Sothebys : (English) Sotheby's Hong Kong Contemporary Asian Art Autumn Sales 2016

Hong Kong | Benedict Tsang | +852 2822 8146 | benedict.tsang@sothebys.com | Winnie Tang | +852 2822 8129 | winnie.tang@sothebys.com

New York | Dan Abernethy | dan.abernethy@sothebys.com| London | Matthew Floris | matthew.floris@sothebys.com

Led by Liu Xiaodong's Showered in Sunlight and Nara Yoshitomo's The Little Ambassador

Ai Weiwei's Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn and Yang Fudong's The First Intellectual

Nara Yoshitomo, The Little Ambassador, 2000, acrylic on canvas, est. HK$16,000,000 - 24,000,000

Liu Xiaodong, Showered in Sunlight, 1990, oil on canvas, est. HK$ 15,000,000 - 20,000,000

Hong Kong Preview: 30 Sep - 2 Oct | Auction: 2 Oct

Hong Kong Preview: 30 Sep - 3 Oct | Auction: 3 Oct

Hong Kong, 15 September 2016 Sotheby's Hong Kong Contemporary Asian Art Autumn Sales will take place from 2 to 3 October 2016 at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The Modern and Contemporary Asian Art Evening Sale on 2 October offers prime representative works by renowned Chinese, Japanese and Korean contemporary artists, including Zeng Fanzhi, Liu Xiaodong, Zhang Xiaogang, Ai Weiwei, Kusama Yayoi, Nara Yoshitomo and Lee Ufan, among others. Together with Contemporary Asian Art Day Sale and #TTTOP, a special sale guest-curated by Asian pop icon T.O.P, the three sales present a total of 230 artworks totaling approximately HK$311.8million - 451 million/ US$40million - 57.9 million*.

Evelyn Lin, Head of Sotheby's Contemporary Asian Art, said: 'Our Contemporary Asian Art sales this season boast an impressive line-up of top-notch representative works by prevailing artists. Such rare finds, highly recognisable and with indisputable significance, have long been sought-after at auction. With the Chinese contemporary art market returning to the rational state, this autumn is set to be an opportune timing for discerning connoisseurs to acquire new treasures.'

Liu Xiaodong (b. 1963)

Liu Xiaodong, Showered in Sunlight

1990, oil on canvas, 180 x 195 cm

Est. HK$ 15,000,000 - 20,000,000/ US$ 1,940,000 - 2,580,000

(Evening Sale Item)

The artist's early museum-quality masterpiece, Showered in Sunlight features an unusual composition: six nude figures are arranged irregularly upon the canvas, with the foreground occupied by a partial human torso. The close-up perspective results in a strong 'visual pressure' that pulls viewers into the painting's reality. Despite the simple rendering of the

background and the treatment of light, the artist's portrayal of the young men's spirit and the relationship among them are executed with brilliant virtuosity.

Zeng Fanzhi (b. 1964)

Sotheby's Hong Kong is pleased to present two large-format works by Zeng Fanzhi this season. From his significant Mask series, which he began in 1993, Society No. 3 is a large-scale exemplar of the series featuring a specific theme. Painted in 2001, it reflects the artist's gradual experimentation with different approaches, engaging in dialogue with the earlier Society No. 1, with the figure in the earlier painting wearing a traditional Chinese gown, versus the figure in the later piece donning a long, modern coat. The painting illustrates the anxiety rumbling beneath the façade of 1990s urbanisation in China.

In 2004, Zeng began experimenting with abstract landscapes. Created in 2007, the sizable masterpiece Landscape is representative of the artist's mature phase, continuing the exploration of line from his earlier phase while pursuing a new, more abstract variation. The branches are dense and bold, and the artist demonstrates the use of perspective in the composition. From the lake to the woods, hues of grey run to a combination of deep blues, blacks, and reds. The

main subject here is a long road extending from the foreground into the distance. The path is lined with intertwined branches that seem to possess a life of their own. The artist skillfully combines Eastern and Western elements, integrating the traditional Asian influence with an effect in the style of renowned American artist Jackson Pollock, resulting in a unique, cross-cultural work of art.

Liu Wei (b. 1965)

The Modern and Contemporary Asian Art Evening Sale features 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.

Painted in 1998, No Smoking is a classic work of Liu Wei's return to the individual and the inner being, with political and cultural movements a distant memory. A self-parody, it makes a small jibe at the artist's own tendency to paint with a brush in one hand and a cigarette in the other, conveying the artist's relaxed state of mind during his life of seclusion.

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. The net sale proceeds of the 34 important lots from this distinguished collection will support the UCCA's exhibitions and public programmes in 2016.

Zhang Xiaogang (b. 1958), Sisters and Brothers

2009-2010, oil on canvas, 270.5 x 370 cm

Est. HK$10,000,000 - 15,000,000/ US$1,290,000 - 1,940,000

(Evening Sale Item)

**From The Ullens Collection**

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.

Ai Weiwei (b. 1957)

Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn

1995 - 2004, gelatin silver print

136 x 109 cm, edition 6/8

Est. HK$1,600,000 - 2,500,000 / US$207,000 - 232,000

(Evening Sale Item)

4

The most important photography work of Ai Weiwei's early period, Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn raises powerful questions through a deliberate close-up of the split seconds required to permanently destroy an artefact that had survived for over two millennia. The action imposed upon the antique Han pot represents the end of conventional values, creating a work that is in turn both iconoclastic and regenerative while also reminding us that the significance of a cultural object is always subject to change. Today, the value of this work has exceeded that of the once-prized urn itself, evidence of a creative evolutionary cycle many consider necessary for culture's survival. Exhibited numerous times, another edition of the work sold at Sotheby's London Contemporary Art Evening Sale in February 2016 for GBP 755,000 / HK$8,500,000.

Yang Fudong (b. 1971), The First Intellectual

2000, photograph (colored chromogenic print), 188 x 125cm, ed. 7/10 Est. HK$400,000 - 600,000/ US$52,000 - 77,500

(Evening Sale Item)

Yang Fudong is China's most influential photographer. The First Intellectual is not only the most important and representative work of Yang's early period, but also a major breakthrough in Chinese photography as a whole. A triptych of photographs, the work's uppermost image is the most familiar, featuring Shanghai's Lujiazui financial