Agenda

Christie’s Hong-Kong

20th/21st Century Evening Sale
28 March 2025

20th/21st Century Evening Sale

21st Century Day Sale
29 March 2025

21st Century Day Sale

Christie’s Shanghai

20th/21st Century Evening Sale
3 April 2025

20th/21st Century Evening Sale

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong

Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction
29 March 2025

Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

Modern & Contemporary Day Auction
30 March 2025

Modern & Contemporary Day Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

PART II: AUCTION RESULTS

Christie’s Hong-Kong

20th/21st Century Evening Sale

28 March 2025

20th/21st Century Evening Sale

FX USD/HKD @ 7.78

TOTAL
HKD 559,955,200 / USD 71,973,676

# Lots: 43
Withdrawn: 2 Lots
Passed: 2 Lots
Sold: 39 Lots
Sell-Through Rate: 95.1%

#1. Sabado por la Noche (Saturday Night), 1984

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 95,000,000 – 125,000,000
HKD 112,625,000 / USD 14,476,221

Sabado por la Noche (Saturday Night)

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1960-1988)
Sabado por la Noche (Saturday Night), 1984
Acrylic, silkscreen, oil stick, and paper collage on canvas
77×88 inches (195.6 x 223.5 cm)
Signed, titled, and dated ‘Jean Michel 1984 – “SABADO POR LA NOCHE”‘ (on the reverse)

#2. 28.8.67, 1967

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 40,000,000 – 60,000,000
HKD 48,775,000 / USD 6,269,280

ZAO WOU-KI (ZHAO WUJI, 1920-2013), 28.8.67 | Christie’s

ZAO WOU-KI (ZHAO WUJI, 1920-2013)
28.8.67, 1967
Oil on canvas
89×116 cm (35 x 45 5/8 inches)
Signed in Chinese and ‘Zao’ (lower right)
Signed and dated ‘ZAO WOU-KI 28.8.67’ (on the reverse)

#3. Rêverie de Monsieur James, 1943

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 42,000,000 – 55,000,000
HKD 47,565,000 / USD 6,113,753

Rêverie de Monsieur James

RENÉ MAGRITTE (1898-1967)
Rêverie de Monsieur James, 1943
Oil on canvas
54.3 x 73.7 cm (21 3/8 x 29 inches)
Signed ‘Magritte’ (lower right)
Signed again, titled, dated and inscribed
‘”RÊVERIE DE MONSIEUR JAMES” MAGRITTE 1943 20P.’
(on the reverse)

#4. PUMPKIN (HRU), 2014

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 25,000,000 – 35,000,000
HKD 39,095,000 / USD 5,025,064

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929), PUMPKIN (HRU) | Christie’s

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
PUMPKIN (HRU), 2014
Acrylic on canvas
100×100 cm (39 3/8 x 39 3/8 inches)
Signed, titled, titled again in Japanese, and dated ‘HRU PUMPKIN YAYOI KUSAMA 2014’ (on the reverse)

#5. La Promenade au bord de la mer, circa 1892

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 18,000,000 – 28,000,000
HKD 34,860,000 / USD 4,480,720

La Promenade au bord de la mer (Le Bois de la Chaise Noirmoutier)

PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841-1919)
La Promenade au bord de la mer (Le Bois de la Chaise Noirmoutier), circa 1892
Oil on canvas
66.2 x 81.4 cm (26×32 inches)
Signed ‘Renoir.’ (lower left)

#6. La clairvoyance, circa 1962

#7. Untitled (After Henri Rousseau), 2020

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 10,000,000 – 15,000,000
HKD 23,365,000 / USD 3,003,213

Untitled (After Henri Rousseau)

ADRIAN GHENIE (B. 1977)
Untitled (After Henri Rousseau), 2020
Oil on canvas
270×300 cm (106 1/4 x 118 1/8 inches)
Signed and dated ‘Ghenie 2020’ (on the reverse)

xxxxxxx

#14. Pumpkin (S), 2016

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 12,500,000 – 18,500,000
HKD 13,685,000 / USD 1,758,997

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929), Pumpkin (S) | Christie’s

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
Pumpkin (S), 2016
Mirror polished bronze
67.3 (H) x 63.5 x 63.5 cm (26 1/2 x 25 x 25 inches)
Incised with the artist’s signature ‘Yayoi Kusama’ (lower edge)
This work is number three from an edition of eight plus two artist’s proofs

