Paintings by Raden Saleh, Spies to be auctioned
By Amir Sidharta
JAKARTA (JP): In the upcoming Sotheby's and Christie's auctions in Singapore of Southeast Asian paintings, four Raden Saleh paintings and two by Walter Spies will be offered at this weekend.
Sotheby's will hold its auction at Regent Hotel in Singapore on Saturday and Christie's at Hyatt Regency on Sunday.
The combined value of the four Raden Saleh paintings is estimated at between S$1.59 million (US$1.13 million) and S$2.18 million, while the Walter Spies paintings can be estimated at S$800,000 to S$1.2 million each.
Last year, a large painting by Raden Saleh, entitled Deer Hunt, fetched a record S$2.8 million. Works by Walter Spies have sold at hammer prices of S$900,000. Based on these sales, it seems that the paintings being offered in the upcoming auctions are still reasonably priced. However, whether these paintings sell is questionable.
The upcoming auctions include a select number of paintings, such as those mentioned above, which are the stars of the show. As these paintings are very well executed, it seems likely that they will sell. Nonetheless, the prices will certainly limit the number of potential bidders. One rather gruesome depiction, entitled Fighting Animals and offered by Sotheby's, suits the tastes of only a few collectors. The outcome of the auction is hard to predict.
Although there are a few paintings of high value in the auction, the other paintings being offered are of relatively lower quality. In the future, auction houses are expected to feature paintings that are of even lower quality.
"The existing collectors are becoming saturated by paintings," exclaimed Oei Hong Djien, a collector who has been closely watching the behavior of the Indonesian art market.
"Collectors tend to become more selective in their choices of paintings. Meanwhile, in general, the paintings offered by auction houses have not increased in quality. Rather, the quality generally has dropped," he added.
Oei stated that when new collectors enter the arena, they tend to buy mainstream and "blue chip" works of art. "But later, their appreciation will heighten and they will look for better paintings. So, when they already have good paintings, they will look for better ones, and they will tend to ignore mediocre ones," he explained.
Collectors who have more than one painting by a well-known artist usually place the works by that artist that they consider secondary or of lower quality in auctions again. A Balinese landscape by Walter Spies, which was sold at the Glerum auction house in a June 1994 auction in the Netherlands to an Indonesian collector, is to be offered at the upcoming Sotheby's auction.
Previous auctions
Many of the paintings to be offered at the upcoming auctions have appeared in previous auctions. Other than the case mentioned above, there are also some paintings which have failed to sell in the past. In the Christie's catalog, one painting by Isaac Israels is being offered at less than half of the estimate in its previous offering, last October, through Sotheby's in Singapore.
A number of Donald Friend's works being offered by Christie's appeared in auctions in Melbourne last year. They were sold to an art dealer, who offered the paintings to a number of collectors at astronomical prices. Failing to sell the pieces at high prices, the dealer is depending on the auction houses to determine the true prices of the paintings, by offering them at a relatively low and reasonable estimate.
Even though some people fear that the auctions are threatening the art business, their presence in Singapore has been for the most part welcomed by art dealers and galleries, as they tend to stabilize the prices of paintings.
"We base our prices on auction results and, therefore, we attend auctions regularly," a gallery manager in South Jakarta revealed.
"If the prices at the auction increase, we will increase the prices accordingly. If they go down, we will lower the prices as well," she added.
Oei pointed out that the current prices for Affandi's paintings have been set primarily by auctions. "In the first Christie's auction in Singapore in 1994, the prices of Affandi's were set too high. The offered paintings failed to sell and rumors spread that Affandi's paintings were not saleable. But then the prices in the following auctions were adjusted to better suit the market, and now they are stable," he explained.
In the March 1994 auctions in Singapore, five paintings by Affandi were offered. As there was virtually no means to determine the current market prices of Affandi's paintings at the time, the paintings were estimated at S$90,000 to S$100,000 and S$130,000 to S$165,000.
After the March auctions, the estimates for Affandi's paintings dropped to between S$18,000 and S$25,000 and S$40,000 to S$60,000. In October 1995, the estimated prices stabilized at around S$15,000 to S$35,000. These prices showed a gradual increase in the March 1996 auction. The increase seems steady and the most recent auction estimates can be used to determine the current prices of Affandi's paintings as well as other paintings.
The Indonesian art boom has attracted three international auction houses to enter the Southeast Asian art market. Initially, all three were planning to have auctions at the end of March. This caused anxiety in the field. Some observers saw that the attempt to sell around 500 paintings in one weekend would have become detrimental to the auctions themselves. Luckily, Glerum has decided to postpone their auction until June.
Although the upcoming auctions offer a little less than 400 paintings, only about 200 paintings of Indonesian subjects will be offered. The remainder are from Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam. It is clear that the auction houses are no longer depending on the Indonesian art market, but are starting to look into other markets in the region.
Actually, in addition to entering new markets, auction houses should also expand their marketing in Indonesia. "It is absolutely necessary for the auction houses to entice newcomers to start collecting paintings. These newcomers can start with paintings of low quality which are being offered. Anyway, they will certainly tend to concentrate on mainstream and "blue chip" paintings, which are more liquid," Oei said, adding that later on, they can start collecting better paintings.
There is little doubt that auction houses have started to make efforts to draw more new collectors into the auction arena. On Tuesday and yesterday, Christie's presented a series of Gallery Talks at the Museum Seni Rupa, featuring their specialists. On Tuesday, Michael Findlay presented a lecture on Impressionist paintings, and Jop Ubbens spoke on Java in Pictures in the 19th Century. Yesterday, Anthony Lin spoke about Early Chinese Blue and White Ceramics and Recent Discoveries, while Bruce Carpenter, author of a book on the painter W.G. Hofker, discussed From Ancestor Figures to Court Arts in Indonesian Society.
The impact of the auction houses' efforts to develop the art market in Indonesia remains unclear. As for the Raden Saleh paintings, one might not be sold because of its morbid subject matter, while another might not be popular due to its European subject matter.
However, one should never underestimate the Indonesian market. There may be bidders for Raden's European pastoral landscape because of its relatively low estimate. It is also possible that all of them will be sold. "I am sure that all the four will be sold," predicted art critic Agus Dermawan.
Which ones will sell is still uncertain. What is certain, is that the results of this auction will determine the prices of art works of Indonesian subjects in galleries and exhibitions, as well as private sales and even in other auctions which will be held later this year.