Christie's to auction Southeast Asian and Indian art

Christie's to auction Southeast Asian and Indian art

JAKARTA (JP): Southeast Asian art is becoming more and more
popular among ardent art collectors in Asia and even worldwide.

For Indonesian art collectors who want to add to their
collections, on the 1st of April, Christie's Singapore will offer
important Southeast Asian pictures and 20th Century Indian
Pictures.

Southeast Asian art had its first sale in Singapore in l994,
and it will be entering its 8th year and includes exceptional
works from Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and the
Philippines. This category will present the influence, both
Western and Eastern, which is a distinct feature of Southeast
Asia since the colonial period.

Among the works included in the sale are pristine 19th century
works and exciting works by modern and contemporary Southeast
Asian artists. Works by famous figures like Walter Spies,
Romualdo Locatelli, Adrien Le Mayeur de Merpres, Indonesian
artists like Affandi, S. Sudjojono and Hendra Gunawan will be
included in the auction.

For the very first time, Christie's Singapore will also offer
a fine selection of 20th century Indian paintings featuring works
by Ram Kumar, Sakti Burman, Anjolie Ela Menon, Hemendranath
Mazumar, Abdur Rahman Chugtai and several others.

Indonesia (then The Dutch East Indies) with its exotic, myriad
cultures and beautiful landscapes had always been a constant
source of inspiration for European artists. The turn of the 19th
century witnessed the emergence of a group of European artists
whose unique visions of Indonesia, especially Bali, inspired a
generation of indigenous artists. Bali's luxuriant flora and
beautiful dancers were depicted by Le Mayeur in Balinese Girls in
The Garden (estimated at:S$380,000-S$450,000). The dark palette
of Locatelli is portrayed in his Portrait of a Young Girl
(estimated at: S$45,000-S$65,000). A piece by Miquel Covarrubias
Every Night is a Festival Night in Bali, a watercolor and body
color on paper (estimated: S$80,000-S$100,000) and a refined
drawing of Walter Spies, Four Young Balinese with Fighting Cocks,
pencil on gray paper (estimated at: S$50,000-S$70,000) are
further highlights.

Here is some useful background information about the artists.

Jose Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904-1957)'s Balinese
Beauties Bathing, Covarrubias made a sketch of this work on the
reverse side of the drawings he did in Bali while doing research
for his book Island of Bali; these were also studies of works
which the artist eventually executed in oil.

The work will be sold with a letter of authentication by Mrs.
Adriana Williams, author of the book Covarrubias, University of
Texas Press, 1994.

As the author of the well-regarded Island of Bali, published
in l937, Jose Miguel Covarrubias was deeply interested in the
anthropological and archaeological aspects of Bali.

The work is estimated to fetch between S$4,000-$6,000
(US$2,400-$3,500).

Hendra Gunawan is no doubt one of Indonesia's greatest
pioneers of modern art. Using non-traditional, European visual
elements, he nevertheless created works which were Indonesian in
feeling and in experience.

After his death in l983, Hendra was described as an artist
whose "Indonesian-ness" was undisputable, and a man whose
infatuation with the people as well as with the republic was
lifelong wrote art historian Astri Wright.

From the very beginning it seems, Hendra was already painting
scenes of everyday activities of the common Indonesian people.

He joined Lekra (The Institute of People's Culture, a cultural
organization affiliated to the Indonesian Communist party. His
paintings throughout his life very rarely veered away from the
sensibilities of working class Indonesia.

In the aftermath of the l965 anti-communist purge, Hendra was
imprisoned for 13 years for his involvement in Lekra. This long
imprisonment left him with an intense longing for his family and
the outside world and the paintings from this period are charged
with an emotional and profound sensitivity rarely seen in earlier
works.

A number of the paintings from this collection come from this
period of imprisonment including Ibu dan Dua Anak, The Mother and
Two Children, and Pedagang Kambing and Nangka, Goat and Jackfruit
Sellers (estimated at $40,000-$60,000/US$24,000-$35,000).
(raw/Christie's)