#12. Portrait of Nadine Haim, 1977

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 2,500,000 – 3,500,000
HKD 3,402,000 / USD 437,275

FERNANDO BOTERO (1932-2023), Portrait of Nadine Haim | Christie’s

FERNANDO BOTERO (1932-2023)
Portrait of Nadine Haim, 1977
Oil and photo collage on canvas mounted on board
88.5 x 83 cm (34 7/8 x 32 5/8 inches)
Signed and dated ‘Botero 77’ (lower right)
Signed, titled and dated ‘”NADINE HAIM” Botero 77’ (on the reverse)

Colored plastic complex of noise + dance + joy, 2009

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 3,000,000 – 5,000,000
HKD 3,402,000 / USD 437,275

HERNAN BAS (B. 1978), Colored plastic complex of noise + dance + joy | Christie’s

Untitled, circa 1970

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 12,000,000 – 18,000,000
PASSED

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929), Untitled | Christie’s

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
Untitled, circa 1970
Oil and mixed media on canvas
60 x 50.4 cm (23 5/8 x 19 7/8 inches)
Signed twice and dated ‘Yayoi Kusama 1970 c.’ (on the reverse)

Christie’s: 21st Century Day Sale

29 March 2025

21st Century Day Sale

TOTAL
HKD 113,839,500 / USD 14,632,326

# Lots: 68
Passed: 6 Lots
Sold: 62 Lots
Sell-Through Rate: 91.2%

#1. Mine Detector, 1993

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 15,000,000 – 20,000,000
HKD 23,970,000 / USD 3,080,977

YOSHITOMO NARA (B. 1959), Mine Detector | Christie’s

YOSHITOMO NARA (B. 1959)
Mine Detector, 1993
Acrylic on canvas
150×100 cm (59 x 39 3/8 inches)
Signed and dated ‘YOSHITOMO NARA ’93’ (on the overlap)

#2. Darisa, 2015

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 4,500,000 – 6,500,000
HKD 7,560,000 / USD 971,722

ALEX KATZ (B. 1927), Darisa | Christie’s

ALEX KATZ (B. 1927)
Darisa, 2015
Oil on linen
48×112 inches (121.9 x 284.5 cm)
Signed and dated ‘alex katz 14’ (on the overlap)

#3. Nets, 1999

#4. INFINITY-NETS (TTWAM), 2007

#5. Hat, 1981

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 7,800,000 – 12,800,000
HKD 6,930,000 / USD 890,746

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929), Hat | Christie’s

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
Hat, 1981
Acrylic, pencil, and cloth collage on canvas
53 x 65.2 cm (20 7/8 x 25 5/8 inches)
Signed and dated ‘YAYOI KUSAMA 1981’, titled in Japanese (on the reverse)

#7. Pumpkin, 2001

#8. Swallow’s Nest, 1989

#9. Untitled, 1996

#10. Heart Shaped Candy Box (True Love), 1984

#11. Young Boy and Lacoste, 2005

#12. Keep Calm, 2020

#16. Yuzuru (Helsinki Grand Prix), 2018

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 1,500,000 – 2,500,000
HKD 1,386,000 / USD 178,149

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Yuzuru (Helsinki Grand Prix) | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Yuzuru (Helsinki Grand Prix), 2018
Monotype on Twinrocker handmade paper
79.7 x 59.5 cm. (31 3/8 x 23 3/8 inches)

#17. $ (Quadrant), 1982

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 500,000 – 800,000
HKD 1,260,000 / USD 161,954

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987), $ (Quadrant) | Christie’s

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
$ (Quadrant) (Feldman & Schellmann no. II.283), 1982
Unique screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Sheet: 40 1/8 x 32 inches (102 x 81.3 cm)
Signed in pencil, numbered 8⁄60
From the edition of 60 unique variants, there were also ten artist’s proofs

Christie’s Shanghai

20th/21st Century Evening Sale

3 April 2025

20th/21st Century Evening Sale

DKG NPP #2, 2017

Christie’s Shanghai: 3 April 2025
Estimated: CNY 2,200,000 – 3,200,000

JONAS WOOD (B. 1977), DKG NPP #2 | Christie’s

JONAS WOOD (B. 1977)
DKG NPP #2, 2017
Screenprint, oil and acrylic on canvas
80×62 inches (203.2 x 157.5 cm)
Signed and dated twice, titled ‘JBRW 2017 DKG NPP #2 JBRW 2017’ (on the overlap)

