Contemporary & Modern Art Evening Sale by PT. Balai Lelang Larasati

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Didier Hamel

Auction 拍賣 Thursday, 12 January 2012 Starting at 19.30 20.00 Public Viewing 預展 Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 11.00 - 22.00 Thursday, 12 January 2012, 11.00 - 15,00 Venue 地點 Peony Main Ballroom 4401A-2 & 4501A-2 Level 4, Sands Expo & Convention Centre Marina Bay Sands 10 Bayfront Avenue Singapore 018956

ARTIST OF THE ENCHANTING TROPICS

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Wayan Pendet, Rudolf Bonnet, Wayan Turun (1972) Source: Bali Echo Magazine online - Visitor’s Guide, 42 edition, August - September 1999. ( www. baliwww.net)

Rudolf Bonnet (1895 - 1978; Amsterdam, Holland) studied at the Rijksschool voor Kunstnijverheid (National Arts and Crafts School) and the Rijksacademie (National Academy) in Amsterdam, Holland. He learned fresco painting in Italy. Bonnet first went to Bali in 1929 and lived in Ubud. In 1936 he helped to establish the Pitamaha artists’ association. He was captured by the Japanese during World War II, and returned to Bali in 1946. Bonnet helped found the Golongan Pelukis Ubud (Ubud Painters’ Group) in 1953 and the Museum Puri Lukisan (Royal Museum of Painting) in 1956 in Ubud. He is known for his portraits. Awards: Dharma Kusuma (Bali, 1977), Satya Lencana Kebudayaan (Indonesia, 1980). Collections: Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller (Amsterdam, Holland), Singer Museum (Laren, Holland). Exhibitions: East-West Center (Honolulu, Hawaii, 1988), Centre for Strategic and International Studies (Jakarta, Indonesia, 1996), Indonesia-Japan Friendship Festival (Morioka, Tokyo, 1997). - Excerpts from a text by Garret Kam in the book “The Development of Painting in Bali”, published by Yayasan Dharma Seni Museum Neka, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, 2000, p. 100.

1 RUDOLF BONNET (1895 - 1978)

Portrait of the Sculptor I Wayan Pendet Signed and dated 1951 on upper right Inscribed on upper left Pastel on paper 63 x 43 cm PROVENANCE: Anonymous sale, Glerum Auctioneers, Singapore, 8 December 1996, lot 14. SGD 20,000. - 30,000. USD 15,385. - 23,077.

At the end of the 19th century there was a growing interest in Europe for other cultures. It was in 1898 that Isaac Israels was confronted for the first time with Javanese dancers who were invited to the Netherlands on the occasion of the crowning year of Queen Wilhemina. In a letter he wrote: “… Javanese people are beautiful, … the whole day I am trying to imitate the movement of the heads and hands of the dancers…” In 1915 and 1916 Israels painted a lot of Indonesians, students at the University of Leiden. He was quite impressed by their beauty, their dignified pose and their oriental clothing. To create tropical atmosphere for this paintings he borrowed palms in post from the zoo just across the road from where he lived. In the same period he was introduced to Raden Mas Jodjana, a well-known dancer and they became friends. Israels made several paintings of Jodjana and even taught him, as a high exception, how to paint, showed him the use of colours and made him familiar with the view on paintings of the European artists. In 1921 he finally found the courage to make the long boat trip to Indonesia. He was introduced through the influence of Jodjana to the courts of Solo, made a short trip to Bali and spent some time in Batavia. His strongest paintings were made then when he combined the tropical light with the people in the streets. In a letter dated 1922 he wrote: “… I finally found out that one must let the Javanese pose in the bright sunlight …”. (Literature: Anna Wagner “Isaac Israels: venlo 1985).

2 ISAAC ISRAELS (1865 - 1934)

Water Carrier Painted in Indonesia in 1921 - 1922 Oil on canvas 54.5 x 38.5 cm PROVENANCE: - Anonymous sale, Frederick Muller, Amsterdam. - Anonymous sale, Christie’s Amsterdam, Indonesian Pictures, Watercolours, Drawings and Works of Art, 25 October 1995, lot. 99. SGD 30,000. - 40,000. USD 23,077. - 30,769.

Arie takes delight in the many beautiful colors of flowers which grow everywhere in Bali and add their bright colors to the verdant green landscape. A cascade of lovely wildflowers seems to spill into this painting from the upper left corner. Attention is immediately drawn to the white blossoms, brilliant against the blues and greens that predominate in this work. The gaze continues on to the small red flowers and finally ends at the bottom, where large blue morning glories almost go unnoticed due to their dark color. With the sloping hills in the background speckled yellow and green by sunlight, Arie has given a subtle sense of perspective to this painting. The blue mountain and sky in the distance give greater depth and echo the colors of the foreground flowers, unifying the work. Source: text by Garret Kam from the book “Poetic Realism – The Art of Arie Smit”, published by Centre for Strategic and International Studies and Museum Neka, Indonesia, p. 58

Adrianus Wilheminus Smit, better known as Arie Smit, was born in 1916 in Zandaam, Holland. He studied graphic design at the Academy of Arts in Rotterdam. Smit was sent to the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) for military service in 1938. He worked as a lithographer for the Dutch army’s Topographical Service in Batavia (Jakarta) and made maps of to the archipelago. He became Indonesian citizen in 1951. He taught graphics and lithography at the Institut Teknologi Bandung (Bandung Institute of Technology) in West Java, and pursued his own artistic interests during this time. Smit visited Bali in 1956, and after two months decided to make the island his permanent home. In the early 1960s Smit gave art supplies to teenage youths in Penestanan village near Ubud in Gianyar, south of Bali. Award: Dharma Kusuma (Bali, 1992). Collections: Museum Bali (Denpasar, Bali), Penang Museum (Malaysia). Exhibitions: East-West Center (Honolulu, Hawai, 1988), Centre for Strategic and International Studies (Jakarta, 1990, 1996), Neka Art Museum (Ubud, Bali, 1992, 1994 - 1995), Singapore Art Museum (1994), Museum Nasional (Jakarta, 1995), Indonesia-Japan Friendship Festival (Morioka, Tokyo, 1997). -- Excerpts from a text by Garret Kam in the book “The Development of Painting in Bali”, published by Yayasan Dharma Seni Museum Neka, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, 2000, p. 33.

3 ARIE SMIT (b. 1916)

Wildflowers in Hill Country Signed and dated 1984 on lower right Acrylic on canvas 62 x 70 cm LITERATURE: Centre for Strategic and International Studies - Neka Museum, “Poetic Realism - The Art of Arie Smit”, 1990, Indonesia, illustrated in color, p.58. PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Hong Kong. SGD 20,000. - 30,000. USD 15,385. - 23,077.

In Bali a barong is a protective spirit usually in the form of an animal mask and body animated by two dancers, one for the head and the other for the tail end. The tiger face here is fanged and wide-eyed to frighten away evil. While the overall color scheme is rather dark and frightening, highlights of gold around the face glow and show some sort of power emanating from this protective and respected creature. The painting is very graphic, strong, and expressive. - Excerpts from a text by Garret Kam in the book â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Development of Painting in Baliâ&#x20AC;?, published by Yayasan Dharma Seni Museum Neka, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, 2000, p. 94.

4 SUNARYO (b. 1943)

Barong Signed and dated 1997 on lower right Mixed media on canvas 160 x 230 cm LITERATURE: Galeri Hadiprana, Mengenang Lintas Seni, Jakarta, 2002, illustrated in color, p.3. PROVENANCE: From the estate of Mr. Hendra Hadiprana, Jakarta, Indonesia. SGD 100,000. - 130,000. USD 76,923. - 100,000.

Sunaryo (1943; Banyumas, Central Java) is a painter and sculptor who graduated from the Department of Art, ITB / Bandung Institute of Technology in 1969, and became a lecturer there in 1970. He was Head of the Sculpture Department at ITB from 1976 to 1980, and Chairman of the Department of Art at ITB from 1988. Sunaryo studied sculpture, in particular the techniques of carving and sculpting marble, in Carrara, Italy in 1975. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions world-wide. In 1998 he founded non profit cultural art center the Selasar Sunaryo Art Space in Bandung. Award: Silver Medal in Graphic Competition - UNESCO & International Association of Art (1978, Paris), Ten Best Philip Morris Indonesian Art Awards (1994, 1995, 1996)

5 SUNARYO (b. 1943)

Jelang Persembahan #1 Signed and dated 2011 on lower right Acrylic on canvas 150 x 250 cm LITERATURE: Art:1 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Flight for Light - Indonesian Art and Religiosityâ&#x20AC;?, Jakarta, Indonesia, 2011, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, plate no. 76. SGD 130,000. - 170,000. USD 100,000. - 130,769.

6 ANTONIO BLANCO (1911 - 1999)

The Dream Signed on lower right Oil on canvas 68 x 66 cm The Blanco Renaissance Museum has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this lot. PROVENANCE: Anonymous sale, Christies, Hong Kong, 28 April 2002, lot 11. SGD 130,000. - 170,000. USD 100,000. - 130,769.

Le Mayeur de Merpres, Adrien Jean The beauty, sunlight, and serenity were the three elements that Le Mayeur most loved in life, and those three things he finally found in Bali, an island separated thousands of miles from his home country Belgium. Born in 1880 in Belgium from a wealthy noble family, Le Mayeur spent his life in various cities in Europe and around the world like to Tahiti and French Polynesia in search of light and beauty that can be fueled his inspiration to paint. His admiration on Bali started when he was in Tahiti and see the movie on this island, and soon he decided to go to Bali to satisfy his curiosity. This was estimated to be around in 1929 before he went on his journey to India. Bali proved to have tremendous appeal for Le Mayeur, therefore, in 1932 he decided to return to the island of a thousand gods. Light and beauty of Bali created an ever-flowing inspiration to the artist and without waiting for a long time, within one year, he accumulated enough works for his first solo exhibition in Singapore. With the theme Balinese Paintings Exhibition at the Young Women Christian Association in Raffles Quay, Singapore, from February 28 until March 8, 1933, he exhibited over 30 works with exotic titles like ‘In a Balinese Garden’, ‘Beneath the Palm’, and ‘Tropic Skies’. After marrying Ni Pollok in 1935, he bought a cottage by Sanur beach, and this created a perfect environment for his art to flourish, a sun-drenched tropical house with lush garden filled with row of palms, hibiscus, frangipani, and all around the house he planted groups of intertwining plants, dug ponds in which reflections of all the Gods of Hindu mythology could be seen among the sacred lotus flowers, as depicted on the present lot. The majestic At the Lotus Pond depicts four bare-breasted females mingle in the pond busily engaging themselves with water and the fish, comprising a virtual catalogue of poses from which the artist frequently worked. His familiarity with the subjects imbued the work with a tremendous sense of fluidity and spontaneity that is only possible when the artist knows his subject intimately well hence directing his attention to capturing the evanescent light of the tropics. The little paradise the artist created still stands today by the beach of Sanur in Bali.

7 ADRIEN - JEAN LE MAYEUR DE MERPRES (1880 - 1958)

At the Lotus Pond Signed on lower right, painted ca. 1938 - 1940 Oil on canvas 100 x 120 cm PROVENANCE: Anonymous sale, Christieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Amsterdam, Indonesian Pictures, Watercolours, Drawings, and Works of Art, 24 April 1996, lot. 43. SGD 500,000. - 700,000. USD 384,615. - 538,462.

Sudjojono’s life changed dramatically when he met Rose Pandanwangi in 1951. He turned his back on his once political belief and devoted his life to be a loving husband and father. The artist frequently painted Rose, his wife and muse, who was also the only model for his nudes.

bisaku, Kawan. Kaki, punapa wangistipun?” (Flying up high in the sky, diving deep into the ground. My heart is so eager, but my feet are weak. I tried my best, my friend. My feet, tell me why?), the artist was in fact yearning for answers in times of great uncertainty.

The year 1974, during which the present lot was executed, witnessed the first Jakarta Bienalle that took place in the midst of a heated political tension between students and the Suharto regime. The Biennale itself later triggered a protest by the new generation of artists who felt that their creativity was being sidelined by the Establishment in the art circle. This movement was known as the Black December and became the embryo of the New Art Movement.

‘Nude and Snake’ conveys Sudjojono anxiety about the future. It’s masterfully executed, complex in meaning with strong social messages that goes way beyond the canvas.

The present lot depicts Rose seated and rested in an intimate manner after performing on stage. Gazing at the Buddha statue, she accidentally sits on a newspaper while a snake and a ‘Galeri Cipta’ brochure were drifting off the sofa. What is the artist trying to convey then? Sudjojono was traveling back in time. He could feel the restlessness of the youth, just like how he must have felt when he was young, his PERSAGI days. The presence of Budha and snake on the painting symbolize hope for guardianship. As the inscription reads “Membumbung tinggi di langit, menyelam rendah di tanah. Hati berani, kaki tak mau. Hanya berusaha

Sindudarsono Sudjojono (1914-1985; Kisaran, North Sumatra) first studied from Javanese artist Mas Pirngadie (1875-1936) and Japanese painter Chiyoyi Yazaki. In 1937 he helped to establish Persatuan Ahli-Ahli Gambar Indonesia (Persagi, Union of Indonesian Painters) and was its spokesman. He was a pioneer in the development of modern Indonesian painting and encouraged artists to abandon the romantic colonial Mooi Indie (Beautiful Indies) style in favor of a national approach which showed the real Indonesian spirit. Award: Piagam Anugerah Seni Indonesia (Indonesia, 1970). Exhibitions: Fukuoka Art Museum (Japan, 1980), Festival of Indonesia (U.S.A., 19901992), Gate Foundation (Amsterdam, Holland, 1993), Singapore Art Museum (1994), Centre for Strategic and International Studies (Jakarta, Indonesia, 1996), ASEAN Masterworks (Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1997-1998). - Excerpts from a text by Garret Kam in the book “The Development of Painting in Bali”, published by Yayasan Dharma Seni Museum Neka, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, 2000, p. 91.

8 S. SUDJOJONO (1913 - 1986)

Nude and the Snake Signed and dated with the artist’s monogram and dated 1974 on middle right, signed and inscribed on lower left Oil on canvas 140 x 100 cm LITERATURE: Amir Sidharta, VISIBLE SOUL, Museum S. Sudjojono & Canna Gallery, Indonesia, 2006, Illustrated in color, p. 371. SGD 110,000. - 170,000. USD 84,615. - 130,769. Rose Pandanwangi singing at home with Djuang, her daughter on the piano and the present lot as the backdrop. (ca. 1980) Photo: Courtesy of S. Sudjojono Centre, Jakarta.

AFFANDI A sway-back barong keket (protective lion-like creature) dominates the right two-thirds of this dynamic composition. The personifications of evil, rangda (widow-witch), with long fangs and bulging eyes, is on the left. Together they symbolize the never ending battle between the positive and negative forces of the cosmos. In ritual dance performances held in the outer courtyards of temples in Bali, they attach each other in rather violent confrontations, their long hair swirling about. A parasol is held above the barong as a sign of honor and respect. Rangda holds a white cloth in her hand, a powerful weapon symbolic of her magical strength that she waves at her enemies to render them powerless. Affandi (1907 - 1990; Cirebon, West Java) was a self-taught artist. From 1951-1956 he traveled throughout India, the United Kingdom, Holland, Belgium, France, and Italy. He taught painting and sculpture a the Akademi Seni Rupa Indonesia (ASRI, Indonesian Academy of Fine Arts) in Yogyakarta, Central Java. In 1973 the Museum Affandi was established on the grounds of his residence in Yogyakarta. Affandi’s highly expressionistic and dynamic works have very thick applications of paint squeezed directly from the tube with color fields smeared by hand. Awards: Piagam Anugerah Seni (Indonesia, 1969), honorary doctorate (University of Singapore, 1974), Dag Hammarskjoeld International Peace Prize (Florence, Italy, 1977), Bintang Jasa Utama (Indonesia, 1978). Exhibitions: Museum of Modern Art (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1966), East-West Center (Honolulu, Hawaii, 1988), Festival of Indonesia (1990-1992), Gate Foundation (Amsterdam, Holland, 1993), Singapore Art Museum (1994), Centre for Strategic and International Studies (Jakarta, 1996), Indonesia-Japan Friendship Festival (Morioka, Tokyo, 1997), ASEAN Masterworks (Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1997-1998). - Excerpts from a text by Garret Kam in the book “The Development of Painting in Bali”, published by Yayasan Dharma Seni Museum Neka, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, 2000, p. 84.

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9 AFFANDI

(1907 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1990)

Barong and Rangda Signed and dated 1960 on lower right Oil on canvas 104 x 172 cm PROVENANCE: From the estate of Mr. Hendra Hadiprana, Jakarta, Indonesia. LITERATURE: Galeri Hadiprana, Mengenang Lintas Seni, Jakarta, 2002, illustrated in color, p.124. SGD 250,000. - 350,000. USD 192,308. - 269,231.

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YI Hwan-Kwon’s works Sculpture in the classical age pursued an idealized human figure. However, what YI Hwan-Kwon’s sculpture seeks is not a human figure in reality, as did classical sculpture. Lee’s sculpture aimed initially for achieving form in imagination, not form in reality. The human body YI Hwan-Kwon produced is found in our imagination, or in a virtual space. It can be said that while classical sculpture chased a form of Narcissus, Lee pursues the reflection in the water Narcissus loved. Accordingly, the body he represented can be freely manipulated or transformed. The figures he expressed appear elongated or shortened like the shadow. As if to prove the human body can be infinitely modified, the artist forges that, as he likes. In the real world the proportion of such body cannot be possible, but in Lee’s sculpture such figure may be attainable because that belongs to an imaginary world, not a physical world. This distortion, however, is not always unfamiliar. We have often experienced such distortion in the television monitor when seeing a cinemascopic film, whose images seem elongated upward and downward. With the help of image editing software like ‘Photoshop’ we can simply and diversely manipulate and modify images. In addition, by the use of image manipulation software, we can create the mixed images of reality and illusion. As a result, even a child does not trust the authenticity of any image. YI Hwan-Kwon’s work unveils a significant aspect of this world and thus makes me reconsider it. I firmly believe that Lee’s art opens up a new horizon in the Korean sculpture community. - Lee Tae-Ho (art critic)

Yi Hwan Kwon (born in 1974; Seoul, Korea) graduated from Department of Environmental Sculpture, College of Fine Art, Kyung Won University, Korea in 2001. In 2004 he obtained his MFA from the same university. Awards: Superior Prize, 10th Korean Figurative Sculpture Exhibition (1999), The World Ceramic Expo (Korea, 2001). Exhibitions: Busan Metropolitan Art Museum (2002), Sungkok Art Museum (2003), Seoul Museum of Art (2005), Sejong Center, Seoul (2005), Posco Art Museum, Seoul (2007), Anders Galerie (Dusseldorf, Germany, 2007), Edwin’s Gallery (2008, 2009, Indonesia), Galeri Nasional Indonesia (2011).

10 YI HWAN KWON 李桓權 (b. 1974)

I Don’t Want To Study Today 2007 Fiberglass reinforced plastic 110 x 72 x 100 cm LITERATURE: - Yi Hwan Kwon - Skulptur - Exhibition catalogue of the artist’s solo exhibition at Anders Galerie, Dusseldorf, Germany, 27 October - 25 November 2007, illustrated on the exhibition catalogue, p. 6-7. - Beyond Mimesis and Perspective - Exhibition catalogue of the artist’s solo exhibition at Galeri Nasional Indonesia (National Gallery of Indonesia), 20 - 30 October 2011, organized by Edwin’s Gallery, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, p. 33-34. SGD 50,000. - 70,000. USD 38,462. - 53,846.

In February 1989, a group of Chinese artists, “Stars”, conducted an exhibition entitled “China/Avant-Garde.” The exhibition was shut down by the authoritarian communist government. The artist defended their attitude through demonstration that protested against coercion of individual freedom. This event attracted global attention for it was the first act of protest defending individuality in China. Entering the 90s decade, the even that was exposed in a large scale, marked by the student massacre and known as the Tiananmen Tragedy brought a number of Chinese artists up to the global scene. They are recognized as the “China Avant-garde” artists. Fang Lijun is among the artists who have been strongly defending the freedom of individuality. He has a background as the reason for such defense. Fang Lijun was born in 1963 in an intellectual family – his grandfather was quite prosperous figure in the precommunism period and for that he had to go through a bitter childhood. His family, which was regarded as a part of the bourgeoisie, became the target of Cultural Revolution conducted by the ultra-left parties. Fang Lijun saw with his own eyes how his family was tortured and brought to undergo a series of violence. Fang Lijun’s works are interesting for the fact that he does not articulate his experience with violence through means of violence as well. These sense of individuality in his works show a contemplation, which is indirectly related to social problems. He identifies individuality not as the “motor of struggle”, but as a sign of freedom which promises to bring happiness. - Excerpts from a text by Jim Supangkat in the catalogue CP Biennale, 2003, Jakarta, p. 152.

11 FANG LIJUN 方力鈞 (b. 1963)

1997 No. 2 Signed in pinyin and dated 1997 on the reverse Oil on canvas 油彩畫布 79.8 x 99.5 cm

PROVENANCE: - Serieuze Zaken Studioos / Rob Malasch, Amsterdam. - Private collection, The Netherlands. SGD 140,000. - 180,000. USD 107,692. - 138,462.

Curator and art critic Li Xianting viewed the development of visual art in China within the 90s period as showing two major tendencies, termed as cynical realism and political pop. This analysis aroused various discussions and debates, since not all artists of the 90s appeared to show the two tendencies vividly. There were a number of artist who refused their works to be called as presenting cynical realism. Among the artists observed by Li Xianting as presenting cynical realism, Yue Minjun has to be noted in particular to affirm Li Xianting’s analysis. His works are the most obvious in showing cynical realism. Yue Minjun’s works which present figures of people laughing together, strongly reflect cynicism. He seems to illustrate a kind of pathetic hypocrisy in which there is a uniformity of progressive behavior. There are force and power that are capable to construct this terrible pathetic hypocrisy. Yue Minjun’s works –which are mostly paintings – reflect a social manipulation that involves intimidation. The reality offered by Yue Minjun does not need to be read as a reality which only happens in China under the communist regime. The social manipulation displayed by Yue Minjun is happening everywhere in the world. Such manipulations show a red line that is speaking on behalf of the society, such as “to achieve the society’s goals,” or “to defend the identity of the people.” This act of representing the society becomes a justification to do an intimidation. - Excerpts from a text by Jim Supangkat in the catalogue CP Open Biennale 2003, p.160

Yue Minjun (1962; Daqing, China) lives and works in Beijing. Works by Yue Minun are instantly recognizable by the characteristic laughing figures, actually self-portraits of the artist himself. By early 2008, his painting ‘Execution’ fetched US$5.9M and set the record for the world’s most expensive Chinese contemporary artwork, a significant increase from the US$5,000 it fetched in 1995. Selected Group Exhibitions: Hebei Museum (China, 1987), Schoeni Art Gallery (Hong Kong, 1994), Bonn Art Museum; Kuenstlerhaus (Germany and Austria, 1997), Singapore Art Museum (Singapore, 1997), Linn Gallery (San Fransisco, USA, 1999), Foundation Beyeler (Switzerland, 2001), Rekjavik Art Museum (Iceland, 2002), Croatia National Art Museum (Croatia, 2002), Edwin Gallery (Jakarta, Indonesia, 2003), CP Open Biennale (Jakarta, Indonesia, 2003), Enrico Navarra Gallery (Paris, France, 2004). Selected Solo Exhibitions: Chinese Contemporary, London (UK, 2000), Soobin Art Gallery (Singapore, 2002), Meile Gallery (Switzerland, 2003), Pruss & Ochs Gallery (Berlin, Germany, 2003), Schoeni Art Gallery (Hong Kong, 2004).

12 YUE MINJUN 岳敏君 (b. 1962)

Make-up Series 化妝系列 Signed in Chinese and pinyin, dated 1997 and numbered 3-1 on the reverse Oil on canvas 油彩畫布 40 x 40 cm PROVENANCE: - Serieuze Zaken Studioos / Rob Malasch, Amsterdam. - Private collection, The Netherlands. SGD 50,000. - 70,000. USD 38,462. - 53,846.

13 YUE MINJUN 岳敏君 (b. 1962)

Make-up Series 化妝系列 Signed in Chinese and pinyin, dated 1997 and numbered 3-2 on the reverse Oil on canvas 油彩畫布 40 x 40 cm PROVENANCE: - Serieuze Zaken Studioos / Rob Malasch, Amsterdam. - Private collection, The Netherlands. SGD 50,000. - 70,000. USD 38,462. - 53,846. 46

14 YUE MINJUN 岳敏君 (b. 1962)

Make-up Series 化妝系列 Signed in Chinese and pinyin, dated 1997 and numbered 3-3 on the reverse Oil on canvas 油彩畫布 40 x 40 cm PROVENANCE: - Serieuze Zaken Studioos / Rob Malasch, Amsterdam. - Private collection, The Netherlands. SGD 50,000. - 70,000. USD 38,462. - 53,846. 47

15 Liu Ye (1964; Beijing, China) graduated from School of Arts and Crafts, Beijing, China in 1984. From 19861989 he pursued his study at Central Academy of Finr Arts, Beijing, China. In 1994 he continued study at Hochschule der Kunst Berlin, Germany. In 1998 he was artist in residence at Rijksacademie, Amsterdam, and in 2001 he joined internship at Delfina Studios, London. Solo Exhibitions: Gallery Taube (Berlin, Germany, 1993, 1995), Min Jing Di Gallery (Beijing, China, 1996), Lococo Mulder Gallery (Berlin, Germany, 2000), Chinese Contemporary Gallery (London, 2001), Schoeni Art Gallery (Hong Kong, 2004), Tomio Koyama Gallery (Tokyo, Japan, 2005), Sperone Westwater (New York, USA, 2006), Kunstmuseum Bern (Bern, Switzerland, 2007). Selected Group Exhibitions: Gallery Serieuse Zaken (Amsterdam, 1997), Shanghai Art Museum (Shanghai, China, 2000), De Markten (Brussels, Belgium, 2001), Reykjavic Art Museum (Iceland, 2002), Museum Kuppersmuechle Sammlung Grothe (Germany, 2002), Museo Arte Contemporanea di Roma (Rome, Italy, 2003), Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin, Ireland, 2004), Gallery Frank Schlad & Cie (Essen, Germany, 2005), Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg, Germany, 2006).

