Sotheby’s is an institution, figuratively and literally. The premier purveyor of all things fine art and luxury have long made a name for themselves when it comes to promoting access to goods of the highest quality.
What’s special about Sotheby’s latest affair? In addition to featuring an array of incredible artwork from around the world, the exhibition and auction will showcase the transformative works of female artists from Southeast Asia and beyond.
Held at The Singapore Edition, the exhibition will take place from 22 to 25 January—the auction will go live at 5pm on 25 January—an enthralling confluence of philanthropists, socialites and arts collectors and patrons. The works on display, like all good art, are shaped by subjectivity. Forged in the crucible of hard work and talent and grounded in authentic lived experience. In particular, Sotheby’s is giving a platform to five uncompromising female artists—from the emerging to the established—who are all pioneers of their respective fields.
Pacita Abad
Filipino-American artist Pacita Abad is a mixed media master who has produced over 4,500 pieces of art, many of which now reside in public and private collections in over 70 countries. She is best known for her signature trapunto works, which are a vibrant fusion of painting, textiles and found-objects woven into large-scale quilted surfaces.
I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih
The work of self-taught Balinese artist I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih is unfiltered and utterly arresting. With simple figures and bold outlines, often depicting an unapologetic portrayal of female sexuality, she holds a bright flame to social taboos and patriarchal norms.
Tracey Emin
Hailing from England, Tracey Emin is a generational star, crafting raw, intimate conversations between love and loss, sexuality and vulnerability. Her larger-than-life presence has long been foregrounded in visually commanding, and at times controversial, work spanning multiple mediums.
Lalan
French-Chinese creative Lalan is a multi-hyphenate, a woman of many talents. Originally trained as a musician, then dancer, her entry into the broader visual arts world only came much later. There, she would blend her love for her initial endeavours with painting and poetry in dazzling experimental performances.
Jane Lee
Singaporean artist Jane Lee rounds out the night’s line-up, offering a peek behind the curtain of the craft of painting itself. By physically transforming paint, canvas and frame, Lee blurs the line between two- and three-dimensional space, prompting thought-provoking inquiry into the nature of the medium.
In addition to the showcase of these five female artists, the Sotheby’s exhibition and auction will feature a distinguished group of highlight lots spanning early modernism to contemporary innovation. Among them is ‘Die Schlittschuhläufer (The Ice Skaters)’, an early and rare painting by Walter Spies.
Created in Germany before his pivotal role in the Balinese art renaissance, Spies’s scene is moonlit and dreamlike. The painting was formerly part of the esteemed Hans Rhodius collection, and reveals the stylised forms, unusual perspectives and cinematic atmosphere that would later define his celebrated work in Bali.
Also featured is a luminous abstract composition by Zao Wou-Ki. The work is a radiant palette of golden yellows, soft blondes and emerald greens, exemplifying Zao’s mature synthesis of Western abstraction and the spiritual depth of Chinese ink painting.
Completing the highlights is David Hockney’s ‘The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate’. This landmark body of work marked a pivotal moment in digital fine art printmaking, affirming the iPad as a serious and innovative medium for contemporary artistic expression.
The Sotheby’s exhibition will take place from 22 to 25 January. The auction will take place at 5PM on 25 January.