Young Girl and Lacoste, 2005

Christie’s Shanghai: 3 April 2025
Estimated: CNY 1,800,000 – 2,800,000

LIU YE (B. 1964), Young Girl and Lacoste | Christie’s

LIU YE (B. 1964)
Young Girl and Lacoste, 2005
Acrylic on canvas
60×50 cm (23 5/8 x 19 5/8  inches)
Signed ‘©LIU YE’ (lower left)

Sotheby’s 

Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction

29 March 2025

Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

TOTAL
HKD 297,519,500 / USD 38,241,581

# Lots: 45 Lots
Withdrawn: 3 Lots
Passed: 2 Lots
Sold: 40 Lots
Sell-Through Rate: 95.2%

#1. Fleurs de printemps, 1930

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2025
Estimated: HKD 22,000,000 – 28,000,000
HKD 34,535,000 / USD 4,438,946

Marc Chagall 馬克 · 夏加爾 | Fleurs de printemps (La Cruche aux fleurs de printemps) 瓶承春華 | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

MARC CHAGALL (1887 – 1985)
Fleurs de printemps (La Cruche aux fleurs de printemps), 1930
Oil on canvas
72 x 60.6 cm (28 3/8 x 23 7/8 inches)
Signed Marc Chagall (lower left)

#2. Baigneuse accoudée, 1882

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2025
Estimated: HKD 14,000,000 – 22,000,000
HKD 23,555,000 / USD 3,027,635

Pierre-Auguste Renoir 皮耶・奧古斯特・雷諾瓦 | Baigneuse accoudée 坐姿浴女 | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841 – 1919)
Baigneuse accoudée, 1882
Oil on canvas
54 x 40.5 cm (21 1/4 x 15 7/8 inches)
Signed Renoir (lower left)

#3. Working Model for Reclining Figure: Prop, 1976

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2025
Estimated: HKD 16,000,000 – 24,000,000
HKD 20,505,000 / USD 2,635,604

Henry Moore 亨利・摩爾 | Working Model for Reclining Figure: Prop 側臥人物模型：支撐 | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

HENRY MOORE (1898 – 1986)
Working Model for Reclining Figure: Prop, 1976
Bronze
Length: 80.5 cm (31 3/4 inches)
Inscribed with the signature Moore and numbered 3/9 (base)
Conceived and cast in 1976, this work is number 3 from an edition of 9 + 1
Cast by Fiorini, London

#4. Le miroir, 1947

#5. Grotto, 2019

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2025
Estimated: HKD 10,000,000 – 15,000,000
HKD 15,015,000 / USD 1,929,949

Nicolas Party 尼古拉 · 帕爾蒂 | Grotto 洞穴 | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

NICOLAS PARTY (b. 1980)
Grotto, 2019
Soft pastel on linen
190.8 x 165.1 cm (75 1/8 x 65 inches)
Signed and dated 2019 (on the reverse)

#5ex. Starry Pumpkin, 2019

#9. Man on Horseback, 2008

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2025
Estimated: HKD 5,400,000 – 11,000,000
HKD 10,745,000 / USD 1,381,105

Fernando Botero 費南度・波特羅 | Man on Horseback 馬背上的男人 | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

FERNANDO BOTERO (1932 – 2023)
Man on Horseback, 2008
White Carrara marble
110x85x57 cm (43 1/4 x 33 1/2 x 22 3/8 inches)
Inscribed with artist signature (on the base)

#19. Dots (Infinity Dots), 1990

Nets (A.B.C), 1990

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2025
Estimated: HKD 3,200,000 – 5,500,000

Yayoi Kusama 草間彌生 | Nets ( A.B.C) 網（A.B.C） | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

YAYOI KUSAMA (b. 1929)
Nets (A.B.C), 1990
Acrylic on canvas
72.5 x 60 cm (28 1/2 x 23 5/8 inches)
Signed, titled and dated 1990 (on the reverse)

 

PART III: FOCUS

Nicolas Party

Grotto, 2019

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2025
Estimated: HKD 10,000,000 – 15,000,000
HKD 15,015,000 / USD 1,929,949