LIU YE 劉野 (b. 1964)

a. Fellowship 同袍之情 1998 Signed in Chinese and pinyin dated 1998 on lower right Oil on canvas 油彩畫布 29.2 x 22.1 cm

b. Spirit of the Sea 海軍精神 1998 Signed in Chinese and pinyin dated 1998 on lower right Colored lithograph, numbered 5/10 78.5 x 95 cm PROVENANCE: - Serieuze Zaken Studioos / Rob Malasch, Amsterdam. - Private collection, The Netherlands. SGD 35,000. - 45,000. USD 26,923. - 34,615.

15 b 48

15 a 49

H . W i d a y at Widayat was born in Kutoarjo, Central Java, in 9 March 1919. At an early age Widayat already showed talent in drawing and enjoyed expressing himself artistically. After finishing Hollandsch Inlandsche School in 1937 in Trenggalek, he moved to Bandung in West Java to continue his education at a vocational high school. It was during this time that Widayat first was exposed to painting in the house of a friend, Muljono, who painted in the fashionable Mooi Indie (Beautiful Indies) style. The meeting with Muljono was a turning point in Widayat’s life. At first he only watched how Muljono composed his landscape, finally he made his first real painting and showed it on Braga Street, the art dealers like it right away. Widayat decided to leave school and became a professional painter. In 1939, he moved to Palembang in South Sumatra and worked in the forest in the service of the Rubber Registration Survey. He spent day and night in the jungle, measuring the sizes of rubber plantations. Widayat’s many years in the jungle of Sumatra had a lasting influence on the topics he prefers. During his ten years in Sumatra, he often lived isolated in the jungle with all its beauty and dangers. The Akademi Seni Rupa Indonesia (ASRI, Fine Arts Academy of Indonesia) was inaugurated in Yogyakarta on 29 December 1949. Widayat applied and was selected. He entered the painting and sculpture department guided by Hendra Gunawan, Sudarso, Trubus, and Kusnadi. Widayat started to develop the decorative quality of his paintings in a more conscious and profound way. Details of the jungle are represented as living entities that are almost tangible. By simplification and distortion of the natural forms, the painter created his personal stylistic language. What is shown is not so much the outward appearance of the jungle, but more the inner structure of nature. Other sources of inspiration for Widayat were the traditional arts of Indonesia: weaving, batik, sculpture, and ceramics. He was one of the first Indonesian painters who used tradition as an important source for contemporary art. From 1960 till 1962 Widayat had the opportunity to study in Nagoya, Japan. He took course in ceramics, graphics, landscape gardening, and ikebana. The refined, aesthetic Japanese culture appealed to Widayat. In Japan Widayat held two exhibitions in Tokyo and Nagoya. One of themes extensively treated by Widayat is flora and fauna. According to him the repetition of small elements in a painting makes the works stronger. In general in the Javanese are bird lovers and keep them in small cages hanging in the courtyards of their homes. The nature of Widayat is never abstract; his flora and fauna paintings still show visible forms displaying endless variations of mountains, trees, flowers, birds, fish, and many other animals. Widayat has been participated in many exhibitions during his journey in art industry. He was one of the Indonesian painters who used traditional as an important source for contemporary art. Widayat passed away in 20 June 2002, and his museum was finally built and officially opened for public since 2004 in Magelang, West Java. “Meticulously painted with exquisite details, is the overwhelming impression one has of the works of Widayat. Deceptively decorative, there is a profound meaning in the works of Widayat. No modern Indonesian painter has given so much canvas space to the image of the tree, the forest, and the garden as Widayat ... Widayat has taken the traditional Indonesian principle of repetition further than most, applying it to motifs like fish, birds, vegetation, masks, and human beings, without losing the underlying feeling of an intense personalized processing of meaning and form which so much Indonesian decorative painting lacks.” (Astri Wright, Soul, Spirit, and Mountain: Preoccupations of Contemporary Indonesian Painters, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1994, p.94).

16 H. WIDAYAT (1919 - 2002)

Musim Burung di Pulau Dua (Bird Season in Two Island) Signed and dated â&#x20AC;&#x2122;80 on lower right Oil on canvas 101 x 141 cm PROVENANCE: Private Collection of Rudolf Fankhauser, Switzerland. SGD 20,000. - 30,000. USD 15,385. - 23,077.

S rihadi S oedarsono Srihadi Soedarsono was born in 4 December 1931 in Solo, Central Java. He is considered to be one of the greatest living modern Indonesian artists. During the Indonesian Revolution, he fought in the students’ army and was a young member of SIM (Young Indonesian Artists). In 1953, Srihadi enrolled in Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). There, he was influenced by the cubist-inspired style of his Dutch teacher, Ries Mulder. In 1959 he graduated from ITB. He obtained his master’s degree at Ohio State University in the United States where he studied from 1960-1962. His sojourn overseas influenced him to experiment with pure abstraction in the 1960s but he was soon to return to figuration. By the early 1970s he had developed a meditative semi-abstract style with broad sweeps of pure colours. In 1980 he returned to Ohio State University under a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship for a research program. Srihadi has taught at and chaired the art departments in ITB and IKJ. He has received many art and achievement awards in Indonesia and overseas. Since 1962, Srihadi has held solo exhibitions in the USA, Indonesia, Australia, Holland, Poland, Germany and Japan. Since 1945, he has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, China, Japan, India, Taipei, Korea, Australia, Bahrain, USA, Brazil, Holland, Germany and Switzerland. As a painter, Srihadi has a unique cultural, social, and educational background. Raised in Solo, he was educated with the traditional Central Javanese ethics. He comprehends the Javanese philosophy which explains the whole life from non-existence, to existence, and back to non-existence. Basically, it is a dynamic cycle of life which ends back to the Creator. There are two significant values in most of Srihadi’s paintings: the artistic value of colour composition and the philosophical value that reflects the meaning of life, cultural, and social value.

The beginnings of Srihadiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s love for the beach and ocean dates back to the year 1952 when he was student at ITB. To Srihadi, ocean panoramas are beautiful and enchanting, The sea makes his heart tremble with joy. He likes to sit in quiet contemplation at the beach, feeling the pounding of the surf, the crashing waves, cool breezes, the wetness of the sand and the heat of the sunâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rays. For Srihadi, the enjoyment of all of this beauty taken the form of a dialogue between man and God. The expressive lines of the horizon and the sea create the dynamics of space, or alternatively there may be the soft and indistinct blur of a mist. Abstract space is felt is these wide, limitless expanses where Srihadi infers a union berween man and nature. The same feeling of calm and soothing nature is also achieved in the Balinese Fishing Boats (1980). The blue sky covers almost three quarters of this horizontalformat painting and the remaining quarter of the canvas features the beach. Three traditional Balinese fishing boats is placed on the left-hand side, staring almost directly towards the viewer.

17 SRIHADI SOEDARSONO (b. 1931)

Balinese Fishing Boats Signed on upper right Signed again on the reverse Oil on canvas 90 x 110 cm PROVENANCE: Private Collection of Rudolf Fankhauser, Switzerland. SGD 25,000. - 40,000. USD 19,231. - 30,769.

Arie Smit ADRIANUS WILHELMUS SMIT, known as Arie Smit, was born in the town of Zaandam, Holland on the fifteenth of April in 1916. Arie is one of the best known Indonesian painters inspired by the life and land of Bali. He studied graphic design at the Academy of Arts in Rotterdam. He was sent to the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) for military service in 1938. He worked as a lithographer for the Dutch army’s Topographical Service in Batavia (Jakarta) and made maps of the archipelago. Arie also designed and illustrated books, but he would have to endure many years of hardship before he could pursue his real artistic dream. During World War II, he was captured by invading Japanese forces in 1942 and taken as prisoner of war to forced labour camps in Singapore, Thailand and Burma. When the Dutch acknowledged Indonesia’s sovereignty after the revolution for independence from 1945 to 1949, Arie returned there and became an Indonesian citizen in 1950. He worked as a draftsman for a publishing firm in Bandung, West java, and as a graphics instructor ar the Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB, Bandung Institute of Technology). Smit first visited Bali in 1956, and after two months he decided to make this island his permanent home. He has lived in dozens of different villages across the island over the decades. In the early 1960s Smit gave art supplies to teenage youths in Penestanan village near Ubud in Gianyar, South Bali. With minimal instruction but lots of encouragement, they created a naive style of genre painting that became known as the Young Artists style. Except for the imaginative use of color, their works differ in style and content from Smit’s own paintings. In recognition for his role in the development of painting on the island, Smit received the Dharma Kusuma award in 1992 from the government of Bali. The Arie Smit Pavilion was opened at the Neka Art Museum in 1994 to display his works and those of contemporary Balinese artists.

As a very creative and productive artist, Smit often experiments with his style to show refreshing new views of familiar scenes. His works evoke the light and colors of late 19th century Impressionism, but he never paints on location. He sketches outdoors and then creates works back in his studio. Smit has spent a lifetime trying to capture the riotous light in Bali. He has tried to match this light by what he calls his broken colours, applying mosaic like touches of paint, brushstrokes, while never quite covering the underlying layer. As shown in this lot, Shrines in the Temple is one of Smit’s works in 1980 that portrayed a Balinese temple, strongly outlined and filled in a brown tone colour in a shade and gradation to capture the lighting and the ambience of the sacred temple. Depicted by the strong, bold lines, and expressionist tones, the work is spontaneous in nature and subjective in the choice of colours. It is in his concern in creating the overall mood of the scene that details are diminished and the objects are simplified. Through his work, Arie shares with us his artistic vision and feelings.

18 ARIE SMIT (b. 1916)

Shrines in the Temple Signed and dated 1980 on lower left Acrylic on canvas 65 x 86 cm LITERATURE: Suteja Neka & Drs. Sudarmaji, “Arie Smit”, Koes Artbooks, Bali, 1995, illustrated in color, p.74. PROVENANCE: Private Collection of Rudolf Fankhauser, Switzerland. SGD 15,000. - 25,000. USD 11,538. - 19,231.

Arie Smit is well known for his paintings of Balinese people and landscapes, and his striking use of colour. According to Amir Sidharta, “Arie sketches with ‘selective eyes’ by freely choosing forms, then in his studio uses mosaics of colour brushed on layer by layer that never completely cover underlying pigments, a technique which he calls ‘broken colours’. Spontaneous brushstrokes highlight shapes, create lively variations, and often elicit a vibrant effect.” (Reference: Modern Indonesian Art: From Raden Saleh to the Present Day, Koes Artbooks, 2006).

When we think of Bali, we immediately think of a lush, tropical paradise filled with terraced rice fields, tropical vegetation and coconut trees swaying in the gentle breeze. Visitors to the “Island of the Gods” are always struck by the beauty of the natural environment in Bali both at the seaside or up in the mountains. Having lived in Bali since 1956, Arie Smit has often created wonderful landscape paintings inspired by the area around his studio in the village of Ubud. Coconut trees grow near his home and studio, and he can also see the trees in the distance along the ridge that extends north from Ubud to Keliki and beyond. In the current Lot, Arie Smit presents us with a beautiful tropical landscape full of palm trees receding into the distance. The elongated trees are paired and seem to bend towards each other in a loving caress, invoking a feeling of intimacy between them. The green, blue and yellow tones imbue the painting with a feeling of warmth, and the gently undulating hills create a feeling of rhythmic movement. The earth is dappled with golden sunlight, and peace reigns supreme in this beautiful, natural paradise.

19 ARIE SMIT (b. 1916)

Palm Tree Landscape Signed and dated `85 on lower right Acrylic on canvas laid on board 142 x 92.5 cm LITERATURE: Suteja Neka & Drs. Sudarmaji, “Arie Smit”, Koes Artbooks, Bali, 1995, illustrated in color, p.91. SGD 45,000. - 65,000. USD 34,615. - 50,000.

G erard P ieter A dolfs Gerard Pieter Adolfs was born on 2 January 1898 in Semarang, Central Java. He spent his youth in Java and received at home his first artistic inspirations. His father, Gerardus Cornelis Adolfs, was an architect and a versatile amateur painter, photographer, piano and violin player. Adolfs studied architecture in Amsterdam. After graduating, he was drawn back to Java, were he designed houses in Yogyakarta, Solo and Surabaya. But soon he swapped the drawing pen for the dry-point, pencil and brush and from then on dedicated his whole life to painting. He was already well-known as a talented advertising illustrator, when in 1924 he was first introduced to the public of Yogyakarta as a painter, water-colourist and graphic artist. Each year Adolfs travelled for a few months. He had studios in Florence, Rome, Vienna, Budapest, Prague and (together with his Japanese friend Fujita) in Paris and exhibited his works of art internationally (Netherlands Indies, Japan, Singapore, USA, England, Holland, Sweden, Norway, France, Switzerland a.o.). The main subjects of his work were scenes of Java, Bali, Japan and of North Africa (market sceneries, cock-fights, landscapes and townscapes). In 1940 - shortly before the occupation of Holland - Adolfs came back to Europe and settled in Amsterdam. On 22 February 1944, during an exhibition at the Kunstzaal Pollmann, the largest part of Adolfsâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; paintings was destroyed during the bombardment of Nijmegen. Adolfs kept on working. He wrote and illustrated a book about his memories of Surabaya and exhibited in many well-known galleries. He mostly lived in Amsterdam- interrupted by longer stays in Scandinavia, France, Spain, Italy and North Africa.In 1967 he retired to a small Dutch village. On 1 February 1968, G.P. Adolfs died in `s-Hertogenbosch, Holland.

With regard to his painting, the time Adolfs spent studying architecture and working as an architect does not seem to have been totally wasted. All his pictures bear witness to his trained eye, his ability to find the correct perspective of a house or the right incidence of light and the fitting composition. Adolfs’ art is impressionistic in a further sense. The immediate impressions that nature makes are expressed in his art in colours which are, in a way, paste painted on to a painting’s surface to gain luminosity, but which also serve to render an atmosphere, scene, outline or light in a passionate way. Adolfs was a stupendous master of his art - that of spontaneous painting; in it he mixed architectural sure-footedness with the reverberation of light and meticulously worked-out details of form. (E. Borntraeger-Stoll & G. Orsini, Gerard Pieter Adolfs - The Painter of Java and Bali, 1898-1968, Wijk en Aalburg 2008)

The composition of this painting is based on balanced vertical and horizontal lines from the architecture, clearly betraying Adolfs’ background as an established architect.These lines, together with the scorching sun, the friendly foliage and the seemingly relaxed people portrayed, lend the current lot a particularly relaxed expression. Both walking persons give a sense of direction for the perceptive eye, and the central perspective of the small streetview gives the work a beautiful depth. The exclusivity of this painting becomes apparent by the mere fact that Arab Quarter, Semarang is the only painting made by Adolfs which has been printed in the Netherlands as a poster by Verkerke in the 1970’s. In addition, Arab Quarter, Semarang has been illustrated in the biography on Adolfs on a full page.

20 GERARD PIETER ADOLFS (1898 - 1968)

Kampong Arab - Samarang (Arab Quarter, Semarang) Signed ‘ADOLFS’ lower left Inscribed with title, dated ‘60/’63 and numbered No 567 on the reverse Oil on canvas 60 x 50 cm This painting by Adolfs is the only painting to be selected by the Dutch poster and postcard company Verkerke to be reproduced as an art poster. An original copy of this art poster from the 1970’s accompanies the current lot. LITERATURE: E. Borntraeger-Stoll & G. Orsini, Gerard Pieter Adolfs - The Painter of Java and Bali, 1898 - 1968, Wijk en Aalburg 2008, p.402 (oeuvre catalogue) and illustrated in colour on a full page, p.280. PROVENANCE: Directly from the estate of the artist. SGD 20,000. - 30,000. USD 15,385. - 23,077.

L ee M an F ong Lee Man Fong was born in 1913 in Guangzhou, Canton, China; he died in Jakarta in 1988. In 1916 Lee Man Fongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s father, a merchant with ten children, brought him to Singapore where he received his first painting education. When his father died in 1930, Man Fong had to work hard to earn a living for his mother and siblings using his skill in painting ads and artwork. He moved to Jakarta in 1932 where he started an advertising agency and worked as a commercial artist. At that time in Jakarta, the tension between nationalist groups such as PERSAGI / Indonesian Paintersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Union and the Indische-Holland Kunstkring community stimulated him. In 1941 he visited Bali and painted there for a brief period. In 1942, Man Fong was jailed because of his opposition to Japanese colonialism in Indonesia. After six months in jail, Takahashi Masao helped him gain freedom. This Japanese officer was interested in his artistic potential. Lee Man Fong was awarded the Malino grant in 1947 by the Dutch Governor General to study painting in Holland and stayed there until 1952. He travelled widely during those years and held several successful solo exhibitions. In 1955 he founded the Yin Hua artists association in Indonesia, and served as chairman. He was a Presidential Palace painter for the former Indonesian President Soekarno and compiled the 5-volume publication which documented the Presidential art collection. He worked in various media and is best known for incorporating techniques of Chinese painting into his works.

The Chinese inscription on the upper left of the painting shows a deep meaning towards the painting of 8 Prosperous Goldfish which translated that Lee Man Fong presented this painting to his highly respected friend, Mr. Lim Miau Fat, at the year of 1945 when he finished this painting. It is customary that a cription on the upper left painter of the painting showsgive his best work to his friend. will only

g towards the painting of 8 Prosperous Goldfish ed that Lee Man Fong presented this painting In the art of Chinese painting, whether taught by the southern espected friend, Mr. Lim Miau Fat, at the year oristhe northern bamboo trees and houses are the he finished this painting. It customary that community, a y give his best work to histhemes friend. that are considered as the most complicated, and must

be mastered first by a painter. However Lee Man Fong suggests

inese painting, whether taught by the southern a and different community, bamboo trees houses notion. are the For him, goldfish is the most complicated e considered as the most complicated, object, so and thatmust it must become the basic of all various kind of st by a painter. However Lee Man Fong suggests objects. on. For him, goldfish is the most complicated it must become the basicThe of allpainting various kind is ofpicturing 8 goldfishes swimming within the

space of an aquarium. The pulsating fish bodies, fins and

s picturing 8 goldfishes swimming the the tail’s within movement were depicted in a magnificent manner. quarium. The pulsating fish bodies, fins and Painting experts agree in their saying that in painting ment were depicted in a magnificent manner. goldfishes requires a high degree of expertise. And Lee Man ts agree in their saying that in painting Fong has ires a high degree of expertise. Andattained Lee Man this degree. ed this degree.

There is a particular significance in this fish painting of Lee Man

ular significance in this fish painting of Lee Man Fong. InThis China, fish has the meaning of “excess“. This meaning fish has the meaning of “excess“. meaning surfaced se the way of pronouncing “fish“ andbecause “excess“ the way of pronouncing “fish“ and “excess“ oth “yi“. So that there is ain Chinese saying Chinese is “nien both “yi“. So that there is a Chinese saying “nien “excess in every year“. Goldfish painting can“excess be nien yu yi“ or in every year“. Goldfish painting can be work that supposed to bring good fortune and

regarded as a work that supposed to bring good fortune and blessings.

LEE MAN FONG (1913 - 1988)

21 LEE MAN FONG

hes

mped on upper left on lower left 45

(1913 - 1988)

Eight Goldfishes

Signed and stamped on upper left Stamped again on lower left Man Fong - Oil Paintings Executed Volume I”, on 1945 gapore, illustrated in color,Oil p.323. on board 91 x 122 cm 350,000. 269,231.

LITERATURE: Siont Teja, “Lee Man Fong - Oil Paintings Volume I”, Art Retreat, Singapore, illustrated in color, p.323. SGD 250,000. - 350,000. USD 192,308. - 269,231.

In 2005 Lee Man Fongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book of biography and paintings (oil paint, drawings, water paint and pastel) was published in Singapore. In this book, matters concerning Lee Man Fongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interest in whatever object are touched on. One of the objects is this Rojak Seller. In this painting, Lee Man Fong grasps several attractions that are synchronous with his artistic feeling. Rojak seller demonstrates a sense of intimacy and belonging as the lady who is engaging in preparing the snacks is being watched by the others in the composition. Simple arrangement of fresh fruits on banana leaves are displayed modestly on the table with an oil lamp and the seller enjoys making the traditional rojak while the buyers waiting at the side looking at the process. With Rojak seller, Man Fong constructs a focal point of the Rojak seller that is both interesting to the onlookers in the composition, as well as to us the onlooker outside of the work. With the abundance of fruits, plates and other objects on the table, Man Fong balances the busy right section to the serene and simple of the left section of the work. Thus creating a curious sense of paradoxical composition where the complicated and the richness coexist with the sublime and the lyrical.

22 LEE MAN FONG (1913 - 1988)

Rojak Seller Signed and stamped on lower right Stamped again on upper left Oil on board 101.5 x 49.5 cm SGD 100,000. - 150,000. USD 76,923. - 115,385.

Lee Man Fong worked in various media and is best known for incorporating techniques of both Chinese and European painting into his works. The subject matter that he chose succeeded in giving his paintings an Asian flavour. The theme of women appears over and over again in many of Lee Man Fong’s paintings, from one model to another, showing the passion and admiration he felt for women of all walks of life, from the wealthy socialites to the common workers, farmers, weavers and market-sellers. The subject matter also allows Lee Man Fong to focus on the beauty of Balinese women. Many European artists such as Hofker, Le Mayeur, Bonnet, Covarrubias, Sonnega and Theo Meier were similarly attracted to their beauty and dignity. In this painting Lee Man Fong creates a strong portrait of a beautiful Balinese woman who carries a basket on her head. Bare breasted, she looks the viewer straight in the eye, unashamed by her semi-nakedness, just as we imagine Eve in the Garden of Eden before she succumbed to temptation. Her dark eyes and long hair contrast with the gold ear plug earrings she is wearing, and her voluptuous figure symbolises fertility and abundance. Furthermore, Man Fong succeeds in combining both Chinese and European techniques in this painting. The woman is painted in a realistic European style, whilst the minimalist elements of the landscape are painted in the Chinese style of ink painting. With only a few brushstrokes, Man Fong is able to create an impression of a landscape which is slightly rocky and uneven, but the woman has selected a flat piece of ground on which to stand as she poses with arm raised, keeping the heavy basket balanced on her head.

23 LEE MAN FONG (1913 - 1988)

Basket on Her Head Signed and stamped on lower right Executed circa 1960s Oil on board 104 x 51 cm LITERATURE: Siont Teja, “Lee Man Fong - Oil Paintings Volume II”, Art Retreat, Singapore, 2005, illustrated in color, p.72. SGD 100,000. - 150,000. USD 76,923. - 115,385.

Lee Man-Fong was able to work with any kind of medium: oil on canvas and hardboard, pastel and watercolour on paper, pen and ink on cardboard. His paintings conveyed a gentle touch through mastery of technique, while his rich themes ranged from landscapes and still lifes to portraits. Their forms are three-dimensional and remain true to his inner vision, with a vigorous style of Western painting techniques and rendition imbued with an Asian flavour. In this painting, Lee Man Fong displayed his mastery of painting in a realistic manner. He achieves a balance between substance and void, light and darkness. The beautiful brushstrokes create a perfect impression of shadows, light and reflections. Gracefully arranged in a glass vase, the white chrysanthemum flowers are in full bloom. A glass jarlet is placed to the left of the vase. Lee Man Fong deliberately chose to include glassware in this painting because the transparency of glass has the ability to allow light to pass through it and to reflect points of light on its surface, thus allowing for additional points of focus to be revealed in the painting. Painted in a realistic manner, Man Fong displays his virtuosity in using European Old Master techniques while using subject matter that is beloved by Asians, particularly the Chinese. Rather than painting flowers that are more popular in European culture and tradition, he chooses a flower that is full of symbolism for Asians. Chrysanthemums were first cultivated in China as a flowering herb for more than three thousand years. The chrysanthemum is one of the “Four Gentlemen” of China (the others being the plum blossom, the orchid, and bamboo). In China the flower is a symbol of autumn, abundance, plenty, intellectual accomplishments, nobility and immortality. It is considered that cultivating chrysanthemmums is a worthwhile hobby for cultured people in their retirement years, and so the flower can also symbolise a happy middle or old age and retirement. Chrysanthemums may also symbolise quietness, a love of nature and delight in the simple life.

24 LEE MAN FONG (1913 - 1988)

White Chrysanthemums Signed and dated 1944 on upper right Oil on canvas 76 x 63 cm LITERATURE: Ho Kung-Shang, “The Oil Paintings of Lee Man Fong, The Pioneer Artist of Indonesia and Singapore”, Art Book Co., Ltd., Taipei, 1984, Oil Painting in Traditional Style, illustrated on p.106. SGD 50,000. - 80,000. USD 38,462. - 61,538.

Basoeki Abdullah painted many works of landscapes, flora and fauna, and themes inspired by Javanese mythology and folklore. However, he is most respected and best remembered for his excellent skills at portrait painting. Revered and respected in Indonesia, Basoeki Abdullah was President Sukarnoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s presidential painter. He was also hailed as a great painter throughout Southeast Asia from the 1960s onwards, serving as official palace painter for both the King of Thailand and the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam as well as receiving a Cultural Award from the King of Cambodia in 1963. Some of the subjects for his portraits included King Bhumibol Adulbyadej of Thailand; Queen Juliana of the Netherlands; President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, and Imelda Marcos; the Duke of Edinburgh; Prince Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei; and President Suharto of Indonesia. Basoeki Abdullahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s images of romantic beauty were expressed through his mastery of naturalistic realism, and his ability to paint beautiful, flattering portraits made him popular with wealthy art lovers who wanted to adorn their exquisite homes with exquisite portraits of themselves and their family members. He was truly the portrait painter for the rich and famous, a celebrity artist who had a long waiting list of art collectors wanting to commission a portrait by the maestro. He especially was able to capture the essence of glamour, exoticism and sensuality in his paintings, especially when painting a portrait of a woman: she was always transformed into the perfect model of ideal feminine beauty. In this Lot, Basoeki Abdullahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s charming portrait of a dancer presents us with a vision of a woman who is possibly even more enchanting than the original, with her flawless skin, beautiful face and perfectly proportioned body and limbs. Her youth is shown by her full cheeks, slim waistline and well-rounded cleavage. Basoeki Abdullah also wants to tell us about his own Javanese character, which he shares with the Javanese woman he portrays with such sublimity. Seated gracefully, her dark hair and eyes contrast beautifully with her light skin, and her luscious red lips perfectly match the colour of her costume. Her golden necklace and arm decorations give a hint of wealth and abundance, while the white flowers imply that the young girl is pure in her heart, body and soul.

25 BASOEKI ABDULLAH (1915 - 1993)

Portrait of a Dancer Signed on lower right Oil on canvas 90 x 70 cm SGD 10,000. - 15,000. USD 7,692. - 11,538.

