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Alain.R.Truong

Archives de Catégorie: Contemporary Asian Art

Set of twelve Ai Weiwei zodiac heads sell for record $4.3m at Phillips in London

14 samedi Fév 2015

Posted by alaintruong2014 in Contemporary Asian Art

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'Coloured vases (in 3 parts)', Ai Weiwei, “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Gold”, gold-plated bronze

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Ai Weiwei with the “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Gold” in his home in Beijing, 2010.

LONDON (AFP).– A set of 12 gold-plated animal head sculptures by China’s Ai Weiwei sold for £2.8 million ($4.3 million, 3.8 million euros) at auction on Thursday, setting a new record for the dissident artist’s work.

The 2010 work « Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads » led a contemporary art sale by auction house Philips in London.

The 12 sculptures represent the Chinese zodiac: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig, each head mounted on a pedestal.

The pieces are modelled on smaller heads designed in the 18th century by two European Jesuits at the court of Qing dynasty Emperor Qianlong.

The originals formed a fountain water clock at the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, but were ransacked by French and British troops in 1860.

Ai worked from the seven remaining originals and imagined the five heads that had not survived, drawing on depictions in tapestry and print for the dragon.

The dissident artist is noted for his controversial relationship with heritage, infamously smashing a Han Dynasty Urn in a performance work in 1995.

Auction house Philips said that though the animal head sculptures were a recreation of an older work, they achieved « glorious aesthetic coherence » and make a comment on authenticity.

« The fake is invested with the power to revive the past, » the auctioneers said in a press release.

« The marriage that is made -– troubled, yet oddly serene –- offers a lustrous exhibition of what might be a brighter, less confused and more beautiful future. »

Another Ai Weiwei work sold at the auction was « Coloured vases (in 3 parts) » from 2010, neolithic vases the artist had covered with bright industrial paint, which sold for £182,500 ($280,800, 246,400 euros).

The zodiac sculptures sold were the first complete set to come to auction, and one of eight gilded sets made, plus four artist’s proofs.

Further sets of a much larger version of the animal sculptures have also been made in bronze.

The works have been displayed in art museums and public spaces around the world in a travelling exhibition since 2010.

Also sold at the auction was a 1980 work by US artist Andy Warhol, « Diamond Dust Shoes », which sold for £2.3 million ($3.5 million, 3.1 million euros). © 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse

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Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads by Ai Weiwei, 2010 (Phillips)

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Ai Weiwei, “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Gold”. Estimate £2,000,000 – 3,000,000. Sold for £2,882,500. Photo Philips.

gold-plated bronze
Rat: 71 x 33 x 53 cm (27 7/8 x 12 7/8 x 20 7/8 in.) Ox: 74 x 51 x 43 cm (29 1/8 x 20 1/8 x 16 7/8 in.) Tiger: 66 x 38 x 43 cm (25 7/8 x 14 7/8 x 16 7/8 in.) Rabbit: 71 x 25 x 48 cm (27 7/8 x 9 7/8 x 18 7/8 in.) Dragon: 91 x 46 x 66 cm (35 7/8 x 18 1/8 x 25 7/8 in.) Snake: 71 x 36 x 17 cm (27 7/8 x 14 1/8 x 6 3/4 in.) Horse: 74 x 31 x 56 cm (29 1/8 x 12 1/4 x 22 in.) Ram: 64 x 53 x 41 cm (25 1/4 x 20 7/8 x 16 1/8 in.) Monkey: 69 x 33 x 38 cm (27 1/8 x 12 7/8 x 14 7/8 in.) Rooster: 61 x 23 x 43 cm (24 x 9 x 16 7/8 in.) Dog: 64 x 38 x 48 cm (25 1/4 x 14 7/8 x 18 7/8 in.) Boar: 69 x 41 x 53 cm (27 1/8 x 16 1/8 x 20 7/8 in.)
This work is number 7 from an edition of 8 plus 4 artist’s proofs.

PROVENANCE: Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York

‘My work is always dealing with real or fake, authenticity, what the value is, and how the value relates to current political and social understandings and misunderstandings. I think there’s a strong humorous aspect there.’ – AI WEIWEI, 2011

Ai Weiwei’s Zodiac Heads form perhaps his most monumental and penetrating study into the relationship between the original and the copy. The heads that these are based on once comprised a water clock-fountain in the European-style Garden of Perfect Brightness, owned by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), and were designed in the 1700s by two European Jesuits in his court. This multicultural genesis for Ai’s source was further complicated with the ransacking of the palace in 1860 by French and British troops; some of the zodiac heads were taken to the collections of the French and English courts, and others have appeared in auction houses in London and Beijing. Only seven of the twelve figures are still known to exist. Five were repatriated to China, but ownership of the remaining two is still contested. Their status remains an emotive issue for the country. In 2009, the estate of Yves Saint Laurent put up two heads – a rat and a rabbit – for sale at Christie’s Paris, with estimates of $13 million US each: the Chinese government attempted to prevent the sale, but was overruled by a French court, leading to strained relations with France.

The huge dimensions and almost cartoonish expressions of the animals here are playful, even humorous, but their appealing form grapples with a dark period in the country’s past. The fountain’s destruction became emblematic of a period of violent imperialist intervention in China often referred to as ‘The Century of Humiliation,’ and the wound is still raw. In Ai’s retelling of the story, though, appropriation becomes democratisation, as the objects once reserved only for the gaze of a privileged elite now travel as public artworks available for anybody to see. Compounding this notion is China’s modern status as the global centre for mass-produced commodities (and forgeries) – the artist frequently probes this issue as a springboard for his explorations of authenticity and reproduction. One powerful motif is his Han Dynasty vase covered in household paint, a group of which appear in the present sale. Our relationship to imputed cultural and historical worth is a complicated one that Ai delights in challenging. How important is an object’s ancient heritage in a world that places arbitrary value on so many things? When a China in thrall to Western consumerism acts as antagonist to its own history, can objections to the destructive or creative plunder of original artefacts be taken seriously?

Ai Weiwei himself occupies a position of cultural tension. His father, Ai Qing, was one of China’s most revered modernist poets, yet exiled to remote Xinjiang for twenty years from 1958 as a rightist: Ai Weiwei, born in 1957, thus entered the world as both a political exile and as a member of the artistic elite. This inheritance paved the way for the social activism and staunch advocacy of free speech that has characterised his career. Unafraid of highlighting the abuses and injustice of the Chinese state, he has been hounded by the authorities for years, even spending several months imprisoned in 2011.

The gilding of the zodiac here carries a dual weight. Resplendent in beauty, the animals radiate the opulent inheritance of their ancient court setting; but the original heads – as well as Ai’s larger alternate version of this work – were in fact unadorned bronze. The plated gold thus captures a metaphorical gilding, as collective reverence of these objects has only been heightened by their historical theft, perhaps even obscuring aspects of their original significance. Similarly, Ai claims that the concept of the zodiac itself has today been divested of much of its ancient importance: ‘I think today, the Chinese people care about the zodiac for fun. It doesn’t have much impact or symbolic meaning.’ Elaborating this perhaps contentious statement, he situates his work in a Western tradition of iconic image-making. ‘When Andy Warhol painted Mao in the 1960s and 1970s, I don’t think many people understood Mao, either — it was just this image that people knew, like Marilyn Monroe or somebody. So they might see these zodiac animals like that — like Mickey Mouse. They’re just animals. Eleven real animals and one mystic animal.’ (Ai Weiwei, ‘My Work is Always a Readymade,’ in Susan Delson (ed.), Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals, Munich, London, NY: Prestel, 2011, p.63). Much like the reliquary serialisation of Warhol’s Marilyns and Maos, Ai’s gilded heads manifest a meditation on the power of pure image in a world of shifting historical context.

Working from the seven originals that remain, the artist and his team had to creatively imagine the five heads that are missing. This forced them to draw upon other sources for ‘authentic’ Chinese portrayals of these creatures, such as the dragon, which is based on images from tapestry and print. In spite of this, the set as a whole maintains glorious aesthetic coherence, challenging the idea that the original group was a work of perfection whose loss is an irredeemable tragedy. The fake is invested with the power to revivify the past, and the marriage that is made – troubled, yet oddly serene – offers a lustrous exhibition of what might be a brighter, less confused and more beautiful future.

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Ai Weiwei, Coloured vases (in 3 parts), 2010. Estimate £100,000 – 150,000. Sold for £182,500. Photo Philips.

industrial paint on Neolithic vases, in 3 parts
(i) 29.2 x 27.9 x 27.9 cm (11 1/2 x 11 x 11 in.) (ii) 26.7 x 22.9 x 22.9 cm (10 1/2 x 9 x 9 in.) (iii) 34.3 x 25.4 x 25.4 cm (13 1/2 x 10 x 10 in.)
Signed and dated ‘Weiwei 2010 12-3’ on the underside of the third vase.

PROVENANCE: Private Collection

‘We shall not have succeeded in demolishing everything unless we demolish the ruins as well.’ – ALFRED JARRY, 1899

Ancient vases are smothered in cheap, brightly coloured household paint. Where do we draw a line between art and vandalism? Ai Weiwei aims to address this question, problematising issues of history, cultural value, and authenticity. These themes have been central to his work for over twenty years: in 1994, he painted a 2000 year old Han Dynasty urn with the Coca Cola logo, and an iconic photograph from 1995 shows him dropping another to smash on the floor (famed collector Uli Sigg, who purchased the Coca Cola urn, was photographed in 2012 dropping his own in homage). The 2009 series Dust to Dust comprises more Neolithic pottery from 3,000 – 5,000 BC, crushed to powder and placed in glass vessels.

These vases have scandalised many, for varying reasons. Last year one of a group on display in Miami’s Pérez Art Museum was smashed by local artist Maximo Caminero in protest against the gallery’s focus on international artists; news reports screamed that he was to be sued for $1 million US (a vastly inflated figure), serving to highlight how Ai Weiwei’s perceived desecration of the artefact had ironically only heightened its monetary value. Other cultural critics have lamented his gaudy obliteration of irreplaceable pieces of ancient craft.

In this controversial process, however, the artist examines a particularly Chinese dialogue with cultural ownership. Ai Weiwei purchased the vases from antique dealers, so is legally free to do as he wishes with them, much as Uli Sigg was free to smash the urn in his collection. During the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government itself encouraged the destruction of ancient artefacts; modern China’s mass-produced fixation on western values compounds this loss of selfhood. China is confronted with the iconoclasm and trauma of its own past. This is a provocative and potentially nihilistic gesture, but creates a new work of art: in their bold treatment of history, politics and tradition, Ai Weiwei’s urns enact the vital role that destruction plays in the redefining and renewal of culture.

Ai Weiwei, Stool, 2012

04 samedi Oct 2014

Posted by alaintruong2014 in Contemporary Asian Art

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Ai Weiwei, Jingdezhen, painted and fired porcelain, Stool

Ai Weiwei, Stool, 2012. Estimate £10,000 – 15,000. Photo Phillips

hand sculpted, painted and fired porcelain made using traditional methods in Jingdezhen, China; 49.5 x 42 x 42 cm (19 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 16 1/2 in.). Ink stamped ‘HdM AWW 2012’ on the underside and again on the inside. This work is from an edition of 20 and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.

PROVENANCE: Private Collection, UK

PHILLIPS. CONTEMPORARY ART DAY LONDON AUCTION 16 OCTOBER 2014 2PM

Ai Weiwei, Dust to Dust, 2009

04 samedi Oct 2014

Posted by alaintruong2014 in Contemporary Asian Art

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Ai Weiwei, Dust to Dust

Ai Weiwei, Dust to Dust, 2009. Estimate £6,000 – 8,000. Photo Phillips

pulverized pottery in glass jar; 26 x 20 x 20 cm (10 1/4 x 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in.). This work is from an edition of 35 plus 6 artist’s proofs.

PROVENANCE: Haus der Kunst, München

PHILLIPS. CONTEMPORARY ART DAY LONDON AUCTION 16 OCTOBER 2014 2PM

Qiu Zhijie, Five Works: (i) Tattoo 1; (ii) Tattoo 2; (iii) Tattoo 3; (v) Tattoo 5; (vi) Tattoo 6, 2000

04 samedi Oct 2014

Posted by alaintruong2014 in Contemporary Asian Art

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chromogenic print, Qiu Zhijie, Tattoo

Qiu Zhijie, Five Works: (i) Tattoo 1; (ii) Tattoo 2; (iii) Tattoo 3; (v) Tattoo 5; (vi) Tattoo 6, 2000. Estimate £18,000 – 25,000. Photo Phillips

five chromogenic prints; each sheet 99.8 x 80.2 cm (39 1/4 x 31 5/8 in.). Signed, titled, numbered of 10 and dated ‘Tattoo Qiu Zhijie [i-v]’ respectively on the reverse of each. Each work is from an edition of 10.

PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Estella Collection
Private Collection, New York
Private Collection, Switzerland

EXHIBITED: Denmark, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Made in China, 16 March – 5 August 2007, then travelled to Jerusalem Museum, Israel

LITERATURE: Centre Pompidou, Alors, la Chine? Paris 2003, p 290 (illustrated in colour)
Britta Erickson ed., On the Edge: Contemporary Chinese Artists Encounter the West, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, 2004, fig. 75 (illustrated in colour)
Made In China, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2007, p 94 ( illustrated in colour)

PHILLIPS. CONTEMPORARY ART DAY LONDON AUCTION 16 OCTOBER 2014 2PM

Sotheby’s celebrates Indian and Islamic art through an exciting series of exhibitions, auctions and events

30 mardi Sep 2014

Posted by alaintruong2014 in Contemporary Asian Art, Indian Art, Islamic Art

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Akbar Padamsee, al-Ahmar al-Nujumi al-Rumi, astrolabe, ‘The Romance of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu’, Bihar-i-Danish, Bikaner, blue and white pottery dish, Bukhara, circa 1520, collections of the Dukes of Northumberland, follower of Gentile Bellini, hasli, Iznik, late 17th-early 18th century, late 19th century, Maharani torque necklace, Mahmud Muzahhib, mid 16th century, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Mughal, Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II, Rajasthan, royal brass astrolabe, Sa’di’s Gulistan, Shaykh Inayat Allah Kanbu of Lahore, Suleyman the Magnificent, Turkey, Tyeb Mehta

A portrait of Suleyman the Magnificent, by a follower of Gentile Bellini, Italy, probably Venice, circa 1520 | Lot | Sotheby's

A portrait of Suleyman the Magnificent, by a follower of Gentile Bellini, Italy, probably Venice, circa 1520. Estimate 250,000 — 350,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby’s

LONDON.- In order to celebrate the rich traditions of Indian and Islamic art, Sotheby’s has mounted ‘Indian and Islamic Week’, a high profile series of public exhibitions and three dedicated auctions presenting the works of renowned artists and craftsmen from the Indian Subcontinent and the Islamic world. These exciting initiatives will take place at Sotheby’s in London from 3 – 8 October 2014. The sales comprise Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art on 7 October, and Art of Imperial India and Arts of the Islamic World on 8 October. The combined estimate across the three sales is £11,200,000-16,000,000.