Nicolas Party 尼古拉 · 帕爾蒂 | Grotto 洞穴 | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

NICOLAS PARTY (b. 1980)
Grotto, 2019
Soft pastel on linen
190.8 x 165.1 cm (75 1/8 x 65 inches)
Signed and dated 2019 (on the reverse)

Born in 1980 in Lausanne, Switzerland, Party studied at the Lausanne School of Art before undertaking an MA at The Glasgow School of Art. Classically trained, Party transforms the paradigm of portraiture of art history into a dialogue with both past and future. Speaking about his figurative paintings, Party remarks: “I’m trying to work with subjects that are not original. Subjects that have been, and still are, painted all the time. Like a portrait, or a cat. What fascinates me about these topics is their capacity to regenerate themselves at any period of history, and still be relevant to us. I also believe some subjects are always painted because they are an infinite source of meaning and inspiration” (the artist cited in Federica Tattoli, “Talking with the Swiss painter Nicolas Party”, Fruit of the Forest, December 2016). Rather than creating landscapes, still lives and portraits from real life, Party takes inspiration from other works in the history of these categories instead, and Grotto acts as an outstanding example.

Grotto is part of a new series of works by Nicolas Party which reinterprets art historical themes, created upon his return to Brussels following his exhibition at the Magritte Museum in 2018. This series of works was later featured in the artist’s solo show at Xavier Hufkens Gallery in 2019. The exhibition, also titled Grotto, featured three large soft pastel paintings, including the present work depicting the interior of grottos in monochromes of red, green and blue. They explored the long art-historical fascination with caves, with the present work paying specific homage to Caves of Manacor (c. 1901) by the Belgian painter William Degouve. Party recalls being “totally stunned” upon viewing Picasso’s Tête de Femme (1921) at the Foundation Beyeler in 2013, and was inspired in particular by Picasso’s use of pastel in Tête de Femme, and the challenging and idiosyncratic medium has dominated his work ever since.

“Oils allow you to endlessly retouch. With pastels it’s kind of the exact opposite. You can layer and layer, but you can’t start over. The nature of the medium is much more direct. Nothing dries or is wet – it stays exactly how it is.”

Applying the soft chalk material with his fingertips with painterly precision, pastel best allows Party to mould the essence of his subjects in new and revelatory ways, to amplify physical presence and heighten emotional resonance. Party’s resulting works are simple, seductive and highly accessible, yet still engage in dialogue with the art-historical binaries of representation and abstraction, observation and imagination. In addition to paintings, Party creates large-scale public murals, sculptures and installation works that employ colour and intervention strategies to construct immersive experiences for viewers. The artist has been subject of numerous solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions worldwide, including the Magritte Museum, Brussels (2018); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2017); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); and the Modern Institute, Glasgow (2016).

Adrian Ghenie

Untitled (After Henri Rousseau), 2020

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 10,000,000 – 15,000,000
HKD 23,365,000 / USD 3,003,213

Untitled (After Henri Rousseau)

ADRIAN GHENIE (B. 1977)
Untitled (After Henri Rousseau), 2020
Oil on canvas
270×300 cm (106 1/4 x 118 1/8 inches)
Signed and dated ‘Ghenie 2020’ (on the reverse)

A vista of turbulent, vital color and form spanning three metres across, Untitled (After Henri Rousseau) (2020) sees Adrian Ghenie’s renowned painterly eloquence reach incandescent new heights. At its heart is a powerful encounter between man and beast. The figures derive from Henri Rousseau’s iconic jungle scene Nègre attaqué par un jaguar (1910, Kunstmuseum Basel), which depicts a man attacked by a jaguar. In Ghenie’s vision, the action takes place before a concrete wall and a roiling, gunmetal sky, with vaporous blooms of pigment and dark, palette-knifed umber streaks that carve through space. The man’s dark silhouette leans forward, with billowing, inky-blue brushstrokes licking up his body like flames. The wild cat is conveyed in a swirling melee of ochre, orange and turquoise, variously marbled and masked off to create sharp, dynamic outlines. If the motif emerged from Rousseau, the work’s array of textures and techniques evokes artists from Francis Bacon to Willem de Kooning and Gerhard Richter. The drama of tangled limbs, meanwhile, displays Ghenie’s close affinity with Baroque painting, conjuring muscular depictions of Classical and Biblical lion-wrestlers such as Hercules and Samson.

