Christie's Gallery Talks offer Previews to Sales

Christie's Gallery Talks offer Previews to Sales

By Yenni Kwok

JAKARTA (JP): Only a prestigious name like Christie's could
make the rich and wealthy stay, enduring mosquito bites and the
humid temperature of the non-air-conditioned Museum Seni Rupa
Jakarta.

Who would not anyway? Christie's Gallery Talks, held every
Tuesday and Wednesday night, are not just a rare opportunity to
listen to world class art experts in this economically booming
but culturally deprived city. They also offer a sneak preview
into some items to be offered at Christie's auction houses in
Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The talks, organized by Museum Seni Rupa and Museum
Universitas Pelita Harapan, include topics such as the passion of
collecting art, Indonesian tribal art, Javanese landscape
pictures and early Chinese blue-and-white porcelain.

Michael Findlay, of Christie's in New York, kicked off
discussion with his Passion and Patronage talk. This gave a
general insight into why people collect art and, being an expert
on impressionist and modern paintings, Findlay gave examples of
impressionist art collectors.

His 60-minute talk was accompanied by slide pictures of art
collectors and pieces that they possessed, such as Claude Monet,
Paul Cezanne, Degas and Vincent Van Gogh.

There are two types of collectors Findlay said. The first type
is somebody who has an ambition to fill their house with art
collections. They would have a temporary madness to buy art works
for a period of time and then stop.

The second type is a person who has an addiction and passion
to buy art works throughout their life. Billy Wilder, a well-
known director whose movies include Sabrina and The Apartment,
was an addicted art collector. When Findlay visited his house, he
saw paintings stacked against the walls and chairs. "He lives to
buy paintings," Findlay said.

People collect and become a patron of arts for different
reasons. The passion might come from a pure love of art, an
investment promise or social status.

Findlay's talk was followed by Jop Ubbens, an Amsterdam-based
Christie's expert for Indonesian and Southeast Asian pictures.
Speaking English in a thick Dutch accent, he struggled to explain
19th century Javanese landscape paintings to the audience,
including Raden Saleh's works.

His talk preceded an auction of Southeast Asian pictures to be
held in Singapore today. Raden Saleh's oil on canvas painting,
titled, Lions and a Snake Fighting outside a Grotto in a Tropical
Landscape, is the highlight of this auction. Signed and dated
1839, the painting's estimated value is between S$800,000 and
$1,200,000.

Other famous painters -- Walter Spies, Wilem Gerard Hofker and
Adrien-Jean le Mayeur de Merpres -- accompany Raden Saleh in the
Indo-European categories with their paintings on Balinese
objects. Other categories include Singapore-Malaysian, Indonesian
modern and contemporary, Filipino pictures and a Vietnamese
section.

Ceramics

The next day's talk highlighted only Asian arts. Anthony Lin,
a Chinese ceramics expert from Christie's in Taipei, lectured
about 14th and 15th century blue-and-white porcelain. This was
also an introduction to Christie's Singapore imperial porcelain
of the late Qing dynasty.

Indeed, blue-and-white ceramics was considered very important,
and many were made exclusively by order and quality control from
the imperial palace. A recent archeological excavation found a
large number destroyed and buried because of defects.

The style differed over the two centuries. Once detailed,
dense blue decorations on white dominated, but this later became
rather loose and relaxed. Dragons, a few with five claws to
symbolize the imperial power, and floral designs were favorite
decorations.

The influence of Islam also appeared in the 15th century
ceramic jar. Its dense and heavily influenced Islamic mosaic
elements were in contrast to the Chinese elegance and restrained
styles.

The blue-and-white style featured prominently to the 18th
century. "Most of the 18th century products are copies or
prototypes from the 14th and 15th centuries," Lin said.

Bruce Carpenter, the only non-Christie expert, gave the
closing talk on Indonesian arts. Indonesia's diverse culture has
also lead to diverse art forms, said Carpenter, an Indonesian art
expert living in Bali.

"A Bima shadow puppet from the Mangkunegaran gives a little
hint about Indonesian art," he said.

Strange enough, however, many cultural links have been found
between regions in Indonesian tribal arts. A statue from Leti
Island of South Moluccas, for example, has an earring that
resembles a preclassical Javanese earring. This is evidence of a
possible relationship between Leti and Java islands a long time
ago.

The influence of the west is also evident. A statue from Nias
that represents an ancestor has a smiling face and a natural
look, instead of an abstract one. All of this hints to a western-
art influence, and it should not come as a surprise. After all,
Nias is located in Malacca Strait, a passage of trade for
centuries.

The tribal arts discussion was also promoting Christie's
auction sales on 250 ethnography pieces from Africa, Oceania and
Indonesia.

Lord Hindlip, chairman of Christie's International, said by
2009, 60 percent of the world's consumer spending will be in the
Pacific region, from Singapore to Japan. Sixty percent of last
year's painting sales in Singapore were bought by collectors in
Jakarta, hinting at a growing interest in collecting art pieces
here.

But nobody has ever forgotten the stolen Basuki Abdullah's
painting that ended up in Christie's auction in Singapore last
year. Nonetheless, Hindlip says it is very seldom that a stolen
piece ends up at a Christie's auction because they work
extensively with the Art-Loss Register and Interpol police.

There is also reasonable logic behind this. With all the
pieces published in Christie's pre-auction catalogs, hardly any
thieves are stupid enough to sell their stolen pieces through
Christie's.