S . S udjojono Sindudarsono Sudjojono was born in 1913 in Kisaran, North Sumatra. He died in Jakarta in 1986, but his works is still hunted by collectors in Indonesia and overseas. He is one of the most important pioneers of modern Indonesian art in the 20th century. Known as the father of Indonesian Modern Art, S. Sudjojono was also a fighter for Indonesian independence through arts way. For Sudjojono art is not values free. Art is not for art itself, but art is for people. Through art Sudjojono was involved in the struggle for Indonesian independence. Sudjojono received formal art instruction in Jakarta as a youth. A co-founder of PERSAGI / Indonesian Painters’ Union, Sudjojono was the group’s eloquent spokesman and the leading figure of the merging generation of artists during the mounting nationalism of the 1930s. He launched a critical attack against the Mooi Indie (Beautiful Indies) art of the late 1930s, and his call for a new art rooted in Indonesian reality sparked the emergence of an art characterised by social themes and an expressionistic style of painting that became associated with the Yogyakarta art scene of the 1950s and early 1960s. The Japanese Occupation (1942-1945) saw Sudjojono’s participation in the cultural organisation PUTERA / Central People’s Force and in Keimin Bunka Shidoso Cultural Centre in Jakarta. During the Revolution, Sudjojono formed SIM / Young Indonesian Artists which had its base in Yogyakarta. In the 1950s he worked closely with the communist-sponsored cultural organisation LEKRA / People’s Cultural Institute and in 1955, nominated by the Communist Party, was voted to Parliament. Holding to the socialist ideology of art for the people, Sudjojono promoted social realist art but he eventually returned to an expressionistic style of painting. His expulsion from the Communist Party in 1958 saved him from the communist purge in 1965. In 1970 he was recognised with an award in the arts by the Indonesian Government. His work has been exhibited in the Netherlands and at the Fukuoka Art Museum in Japan in 1980. In Indonesia, Sudjojono’s work has been exhibited in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Denpasar.

Although ever tried in expressionism Sudjojono was consistent with his social realism in his works. Most of his paintings are about ordinary people in their daily activities. But as a nationalist he noted many moments about Indonesian struggle fighting to colonialism in his works. Most of his paintings seized his “visible soul (jiwa ketok)”, a soul that a painter has to express the reality. Since his second marriage to Rose Pandawangi in 1959, S. Sudjojono’s painting slightly shifted to the beauties in his surroundings. His love for his family became an inspiration for Sudjojono to paint. His family often became a subject to his paintings. As in this following lot, his affection for a woman he loved and for her beauty was strongly exposed as he portrayed the back of a naked beautiful woman, with her long and wavy hair, kneeling down elegantly. In LARAS magazine of May 2006 edition, the critic, Agus Dermawan T. wrote: “In general, Sudjojono’s works magical and highly interpretable. They are so because they the result of broad imagination and fine skills. He demonstrates his brushing techniques ranging from smooth and coarse, focused and strongly projecting his pulsating emotion and distinct personality. His brushing techniques become his main elements to bring his visible soul into his painting. According to Sudjojono, an excellent piece of painting is able to depict the true soul of the painter.

26 S. SUDJOJONO (1913 - 1986)

Nude Signed and dated 1959 on upper right Oil on canvas 143 x 100 cm SGD 90,000. - 150,000. USD 69,231. - 115,385.

R udi M antofani Rudi Mantofani was born in 1973 in Padang, West Sumatra. He is a graduate of ISI / Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Yogyakarta. In 1996 he received the award for Best Sculpture at the Dies Natalis ISI Yogyakarta. A sculptor and painter, Rudi Mantofani is a member of Kelompok Jendela /Jendela Group, a major artist’s collective from Indonesia whose members have become key figures in the contemporary regional art scene. Jendela comprises Handiwirman Saputra, Jumaldi Alfi, Rudi Mantofani, Yunizar and Yusra Martunus. These five artists from West Sumatra are all graduates of the Indonesia Art Institute or ISI (Institut Seni Indonesia) in Yogyakarta. They have differentiated themselves from a predominantly figurative-based and socio-politically driven Indonesian art context, or what is commonly known as “Jogja surreal”, each working in a distinctive visual symbolic language, using still life and landscape forms. Rudi Mantofani is a sculptor and painter whose work takes ordinary objects and landscapes and transforms them into strange or absurd ‘visual parables’. With a meticulous technique and a high level of finish, Mantofani’s works are associative and thought-provoking meditations on human experience and behaviour. He has had solo exhibitions in Hong Kong (2003) and Jakarta (2002 & 2005), and has participated in group exhibitions in Singapore, Malaysia, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Yogyakarta, Jakarta and Bali. His recent participation in group exhibitions includes Collectors’ Stage, Singapore Art Museum (2011); Pleasures of Chaos: Inside New Indonesian Art in Milan, Italy (2010); Contemporaneity: Contemporary Art of Indonesia at Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai (2010); Reflective Asia, 3rd Nanjing Triennale, Nanjing (2010); Jakarta Biennale, Indonesia (2009); Jendela: A Play of the Ordinary, NUS Museum, Singapore (2009); and the 6th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia (2009).

While Rudi’s sculptures are focused on form and scale and the metaphorical, his paintings revolve around landscape. They provide new interpretations to the grand tradition of landscape painting, constantly challenging the genre through daring visual ploys, such as flattening the pictorial space through heavy repetitions; or mischievously pushing and pulling the pictorial space. In his paintings, Rudi Mantofani offers a distinctive visual strategy in a game of logic that can meander far and wide, and in which thoroughly realistic visual codes are exchanged with abstractions. We can often see how in his paintings Rudi controls and distributes the pictorial space of his canvas to make orderly compositions, that the field of his canvas is actually developed from the compositions of colours, textures and forms that fill the geometric-abstract or organic space in consideration of well-measured compositional arrangements. We have become accustomed to expect the unexpected in Rudi Mantofani’s landscape paintings. His landscape and still-life paintings might at first look like common garden-variety landscape and still-life paintings, but this initial impression is always shaken by the presence of a certain element or object that has in real life no empirical relationship to it, and is even symbolically detached. In this painting entitled “Cakrawala Warna” Rudi fills the lower part of the painting with rainbow-like spectrum of colour bars which appear like a wall or fence over which we see the tree-tops and clear blue sky in the distant background. It is a perfect contrast of Man and Nature.

27 RUDI MANTOFANI (b. 1973)

Cakrawala Warna (Colorful Horizon) Signed and dated 2004-2007 on lower right Acrylic on canvas 150 x 200 cm LITERATURE: “Cilukba! (Peekaboo!): An exhibition by Kelompok Seni Rupa Jendela (Jendela Art Group) Handiwirman Saputra, Jumaldi Alfi, Rudi Mantofani, Yunizar and Yuzra Martunus”, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, 2007, illustrated on color, p.23. EXHIBITED: Enin Supriyanto, “Cilukba! (Peekaboo!): An exhibition by Kelompok Seni Rupa Jendela (Jendela Art Group) Handiwirman Saputra, Jumaldi Alfi, Rudi Mantofani, Yunizar and Yuzra Martunus”, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, 26 May - 16 June 2007. SGD 100,000. - 150,000. USD 76,923. - 115,385.

We have become accustomed to expect the unexpected in Rudi Mantofani’s landscape paintings. Often he depicts a larger-than-life object such as a banana or a globe of the world placed within what would otherwise be a perfectly normal looking landscape. Or else Rudi turns the world upside down as it were. In his painting entitled “Apple” (Borobudur auction, October 2007) the “stalk” of the large red apple is actually the apple tree. The natural order is reversed, and the roots of the apple tree emerge from the ripe, red apple itself. The impression is one of upward growth, in that we could also imagine that each apple on the tree will also “sprout” a new tree instead of its own stalk holding it to the tree. In the current Lot, Rudi once again presents an unexpected vision of landscape painting. It is as if we see the front part of a house imprinted onto the landscape. It is like looking at an empty ice cube tray representing what was or will be ice cubes; or a cake mould representing a cake that was or will be baked. One needs only pour in the materials to create - in this case - a house which will then be uplifted to stand up from its horizontal mould position. Rather than simply portraying a house standing amidst a lush, green landscape, Rudi presents us with a depiction of what was - or will be - a house. His painting covers past, present and future - the shape of things to come.

28 RUDI MANTOFANI (b. 1973)

Melihat Bumi (Looking at the Earth) Signed and dated 2005-2007 on lower right Acrylic on canvas 180 x 180 cm EXHIBITED: “The Grass Looks Greener Where You Water It”, Indonesia Contemporary Art Showcase, 20 Artists, 20 New Works, Grand Palais - Champs Elysees, Art Paris, 18-22 March 2010. SGD 60,000. - 80,000. USD 46,154. - 61,538.

S a msul A rifin Samsul Arifin was born in 5 March 1979 in Malang, East Java. Little Samsul has always wanted to be an artist. At his home in South Malang, he was brought up in a family who open a tailoring business. Therefore, as a child, he had always been familiar not only with the drawing, but also with the sewing techniques, creating stuffed toys from cloth and yarn, or inventing his own toys. When he finally grew up, he decided to enter the Sekolah Menengah Seni Rupa (SMSR, High School of Fine Arts) in Yogyakarta. In 2000, he continued to study in Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta (Indonesian Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta) until he finished his study in 2007. Samsul Arifin has had two solo exhibitions in Indonesia in Semarang (2008) and Jakarta (2010). He has participated in various group exhibitions in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bandung and Surabaya in Indonesia as well as Closing the Gap; Indonesian Art Today in Melbourne, Australia (2011); Refresh: New Strategies in Indonesian Contemporary Art in Singapore (2008); A Slice of Indonesian Contemporary Art, Beijing (2008); and Jogja Biennale, Yogyakarta in 2008 & 2010.

Samsul Arifin’s painting is known more for the objects of stationery tolls such as pencil, and erasers. And lately, his works often feature a stuffed toy named Goni, after the rice sack cloth bag that it is made from, which eventually become his main character. “Goni, according to Samsul, is a symbol of an innocent person, unprivileged, uncorrupted, simple, and blank, as described by his minimalist form with a wide, doe eyes, seemingly to always be fascinated and curious of the world outside”. (Source: Wardhani, F., 2008, “Goni’s Journey”, Semarang: Semarang Gallery)

Gelisah di Ujung Ketinggian (Restless on the Edge Height) has shown a strong composition with a black solid carbon core inside the pencil on the right side drawn vertically with Samsul’s signature Goni sitting restlessly in the top of it with a big pencil on his back showing a big burden that he has. This lot has proved Samsul’s competency in drawing and put an emotional feeling of his subject into the canvas.

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29 SAMSUL ARIFIN (b. 1979)

Gelisah Diujung Ketinggian (Restless on the Edge Height) Signed and dated 07-08-09 on lower right Acrylic on canvas 150 x 200 cm SGD 50,000. - 80,000. USD 38,462. - 61,538.

J. Ariadhitya Pramuhendra J. Ariadhitya Pramuhendra was born in Semarang, Central Java, on 13 August 1984. He is quickly making a name for himself as a rising contemporary artist in Indonesia. Pramuhendra was raised in a devout Catholic family in predominantly Muslim Indonesia. He studied printmaking in the faculty of Fine Arts and Design at the Bandung Institute of Technology in West Java, graduated in 2007 and formed Platform 3 as an artistic collective drawing on the energy of emerging Indonesian artists and curators. In 2008, Pramuhendra has taken part in group exhibition at Galeri Nasional Indonesia in Jakarta, and SH Contemporary in Shanghai, China. He also showed his artworks at CIGE in Beijing, China and CG Artspace in Jakarta on 2009. Pramuhendra held his solo exhibition at Cemara 6 Galeri in 2008 and the National University of Singapore Museum in 2009. Pramuhendra now lives and works at Bandung. Pramuhendra explores digital photography, animation, video art and installation. He imaginatively shows objects and icons expanding beyon the limitations of the flat surfaces upon which they are rendered. His works present his personal anxieties regarding identity or understanding problems about the self. They deal with religion, displacement and family. The artist develops lines and smudges into images that appear like photographs flowing with memories, melancholy and mystery. Reference: Modern Indonesian Art: From Raden Saleh to the Present Day, Koes Artbooks, 2010.

“J. Ariadhitya Pramuhendra’s Spacing Identities draws upon family portraits from the artist’s past in illustrating the intensely problematic yet stimulating exercise of aestheticizing fragments of everyday life in exposing the eclectic, the fragmented, and the relational concerns of identity. Engaging with specific moments in the artist’s life, the works accentuate, perhaps even fixate on exposing the constructedness of our identities which have come to be assumed as natural and given. Amidst the bizarre and the banality represented by family portraiture, it is assumed that there is no need to present a story nor any great proposition, but a discursive plunge, a powerful reconstitution in the present of that position where identity may be expressed. Therefore, Spacing Identities is not entirely about making sense of the people in the aged family photographs or portraits but using such photographs from the artist’s past as starting points for an investigation of the “image” itself; as productive acts of remembering knowledge of the past, now. …” This painting was included in the solo exhibition entitled “Spacing Identities” that Pramuhendra held at NUS Museum, Singapore in 2009. It is part of a larger series of work on the theme of memories that has engrossed this artist’s interest for several years. Reference: Essay by Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, “Remembrance Now” in catalogue for Pramuhendra’s solo exhibition entitled “Spacing Identities” at NUS Museum, Singapore in 2009.

30 J. ARIADHITYA PRAMUHENDRA (b. 1984)

Kindergarten Dated `09 on the reverse Charcoal on canvas 167 x 267 cm LITERATURE: “Spacing Identities - J. Ariadhitya Pramuhendra”, NUS Museum, National University of Singapore, Institut Teknologi Bandung & Gajah Gallery, Singapore, 2009, illustrated on p. 21 & 39. EXHIBITED: “Spacing Identities - J. Ariadhitya Pramuhendra”, NUS Museum, National University of Singapore, Institut Teknologi Bandung & Gajah Gallery, Singapore, 10-31 May 2009. SGD 28,000. - 35,000. USD 21,538. - 26,923.

Pramuhendra grew up in Semarang in Central Java, and was raised in a devout Catholic family in predominantly Muslim Indonesia. Pramuhendra says, “My art is about my life. My art talks about me, and my identity. It’s like a self-portrait”. He constantly strives to answer the question that tantalises and engrosses him: “Who Am I?” in the context of his essential self, his religion, the society in which he lives, and even regarding his own place in the art world. These questions form the basis and inspiration for the themes he explores in his art works. His charcoal works present momentary petitions for recognition by constantly re-assessing the Self in relation to what constitutes identity, the moral and the social in contemporary Indonesia. The Self simultaneously becomes a subject and object of observation and study for the artist, a liminal philosophical category, developed through investigations into artifactual constituents of memory and placed conjunctive to idealizations of artistic labour and its accompanying predicaments. As a devout Catholic, the act of baptism is an important stage in life. Baptism or christening is for the majority the rite of admission, almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition. Baptism has been called a sacrament and an ordinance of Jesus Christ. This painting was included in the solo exhibition entitled “Spacing Identities” that Pramuhendra held at NUS Museum, Singapore in 2009. It is part of a larger series of work on the theme of memories that has engrossed this artist’s interest for several years.

31 J. ARIADHITYA PRAMUHENDRA (b. 1984)

Baptism Signed on lower right Dated `09 on the reverse Charcoal on canvas 200 x 147 cm LITERATURE: “Spacing Identities - J. Ariadhitya Pramuhendra”, NUS Museum, National University of Singapore, Institut Teknologi Bandung & Gajah Gallery, Singapore, 2009, illustrated on p.37. EXHIBITED: “Spacing Identities - J. Ariadhitya Pramuhendra”, NUS Museum, National University of Singapore, Institut Teknologi Bandung & Gajah Gallery, Singapore, 10-31 May 2009. SGD 15,000. - 25,000. USD 11,538. - 19,231.

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Zao W o u k i 趙無極 Zao Wou-Ki is a Chinese-French painter who has lived in France since 1946. His earliest exhibitions in France were met with praise from Miró and Picasso. Zao Wou-ki is a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, and is considered one of the most successful Chinese painters alive. His works, influenced by Paul Klee, are orientated to abstraction. He names them with the date in which he finishes them, and in them, masses of colours appear to materialise a creating world, like a big bang, where light structures the canvas. While his work is stylistically similar to the Abstract Expressionists whom he met while travelling in New York, he is also influenced by Impressionism. Zao Wou-ki himself has stated that he has been influenced by the works of Matisse, Picasso, and Cézanne. His cypher-like signature, to which he has remained faithful for over fifty years, gives his first name in Chinese characters and his last in a Western orthography. It is emblematic of a stranded cultural identity, recognized from the first by sympathetic critics as the key to his artistic direction. The recognition, however, took the form of a view of Zao’s painting as an exemplary reconciliation of Chinese and European aesthetics, in which the language of modern Western abstraction is enriched by a Chinese sensibility rooted in the past. Zao’s preference is for lyrical abstraction with the aim of expressing nature in its fullness and a true Chinese vision of the world. Considered as a great master of abstraction, Zao is interested in the unity of all things, imbued with deep poetry. His paintings are pure abstract expression, and he has developed a unique style of abstract art with its roots in Chinese culture and art. His works evoke a peaceful atmosphere and sense of harmony through the refined use of brushwork and colour in his lyrical and abstract painting style. The multiple vibrations of the pictorial colors energise the canvas and through the expressive brush strokes, viewers feel the artist’s total embracement and accelerating momentum and tension. The result for viewers is an interwoven imagination of the tangible and the intangible, the powerful and the ethereal.

32 ZAO WOUKI 趙無極 (b. 1921)

4.2.65 Signed on lower right Signed again on the reverse Oil on canvas 油彩畫布 46 x 50 cm SGD 400,000. - 600,000. USD 307,692. - 461,538.

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Chu Teh-Chun 朱德群 Chu Teh-Chun was born in 1920 in Baitou Zhen in the province of Jiangsu, China. Youngest son of a well-to-do family, his father was a collector of traditional Chinese painting. He was admitted in 1935 to the Art Academy of Hangzhou. He was first interested in the traditional style, then he opted for western painting. In 1937, the ChineseJapanese war provoked the exodus of the universities towards the west of China. Chu Teh-Chun obtained his diploma in 1941, after which he was immediately named assistant professor in his own school, then permanent professor in 1942 at the University of Nanjing. In 1949 Chu Teh Chun moved from Nanjing to Taiwan and held his first solo exhibition at Zhongshan Hall in Taipei in 1954. In 1955 he decided to move to France, and in 1956 he participated in the Paris Spring Salon where he won the Silver Prize. Since 1954 he has held more than 100 solo exhibitions in France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada, Singapore, Germany, Belgium, China, Indonesia, USA, Japan and Spain. His work is in various museum and public collections in France and China. Some of his most important solo exhibitions are Tenth São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo, Brazil (1969); Retrospective, Maison de la Culture, Saint-Etienne, France (1977); Rétrospective de peintures et dessins de 1955 à 1982, Musée des Beaux Arts André Malraux, Le Havre (1982); Retrospective Exhibition, Museum of National History, Taipei (1987); Musée Amérindien de Point Blanc, Quebec, Musée d’Art de Juliette, Juliette, Quebec and Maison de la Culture Mercier, Montreal (1994); First traveling exhibition in the Far East, the French Association for Artistic Action (AFAA), Arts Palace, Beijing and the Museum of Art, Hong Kong (1997); Ecstatic Depths: Recent Paintings 1986-1996, Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei (1998); Second travelling exhibition in the Far East, the French Association for Artistic Action (AFAA), Pusan Metropolitan Museum, Pusan, South Korea, and Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris and Galerie municipale d’Arcueil, Paris (2001); L’Image Intérieure Atteint sa Plénitude dans l’Abstraction, The Museum of Fine Arts, Shanghai (2005); Royal Ueno Museum, Tokyo (2007); and Chu Teh-Chun 88 Retrospective, National Museum of History, Taipei in 2008.

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The first French artist of Chinese origin, elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1997, Chu Teh-Chun is one of the most famous Chinese painters, along with Zao-Wouki, living in the West today. Born in 1922 in the province of Jiangsu, Chu Teh-Chun studied at the School of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, then moved to France in 1955. He would quickly exhibit his works at the ‘Salon des Réalites Nouvelles’, the showcase location for abstract art, a big success in Paris at the time. An entire room was dedicated to his works at the famous Sao Paulo Two-Year Celebration in 1970. In the fifties, Michel Ragon, one of the influential art critics of the period, described Chu Teh-Chun’s work as “abstract landscaping”. Vague recollections of age-old scenes from nature are translated onto canvas by freely orchestrated, full rhythms using pleasant tones and good taste. The artist rediscovered the secret of ancient Chinese art where the waves so dear to Asian artists capture both the power and the dream, the voluptuous stroke and the foam. Elements overlap and metamorphose in a Chu Teh-Chun painting. Nature, the oceans, the world and the cosmos all become one. In 1993 the art critic, Pierre Cabanne wrote: “Tehchun’s works are really some kind of natural release and a poetic dedication which is dithering and ardent, not restricted by those theories, rules and limitation of visions. By using the persuading lines, he makes his vivid characters appear from his inexact paintings as well as perfecting his fantasies and imaginations. It is really surprising that there is no perspective in the way that westerners use lines. He sees things from a distance, and then he creates multiple points, and uses superposition and multi-angles in his works. In 1999, he was honored as an Art Academician of France, the highest honor ever received by any Chinese artist in the international art world. Chu Teh-Chun made just a few lithographs, including this series of eight poetical renditions.”

33 CHU TEH-CHUN 朱德群 (b. 1920)

Composition No.238 Signed and dated `65 on lower left On the reverse, Signed in Pinyin and Chinese inscription, dated 1965, titled No.238, and inscribed ‘dedicated to Eva Langmann’ Gouache on paper 水粉紙本 51 x 25 cm PROVENANCE: Private European Collection. SGD 100,000. - 150,000. USD 76,923. - 115,385.

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34 CHU TEH-CHUN 朱德群 (b. 1920)

Lumiere Captive III Signed and dated `92 on lower right Oil on canvas 油彩畫布 46 x 55 cm LITERATURE: “Chu Teh-Chun”, Darga Gallery, Bali & Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris, 2000, illustrated in color, p.9. SGD 75,000. - 100,000. USD 57,692. - 76,923.

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35 XU XIAO BAI 蘇笑柏 (b. 1949)

101 Signed on lower right Oil, Chinese lacquer, linen on wooden panel 油彩大漆麻布木板 180 x 180 cm SGD 150,000. - 200,000. USD 115,385. - 153,846.

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Zhou Chunya is a contemporary painter and sculptor known for related works in two and three dimensions. His colorful art is an mix of traditional Chinese painting and German NeoExpressionism, to which he was exposed during his graduate school days in Germany. Zhou Chunya was born in 1955 in Chongqing, Sichuan Province, China. He graduated from the Department of Painting, Sichuan Academy of Fine Art, China in 1982. At that time Chinese artists drawn to the lives of ordinary country people - and often rendering them in a hyper-realistic style- became known as the Rural Realists, a movement in which Zhou briefly participated. A trip to Tibet in the mid 1980’s engaged Zhou who became a pioneer painter of Tibetan pastoral scenes linking themes of nature and spirituality. After six years of artistic experimentation, he began in 1988 to pursue graduate studies at the Experimental Art Department of the Kassel Academy of Fine Arts in Germany. While there, Zhou took in the exuberant, even frenetic art of the Neo-Expressionists of the 1980s. He recalls, “In Germany, I saw with my own eyes the fully prosperous period of the new expressionism. There is the most avant-garde Kassel Documenta exhibition. It was my first time to see the performance art, installation art, and political art expressed in pictures.” He graduated from the Experimental Art Department, Kassel Academy of Fine Art in 1988. He has had solo exhibitions in Madrid, Brussels, Shanghai, Jakarta, Bergen (Norway), Trento (Italy) and Taibei (Taiwan), and since 1981 he has exhibited widely in group exhibitions in Europe, Asia and the USA. As one of the most important contemporary neo-expressionist painters in China, the free expression of colors and a focus on life have been perpetual themes in Zhou Chunya’s work. In the years since he became a professional painter, he has witnessed such historic shifts in Chinese oil painting styles as ‘scar art’, ‘rustic painting’ and the ’85 New Wave,’ but he has always maintained a clear head and independent understanding. He has never belonged to any particular style or group, and has consistently defied classification. Zhou Chunya tends to depict those beautiful things which can evoke passion in him. This passion is primal, innocent, special and impulsive. The subjects he depicts are not those which the common people would eulogize, but under his brush, these objects

36 ZHOU CHUNYA 周春芽 (b. 1955)

Roses in the Wind 風中玫瑰 Signed and dated 2000 on lower right Oil on canvas 油彩畫布 100 x 80 cm SGD 140,000. - 180,000. USD 107,692. - 138,462.

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take on a natural tranquility, as if they were just meant to be. From his earliest New Generation of Tibetans to his literati-infused Taihu stones and mountain rocks, then on to the flower vase series which combined soft flesh with hard stone, and then his green dog and peach blossoms, every change and reshaping of Zhou Chunya’s art has extended his feelings towards another subject that has always been there but always been overlooked. These were changes in his mental trajectory as well as the most sincere observations from his heart. (Reference: “About Green Dog - Zho Chunya solo exhibition” by Guo Fangfang) Zhou Chunya is best-known for his colorful “green dog” series of paintings. But he is also considered one of China’s most talented painters of nature and rural scenes. As early as the early 1990’s, Zhou Chunya had begun the creation of his “Flower” series. Flowers have been a traditional motif for Chinese artists to express in their works. Zhou Chunya recreates this concept in his “Flower” series in which he integrated the language of traditional Chinese painting with western sketching. Most importantly, he has adopted a totally different technique. He has used the expressionist technique of liberal strokes, fully demonstrating his bold and broad style of expressionism. In Zhou Chunya’s flower paintings, he achieves a perfect integration of Chinese and Western painting languages. Additionally, Zhou Chunya’s bold color application and his expressionist mode of liberal strokes complete each other. Both color and composition present a bold and mysterious sense. Such innovative and bold artistic creation results in an extraordinary effect. In Zhou Chunya’s view, form and color of such non-mainstream works align with his disposition. With his uninhibited traits he constructs traditional humanistic paintings that are “warm and introvert”. The current Lot created in 2000, is one of his mature series of work after his achievement of the famous rock, vase and green dog series. While we can recognise the subject matter as a still life of flowers, the longer we look at the painting the more we see. Faces and heads appear, as does a man riding a white horse. The still life painting takes on a completely different life when we approach it with our imagination and eyes wide open, allowing us to see beneath the surface to another story unfolding and gathering momentum amidst the blooms, leaves and branches.

