Life and Leisure

Marching to the beat of the auction hammer

By Lin Qi (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-07 08:07

An exhibition showcasing a cross-section of China's contemporary art scene will run at Christie's Rockefeller Center in New York City from Sept 9 to Sept 26.

Trans-Realism will bring 29 paintings and photographs by 17 leading Chinese artists to global audiences. The event is organized by the Center of International Cultural Exchange (CICE) of China and Christie's.

Participating artists include Yang Feiyun, Xin Dongwang, Yu Hong and Qiu Xiaofei, whose genre selections encompass elegant interpretations, modern reproductions and the contemporary construction of realism.

"We chose artists less known in the West rather than going with big names," says Pan Qing, the exhibition's co-curator from the National Museum of China.

"Many of them are up-and-coming artists born in the 1970s, and one was born in the 1980s. Their approaches depart from those of their predecessors'," Pan continues.

"Rather than focusing on social reality, the new generation creates a sense of illusion and imagination. They go beyond what's happening in the country to express concerns about the world and humankind."

CICE director Lu Jun says the exhibition reveals Chinese artists' "careful juxtaposition and balance" between tradition and innovation, realism and imagination, and individualism and collectivism.

The exhibition will be held during Christie's seasonal Asia Week sale of Chinese and other Asian art, which will last from Sept 14 to 17.

The sale will be spearheaded by 400 Chinese ceramic pieces and artworks.

One highlight will be an exceptional Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279) hexagonal "junyao" (one of the five celebrated porcelain kilns of the Song Dynasty) tripod vessel from the Dr and Mrs William L. Corbin Collection. The narcissus-shaped artifact was created between the late Yuan (1206-1368) and early Ming (1368-1644) dynasties. It has a milky-blue interior and a copper-blush exterior, and the bottom is imprinted with the remains of an imperial inscription identifying the palace in which it had been stored.

Another magnificent cylindrical brush pot from Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) emperor Qianlong's reign (1735-1799) was carved out of an unusually large, high-quality piece of white jade. The auspicious imagery conveys wishes of longevity and happiness, and is carved according to the period's highest craftsmanship standards.

Other grand collections to go under the hammer include "Sze Yuan Tang" archaic bronzes from the Anthony Hardy Collection, 16 Chinese paintings and calligraphic works from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection and 45 works from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections.

The second sale also offers many premium pieces. These include an opaque gray-green "toothed" jade pendent dating back to the Hongshan Culture (3500-3000 BC) period and a dark-gray stone bodhisattva head from the Longmen Caves of the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 386-557). Another prize is a small olive-green and russet jade "cong" hailing back to the time of the Liangzhu Culture (3310-2250 BC).

China Daily