi Murakami, to fund the continuing relief effort in Japan. Proceeds from the sale will go to The Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Global Giving and International Medical Corps, providing relief to the survivors of the catastrophe, the effects of which continue to be devastating.

Zeng Fanzhi, Mark Grotjahn, Damien Hirst, Thomas Houseago, KAWS, Jeff Koons, Friedrich Kunath, Mr., Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara, Gabriel Orozco, Anselm Reyle, Cindy Sherman, Aya Takano, Luc Tuymans have all donated pieces. The special auction section is expected to reach $5 million.

Takashi Murakami New day: Face of the Artist, 2011



Bear

 The San Antonio Museum of Art is showcasing 5,000 Years of Chinese Jade Featuring Selections from the National Museum of History, Taiwan and the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, Smithsonian Institution.

Heri Dono - Madman Butterfly, a series of new works, will open on Thursday at Rossi & Rossi gallery in London.

Li Tian Bing - Me and My Brother in the Hospital N.2

Art Plural Gallery is presenting a very interesting new exhibition, Regards Croisés: a selection of Asian Contemporary Art, running until Dec 19. It features eleven up and coming and influential artists from China, India and Korea, along with works by Fabienne Verdier, who has been trained in China for more than ten years.

Tran Trong Vu

Three Vietnamese artists (Tran Trong Vu, Nguyen Thanh Truc and Giang Nguyen) are having an exhibition at Tobin Ohashi Gallery in Tokyo.

Chrysanthemum Glory, 2009

Chan Hampe Galleries is presenting a small survey exhibition of Malaysian artist Eric Chan's art practice over the last 5 years, which will run until Nov 5. It will be be followed by "WANTED: possession and rejection," another exhibition by the same artist , this time of new works.

Media were given a sneak peak of the Maritime Xperiential Museum which will open at Resort World Sentosa on October 15. The new maritime museum, designed to ressemble the reversed hull of a ship, is a great place to take kids to learn more about maritime history and the various cultures along the Silk Road, from Vietnam to Africa.

A new world record was set for a Ming Porcelain at Sotheby's HK auction. The outstanding blue and white vase with fruit sprays fetched $21.6 million, against a pre-sale estimate of $10.3 million, after a ten-minute phone bidding battle in a crowded Hong Kong saleroom.

Sotheby's HK fine Chinese paintings sales raised $94.7 million, well in excess of its pre-sale estimate of $25.6 million, and sold 99.3 percent by value and 95.8 percen by lots. The top lots was this Self Portrait in the Yellow Mountains by Zhang Daqian (above), which fetched $6 million. The other names in the top 10 list included Wu Guanzhong, Fu Boashi and Xu Beihong.

Interestingly Wu Guanzhong's the Great Wall was bought by a Singaporean trade buyer.

Zao Wou-Ki's top lot

 

Sotheby’s Hong Kong Autumn 2011 Sale of Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Paintings fetched a promising $10.6 million, more than doubling the presale estimate ($4.2 million), with 81% of the lots sold and 95% sold by value.

Gunawan – Tuak Manis (Sweet Wine)

The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is presenting Power Play - China's Empress Dowager, a small exhibition of photographs from the Empress Dowager Cixi.

Buying at the second Ullens Collection auction was fiercely competitive and brought in $16 million, above its pre-sale estimate of $10-13.5 million, with 93.3% sold by lot. Many of the top lots sold for multiples of the estimates and works created in the 1990s by established Contemporary Chinese artists continue to achieve strong prices.

And they are off... The autumn sales of Sotheby's Hong Kong started this weekend with a two-day wine sale, which raised a combined $12.7 million.

Lee Man Fong - Satay seller 1960s

Galerie Belvedere will present Oct 5-10 the “Grand Masters of Art Exhibition” at the ION Art Gallery, featuring important paintings by Singapore’s first-generation artists - Lee Man Fong, Chen Wen Hsi, Cheong Soo Pieng - along with works by abstract expressionist artist Wong Keen, now based in New York, and watercolor maestro Ong King Sen.

Wong Keen - Waiting for September, 2011

As previously mentioned Richard Deacon, the Turner Prize winner who just had a large permanent sculpture installed in the Louis Vuitton Island Maison here is working on a residency at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute. Watch the video to see how the well-known sculptor is working with a paper medium.