SOTHEBY’S HONG KONG TO HOLD CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ART SPRING SALE ON 9TH APRIL, 2008 Sotheby’s Hong Kong’s forthcoming Spring sale of Contemporary Chinese Art will be held on Wednesday, 9th April 2008 at Hong Kong
Convention and Exhibition Centre.
News-Antique.com - Mar 04,2008 - [Hong Kong, 22nd February, 2008] Sotheby’s Hong Kong’s forthcoming Spring sale of
Contemporary Chinese Art will be held on Wednesday, 9th April 2008 at Hong Kong
Convention and Exhibition Centre. The sale will bring to the market important works by
numerous renowned Chinese contemporary artists alongside innovative pieces by emerging
artists. The total pre-sale estimate for the series of over 270 total lots stands at HK$250
million*.
Evelyn Lin, Head of Contemporary Chinese Art Department, Sotheby's China and
Southeast Asia, said, “With the Beijing Olympics approaching in 2008, the focus of the world is
on China. We have full confidence in the vibrant art market in the region and Sotheby's has,
therefore, selected a number of extremely rare and relevant masterpieces to respond to this
increased interest. These pieces include Battlefield Realism: The Eighteen Arhats by Liu Xiaodong and
The Forbidden City by Guo Bochuan. These works are relevant to many generations of the Chinese
community.”
The sale will be highlighted by the exceptional
Battlefield Realism: The Eighteen Arhats by Liu
Xiaodong (b. 1963) (est. HK$45-55 million), one of the
most prominent neo-realist Chinese contemporary artists.
This large-scale work consists of nine pairs of 200 by
100cm paintings, each juxtaposing a Taiwanese soldier
with a soldier from mainland China. This monumental
group of paintings represents the artist’s profound
response to a sensitive issue: China’s relations across the
Taiwan Strait. Within Liu’s entire oeuvre, this is the
only work that directly addresses political issues.
Battlefield Realism: The Eighteen Arhats is a bold statement by the artist, standing in contrast to his
usual non-judgmental and even impersonal approach. It is a powerful indictment of the present
nationalistic controversy raging across the Taiwan Strait. “In art, it is easier to put them (the
soldiers from Taiwan and Mainland China) together, to have them collaborate. I was also trying
to show that they are not so different, they are like brothers.”
The piece was executed in 2004 for the “Bunker Museum of Contemporary Art – 18 Solo
Exhibitions” curated by Cai Guo-Qiang, another notable Chinese contemporary artist. The
museum is located on Kinmen (Quemoy), a small archipelago in the Taiwan Strait controlled by
Taiwan, once the location of fierce fighting between Taiwan and the mainland. Cai invited 18
Chinese artists from Taiwan and mainland China to exhibit their works of art in one of the
bunkers, one of which was this present work. Liu spent three weeks in the soldiers’ barracks on
Battlefield Realism: The Eighteen Arhats (detail)
both sides of the Strait, portraying nine soldiers from each side, and establishing their names and
nationalities despite the fact that it was difficult to distinguish one from another. Liu thus
successfully transgresses and blurs the border between mainland China and Taiwan, with the
clear message: beyond nationality and politics, all humans are the same. Liu affirms the essential
universality of humanity.
The sale will also feature another
remarkable painting The Forbidden
City by Guo Bochuan (Kuo Po-ch’uan;
1901-1974) (est. HK$30-40 million), an
important Chinese artist