Yamini Mehta, Sotheby’s International Director, Indian and South Asian Art, Benedict Carter, Sotheby’s Head of Auction Sales, Middle East and Indian Art, commented: “We are thrilled that Sotheby’s reach with its clients from across India, the Middle East and beyond will advance to a new stage this autumn when we mount the inaugural ‘Indian and Islamic Week’ in London. Through this endeavour, featuring the very best of fine and decorative arts from India and the Islamic World spanning 1500 years, the company’s unrivalled global network continues to serve our clients by providing world-class collecting and educational experiences. We are proud that with this series of three dedicated sales, we will further demonstrate Sotheby’s ability to enhance the growing dialogue of cultural exchange across these regions.”

MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY SOUTH ASIAN ART 7 OCTOBER 2014

Sotheby’s India and Islamic Week will present Tyeb Mehta’s Blue Painting, 1982, an exquisite work painted in overlapping planes of complementary blues. The classic image of the female body, depicted with an economy of line, radiates calm and transcendence, with its blues of the sea, sky, and night in a composition that is pure harmony in azure, cerulean, and sapphire. Inspired by international artists as varied as Barnett Newman, Kazimir Malevich, Henri Matisse and Yves Klein, during Mehta’s years abroad in the 1950s-60s, this is a rare and contemplative painting that is a departure from his themes of suffering and angst. Yet it still is an exploration of the human condition in its most elemental form. This key work by the towering Indian modernist was once owned by Tyeb Mehta’s friend and fellow Mumbai artist, Bal Chhabra. Chhabra was a great patron who financially supported his artist friends and created a fine personal collection that included some of India’s greatest masterpieces. Blue Painting has since been in the famed collection of the Glenbarra Art Museum in Japan. It is estimated at £600,000-800,000.

Priyanka Mathew, Head of Sales and Auctioneer, Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art, Sotheby’s, notes, « The poetic drama and beauty of Blue Painting, 1982, has an immediate visual impact, that becomes all the more awe-inspiring when viewed in person. As the auctioneer for the sale, I feel deeply privileged to have guided Blue Painting into Sotheby’s and hope that collectors the world over will appreciate its beauty and fight to own it. »

Tyeb Mehta (1925-2009), BLUE PAINTING

Tyeb Mehta (1925-2009), BLUE PAINTING. Signed and dated ‘Tyeb / 82’ on reverse. Oil on canvas; 115 by 90 cm. (45 ¼ by 35 ½ in.). Painted in 1982. Estimate 600,000 — 800,000GBP. Photo Sotheby’s

Another milestone in the history of Modern Indian art is Padamsee’s Prophet I, 1952, estimated at £150,000-200,000. This painting is the first from the artist’s revered “prophet” series, which evolved with each successive edition. A year earlier, the artist had moved to Paris, where he was inspired by the art he saw in the city’s galleries and museums, and influenced not only by the Modern masters – Picasso, Rouault, Braque and Chagall – but also by tribal works of art, and in particular the African masks that he saw in the Musée de l’Homme. This is the first time the work has come to the market, having remained in private hands since shortly after it was completed. Professor Gyenes, a patron of the arts who lived in Paris during the 1950s and 60s, acquired the painting directly from the artist in 1954.

Akbar Padamsee (b. 1928), PROPHET I

Akbar Padamsee (b. 1928), PROPHET I. Signed and dated ‘Padamsee / 52’ upper left. Oil on board, 90 by 58.2 cm (35 ⅜ by 22 ⅞ in.). Painted in 1952. Estimate 150,000 — 200,000GBP. Photo Sotheby’s

The auction is sprinkled with delightful works coming from private collections that are completely fresh to the market. The William and Mildred Archer Collection comprises two works by Indian National treasure, Rabindranath Tagore and a group of 15 Kalighat paintings. The Archers were pre-eminent Indian art historians of the twentieth century with William Archer serving as a longstanding curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum. A rare Jamini Roy work on canvas, depicting Krishna with a parrot and estimated at £15,000-20,000, comes with the storied provenance of writer, E.M. Forster. Originally handled by famed London dealer, Victor Musgrave at his Gallery One, are two powerful works by Francis Newton Souza. Souza is the intellectual founder of the Progressive Art Group post-Independent India. Profile, 1957 (estimate £80,000-120,000) and Head (estimate £50,000-70,000) are two prime examples of the artist’s work at the peak of his career coming from British collections.

Contemporary artists of today are also featured with significant examples of works by Pakistani artists, Rashid Rana and Imran Qureshi as well as British Indian artist, Bharti Kher. Mrinalini Mukherjee’s hemp sculptures are difficult to source. Only one other has ever appeared at auction. Sotheby’s is proud to showcase Deity, a larger than life-sized work from a French collection and estimated at £60,000-80,000. The artist is in the collection of the Tate Museums and is currently being featured in the 10th Gwanju Biennial.

Mrinalini Mukherjee (B. 1949), SRI (DEITY)

Mrinalini Mukherjee (B. 1949), SRI (DEITY). Woven hemp fibre. Height: 240 cm. (94 ½ in.); Width: 85 cm. (33 ½ in.); Depth: 60 cm. (23 ⅝ in.); Weight: 24 kg. (52.9 lb.). Executed in 1982. Estimate 60,000 — 80,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby’s

ARTS OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD 8 OCTOBER 2014

Bringing together manuscripts, paintings and works of art created under Islamic patronage over eleven centuries, Arts of the Islamic World provides an opportunity for collectors and institutions to acquire beautiful and sought-after pieces.

From the collections of the Dukes of Northumberland is an extremely well- preserved leaf from a 16th-century copy of Sa’di’s Gulistan, attributed to the famed courtly artist Mahmud Muzahhib. Depicting ‘the captured Arab robbers before the King’, this rare discovery is estimated to bring £60,000-80,000.

An illustrated and illuminated leaf from a copy of Sa’di’s Gulistan: the captured Arab robbers before the King, ascribed to Mahmud Muzahhib, Bukhara, mid-16th century | Lot | Sotheby's

An illustrated and illuminated leaf from a copy of Sa’di’s Gulistan: the captured Arab robbers before the King, ascribed to Mahmud Muzahhib, Bukhara, mid-16th century | Lot | Sotheby's

An illustrated and illuminated leaf from a copy of Sa’di’s Gulistan: the captured Arab robbers before the King, ascribed to Mahmud Muzahhib, Bukhara, mid-16th century | Lot | Sotheby's

An illustrated and illuminated leaf from a copy of Sa’di’s Gulistan: the captured Arab robbers before the King, ascribed to Mahmud Muzahhib, Bukhara, mid-16th century | Lot | Sotheby's

An illustrated and illuminated leaf from a copy of Sa’di’s Gulistan: the captured Arab robbers before the King, ascribed to Mahmud Muzahhib, Bukhara, mid-16th century. Estimate 60,000 — 80,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby’s

gouache heightened with gold on paper, three lines of elegant nasta’liq script in black ink in top right hand corner, the reverse with twelve lines of nasta’liq within margins ruled in colours and gold with a border decorated in gold with foliate scrolls and animal-head terminals; painting: 29.7 by 18.2cm; leaf: 34.2 by 21.8cm.

PROVENANCE: Probably acquired by Henry Algernon George Percy, Earl Percy (1871-1909), who travelled extensively in the near East and Africa, thence by descent.

SOLD BY ORDER OF THE 12TH DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND AND THE TRUSTEES OF THE NORTHUMBERLAND ESTATES

NOTES: Mahmud Muzahhib (literally ‘Mahmud the illuminator’) is regarded as one of the leading artists of the sixteenth-century Bukhara school. Following the fall of the Timurid Empire as a result of the conquest of Samarqand by the Shaybanid Dynasty, the shift of power and artistic production moved first to Samarqand and then to Bukhara. Muzahhib played an important role in the establishment of this new kitabkhaneh (library-book production atelier) under the Shaybanids and was influential in the transmission of styles from the Timurid ateliers traditionally established in Herat to Bukhara. A contemporary account by Mirza Muhammad Haydar Dughlat notes that “Under ‘Ubaydullah Khan, Bukhara has become such a centre of arts and sciences that it recalls Herat in the days of Mirza Sultan Husayn” (B. Gray, The Arts of the Book in Central Asia, London, 1979, p.264).

Mahmud Muzahhib is most recognised for his paintings, and notably his illustrations on numerous manuscripts taken from Herat by the Shaybanids including a copy of Jami’s Tuhfat al-Ahrar copied in 905 AH/1499-1500 AD by Sultan ‘Ali Mashhadi now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (Supplement Persan 1416). He is also known for his other accomplishments in the arts of the book, and often worked in collaboration with other calligraphers, illuminators and artists. Eleven folios now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art testify to his calligraphic skills, and he is said to have once been a pupil of Mir ‘Ali (A. Sakisian, ‘Mahmud Mudhahib, miniaturiste, enlumineur et calligraphe persan’, in Ars Islamica, IV, 1937, p.339), the famous calligrapher from Herat, and together they brought the art of Bukhara to new heights. Indeed Hasan Nisari noted in 1566 that “the gilders and illuminators of the studio, having brought decoration and painting to perfection, with a single hair point depicted faces so that in portrait drawing [even] a hair tip of a person depicted had no flaw – and in art everyone of them was another Mani and better than Bihzad’s pupils” (Gray, op.cit., p.264).

In excellent condition, the present miniature stands out for the incredible vividness of the colours of the paint as well as the gold overlay. Each detail is intricately drawn, resulting in an array of expressive faces set in a multitude of poses and organised around the page in a rhythmic composition. The ornate and detailed treatment of the canopy above the Sultan is akin to the finest book illuminations of the period and can be compared to another miniature from the Gulistan of Sa’di sold at Christie’s, 25 April 2013, lot 27, A Private Collection donated to Benefit the University of Oxford, Part 3. A number of elements, such as the pair of seated figures on a carpet, or the clusters of men in lively discussions with animated movements recall the Herat school in which it was already characteristic to borrow groups of figures or compositions to populate a painting (T.W. Lentz and G.D. Lowry, Timur and the Princely Vision, Exhibition Catalogue, Los Angeles, 1989, esp.pp.376-79).

Illustrated is a scene from the Gulistan of Shaykh Muslih al-Din Sa’di. Belonging to the fourth story in the first section, and titled ‘On the Manners of King’, the image depicted is more particularly that of ‘the captured Arab robbers before the King’. In front of the King appear four robbers who have been captured and who he has just given the order to be slain. A vizier (standing in front of the King) intercedes on behalf of the youth that appears near him on his knees with the precept that a bad foundation can be changed by the society of pious men, and notably that one can profit by education and acquire the disposition of a wise person. Unillustrated here is the ending of the story, in which the King spares the life of the youth despite disagreeing with the vizier, arguing that a wolf’s whelp will always be a wolf, even if it is raised with mankind. Eventually, the youth grew up to become a robber who killed the vizier and joined a group of bandits, resulting in the King’s recounting of the moral « to do good to the wicked is like doing evil to good men ».

Below is a selection of known manuscripts illustrated by Muzahhib. Although most probably a small portion of his corpus of works, each is of comparable interest. The stars indicate manuscripts which were later illustrated by him, and in some instances, it must be noted that he worked with other artists who signed paintings, or to whom early attributions exist in the same manuscript.

Jami, Tuhfat al-Ahrar, 905*, Sultan Ali Mashhadi, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Supp.Pers.1416
Amir Khusraw Dehlawi, Qirani Sa’dayn, 925*, Muhammad Khandan, Israel Museum
Jami, Diwan, 926*, Sultan Ali Mashhadi, The New York Public Library, New York City, M&A Pers.ms.1
Nizami, Makhzan al-Asrar, 944, Mir Ali Haravi, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Supp.Pers.985
Sa’di, Bustan, 949, Mir ‘Ali Harawi, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon
Various, Rawdat al-Muhibbin, 956, Mir Ali Harawi, Salar Jung Museum, India, A.Nm.1611
Jami, Baharistan, 958, Mir Husayn al-Husayni, formerly in the collection of E. de Lorey, Paris
Sa’di, Gulistan, dispersed, 968 (?), two paintings sold at Christie’s, A Private Collection, Donated to Benefit the University of Oxford, Part II, 4 October 2012, lots 12 and 13
Sa’di, Bustan, 969-70, sold at Christie’s, A Private Collection, Donated to Benefit the University of Oxford, Part II, 4 October 2012, lot 14
Sa’di, Bustan, 970, Mir ‘Ali Harawi, Golestan Palace, Tehran, no. 2164
Jami, Yusuf wa Zulaykha, 973, Mahmud b. Ishaq, Art and History Trust, no.80
Jami, Diwan, date unknown, offered at Christie’s, A Private Collection, Donated to Benefit the University of Oxford, Part II, 4 October 2012, lot 15
Jami, Tuhfat al-Ahrar, circa 1550 AD, Mir Ali Haravi, Sackler Gallery, Washington DC, S86.0046
Sa’di, Bustan, date unknown, Keir Collection, London, III-330-1
Sa’di, Gulistan, dispersed, 968 (?), two paintings sold at Christie’s, A Private Collection, Donated to Benefit the University of Oxford, Part III, 25 April 2013, lots 26 and 27

Also from the collections of the Dukes of Northumberland at Alnwick castle and never before offered at auction is the unparalleled Arabic-English Lexicon of Edward William Lane, estimated at £200,000-300,000. This copy in forty volumes represents the monumental achievement of almost half the lifetime of the pioneering Egyptologist and eminent Orientalist. Still in production at the time of Lane’s death in 1876 after thirty-four years’ dedication, it is a truly remarkable work of scholarship that has yet to be surpassed in the realms of lexicography and remains an essential tool to scholars well into the twenty-first century. The accompanying ten volumes of al-Saghani’s U’bab, used as source material for the Lexicon, are important Mamluk manuscripts in their own right, acquired in London on behalf of the fourth Duke of Northumberland in 1864 and placed at Lane’s disposal.

From the Ottoman come three masterpieces of the early 16th century: a royal astrolabe dedicated to Sultan Bayezid II (r.1481-1512), an extraordinary blue and white Iznik dish from circa 1520, and a beautifully-illuminated Qur’an attributed to the master calligrapher Mustafa Dede. The sale will also include a very rare oil portrait of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent by a follower of Gentile Bellini, and an exceptional 14th-century gilt-copper and silvered pyxis from the Nasrid period of Al-Andalus.