Ghenie rose to prominence in the 2010s for powerful, layered and cinematic paintings that were concerned with the dark moments and pivotal figures of European history. Filtered through collations of found photographic imagery, they included reflections on the Second World War and life under communism in his native Romania, and featured the distorted countenances of Charles Darwin and Vincent van Gogh. In recent years, Ghenie has evolved his style in new directions, turning his gaze towards contemporary life and imagining the future. He has also widened his palette of art-historical references, engaging in open dialogue with Andrea Mantegna, Théodore Géricault and—as in the present work—Henri Rousseau. As well as working with collage studies, he develops his ideas in large-scale charcoal drawings, whose sweeping elegance can be felt in the present painting.

Henri Rousseau, Negro Attacked by a Jaguar, 1910, Kunstmuseum, Basel. © Bridgeman Images

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Sabado por la Noche (Saturday Night), 1984

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 95,000,000 – 125,000,000

Sabado por la Noche (Saturday Night)

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1960-1988)
Sabado por la Noche (Saturday Night), 1984
Acrylic, silkscreen, oil stick, and paper collage on canvas
77×88 inches (195.6 x 223.5 cm)
Signed, titled, and dated ‘Jean Michel 1984 – “SABADO POR LA NOCHE”‘ (on the reverse)

Sabado por la Noche (Saturday Night) (1984) is a vibrant and multi-layered work that represents an important period in Jean-Michel Basquiat’s career. Across a vast canvas layered with acrylic, oilstick silkscreen and paper collage, the artist brings together text, icons and human figures. Brilliant swathes of magenta, yellow and emerald green structure the composition, which is dominated by two mask-like ‘griot’ heads that relate to those seen in several major works from the same year, including Gold Griot (The Broad, Los Angeles) and Grillo (Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris). Embedded sheets of paper are scrawled with symbols relating to the solar system, Fibonacci’s golden ratio, ‘knowledge’, ‘truth’, and ‘birth’, and doubled gyres and spirals. A third mask-like head, submerged in pink to the lower left, dreams forth a trio of female forms amid an aura of red, green and gold: the colours of the Pan-African flag. While these details reflect Basquiat’s increasing interest in African spiritualism and history, other elements reflect different influences, such as a cartoonish wolf-head brandished by the rightmost figure, and a silkscreened comic-strip boxing scene (‘BIP!’), which reproduces one of the artist’s own drawings in reverse. In Sabado por la Noche, Basquiat brings a bounty of ideas and techniques into luminous conversation.

1984 was a pivotal year for Basquiat. He had moved into a loft space owned by Andy Warhol in August 1983, and the two artists made their first collaborative works in silkscreen and paint shortly afterwards. As he continued his dialogue with Warhol over the following two years, Basquiat’s own work took on a greater material richness and thematic complexity. Crowning his ascent to global fame, August 1984 saw the opening of Basquiat’s first solo museum show, which debuted at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, before travelling to London’s Institute of Contemporary Art.

Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1982. © 2025 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS).

In West Africa a griot is a poet-storyteller who plays a central role in his community’s oral tradition. Basquiat’s griots, their features electric with bright lines of oilstick, show the influence of idols illustrated in Robert Farris Thompson’s book Flash of the Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy (1983). Basquiat was likely introduced to Flash of the Spirit by his friend Shenge Ka Pharaoh, who became an assistant in 1984. He was so enamored with the book that he asked Thompson to contribute a catalogue essay for a 1985 solo show in New York. Drawing a musical or vocal equivalence between Basquiat’s work and the magic of a voodoo shaman, Thompson identified the artist as displaying a postmodern ‘Creole’ sensibility, enthusing that ‘He transforms paint into incantation … He chants paint. He chants body. He chants them in splendid repetitions’ (R. F. Thompson, Jean-Michel Basquiat: 2 March – 23 March 1985, exh. cat. Mary Boone / Michael Werner Gallery, New York 1985, n.p.).