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Li Chen 李真 Float to Sukhavati 飛行樂土

“Float to Sukhavati” is an important creation of Li-Chen’s series of “Free Wandering Spirits”. He infuses the design of contemporary sculpture into the oriental artistic characteristic of spatial sense. Between yin and yan, between emptiness and reality, flows the ”qi” sculpture is so clean and fresh, it is like standing in the snow under the bright full moon or looking at the reflection of blue sky and white clouds in the water. The artist has come to realize the inner soul of the object and understood the wisdom beyond the physical world. while his imagination traveling in the sky, he brings to his audience a lively spirit of life. “Float to Sukhavati” was completed in 2002. Li Chen once described this work: ”Immortals art those who enjoy tranquility and freedom and forget where they are. Through the operation of nature, harmonious clouds can be naturally made to carry them. Following the way nature, they always keep well.” Li Chen is very good at tackling the contrasted relation between the lightness and heaviness of massive objects. His works are full of fairy-like imagination, of children’s innocence and amusement, and of carefree floating on the top of the clouds. their looks and gestures give people a self-assured and relaxed sense. The Clouds are so light yet safe to bring you anywhere you would like to go. When looking at his works, audience will indulge in a spiritual journey so that their minds and hearts can become crystal clear and will unconsciously make an insinuating smile. The ideal spiritual world of Li Chen’s works, the sense of humor and the broad internal transformation, as well as a clear and tranquil temperament constitute the unique style of Li Chen. 《飛行樂土》為李真「大氣神遊」系列創作中的重要作品，將當代雕塑造型引入東方藝術特質的空間意識。陰陽、虛實節奏中流盪著氣韻，其雕塑作品之靈氣如皎月映雪、水照雲天，似『超以像外』所直接領悟的神態天趣，養空而遊，展現活潑的生命泉源。《飛行樂土》完成於2002年，李真曾這樣描述此件作品「仙者先者忘境而幽悠，天行自然化作祥雲，依然了得。」李真極擅長處理這種量體輕重對應的關係，作品充滿著神仙般的浪漫情懷、又似孩童的天真逗趣、無憂無慮飄然躺臥雲端，形態自若愜意，雲朵竟如此地輕巧飄然、如此地安穩，彷彿能載你到任何想去的地方，觀之讓人沉浸在一種心靈清淨的狀態，不自覺地會心一笑。李真作品中的心靈理想世界，加上幽默感與寬闊內韻之造化，一種虛幻清淨之氣質，這就是李真獨特的風格。

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37 LI CHEN 李真 (b. 1963)

Float to Sukhavati 飛行樂土 Signed in Chinese, signed ‘Li Chen’, numbered ‘EA2/4’ on lower back Executed in 2002 Edition EA2/4 Bronze 銅 63 x 33 x 44.5 cm LITERATURE: - Singapore Art Museum, ‘Li Chen: Mind.Body.Spirit’, Li Chen Solo Exhibition at Singapore Art Museum, 2009 (different sized version illustrated, p. 133-134, 139-143 & 184). - Asia Art Center, ‘Li Chen: In Search of Spiritual Space’, 2008 Solo Exhibition at National Art Museum of China, 2008 (different sized version illustrated, p. 76-83 & 197). - Asia Art Center, ‘Li Chen: Energy of Emptiness’, 2007 Solo Exhibition at 52nd International Art Exhibiton-La Biennale di Venezia, 2007 (different sized version illustrated, p.144-147 & 219). - Asia Art Center, ‘Li Chen: Oriental Sculpture Spiritual Journey’, 2006 (different sized version illustrated, p.95). EXHIBITED: - Taipei, Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, ‘Greatness of Spirit : Li Chen Premiere Sculpture Exhibition in Taiwan’, 2011 (different sized version exhibited). - Singapore, Singapore Art Museum, ‘Li Chen : Mind.Body.Spirit’, 2009 (different sized version exhibited). - Beijing, National Museum of China, ‘In Search of Spiritual Space’, 2008 (different sized version exhibited). - Venice, Italy, 52nd International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, Energy of Emptiness, 2007 (different sized version exhibited). A certificate of authenticity accompanies this sculpture. 附畫廊證書 SGD 120,000. - 220,000. USD 92,308. - 169,231.

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出版 2009年＜李真-精神．身體．靈魂＞新加坡美術館新加坡 (圖版為另一尺寸版本，第133-134, 139-143及184頁) 2008年 <李真-尋找精神的空間>亞洲藝術中心台北台灣 (圖版為另一尺寸版本，第76-83及197頁) 2007年＜李真-虛空中的能量＞亞洲藝術中心台北台灣 (圖版為另一尺寸版本，第144-147 及219頁) 2006年＜李真-大氣神遊＞亞洲藝術中心台北台灣 (圖版為另一尺寸版本，第95頁

展覽 2011年「大氣─李真台灣大型雕塑首展」中正紀念堂台灣 (展品為不同尺寸版本) 2009年「李真-精神．身體．靈魂」新加坡美術館新加坡(展品為不同尺寸版本) 2008年「李真-尋找精神的空間」中國美術館中國 (展品為不同尺寸版本) 2007年「義大利第52屆威尼斯雙年展」威尼斯義大利 (展品為不同尺寸版本)

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Li Chen 李真 Snow Wonderland 雪峰仙蹤

觀看此件作品的活層、長勢，是一種渾然的道家型態，仙人跨越層峰，充滿神遊之氣勢，動中有泰然的自信。李真處理此雕塑的方式，刻意在山峰及雕塑本體上做一虛化，利用山巔之雪，讓觀者在遠距觀看上產生一種視覺上的斷層，仙人猶如脫離山巔，呈現遨遊太虛之感。此種藝術表現就繪畫處理來說是容易的，但就雕塑的物理結構和繪畫有很大不同的觀點看來，李真的處理方式是非常高明的視覺手法。此種表現方式讓仙者更神氣，更符合雕塑本身的精神。李真的養成背景是喜好大自然的，他巧妙的運用自然及其自身對中國傳統文化的理想二者加以融合，創作出具有時代感的作品。運用單純的題材，藝術家賦予生命力於作品中，是一相當成功的雕塑。

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38 LI CHEN 李真 (b. 1963)

Snow Wonderland 雪峰仙蹤 Signed in Chinese, signed ‘Li Chen’, and numbered ‘8/8’ on lower back Executed in 2007 Edition 8/8 Bronze 銅 73 x 41 x 35 cm LITERATURE: - Singapore Art Museum, ‘Li Chen: Mind.Body.Spirit’, Li Chen Solo Exhibition at Singapore Art Museum, 2009 (different sized version illustrated, p. 86-87 & 184). 2009年＜李真-精神．身體．靈魂＞新加坡美術館新加坡 (圖版為另一尺寸版本，第86-87,184頁). - Asia Art Center, Li Chen: In Search of Spiritual Space, 2008 Solo Exhibition at National Art Museum of China, 2008 (different sized version illustrated, p.183). 2008年<李真-尋找精神的空間>亞洲藝術中心台北台灣 (圖版為另一尺寸版本, 第183頁). EXHIBITED: Singapore, Singapore Art Museum, ‘Li Chen : Mind. Body.Spirit’, 2009 (different sized version exhibited). 2009年「李真-精神．身體．靈魂」新加坡美術館新加坡(展品為不同尺寸版本) SGD 100,000. - 180,000. USD 76,923. - 138,462.

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From a different angle

39 JU MING 朱銘 (b. 1938)

Taichi 太極 Signed on the back Executed in 1981 Wood 木雕 43 x 42 x 26 cm A Certificate of authenticity accompanies this sculpture. 附證書 SGD 200,000. - 300,000. USD 153,846. - 230,769.

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Quinn

Marc Quiin was born in London in 8 January 1964. He studied history of art at Robinson College, Cambridge. He also worked as an assistant to the sculptor, Barry Flanagan. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) and is known for his innovative use of materials to make art, including blood, ice and faeces; his use of bringing scientific developments into art; and his designs for “discussion-generating” artworks. In his artworks, British artist Marc Quinn displays a preoccupation with the mutability of the body and the dualisms that define human life: spiritual and physical, surface and depth, cerebral and sexual. Using an uncompromising array of materials, Quinn develops these paradoxes into conceptual works that are mostly figurative in form. Since 2006, Marc Quinn has made numerous studies of the supermodel Kate Moss. In April 2006, “Sphinx”, a sculpture of Kate Moss by Quinn was revealed. The sculpture shows Moss in a yoga position with her ankles and arms wrapped behind her ears. This body of work culminated in an exhibition at the Mary Boone Gallery in New York in May 2007. According to the artist, “‘In a world without Gods and Goddesses, celebrity has replaced divinity. Do we create images or do images form us? What is interesting to me about Kate Moss is that she is someone whose image has completely separated from her real self and this image has a life of its own. Our problem is: How do we measure ourselves against the impossible infinite virtual world of perfect images? Yoga, the gym, tattooing, are all ways in which we try to anchor ourselves into our

40 MARC QUINN (b. 1964)

Sphinx (Venus) Signed, dated 2008 and numbered on the right side of the neck Edition 5/6 Bronze with 24 carat gold leaf 30 x 23 x 25.5 cm RELATED EXHIBITION: - “Siren”, Marc Quinn Solo Exhibition, The British Museum, 7 October 2008 - 25 January 2009,. - “Sphinx”, Marc Quinn Solo Exhibition, Mary Boone Gallery, New York, USA, 3 May - 30 June 2007. - “Tears of Eros”, Group Exhibition, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2009 - 2010. SGD 160,000. - 200,000. USD 123,077. - 153,846.

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bodies or live up to these images in reaction to the virtual disembodied lives we now currently lead. These hollow bronze sculptures, de-materialized by white paint, are like egg- shells or cinema screens to me, sites for the projection of our desire, twisted mirrors to ourselves.” In August 2008, Quinn unveiled another sculpture of Kate Moss, this time in solid 18 carat gold, called “Siren”, which was exhibited in the British Museum, London. The life size sculpture was promoted as “the largest gold statue since ancient Egypt”. Siren was identified as using a similar strategy as Damien Hirst’s diamond skull with its expensive use of material which could be dismantled if necessary, or in this case melted down, with the artwork as material investment plus added-value artist branding. It was also identified as containing several elements, including the celebrity subject matter and sensation-inducing pose, which accelerate media coverage. For the current Lot which is part of Quinn’s “Sphinx (Venus)” series of sculptures, the complicated yoga pose was modelled by a more experienced woman yoga practitioner, though the body, hands, and feet are based on Moss’ exact measurements and earlier lifecastings. Quinn’s representation of Moss is meant to show “a mirror of ourselves, a knotted Venus of our age.” He presents Kate Moss as a modern-day Aphrodite reminding us that Moss’s likeness has become as iconic as the goddesses of the ancient world.

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An eminent and highly regarded young contemporary Korean artist, Yi Hwan Kwon (b. 1974) creates sculptures bursting with originality and creativity that wow collectors and avid art lovers worldwide. His intriguing sculptures seem to exist somewhere between real life and an imaginary world of illusion. The viewer is invited by the artist to re-examine the ever-changing relationship between space, dimensions and perspective. In so doing, Yi creates a distinctive artistic language of his own and excels in opening up a new landscape for sculpture. Drawing inspiration from everyday life and his surrounding environment, Yi’s works depict people and scenes with whom we are familiar, yet in an unfamiliar perspective. Unlike traditional sculptures that are predominantly figurative and realistic, Yi uses computer technology to compress, elongate or distort the original images of his subjects, creating visually striking shapes and forms. To make his sculptures, Yi takes hundreds of pictures. Through digital manipulation, he distorts or compresses the images, before making molds to recreate the shapes in fiberglass. He then colors the works with “pulverized acrylic” mixed with turpentine. The “Bus Stop” series was critically acclaimed and won Yi recognition as a professional artist. Created between 2000 and 2005, it is composed of a diverse array of figures - including the artist’s friends, passers-by, elderly men and a tramp - whose individual behavior, facial expressions and body language come alive before the viewer’s eyes. Yi’s attention to detail and delicate sculpting technique are also revealed. He exploits the senses through deformation caused not only by up-and-down, right-and-left contractions, but also by forward-andbackward movement. Of note, this outstanding work was displayed beside a real bus stop on the sidewalk in front of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in the Kwanghamoon district of Seoul in October 2005, creating a virtual scene that interacted with the real people on the street. Going against the stream of contemporary art, Yi presents concrete, substantial images not in a simply imaginary, abstract state but in a real situation. His practice bears a similarity to the method of past masters who were dependent on mathematical proportion, but its result appears quite different. What he has attained is the creation of critical pictorial space. By doing this, as an individual, he responds to both the past and his present times.

41 YI HWAN KWON 李 (b. 1974)

Fat Boy (Bus Stop Series) Signed on the back of the left foot Edition 3/3 Fiberglass painted 32 x 150 x 30 cm SGD 60,000. - 80,000. USD 46,154. - 61,538.

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Photo of Sonnega in his studio. Courtesy of Didier Hamel.

A uke S onnega Auke Cornelis Sonnega was born in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, 1910 and died in The Hague, The Netherlands in 1963. He was a painter who spent much of his life working in Bali. After working as a textile designer on the island of Java, Sonnega moved to Bali before the outbreak of the Second World War, eventually dedicating himself to painting after starting out as a newspaper travel writer. Sonnega studied at the Kunstnijverheidschool in Amsterdam. He first visited Indonesia in 1935 as a commercial artist. In 1937 he settled in Bali and dedicated himself fully to painting. During World War II he was interned and put in a camp by the Japanese. After a stay in Europe he returned to Indonesia to settle in Sumatra in 1953, and later he moved to Ubud, Bali. In 1958 he left Indonesia unwillingly and returned to The Netherlands. He had several solo exhibitions in The Netherlands in Amsterdam (1953), Amersfoot (1958) and The Hague (1965). Auke Sonnegaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s southeast Asian art style reflected his background as a designer and the Art Deco movement of the time, and his works often have a mystical sensation about them. In 1951, he experienced spiritual visions as the result of conversations with his comrade Husein Rofe, which led to a heightened emotional presence in his work going forward. He was a prolific portrait painter, creating highly stylized colorful depictions with strong outlines. His favorite subjects included dancers and young men and women participating in various activities.

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Photo of Sonnega and his collectors during an exhibition in Sweden, circa 1950’s. Courtesy of Didier Hamel.

The Dutch artist Auke Sonnega spent 23 years in Indonesia from 1935 till 1958 and all his work was produced in his three major studios: Jakarta, Bali and Sumatra. Before he arrived in Jakarta, Sonnega was seriously trained as a graphic-designer, which explains his excellent skill in drawing and the great quality of all his paintings. Profoundly and passionately inspired by the tropical sensations he experienced, Sonnega painted on canvas without any limitation of style. His oil paintings offered a number of eclectic styles but whatever was the subject, all his work were reflecting his inner soul. However all the compositions he created were exclusively focused on Indonesian topics. For Sonnega, beauty and harmony were always a way to live and obviously the artist became strongly inspired to magnify the exotic romance of Bali. The painting “Balisch Hoogtij” (Festival in Bali), painted exactly 55 years ago (3rd December 1957) was one of his last paintings completed in Indonesia. In that striking work belonging to a series expressing Balinese traditions, Sonnega developed on the canvas a powerful composition reflecting in great style the mystery and the beauty of a Balinese ceremony. Expressing harmony and passion, this work was created to delight the eyes and enthusiastically expressed the best vision we still have of: “The Golden Age of Bali”. Didier Hamel

42 AUKE CORNELIS SONNEGA (1910 - 1963)

Balisch Hoogtij (Rampant Bali) Signed and dated ‘57 on lower right Signed again on the reverse Oil on canvas 95.5 x 75.5 cm LITERATURE: Didier Hamel, “Auke Sonnega - The Enchanting Tropics”, Hexart Publishing, 2011, illustrated in color, p.82. EXHIBITED: - Sweden, in the 1950’s. - Duta Fine Arts, Sonnega Book Launching, 15-20 December 2011. SGD 80,000. - 120,000. USD 61,538. - 92,308. 130

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A ntonio B l anco Antonio Maria Blanco was born in 1911 in Manila, Philippines; he died in Bali in 1999. Although he was born in Manila, both of Antonio Blanco’s parents were Spanish. His father settled in Manila during the Spanish-American War, where he attained prominence as a physician. Blanco was educated at the American Central School in Manila. After completing high school in Manila, Blanco studied at the National Academy of Art in New York under Sidney Dickinson. During those early formative years, Blanco concentrated on the human form, fascinated by the female body more than any other subject matter. To further his studies and ignite his traveling spirit, he traveled extensively throughout the world before he finally landed in Bali in 1952. Blanco and his Balinese wife, the dancer Ni Ronji, set up their home in Campuhan, Ubud, barely leaving it for the world outside. Following a brief trip to the United States, where Blanco acquired many new collectors, the couple never left their fantasy home again. Living in serene surroundings with his four children, Bali became Blanco’s center. He was fascinated by the island and completely captivated by its charm. He lived and worked in his magical hilltop home until his death in 1999, feverishly creating his fantasy portraits of beautiful women. Surrounded by lush gardens, rice fields and with a Banyan tree standing over his family’s temple, Antonio Blanco proceeded to create a new reality for himself. His artistic outpourings of this isolated world became much sought after by eager art lovers, collectors and promoters. Within a few years, Blanco became the most famous foreign artist to make Bali his home, and was honoured by several international art organisations. His awards include the Tiffany Fellowship, New York; La Cofradia del Arrios, Spain; and Chevalier du Sahanetrei from Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia. By the end of his life, Blanco had begun building his museum at his studio in Campuan, Ubud. Dramatically, he died just before its inauguration. It was Blanco’s dream to turn his studio-mansion into a museum. The Blanco Renaissance Museum in Ubud is now open to the public.

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Antonio Blanco is noted for his flamboyant personality and lavish taste. On his paintings, such characteristics are translated to the sensual bodies of his models and the heavily ornamented framed designed by the artist himself, which the artist feel should be an integral part for a comprehensive appreciation of the painting. You cannot talk about Antonio Blanco without talking about women, because women are the focal point of his paintings. Antonio is a painter of the eternal feminine. He is a maestro of romantic expressive painting. The Reclining Nude in the present work is portrayed as a pure, innocent, and beautiful young lady resting on her back. The natural simplicity of the backdrop is designed purposefully to highlight the beautiful and ethereal qualities of the subject. Paint was thinly applied and colours were limited to just a few, which adds to the serenity of reclining nude and avoided any material distraction incurred by heavy impasto or rich colours.

43 ANTONIO BLANCO (1911 - 1999)

Reclining Nude Signed on upper middle Oil on canvas 70 x 81.5 cm SGD 80,000. - 120,000. USD 61,538. - 92,308.

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S udjana

K erton

Sudjana Kerton was born on 22 November 1922. He died on April 1994. Born at Bandung, West Java, in the midst of political transition of the country from the Dutch colonial era to the independent republic of Indonesia, Kerton’s paintings exhibited the revolutionary era of Indonesia. He began painting during the Japanese occupation of World War II, and later made sketches of Indonesia’s war of independence from 1945 to 1949. As a young man, Kerton had many interactions with both Indonesians and Dutch residents. After Indonesian independence, Kerton joined with other artists working with the new national government of Soekarno, and became an artistic journalist. His drawings documented the Indonesian independence efforts on the battlefield, at the negotiation table, and in secret underground meetings. During the Indonesia revolution period, Kerton’s ideology went along with the anti-Dutch movements that he had to move from Jakarta to Yogyakarta. Through his sketches and drawings, he immortalized several important historical events, including the sovereignty transfer from the Dutch to Indonesia in 1949. His fierce sense of nationalism carried over into his work, and many of his paintings convey a sense of pride in his country. In the early 1950, Kerton set off to paint in Europe where he studied art and life in very different cultures for a year in Amsterdam, Holland, and then an Academie de Grande Chaumiere in Paris, France. From 1952 to 1955, he studied graphic art on another scholarship at the Art Students League in New York City, where he learned from Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Harry Sternberg. From 1962 to 1963, the artist studied mural painting in Mexico. Kerton settled in the New York City, married, and raised a family. He returned to Indonesia in 1976. But the country always remained close to his heart. As a result his name was not generally known in the country’s modern art history until recently, even though his works were nationalistic since the 1950s. His life and artistry were published in the Book Nationalism and Its Transformations: Reflections on the Works of Sudjana Kerton (1966). A retrospective exhibition of his works was held at Gedung Seni Rupa Depdikbud (Department of Education and Culture Fine Arts Building) in Jakarta in 1996. The artist’s works featured memories of his past in Indonesia, which celebrated the realities of life. in Wayang Golek (Rod Puppets Performance), Kerton shows a typical village scene in West Java. Large, life-size wayang golek (rod-puppets) line the top of the painting. In front of them sits the dalang (puppeteer), and behind him are gamelan musicians playing drums, kettle chimes, bowed lute, xylophone and gong along with a female singer. Audience members, especially children, gather at the side to watch. The mood is animated and full of enjoyment, enhanced by the colorful palette. The figures are not realistic but are very expressive. He was an artist of a generation that was globally aware, politically active, and intensely involved with aesthetic and formal questions. Kerton is recognized as one of Indonesia’s most original and controversial artists. Reference: Modern Indonesian Art: From Raden Saleh to the Present Day, Koes Artbooks, 2006.

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“I am part of every subject I paint, I share the feelings, the happiness, the misery, the hunger or thirst, the rain, the heat. This is why I paint from memory, to be able to express my inner feelings more clearly and why the lines in my paintings (are) often distorted.” (Sudjana Kerton in the foreword of his catalogue Tanah Airku, My Country, Indonesia, Jakarta, 1990). Such emotive feeling is crucial in the understanding of Kerton’s works. There are a number of trance dances among the traditional dances of Java. Kuda Lumping is one of them. Not unlike many of the other trance dances, Kuda Lumping is about the battle of good and evil. The name Kuda Lumping literally means ‘flat horses’. Once into trance, the horse-riding dancers start behaving like horses and thence began their battle against the evil. The performance of Kuda Lumping is an event for everyone, both the performers and the audience. There is no obvious highlight of the stage, as seen in this lot, there is a space to watch the performance where the audience will be standing, sitting or squatting, mingling almost merging with the performers. The flute and drum players are playing their music and masks are used by the dancers to pose as various spirits and the main characters are the horse-riding dancers.

44 SUDJANA KERTON (1922 - 1994)

Kuda Lumping (Horse Dance) Signed and dated `79 on lower right Oil on canvas 99 x 149 cm EXHIBITED: “Sudjana Kerton Solo Exhibition”, Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta, 1980. A certificate from Sanggar Luhur accompanied this painting. SGD 60,000. - 80,000. USD 46,154. - 61,538.

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Adrien-Jean Le M ay e u r d e M e r p r e s Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès was born in February 1880 in Brussels, Belgium. He first studied painting from his father. Le Mayeur had a degree in architect and civil engineering. After graduation, to the consternation of his family, Jean began to further develop his interest in painting. In his quest to paint the best matter he did a lot of traveling to countries like France, Morocco, Tunisia, India, Cambodia, Tahiti and even to French Polynesia but he decided to stay and lived in Bali. Sources are, however, equivocal on whether he had trained at the Brussels Royal Academy of Fine Arts. By 1902, Le Mayeur had established himself as an artist working in the Impressionistic style in Brussels. Le Mayeur arrived in north of Bali at Singaraja in the Buleleng province by boat in 1932. He travelled south, eventually arriving at Banjar Kelandis, near the border of Bali’s capital, Denpasar. There, he found himself fascinated by the vibrant remnants of traditional Balinese culture including Balinese people’s traditional way of life, the temple rituals and local dances. He was also impressed by the light, color and beauty of the surroundings in the then still quite unspoilt island. After renting a house in Banjar Kelandis, Denpasar, he met a 15 year old legong dancer, Ni Nyoman Pollok, known by her nickname Ni Pollok , who later on became Le Mayeur’s model for his paintings. An exhibition of paintings that using Ni Pollok as model were held at the Singapore YMCA for the first time in 1933 was a commercial success: all the paintings were sold and made him more widely known. After the exhibition Le Mayeur bought a piece of land at Sanur beach where he built a home and studio. There he continued to execute paintings of Ni Pollok and 2 of her female friends. At first he intended to stay only for 8 months, but later on he decided to stay in the island for the rest of his life. He declared to friends: “This time I shall live exclusively for my art and nothing shall distract me.” Le Mayeur and Pollok married in 1935 in a Balinese ceremony. Since Legong dancers are said to be too old to dance after age 16, Pollok had officially retired from ritual dancing to serve her new husband as a model. During the difficult years of the Japanese Occupation (1942-45) Le Mayeur was kept under house arrest by the Japanese authorities. He continued painting, using rice sack cloth and other available surfaces he could find. Although his home was ransacked, he managed to keep most of his paintings. After the war Le Mayeur’s reputation grew at steady pace. Years after the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, Bahder Djohan, the Indonesian Minister for Education and Culture visited Le Mayeur and Ni Pollok at their house in 1956. He was greatly impressed with the painter’s work and therefore suggested to the couple that their house and all its contents should be preserved as a museum. Le Mayeur agreed to the idea and since then he worked harder to add more collections to the house and to increase the quality of his works as well. At last, Le Mayeur’s dream came true that on 28 August 1957 a Deed of Conveyance Number 37 was signed, stating that Le Mayeur had given all his possessions including the land, his house with all its contents to Ni Pollok as a gift. And at the same moment, Ni Pollok then conveyed what she had inherited from her husband to the Government of Indonesia to be used as a museum. In 1958 Le Mayeur returned to Belgium where he was treated for ear cancer. After two months in Belgium, on 31 May 1958 the 78-year old painter died and was buried in Ixelles, Brussels. Ni Pollok then returned home to take care of her house which had become the Le Mayeur Museum. She stayed there until her death on 18 July 1985 at the age of 68. Le Mayeur and Ni Pollok’s home is kept in its original condition and is still a museum where about 80 of Le Mayeur’s works are exhibited, as well as his collection of traditional Balinese art and local artifacts.