A royal brass astrolabe made by al-Ahmar al-Nujumi al-Rumi for the treasury of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II (r.1481–1512), Turkey, dated 911 AH/1505-6 AD | Lot | Sotheby's

A royal brass astrolabe made by al-Ahmar al-Nujumi al-Rumi for the treasury of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II (r.1481–1512), Turkey, dated 911 AH/1505-6 AD | Lot | Sotheby's

A royal brass astrolabe made by al-Ahmar al-Nujumi al-Rumi for the treasury of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II (r.1481–1512), Turkey, dated 911 AH/1505-6 AD | Lot | Sotheby's

A royal brass astrolabe made by al-Ahmar al-Nujumi al-Rumi for the treasury of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II (r.1481–1512), Turkey, dated 911 AH/1505-6 AD. Estimate 800,000 — 1,000,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby’s

comprising a mater with a double loop for suspension, three discs and an alidade, with incised details, the reverse with two calligraphic roundels, the pin modern; 9.5cm. diam.

LITERATURE: King, D.A, In Synchrony with the Heavens: Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping and Instrumentation in Medieval Islamic Civilization, Volume Two: Instruments of Mass Calculation, Brill, Leiden-Boston, 2005, pp.783-796.

Notes: This important astrolabe is one of two known pieces dedicated to the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II (r. 1481-1512). There are no other astrolabes dedicated to an Ottoman sultan, not even in the Topkapi Sarayi Museum.

This piece represents the beginning of a new Ottoman tradition in modestly-decorated astrolabes, a tendency to be observed already in various earlier Syrian pieces made by professional astronomers themselves rather than by professional craftsmen. The other, made in the previous year by Shukrallah Mukhlis Shirwani, is more in the Persian tradition and is more ornately decorated in a distinctive style; it is preserved in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo1. The makers of both arts are not otherwise known (see further below).

The history of early Ottoman astronomy in general (from the fourteenth to the early sixteenth century) has not yet been properly researched. It was influenced by the Seljuq Turkish tradition (Anatolia, thirteenth century) of which very few sources and not a single instrument survive; by the colourful Mamluk tradition (Egypt and Syria, thirteenth-fifteenth centuries)2, and by the vigorous Ilkhanid and Timurid traditions (Iran and Central Asia, thirteenth-fifteenth centuries)3. The sources for Ottoman astronomy have recently been properly documented for the first time4, and the amount of possible research for the future is daunting.

The interest of Bayezid II for astronomy is well-known5. The institutions of court munajjims (astronomers-astrologers) and mosque muwaqqits (timekeepers) were well established in his time. The sultan studied mathematics and astronomy with his private teacher, who was none other than Miriam Chelebi, the grandson of Qadi Zade al-Rumi, director of Ulugh Beg’s observatory at Samarqand. Numerous astronomers dedicated their work to Bayezid, including treatises on instruments and highly sophisticated tables. He himself commissioned his teacher to prepare a Persian commentary to the astronomical tables of Ulugh Beg.

The early Ottoman tradition of instrument-making (fourteenth-sixteenth centuries) is represented only by these two preparation pieces for Bayezid II. All other surviving Ottoman astrolabes are later than these two, indeed at least a century later. Out of a total of some 30-odd pieces6, none shows any indication of having been influenced specifically by either of those two pieces.

The astrolabe of Bayezid II

The workmanship is competent but, primarily, this is an astrolabe designed to be used. The engraving, in Kufic, is elegant and distinctive. The Arabic alphanumerical (abjad) notation is used throughout, except for the date, which is written in Hindu-Arabic numerals.

The throne is undecorated, with lobes on either side of the upper lobe and smaller protrusions at the far left or right. The suspension apparatus, a shackle and ring, is attached at the top of the throne.

The matter bears a circumferential scale divided for each 5° and subdivided for each 1°, labelled 5° – 10° – 5° – 20° – … – 5 – [3] 60°. The base circles for the equinoxes and two solstices are engraved in the inside of the mater. (This was a common practice, which enabled additional markings to be added at will).

The rete is of unusual design, it is simply decorated. The horizontal diameter is rectilinear (not counter changed), as was standard on Early Islamic astrolabes. The vertical axis is complete, but incorporates some decorative features. Above the centre there is a heart-shaped, or perhaps rather hoe-shaped, frame in the upper-half of the ecliptic (not known on any other astrolabe). Above this is a flower-shaped design with six petals, at the centre of which is a silver knob, which serves, along with three others, two at either end of the  horizontal diameter and another below the centre, to turn the rete over the appropriate plate. The earlier development of these designs can be traced (see the commentary below).

The scale of the ecliptic is divided for the zodiacal signs, whose names are the standard forms:
Al-hamal – al-thawr – al-jawza’ – al-saratan – al-asad – al-sunbula – al-qaws – al-jady – al-dalw – al-hut

And each sign is divided into five unlabelled 6°-intervals. The star-pointers are shaped like jesters’ hats, developed – as if by lack of starching – from the dagger-shaped pointers on early Eastern Islamic astrolabes. They serve 15 named stars, here listed in order of increasing right ascension (counter-clockwise from the vernal equinox) and identified8:

1… al-dabara n 24/18 alpha Tauri
2…. Rijl al-jawza’ 37/19 beta Orionis
3…(al-shi’ra) al-yamania… 39/23 alpha Canis Maioris
4…(al-shi’ra) al-sha’miya 39/23 alpha Canis Minoris
5…qalb-al-asad 26/30 alpha Leonis
6…(al-simak) al-a’zal 29/39 alpha virginis
7…(al-simak) al-ramih 29/39 alpha Bootis
8…’unuq (al-hayya) 12/196 alpha Serpentis
9…— fakka [ineligible word]#2/45 alpha Coronae Borealis
10… qalb al-‘aqrab 30/48 alpha Scorpii
11… (ra’s) al-hawwa’ 11/51 alpha Ophiniuchi
12…(al-nasr) al-ta’ir 13/54 alpha Aquilae
14… dhanab al dajaja 6/56 alpha Cygni
15… mankib (al-faras) 17/62 beta Pegasi

#One might expect al-munir min al-fakka or nayyir al-af-fakkar

There are three plates with five sides engraved with altitude-circles for each 3°, labelled for each 6°. The altitude arguments are engraved in lined ‘cartouches’ on the left and right, continuing down the centre (i.e. up the meridian) to the zenith, which is labelled 90° within the altitude circle for 84°. Such cartouches are found already on some of the plates of 10th century astrolabes. The east – and west – points are labelled al-machriq and al-maghrib below the horizon. There are no azimuth curves. The curves for the seasonal hours below the horizon are labelled 1, 2, …, 12. (On the plate for 41;30° the ‘1’ has been repeated but the mistake realised: the numbers run 1-1-2-3-4-6-…). The astrolabe markings serve latitudes:

33° 36° 39° 40° 41° 30.

The latitudes are indicated by the expression ‘ard–, ‘latitude–. No localities are associated with these, but see the commentary.

On the back of the plate for latitude 33° is a set of half- horizons arranged in four quadrants and marked for latitudes:

28°/38° 33°/48° 32°/45° 30°/43°.

The back is simply executed. Above the horizontal diameter there are two altitudes scales with divisions labelled for each 5°, subdivided for each 1°.

In the upper left quadrant is a sexagesimal (base 60) trigonometric grid with equi-spaced horizontal and vertical lines drawn for each 3 units. In the upper right quadrant the dedication is engraved within a double circle. The rim of the lower left quadrant is devoid of markings and in this quadrant the name of the maker is engraved on a single line. The rim of the lower right quadrant is marked with a scale for shadows to base 12 and is labelled zill-I asabi, ‘shadow in digits’. The sale begins at the bottom and is marked up to 25 digits, each 5 being labelled, with subdivisions for each 1 unit. Inside this quadrant there is a shadow square to base 12 with horizontal and vertical scales divided and labelled for each 3 units (digits), subdivided for each single unit.

The dedication reads:

Li-rasm khizanati ’l-sultani ‘l-a’zam al-sultan ibn al-sultan sultan Bayazid  ibn Muhammad Khan khallada [‘llah] mulkahu

‘By order of the Treasury of the Greatest Sultanm sultan son of sultan, Sultan Bayezit son of Mehmet Khan – may [God] make his dominion last for ever.’

The inscription naming the maker reads:

Sana’ahu ‘l-Ahmah al-Nujumi al-Rumi fi sanati 911 Hijriyya

‘Constucted by al-Ahmar al-Nujumi al-Rumi in the year 911 Hijra’

The date is written in Hindu-Arabic numerals and corresponds to 1505/06 A.D.

The alidade is not counter-changed and is decorated with clef-shaped ends. There is a sexagesimal scale on one half of the alidade, labelled 6-12-…-54-60, for use in conjunction with the trigonometric quadrant on the back.

The decoration of the rete

The basic simplicity of the rete is in the tradition of the non-presentational pieces from the Mamluk Syria, such as the one made by the Damascus Astronomer Ibn-al-Shatir in 726 AH/1325-26 AD9. The flower on the rete can be traced back to the decorative quatrefoil on the spectacular astrolabe of the astronomer al-Khujandi, made in Baghdad in 374 AH/984-85 AD10.

This quatrefoil, probably Byzantine in inspiration, is found on several astrolabes from the Islamic East over the centuries, notably on one made in Isfahan in 618 AH/1223-24 AD11. On this piece the quatrefoil occurs above a frame shaped like the side cross-section of an artichoke, which encloses the star-pointed for Vega, graphically represented as an eagle. Various later Eastern Islamic show this combination of motifs, which on this astrolabe for Bayezid II appear in a much simplified form. The Isfahan astrolabe mentioned above also has a star-pointer of the jester-hat variety.

The latitudes used for the plates

The plate for 33° could serve Damascus and Baghdad; 36 °– Aleppo and Mosul; 39° – Kayseri, Konya (?) and Ankara; 40° – Bursa and Suvas. The plate for 4130’ was clearly intended for Istanbul, although the latitude of that city is correctly 41° 2’. There were several problems with medieval values for the latitude of Constantinople, which was often taken as 45° 12 and Ottoman astronomers were the first to measure it properly.

For comparison we note the latitudes serves by the plates on the other astrolabe dedicated to Bayezid II, namely 21°, 30°, 33°, 36°, 38°, 40° and 41°. The first and second would have been intended for Mecca and Cairo, the last for Istanbul ad 38° for Konya and Malatya.

The maker

The maker of this astrolabe, al-Ahmar al-Rumi al-Nujumi, is unknown to the modern literature on Islamic instrumentation13. His name is unusual and means ‘the red one’. Nevertheless, the name Ahmar is an attested Muslim name. The epithet al-Rumi indicates that he was a Turk from Central Anatolia14. The epithet al-nujumi indicates that he was an astronomer, yet he is not mentioned in the recently-published bio-bibliographical survey of Ottoman astronomers and their works15 which means that he did not author any treatises. Likewise the maker of the other astrolabe dedicated to Bayezid II is otherwise unknown.

1. Gunther 1932, I, p. 126, no.12. The piece has been misdated to  (8)91 AH/1496 AD., but the date is clearly  910 AH/1504-05 AD. See the illustrations of the front and back (to Hartner 1938) in Pope 1938/39, III, p.2518, and VI, pl.1399, and Mayer 1956m p.83, for further bibliography.
2. See King 1983.
3. See Kennedy 1968 and 1986.
4. Ihsanoglu 1997.
5. See Adnan 1939, pp.28,35,43-52; the numerous references in Ihsanoglu 1997, II, p. 992; as well as King 1980, pp.247-248.
6. A preliminary catalogue of these has been prepared in Frankfurt as part of la larger ongoing project to catalogue all medieval Islamic and European instruments (see King 1991a). Several Ottoman astrolabes are featured in Dizer 1986 and Mouliérac 1989. A handlist of astrolabes is in Price et al. 1973.
7. See Irani 1955.
8. The numbers are those in Kunitzsch 1990, pp.158-161 and Kunitzsch 1959 pp.59-96, and p. 217 (for no.8).
9. Paris 1991, p.435 (no.331).
10. King 1995, pp.90 and 82-89, no.2.
11. Gunther 1932, I, pp.118-120, no.5.
12. Kennedy & Kennedy 1987, pp.93-94.
13. The basic reference work is still Mayer 1956.
14. Article ‘Rumi’ in EI.
15. See no.5 above.

This note was prepared with the kind assistance of Professor David A. King, Frankfurt.

An exceptional Iznik blue and white pottery dish, Turkey, circa 1520 | Lot | Sotheby's

An exceptional Iznik blue and white pottery dish, Turkey, circa 1520 | Lot | Sotheby's

An exceptional Iznik blue and white pottery dish, Turkey, circa 1520. Estimate 300,000 — 500,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby’s

the deep round dish with everted rim painted in underglaze cobalt blue and turquoise on a white ground, the central medallion featuring a tree issuing finely drawn floral blossoms, within a tight scroll border, with lotus-blossom stems, the cavetto with cloud scrolls, the rim with a rumi-arabesque pattern reserved against a cobalt-blue ground, the exterior with a band of floral blossoms, under a transparent glaze, old collection label to base; 35.5cm. diam.

PROVENANCE: Ex-Adda collection

LITERATURE: N. Atasoy, and J. Raby, Iznik, The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, published for Istanbul University, 1989, no.168.
B. Rackham, Islamic Pottery and Italian Maiolica, London, 1959, p.26, no.61, illustration no.26.

NOTE: This unique dish from the Imperial Ottoman potteries of Iznik heralds the transition between the early Baba Nakkas Style and the more experimental Potters’ Style of the 1520s which saw the introduction of a new colour, copper-based turquoise, and looser, more painterly decoration. The dish has a prestigious provenance, from the celebrated Adda collection, and an impressive exhibition and publication history dating back to the 1950s.

Featuring motifs from two successive stages of early Iznik pottery, this dish is extremely rare as it encompasses the multi-faceted layers of Iznik production, demonstrating its complex evolution. Centred on a design featuring a turquoise ‘Tree of Life’ motif dominated by twisting and overlapping branches within which emerge finely drawn floral sprigs characteristic of the free-hand “Potter’s Style”, the rest of the dish remains indebted to the Baba Nakkas Rumi-Hatayi Style which marked the formative period between 1470 and 1520 (Atasoy and Raby 1989, p.77). Indeed, each decorative component on this dish can be associated with a different phase of this period. For example, the rim of split-palmettes is inspired by the rumi arabesque designs from the earliest Iznik wares of the 1480s, illustrated on other dishes such as a bowl in the Musée du Monde Arabe, Paris, (on loan from the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs), inv. no. 5150 and a charger in the Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, inv. no. OCI 6-36. Whereas in both of these cited examples the rumi designs are used in conjunction with thehatayi floral scrolls, on this dish the lotus blossoms are placed within a central roundel. These lotus-blossoms share a complexity of design that recalls those by the so-called ‘Master of the Lotuses’ which adorn four lamps in Sultan Bayezid II’s tomb, commissioned by his son Selim in about 1512-13 allowing for a precise dating. Furthermore, the s-shaped cloudbands on the cavetto could have been taken directly from those on a dish in the Sadberk Hanim Museum (Bilgi 2009, pp. 54-5, no.7), attributed to circa 1510-15.