The griot masks in Sabado por la Noche, awash in sweeping gestural brushwork, are an instance of different artistic languages coming together: African cultural forms meeting the color of Abstract Expressionism, which remained enormously influential in Basquiat’s New York. The work’s Spanish title also tells a polyvocal story. Having grown up in a multilingual Haitian-Puerto Rican household, Basquiat was fluent in Spanish and often used the language in his works. Elsewhere, diagrammatic evocations of esoteric knowledge and sacred geometry speak to his fascination with encyclopedias, symbol sourcebooks and other literature, sitting alongside images that evoke the everyday imagery of TV cartoons and comic-books. Basquiat sampled and synthesized ideas from a dizzying array of fields, assembling them onto one vibrant plane. As with many of the faces that fill Basquiat’s most celebrated works, it is tempting to search for elements of self-portraiture in Sabado por la Noche. Otherworldly and glowing, the masks’ bright lineation hints at skeleton and muscle beneath the skin. Many of Basquiat’s faces become skulls—a key early influence was the medical textbook Gray’s Anatomy and a book of anatomical drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, which he had been given while in hospital as a child—and can evoke themes of mortality. The present work’s faces, however, appear alive with a spiritual and celebratory power. If Basquiat did see himself in the griot’s guise, he was perhaps here depicting himself as a multiform painter-troubadour, spinning ambiguous and many-layered stories between internal and external worlds.

Dan mask, Wood and Fibre. Image: Bridgeman Images.

Discussing his use of African imagery, Basquiat said ‘I’ve never been to Africa. I’m an artist who has been influenced by his New York environment. But I have a cultural memory. I don’t need to look for it; it exists. It’s over there, in Africa. That doesn’t mean that I have to go live there. Our cultural memory follows us everywhere, wherever you live’ (J-M. Basquiat, quoted in D. Davvetas, ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat’, New Art International, October-November 1988, p. lxiii). Indeed, works like Sabado por la Noche are less immediately about the artist’s personal identity than they are reflective of the mutable, hybrid nature of contemporary culture at large. New York was the center of Basquiat’s life and art: a whirlwind of visual and aural information where everything was available, and where the influences of voodoo and TV advertisements, Picasso and subway art, da Vinci and Warhol could meet on equal footing. His works were vessels into which he poured images and words, cataloguing and juxtaposing what he saw to craft rich visual lyrics like a griot of the Lower East Side.

The diversity of media in Sabado por la Noche—drawn, painted, collaged, silkscreened—matches its range of ideas. Basquiat’s mastery lies in his quickfire and seemingly effortless process of selection and composition: for all its density and multiplicity, the canvas is neither overwhelmed or unbalanced. The artist deploys colour and form with an instinctive grace. Bravado brushwork, mysterious glyphs and powerful human figures sing in harmony. As Demosthenes Davvetas has written, Basquiat’s work ‘is less like a mirror than like an eye and a voice: as eye, it observes and interprets life, collecting selected items and organizing them within itself; thus organized, it becomes voice, a clear utterance expressing what has been seen’ (D. Davvetas, ‘Lines, Chapters and Verses: The Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat’, in E. Navarra, ed., Jean-Michel Basquiat, 3rd ed., Paris 2000, p. 59).

 

Takashi Murakami

An Homage to IKB, 1957 E, 2012

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2025
Estimated: HKD 5,500,000 – 10,000,000
HKD 9,525,000 / USD 1,224,293

Takashi Murakami 村上隆 | An Homage to IKB, 1957 E 向IKB致敬 1957 E | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

TAKASHI MURAKAMI (b. 1962)
An Homage to IKB, 1957 E, 2012
Acrylic on canvas mounted on board
199×153 cm (78 3/8 x 60 1/4 inches)
Signed and dated 2012 (on the overlap)
© 2012 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Doraemon: Time with Friends, 2019

TAKASHI MURAKAMI (B. 1962)
Doraemon: Time with Friends, 2019
Acrylic, platinum leaf and gold leaf on canvas mounted on wood panel
120 x 93.6 cm (47 1/4 x 36 7/8 inches)
Signed with the artist’s signature and dated ‘2019’ (on the reverse)

Monogramouflage, 2008

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2025
Estimated: HKD 700,000 – 900,000
HKD 882,000 / USD 113,368

TAKASHI MURAKAMI (B. 1962), Monogramouflage | Christie’s

TAKASHI MURAKAMI (B. 1962)
Monogramouflage, 2008
Acrylic on canvas mounted on aluminum frame
180.3 x 180.3 cm (71×71 inches)
Signed with the artist’s signature and dated ’08’ (on the stretcher)