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Le Mayeur’s first visit to Bali was in 1929 and he returned again in 1932, living in Sanur until his death in 1958. Le Mayeur married Ni Pollok, a Balinese dancer who became his best-known model. Except for a few journeys to the Far East, he never left Bali. He said, “Why should I? I am an Impressionist. There are three things in life that I love - beauty, sunlight and silence. Now could you tell me where to find these in a more perfect state than in Bali?” In his paintings he rendered the beauty of Bali, of its landscape and its lush gardens and more notably the beauty of its women, which is embodied in the depiction of the artist’s models - his wife Ni Pollok and her dancer friends including the famous Legong dancer Ni Ketut Reneng. Aesthetic pursuit is the artist’s only pursuit in these sun-drenched canvasses, true to the spirit of an Impressionist. Le Mayeur never lost his urge to set to work and render expression to all the lovely things surrounding him and the beautiful women who posed for him as models. This painting focuses on three Balinese women who are seen in a lush, tropical garden. Red hibiscus flowers echo the colours of the women’s sarongs and headscarves. We see a frangipani tree on the left side of the painting, and white frangipani flowers are scattered on the ground where they have fallen languidly, ready to be plucked up by the women. The garden is full of red, orange and yellow flowers giving the whole painting a feeling of warmth, wealth and abundance. Le Mayeur subtly depicts the grace and beauty of the women’s movements as they collect flowers for the daily offerings that they will present at the house temple. His painting perfectly captures an idyllic day on the Island of the Gods.

45 ADRIEN - JEAN LE MAYEUR DE MERPRES (1880 - 1958)

Ni Pollok in the Garden Signed on lower right Oil on canvas 75 x 90 cm This lot has be authenticated by Drs. Cathinka Huizing, author of the Le Mayeur’s book, ‘Adrien Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres - Painter Traveller / Schilder Reiziger”, Pictures Publishers, The Netherlands, 1995. PROVENANCE: Musee d’irsan, Jakarta. SGD 400,000. - 600,000. USD 307,692. - 461,538.

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According to art historians Dr. Job Ubbens and Cathinka Huizing, Le Mayeur was “… an exponent of late European Impressionism, which favors a gentle, earthy palette of yellow, brown, beige and soft blue which is contrasted to red, pink, orange and purple accents.” As an Impressionist painter, Le Mayeur sought to capture the atmosphere of a particular time of day or the effects of different weather conditions on the landscape. He enjoyed painting ‘en plein air’ (painting outside) because he was committed to observing the effects of light on colour in nature. In order to capture these fleeting effects he had to work quickly. He applied his paint in small brightly coloured strokes which meant sacrificing much of the outline and detail of their subject. He revelled in manipulating paint, suppressing details in favor of virtuoso mark-making. He wished to encapsulate his experience of the light, textures, moods and space of nature. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, landscape paintings were increasingly in demand by middle-class patrons wishing to decorate their urban apartments with pictures of the countryside. On his various travels throughout Europe, Le Mayeur had numerous opportunities to indulge his love of creating landscape paintings, and he was also frequently commissioned to paint his wealthy clients’ homes and gardens. Le Mayeur was possessed of consummate skill at conjuring up foliage, architecture and the like with uninhibited, excited strokes. In this Lot, Le Mayeur depicts a perfect summer’s day in a beautiful European garden. The red-checked tablecloth picks up the red tones of the blooms in flower-pots, and a single cup of tea awaits the artist who is busily painting this idyllic scene. His brushwork is energetic and spontaneous, and the colours are fresh and bright. Le Mayeur uses slashing brushstrokes and rapid scribbles of intense hues and strong contrasts in this glorious painting of a sun-dappled garden.

46 ADRIEN - JEAN LE MAYEUR DE MERPRES (1880 - 1958)

Garden of the Palazzo Frollo, Venice Signed on lower right Oil on canvas 75 x 90 cm LITERATURE: Drs. Jop Ubbems M. A. and Drs. Cathinka Huizing M.A., ‘Adrien Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres - Painter Traveller / Schilder Reiziger”, Pictures Publishers, The Netherlands, 1995, illustrated in color, p.99. SGD 100,000. - 150,000. USD 76,923. - 115,385.

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A nton H uang Anton Huang (Anton Kustiawidjaja) was born in 1935 in Bandung, West Java. He studied painting with Indonesian artists Kartono Yudhokusumo and Barli. He moved to Bali in 1969, and lived in Puri Ubud’s Office. So why he get along with many local artists, and of course with foreign artists who visited Bali. His friendship was not only strengthen his artistic potential, but also expand the horizons of Balinese culture. Anton’s first one-man exhibition was held in Jakarta in 1973. He also participated in exhibitions at Lyngby Kunstforening (Copenhagen, Denmark, 1975), Holstebro Kunstmuseum (Denmark, 1975), Gallerie im Western (Stuttgart, Germany, 1977), Galerie Inart (Amsterdam, Holland, 1977), East-West Center (Honolulu, Hawaii, 1988), Festival of Indonesia (U.S.A., 1990-1992), Singapore Art Museum (1994), Centre For Strategic and International Studies (Jakarta, Indonesia, 1996), Indonesia-Japan Friendship Festival (Morioka, Tokyo, 1997). Anton died in Bandung, but his body was taken to Bali’s ashes scattered on Sanur beach and by many of his friends. Bali is part of Anton. And Tintya, which often become the object of his paintings, is a spiritual and visual companions.

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This time Anton Kustiawijaya or Anton Huang adopts tintya, a symbolical figure known to Balinese religion, for the subject of his painting. In Balinese cosmology tintya is a figure that grants positive energy for humans to show them the straight way to God (Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa). In the painting the spiritual being gets its “worldly” appearance and looks like an ordinary human. Such representation is on purpose as Anton regards his painting as having the function of bringing the spiritual nearer to the reality of life. His bright colors and dense compositions give his work a decorative character. The decorative nature of Anton’s painting of this period gets inspiration from the aestethics of Balinese ritual decorations such as cili kembar or cili nganten, ubag-abig, lamak, iderider, the ornamentation on kain prada cloth as well as jaja jepitan color compositions. Anton produces them by means of brushes, scratches and lines that give the impression that he knows very well and really believe everything that he paints. This happens because the starting point of his creation is his love for the subject to paint, and, furthermore, his love for Bali. Although Anton comes from Bandung in West Java he is already part of Bali. One might say he is a Balinese painter that happens to be born in Bandung.

47 ANTON HUANG (ANTON KUSTIAWIDJAJA) (1935 - 1984)

Tintya Signed and dated `82 on upper right Oil on canvas 55 x 65 cm SGD 50,000. - 80,000. USD 38,462. - 61,538.

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The painting “Going Home” is typical of Ida Bagus Made Poleng’s that has brought him big fame. As a painter of the Pita Maha generation he innovates bright colors with optimism emanating. What he captures into his painting is daily life around him. Such a theme obviously departs from the classical theme of Balinese painting in his era confined by religious and mythological conventions. In this painting Ida Bagus Made Poleng successfully organizes the entire elements of his work into a piece of natural music voicing the joy of harvest time. The artist, often called Gus Made, was born in Tebesaya, Ubud, Bali, in 1915. He passed away in 1999. He received the Wija Kusuma and Dharma Kusuma art awards from Bali Provincial Government. Among the many Balinese painters whose names begin with ‘Ida Bagus Made’, Poleng belongs to the best known. His being well-known does not only owe to his high-quality works so that in international auctions a piece of his painting can reach a stunning price, but also to his eccentricity, strength of will and great respect to his own works. As an illustration, as told in Bali Bravo - Lexicon of 200 years Balinese traditional painters (Agus Dermawan T, 2006), sometime in the 1960s President Sukarno bought one of Poleng’s painting. A presidential adjutant came to

48 IDA BAGUS MADE POLENG (1915 - 1999)

Going Home Signed on upper left Dated `70 on upper right Tempera on canvas 46 x 56 cm LITERATURE: Kaya McGowan et al., “Ida Bagus Made - The art of Devotion,” 2008 - reproduced in full color on p.138, Figure 68. Kaja McGowan, Suaranya Gong Kebyar: The Balinese Art of Ida Bagus Made, Exhibition Catalog, Herbert Johnson Museum, Cornell University, 2001. EXHIBITED: Suaranya Gong Kebyar, Herbert Johnson Museum, Cornell University, 2001. SGD 30,000. - 50,000. USD 23,077. - 38,462.

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fetch the painting to be carried on a horse-drawn buggy. Gus Made got offended and he didn’t want to give the painting. He asked the President to fetch it in the presidential sedan. President Sukarno gave his consent, and from the Tampaksiring Palace the presidential car was sent to fetch the painting. He first learned to paint from his father, Ida Bagus Kembeng, who was once awarded with a silver medal in a world painting exhibition in Paris. In 1936 Gus Made joined the Pita Maha group led by Walter Spies and Rudolf Bonnet. He always paints unreservedly. He knows his subjects wholeheartedly. That makes him regard his works as if they were his children. He hardly ever wants to sell them. But he had to suffer a heavy blow one day. In 1986 over a dozen of his paintings were thieved. Till several years after that he would break into tears every time he recounted the tragedy. His works have been shown in various parts of the world: Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, the USA, France, Germany, Netherlands, and Hawaii for instance. Besides offering the theme of farmer, Gus Made’s painting also deals with traditional performances such as drama gong and jauk dance.

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Ida Bagus Made Togog Ida Bagus Made Togog was born in Banjar Gerilya, Batuan, Sukawati, in 1913; he died in 1989. He was a famous painter who received the Wija Kusuma award from Gianyar District and the Darma Kusuma award from Bali Provincial Government in 1984. He was regarded as someone whose great contribution is in introducing the anatomical rendering of human figures in the modern sense to traditional Balinese painting. Most of his surviving works dated 1930-1940 are in black and white. In periods that followed, he began incorporating colors. Togog formerly painted in the Kamasan style, copying drawings he found in lontar manuscripts. In early 1930s he met Win Bakker who asked him to draw an illustration on paper. Since then, he works to improve his forms and themes. And the Batuan style prevailed in his works on paper. Togog knew Rudolf Bonnet and Walter Spies very well. He even joined Pita Maha organization in Ubud. Togog’s paintings, be they watercolor on paper or acrylic on canvas, have most mature appearances. They often offered dark themes. The adventures of ghosts or forest populated by wild animals are examples. Or it might be grave episodes from the wayang stories. His works has their tenged, gripping quality which such works, he is taken as one among Batuan’s icon. His works are cherished in Museum Puri Lukisan-Ubud, Museum Neka-Ubud, Museum Arma-Ubud, Rijksmuseum voor Volkendunde, Leiden, and TropenmuseumAmsterdam, among others. He participated in tens of exhibition, at Taman Budaya-Denpasar, hotel Sari Pasifik-Jakarta, Pasar Seni Ancol-Jakarta, and in several cities in Japan and Europe. Many members of Togog’s extended family were/are painters . Here are some of them: I Ketut Dinding, Ida Bagus Tjeti, his nephews; Ida Bagus Ketut Panda, Ida Bagus Putu Gede, and Ida bagus Putu Oka, his sons, Ida Ayu Made Suni and Ida Ayu Ketut Latri, his daughters. And add to them his four grandchildren who also follow his steps.

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“The Legend of Jatayu” is a fragment of Ramayana, a love story that involves Rama, Sinta and Rahwana as the main characters. Jatayu is a powerful and kind bird that has to die in defending truth. In the painting Jatayu is shown entangled upon trees depicted on the upper right. The previously strong and brave Jatayu is in a powerless state. The legend of Jatayu the bird is found in Ayodhyakanda, the second book of Ramayana. It is told that Rama and Sinta are already married but the marriage is disrupted by Rahwana who wants Sinta. One day Rama, Sinta and Laksmana (Rama’s younger brother) are hunting in a forest. Sinta catches the sight of golden deer and asks Rama to catch it for her. Driven by his love for her wife Rama pursues the deer himself. Te deer - which later turns out to be the transformation of an ogre named Marica - flees deep into the forest. It is indeed his trick to separate Rama farther and farther away from Sinta. In fact Marica just does what Rahwana tells him. Laksmana, who is supposed to guard Sinta, worries about Rama that doesn’t return after quite a long time. He goes to look for his brother in the forest and Sinta is asked not to leave the circle Laksmana draws on the ground. Soon after Laksmana has left, an old man is seen approaching Sinta and asking for some betel leaves. Sinta extends her hand to give what the old man asks. It turns out that the old man is Rahwana in transformation. Once he takes hold of Sinta’s hand, the old man turns into Rahwana. Rahwana takes up to the sky, to carry Sinta to Alengka Palace. In his flight Rahwana, who carries Sinta, meets with Jatayu. The powerful bird soon knows that Rahwana is kidnapping Sinta. Jatayu tries to set Sinta free. Yet the bird is beaten in the fight. Jatayu falls down to the earth and gets entangled on trees. Ida Bagus Made Togog picks up the story and works on the theme in a genial and unique perspective never taken before by other artists. The painting is given in black-and-white (sigar mangsi) that is the characteristic strong point of the Batuan painting style of the Pita Maha generation to which Ida Bagus Made Togog belongs. ‘Ramayana’ itself comes from the Sanskrit words “Rama” and “ayana”. The compound means “Rama’s journey”. The epic, originating in India, begins in ca 500 BC and end in 200 BC. So the narrativ duration is not less than 700 years! That is why the story of Ramayana is said to be be fantastic and surrealistic so that it is carved as in reliefs on the walls of Prambanan Temple in Central Java. Ramayana was composed by Walmiki in ca 400 BC and other poets after him. Written in verse, Ramayana consists of 24,000 stanzas.

49 IDA BAGUS MADE TOGOG (1913 - 1989)

The Legend of Jatayu Signed on lower middle Washed ink on canvas 105 x 155 cm SGD 45,000. - 60,000. USD 34,615. - 46,154.

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This painting depicts a procession to carry bade (a structure in the form of a mountain used for cremation) to a ngaben ceremony venue. Ngaben is the cremation ritual of the Balinese. The bade shows the status of the deceased to be cremated. A high bade proclaims the deceasedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s high status. The higher a bade is, the nearer is the deceased to God or Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa in Balinese. The making of a bade takes an enormous sum of money, and the structure is created for the special purpose of paying tribute to the deceased. Togog paints the entire scene in his characteristic way that always features dense compositions, and with the crowd depicted here alive in their expression. In this painting the procession is juxtaposed with daily activities of the Balinese such as plowing, herding ducks, and working in the field. Togog depicts just the reality of Balinese daily life.

50 IDA BAGUS MADE TOGOG (1913 - 1989)

Procession in Bali Signed on lower middle Tempera on canvas 98 x 146 cm SGD 35,000. - 50,000. USD 26,923. - 38,462.

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I Nyoman Meja Nyoman Meja formerly painted with free themes. Among other things he took masks as his subjects. Then in the 1980s he stepped into children’s world and adopted children to be his central theme. Here his achievements are marvelous as he brilliantly masters children’s anatomy, which is indeed a tough subject, as well as children’s expressions. In his paintings Nyoman Meja positions children in cheerful atmospheres. He depicts Balinese children within various settings of Balinese performances to signify regenerations in Balinese arts. Children are also shown as being involved in a parade that reflects children’s typical delight. The parade in Nyoman Meja’s painting is that of rural children in particular. Nyoman Meja is among the most successful 1980-generation painters in Ubud. His works are marked with gentleness and mature coloring in introducing figures that tend be anatomically represented. At this point his painting embodies great assimilation between traditionalism and modernism. The mark of traditional nature in Meja’s works is observable in the technique (he still uses the penelak to draw) and the way he depicts settings (houses, fields, rice fields) that strictly follows the Ubud style. Meanwhile modernity seems to prevail through the rational lighting over objects. So Meja can be classified as a post-traditional painter. Meja was born in the neighborhood (banjar) of Taman, Ubud, in1952. He first learned to paint from I Nyoman Sinom and I Wayan Serati. In the 1970s he came to know Rudolf Bonnet personally. From there a modern vision began developing in him. His paintings offer various themes. His mask compositions once reaped people’s attention. So did his paintings that depict the scenes of traditional Balinese cockfight (tajen), kecak dance, and the like. But it is when he took to painting children’s world that his good repute soon widely spread. Meja’s paintings dwell in the collections of Museum Puri Lukisan-Ubud, Museum Arma-Ubud and Museum Seni Indofood-Jakarta. He has good pupils that include I Wayan Matra, I Wayan Sukadana, I Made Astawa, and I Wayan Asta. One of his works is among the finalists of the 1997 Philip Morris Awards national painting contest, and another one wins the Indofood Art Awards 2002. On 16 July 2006 he received the Bali Bangkit-Amex Award.

51 I NYOMAN MEJA (b. 1952)

Carnaval Signed and dated 21-10-88 on lower left Acrylic on canvas 60 x 79 cm LITERATURE: - “Nyoman Meja, Tokoh Seni Lukis Bali” by Agus Dermawan T in Suara Pembaruan, 29 January 1991, illustrated. - Streams of Indonesian Art-From Pre-History to Contemporary, Prof. Dr. Mochtar Kusuma Atmadja et al., Penerbit Panitia Pameran KIAS 1991, illustrated on p.149. - Art poster of LARAS magazine, July 2004, illustrated on p.97-98. SGD 20,000. - 30,000. USD 15,385. - 23,077.

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Chen Wen Hsi was proficient in both traditional Chinese ink and Western oil painting, and experimented with a variety of styles ranging from Post-Impressionism to Fauvism to Cubism. The artist loved to experiment with the interplay of light and forms in chaotic subjects. His unique style showed interest in angles but was not Cubist; he strayed not far from reality and was obsessed with shapes, and yet he was not an abstract painter. His much renowned ink works incorporating dramatic, minimalist compositions are rendered with a mastery and brushwork handling strongly influenced by Chan (Zen) painting, and the unorthodox Qing school of Yangzhou “eccentrics”. Chen subjects included landscapes, figures, birds and animals, still life studies and abstract compositions. Chen was especially adept at drawing egrets and monkeys. Among all the animal paintings by him, Chen’s gibbon paintings stand out, as they were noted by Chen’s attention to detail and sensitive rendering of the beautiful creatures. In the late-1940s, he bought a white-faced gibbon for $300 at a local pet shop shortly after he arrived in Singapore. This gave him many opportunities to study the creature’s postures and its characteristics, by rearing it at his home in the garden. In time, Chen had a total of six pet gibbons - one white, one grey and four black ones. The Artist Chen Wen Hsi, with the present lot.

52 CHEN WEN HSI 陳文希 (1906 - 1992)

Gibbons Signed and stamped on upper left Stamped again on lower right Chinese ink and color on paper 彩墨紙本 177 x 95.5 cm SGD 50,000. - 80,000. USD 38,462. - 61,538.

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Chen Wen Hsi is one of Singapore’s pioneer artists, known for his avantgarde Chinese paintings. He was born in Baigong in Guangdong province, China. After graduation from secondary school, Chen Wen Hsi decided to study full time in fine art at the Shanghai College of Art in 1928, despite his uncle’s objection. Unhappy with the college, Chen transferred to the Xinhua College of Art in Shanghai, where his teachers included the famous artist Pan Tianshou. It was at Xinhua that he became acquainted with Chen Jen Hao, Chen Chong Swee and Liu Kang, all of whom were to become Singapore’s pioneer artists and art educationists. After four years at Xinhua, Chen graduated and returned to his hometown. Chen’s art career began with his first exhibition in Swatow in 1929, at the age of 21. He left China in 1947, and he continued to have solo exhibitions in other parts of Asia: Shanghai (1931, 1933), Guangzhou (1932, 1936), Saigon (1948), Hong Kong (1949), Bangkok & Kuala Lumpur (1949), and Bangkok & Singapore (1950). In 1937, he received the recognition and praise of Chinese painter Xu Beihong at the second Chinese National Art Exhibition in Nanjing. Also in 1937, an English arts magazine elected him as one of contemporary China’s ten greatest artists. In 1947, Chen arrived and settled in Singapore, where he originally planned to stay for not more than three months. In Singapore, he proceeded to teach art at The Chinese High School (1949-1968) and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (1951–1959). Chen travelled to various places in Southeast Asia to collect drawing materials during his vacations, and he was especially inspired by the people and customs of Bali and Java. In June 1955, Chen took part in a seven-artist group exhibition organized by the Singapore Art Society. In 1968, Chen retired from teaching, and decided to concentrate on painting. Between 1923 and 1992, he conducted 38 one-man exhibitions in Singapore and other countries such as China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. For his contributions to the fine arts in Singapore, President Yusof Ishak conferred Chen the Public Service Star in 1964. In 1975, the National University of Singapore conferred Chen an honorary doctorate: he was the first local artist to be given the honour. Chen was also awarded the Golden Chapter by the Taiwan National Museum in 1980, and the first ASEAN Cultural and Communication Award in 1987. After his death in 1992, Chen was awarded a posthumous Meritorious Service Medal.

53 CHEN WEN HSI 陳文希 (1906 - 1992)

Ducks Composition Signed and stamped on lower left Chinese ink and color on rice paper 彩墨紙本 138 x 69 cm SGD 30,000. - 40,000. USD 23,077. - 30,769.

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R onald V entura Ronald Ventura was born in 1973 in Manila, Philippines. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Major in Painting, University of Santo Tomas, Philippines in 1993. He was the Ateneo Art Awards winner in 2005, and in 2003 he was a Recipient of the 13 Artists Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines. One of the most highly acclaimed contemporary artists from the Philippines, Ronald Ventura has garnered enormous international attention in recent years. Ventura now ranks among the leading artists of his generation in Southeast Asia. He has had two solo exhibitions (2009 & 2011) at Tyler Rollins Fine Art in New York City, USA. He has had 15 solo exhibitions in Manila, Philippines since the year 2000, as well as solo exhibitions in Milan (2010); Singapore (2007); and Sydney, Australia (2005). Ventura’s work was featured in a groundbreaking solo exhibition, Mapping the Corporeal, at the National University of Singapore Museum in 2008. He was a participating artist in the 2009 Prague Biennale and was also featured in a solo exhibition that year at the Akili Museum of Art in Jakarta, Indonesia. In 2010, he was part of a two-man exhibition, A Duad in Play, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore. Also in 2010, his work was seen in the Nanjing Biennale. His work is featured in the group exhibition, Surreal Versus Surrealism in Contemporary Art, (2011-2012) at the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Spain. Ronald Ventura’s work has been included in numerous group exhibitions in the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, USA, Spain, Singapore, Indonesia and Japan.

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In a matter of a few years Ronald Ventura has skyrocketed to the forefront of South-East Asian Contemporary Art, producing masterpieces like “Human Study“ 2005), “Pop” (2009) and “Grayground” (2011). From the perfection found in classical art, through a pop-art composition and finally by an existential mix-up of styles in the seminal “Grayground”, Ventura has established himself as a post-modern master, who is seeking to find his own identity instead of merely copying Western artists. Ventura loves to portray a multi-layered, complex reality and is not averse to using a multitude of styles like hyperrealism, pop art, graffiti and surrealism. His themes go from our every day reality, to the unbelievable or the sublime and incorporate images from pop art and cartoons, arcane symbols, haute couture, social and political issues. “Her Case” is a brilliant example of Ventura’s extraordinary skills and fertile imagination.In an outline that has the look of an anatomical study, we discover the daily reality of a glamorous lady sitting on a couch with her laptop. Like in “Human Study” her face has been obliterated, this time by a dark blotch. The cupboard right behind her contains colourful, fashionable clothes and a sizeable collection of shoes and boots, while the flowing curtain on her left indicates that it is windy outside. The artist’s magical feat of skill lies in the multi-layering and juxtaposition of different images in a very compact space. Always the experimental artist, Ventura tries to create something to draw the viewer in, to tickle his curiosity and push him to question the realities of our consumer society. Not surprisingly the painting is full of hidden details and the viewer needs to look carefully to get the gist of the composition.

54 RONALD VENTURA (b. 1973)

Her Case Signed and dated ’09 on lower right Oil on cutout canvas 140.5 x 100 cm LITERATURE: Damiani, ‘Ronald Ventura Realities’, Bologna, Italy, 2011, illustrated in color, p.106. SGD 65,000. - 80,000. USD 50,000. - 61,538.

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C hristine A y T joe Christine Ay Tjoe was born in Bandung, West Java in 1973. She is a graduate of the art school at Bandung Institute of Technology. She has had more than a dozen solo exhibitions in Indonesia, Singapore and USA since 2001. Her recent group exhibition activities include Future Pass-from Asia to the World - Collateral event of the 54th Venice Biennale, Abbazia di San Gregorio, Venice (2011), Closing the Gap; Indonesian Art Today, Melbourne International Fine Art, Melbourne, Australia (2011), Taboo and Transgression in Contemporary Indonesian Art, Johnson Museum, Cornelly University, New York, USA (2005), The Beppu Asia Biennale of Contemporary Art, Beppu Art Museum, Oita, Japan (2005), K-ein Weg, Kunstverein Vreden, Germany (2004), Schoeppingen zu Gast in Brauweiler, Köln, Germany (2004), Equatorial Heat, Shanghai Museum, China (2004), as well as numerous group exhibitions in various cities of Indonesia. According to Indonesian art critic Carla Bianpoen, “Among the young contemporary Indonesian artists, Ay Tjoe Christine takes a special place. Hardworking, and commanding a variety of techniques, she is also blessed with great integrity. She has exhibited internationally, and her works find appreciation from curators and collectors alike. Born in Bandung in 1973, Ay Tjoe spent most of her early youth in an alley where there was hardly any space for children to play. Her playground was within the house, with paper and colored pencils or crayons as her most favorite toys. Drawing became part of her young life. Somehow, it evoked in her the desire to make paintings like her mother who did so to adorn the house. She entered art school at the Bandung Institute of Technology and after she graduated in 1997, she began working in a textile plant and then became a successful fashion designer. But she ultimately decided commerce was not for her. Hers was the world of art.” [Carla Bianpoen, “Indonesians in Focus: Ay Tjoe Christine”, 2007]

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One of the most prominent young female artists in Indonesia, Christine Ay Tjoe’s artistic explorations have ranged from paintings and drawings, to print-making and sculptures, to even photography and installations. A much loved art figure in her community, she has exhibited internationally and is respected in the art world beyond her own regional shores. Her appeal lies not just within her vast bodies of works, but within her own personality as an artist. Known to be reserved and introverted, a quiet emotional depth can be observed within each of her artworks - a constant dialogue of struggle and exploration that truly connects with its viewers. To explain her often mysterious subject matter, the artist comments, “My creations are either triggered and/or shaped by my conceptual investigations of my physical and metaphysical environments. As an artist, one also searches for the best way to present these concepts therefore I use different materials (textiles, paint, charcoal, etching, installation) and methods (drawing, painting, sculpture) which results in interesting, unconventional work. “... My sources of inspiration are derived from my surroundings, the books I read, my observations and interactions with society – I work naturally, exploring my ideas or thoughts using a range of medium and disciplines. I’m constantly thinking and observing my surroundings which provide fertile grounds for my imagination and artistic investigations.” (Reference: “Conversations: Christine Ay Tjoe” on theartistandhismodel.com, 25 November 2011). In the current Lot entitled “Dua Kepala” (Two Heads), we see a young girl looking at two abstract pictures. Ay Tjoe manages to convey the child’s puzzlement when viewing abstract art. She seems to imply that we use left brain for logical or recognizable objects and the right brain when faced with novel situations or concepts: the right brain is often associated with creativity or imagination. So, while viewing the abstract pictures, the girl’s left brain seems to conjure up an image of a teddy bear which we see as a dark, shadowy figure in front of the girl’s legs, extending slightly to her left. If we follow a line from her lower leg to the right hand side, we see the indistinct figure of a creature in her imagination, rather like a fish’s head or even a lion with its mouth open and a dark mane hanging on its upper neck. This signifies the imagination at work while looking at abstract art.