The drawing in the centre, representing a kind of ‘Tree of Life’ is absolutely unique; it not only demonstrates the artist’s skill but also his freedom of spirit in the inventiveness of the design. Whereas this dish could also be described as falling into the ‘blue-and-turquoise phase’, Julian Raby rightly notes that this label fails to convey the variety of styles encompassed in this group and nowhere is this more noticeable than when we compare the present dish with two other similar dishes which fall in the same category (Atasoy and Raby 1989, p.115). The first, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. C.2019-1910), illustrates a narrative scene, showing a snake sliding up a tree towards an unsuspecting bird. Whilst this charming dish also illustrates the new creativity in design in Iznik wares of this period, it does not reach the complexity and elegance of the present dish. The second, a charger in the Antaki Collection in Aleppo (Atasoy and Raby 1989, pp.167-8, no.171, fig.316), shares the same wild nature of the tree found on the present dish, whilst experimenting with different, seemingly incongruous motifs such as grape-vines, lotus-blossoms and a scale-border borrowing, like the present dish, from already established motifs.

The back of this dish is decorated with a band comprising floral stems which are described by Bernard Rackham as “a wreath of flowers in the spirit of Chinese cloud-scrolls” attesting to the influence of Chinese wares on Iznik potters, particularly as the Topkapi Saray held an important collection of Yuan and early Ming dynasty wares (Rackham 1959, p.26, no.61).

Exceptional in design, the present dish is a superlative example of early Ottoman pottery. It is a truly rare piece whose academic importance is matched by its artistic beauty encompassing the skill and fantasy of early Iznik production.

A portrait of Suleyman the Magnificent, by a follower of Gentile Bellini, Italy, probably Venice, circa 1520 | Lot | Sotheby's

A portrait of Suleyman the Magnificent, by a follower of Gentile Bellini, Italy, probably Venice, circa 1520 | Lot | Sotheby's

A portrait of Suleyman the Magnificent, by a follower of Gentile Bellini, Italy, probably Venice, circa 1520. Estimate 250,000 — 350,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby’s

oil on panel, framed; painting: 32.5 by 28cm; frame: 42 by 36cm.

PROVENANCE: Ex-collection Samuel H. Kress
Ex-collection Contini Bonacossi
Ex-collection Cini, Castello di Monselice

NOTES: When he came to power in 1520, Suleyman II inherited a vast empire which encompassed Syria, Palestine, Egypt and the Hijaz, including Mecca and Medina; extending eastwards towards the Caspian Sea, as far North as Vienna and parts of the African coast to the South. As the tenth ruler of the House of Osman, Suleyman quickly became known locally as “Kanuni” (‘the Lawgiver’), due to his important legal reformations (E. Atil., The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, 1987, p.18). Also known in Europe as “Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent” due to his prodigious administrative restructuring and keen artistic patronage, Sultan Suleyman was responsible for turning Constantinople (now Istanbul) into an important intellectual centre.

Furthermore, his military conquests and the terror engendered by Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha (Barbarossa) and his fleet in the Mediterranean provoked a fascination with the Sultan and his important Empire. Unlike his great grandfather, Mehmed II, who actually invited European artists to his court to paint depictions of him to be sent out as diplomatic gifts, Suleyman does not seem to have commissioned any portraits. Details of his physical appearance were conveyed to European artists through sketches created by artists who had accompanied foreign embassies to the Ottoman court.

The two earliest known surviving depictions of Suleyman as a young man include a drawing by Albrecht Durer now in the Musée Bonnat, Bayonne, France (inv. no. 286/1515, fig.1), and a copper plate print by the Italian lithography master ‘A.A’ now in the Graphische Samlung Albertina, Vienna (inv. no. AL6 41.54IB), both dated 1526 (Lamberto Donati, “Due Immagini Ignote di Solimano I (1494-1566), in: Studi orientalistici in onore di Giorgio Levi Della Vida: Volume I, Roma, 1956, pp.219-233).

Scholarly debate has come to the conclusion that these two depictions were probably copied after a “lost model” created just after Sultan Suleyman’s accession to the throne in 1520 (A. Orbay, The Sultan’s Portrait: Picturing the House of Osman, Istanbul, 2000, pp.98-99). The present portrait bears striking similarities to both illustrations and it is possible that it may even be the original ‘lost’ model from which such depictions of the Sultan stemmed. Resemblances in the shape of his turban, the large drooping collar of his robe, his aquiline nose, fine lips and gently protruding chin with a thin moustache and slight delineation of his adam’s apple point towards this connection. Such details are shared on a medal representing Suleyman and inscribed “Solyman – Imp – TVR” in the Heberden Coin Room, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (See Orbay 2000, p.112).

This painting is also inscribed along the bottom frame “Turchorum Imperator Maximus” (‘Great Turkish Emperor Suleyman’). This was to be the catchphrase used on further depictions of the Sultan, including in Durer’s drawing and A.A’s copper plate print. Whereas Durer’s drawing condenses it to ‘Suleyman Imperator’, A.A’s copper plate print reads ‘Suleyman Imperator T’ – the ‘T’ most probably standing for Turchorum as in the present painting. In addition, Durer and A.A. have both added the date 1526, which would have held strong symbolic connotations in the minds of a European audience as it was the date that marked the battle of Mohacs, during which forces of the Kingdom of Hungary led by King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia were defeated by the Ottomans.

It is very likely that either Andrea Gritti (1455-1538) or his son Alvise Gritti (1480-1534) was the patron behind this portrait. Before being elected Doge of Venice in 1523, Andrea Gritti spent most of his life in Constantinople as a grain merchant and diplomat looking after Venetian interests. His son, Alvise Gritti was born from a non-Muslim Ottoman woman with whom Andrea had an affair, and played an important political role in the Ottoman state, advising both the Ottoman Sultan and European diplomats. A passionate patron of the arts, Alvise promoted architects and artists such as Jacopo Sansovino and Titian, who also drew a portrait of him. Titian eventually painted four known ‘portraits’ of Suleyman (see J.M. Rogers and R.M. Ward, Suleyman the Magnificent, exhib. cat. British Museum, London, 1998, p. 46 note 4 and H.E. Wethey, loc. cit.). Suleyman would have been far too grand to sit for the attendants of the ambassadors and other foreigners he received, which is why Alvise, who had artists around him and who received visits from the Sultan, may indeed be the patron behind this particular work.

In 1941, this painting entered the Contini Bonacossi collection, and notes accompanying the entry in the collection record the observations by leading historians of the time such as Longhi, Fiocco, Van Marle and Pope Hennessy. Whereas Longhi attributes it to Bellini himself, Fiocco describes it as a “school work but not too distant from the hand of the master himself”. Indeed, one can sense the artist’s subtle technique in the modelling of the face and clothing of the Sultan.

Both from a historical and art-historical point of view, the present portrait is a landmark. Not only is it one of the few Western images of an Eastern potentate done by a European artist, but it probably also served as a primary source of inspiration for many later portraits, drawings, prints and medals of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent.

ART OF IMPERIAL INDIA 8 OCTOBER 2014

Sotheby’s Art of Imperial India sale focuses on fine paintings, jewellery, photographs and works of art from the Mughal and Rajput courts as well as the period of the British Raj. An outstanding Maharani torque necklace (hasli), Bikaner, Rajasthan, late 19th century is estimated at £250,000-300,000. India boasts an unbroken tradition in the decorative arts that can be traced back at least five thousand years. A notable spurt in the traditional jewelled arts of India took place in the late nineteenth century, a period that witnessed a marriage between the traditional craft knowledge of the Subcontinent and European fashions and taste of the time. This type of necklace derives its name from the Hindi word hansuli (collar- bone), and as indicated, rests on the collarbone of the wearer. It is a quintessentially Rajasthani ornament, though beautiful silver torques were worn in other areas across the Indian subcontinent.

An outstanding Maharani torque necklace (hasli), Bikaner, Rajasthan, late 19th century | Lot | Sotheby's

An outstanding Maharani torque necklace (hasli), Bikaner, Rajasthan, late 19th century | Lot | Sotheby's

An outstanding Maharani torque necklace (hasli), Bikaner, Rajasthan, late 19th century | Lot | Sotheby's

An outstanding Maharani torque necklace (hasli), Bikaner, Rajasthan, late 19th century | Lot | Sotheby's

An outstanding Maharani torque necklace (hasli), Bikaner, Rajasthan, late 19th century. Estimate 250,000 — 300,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby’s

comprised of diamonds, rubies and emeralds set in green enamel using the kundan-mina technique with an inner edge of pearls set in gold cups and an outer fringe of emerald beads, the reverse decorated with a row of green enamel leaves on a white ground; 20cm. diam.

NOTES: India boasts an unbroken tradition in the decorative arts that can be traced back at least five thousand years. A notable spurt in the traditional jewelled arts of India took place in the late nineteenth century, a period that witnessed a marriage between the traditional craft knowledge of the Subcontinent and European fashions and taste of the time.

The present hasli or torque necklace was decorated in the Kundan technique by which precious stones were set into hyper-purified gold that was refined into strips of malleable foil which develops an adhesive quality at room temperature. Diamonds and rubies were then placed directly into this setting, on a polished gold or silver foil to highlight the gemstone’s reflection and colour. This rich design is enhanced with a bright and colourful enamel layer (mina) and further adorned with hanging emeralds and pearls. The quality of execution on the present torque is exceptional and points to a noble or royal patronage.

This type of necklace derives its name from the Hindi word ‘hansuli’ (collar-bone), and as indicated, rests on the collarbone of the wearer. It is a quintessentially Rajasthani ornament, though beautiful silver torques were worn in other areas across the Indian subcontinent. An attribution to Bikaner is further confirmed by the strongly Mughal-influenced design of the necklace and the predominant use of green with a metallic sheen on its surface.

For further examples of such haslis, see M. Latif, M, Bijoux Moghols, exhibition catalogue, Société Générale de Banque, Brussels, 1982, p.171, nos. 38 and 39.

From the collections of the Dukes of Northumberland is a manuscript on the romance of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu (the Bahar-i-Danish) with 118 fully-coloured miniatures, including 22 double-page scenes. This profusely illustrated copy, demonstrating the scope of Mughal book production in late- seventeenth and early-eighteenth century India, is estimated to bring £100,000- 150,000.

Shaykh Inayat Allah Kanbu of Lahore, Bihar-i-Danish (‘The Romance of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu’), Mughal, late 17th/early 18th century | Lot | Sotheby's

Shaykh Inayat Allah Kanbu of Lahore, Bihar-i-Danish (‘The Romance of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu’), Mughal, late 17th/early 18th century | Lot | Sotheby's

Shaykh Inayat Allah Kanbu of Lahore, Bihar-i-Danish (‘The Romance of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu’), Mughal, late 17th/early 18th century | Lot | Sotheby's

Shaykh Inayat Allah Kanbu of Lahore, Bihar-i-Danish (‘The Romance of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu’), Mughal, late 17th/early 18th century | Lot | Sotheby's

Shaykh Inayat Allah Kanbu of Lahore, Bihar-i-Danish (‘The Romance of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu’), Mughal, late 17th/early 18th century | Lot | Sotheby's

Shaykh Inayat Allah Kanbu of Lahore, Bihar-i-Danish (‘The Romance of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu’), Mughal, late 17th/early 18th century | Lot | Sotheby's

Shaykh Inayat Allah Kanbu of Lahore, Bihar-i-Danish (‘The Romance of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu’), Mughal, late 17th/early 18th century | Lot | Sotheby's

Shaykh Inayat Allah Kanbu of Lahore, Bihar-i-Danish (‘The Romance of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu’), Mughal, late 17th/early 18th century | Lot | Sotheby's

Shaykh Inayat Allah Kanbu of Lahore, Bihar-i-Danish (‘The Romance of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu’), Mughal, late 17th/early 18th century | Lot | Sotheby's

Shaykh Inayat Allah Kanbu of Lahore, Bihar-i-Danish (‘The Romance of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu’), Mughal, late 17th/early 18th century | Lot | Sotheby's

Shaykh Inayat Allah Kanbu of Lahore, Bihar-i-Danish (‘The Romance of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu’), Mughal, late 17th/early 18th century | Lot | Sotheby's

Shaykh Inayat Allah Kanbu of Lahore, Bihar-i-Danish (‘The Romance of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu’), Mughal, late 17th/early 18th century | Lot | Sotheby's

Shaykh Inayat Allah Kanbu of Lahore, Bihar-i-Danish (‘The Romance of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu’), Mughal, late 17th-early 18th century. Estimate 100,000 — 150,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby’s

Persian manuscript on paper, 375 leaves, foliated in Persian numerals in red, 16 lines to the page, written innasta’liq script in black with headings and important passages in red, two illuminated headpieces in colours and gold, the first with illumination in the margins on two pages, 118 fully-coloured miniatures, including 22 double-page scenes, margins ruled in red and gold, 19th-century English description of the manuscript written on blank at beginning, 19th-century Indian red morocco with yellow painted borders and decoration on backstrip, modern gilt library number 774 on spine; 26.5 by 16cm.

PROVENANCE: Probably acquired by Henry Algernon George Percy, Earl Percy (1871-1909), appointed Under-Secretary of State for India between 1902-3, and who travelled extensively in the near East and Africa, thence by descent.

SOLD BY ORDER OF THE 12TH DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND AND THE TRUSTEES OF THE NORTHUMBERLAND ESTATES

NOTES: Shaykh Inayat Allah completed the text of the Bahar-i-Danish towards the end of Shah Jahan’s reign in 1061 AH/1651 AD. In the introduction Inayat Allah admits that his story is an Indian one which he heard told by a Brahmin, and which he adapted to create the present Persian version. The English inscription at the beginning refers to the translation made by Jonathan Scott, published in 1799.

This profusely illustrated copy is likely to originate from the late Aurangzeb period at the end of the seventeenth century, although a large amount of the paintings evoke the style and lyricism of the earlier Shah Jahan period, and such artists as Govardhan (active in the first half of the seventeenth century). Interestingly the manuscript contains an earlier portrait of Shah Jahan in his old age on folio seven, and this appears to have been added at some point after the production of the work.

While most of the miniatures are in the later seventeenth century Mughal style, others retain features of the early eighteenth century. A likely explanation for this is that a certain amount of the pages were left blank when originally illustrated, and were painted a little later. The manuscript is unusual for this combination of painting, and a parallel can be drawn with other Mughal romances of the early eighteenth century, for example the Karnama-i-ishq dated 1735, now in the India Office Library as Johnson Album 38.