Beijing Madonna, 1994-1995

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 12,000,000 – 18,000,000
HKD 12,475,000 / USD 1,603,470

LIU YE (B. 1964), Beijing Madonna | Christie’s

LIU YE (B. 1964)
Beijing Madonna, 1994-1995
Acrylic and oil on canvas
80×100 cm (31 1/2 x 39 3/8 inches)
Signed, signed again in Chinese, and dated ’94-95 Liu ye’ (upper left)

Young Boy and Lacoste, 2005

PUMPKIN (HRU), 2014

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 25,000,000 – 35,000,000

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929), PUMPKIN (HRU) | Christie’s

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
PUMPKIN (HRU), 2014
Acrylic on canvas
100×100 cm (39 3/8 x 39 3/8 inches)
Signed, titled, titled again in Japanese, and dated ‘HRU PUMPKIN YAYOI KUSAMA 2014’ (on the reverse)

Pumpkin (S), 2016

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 12,500,000 – 18,500,000

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929), Pumpkin (S) | Christie’s

Starry Pumpkin, 2019

Spring Festival, 1981

INFINITY-NETS (TTWAM), 2007

“My Infinity Net paintings and Accumulation works had different origins from the European monochrome works. They were about an obsession: infinite repetition. In the 1960s, I said: “I feel as if I were driving on the highways or carried on a conveyor belt without ending until my death. This is like continuing to drink thousands of cups of coffee or eating thousands of feet of macaroni… I am deeply terrified by the obsessions crawling over my body, whether they come within me or from outside. I fluctuate between feelings of reality and unreality.”‘

Nets, 1999

Pumpkin, 2001

Nets (A.B.C), 1990

“I think fashion is very important for human beings because people can become happy and excited from fashion. I focused on that aspect and entered the fashion world, showing my fashion work to public.”

Swallow’s Nest, 1989

Dots (Infinity Dots), 1990

Fernando Botero

Portrait of Nadine Haim, 1977

Portrait of Nadine Haim pays homage to the tradition of Kunstkammer paintings, which showcased an individual’s collection with replicas of the artworks they owned displayed together. In the present work, Botero has used printed images of his own paintings, collaging the cut-outs onto the canvas. These juxtaposed reproductions are not reflective of the scale of their original counterparts, should they be hung together, which imbues the work with a surreal quality. Botero took the print copies from contemporary literature and exhibition catalogues featuring his works, some of which were reproduced in print in monochrome. Yet, some of these figures were finalised after the addition of the collage elements, as the peak of a hat, or a lock of hair, skirts onto the reproduced image. For the artist, whose recognisably voluptuous figures have always attracted attention, volume and depth were of incessant significance, and he sought to ‘create a language of plasticity that would be effective and that people would be touched by’ (Botero, quoted in an interview with I. Sischy, ‘An Interview with Fernando Botero’, Artforum, May 1985, p. 72). In Portrait of Nadine Haim, the artist’s inventive use of media not only acts as modernising take on an art historical tradition, but furthers his exploration of plasticity in his work. A vivid three-dimensionality is created by the dialogue between the glossy sheen of the collaged reproductions, and the rich, curving brushstrokes of the oil paint.

The portrait, Nadine Haim, emerges from a serene, neutral background—her figure rendered with the tender monumentality that defines Botero’s oeuvre. Her composed expression and elegantly coiffed hair suggest an inner world of quiet confidence, while the meticulous detailing of her attire conveys a sense of timeless sophistication. The subtle interplay of light and shadow accentuates the rounded contours of her face and hands, lending the work an almost sculptural quality. Botero’s portrayal of Haim transcends mere likeness, inviting the viewer into a realm where beauty is redefined through the artist’s singular vision. The gentle exaggeration of form is not a caricature but rather a celebration of fullness, vitality, and the human condition. As with his finest portraits, the sitter’s gaze—calm, self-assured, and enigmatic—imbues the painting with an air of intimacy and quiet reverence. Executed during a period when Botero’s international reputation was firmly established, Portrait of Nadine Haim stands as a testament to the artist’s ability to fuse technical virtuosity with profound psychological insight. The inclusion of printed paper collage elements adds a unique dimension, reinforcing the painting’s significance within Botero’s body of work. The painting is not only a tribute to its subject but also an enduring reflection of Botero’s belief in the power of art to transform reality into a world of heightened grace and beauty.