55 CHRISTINE AY TJOE (b. 1973)

Dua Kepala (Two Heads) Signed on lower right Dated 2003 on the reverse Mixed media on canvas 110 x 90 cm SGD 50,000. - 70,000. USD 38,462. - 53,846.

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N at e e U t a r i t Natee Utarit was born in 1970 in Bangkok. He graduated from the College of Fine Art, Bangkok in 1987 and received his B.A. from the Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University Bangkok in 1991. Since 1994 Natee has had more than 18 solo exhibitions in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand as well as solo shows in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Beijing. His mid-career retrospective solo exhibition “After Painting” was held at Singapore Art Museum in 2010-2011. Since 1990, Natee has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, China, Australia, Poland, Yugoslavia, Italy and Finland. According to art critic and curator Iola Lenzi, “The canvasses of Bangkok artist Natee Utarit are recognized for their formal accomplishment. Yet though the painter has traveled in many visual directions since the beginning of his career in the early 1990’s, showing work from opposite ends of the aesthetic and representational spectrum, he has all the while been playing with complex ideas. From the gestural narratives of his early pictures, to his more recent European old-master series, from his deconstruction of the objectified aspect of photography, to exercises with geometric shapes and light, Natee has used oil on canvas and the language of painting as a means rather than an end to a focused exploration of the polarity between subjective and objective representation. “…. Visually seductive as it often is – Natee’s ease of stroke, misread by some as facile or slickly pretty, can sometimes seem to ambush deeper meaning – his work resonates intellectually for the thinking response it provokes in the viewer as well as the sophisticated cerebral process behind it.” (Reference: “Beyond the object: New Works by Natee Utarit” by Iola lenzi in The Amusement of Dreams, Hope and Perfection: Natee Utarit, published by Numthong Gallery, Bangkok, 2007)

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In his painting entitled “The Red Flag (Old Siam)” Natee shows the original Thai ensign or flag which was used as the state flag of Siam c. 1700-1855. The red colour symbolises the lifeblood of the nation - the land and people. According to Natee, red is perhaps the most important colour of all on the Thai flag because even if there was neither religion nor a reigning monarch, the land and people of Thailand will continue to exist - so, the nation and its people are the consistent factors. Natee Utarit first created his series of paintings of Thai flags for his solo exhibition “The Amusement of Dreams, Hope and Perfection” which was held in two venues in Bangkok in 20072008. In that series, he depicted the current three-colour Thai flag which became the official state flag of Thailand in 1917 during the reign of King Rama VI, and its design has remained unchanged to the present day. The three colours of the flag each has a symbolic meaning: white symbolizes religion (Theravada Buddhism), red is a symbol of the nation (land and people), and blue is a symbol of monarchy. This is to show that Thailand has a nation, a religion and a king. Regarding his choice of subject matter being the Thai flag, art critic Iola lenzi commented that “… the artist challenges the viewer to consider the role and significance of history in current Thai political reality. Rule of law, authoritarianism, integrity, faith in democracy, discipline, duty, fact, rhetoric, the threats and opportunities in Thai politcs are all equally evoked….” (Reference: “Beyond the object: New Works by Natee Utarit” by Iola lenzi in The Amusement of Dreams, Hope and Perfection: Natee Utarit, published by Numthong Gallery, Bangkok, 2007) In the current Lot, Natee fondly remembers the original flag of Siam - gloriously red and proudly fluttering in the wind symbolizing his beloved land and people of Thailand.

56 NATEE UTARIT (b. 1970)

The Red Flag (Old Siam) Signed and dated `08 on the reverse Oil on canvas 200 x 180 cm PROVENANCE: - Purchased directly from the artist. - Private Collection. SGD 50,000. - 80,000. USD 38,462. - 61,538.

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Natee Utarit’s painting entitled “Double Happiness” is part of his series of Still Life paintings focusing on cloth which he started in 2007. The artist was fascinated by the simplicity of (mainly) white or black pieces of cloth which had irregular creases – as if they had been haphazardly folded, stored and then unfolded again. His fascination with depicting cloth later developed into another series based on the Thai flag: in those paintings the unfurled flags were never completely still, but rather flying, fluttering and billowing in the wind, giving the still life painting a feeling of motion and movement. The model for the figures in the painting “Double Happiness” was a statuette that the artist bought on a trip to Beijing. When he returned to Bangkok, he placed the statuette on a table in his studio, and soon afterwards he decided that the figures were wonderful models to be developed into paintings. The “Laughing Buddha” is known as Pra Sangkachai in Thailand. In folklore, he is admired for his happiness, plenitude, and wisdom of contentment. One belief popular in folklore maintains that rubbing his belly brings wealth, good luck, and prosperity. The Laughing Buddha figures are portly, shaven-headed and pot-bellied symbolising wealth, abundance, happiness and contentment. Natee decided that the painting would be best entitled “Double Happiness” which reminds us of the Chinese words shuangxi often used in connection with marriages. The underlying concept is that rather than simply being a decorative depiction of a pair of Laughing Buddhas who symbolize the auspicious nature of double happiness, the painting can bring good luck (or even doubled luck) by its presence alone. The viewer may even feel happy simply looking at this painting, and it is not improbable that while viewing the painting one may hear the sound of laughter, thus increasing one’s own happiness and contentment in general.

57 NATEE UTARIT (b. 1970)

Double Happiness Signed and dated `08 on the reverse Oil on canvas 170 x 140 cm PROVENANCE: - Purchased directly from the artist. - Private Collection. SGD 38,000. - 60,000. USD 29,231. - 46,154.

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Pop Art Pop art, a movement that reached the peak of its influence during the 1960s and 1970s in New York, originated as a rebellion against what some artists saw as a pretentious, elitist art world. Pop artists turned to subjects that had previously been considered unworthy of fine art: consumer products, cartoon characters, and commercial art like that seen on billboards or in magazine advertisements. Pop artists sought to return art to everyday life - or to bring everyday life into the world of art - borrowing images that the general public saw at the grocery store, on the television, or in newspapers.

Takashi

Working in a variety of styles and employing a multitude of methods, pop artists have all had one thing in common: the struggle for critical acceptance. Because they refused to accept limited definitions of the types of subjects that are appropriate for works of art, pop artists have been dismissed by some critics as merely illustrators or commercial artists-designations meant to be little their abilities and demean their work. Over time, however, acceptance of pop art as a legitimate form of fine art has spread, and the pop art movement has, to a large degree, succeeded in bringing popular culture into the realm of high culture.

Murakami

Born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1962, Murakami grew up in a household that placed a high value on art. His younger brother, Yuji, also became an artist. Japanese popular culture informed his outlook, but he also felt the impact of Western society, particularly the popular culture of the United States. Murakami wanted to be an artist when he grew up. He was particularly interested in animation and comics, and he felt that studying art would help him improve his drawing skills. He enrolled in the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in the early 1980s. There he studied Nihonga, a nineteenth-century style of Japanese painting that combines Japanese subject matter with European painting techniques. He earned his bachelor of fine arts degree in 1986 and then continued his studies to earn a master’s degree in 1988 and a PhD, or doctorate, in 1993. Even while studying Nihonga, Murakami began to wonder how meaningful that style was to modern-day Japan. During the early 1990s he continued painting and began to teach drawing, working in the traditional style he had studied at the university while also searching for his own style. Murakami had become increasingly drawn to the world of manga and anime, and he was also fascinated by the concept of kawaii, a Japanese term that translates roughly to “cuteness.” Murakami sought ways to incorporate these popular trends into his works to create something of lasting value, as he explained in a 2001 essay, quoted in Wired magazine: “I set out to investigate the secret of market survivability - the universality of characters such as Mickey Mouse, Sonic the Hedgehog, Doraemon, Miffy, (and) Hello Kitty.” Since his emergence in the 1990s, Takashi Murakami has been perceived as a contemporary practitioner of American Pop. Like Warhol, Murakami “appropriated business as an art form and adopted corporate branding strategies...(and) put those strategies in service of the global projection and promotion of exotic metropolitan taste formations” (P. Schimmel, © Murakami, New York, 2007, p. 19-20). Furthermore, Murakami is a leveler; flattening not only the picture plane but also the hierarchies between high and low; between art and commodity and between the art world and fashion. What namely distinguishes Murakami as a Pop icon, however, is his preoccupation with indigenous Japanese culture. Fusing these two concerns is the term “Superflat”, which the artist uses to refer to various flattened forms in Japanese animation, graphic art, pop culture and the Japanese consumer culture. While Murakami had become well known in art circles in Japan and the United States by the beginning of the twenty-first century, it was his astonishingly successful handbag designs for Louis Vuitton in 2003 that made him a celebrity-especially in Japan, where he suddenly achieved rock-star-like status. Created in

conjunction with designer Marc Jacobs, who was heading up a clothing line for Louis Vuitton, Murakami’s designs reinvigorated the stately luxury-goods company, making Louis Vuitton bags the hot new must-have item for the wealthy and fashionable. Murakami applied his trademark use of bright, fresh colors to the traditional intertwined “LV” logo, also incorporating some of his signature images, like wide-open cartoon eyes and smiling blossoms. The first Murakami-designed bags sold out even before they reached stores, and over the next several months the bags - priced in the thousands of dollars-flew off the shelves. Tens of thousands of customers put their names on waiting lists to receive Murakami items from future shipments, and numerous imitation versions sprouted up on big-city street corners and Web sites. Sales for the Murakami bags made up about ten percent of Louis Vuitton’s yearly revenues, totaling well over $300 million in 2003. Murakami paid a price for his success with the Louis Vuitton bags, however: he had achieved widespread fame, but as a designer of purses rather than as an artist. In an interview with Jim Frederick of Time International in the spring of 2003, Murakami said: “I need to rebuild the wall between the commercial art and the fine art I do. I need to focus on the fine-art side of me for a while.” When asked whether or not his partnership with Louis Vuitton influenced his art, the artist explained, “One-hundred percent yes. When I started with them, I totally didn’t know. ‘What is a Louis Vuitton?’ Now I understand: They make large, very expensive bags. This is the same way paintings are very expensive,” (A. Peers, “Superflatbush,” (interview with Murakami) New York Magazine, March 24, 2008). During this collaboration, Murakami never lost his identity in the LVMH brand. Rather, he activated a process of crossbreeding through which he was able to infuse the brand with his own signature aesthetic. As part of his series of acrylic on canvas paintings that feature the now iconic monogram, the present lot, SUPERFLAT Monogram, reflects the way in which Murakami continuosly calls into question the boundary between art and commerce. Murakami’s method of producing paintings results in works that have no depth or perspective-the images seem flat and twodimensional. Murakami has dubbed this style “superflat,” which is, in part, a tribute to the two-dimensional style of some Japanese cartoons. Murakami has also explained the style as a reference to such high-tech devices as flat-screen televisions and computer monitors. The term also reflects the smashing of distinctions between fine art and commercial art, between high culture and low. Murakami told Interview, “In Japan, there is no high and there is no low. It’s all flat.”

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58 TAKASHI MURAKAMI 村上隆 (b. 1962)

Monogram Multicolore Black 2007 Signed on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 壓克力畫布 40 x 40 cm EXHIBITED: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2007. A certificate of authenticity accompanies this painting. 附證書 SGD 30,000. - 50,000. USD 23,077. - 38,462.

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Y oshitomo Nara Yoshitomo Nara was born in 1959 in Hirosaki, Japan. Though he was the youngest of three boys, Nara’s upbringing more closely resembled that of an only child because his brothers were so much older. In addition, Nara’s parents kept busy work schedules, as did many adults in post-World War II Japan, an era of fast-paced economic development. Because his parents worked so much, and because he was so introverted and sensitive, Nara spent most of his time alone with his imagination, his pets, and the television for company. He liked to watch cartoons, particularly Astro Boy, Gigantor, and Speed Racer. He also amused himself by painting and drawing. During high school Nara took a nude-sketching class and realized that drawing was a natural outlet for his fertile imagination. He finally found a way to express all that he held inside. He studied at Musashino Art University (1979-1981); Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music, Nagoya, Japan (B.F.A., 1985; followed by M.F.A., 1987); and graduated from Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (German State Academy of Arts), Düsseldorf, Germany in 1993. Nara lived and worked as a professional artist and instructor in Köln, Germany, 1993-2000. His first big break came in the late 1990s when he joined Japanese cult novelist Banana Yoshimoto on a book project. Around this time Nara also created the CD jacket artwork for The Star Club, a Japanese punk band, as well as for Japanese girl band Shonen Knife. These projects exposed Nara’s work to a broader audience. He continued teaching and in 1998 worked as a visiting professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. In 2000 Nara packed up his studio in Köln and returned to Japan, setting up shop in a two-story Tokyo warehouse. Though the place was cold in the winter and hot in the summer, the high ceilings and open floor plan made it an ideal workplace. In the early 2000s, photographer Mie Morimoto spent six months with Nara and produced a documentary book titled, Birth and Present: A Studio Portrait of Yoshitomo Nara. Nara has had more than 40 solo exhibitions since 1984 in Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, USA, U.K, and France.

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Nara first came to the attention of the art world during Japan’s Pop art movement in the 1990s. The subject matter of his sculptures and paintings is deceptively simple: most works depict one seemingly innocuous subject (often pastel-hued children and animals drawn with confident, cartoonish lines) with little or no background. Lauded by art critics, Nara’s bizarrely intriguing works have gained him a cult following around the world. The manga and anime of his 1960s childhood are both clear influences on Nara’s stylized, large-eyed figures. Nara subverts these typically cute images, however, by infusing his works with horror-like imagery. This juxtaposition of human evil with the innocent child may be a reaction to Japan’s rigid social conventions. The punk rock music of Nara’s youth has also influenced the artist’s work. Nara has also cited traditions as varied as Renaissance painting, literature, illustration, ukiyo-e and graffiti as further inspiration. But perhaps most significantly, Nara’s upbringing in post-World War II Japan profoundly affected his mindset and, subsequently, his artwork as well. He grew up in a time when Japan was experiencing an inundation of Western pop culture; comic books, Walt Disney animation, and Western rock music are just a few examples. Additionally, Nara was raised in the isolated countryside as a latchkey child of working-class parents, so he was often left alone with little to do but explore his young imagination. The fiercely independent subjects that populate so much of hisartwork may be a reaction to Nara’s own largely independent childhood.

59 YOSHITOMO NARA 奈良美智 (b. 1959)

But, Nothing Get Me Down Dated `93 on the reverse Oil on canvas 油彩畫布 110 x 110 cm SGD 500,000. - 800,000. USD 384,615. - 615,385.

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As a young child, Nara spent most of his time alone with his imagination, his pets, and the television for company. He liked to watch cartoons, particularly Astro Boy, Gigantor, and Speed Racer. He also amused himself by painting and drawing. Nara’s distinctive style shows a heavy influence from a childhood spent watching 1960s-era cartoons in that his characters are simplistic and rounded like the early animations as opposed to the more contemporary anime, where characters are detailed and angular. Common motifs include children who have fallen into water, or into a hole. Animals, particularly Snoopy-like dogs, also populate his work. He is so keen on Snoopy that he still owns and uses a Snoopy hairdryer. Snoopy is a fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. He is Charlie Brown’s pet beagle. Snoopy began his life in the strip as a fairly conventional dog, but eventually evolved into perhaps the strip’s most dynamic character, and among the most recognizable comic characters in the world. At first, Snoopy acted as a normal dog, and would only think in simple one-word phrases (such as “FOOD!”), but then became more articulate. His moods are instead conveyed through growls, sobs, laughter, monosyllabic utterances such as “bleah,” “hey,” etc., as well as through pantomime. His character is that of a dog who pretends to be a person (or who sometimes forgets he is a dog). He has to retreat into his fanciful world in order to survive. Otherwise, he leads kind of a dull, miserable life. In this painting, Nara depicts a rather forlorn-looking Snoopy dog with eyes closed, head and ears facing downwards, seemingly stranded in a rather large oval shape which could symbolise a doormat or rug on which he usually sleeps. Is he lost? What question is he asking? Where is my food? Where is my Master? Where is my home? Where is everybody?

60 YOSHITOMO NARA 奈良美智 (b. 1959)

Where is ? Signed and dated ‘95 on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 壓克力畫布 44 x 44 cm SGD 60,000. - 80,000. USD 46,154. - 61,538.

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Y ay oi Kusama Yayoi Kusama was born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Her paintings, collages, soft sculptures, performance art and environmental installations all share an obsession with repetition, pattern, and accumulation. Kusama is also a published novelist and poet, and has created notable work in film and fashion design. She has long struggled with mental illness. She experienced hallucinations and severe obsessive thoughts since childhood, often of a suicidal nature. By 1950, Kusama was depicting abstracted natural forms in watercolor, gouache and oil, primarily on paper. She began covering surfaces (walls, floors, canvases, and later, household objects and naked assistants) with the polka dots that would become a trademark of her work. The vast fields of polka dots, or â&#x20AC;&#x153;infinity nets,â&#x20AC;? as she called them, were taken directly from her hallucinations. She studied Nihonga painting, a rigorous formal style developed during the Meiji period. Her first series of large-scale canvas paintings were entirely covered in a sequence of nets and dots that alluded to hallucinatory visions. After living in Tokyo and France, in 1956 Kusama left Japan at the age of 27 for New York City, following correspondence with Georgia Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Keeffe in which she became interested in joining the limelight in the city. During her time in the U.S., she quickly established her reputation as a leader in the avant-garde movement. She was enormously productive, and counted Joseph Cornell and Donald Judd among her friends and supporters. In 1966, Kusama first participated in the 33rd Venice Biennale. Various versions of the work she presented there have been presented worldwide in venues including Le Consortium, Dijon, 2000; Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2003; as part of the Whitney Biennial in Central Park, New York in 2004; and at the Jardin de Tuileries in Paris, 2010. In 1973, Kusama returned to Japan in ill health, where she began writing shockingly visceral and surrealistic novels, short stories, and poetry. Today she lives, by choice, in a mental hospital in Tokyo, where she has continued to produce work since the mid-1970s. Her studio is a short distance from the hospital. On November 12, 2008 Christies New York sold a work by her for $5.1 million, a record for a living female artist.

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Pumpkin Born in 1929 in Japan, Yayoi Kusama’s paintings, collages, soft sculptures, performance art and environmental installations all share an obsession with repetition, pattern, and accumulation. By 1950, Kusama was depicting abstracted natural forms in watercolor, gouache and oil, primarily on paper. She began covering surfaces (walls, floors, canvases, and later, household objects and naked assistants) with the polka dots that would become a trademark of her work. The vast fields of polka dots, or “infinity nets,” as she called them, were taken directly from her hallucinations. She studied Nihonga painting, a rigorous formal style developed during the Meiji period. Her first series of large-scale canvas paintings were entirely covered in a sequence of nets and dots that alluded to hallucinatory visions. Following the success of her project for the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1993 - a dazzling mirror room filled with pumpkin sculptures, like an artful pumpkin patch over which she presided in magician’s garb - Kusama went on to produce a huge, vivid yellow pumpkin covered with an optical pattern of black spots as an outdoor sculpture. The pumpkin, like the infinity net, became a kind of alter ego for her. She has also produced paintings on the theme of the pumpkin covered in black spots. Kusama’s sculptures and paintings are often in the form of brightly hued, monstrous plants and flowers. The polka dots fill in for the background and may often appear to be the “feet” which extend from thin legs attached to slices of fruit such as in the current Lot.

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61 YAYOI KUSAMA 草間彌生 (b. 1929)

Pumpkin (Tow) Signed and dated 2003 on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 壓克力畫布 22 x 27.5 cm A certificate of authenticity accompanies this painting. 附證書 SGD 30,000. - 50,000. USD 23,077. - 38,462.

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62 YAYOI KUSAMA 草間彌生 (b. 1929)

Pumpkin Signed and dated 1992 on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 壓克力畫布 23 x 16 cm A certificate of authenticity accompanies this painting. 附證書 SGD 25,000. - 35,000. USD 19,231. - 26,923.

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63 YAYOI KUSAMA 草

間

彌

生

(b. 1929)

Dots by Girls (ZAT) Signed and dated 2004 on lower left Acrylic on canvas 壓克力畫布 45.5 x 53 cm A certificate of authenticity accompanies this painting. 附證書 SGD 60,000. - 85,000. USD 46,154. - 65,385.

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A g u s S u wa g e Agus Suwage was born in Purworejo, Central Java in 1959. He studied graphic design at ITB / Bandung Institute of Technology from 1979 to 1986. Upon graduation, he worked as a freelance illustrator in Jakarta. In 1996, his work was selected as one of the Top Ten winners of the Indonesian Art Awards, and was included in the ASEAN Art Awards in Bangkok, Thailand. Agus Suwage is now considered to be one of the giants of Indonesian contemporary art and is among the most sought after contemporary artists from Southeast Asia. Over the past few decades, his works have been shown in a number of international biennials, such as the Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane, Australia (1996), the Gwangju Biennial (2000), and the Singapore Biennial (2006). He has been featured in almost 150 museum and gallery exhibitions around the world, and his works are included in most comprehensive collections of Southeast Asian contemporary art. In 2009, the Jogja National Museum in Indonesia devoted all three floors of its building to a major retrospective of Suwageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s works of the past 25 years, including paintings, sculptures, and installations. A 670-page monograph of his work, Still Crazy After All These Years, was recently published. The year 2011 garnered much international attention for Suwage, with eager anticipation of his first US solo exhibition, The End Is Just Beginning Is the End, which took place at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York City in early 2011. Also in 2011, Suwage participated in numerous group exhibitions in Asia and Europe: Negotiating Home, History, and Nation: Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia at the Singapore Art Museum, Beyond the East at the MACRO Museum in Rome, Beyond the Self at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, Asia: Looking South in Berlin, Germany; and Ekspansi: Contemporary Sculptures at the National Gallery in Jakarta. Agus Suwage has had solo exhibitions in New York, Singapore, Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Koshigaya City, Saitama (Japan) and Brisbane (Australia), and has participated in group exhibitions in Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Cuba, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Italy, The Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, USA and Australia.

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Agus Suwage always lure and decoy critics with his works, recently, by transferring images of world legendaries on his canvases. The difference is the absent of his self image while depicting them, a signature that usually appeared in his earlier works. In his series “Aku Ingin Hidup Seribu Tahun Lagi” (I want to live another thousand years), Suwage seemingly present a paradoxical image. It is not merely a contradiction of reality, but also the existence of the figures within the explosion of photographical images. Suwage transfers the images of world music legends in much colourful atmosphere. His passion about music has brought the idea of putting the legend of his favorite musicians on to his canvas. One of them is shown in this following lot, the aging Peter Gabriel, former Genesis’ vocalist, was depicted pulling out his wrinkled left eye. The artist who was born in Purworejo in 1959, apparently fascinated in recreating the images of those he admires the most and at the same time leaving his own articulation within them. We could distinguish his creative marquee through his exceptional drawing skill as well as the complex interpretation that lies behind it. His recent works shows equal metaphorical and ironic quality in a much intimate portrayal filled with nostalgia. Source: Rifky Effendy, “Agus Suwage and Spectres of Civilization”.

64 AGUS SUWAGE (b. 1959)

Peter Gabriel Signed and dated 2007 on lower right Oil on linen 200 x 200 cm LITERATURE: - Agung Hujatnikajennong, “I/CON - Solo Exhibition by Agus Suwage”, Nadi Gallery, Jakarta, 2007, illustrated in color, p.2 & 31. - Enin Supriyanto, “Still Crazy After All These Years - Agus Suwage”, 2010, illustrated in color, p.380 & 659. EXHIBITED: “I/CON - Solo Exhibition by Agus Suwage”, Nadi Gallery, Jakarta, 3-7 April 2007. SGD 80,000. - 120,000. USD 61,538. - 92,308.

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Agus Suwage is one of Indonesia’s most visible and influential contemporary artists. His name emerged in the early nineties with works that were full of criticism and sarcastic allusions about social and political conditions in Indonesia. Suwage tends to convey such messages by using the idiom of self-portraits. The criticism in his works often appear ambiguous, yet it serves as a two edged sword. Framed within the image of the artist in his myriad guises are layers of socio-political commentary and a critique of human nature – how violence and pain are inextricably linked to pleasure and joy. His quiet statements often deliver stealthy blows, calculated moves designed to hit different notes on the emotional and intellectual scale. Adopting the concept of the self-portrait as an image not as seen but as represented, Suwage cleverly fuses together elements from a wide range of media in constructing his various alter-egos. He shape-shifts and slides, slipping in and out of characters on canvas, playing the tortured, the oppressor, the revered, the jester, the fool, the glut, or the masochist. Agus Suwage has used his own images incessantly. The present work, Art of Punishment IV, depicts Suwage’s self portrait holding a yellow gun and pointing it at his own mouth. An expressive and humorous stance on a self-inflicted punishment makes the composition itself a parody of the title.

65 AGUS SUWAGE (b. 1959)

Art of Punishment IV Signed and dated 2004 on lower right Oil on canvas 150 x 200 cm LITERATURE: Enin Supriyanto, “Still Crazy After All These Years Agus Suwage”, 2010, illustrated in color, p.300 & 651. SGD 80,000. - 120,000. USD 61,538. - 92,308.