The illumination and miniatures are as follows:

f. 1b-2       Illuminated headpiece with decorated borders on two pages.
f. 3b-4       Coloured portrait drawings of two Mughal courtiers facing one another.
f. 6            A mullah reading a document.
f. 6b          Illuminated headpiece.
f. 7            Shah Jahan standing with a sword over his shoulder.
f. 7b-8       Portraits of two Mughal courtiers.
f. 11          A prince with three mullahs.
f. 13b        A lady sleeping with her baby.
f. 14          Jahandar Sultan receiving courtiers.
f. 15b        Jahandar Sultan hawking.
f. 16b        Groom with a horse.
f. 17          Jahandar Sultan discussing a caged parrot.
f. 19          Jahandar Sultan meets Bahravar Banu.
f. 23           A mullah passes out before Bahravar Banu and her ladies.
f. 27           Sultan Jahandar faints at the sight of the portrait of Bahravar Banu.
f. 33b         A man hanging upside down from a tree.
f. 34           Sultan Jahandar and Bahravar Banu asleep as a cobra approaches.
f. 38b          A man up a tree attacked by a snake.
f. 42            Two ladies with a man and a cow.
f. 42b          Ladies with a slain male corpse at night.
f. 43b          A lady attacking a man with a sword.
f. 47            Two ladies with a man and a cow.
f. 58            Courtiers hailing Sultan Jahandar and Bahravar Banu.
f. 67            Men stoning a maiden having hanged an old lady.
f. 69b          Two cats up a tree with a man beneath.
f. 72             A lady receives a peacock.
f. 74             A maiden beheaded.
f. 75b           Two men discussing two dead birds.
f. 79             A man approaching ladies at a well.
f. 81             The man levitates over a bed.
f. 82b            A couple with a cow.
f. 83b            A lady tended on a bed.
f. 85              A man up a tree while a couple search beneath.
f. 87b-88       A lady in a palanquin.
f. 90              A lady with a severed nose visiting a sleeping man.
f. 91              Sultan Jahandar pleading with a lady.
f. 93b            A prince enthroned.
f. 97              Sultan Jahandar enthroned.
f. 99b            Men watching a travelling divine.
f. 101            Space left for miniature].
f. 104            A parrot brought to a holy man.
f. 104b          An empty landscape.
f. 106            A prince visiting a holy man.
f. 110b-111    Archers aiming at a Simurgh which carries off a body.
f. 112b           A girl on the tail of a water-dragon.
f. 113-114      Monkeys beneath a tree into which a bhil has climbed
f. 114b           A monkey embraces the bhil.
f. 117-118      The monkeys wave the bhil off on her sea voyage.
f. 120b-121    The bhil approaches a meeting of four divines.
f. 124b           A rat, a jackal, and a camel tied to a tree.
f. 126b-127     Riders approaching rats who carry gold coins in their mouths.
f. 129             A rat rides the camel.
f. 129b           Ground squirrels (?) in a landscape.
f. 133             Two ladies in discussion.
f. 133b           A lady flies with wings.
f. 136             A prince asleep with attendants, one dozing.
f. 136b           Palace with doorkeepers.
f. 129             Prisoners with executioner.
f. 143b-144     A nobleman aiming a bow beyond two courtiers.
f. 144b           Man with a parrot on his head.
f. 148             A man on a verandah.
f. 148b           The man receives a parrot.
f. 151             The man falls into a river where a fisherman casts his net.
f. 151b           A lady in a boat.
f. 155             An old man with a sick cow.
f. 155b           The cow gets better.
f. 161             A demon sleeps in a landscape.
f. 161b           A prince approaching a lady.
f. 165             A town beneath clouds.
f. 165b           Sleeping prince with attendants.
f. 170b           Man with fish [defective].
f. 173b           A king holding court.
f. 174             A man feeding a fish out of water.
f. 177b-178    A king entertained by musicians and dancing girls.
f. 181b           A man leads his veiled wife on horseback.
f. 190b-191    A severed head brought to a prince while gunmen shoot sky-travellers.
f. 196b           A mounted warrior slain in the field by a mounted prince.
f. 198b           A p ince hawking with his lady.
f. 2013b         A queen and mutilated men.
f. 210b-211    A prince leaves his throne to greet a friend in a field.
f. 216            Two ladies taking refreshment.
f. 221b-222    An elopement on a camel.
f. 226            A prince petitioned by a mullah.
f. 231b-232   The prince with the mullah and others.
f. 244            A prince with attendants.
f. 245            A mullah visiting a lady.
f. 249b          A sleeping lady lifted by thieves.
f. 250            The thieves vanquished after a fight while the lady remains asleep.
f. 25b-258     Two men discussing a simurgh while a cobra climbs to her nest.
f. 264b-265    A lady chased from the zenana garden while the simurgh approaches.
f. 266b          A prince receives a visitor.
f. 267            A prince by a tank.
f. 271            Cats fighting while some men depart.
f. 75b-276     A man brings a netted captive beneath the window of a lady.
f. 280            A prince and princess with ladies.
f. 282b-283   A prince and lady with female musicians.
f. 288b          A man runs away as his horse grows a serpent’s tail.
f. 289            Two cobras.
f. 292            Courtiers considering a tree-sprite.
f. 295b-296   A melon floating in the ornamental pool of a garden.
f. 299           Three men hailing a princess at her window.
f. 302           Two ladies meet a negro.
f. 308b         Four ladies bathing.
f. 309           A prince fainting.
f. 314           A lady travelling by camel.
f. 322           A couple by a fish pool.
f. 326           A boy with deer.
f. 328b         Four ladies finding a boy under a tree.
f. 333b-334  A princess shows her portrait to a prince, dancers on the left.
f. 337           The prince and princess enthroned.
f. 341b         The prince and princess in a garden.
f. 346b         A swordsman chasing deer in a landscape.
f. 349b         A mynah bird brought to a prince by a courtier.
f. 351b         A buck caught by hounds before a prince.
f. 358b-359  A battle scene with elephants and cavalry.
f. 359b-360  A prince and princess with girl entertainers.
f. 365b         Ladies bringing presents to a prince.
f. 372b-373 Princes following the biers of Jahandar Sultan and Bahravar Banu on horseback.

The sale features a magnificent private collection of 31 photo albums from the magnificent private collection of Sven Gahlin, containing over 2,000 photographs of India, Ceylon, Burma and Southeast Asia, dating from the 1850s to the early twentieth century. Apart from eight individual photographs, which were exhibited at the Photographers’ Gallery in 1983, none of the albums have ever been exhibited or seen in public since their acquisition over 40 years ago. The total estimated value of the collection is £150,000-220,000. These historically important albums belonged to some of the most influential families of British colonial history in India, including four albums from the family of Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905. Ranging from stunningly beautiful images of India’s landscape and architecture, to the pomp and ceremony of colonial life, to haunting documents of the Indian famine, the collection is unparalleled as an archive of one of the defining eras of British and Asian history.

Fine Art Asia presents its strongest collection of museum-quality fine art and antiques for its 10th edition

13 samedi Sep 2014

Posted by alaintruong2014 in Chinese Bronze, Contemporary Asian Art, Impressionist & Modern Art, Indian Art, Jewelry, Silver, Gold Boxes & Objects of Vertu

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Étiquettes

10th century, 28.8.96, Alisan Fine Arts, archaic bronze vessel, Avalokitèshvara Padmapani, Burmese Sapphire Brooch, Dehres, Early Western Zhou Dynasty, Elizabeth Taylor, gui, Hong Kong, Joyce Gallery, late 19th century, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Richard Burton, Rossi & Rossi, Six Auspicious Cranes, The Buckingham Vase, Western Tibet, Yu Hui, Zao Wou-Ki

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Avalokitèshvara Padmapani, Western Tibet, Bronze, trace of gilding, cast in the lost wax method, 34.8 cm (17 ¾ in), 10th century exhibited by Rossi & Rossi, London/Hong Kong (HK$27,300,000).

HONG KONG.- Fine Art Asia 2014, Asia’s leading international fine art fair, celebrates its 10th edition from 4-7 October at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, (Private Preview Friday, 3 October).

Key artworks include an archaic bronze 10th-11th century figure of Avalokitèshvara Padmapani from Western Tibet, exhibited by Rossi & Rossi, London/Hong Kong (HK$27,300,000); a highly important agate collection from Iran, 1st millennium BC, presented by David Aaron Ancient Art, London (over US$100,000); an archaic bronze vessel with four animal masks shown by Joyce Gallery, Hong Kong; and a rare 18th century volume on China exhibited by Shapero Rare Books, London. Douwes Fine Art, Amsterdam, will bring Rembrandt etchings, while MacConnal-Mason Gallery, London present “Scene de Plage” by Eugène-Louis Boudin and Gladwell & Patterson show “Portrait d bébé (Lucien Daudet)” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Outstanding silver pieces include The Buckingham Vase dating from 1811 exhibited by Koopman Rare Art, London. A magnificent late 19th century Burmese sapphire brooch given to Elizabeth Taylor by Richard Burton, will be shown by Dehres, Hong Kong (HK$39,000,000). “28.8.96” by Zao Wou-ki will be displayed by Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, Hong Kong (HK$13,000,000); while Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong will present “Six Auspicious Cranes” by Yu Hui (b. 1960) (HK$2,000,000).

An extremely rare archaic bronze vessel, gui, with square pedestal and inscription, Early Western Zhou Dynasty (c.1046-977 BC).H. 23cm x W. 24.5cm x L. 17.5cm. Joyce Gallery, Hong Kong.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Portrait de Bébé (Lucien Daudet). Executed in 1878.Signed and dated ‘Renoir.78’ (upper right). Pastel on paper.H. 52.9cm x W.42.5cm. Gladwell & Patterson, London. 

THE BUCKINGHAM VASE (United Kingdom)

Paul Storr, London(1771-1844), The Buckingham Vase dating from 1811 exhibited by Koopman Rare Art, London.

A Magnificent Non-Heated Burmese Sapphire Brooch. Late 19th century, 37.29 carats, given to Elizabeth Taylor by Richard Burton. Dehres, Hong Kong. (HK$39,000,000).

A Magnificent Non-Heated Burmese Sapphire Brooch. Late 19th century, 37.29 carats, given to Elizabeth Taylor by Richard Burton. Dehres, Hong Kong. (HK$39,000,000).

Zao Wou-Ki (1921 – 2013), 28.8.96, 1996. Oil on Canvas. H. 195cm x W. 130cm. Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, Hong Kong (HK$13,000,000)

Yu Hui (b. 1960), Six Auspicious Cranes, 2012, 92x171cm. Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong. (HK$2,000,000).

Fine Art Asia 2014 is staged at the peak of the October art season in Hong Kong and coincides with Sotheby’s auctions in the same venue. A sophisticated audience of over 35,000 visitors is expected to attend, including major dealers, collectors, curators and connoisseurs from throughout Asia as well as from all over the world.

A unique array of fine art
On display at the fair will be Asian and Western antiques including ancient Chinese bronzes, rare Himalayan, Central Asian and Islamic art, Chinese ceramics, lacquer wares, snuff bottles and scholars’ objects, furniture, textiles and jades; as well as European decorative arts from the 19th to 21st century. Visitors can discover the finest antique silver from both East and West, and iconic jewellery by the world’s greatest designers including Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Bulgari. Old Master paintings, Impressionist and Modern art should not be missed, with works by Rembrandt, Renoir, Matisse, Rodin, Picasso, Miró, Moore and Andy Warhol on view. The contemporary art section will highlight paintings by Zao Wou-ki and acclaimed international artists, as well as exceptional Chinese ink paintings.

Andy Hei, Co-Chairman and Director of Fine Art Asia said, “We are proud to celebrate our 10th edition with our strongest-ever collection of antiques and fine art from both East and West. Once again this year we are delighted to welcome leading international galleries from all over the world. Hong Kong is the centre of the art market in Asia and has established a key role in the global art market.”

Calvin Hui, Co-chairman and Director of Fine Art Asia said, “Ever since its inception, Fine Art Asia has played a crucial role in creating a platform of excellence for the international art world in Hong Kong. The fair brings the finest pieces to Asian collectors, as well as introducing new collecting categories, thus expanding the fine art market in Asia.”

Fair programmes
Cognac and Art through the Ages
Fine Art Asia 2014 sponsor Martell is one of the oldest cognac houses in the world, founded in 1715. The fair will feature a special art project, “Cognac and Art through the Ages” which will trace the development of Martell Cognac alongside precious works of art by iconic masters over the past 300 years.

n addition, the exquisite Tricentenaire edition Martell bottle, designed by world-renowned contemporary French artist Bernar Venet, will be unveiled for the first time to guests and the media at Fine Art Asia 2014.

Chinese Imperial Treasures
Since its inception in 2006, Fine Art Asia has presented outstanding museum-quality antiques displayed by world-renowned galleries, each a specialist in its field. To celebrate the 10th edition of the fair in 2014, a special exhibition of exquisite antiques will be shown, epitomizing the most important periods in Chinese history.

Throughout the centuries, the finest Chinese artworks were made for the Emperor, often in the Imperial Palace Workshops in Beijing. Included in the exhibition will be examples of classical Chinese furniture from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644); Chinese porcelain from the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Ming Dynasty, and the Kangxi (1662-1722) and Qianlong periods (1736-1795) of the Qing Dynasty; as well as rare Ming and Qing Dynasty lacquer wares, bronzes and enamel pieces.

Christie’s announces the sales of Asian Art Week: A series of six auctions from 16-19 September

02 mardi Sep 2014

Posted by alaintruong2014 in Buddhist Works of Art, Chinese Ceramics, Chinese Furniture, Chinese Paintings, Chinese Porcelains, Chinese Textile, Chinese works of Art, Contemporary Asian Art

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Étiquettes

15th-early 16th century, 18th century, 2nd-3rd century, archaistic ‘wheeled’ phoenix-form vase, ‘fu lu shou’ jar, Blue-and-White, Bodhisattva, circa 1740-1763, cloisonné enamel, cloisonné enamel deep bowl, double gourd vase, early 18th century, Fan leaf, fangjiaogui, Gandhara, gengchen year, gray schist figure, guan, Huachang, huanghuali, Jiajing six-character mark in underglaze blue and of the period, mandala, Ming Dynasty, Qianlong period, ram and vase group, sancai- glazed, Shitao, square-corner cabinet, Squirrel, Tang dynasty, Tibeto-Chinese, Vajravarahi, Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, white satin imperial guardsman’s ceremonial uniform and helmet, Xu Gu, Zhou Jing, Zun

A 2nd-3rd century Gandharan gray schist figure of a bodhisattva. Estimate: $250,000-350,000. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2014. 

NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announced the sales of Asian Art Week for Fall 2014. The series of six sales, running from 16-19 September, will present over one thousand lots of exceptional quality and rarity that span centuries of Asian Art. Among the highlights of the week is Christie’s first sale in New York completely devoted to the finest examples of cloisonné enamels from private American collections. The September Asian Art Week will also feature a great deal of works with exquisite provenance, perhaps most notably the sale of Works from the Collection of Shumita and Arani Bose, featuring 26 masterpieces of contemporary Southeast Asian Art. In addition to the sales, Christie’s will have on view four special exhibitions throughout the galleries, including a new category – Chinese Contemporary Design: A Dialogue Between Tradition and Modernity – to be sold in Shanghai and for Private Sale. 

FINE CHINESE PAINTINGS 16 September

Christie’s sale of Fine Chinese Paintings will take place on 16 September and feature 120 traditional and modern works of art. Leading the sale is Shitao’s Plants and Calligraphy (estimate: $250,000-350,000), a seventeenth-century album of eight leaves, comprising four paintings and four leaves of poems. This album is one of three known works that Shitao dedicated to his contemporary Zhou Jing, a lay Buddhist with whom he had cultivated a close friendship during the 1680s. The lotus reflects Buddhist notions of transcendence and, while lotuses remain pure despite growing in muddy surroundings, and bamboo shoots flourish during the harshest periods of winter, Shitao also endured, maintaining loyalty to the Ming imperial Zhu family, into which he was born, despite the political oppression he faced with the rise of the Qing dynasty. 

Shitao (1642-1708), Plants and Calligraphy. Album of eight leaves, ink on paper. Four paintings, each with one seal of the artist. Four leaves of poems inscribed by the artist, each signed and with one or two seals. Dedicated to Zhou Jing (18th-19th century). Colophon by Zhou Jing, with two seals. Each leaf: 9 3/8 x 7¼ in. (23.8 x 18.4 cm). Estimate: $250,000-350,000. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2014. 

Xu Gu’s Squirrel (estimate: $50,000-60,000), a framed 19th century fan leaf will also be offered in the sale. A common theme for Xu Gu but unusual for other artists, Xu Gu’s squirrel appears electrified, with fuzzy, static fur and bulging, hungry eyes. The energetic appearance of the rodent is in noted contrast to the soft and smooth pastel surfaces of the fruit that he is about to eat. 

Xu Gu (1824-1896), Squirrel. Fan leaf, mounted and framed, ink and color on paper. Inscribed and signed by the artist, with two seals. Dated winter, gengchen year (1880). Dedicated to Huachang; 10½ x 20½ in. (16.5 x 52 cm.). Estimate: $50,000-60,000. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2014.

INDIAN & SOUTHEAST ASIAN ART 16 September

Christie’s sale of Indian and Southeast Asian Art will take place on 16 September and offer 125 exquisite works of art from Gandhara, Nepal, Tibet and India.

Among the sale highlights is a 2nd/3rd century Gandharan gray schist figure of a bodhisattva (estimate: $250,000-350,000), one who has achieved enlightenment but has forgone nirvana (the escape from rebirth) to serve as guides for all sentient beings. The iconography, such as the topknot, rich vestments, jeweled foliate collar, and rope-work necklace, leads one to believe that this figure represents either Maitreya, the Buddha of the future, or the historical Prince Siddhartha. The naturalistic attention to drapery employed in this example is characteristic of the Gandharan period and drawn from the earlier Greco- Roman influence in the region. The figure’s left knee is slightly bent, as if he has just taken a step forward, conveying a subtle yet powerful sense of moving closer to the viewer. 

An important gray schist figure of a bodhisattva, Gandhara, 2nd-3rd century. Sensitively modeled with gently swaying hips, dressed in a sheer dhoti with elegantly cascading folds and a sanghati draped over the left shoulder, adorned with a torque and necklace with lion-head clasps, the face with bow-shaped mouth, aquiline nose, and almond-shaped eyes, the hair in wavy locks and secured over the ushnisha with a beaded headband; 36½ in. (92.7 cm.) high. Estimate: $250,000-350,000. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2014. 

This sale also includes a selection of paintings highlighted by a Tibeto-Chinese painting of a Vajravarahi thirty-seven-deity mandala (estimate: $80,000-120,000), circa 1740-1763. An inscription at the bottom of this exquisite painting indicates that it was commissioned by Yintao, the 12th of twenty sons of the Kangxi Emperor and designed by Changkya Rolpa’I Dorje, the personal Buddhist teacher of the Qianlong Emperor and head lama in Beijing during the 18th century. 

A painting of a Vajravarahi thirty-seven-deity mandala Tibeto-Chinese, Qianlong period, circa 1740-1763

A painting of a Vajravarahi thirty-seven-deity mandala, Tibeto-Chinese, Qianlong period, circa 1740-1763. With auspicious characters arranged around a lotus blossom within the walls of a palace, all above an enormous lotus with flaming border with flying garland-bearers and charnel ground scenes, all set within a mountainous and watery landscape; 28¾ x 21¾ in. (73 x 55.3 cm.). Estimate: $80,000-120,000. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2014.

A PIONEERING VISION: WORKS FROM THE COLLECTION OF SHUMITA AND ARANI BOSE 17 September

A Pioneering Vision: Works from the Collection of Shumita and Arani Bose will be offered on 17 September in New York. In the two decades since co-founding the New York based Bose Pacia, the first gallery in the West specializing exclusively in contemporary South Asian art, Shumita and Arani Bose have nurtured, supported and promoted India’s most important avant garde artists. Carefully curated by these internationally renowned tastemakers, the Collection of Shumita and Arani Bose is one of the most comprehensive and distinguished in the West. This iconic and eclectic selection will offer 26 illustrious masterpieces by modern masters such as Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, Francis Newton Souza and Bhupen Khakhar, alongside international contemporary superstars. 

Among the highlights of the sale is Vasudeo S. Gaitonde’s Untitled (estimate: $750,000-900,000), painted in 1971. Gaitonde is recognized as having been an innovator and stands apart from his Indian contemporaries for his espousal of a purely abstract aesthetic in art. The work to be offered in September showcases Gaitonde as a painter, philosopher and alchemist at the zenith of his career. His fully matured and resolved style creates a harmonious symphony of the abstract, minimalist and conceptual aesthetic. 

Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, Untitled

Vasudeo S. Gaitonde (1924-2001), Untitled, signed and dated ‘V.S. Gaitonde 71’ and signed and dated in Hindi (on the reverse), oil on canvas ,45 x 29 7/8 in. (114.3 x 75.9 cm.). Painted in 1971. Estimate: $750,000-900,000. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2014.

This sale will also include Francis Newton Souza’s monumental masterpiece The Butcher, painted in 1962 whilst living in London, where his talent and reputation were firmly cemented. The Butcher represents the apex of the raw, expressionist style that characterized Souza’s works in this era, and is influenced by the works of El Greco and Goya as well as the Romanesque paintings and Catalonian frescos he earlier saw on a visit to Spain. Souza’s painting focuses on the agent of butchery, casting him as a symbol of the tragic destiny of man, forever damned to suffer in torment. This epic painting on black satin is one of the largest to come to auction – a seminal work that captures the shocking and powerful grotesque for which Souza is celebrated. 

SOUTH ASIAN MODERN + CONTEMPORARY ART 17 September

Following the auction of A Pioneering Vision is the South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art sale, which will feature 70 lots, offering iconic works by leading modernist masters Syed Haider Raza, Maqbool Fida Husain, Manjit Bawa, and Jagdish Swaminathan. The sale will be led by Manjit Bawa’s monumental masterpiece Untitled (Durga) (estimate: $380,000-450,000). Bawa distilled figuration to its most elemental components, giving primacy to line by evoking elements of Kalighat painting while simultaneously exploring the saturated and gem-toned hues of miniature painting. Bawa was influenced by ancient mythology and Hindu literature, and in the present work he depicts Durga, the female supreme deity, mounted on the back of her lion. Bawa’s use of space and color creates a mesmerizing composition that conjures a window into a world of imagination, myth, mysticism and magic. 

Also among the sale’s highlights is Maqbool Fida Husain’s Untitled (Elephants) (estimate: $100,000-150,000). Husain uses gestural brushstrokes and warm, almost fauvist, coloring to depict this tender family portrait. This painting presents three elephants as they revel in a pure and primal playfulness, surrounded by an atmospheric dense green jungle. 

RIVERS OF COLOR: CHINESE CLOISONNÉ ENAMELS FROM PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTIONS 18 September

On September 18, Christie’s will present Rivers of Color: Chinese Cloisonné Enamels from Private American Collections, a dedicated sale of over 50 works of exceptional cloisonné enamel works from China. 

Among the highlights of the sale is a superb and very rare Ming dynasty cloisonné enamel deep bowl, dating to the 15th-early 16th century (estimate: $300,000-500,000), beautifully decorated with winged mythical beasts on the exterior and interior. The sale also features a selection of outstanding works from the Collection of David B. Peck III, including a rare large cloisonné enamel ram and vase group, 18th century (estimate: $40,000-60,000) and a rare cloisonné enamel archaistic ‘wheeled’ phoenix-form vase, zun, Qianlong period (1736-1795) (estimate: $60,000-80,000). 

A superb and very rare Ming dynasty cloisonné enamel deep bowl, Ming dynasty, 15th-early 16th century, 5¾ in. (14.7 cm.) high, 6¼ in. (16 cm.) diam

Jingtai six-character mark

A superb and very rare Ming dynasty cloisonné enamel deep bowl, Ming dynasty, 15th-early 16th century, 5¾ in. (14.7 cm.) high, 6¼ in. (16 cm.) diam. Estimate: $300,000-500,000. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2014.

The deep bowl has a bulbous body that tapers and then flares towards the rim. Each side is decorated with a winged, long-tailed makara with open jaws from which issue a string of pearls and a long-stemmed lotus flower, all amidst clouds and precious emblems on a dark blue ground above a band of rolling, white-capped waves from which rise turquoise rocks beneath each of the gilded animal-mask handles. Below is a petal-lappet border, repeated on the spreading foot, and above is a diaper border. The interior is decorated in the center with a medallion of a winged dragon within a petal-lappet border, and on the walls with scrolling stems bearing lotus blossoms and small turquoise leaves reserved on a white ground below a border of demi-florets at the rim. A Jingtai six-character mark is cast in a line in a panel on the gilded base.

Provenance: Acquired in New York in the early twentieth century, and thence by descent to the current owner.

PROPERTY FROM A WEST COAST COLLECTION

A SUPERB AND VERY RARE CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL DEEP BOWL
By Claudia Brown
Professor of Art History, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
Arizona State University

This exquisite bowl is one of a select group of fourteenth- to sixteenth-century cloisonné enamels prized by the Qing court in the eighteenth century. Master craftsmen working for Emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong embellished precious Yuan and early- and mid-Ming cloisonné vessels with newly prepared metal fittings and bases. This practice identified such works as fine and noble works of art and presented them in an enhanced form. The new bases added to these pieces typically bear the Ming-dynasty reign mark of Jingtai (1450-1457). In this instance, the craftsmen, likely from the Palace Workshops, or Zaobanchu, also added two small handles – one at either side of the bowl – each handle in the form of a zoomorphic head suggesting a fantastic feline creature with upturned snout and curling mane.

The most celebrated period for Chinese cloisonné is the Jingtai reign, just as Xuande (1426-1435) is associated with bronzes and blue-and-white porcelain and Chenghua (1465-1487) is prized for its overglaze enameled porcelains, particularly its doucai enameled wares. In fact, a seventeenth-century text praises « the bronze wares of the Xuande era, porcelain wares of the Chenghua era, lacquer wares of the Yongle era, and Jingtai cloisonné » (Bèatrice Quette, p. 155).

Even so, although fine enamels most assuredly were produced during the fifteenth century, scholars remain divided on the question of whether any surviving work with the Jingtai mark actually dates from that reign period. Few works can be reliably attributed to the mid-fifteenth century, and the legendary superiority of the cloisonné of the Jingtai reign remains unconfirmed. Jingtai marks on works in the Palace Museum, Beijing, show great variation in style (Yang Boda, « Jingtai falang« ) and are presumed to date to the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns, which leaves the appearance of an original Jingtai mark an open, and probably insoluble, enigma.

The main motif on the exterior of this bowl is a makara striding above rolling, white-capped waves. Sometimes referred to in Chinese sources as a kui dragon, the makara is a dragon-like creature with a split and foliated tail and a floral scroll issuing from its mouth; it originated in India and reached China via Nepal and Tibet during the Yuan period. Its appearance on early- and mid-Ming cloisonné is well documented. It also appears on Chenghua-period porcelains with doucai decoration, that is, porcelains with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue and overglaze polychrome enamels, such as the well-published wine cup in the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection (The Asia Society, Handbook of the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection (New York: The Asia Society), 1981, p.78, 1979.175). The colors on this cloisonné vessel range from purple – often termed « aubergine » in discussions of Ming-dynasty decorative arts – to the more commonly encountered colors of green, yellow, turquoise, dark blue, white, and red. These largely opaque enamels are joined by translucent ones in hues of light green, light yellow, and amethyst. The translucent hues were achieved by adding clear, colorless enamel to the opaque enamels of related color – that is, by adding clear enamel to opaque purple to achieve translucent amethyst, for example. The appearance of aubergine and amethyst marks another parallel to fifteenth- and early-sixteenth-century ceramics, as both doucai porcelains andfahua stonewares exhibit these colors.

The interior of this bowl boasts another auspicious creature, a winged dragon, or yinglong, also depicted above white-capped waves. The underside of this yinglong dragon shows the mid-Ming technique of mixing enamel colors within the cloisons, or cells. Red enamel frit is added to a matrix of white enamel, for example, to make a composite « Ming pink. » The technique is used on the exterior makara motif as well, notably on the inside of the creature’s open mouth. In the waves below the dragon, enamels of different shades of green as well as differing degrees of translucency are applied within each of the cells. The resulting effect suggests the abundance and turbulent character of the waves. The walls of the interior feature a scrolling floral pattern with multi-colored flowers and turquoise leaves set against a ground of white enamel.

The exterior of the vessel has a deep-blue ground, rather than the lighter, turquoise blue more typically seen in Chinesecloisonné enamels. While the blue of the best fifteenth-century pieces is deservedly prized, there is no concrete evidence to link it to the obscure Jingtai reign, or even to the years around 1450. However, the tradition of a « Jingtai blue » no doubt has an historical basis, even if that basis remains unclear to us today. Indeed, Jingtai lan (literally, « blue of the Jingtai era ») is common usage for cloisonné in Chinese today. In terminology, a shift from falang, the word previously used to designate cloisonné enamel, to Jingtai lan appears to have taken place in the early Qing period (Helmut Brinker and Albert Lutz, p. 94; Bèatrice Quette, p. 24).

