Japanese artist Tanaka Atsuko's Work

Tanaka Atsuko (1932 – 2005), Work
1968
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas,
130.8 x 97.4 cm

Japanese Gutai Artists

Hailing from Tanaka’s glorious 1960s era of international acclaim, Presented at the autumn sales of Sotheby's in Hong Kong, Work is outstanding for its range of brilliant colour, layered three-dimensionality and compelling immediacy, a testament to Tanaka’s use of quick-drying synthetic enamel paint. Works of such commanding presence from Tanaka’s early 1960s circle paintings are extremely rare, with similar paintings from this period currently held by such eminent museum collections as New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

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Photography from Sotheby's Hong Kong.

The Little Ambassador by Japanese Contemporary Artist, Nara Yoshitomo

Nara Yoshitomo
The Little Ambassador
2000
Acrylic on canvas
198.1 x 132.5 cm

Nara Yoshitomo (b. 1959) 

The Sotheby's Hong Kong Autumn Sales, showcased a total of 11 lots by Nara Yoshitomo, spanning several stages of the artist’s creative journey from 1988 to 2012, as well as multiple media including oil, acrylic, coloured pencil and felt-tip pen on canvas, paper, cardboard, wood ceramic pieces and mixed media sculptures, among others.

Measuring nearly two metres in height, Little Ambassador is the very first work from a precious batch of iconic Ambassador paintings that Nara created in the early 2000s. The monumental little girl scowls, furious at the state of the world and the broken promises of her forbearers. Her dress of pale pastel green is soft and luminous, while the neutral background glows with a dream-like simplicity. Enchanting, endearing and powerfully evocative, this is Nara’s peace-advocating magnum opus.

Nara Yoshitomo, There is No Place Like Home 1995, acrylic on canvas, 81.5 x 162 cm

In lieu of a warm and cheerful ‘home’, There is no place like home portrays three children seated in a coffin-like box, brooding in adorable costumes. The cat costumes are a recurrent theme: Nara once recalled in an interview: ‘When I was a child, I really liked cats. In my neighborhood, I didn’t have a friend my age. When I came home [after school] I was alone... So I always played with cats.’ 

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Photography from Sotheby's Hong Kong.

Bloodline: Big Family series by Chinese artist

One of the world’s most comprehensive collections of Chinese Contemporary Art, the Ullens Collection spans generations, schools of thought, movements and media, chronicling the evolution of Chinese modern and contemporary art. Sotheby’s Hong Kong is honoured to once again present key works from this important collection in its autumn sales.

Zhang Xiaogang (b. 1958)

Sisters and Brothers
2009–2010, oil on canvas, 270.5 x 370 cm

In the 1990s, Zhang discovered, in yellowed family portrait photographs, a standpoint from which to narrate personal history, thus creating the Bloodline: Big Family series. Sister and Brothers features three figures: a sister and her two younger brothers, as compared to the two figure composition most commonly found in Zhang’s works. The sister wears a typical 1970s green coat, while the older of the two younger brothers, clad in the ‘Mao’ uniform, carries a ‘history’ book, representing intellectuals, and the youngest brother faces the viewer, looking bewildered. Appearing regularly in Zhang’s body of work, the siblings represent a shared experience of the Cultural Revolution, allowing viewers to trace stages of Chinese history through the artist’s surreal perspective.

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Photography from Sotheby's Hong Kong.

Revolutionary Family Series by Chinese artist

Liu Wei (b. 1965)

Liu Wei,
Revolutionary Family Series (Three Figures)
1991, oil on canvas, 99.5 x 99 cm 

The Sotheby's Hong Kong Modern and Contemporary Asian Art Evening Sale featured two 1990s-era works by Liu Wei, each representing an important phase in the artist’s oeuvre. From 1991, Revolutionary Family Series (Three Figures) features the bright colours characteristic of the artist’s Revolutionary Family Series and shows early hints of the distortion and exaggeration that the artist’s later style would define. The background evokes propaganda paintings of the Cultural Revolution, while its Pop style conveys China’s political atmosphere in the early 1990s. One of Liu’s earliest works, it represented the artist in the 1993 Venice Biennale, a watershed moment for Chinese artists on an international stage.

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Warriors on the Night March

Fu Baoshi (1904 – 1965) 
Warriors on the Night March 
1945Ink and colour on paper, hanging scroll, 106.2 x 60.7 cm 

Masterpieces by Fu Baoshi from a European Collection 

Making Sotheby's auction debut this October, Fu Baoshi’s Warriors on the Night March was a work dedicated to the father of French-Vietnamese collector Doan (1914 – 1978), and have been kept in a private European collection ever since. Doan was tracing the path of his ancestry and roots in China, and commissioned Fu to use a piece of history related to his Chinese last name as the key context of this painting.

Deviating away from the artist’s usual subject matter, Fu drew inspiration and reference from Book of the Later Han, one of the official works documenting the history of the Han Dynasty. He vividly portrayed warriors marching in the night, with their heads solemnly bowed in solidarity. In this work, the artist brilliantly addresses the common issues of traditional Chinese paintings – such as the lack of perspective and distance as well as the relationship between light and shadow – by adding lighter shades and tones to depict an empty space and the moonlight. Fu employs a modern approach through traditional ink medium to express both simplified and intense brushstrokes. Finely detailed, deeply evocative, Warriors on the Night March is a masterful depiction of a 20th-century war scene.

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Photography from Sotheby's Hong Kong.