Contemporary Asian Art up for Auction

At this summer’s international auction at Bruun Rasmussen in Copenhagen, we are putting together the largest and most varied selection of contemporary Asian art ever entrusted to us to sell, including names such as Fang Lijun, Chen Wenling and Takashi Murakami. The majority of the works are from a private Danish collection and were acquired on the international art market during the past 10–15 years.

“The selection is characterised by great curiosity and desire for visual challenges in relation to new art, especially from China, which underwent major social changes in the 1990s and saw the emergence of a market economy with an associated diverse art scene. The works reflect contemporary society and history from both personal and more general perspectives, while making connections between traditional East Asian aesthetics and the diverse range of styles of international modernism – perhaps especially Neo-Realism and Pop Art. The term ‘Cynical Realism’ is used about Chinese art of this period, which often takes a humorous and ironic look at the challenges and shadowy aspects of society’s development from communism, towards rising individualisation, industrialisation and commercialism,” according to Niels Boe-Hauggaard, specialist in art from the 20th and 21st centuries at Bruun Rasmussen.

Auction Highlights

Among the main works up for auction, the painting “No. 4” (2008) by Fang Lijun (b. Handan, China, 1963), which is estimated at DKK 2 million (€ 270,000), deserves to be highlighted here. The painting is a work of sophisticated ambiguity. At first glance, the composition appears delicate, poetic, sensuous and dreamlike. Colourful butterflies hover gently above the composition. On closer inspection, though, it becomes apparent that the golden, flowing structures surrounding the figure in the painting are in fact ropes, and that the butterflies are accompanied by stinging insects. Is the person moving up towards the light or being pulled down?

The bronze sculpture “China Today” (2006) by Chen Wenling (b. Quanzhou, China, 1969) is another of the auction’s main features. Wenling’s works are often grotesque depictions of people, exposing the shadier sides of human nature and morality. Perhaps the best-known name in Cynical Realism, Yue Minjun (b. Heilongjiang, China, 1962), is represented by a series of double lithographs, “Smile-isms” (2006), in which the artist’s distinctive smiling portraits are contrasted with canonical works from art history and pop culture images, as well as traditional quotations about smiling.

With the work “Miss Ko2 – Devil Position 1” (2004) by Takashi Murakami (b. Tokyo, Japan, 1962), we leave China and present for the first time in Denmark an impressive work by Japan’s biggest name in pop art, with a sumptuous visual juxtaposition of Japanese pop aesthetics and Western ideals of beauty in a style that is at once hyper-sexualised and emphatically artificial.

The auction also includes works by artists such as Yang Shaobin (b. Tangshan, China, 1963), He Sen (b. Yunnan, China, 1968), Feng Zhenjie (b. Sichuan, China, 1968), Chen Wenbo (b. Sichuan, China, 1969), Cao Xiaodong (b. Jiangsu, China, 1961), Liu Chunhai (b. Harbin, China, 1966), Wu Tianzheng (b. Taiwan, 1956), Shiho Aeoshima (b. Tokyo, Japan, 1974), Fang Hui (b. Shenyang, China, 1965), Haris Purnomo (b. Indonesia, 1956), Mi Ju (b. South Korea, 1983), and Lu Song (b. Beijing, China, 1982).

Preview and Auction in Copenhagen

All of the works up for auction can be seen at the preview at Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers, Bredgade 33, Copenhagen, from 24 - 28 May. The auction itself will be held at the same address on 6 - 7 June.

Exhibition in London

Prior to the auction, selected artwork will be exhibited at The Danish Embassy, 55 Sloane, St. Knightsbridge in London from 15 - 16 May. In connection with this exhibition, it will be possible to meet our Head of Modern Art, Niels Raben, who will be available for interviews with the international press.

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