Rene Magritte

Rêverie de Monsieur James, 1943

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 42,000,000 – 55,000,000
HKD 47,565,000 / USD 6,113,753

Rêverie de Monsieur James

RENÉ MAGRITTE (1898-1967)
Rêverie de Monsieur James, 1943
Oil on canvas
54.3 x 73.7 cm (21 3/8 x 29 inches)
Signed ‘Magritte’ (lower right)
Signed again, titled, dated and inscribed
‘”RÊVERIE DE MONSIEUR JAMES” MAGRITTE 1943 20P.’
(on the reverse)

In René Magritte’s Rêverie de Monsieur James, elegant hands bloom like arum lilies from a rose bush, each daintily holding a pink rose, before an idyllic backdrop of a seascape. In this unusual scene, plant metamorphoses into human, before growing back into flora. The seven hands are balletic, the stem of the roses delicately held between the thumb and index finger, though the roses emerge from various points of the hand, some through the palm, others through the forefinger, and others through the thumb. With their graceful positioning, and the naturalistic growth of the wrist from the green branches of the rose bush, the hands fan out beneath the rose petals like sepals.

The title of the present work Rêverie de Monsieur James is a reference to Edward James, the Surrealist poet and collector, who Magritte had first met in 1936. An English aristocrat, James was a pivotal influence on the Surrealist movement – a key patron of Salvador Dalí, Leonor Fini, and Leonora Carrington, as well as Magritte. James is perhaps best remembered for his ambitious and opulent renovation of Monkton House, a traditional English country house on his extensive West Dean estate in Sussex, which he transformed into an extraordinary Surrealist dreamscape. James’ pioneering approaches to interior design extended to his London townhouse, 35 Wimpole Street, too, and following James and Magritte’s initial meeting in Paris, the eccentric collector wrote to the artist in January 1937, inviting him to stay at his English residencies. Magritte arrived in London that spring, and during his sojourn he was commissioned by James to paint three works for the ballroom at Wimpole Street – Le modèle rouge (Sylvester, vol. II, no. 428; Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam), La jeunesse illustrée (Sylvester, vol. II, no. 429; Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam), and Auseuil de la liberté (Sylvester, vol. II, no. 430; The Art Institute of Chicago). These paintings were to be placed behind the two-way mirrors in the ballroom, so that it was only when the lights behind the looking-glasses were switched on that the paintings would be visible.

René Magritte, L’invitation au voyage, 1944. Private collection.

James was evidently pleased by this first commission from Magritte, and requested two more paintings, one a portrait of himself, before Magritte returned to Belgium. James was always eager to work creatively with the artists, sharing ideas or discussing concepts, and he and Magritte had done so during the artist’s February and March visit. In a letter to James from June 1937, Magritte wrote that he had made a preliminary study of a man ‘whose head is a light,’ and that since the final painting would belong to James, what did James think about his person being recognisable in it (Letter from Magritte to James, 27 June 1937). Magritte went on to outline the specific set up James must be photographed in, should he like the idea, and James subsequently arranged for the artist Man Ray to take the photographs. The finished composition, Le principe du plaisir (Sylvester, vol. II, no. 443; Private collection), depicts James’ torso and arms, seated behind a table, with a gleaming nimbus of light shining in the place of his head. It is clear from their letters that the artist and James must have discussed the concept and the composition, and this kind of creative collaboration between the two continued in Rêverie de Monsieur James.

René Magritte, Le principe du plaisir, 1937. Private collection. Photo: Bridgeman Images

“I painted this picture during the Occupation in memory of the happier times when I met you. You probably remember that it was you who suggested the subject of this picture?”

“I have found a new potential inherent in things, their ability to become gradually something else, and object merging into an object other than itself…. This seems to me to be something quite different from a composite object, since there is no break between the two substances, and no limit.”

Hans Bellmer, Mains de demimijaurees fleurissant des sillons de parterre, 1934, Private collection.

La clairvoyance, circa 1962

Rene Magritte, La recherche de l’absolu, circa 1963. Christie’s New York, 19 Nov 2024, lot 36A. Sold for USD 8,460,000.

Pablo Picasso

Le miroir, 1947