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I N yoman M asriadi Born in 1973 in Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia, I Nyoman Masriadi was enrolled at ISI / Institute of Indonesian Arts, Yogyakarta but left his studies before graduating. As a student, he was recognized by peers as one of the first contemporary Balinese artists who eased himself away from an encompassing concern with Balinese life, culture and traditions in his works. The visual imagery and narratives in his paintings derive from observations of social life and behavioral traits. He was awarded the prize for Best Painting awarded by ISI Yogyakarta in 1994; and Best Painting, Dies Natalis ISI Yogyakarta in 1997. As one of Indonesiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most sought after contemporary artists, I Nyoman Masriadi has rapidly been gaining international recognition. Masriadi references Indonesian street culture, as well as the computer gaming culture that he is heavily involved in. He consistently produces some of the most striking and significant paintings emerging from Asia. Through his highly stylized paintings Masriadi displays his impeccable wit and humour and his works have earned him the admiration of the art world and it is a testimony to the quality of his work. Masriadi had a solo exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum in 2008, and his second solo show was held at Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York City in 2011. His works have been exhibited in museums and galleries in Paris, Moscow, Dordrecht, Singapore, Jakarta, Surabaya, Bali and Yogyakarta.

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Masriadi is recognized as a well-established figurative painter and one of the very first contemporary Balinese artists whose works have no correlation to all the Balinese life, culture, and traditions. Yet, he illustrates his strong and intelligent observation of daily social life, current event, and behavioral traits into his narrative humourist paintings. He depicts radically exaggerate figures as the subject of his painting and represents these figures and the surrounding in a caricature way that clearly makes the painting full of humor yet very striking and continuously refreshing. Daku Butuh Libur (I Need a Holiday) portrayed a single iconic figurative subject, an intelligent black-skinned man with his glasses stretching up his arms. The gesture depicts a man who demands a break from all of his routines, a very direct implication yet illustrated in a very subtle way. Most of Masriadiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paintings are very consistently high quality works, which also thoughtful in the messages that transmit from scenes and figures in his pictorial world and thoroughly detailed in his final execution and finishing. These qualities have led him to become the most influential and acclaimed artists to have emerged from Southeast Asia in the last decade.

66 I NYOMAN MASRIADI (b. 1973)

Daku Butuh Libur (I Need a Holiday) Signed on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 200 x 150 cm SGD 120,000. - 180,000. USD 92,308. - 138,462.

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H andiwirman S aputra Handiwirman Saputra was born in Bukit Tinggi, West Sumatra in 1975. He is a graduate of the School of Visual Art, Indonesia Institute of the Arts (ISI), Yogyakarta A sculptor and painter, Handiwirman is a member of Kelompok Jendela /Jendela Group, a major artist’s collective from Indonesia whose members have become key figures in the contemporary regional art scene. Jendela comprises Handiwirman Saputra, Jumaldi Alfi, Rudi Mantofani, Yunizar and Yusra Martunus. These five artists from West Sumatra are all graduates of the Indonesia Art Institute or ISI (Institut Seni Indonesia) in Yogyakarta. They have differentiated themselves from a predominantly figurative-based and socio-politically driven Indonesian art context, or what is commonly known as “Jogja surreal”, each working in a distinctive visual symbolic language, using still life and landscape forms. Although he started out as a craft student, Handiwirman later found out that he had quite a lot of passion for painting. He effectively re-examines and transcends the still-life tradition in contemporary art. The objects and paintings that Handiwirman makes are often rendered in realist and still life traditions that require excellent technical skills: careful attention to details and meticulous reworking of appearance and content. Handiwirman has had solo exhibitions in Jakarta (2011, 2007, 2004 & 2000) and Yogyakarta (2009, 2001 & 1999). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions throughout Indonesia as well as in Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Milan, Taipei and Tokyo. Most recently he has participated in the following group exhibitions: Collectors’ Stage: Asian Contemporary Art from Private Collections, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore (2011); Made in Indonesia, Berlin (2010; Contemporaneity: Contemporary Art of Indonesia at Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai (2010); Clouds: Power of Asian Contemporary Art in Beijing (2010); and Pleasures of Chaos: Inside New Indonesian Art in Milan, Italy (2010).

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Handiwirman is one of the key members of Kelompok Seni Rupa Jendela (Jendela Art Group), together with Yunizar, Rudi Mantofani, Jumaldi Alfi, and Yusra Martunus. Handi is known as a very proficient artist whose creativity and intelligence become a major influence to his works. He always presenting different kinds of media and does not limit himself to one kind of form. He often works with various objects and materials, such as wood, plastic, foam, cloth, and steel; to create a specific, aesthetic, and unique artwork according to his thought. Most of the objects portrayed in his artworks usually come from his affection and enjoyment to interact with those trivial objects in his daily life. In his works he is not reluctant to use objects and materials that are considered to be rubbish by others, including such items as cut hair, discarded foam, egg shells, pieces of wood, plastic, and old dolls. As in this lot titled Servis Pertama, Servis Kedua (First Service, Second Service), Handi took the yellow tennis ball as his main object, strongly portrayed on the plain and white background that fill in each individual canvas, referring to the term in tennis game, when a player begins to toss the ball into the air and hit it to start a point.

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67 HANDIWIRMAN SAPUTRA (b. 1975)

Servis Pertama dan Servis Kedua (First and Second Serve) Signed and dated 2006 on lower right Acrylic on canvas 180 x 360 cm (diptych)

SGD 100,000. - 150,000. USD 76,923. - 115,385.

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LITERATURE: Marc Bollansee and Enin Supriyanto, “Indonesian Contemporary Art Now”, Nadi Gallery, Jakarta, 2004, illustrated in color, p.25. EXHIBITED: “Indonesian Contemporary Art Now”, Nadi Gallery, Jakarta, 11-23 January 2004.

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Handiwirman is very strong in managing and presenting different kinds of media as a way of expressing and speaking his thoughts. His knowledge of the different kinds of materials made him realize that he could establish his career in the arts. He knew that he did not have to limit himself to one kind of form, and felt free to work in everything, from painting to sculpture and installation. Handiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first commissioned work was asked by Novotel management, Bandung, to work on several object art installations. He was very enthusiastic as he began to survey and to observe the situation. He conditioned himself by imagining that he was staying at the hotel. From the hotel rooms come the ideas for the forms as well as the materials that he finally did as his installations. It includes a bar of soap, a bath tub, blankets, a tissue box, as well as the hangers which we proudly present in this particular lot. Handi tried to approach each of these items in his own way. He imitated the characteristic appearance of certain object, worked with several kinds of materials and transferred them as the way he wanted. Handi won the Philip Morris Indonesian Art Award in Jakarta in 1998 and he also won the Philip Morris Asean Art Award in Hanoi in the following year. He is one of the key members of Jendelaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s group in Yogyakarta, where he now lives and works.

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68 HANDIWIRMAN SAPUTRA (b. 1975)

Gantungan (Hanger) Dated 2007 Resin, brass, polyurethane paint, polyurethane coating 20 x 207 x 16.5 cm LITERATURE: Enin Supriyanto, Solo Show by Handiwirmann Saputra: Objects for a Commission Project “Archaeology of a Hotel Room”, Nadi Gallery, 2007, illustrated in color, p.20 & 40-41. EXHIBITED: Enin Supriyanto, Solo Show by Handiwirmann Saputra: Objects for a Commission Project “Archaeology of a Hotel Room”, Nadi Gallery, Jakarta, 24 August - 7 September 2007. SGD 30,000. - 40,000. USD 23,077. - 30,769.

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R udolf B onnet

Johan Rudolf Bonnet was born in Amsterdam in 1895 in a well to do middle class family and followed the Academy of art where he graduated in 1917. After he took a holiday trip with his parents to Florence in 1920 he became so fascinated with Italy, its landscape and people that he decided not to return to Holland and consequently he came to live in the small cliff hang village of Anticoli Corrado, some 60 miles east of Rome, where a motley lot of somehow eccentric artists had found each other in a merry and very hospitable community. Some of them earned great fame even during their lifetimes such as the Italian artist Mario Toppi, the American Maurice Sterne and the Dutch Charles Eyck, while such known names as W.O.J. Nieuwenkamp and the graphic artist M. C. Escher were regular visitors. Both Nieuwenkamp (1906) and Sterne (1912) had visited Bali and undoubtedly they have influenced Bonnet to go there later. While still living in Anticoli, together with M.C. Escher he made a trip to nearby North Africa in 1928 where he continued his rare style of direct visualization of people and landscape. After his return to Italy he sought it was time to move on and taking the advice of Maurice Sterne, he sailed for Bali where he arrived in 1929, for a short stay, only to continue his trip to Nias, of which island and its culture he had heard a lot. He traveled together with a friend who scientifically studied the local music commissioned by the Dutch government, and during his time on the small island off the Northern coast of Sumatra Bonnet made some very interesting work there, now much sought after. Nevertheless in 1930 he returned to Bali to settle definitely. It is in this period between 1921 and 1936 Bonnet made his best work, according to many of his friends, followers and critics, be it Italy, North Africa, Nias or Bali. After approximately 1936, when the Pita Maha was found, Bonnet as well the other foreign painters on Bali, found a larger tourist market for their work together with the Balinese artists they associated with, and consequently augmented the production, which somehow never seems to be a recipe for better quality. In all between 1924 and 1930 Bonnet held six exhibitions in Holland, each with even greater success than the former. In 1927 in the Municipal Museum in Amsterdam, one of the leading museums of modern art in Western Europe. On the last exhibition, again at Kleykamp in The Hague which he held together with G. Breitner, the Royal Family bought one of his early Balinese drawings, which created quite some publicity for him in many Dutch newspapers. His success was now complete and his critics only hoped that he would be able to maintain the quality of his work, as all praise could perhaps change to overconfidence. In 1928 he wrote in a letter to his father that he had already earned more than 12.000 guilders, stating that it was a generous feeling to be free and financial independent at such early age. Bonnet was, for his life and times, one of the relative view artists who was able to live handsomely from the art he produced. Unfortunately he did not live to see his work fetch very high prices nowadays, with a record sale at Christieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in Hong Kong, where a large drawing fetched US $ 1.500.000,- few years ago.

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Rudolf Bonnet’s artistic talents were apparent at a very

age but he did not receive much support Rudolf Bonnet’syoung artistic talents were apparent at afrom very family, particularly his father. The artist’s initial art young age but his he did not receive much support from education was in the form of an applied art school his family, particularly hisandfather. artist’s initial art between 1913 1916. HeThe attended the Amsterdam Fine Arts’ evening drawing classes where education was Academy in theof form of an applied art school he received training from the celebrated artists Antoon between 1913 and 1916.andHe attended the Amsterdam Derkinderen Carel Dake Sr. Academy of Fine evening drawing classes The Arts’ first distinctive period in the artist’s career where came around from 1920 when began to travel extensively in he received training thehecelebrated artists Antoon Europe, notable Italy where he stayed on in Florence Derkinderen andandCarel Dake Sr. painted incessantly. Bonnet’s preoccupation with portraits of people during the Italian period is

evidenced by the work La Domenica Dellecareer Palme, dated The first distinctive period in the artist’s came 1923. The work was imbued with a unique sense of around 1920 when he began to travel extensively in quiet energy, and Bonnet skillfully contrasted the light, hues where on the cheeks of the boyson to the Europe, notablerosyItaly he stayed in confident Florence of black charcoal, attaining an uncanny state of and painted strokes incessantly. Bonnet’s preoccupation realism in the expressions of the models. with portraits of people during the Italian period is The Artist himself has explained his preference evidenced by the La Domenica Palme, dated for work the portraiture. In a letterDelle dated 1926, the artist “My workwith might a alsounique be interpreted as a of 1923. The workcommented was imbued sense unit, as a single portrayal of a race. It is a story: The quiet energy, and skillfully light, storyBonnet of a peasant – class, contrasted preserved in itsthe classical statecheeks (In some regions, least) and a people rosy hues on the of theatboys to part theofconfident whose background spans the centuries. Still, one of strokes of blackthese charcoal, uncanny state of days thatattaining race will havean vanished. So considered from this view point hard facts are not portraits. realism in the expressions of these the models. They are the representatives of a race.“ (Ruud Spruit, Indonesian Impressions: Oriental Themes in Western Painting,

The Artist himself has1992,explained his preference wijk enAalburg, p.20). for the portraiture. In a letter dated 1926, the artist commented “My work might also be interpreted as a unit, as a single portrayal of a race. It is a story: The story of a peasant – class, preserved in its classical state (In some 69 regions, at least) and part of a people whose background spans RUDOLF the centuries. BONNET Still, one of - 1978) these days that race will have (1895 vanished. So considered from this view point Bali Lifethese hard facts are not portraits. They are the representatives of a race.“ (Ruud Spruit, Signed, inscribed ‘Schets ontwerp’

Indonesian Impressions: Oriental Themes in Western Painting, and dated 1950 on lower right wijk enAalburg, 1992, Pastel p.20). on paper 79 x 147 cm

PROVENANCE: - Formerly in the private collection of Johannes Martinus (Han) Groenewegen. - Anon. Sale, Sotheby’s Hongkong, Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary Art, 25 November 2007, lot 82, acquired from the above sale by the present owner. SGD 600,000. - 800,000. USD 461,538. - 615,385.

RUDOLF BONNET (1895 - 1978)

Bali Life Signed, inscribed ‘Schets ontwerp’ and dated 1950 on lower right Pastel on paper 79 x 147 cm

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Indeed Bonnet was very much dedicated to the preservation of the indigenous style, very which hemuch felt, Indeed Bonnet lifewas dedicated to was constantly eroded by western missionaries and preservation of the indigenous life style, which he tourism. Thence, the artist devoted most of his works was records constantly eroded bythatwestern missionaries to the faithful of the people, ensuring it is ‘preserved in its classical state’.

the felt, and tourism. Thence, the artist devoted most of his works Bonnet to depicted the ‘portrait’ of Balinese life people, style the faithful records of the ensuring that it is throughout his Balinese phase, it could be the single ‘preserved inlegendary its classical portrayal of Arjuna, the hero or state’. a young girl in her blossoming pre-pubescent state or indeed it couldBonnet be the fulldepicted theatricals best by the of Balinese life style theillustrated ‘portrait’ present work where one finds the every essence of throughout his Balinese phase, Balinese life in the perspective of Bonnet - elegance it could be the single and beauty in their most pure forms. portrayal of authentic Arjuna,andthe legendary hero or a young

in hertheblossoming pre-pubescent state or indeed Bali Lifegirl documents draughtsmanship of Bonnet at his best; the elegant delineation spontaneousbest illustrated by the it could be the full and theatricals exactitude of the artist are remarkable. In this present work where onebyfinds composition, a community is gathered a river,the every essence of a symbol of the source and perspective the protagonists of Bonnet - elegance Balinese life ofinlifethe are depicted at bath, chatting or tending the animals, andandbeauty theirportrayal most ofauthentic and pure forms. at repose at work, in in sum a living community. The present work is a testimony to the meticulous of the artist; one Balimethodology Life documents theis impressed draughtsmanship of Bonnet with the completeness of the composition as one is at his best; the elegant delineation and spontaneous well aware that it is a preparatory study for a grand oeuvre.exactitude The markings of on the the remarkable. In this thepositioning artist ofare various subjects gives an immediate effect of composition, a before community is gathered by a river, spontaneity; a dress rehearsal the performance, perhapsaslightly raw inof its the presentation but of abundant symbol source life and the protagonists with creativity and freshness, posied for a perfect are depicted at bath, chatting or tending the animals, performance.

at repose and at work, in sum portrayal of a living community. The present work is a testimony to the meticulous methodology of the artist; one is impressed with the completeness of the composition as one is well aware that it is a preparatory study for a grand oeuvre. The markings on the positioning of the various subjects gives an immediate effect of spontaneity; a dress rehearsal before the performance, perhaps slightly raw in its presentation but abundant with creativity and freshness, posied for a perfect performance.

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This highlight on the oeuvre of Bonnet depicts his favorite subject: the human being. From the beginning of his career he was fascinated by the farmers in their rural surroundings. Already in the twenties he showed his enormous talent in the work he made in the Italian village of Anticoli. With strong lines he places the peasants against the background of their land, unifying men and earth. During his life he stayed loyal to his craftmanship and one can easily compare his Italian work with the work made on Bali, may it be that the work he made in Indonesia is more mature. The composition of two persons was one of his favourites subjects, by drawing one head slightly larger than the other, he created ‘his’ special effect. In this case he used the hat to achieve the same. The difficult hands are delicately drawn. Rudolf Bonnet was in search of beauty, in Italy he found the classical faces of ‘di populo di campagna’ and in Indonesia the elegant figures with their polychrome clothes. He did not enlarge the eyes of a model but choose a model with large eyes. His work is refined but does not judge. In this excellent pastel, like usual, the portrayed do not look to the viewer, giving you the chance to observe these men without disturbance. It seems superficial but allows you to leave them with their dignity and pride. Source: Dr. H. de Roever - Bonnet - Rudolf Bonnet.

70 RUDOLF BONNET (1895 - 1978)

Two Farmers Resting Signed and dated 1955 on upper left Oil on canvas 53 x 49.5 cm SGD 50,000. - 80,000. USD 38,462. - 61,538.

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Willem Gerard Hofker Willem Gerard Hofker was born in The Hague (Holland) on May 3, 1902. His parents’ acquaintances included Amsterdam Impressionists like Willem Witsen, Isaac Israëls, and George Breitner who introduced Willem to painting at an early age; their works were to leave a lasting impression in his mind. In 1917, he inlisted with the The Hague Academy of Fine Arts, but the year was hardly out when he switched to the Amsterdam Academy, where he was taught by Antoon Derkinderen, Nicolaas van der Waay and Johannes Jurres. After military service he settled in the latter city as an independent artist, and in 1930 he married Maria Rueter, a daughter of the Amsterdam portraittist, flower and still-life painter Georg Rueter, and a water-colourist of fair merit in her own right. Eyk Backer, director of the Royal Packet Company (KPM), provided Hofker with the commission to paint a portrait of Queen Wilhelmina for the KPM-headquarters in Batavia in 1938. The Hofkers might bring this work over personally, if they liked. Perhaps Willem would be interested in making fifty drawings from local themes of his own choice. These would then be published commercially bt the KPM. The couple left for the Indies in the beginning of 1938. Upon arrival in Batavia they delivered the portrait of Queen Wilhelmina and, after a short while in Java, decided to travel on to Bali. Here they settled in Denpasar, then in Ubud. They were introduced to Rudolf Bonnet who became their good friend, as well as to most of the other westerners who were the centre of Bali’s cultural life in those days. Walter Spies was one of them. Willem’s favoured theme’s are Balinese portraits and figure-studies. His style is influenced by Impressionism, but it appears somewhat mystical and dreamy all the same. After their imprisonment and deportation to the Celebes in December 1943, unfortunately most of his works were lost. In spite of the hardships he suffered in the Japanese camps, Willem would keep practising his art even there. From these years in the Celebes date some very fine portraits of his fellow-prisoners, which by themselves are unique historical documents as well. On account of the dangerous situation on the island after Indonesia’s proclamation of independence the Hofkers were not permitted to return to Bali after the war. Disillusioned, they decided to return to Holland in 1946. They settled again in Amsterdam where Willem would remain active as a painter, draughtsman and etcher until his death on April 30, 1981. Excerpt from: Ruud Spruit, Indonesian Impressions, Oriental Themes in Western Painting, Pictures Publishers, 1992, p. 22-23.

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“We visited the magnificent Austrian Kintamani. Beautiful work. A raw Isaac unknown in Holland. Sells in America, compositions involving several models. reach that level here...?”

painter Strasser in Israëls. His work is etc. Strasser makes Would I be able to

(Willem Hofker, quoted in a letter, dated August 5, 1938, on a visit he and Maria made to Roland Strasser, a few months after they arrived on Bali)

Early 1938, Willem and Maria Hofker arrived on Java, and after a few months travelled to Bali, where they fell in love with the culture, the people, and the art of the Island of the Gods. Hofker was fascinated by the rituals and dances of the Balinese, often performed by young girls. His models were more than often stunning beauties, both peasant girls and girls coming from highly ranked Balinese families. At first, Hofker had his models pose in a classic, European, somewhat static way, and made the composition more lively by using accessories like wood carvings, musical instruments or baskets for daily offerings. Over time, this developed into more dynamic compositions, involving several people. The current lot is a beautiful example of such a dynamic, complex composition in a typically backlit situation. Moreover, it is very rare, considering its condition and quite exceptional size –compared to other paintings and drawings Hofker made in Bali-, and the fact it portrays no less than three Balinese girls, each of them being lovingly detailed with bright colours of conté crayon and gouache paint. But the most important and

71 WILLEM GERARD HOFKER (1902 - 1981)

Composition of Three Balinese Girls Signed, dated 1944, and annotated ‘Bali’ upper right Indistinctly signed and annotated ‘Bali’ again lower left Signed, dated 1944, and annotated ‘Amsterdam-Bali’, and again ‘Bali’ on the reverse Conté crayon and gouache on paper 63 x 20 cm LITERATURE: - Bruce Carpenter & Maria Hofker-Rueter, “Willem Hofker (1902-1981), Painter of Bali”, Pictures Publishers, 1993, p.144. Compare to the oil painting of this composition, made early 1945. The current lot can be considered the original composition. - This work will be illustrated in the forthcoming book on W.G. Hofker, by Seline Hofker (grandniece of the artist) and Gianni Orsini. PROVENANCE: - Private Collection, the Netherlands (probably acquired directly from the artist in the late 1940’s). - Private Collection, Canberra, Australia. SGD 60,000. - 80,000. USD 46,154. - 61,538.

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impressive reason that this lot is one of a kind, is that it was made in 1944, when Hofker was interned in the Paré Paré and Kali Bojoh camp in South-Celebes. In these camps, not only did Willem Hofker make documentary sketches of the daily life in the camps, and delicate portraits of fellow prisoners, but also visualized his beloved theme of Bali. Obviously, the latter were most popular with the Japanese officers, who bought his art or traded it for modest amounts of food, but Hofker cleverly managed to hide some of his favourite works. “As for me, I actually stood out a bit from the prisoners’ community, because of my work as an artist which I had been allowed to continue in the camp. (…) My drawings were sold for good money to the Japanese by the Rev. Bikker, and these earnings we used to improve the camp hospital.” (Willem Hofker, quoted in ‘Djoenkeng Owari. The roll-call is over’ by the late Rev. Bikker)

Hofker, like no other, could visualize the anatomy of the girls’ arms, hands and fingers in such detail. And like no other, he could suggest the tropical light by using gouache paint, which emphasized the elegance of his models. In the current lot, one can clearly feel the yearning for the Bali that Willem Hofker loved so deeply. Even in the most dramatic circumstances, in primitive, war-torn surroundings, Hofker captured the elegance of the Balinese girls onto paper, and in turn absorbed the energy from it that enabled him to overcome the hardships of war.

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Hofker’s love for the human form is perhaps the supreme feature of his work. His portraits of Balinese women are the most sensuous and natural of the western painters in Bali. Whereas artists such as Walter Spies and Rudolf Bonnet tended to stylise their figures, Hofker preferred naturalistic features - from poses to facial expressions to the almost tangible rendering of glowing, taut skin of the youthful subjects. Hofker is the unrivaled master of these effects, which were achieved with a mature understanding of his medium, be it oil on canvas or conté on paper. In this conté drawing, Hofker depicts Ni Danti in a very relaxed moment. She is elegantly resting on one foot, she balances a basket with daily offerings or fruit on her head, and she holds on to a scarf, that seems to curl around her waist in an embracing way. During the posing session, Ni Danti probably held on to the scarf in a different way, with her left hand positioned slightly lower, as can be seen from the light sketch strokes on the drawing, outlining her arm in that position, but Hofker probably asked her to move her hand up, so the composition would be better. The simplicity of this drawing makes it attractive: only black and brown conté crayons, finished with white highlights, were used to fully capture the plasticity of the young girl’s features. Glancing away from the viewer in a slightly staring manner, she is seductive yet distant. Her expression is perhaps metaphorical for the dreamy, impressionistic way that Willem Hofker portrayed Bali.

72 WILLEM GERARD HOFKER (1902 - 1981)

Portrait of Ni Danti Signed, dated May 1939, and annotated ‘Danti’ and ‘Lebah’ lower right Conté crayon on paper 50.5 x 33 cm LITERATURE: Bruce Carpenter & Maria Hofker-Rueter, “Willem Hofker (1902-1981), Painter of Bali”, Pictures Publishers, 1993, illustrated in colour, p.55. SGD 40,000. - 60,000. USD 30,769. - 46,154.

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One of Hofker’s most important patrons and admirers at the beginning was Jhr. J. E. (‘Eyk’) Backer, the director of the powerful KPM (Royal Packet Navigation Company). Backer had commissioned Hofker to paint a large portrait of Queen Wilhelmina for the KPM headquarters in Batavia, in celebration of the Queen’s fortieth year on the throne in 1938. This portrait was to be delivered in Batavia by Hofker and his wife in person, after which they would be allowed to travel freely throughout the Indies. They arrived in Tanjung Priok on the 8th February 1938. Already one month after their arrival Hofker took part in an exhibition at the ‘Bataafsche Kunstkring’. Later he visited Buitenzorg and Bandung, where he met the young Indonesian artists Affandi and Barli, leading members of the newly established painter’s group K5B. Affandi, who in postwar years would gain international fame, asked Hofker where a new generation of Indonesian painters should turn for inspiration, since they were not educated in the centuries-old European painting tradition. They travel on to Bali in April 1938. To Hofker the island was challenging as well as it was intriguing, certainly compared with the already ‘westernized’ island of Java. “here I am at home as I never felt before” (letter from Bali by Hofker, 1938). Already in their first months in Bali, the Hofkers met many of the main characters of the western community. They knew Rudolf Bonnet and he introduced them among others to Walter Spies and Le Mayeur. Hofker and his wife soon decided that they had no desire to leave Bali for other parts of Indonesia. Hofker had found inspiration enough. In the total oeuvre of Willem Hofker, flower still lifes have played a minor but certainly not an unimportant role. He did not make that many which does not mean he lacked a velvet touch. These still life’s were painted with refined brush strokes in an elegant but controlled style. With great precision all details of the flowers come alive. He was almost certainly influenced by his father-in-law Georg Rueter (1875-1966), less reknown, but one of that group of artists that, by high quality and originality, have contributed to the revival of Dutch art around 1900. Georg Rueter was befriended with major Dutch artists as Georg Breitner and Isaac Israels. His portraits and still lifes are still searched for. This rare flower still life by Hofker is a perfect example of his work.

73 WILLEM GERARD HOFKER (1902 - 1981)

Various Flowers in a Vase Signed and dated 1952 on upper left Inscribed ‘Mayke & Jan 18 Mei 1963’ on upper right Oil on canvas 42 x 60 cm PROVENANCE: - Willem and Maria, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. - Dr. Jan and Mayke Hofker, The Hague, The Netherlands, presented by the above in 1963 as a wedding gift for their nephew and his bride. - Anon, sale Christie’s, Hongkong, 25 April 2004, lot 510, acquired from the above sale by the present owner. - Anon, sale Borobudur, Singapore, 8 October 2005, lot 10, acquired from the above sale by the present owner. SGD 60,000. - 80,000. USD 46,154. - 61,538.