The fine quality of this late-fifteenth to early-sixteenth century bowl is matched by the workmanship of its eighteenth-century embellishments. Those prized additions – a chiseled Jingtai mark with a bold calligraphic flourish to the characters, and the two small handles reminiscent of the mythological animals that enliven ancient bronzes – bespeak the sophistication of the officials and craftsmen of the Qing court. They were careful to preserve the integrity of the admired early enameled vessel while updating it with elegant embellishments in contemporaneous style.

Comparable works with makara motif:
Bowl, middle Ming dynasty, Palace Museum, Beijing (Li Jiufang, cat. 45)
Vessel, first half 16th century, National Palace Museum, Taipei (Chen, cat. 6)
Bowl, early Ming dynasty, George Walter Vincent Smith Collection, George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts, 63.23.83 (Quette, p. 108-109 and cat. 28.)
Bowl, early 16th century, D. Lyon-Goldschmidt (Garner, pl. 31A)
Ewer, early 16th century, ex-Kitson Collection (Garner, pl. 33)
Cup, ca. 1520-1540, Musée Guimet, MA 6375 (ARTstor)
Bowl, second half 16th century, Uldry collection (Brinker, cat. 88)
Vase, second half 16th century, Uldry collection (Brinker, cat. 88)

Comparable works with added handles, bases or other features:
Several examples in the Palace Museum (Yang, cats. 291, 292, 304, for example)

Comparable works with added Jingtai mark:
Large vase, mid-Ming, Palace Museum, Beijing (Yang, cat. 304)

Comparable work with deep blue ground and added Jingtai mark:
Vase, Ming dynasty, early 16th century, Phoenix Art Museum, 1982.172a,b, museum purchase and gift of Robert H. Clague (Brown, cat. 2; Brown in Quette, 138-139, Quette, cat. 41)

Comparable works dated to the Jingtai reign by Yang Boda:
Bowl and gu vessel (Yang, cats. 301 and 302) 

Comparable works with mixed colors (more extensive than in the present work):
Panel, second half 16th century or earlier, and censer, first half 16th century, Phoenix Art Museum, 1982.184 and 1982.174a,b, museum purchase and gift of Robert H. Clague (Brown, cats. 4 and 14; Quette, 249, cats. 50 and 232, cat. 17)
The Jardinière Tissot, early 17th century (Jingtai mark), Musée des Arts Decoratifs (Quette, 308, cat. 160)

Comparable works with flowers and turquoise leaves against a white ground:
Plate, Yuan or early Ming, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris (Quette, 233, cat. 19)

References: The Asia Society, Handbook of the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection (New York: The Asia Society), 1981.
Brinker, Helmut, and Albert Lutz, Chinesisches Cloisonné: Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry. Exh. cat. Zurich: Museum Rietberg Zurich, 1985. Published in English as Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, New York: Asia Society, 1989.
Brown, Claudia, Chinese Cloisonné: The Clague Collection. Exh. cat. Phoenix: Phoenix Art Museum, 1980.
Chen Hsia-sheng, Ming Qing falangqi zhanlan tulu (Enamel Ware in the Ming and Qing Dynasties). Taipei: National Palace Museum, 1999.
Garner, Sir Harry, Chinese and Japanese Cloisonné Enamels. London: Faber & Faber, 1962; reprinted 1970.
Li Jiufang, Jinshutai falangqi (Metal-bodied Enamel Ware), Vol. 43, Gugong bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji(The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum). Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, 2002.
Quette, Bèatrice, ed. Cloisonné: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties. Exh. cat. New York: Bard Graduate Center, 2011.
Yang Boda, ed. Zhongguo meishu quanji: Gongyi meishu bian 10: Jinyin boli falangqi (Complete Series on Chinese Art: Arts and Crafts 10: Metal, Glass and Enamel Wares). Beijing: Wenwu chunbanshe, 1987.
Yang Boda, « Jingtai falang de zhenxiang, » (An Exploration of the Authenticity of Cloisonné Enamels with Jingtai Marks), Gugong bowuyuan yuankan (Palace Museum Journal) 2 (1981): 3-16.

A rare large cloisonné enamel ram and vase group, 18th century

A rare large cloisonné enamel ram and vase group, 18th century, 22 in. (56 cm.) high. Estimate: $40,000-60,000. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2014.

The ram is shown standing with head turned sharply to the side, and its body is decorated with lotus scroll meander. The curved horns, ears, beard and hooved feet are gilded, as are the appliques of curls applied to the neck and the tail. A gilded petal-lappet band is at the base of the archaistic gu-form vase with gilt-dragon handles that rises from the center of the back.

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF DAVID B. PECK III

The unusual combination of a standing ram with a vase rising from its back may be an archaistic interpretation of bronze ram-form zun of late Shang date, such as the examples in the British Museum and the Nezu Museum, Tokyo, illustrated by Robert W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, pp. 121-22, figs. 173 and 175, respectively. In the bronze prototypes, the vessel is formed by two addorsed rams standing four-square that share a common body raised on four legs, an oblong neck cast with taotiemasks rising from the back. The shape of the heads, and horns are quite similar to those of the present cloisonné ram, and on the present vessel a gu-form vase has replaced the oblong neck of the bronze vessels.

A rare cloisonné enamel archaistic ‘wheeled’ phoenix-form vase, zun, Qianlong period (1736-1795)

A rare cloisonné enamel archaistic ‘wheeled’ phoenix-form vase, zun, Qianlong period (1736-1795), 11½ in. (29.2 cm.) high. Estimate: $60,000-80,000. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2014.

The vessel is in the shape of a phoenix perched on an axle between two stationary spoked wheels and supported in back by a smaller wheel inserted into the tail. The body is decorated with archaistic scrolls and wide bands of key fret outlining the under-turned tail. The slightly convex wings have blue feathers, and a pair of green, archaistic bird scrolls in relief flank a taotie mask on the breast. A pseudo-notched flange that centers the head, neck and body matches the four flanges on the trumpet-shaped vase which rises from the center of the back.

Provenance: Christie’s Hong Kong, 1-2 October 1991, lot 1683.
Spink & Son Ltd., London, 1992.

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF DAVID B. PECK III

This rare vessel appears to have been based on a very similar bronze vessel depicted in the bronze catalogue Xiqing gujian, compiled in 1749. (Fig. 1) It is in vol. 11, no. 29, of the 1908 edition, and illustrated by Bèatrice Quette (ed.) inCloisonné: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, Bard Graduate Center, New York, 2011, p. 89. As with the present vessel, the flanges do not appear to be truly notched, but made to appear so. The shape of the bird, decoration on the body, and shape of the wheel spokes are all similar. A late Ming dynasty version of this vessel in bronze, which also appears to be very similar, is in the National Palace Museum, and illustrated in Through the Prism of the Past, Taipei, 2003, p. 174, pl. III-42.

Wheeled bird-form vessels executed in cloisonné enamel appear to have appealed to the craftsmen of the Qianlong period, as evidenced by others of varying type that have been published. Two dated to the Qianlong period, are also illustrated by Quette in Cloisonné, p. 269, no. 88, in the Brooklyn Museum, and no. 89, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which has an inscribed four-character Qianlong mark. Another vessel of this type is illustrated in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1999, no. 70. See, also, the two vessels illustrated by H. Brinker and A. Lutz in Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, The Asia Society Galleries, New York, 1989, nos. 257 and 258. The original inspiration for all of these vessels would have been bronze zun in the shape of a standing bird with downward-curved tail made during the Western Zhou period, none of which, however, had wheels.

FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART 18-19 September

Christie’s sale of Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art will be held over the course of two days, featuring over 600 lots that span over 3,000 years and numerous collecting categories, including jade and hardstone carvings, fine classical Chinese furniture, archaic bronzes, early pottery and later porcelains, gilt-bronze Buddhist figures, imperial glass, and snuff bottles. 

Highlighting the sale is a magnificent pair of huanghuali square-corner cabinets, fangjiaogui, from the early 18th century (estimate: $500,000-800,000). The elegant form of these cabinets, with its attractive straight lines and pleasing aesthetic, has made it one of the most successful forms in Chinese furniture construction. Other outstanding works include a rare ‘sacrificial red’ dish, Xuande six-character incised mark within a double circle and of the period (1426-1435) (estimate: $120,000- 180,000), the highlight of a selection of ceramics, jades, and other works of art collected in the US in the 1970s and 1980s by the late Dr. Peter Greiner, a noted Midwestern collector and scholar. 

A magnificent pair of huanghuali square-corner cabinets, fangjiaogui, early 18th century

A magnificent pair of huanghuali square-corner cabinets, fangjiaogui, early 18th century, 67¾ in. (172.5 cm.) high, 38½ in. (97.7 cm.) wide, 19 3/8 in. (49.2 cm.) deep. Estimate: $500,000-800,000. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2014.

Each has a protruding molded top and bottom frame between the well-figured floating panel doors within a rectangular frame and fitted flush around the removable center stile. The doors have rectangular metal lock plates and pulls and open to reveal a shelved interior and two drawers constructed from huanghuali with chrysanthemum-form metal mounts and pulls. The narrow sides feature single panels with attractive grain, and the top panel is constructed of a solid huanghuali panel. The legs are of rectangular section with beaded edges and are joined in the front by a shaped apron carved with makara at the corners and interlocking leafy scroll and plain aprons and spandrel on the narrow sides. The richly-figured huanghuali wood is of golden-amber tone.

PROPERTY FROM THE JK LEE FAMILY FOUNDATION

The form of the present cabinet, with its attractive straight lines and pleasing aesthetic, has made it one of the most successful forms in Chinese furniture construction. One unusual, though very successful, variant evident on the present cabinet is the slightly protruding frame at the top, on the front side only, as typically the frame is flush on all four sides. See a related huanghuali square-corner cabinet of similar size, dated 17th-18th century, also with a protruding frame at the top sold at Christie’s New York, 22-23 March 2012, lot 1726.
It is not often that pairs of cabinets survive and the construction of the pair almost entirely from difficult to acquire huanghuali wood, found on the top and back of the cabinets, and also the drawers, makes this pair particularly rare.

A rare ‘sacrificial red’ dish, Xuande six-character incised mark within a double circle and of the period (1426-1435)

A rare ‘sacrificial red’ dish, Xuande six-character incised mark within a double circle and of the period (1426-1435), 7¾ in. (19.7 cm.) diam. Estimate: $120,000- 180,000. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2014.

The dish has shallow rounded sides raised on a tapering foot that rise to a slightly everted rim, and is covered inside and out with a glaze of soft crushed-strawberry-red color below the white rim.

Provenance: W.W. Winkworth (1897-1991) Collection.
Sotheby’s London, 12 December 1972, lot 38.
Dr. Peter M. Greiner (1940-2013) Collection.

Literature: Adrian M. Joseph, Ming Porcelains: Their Origins and Development, London, 1971, p. 73, no. 99.
Dr. Peter M. Greiner, A Walk into China’s Past, Michigan, 1980, no. 61.

Exhibited: Battle Creek, Michigan, A Walk Into China’s Past, 1980-1981, no. 61.

One of the most widely admired glazes in the history of Chinese porcelain production is the rich copper-red glaze seen on this Xuande dish. Successfully fired copper-red-glazed porcelains from the early 15th century, like the current example, are especially favored by connoisseurs, due to the combination of color and texture of the glaze. Not only is this a particularly beautiful glaze, it is also rare, since successful firing of this copper-red glaze was extremely difficult.

Monochrome copper-red glazes on Jingdezhen porcelain seem to have first appeared in extremely small numbers during the Yuan dynasty, but a clear, brilliant red does not appear to have been achieved. Even in the Hongwu reign (1468-98) of the Ming dynasty, when renewed efforts were made by the potters to improve copper red, the glazes tended to be semi-opaque and to have a somewhat waxy sheen to their surface. They also failed to reach a good color, and instead varied from an orangey-red to a muddy brownish-pink.

In the early 15th century, however, renewed efforts were made at the Imperial kilns to produce a fine copper-red glaze, such as that seen on the current dish. They appear to have made significant changes to the base glaze, which improved the color of the red. There seem to have been three changes made to the base glazes previously used. The potters slightly increased the calcium content, so that the glaze was nearer to the normal lime-alkali glaze used for underglaze blue porcelains. This made the glaze a little more fluid at high temperatures, allowing more bubbles to escape and also allowing more of the batch material in the glaze to dissolve. Both techniques added to clarity of the glaze, although there were still enough bubbles left to create the wonderful curdled texture characteristic of these glazes, which can clearly be seen on the current dish.

The potters also found that if they reduced the amount of copper in the glaze it created a purer red color, since too much copper tends to make the glazes look rather muddy, and they changed from using oxidized copper metal to using oxidized bronze. The tiny traces of tin, lead and antimony present in the oxidized bronze seem to have encouraged the reduction of the copper (Cu+) ions to colloidal copper metal during the cooling process, which helped to enhance the red color. In addition, the Xuande potters at the imperial kilns discovered that the red glazes were most successful when fired to a slightly higher temperature – about 1300o – slightly over the normal 1250-1280. Thus the potters of the early 15th century managed, at last, to produce rich cherry-red glazes, that are often called xianhong or ‘fresh red’, on porcelains, such as the current example, which remain the most sought-after of all copper-red wares.

It is also noteworthy that following the Hongwu Emperor’s edict of 1369, requiring that porcelain vessels should be used on the Imperial Altars, red-glazed porcelains came to be used on the Chaoritan, the Altar of the Sun, and hence the glaze on some of these copper-red vessels is called jihong, sacrificial red. Of course, as well as its use in ritual, the color red is associated in China with happiness and celebration.

A small number of Xuande copper-red dishes can be found in the Chinese palace collections. However, most of these examples have a six-character mark in underglaze blue on the base. There is one example which, like the present dish, bears an incised six-character Xuande mark. It was included in an exhibition of Xuande porcelains at the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and is illustrated in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsuan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, pp. 394-5, no. 170.

Two examples of Xuande-marked copper-red dishes in the Percival David Foundation with similar incised six-character marks inside a double circle are included in Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Qing Monochrome Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, rev. ed. 1989, p. 33, no. 556, and p. 32, no. A519. The first is slightly larger and the second of similar size to the current dish. Another copper-red dish with incised Xuande mark, of smaller size (6.15/16 in.), was sold at Christie’s New York, 21 September 2004, lot 258.

Compare, also, the slightly larger (8 5/8 in.) Xuande-marked copper-red dish from the Meiyintang Collection, formerly in the R.H.R. Palmer Collection, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2013, lot 9. Another Xuande-marked copper-red-glazed shallow dish of slightly larger size (8 in.) was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 3108.

