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Sunday, 15 January 2006 | Elif Sungur
New Eastern Art Takes West by Storm
Leading British artists Anthony Gormley, John Bellany, Chris Orr and David Mach have caught on to it, gallery owners are already collectors of it and the art public awaits it. Exciting, enlightening, challenging and truly revolutionary - Contemporary Asian Art is the market to watch. Interest has been fever-pitched with international exhibitions throughout the globe showcasing an explosion of artworks by an emerging generation of young Asian artists from China, Japan and Korea. Bonhams is one of the leaders in recognising the potential of the avant-garde material from the region and are delighted to announce its inaugural sale of Contemporary Asian Art this coming June.
'Some of the best work being produced today is coming out of China, Korea and Japan,' says Howard Rutkowski, Director of Contemporary Art at Bonhams. 'Its global impact, acknowledged by curators, collectors and gallery owners, is a truly extraordinary phenomenon that the market has not seen before.'
Many of these works breakdown the barriers of East and West through the creation of art. They heighten imagery to challenge preconceptions of society and evoke the transience of life in a spellbinding way. While many western countries have a great understanding of the emerging commercial power of the East, few of countries, until now, have understood the rapidly growing cultural and artistic importance of Asian artists. These artists are now experimenting with shifting patterns of ancient traditions but also digesting the language of the Western world. As The Sunday Times writes " It's as if they have taken Diane Arbus, Cindy Sherman, Magritte and Warhol and swallowed them whole."
In the sale are exciting works by Yayoi Kusuma (b.1929) titled Accreations I, (£100,000-150,000), Qiu Zhijie titled Tatoo II (£15,000-20,000, and Wang Qingsong titled Knickknack Pedlar (£10,000-15,000). Works by Kusama Yayoi, Nara Yoshitomo, Zhang Huan, Huang Yan will be represented, among many others.
John Bellany, David Mach and Chris Orr belong to the Red Mansion Foundation set up in London in 1999 by Nicollette Kwok to nurture understanding between East and West by providing opportunities for artists to meet and exchange ideas. Quote from The Sunday Times Magazine " It's as if they have taken Diane Arbus, Cindy Sherman, Magritte and Warhol and swallowed them whole."
For further information please visit http://www.bonhams.com
About Bonhams
Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America and in August 2003, Goodmans, a leading Australian fine art and antiques auctioneer with salerooms in Sydney, joined the Bonhams Group of Companies. Today, Bonhams is the third largest and fastest growing auction house in the world with a global network of offices and regional representatives providing sales advice and valuation services in 20 countries. It offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further 10 throughout the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston in the USA; and Switzerland, Monaco, and Australia.
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