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H e n d r a G u n a wa n Hendra Gunawan was born in 1918 in Bandung, West Java; he died in 1983. He is one of the most important pioneers of modern Indonesian art in the 20th century. A remarkable man, he was a gifted artist, poet, sculptor and a political activist. As a teenager, Hendra Gunawan painted props and scenery for a theatre group. He also studied under the Indonesian artists Wahdi and Affandi. During the Japanese Occupation, he taught painting at the Keimin Bunka Shidoso Cultural Centre in Jakarta. The Indonesian Struggle for Independence found Hendra in Yogyakarta where he fought in the Indonesian army. He established Pelukis Rakyat in 1947, and taught painting and sculpture in ASRI / Indonesian Academy of Fine Arts in Yogyakarta from 1950-57. Hendra became a member of the central committee of the communist-sponsored art organisation LEKRA. Backed by the Indonesian Communist Party, he was elected as a non-party member to the Constituent Assembly in 1955. He was imprisoned in the purge that followed the failed communist coup in October 1965. He continued to paint while in prison, producing some of his best works. After his release in 1978, he established a studio on Bali. Hendraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s art championed the cause of the ordinary people, particularly women and children, portraying their lives with a touch of romantic empathy. His style is noted for its spontaneous expression.

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In the publisher’s foreword to the catalogue Paintings from the collection of Adam Malik : Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, an articulation about the spiritual place of art stands out - “ The higher the life tension as a characteristic of life nowadays, the more we are in need of enjoying ord to the catalogue Paintings from the artistic values that can give a sense of balance against theof tension. Vice President of the Republic Indonesia, Many tourists spend their valuable holidays just piritual place of artto stands outbeautiful - “ The higher enjoy panoramas with their mountains, ravines and lakes. acteristic of life nowadays, the more are There are somewepeople who get the balance against the tension by ic values that can give a sense of balance searching the real values with are in the various arts and culture. y tourists spend their valuable holidays just All thisravines is a spiritual mas with their mountains, and lakes. need in the physical balance. Thereby we attain who get the balancethe against the tension continuity and by harmony of life” (H. Machmud, Paintings from the with are in the various arts of andAdam culture. Collection Malik : Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, in the physical balance. Thereby we attain PT Intermasa, Jakarta, Indonesia, 1976, p.7 ) ny of life” (H. Machmud, Paintings from the

Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, Such articulation retains onesia, 1976, p.7 )

a timeless relevance in viewing and appreciating the works of Hendra Gunawan. Formerly in the private s a timeless relevance in viewing collection of AdamandMalik, the present work, Angon Kerbau (Tending f Hendra Gunawan. Formerly in the private Buffalos ) truly reflects the paradigm that sees aesthetically the present work, Angon Kerbau (Tending of art as cultural artifacts that reflect the highest values s the paradigm pleasing that seesworks aesthetically ultural artifacts thatof reflect the highest values creative aspiration. Hendra Gunawan ‘s profound love for his endra Gunawan ‘scountry, profoundexpressed love for hisin a romantic palette, is well exemplified here romantic palette, is well exemplified here with the lyrical portrayal of a commonplace scene such as cowherds of a commonplace scene such as cowherds tending to buffalos.

self differently across span of the picture Thethecomposition reveals itself differently across the span of the picture d, five young cowherds their plane.areAtbringing the foreground, five young cowherds are bringing their deeper into the picture. A little dialogue buffalos and traversing deeper into the picture. A little dialogue single cowherd on the middle left with an ensues between them, a single cowherd on the middle left with an rating the processional path and lending a orchestrating the processional path and lending a e picture. A grand outstretched tree overhangingarm a slight ion of buffalos andsense overhangs a lake on theto the picture. A grand tree overhanging a slight of dynamism Hendra paints a recurring landscape in the ravine shades the procession of buffalos and overhangs a lake on the g landscape of knolls and rolling hills painted right side of the picture. Hendra paints a recurring landscape in the resplendent colours.

background, an undulating landscape of knolls and rolling hills painted

with which he is intimately familiar, a world with his characteristically resplendent colours. y involved from childhood until death and s sensuous depiction of tropical landscapes Hendra is painting a world with which he is intimately familiar, a world e, especially in the background, is a tapestry with well which he was ributed over the canvas, illustrating thedeeply involved from childhood until death and this best illustrated ndra Gunawan as colourist. In the rest of thein his sensuous depiction of tropical landscapes cool blue-greenishand tone people. that contrasts with The landscape, especially in the background, is a tapestry mostly renders hisofhuman subject, Hendra distributed over the canvas, well illustrating the colours, pleasingly grandiose of the Indonesian landscape, adroitness and skill thtaking in its combination of realism andof Hendra Gunawan as colourist. In the rest of the

landscape painted in the cool blue-greenish tone that contrasts with the riotous colours that mostly renders his human subject, Hendra presents very well the grandiose of the Indonesian landscape, composing a picture breathtaking in its combination of realism and romantic elements.

RA GUNAWAN

1918 - 1983)

uffalos)

r left

74 HENDRA GUNAWAN (1918 - 1983)

Angon Kerbau from the Collection of Adam Malik,(Tending of Indonesia”, PT Intermasa, Jakarta,

Buffalos)

Signed and dated `72 on lower left Oil on canvas 72 x 104 cm LITERATURE: Liem Tjoe Ing (ed.), “Paintings from the Collection of Adam Malik, Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia”, PT Intermasa, Jakarta, 1979, illustrated in color, p.44. SGD 200,000. - 300,000. USD 153,846. - 230,769.

Much has been discussed of Hendra’s keen interest on the celebration of woman with his glorious colors on canvas. An unmistakable member of the Indonesian Modernist, the artist’s sympathy or perhaps more appropriately, empathy towards the common folk is very much evident in his works. Last but not least, is Hendra’s profound love for his country and all things that he considered as the beauty of Indonesia. In sum celebration of woman, the empathy towards the common people and the potrayal of Indonesian beauty are the main elements in the works of Hendra. Beyond this, Hendra also insisted on the beauty of his people and their land. Hendra dwelled lovingly, even passionately, on the generous slopes and ridges and colors of the looks and dress of his people. He captured the language of their bodies with its rich vocabulary from formal posing or proceeding and trances dancing to animated but elegant gesturing and relaxed, daydreaming lounging. All of this, and more, he painted with equal amoubts of truthfulness and stylized exaggeration in the figures of both men and women. While he remained riveted with it, his attention did not cease with the human form: Hendra also translated the lushness and the soft, vivid colors of his native tropics and the land itself into paint and imaginative form. The woman as a group, who by far outnumber the men or children in Hendra’s later canvases, are not a uniform mass: Hendra does not reduce the subject of woman to any kind of essential. In his canvases, women, be they Sundanese, Javanese, Balinese or other Indonesians, are active, strong, nurturing and beautiful; they are also worn and sick but carrying on, sociable (but framing their relationships in their own terms), hardworking (and not only in typically ‘feminine’ professions), and faisty. Women have been the most interesting subject in Hendra Gunawan’s work. He often presents different kinds of women in his glorious colour and distinctive shape. Hendra’s women are types, not clearly distinguishable individuals, and many interpretations of their roles and meanings are possible to his audience. The present lot portrays a typical Javanese young woman wrapped in brightly coloured traditional batik cloth holding black roosters. Her expressive body movements, long thin arms and large strong feet are related to the Wayang Kulit character that often appears in most of Hendra’s work. It is one of the features that make Hendra’s painting look so Indonesian.

75 HENDRA GUNAWAN (1918 - 1983)

Chicken Vendor Signed on lower right Oil on canvas 131 x 60 cm SGD 80,000. - 120,000. USD 61,538. - 92,308.

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A hmad S adali Ahmad Sadali was born in 1924 in Garut Wetan, West Java; he died in Bandung in 1987. He graduated from the Department of Art, ITB / Bandung Institute of Technology in 1953, where he later taught, becoming a Professor in the Art Department in 1972. He received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to study at Iowa State University and the New York Art Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; League in the USA from 1956-1957. He also studied in the Netherlands and Australia in 1977, and Pakistan in 1980. He had solo exhibitions in Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung and Yogyakarta, and participated in group exhibitions in Indonesia, China, Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, India, Vietnam, USA, Switzerland, UK, France, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. Awards received include the Anugerah Seni Art Award from the Indonesian government in 1972; and awards from the Jakarta Arts Council at the Indonesian Painting Biennials in 1974 and 1978. While studying at ITB, Sadali was influenced by the Cubist style of Dutch artist Ries Mulder. After 1963, Sadali was drawn towards abstract art and created texture with planes and gold lines. His works are tied to symbols of the transitory world of impermanent things. Around 1970, he developed a style that used subdued colours like ochre, and dark shades of blue, green and red. Textures became very prominent in these paintings through the use of glue, putty and palette knife. He continued to experiment with other ways in which he could give his paintings more dimensionality. Reference: Modern Indonesian Art: From Raden Saleh to the Present Day, Koes Artbooks, 2006.

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Often described as the “Father of Indonesian Abstract Art”, Sadali’s earlier paintings were influenced by the Cubist style of Dutch artist Ries Mulder. After 1963, Sadali was drawn towards abstract art and created texture with planes and gold lines. His works are tied to symbols of the transitory world of impermanent things. Around 1970, he developed a style that used subdued colours like ochre, and dark shades of blue, green and red. Textures became very prominent in these paintings through the use of glue, putty and palette knife. He continued to experiment with other ways in which he could give his paintings more dimensionality. Abstract art has historically been likened to music in its ability to convey emotional or expressive feelings and ideas without reliance upon or reference to recognizable objective forms already existent in reality. Sadali deliberately gives away no clues as to his intention or meaning in the titling of his paintings. The viewer must search for meaning on his own. Many of Sadali’s later paintings are composed of linear forms blended with lines, trickles and remnants of gold, as in the current Lot which exudes a feeling of peace and contemplation, along with impressions of being weathered and aged. The gold on the painting implies durability, glory and spiritual enlightenment. The texture of the painting is reminiscent of an old building or wall. Nature creates paintings in the layers of textures on walls, and this may have been the original inspiration for Sadali’s abstract works. To this element of aging and impermanence, Sadali has added strength, resistance and spirituality. The result may be described as “abstract meditative”.

76 AHMAD SADALI (1924 - 1987)

Color Composition Signed and dated `76 on lower right Oil on canvas 85 x 65 cm PROVENANCE: Musee d’irsan, Jakarta. SGD 120,000. - 180,000. USD 92,308. - 138,462.

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The images of Affandi were taken from the book of Affandi: Prix International Dag Hammarskjoeld, 1976, p.15, Brussels U.F.L. Dirix.

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Affandi Boerhanoedin Affandi Koesoema, mostly known as Affandi was born in1907 in Cirebon, West Java. He died in Yogyakarta in 1990. In 1933, Affandi married Maryati, a girl from Bogor. They have a daughter, Kartika, a year later who also become a painter. In 1935, Affandi’s small family moved to Bandung and together with Barli, Hendra, Soedarso, and Wahdi, Affandi founded and led a study group which is known later as Kelompok Lima (The Group of Five). He is considered by many art critics to be the greatest Indonesian artist of all time, and was an important pioneer of modern Indonesian art in the 20th century. Affandi finished his secondary school education in Jakarta, but he forsook his study for the desire to become an artist. Affandi was essentially a self-taught artist. He taught himself how to paint from 1934. In the 1950s, Affandi began to create expressionistic paintings with his newfound style: “squeezing the tube” or painting by directly squeezing the paint out of its tube. He came across this technique by accident, when he intended to draw a line one day. As he lost his patience while looking for the missing pencil, he applied the paint directly from its tube. The resulting effect, as he found out, was that the painting appeared more alive. He also felt more freedom to express his feelings when he used his own hands, instead of a painting brush. In certain respects, he has acknowledged similarities with Vincent van Gogh. During the Japanese occupation (1942-45) he was involved in Putera. Moving to Yogyakarta during the

Indonesian Struggle for Independence, he participated in revolutionary activities and co-founded Pelukis Rakyat with Hendra Gunawan. A scholarship to the Santiniketan art school took him and his family to India in 1949. Following this they proceeded on an extensive tour of Europe before returning to Yogyakarta in 1954 when he became a lecturer in ASRI / Indonesian Academy of Fine Arts. As a renowned artist, Affandi participated in various exhibitions abroad. Besides India, he also displayed his works at the biennales in Brazil (1952), Venice (1954), and Sao Paolo (1956). His works were also exhibited in the United States, London, Paris, Rome, Rio de Janeiro and The Hague. In 1957, he received a scholarship from the United States government to study the methods of arts education. He was appointed as Honorary Professor in Painting by Ohio State University in Columbus in the United States. He went to Honolulu in 1967 as part of the first East-West Centre Artist-inResidence programme, where he painted his first fresco. Many times feted with national and international honours, he received an Indonesian Art Award from the Ministry of Education and Culture (1969) and was honoured by the University of Singapore with a Doctor Honoris Causa of Letters (1974) for his contribution to art. He also received the Dag Hammarskjoeld Prize from Italy (1977), and Indonesian Government Gold Medal (1978).

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Among Indonesian artists, Affandi has been the one most interested in the Balinese traditional mask-dance ‘barong’. There are many of his paintings that show this particular object in the distinctive powerful movements. To the artist, barong is a symbolic creature that offers extraordinary artistic element. Moreover, Affandi absorbed barong from its spiritual side; similar to the way the native Balinese people believe it to be the guardian of truth and protector of peace on earth.

n the one ask-dance that show powerful c creature Moreover, de; similar ve it to be Affandi always tried to capture the moments of the on earth.

nts of the ovements. ainting. As picted the , unmixed tions and is subject l painting aring paint t with his hand, in a giving his

barong dancers’ fast and graceful body movements. Emotion is the essential element in his painting. As in this present lot, Barong Dance, Affandi depicted the subject in its natural appearances: in pure, unmixed colours, yet revealed the painter’s emotions and feelings. Although he distinctly outline his subject in forms and shapes, however, the actual painting techniques involves the squeezing and smearing paint from the tubes onto the canvas, working it with his fingers, palms, wrists, and the back of his hand, in a spontaneous and expressionist way so that giving his subject the life of its own.

77 AFFANDI

(1907 - 1990)

Barong Signed and dated ‘72 on lower right Oil on canvas 98.5 x 151.5 cm SGD 200,000. - 300,000. USD 153,846. - 230,769.

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The boats of Kusamba, Bali, are depicted as being tied ashore while the sea looks raging far away and the sky is dark, with some clouds. It shows us the signs of an incoming hurricane. Yet, the Kusamba boats are beautiful, traditionally shaped like sharks in bright colors, and these colorful little boats don’t fear the strong wind and great waves that are coming. To Affandi, such niches at the traditional Balinese life provided endless inspirations to paint. The feeling we get when observing this painting could also be gotten through seeing his other canvas, Penari Bali Berhias (Balinese Dancers Dressing Up, 1969). There are two female dancers in this picture, dressing up behind the stage before a performance. They look very deeply immersed in the act of trying to make themselves more presentable onstage, and this gives us a pang just like the feeling we have when contemplating on the Kusamba boats. Affandi knew, and those dancers also knew, that there wouldn’t be too many people among the audience. Yet they keep on applying make - up and beautifying themselves, because to them it is not merely a dance for the audience but one for God as well. Affandi was one of a few Indonesian masters who always saw things through the eyes of the little man, the grass-roots. He was a freedom fighter during the Indonesian war for independence. He made revolutionary posters, among which is the famous “ Come on, man !”( Bung, Ayo Bung ! ), modeled upon the famous painter Dullah, and given text by the great Indonesian poet Chairil Anwar. To underline his humanism and that her took the side of the people. In 1946 Affandi founded the Association of Society’s Painters (Himpunan Pelukis Masyarakat). A year later he joined Hendra Gunawan’s Pelukis Rakyat. He was also one of the founding fathers of the Indonesian Academy of Fine Arts in Yogyakarta. All through his long career, Affandi got so many awards and won recognition in national and international scopes alike. In 1969 the government of the Republic of Indonesia gave him the Achievement Award in Arts and in 1977 he received the Dag hammarskjoeld’s of Belgium, while from Singapore he received the academic title of Doctor Honoris Causa.

78 AFFANDI

(1907 - 1990)

Kusamba Boat Signed and dated 1956 on lower right Oil on canvas 105 x 111 cm SGD 100,000. - 150,000. USD 76,923. - 115,385.

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Affandi’s paintings were dominated with a strong and distinctive character build in humanistic point of view. The theme of his paintings always portrayed the humanity aspects of many events. He was also ated with a strong passionate about his country and a large proportion n humanistic point of ofhis works concern his feeling about the land and always portrayed the its people. He expressed his great passion for life, the vents. He was also element power he felt from everything he saw and the d a large proportion in his impulse. As an intuitive and emotional about the land passion and t passion for life,artist, the Affandi’s work mostly derived from his personal thing he saw andexpression the towards object he observed and never uitive and emotional constituted by something related to philosophy or ved from his personal analysis. observed and never

ed to philosophy or

Andong (horse cart) is one of the most favourite themes that Affandi would put on canvas. It expresses the most favourite the situation and the lifestyle of those old times when canvas. It expresses most of the people used andong as transportation. In hose old times when this as transportation. In particular painting, the background was depicted softly ground was depicted during the daylight with blue cloud and a green field at the back. Yet the strong focus is laid mostly on ue cloud and a green ocus is laid mostly on several horse carts, which are resting and waiting the e resting and waiting in line for the customers.

fandi’s signatureThis and particular painting shows Affandi’s signature and prominent techniques in painting, which is squeezing g, which is squeezing ectly paint on canvas the paint out of its tube and directly paint on canvas e a special characters using his finger and palm to make a special characters paint on his canvas, and lines. The thickly textured paint on his canvas, e, expressed a sense n this painting. which is called impasto technique, expressed a sense

of dynamism and giving energy in this painting.

79 AFFANDI

(1907 - 1990)

Horsecarts Signed on lower left Oil on canvas 87.5 x 140 cm SGD 100,000. - 150,000. USD 76,923. - 115,385.

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M iguel Covarrubias José Miguel Covarrubias Duclaud was born in Mexico City in 22 November 1904. He was a Mexican painter, caricaturist, ethnologist, and art historian among other interests. In 1924 at the age 19, he had journeyed to New York City. By 1930, he had achieved a great deal of success as a caricaturist, book illustrator and even set designer. These were extremely productive but feverish years, during which he was kept busy primarily creating witty and much-admiredd caricatures fot Vanity Fair and the New Yorker. Two books of his caricatures had already been published, and he had illustrated five more, accumulating considerable fame and renown along the way. Miguel met a popular dancer and choreographer on the Broadway stage, Rosemonde Cowan, who later became his wife. They married in 1930 and they took an extended honeymoon to Bali with the National Art Directors’ Medal prize money where they immersed themselves in the local culture, language, and customs. Miguel returned to Southeast Asia (Java, Bali, India, Vietnam) in 1933, as a Guggenheim Fellow with Rosa whose photography would become part of Miguel’s book, Island of Bali. The book and particularly the marketing for months surrounding its release, contributed to the 1930s Bali craze in New York. Rosa and Miguel returned to live in Mexico City where he continued to paint, illustrate and write. When Covarrubias arrived in Bali for the first time in 1930, there was already a small European community residing that included the German artist Walter Spies. On his second trip in 1933, two other artists had taken up residence - the Dutch, Rudolf Bonnet, and the Belgian, Adrien Jean Le Mayeur. Soon after, other artists came to live in Bali, a phenomenon which continues into modern times as the island continues to exert a magnetic draw for artists from all over the world. He spent more than a year researching Bali and the Balinese culture in order to write his acclaimed book, Island of Bali (1937). He created detailed drawings and aquarelles for the book in a soft pastels and bold pinks and reds. He used curvaceous lines and was a master of color technique using gouache opaque watercolor.

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Bather Holding Up Her Kemban Miguel Covarrubias dropped out of school after hitting one of his teachers over the head. Due to his talent however he was granted by the Mexican government to study in New York, where he arrived in 1923. His witty drawings were early discovered and from 1924 forwards his caricatures were regularly published in magazines as Vanity Fair, Fortune and The New Yorker reflecting ‘modern life’ of that time. In 1924 he met Rosa Rolanda, a celebrated dancer with the Morgan dancers, who later became his wife. Sharing similar interests in painting, dance, theater, and ethnology, they collaborated on a broad range of creative projects. They traveled all over the world, spending significant time in Europe, Cuba, Bali, China, and New York. Having seen the photo book by doctor Gregor Krause of Balinese life, they decided to spent their honeymoon on this mythical island. They arrived on Bali in 1930. Instead of three months, they stayed for nine months, spellbound by the people and surroundings. After that they went back to New York and Covarrubias held exhibitions at the Guggenheim foundation and the Whitney Library. The Guggenheim foundation supported him in 1933 to make a study of the island of Bali. He stayed a year and the study material and sketches were taken back to New York and later to Mexico, forming the base of the classic ‘Island of Bali’, which was first published in 1937. The book was a best seller and caused a ‘Baliomania’ in the US and Europe. ‘No other race gives the impression of living in such close touch with nature. The slender Balinese bodies are as much a part of the landscape as the palms and the breadfruit trees, and their smooth skins have the same tone as the earth. Ordinarily free of excess clothing the Balinese have small but well-developed bodies, with a peculiar anatomical structure of simple, solid masses, reminiscent of Egyptian and Mycenaean sculptures: wide shoulders tapering down in unbroken lines to flexible

waists and narrow hips, strong backs, small heads and firm, full breasts. Their slender arms and long legs end in delicate hands and feet. Kept skillful and alive by functional use and dance training. Their faces have well-balanced features, expressive eyes, small noses and full mouths, and their hair is thick and glossy. About bathing: ‘The Balinese are fastidious in the care of their bodies as they are about dress and people off all classes, conditions permitting, make almost a cult of cleanliness. They bathe frequently during the day, whenever they feel hot or after strenuous work, but two baths a day are the rule, in the morning and evening, before each meal. Often the favorite bathing-place is a shallow spot in the river where men on one side, women on the other, squant in the water. Women wade into the water raising their skirts to a respectable level, a little above the knee and after considering the possibilities of the place sit suddenly in the water, quickly taking off the skirt. The process is reversed in getting out of the water, the skirt which has been lying on a stone or held in one hand is gathered up in front of the bather and dropped like a curtain as she stands up. She wraps it around her lips and walks off without bothering to dry herself’ Upon settling in Mexico, their home, at Number Five Calle de Reforma, became a meeting ground for many renowned Mexican artists and intellectuals, including Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Dolores del Rio, Antonio Ruiz, Roberto Montenegro, and Carlos Ch.vez. As collectors of Pre-Conquest and Mexican Popular art, they generated widespread interest in the culture, traditions, history, and art of Mexico’s indigenous people. A better caption of a Balinese woman bathing can not be made. In the charistical smooth lines of a well trained, highly talented artist he ‘describes’ this quiet divine moment.

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This Bather holding up her Kemban is the best of Covarrubias’ masterpiece, where the monumentally voluptuous form of the nude immediately gives away the artist’s cultural origins. This highly-finished oil is likely to be an easel painting executed upon his return to New York or Mexico. Covarrubias painted vary few oil paintings of Bali. Many of his works were in the form of gouaches and watercolors created for the purpose of illustration in books and magazines. The total corpus of works on Bali is relatively slim and mostly in the form of ink and pencil sketches. This is partly because Covarrubias’ second and more significant voyage to Bali was specifically with the aim of gathering material to write his book. Quote from Adriana Williams and Yu-Chee Chong, Covarrubias in Bali, Editions Didier Millet, Singapore, 2005, p.60-61.

80 MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS (1904 - 1957)

Bather Holding Up Her Kemban Signed on lower left Oil on canvas 76 x 61 cm LITERATURE: Adriana Williams and Yu-Chee Chong, “Covarrubias in Bali”, Editions Didier Millet, Singapore, 2005, illustrated in color, p.61 & 66. EXHIBITED: “Miguel Covarrubias Homenaje, as Balinesa Colgando Tela”, Centro Cultural Arte Contemperaneo, Mexico City, 1987. PROVENANCE: - Collection Pedro de Armend riz. - Collection of Senora Carmen de Armend riz. - Anon. Sale, Sotheby’s Singapore, 6 October 2002, lot 48 (cover lot), acquired from the above sale by the present owner. - Anon. Sale, Borobudur Singapore, 8 October 2005, lot 4, acquired from the above sale by the present owner. SGD 800,000. - 1,200,000. USD 615,385. - 923,077.

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Index of Artist

A Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres Affandi Agus Suwage Ahmad Sadali Anton Huang (Anton Kustiawidjaja) Antonio Blanco Arie Smit Auke Cornelis Sonega

M 7, 45, 46 9, 77, 78, 79 64, 65 76 47 6, 43 3, 18, 19 42

B Basoeki Abdullah

52, 53 55 33, 34

F Fang Lijun 方力鈞

16 67, 68 74, 75

66 51 48 49, 50 2

J J. Ariadhitya Pramuhendra Ju Ming 朱銘

56, 57

R Ronald Ventura Rudi Mantofani Rudolf Bonnet

54 27, 28 1, 69, 70

S. Sudjojono Samsul Arifin Srihadi Soedarsono Sudjana Kerton Sunaryo

8, 26 29 17 44 4, 5

T 58

W 71, 72, 73

X Xu Xiao Bai 蘇笑柏

I I Nyoman Masriadi I Nyoman Meja Ida Bagus Made Poleng Ida Bagus Made Togog Isac Israels

Natee Utarit

Willem Gerard Hofker

H H. Widayat Handiwirman Saputra Hendra Gunawan

Takashi Murakami 村上隆

G Gerard Pieter Adolfs

40 80

C Chen Wen Hsi 陳文希 Christine Ay Tjoe Chu Teh-Chun 朱德群

Marc Quinn Miguel Covarrubias

30, 31 39

Yayoi Kusama 草間彌生 Yi Hwan Kwon 李桓權 Yoshitomo Nara 奈良美智 Yue Minjun 岳敏君

61, 62, 63 10, 41 59, 60 12, 13, 14

Z Zao Wouki 趙無極 Zhou Chunya 周春芽

32 36

L Lee Man Fong Li Chen 李真 Liu Ye 劉野

21, 22, 23, 24 37, 38 15

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