Additional highlights from other prominent private collections include a sancai- glazed figure of a woman holding a goose, Tang dynasty (AD 618-907) (estimate: $30,000-50,000) and other works dating from the Shang to Qing dynasties from the estate of Mrs. Yale Kneeland (1869- 1955) and a superb selection of Qing mark-and-period glass from the collection of Hugh W. Greenberg. An interesting and diverse range of Song-Qing porcelains from the estate of New England collector Alfred E. Guntermann will also be on offer, including a rare large blue and white ‘fu lu shou’ jar, guan, Jiajing six-character mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1522-1566) (estimate: $30,000-50,000). 

A sancai- glazed figure of a woman holding a goose, Tang dynasty (AD 618-907)

A sancai- glazed figure of a woman holding a goose, Tang dynasty (AD 618-907), 12½ in. (31.8 cm.) high. Estimate: $30,000-50,000. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2014.

The woman is seated on a rock stool while holding a goose-form wine vessel in her arms. She wears a tunic worn over the right shoulder, while the left sleeve is tucked under the belt in back, and is splash-and-resist-glazed in green, amber and cream. The head and chest are unglazed. The round face is modeled with soft, delicate features and the hair is worn in a braid around the back of the head.

Provenance: Anna Ilsley Ball Kneeland (1865-1955), New York, acquired 1918-1931, and thence by descent within the family.

Exhibited: On loan: Yale University Art Gallery, 1955 to April 2014.

In figures of this type, the goose being held has been identified as both a goose being force fed and as a wine vessel. Jan Chapman in her paper, ‘A New Look at ‘Wine Carriers’ Among Tang Dynasty Figures’, T.O.C.S., vol. 52, 1987-88, pp. 11-20, illustrates two similar figures, p. 12, pls. 1 and 2, the first in the Rietberg Museum, the second in The Burrell Collection, Glasgow Museums and Art Gallery, and proposes for these figures as well as the others illustrated, both male and female, that they do not hold a real goose, or lion, but an earthenware vessel of goose or lion shape, in which a rhinoceros horn has been inserted as a stopper, which could also be used as a cup. The figures are usually identified as foreigners, of Central or Western Asian type. A figure, similar to the present figure, from Shanxi province, is illustrated in Wenwu, 1989:6, col. pl. and black and white pl. 4.1.

A related female figure holding a goose, but shown in a kneeling position, from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, was sold at Christie’s New York, 1 December 1994, lot 151A.

 

A rare large blue and white ‘fu lu shou’ jar, guan, Jiajing six-character mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1522-1566)

Jiajing six-character mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1522-1566)

A rare large blue and white ‘fu lu shou’ jar, guan, Jiajing six-character mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1522-1566), 19 in. (49.5 cm.) high. Estimate: $30,000-50,000. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2014.

The heavily-potted body is decorated with prunus, pine and bamboo comprising the ‘Three Friends of Winter,’ their branches twisted to form the characters fu, lu, and shou (‘good fortune, prosperity and longevity’), all between a band of interlocked ruyi heads alternating with shou characters on the shoulder and a further ruyi band below.

Provenance: Alfred E. Guntermann (1943-2013) Collection.

The sale also includes a rare dated white satin imperial guardsman’s ceremonial uniform and helmet, Qianlong period (1736- 1975) (estimate: $80,000-100,000); and a rare large painted enamel double-gourd vase of the Qianlong period (1736-1795) from the Collection of Mrs. James Bishop Peabody (estimate: $80,000-120,000). 

A rare dated white satin imperial guardsman’s ceremonial uniform and helmet, Qianlong period (1736- 1975)

A rare dated white satin Imperial guardsman’s ceremonial uniform and helmet, Qianlong period (1736- 1975). The tunic 29 1/8 in. (74 cm.) long; the apron 31 in. (79 cm.) long; helmet without flaps 24 in. (61 cm.) high. Estimate: $80,000-100,000. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2014.

The uniform is made of creamy-white silk satin bordered with midnight-blue silk and decorated with gilt-copper studs in imitation of armor, comprising a jacket with detachable sleeves, epaulettes, front panel, and apron. The tunic section of the jacket is lined with pale blue silk bearing an imperial inscription dating the uniform to the thirty-first year of Qianlong’s reign (1766). The helmet is of black lacquered cowhide with stud-decorated satin flaps, metal fittings and a decorative tassel of red-dyed yak hair on a spike below a double-gourd finial. Also included are original blue cotton storage pads.

Provenance: The Imperial Wardrobe: Fine Chinese Costume and Textiles; Christie’s New York, 19 March 2008, lot 40.

PROPERTY OF AN AMERICAN COLLECTOR

Exhibited: On loan: Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, March 2010 – March 2013.

The inscription on the tunic reads Qianlong sanshiyi nian, Suzhou di san ci ban, indicating that this imperial guard’s uniform was commissioned by the Qianlong emperor from the imperial silkworks at Hangzhou in 1766. Several thousand new ceremonial uniforms were commissioned for a grand review of the imperial army by Emperor Qianlong in 1766, and the uniforms were stored in a tower above the West Flowery Gate of the Forbidden City. This ceremony, called the Book of Shields, was held once every three years, and took place on a large parade ground south of the Forbidden City. Each regiment of the Manchu Banner Army was arranged in ranks at the parade ground, wearing uniforms in the colors of their Banner. The colors of this uniform, white with dark blue borders, indicate that the wearer was a foot soldier in the Inner Banner of the imperial guard that protected the imperial palace. Mounted imperial guards of the Outer Banners wore uniforms in the reverse color scheme, and protected the imperial city’s walls.

Although the purpose of this uniform was purely ceremonial, its construction is based on armour used for protection in battle. The sleeves are separate from the tunic body and attached by means of leather straps and buckles, thus allowing the wearer a greater range of arm movement. The exposed areas around the sleeves were then covered with shoulder guards. The legs were covered with aprons, again for protection, but the seat was left free to allow the wearer to mount a horse. The front square panel here is made of silk, but this would have been made of metal in actual combat armor.

Although thousands of different uniforms were made by the imperial workshops in 1767, this suit is one of very few known outside the Palace Museum Collection. Another suit, in private hands, was included in the exhibition, Heaven’s Embroidered Cloths, One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1995, and is illustrated in the catalogue, p. 239. For examples of uniforms in the Palace Collection, see La Cité Interdite, Musée de Petit Palais, Paris, 1996, pp. 136-39, no. 3, for an identical uniform, as well as uniforms of the Eight Banners, showing the different uniform colors.

 

A rare large painted enamel double-gourd vase, Qianlong period (1736-1795)

A rare large painted enamel double-gourd vase, Qianlong period (1736-1795), 23 in. (58.5 cm.) high, wood stand. Estimate: $80,000-120,000. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2014.

The vase is vertically lobed and finely painted on a finely stippled yellow ground with a fruiting and flowering leafy vine interspersed with butterflies and praying mantises that trails from the mouth rim, meanders around the body displaying variously colored double gourds, and surrounds two large leaf-shaped panels on the lower body. Each panel depicts a pair of Chinese bulbuls looking at each other in the branches of a crabapple tree, while two butterflies flutter nearby, the blue sky forming the background. A band of spiralled lavender ribbon and green cord encircles the foot, and the interior is covered in turquoise enamel, the base in white.

Provenance: Heber Reginald Bishop (1840-1902).
James Cunningham Bishop (1870-1932).
Mary Cunningham Bishop Peabody (1893-1980).
James Bishop Peabody (1922-1977), and thence by descent to the present owner.

The combination of gourds and butterflies constitutes a rebus for ‘numerous descendants’.

Two very similar painted enamel vases, both in size and decoration, have been published: one in the Fairhaven Collection, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, illustrated by R. Soame Jenyns and W. Watson in Chinese Art II, New York, 1980, p. 152, pl. 111, subsequently sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 October 1995, lot 629, and now in the collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art; the other in the exhibition catalogue, Chinese Works of Art and Snuff Bottles, The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, June 1994, no. 25. Two much smaller (11.6 and 16.5 cm.) painted enamel double-gourd vases decorated in a similar style and each bearing a Qianlong seal mark have also been published. One in the Beijing Palace Museum is illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, vol. 10, Gold, Silver, Glass and Enamels, Beijing, 1987, p. 191, no. 342, and p. 105, where the vase is described as being a product of the Yangxindian Palace workshop. The other in the collection of Mrs. Alfred Clarke is illustrated in the catalogue for the O.C.S. exhibition, The Arts of the Ch’ing Dynasty, London, 1964, pl. 109, no. 340. Like the present vase they both have a yellow ground finely stippled in red, but the similar gourd vines are more widely spaced and the two leaf-shaped panels enclose only a spray of flower stems and a butterfly.

Three works of Wang Jin at gabrielle ammann gallery

18 lundi Août 2014

Posted by alaintruong2014 in Contemporary Asian Art

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C-print, PVC with embroidered fishing thread, Wang Jin

WANG JIN, Dream of China No.1, 1998  C-print 45 7/10 × 45 in 116.2 × 114.3 cm copyright: Wang Jin courtesy: gabrielle ammann // gallery, cologne

Wang Jin, Dream of China No.1, 1998. C-print, 45 7/10 × 45 in, 116.2 × 114.3 cm. copyright: Wang Jin courtesy: gabrielle ammann // gallery, cologne

WANG JIN Dream of China No.3, 1998  C-print 45 7/10 × 45 in 116.2 × 114.3 cm copyright: Wang Jin courtesy: gabrielle ammann // gallery, cologne

Wang Jin, Dream of China No.3, 1998. C-print, 45 7/10 × 45 in, 116.2 × 114.3 cm. copyright: Wang Jin courtesy: gabrielle ammann // gallery, cologne

WANG JIN A Chinese Dream, 2006  PVC with embroidered fishing thread 82 7/10 × 63 × 15 7/10 in 210 × 160 × 40 cm copyright: Wang Jin courtesy: gabrielle ammann // gallery, cologne

Wang Jin,  A Chinese Dream, 2006. PVC with embroidered fishing thread, 82 7/10 × 63 × 15 7/10 in, 210 × 160 × 40 cm. copyright: Wang Jin courtesy: gabrielle ammann // gallery, cologne

Contact For Price. ammann//gallery. Cologne: +49 (0)221 9328803

Ye Hongxing’s works at ART LEXÏNG

12 mardi Août 2014

Posted by alaintruong2014 in Contemporary Asian Art

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Chinese, Ye Hongxing

220

Ye Hongxing, Misty No.3, 2010. Oil on canvas, 59 1/10 × 59 1/10 in, 150 × 150 cm. Price: $10,000 – 15,000

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Ye Hongxing, Misty No.5, 2010. Oil on canvas, 59 1/10 × 59 1/10 in, 150 × 150 cm. Price: $10,000 – 15,000.

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Ye Hongxing, Misty No.21, 2011. Oil on canvas, 47 1/5 × 47 1/5 in, 120 × 120 cm. Price: $10,000 – 15,000.

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Ye Hongxing, Misty No.5, 2010. Oil on canvas, 59 1/10 × 59 1/10 in, 150 × 150 cm. Price: $10,000 – 15,000

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Ye Hongxing, Misty No.21, 2011. Oil on canvas, 47 1/5 × 47 1/5 in, 120 × 120 cm. Price: $10,000 – 15,000

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Ye Hongxing, Misty No.29, 2011. Oil on canvas, 59 1/10 × 59 1/10 in, 150 × 150 cm. Price: $10,000 – 15,000

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Ye Hongxing, Brilliant Color Love Infactuation, 2009. Oil on canvas, 59 1/10 × 59 1/10 in, 150 × 150 cm. Price: $10,000 – 15,000

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Ye Hongxing, Osmosis No.1, 2009. Oil on canvas, 59 1/10 × 59 1/10 in, 150 × 150 cm. Price: $10,000 – 15,000

28600751_4_x

Ye Hongxing, Illusion No.4, 2010. Oil on canvas, 59 1/10 × 59 1/10 in, 150 × 150 cm. Price: $10,000 – 15,000

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Ye Hongxing, Illusion No.2, 2012. Oil on canvas, 59 1/10 × 59 1/10 in, 150 × 150 cm. Price: $10,000 – 15,000.

CONTACT GALLERY: ART LEXÏNG. Miami : +1 305 299 9732

Photos courtesy Ye Hongxing and ART LEXÏNG

Ye Hongxing. Born in 1972, Ye Hongxing has become one of the most exciting rising stars of the Chinese contemporary art scene.

Ye Hongxing obtained her Master’s Degree from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (arguably China’s top art academy) in 1998.

Between 2003 and 2005, Ye’s work was exhibited at a few galleries throughout China, as well as the Chongqing Art Museum and the Nanjing Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2004, Ye Hongxing participated in her first international art exhibition at the 7th Annual Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations in Venice, Italy. The next year, Ye Hongxing’s work was exhibited in Taiwan at Art Taipei 2005.

In 2006, Ye Hongxing was selected as one of China’s top 20 emerging painters at the Dragonair Emerging Chinese Artist Awards. The selection committee included the Director of Art Cologne, the Curator of the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, the Director of the Stuttgart Museum of Art in Germany, the Co-Founder and Co-Editor in Chief of Beaux-Arts Magazine (France’s top art magazine) and the Executive Director of the Shanghai Art Museum, amoung others.

In 2007 and 2008, Ye Hongxing’s works were exhibited in Europe for the first time at the Art Cologne, the earliest established and still one of the most important art expositions in the world. Ye’s work was also shown for the first time in the USA in Miami at Reed Savage Gallery in 2007 and in New York at “Chinese Contemporary Art Comes to New York” at Art Scene New York.

Yan Pei-Ming, Icones, 2013, at GDM

10 dimanche Août 2014

Posted by alaintruong2014 in Contemporary Asian Art

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Étiquettes

Yan Pei-Ming

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Yan Pei-Ming, Icones, 2013. Lithography.Edition of 75. (C) Yan Pei-Ming

Fusing the Western tradition of portrait painting with China’s cultural history, Yan Pei-Ming creates large-scale works depicting real and imaginary people. Yan’s portraits, typically mono- or bi-chromatic, often verge on abstraction, with broad, patterned brushstrokes and drips of paint. He is perhaps best known for his monumental self-portraits, including Double (Selfportrait at the Morgue)(2006), a watercolor of the artist as a dead man, as well as his eight-foot-tall portraits of Mao Zedong, Bruce Lee, and his father.

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Yan Pei-Ming, Icones, 2013. Lithography.Edition of 75. (C) Yan Pei-Ming

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Yan Pei-Ming, Icones, 2013. Lithography.Edition of 75. (C) Yan Pei-Ming 

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Yan Pei-Ming, Icones, 2013. Lithography.Edition of 75. (C) Yan Pei-Ming

Contact For Price. gdm. Paris: +33(0)1 48 87 21 77

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