Our Featured Items for April 2018

Dear readers,

Please feel free to drop by our shop and check out our featured items for the month if you happen to be in the neighbourhood.

Venue: Naik Antiques and Oriental Gifts

Address: 111M, Jln SS21/37, Damansara Utama, PJ

May Naik

What does the future hold for art galleries as artists can now leverage on social media to reach and engage directly with potential customers? More importantly, will auction houses meet the same fate as these art galleries?

Creating art, once regarded as an economically challenging profession, is now a sustainable career choice thanks to social media, according to Malaysian artist Red Hong Yi.

Budding and professional artists can now represent, market and brand themselves on Facebook, Instagram and Alphabet's YouTube instead of relying on agents and physical gallery spaces, Hong told CNBC on the sidelines of Credit Suisse's annual Asian Investment Conference.

In recent years, Hong has gained fame for creating portraits of well-known personalities such as Yao Ming and Jackie Chan using everyday objects — think teabags, food and chopsticks.

In the past, artists fought for exhibition space and profits as galleries typically kept 50 percent of sales from a purchase, she said. It was "a lot more difficult" to survive on art back then, she continued.

Now, artists can reach broader audiences and engage with potential customers directly on social media channels, she said, pointing to famous artists Takashi Murakami and Damien Hirst as examples.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/21/red-hong-yi-how-social-media-is-disrupting-art.html

Record Breaker? Rare Chinese Gold-Pink Kangxi Bowl Comes to Auction at Sotheby’s Hong Kong by Laura Chesters

The puce-enamel falangcai bowl carries an estimate of HK$200m (£18.5m). It has a Kangxi (1662-1722) yuzhi four-character mark and is of the period. ‘Yuzhi' marks, which translate as 'made for the Imperial use of...', suggest a close relationship with the Imperial court and it is believed to have been made for the personal use of the Kangxi emperor. 

The 5.75in (14.5cm) diameter enamelled bowl once belonged to the collector Henry M Knight and can be traced back to Shanghai in 1930.

Sotheby’s experts have described it as the finest example of its type and the only ever recorded with this specific design. A closely related example, in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, is painted with different flowers with the exact same colour background. It is believed the two were painted and fired side by side at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen. The bowls are likely to have then been painted in the Imperial Palace workshops in the Forbidden City in Beijing, possibly by Jesuits resident at the court of the Kangxi emperor, and fired a second time.

To achieve a new record for Chinese ceramics, the bowl would have to better the HK$260m (£24.9m) bid for a Ru guanyao brush washer that sold at Sotheby'sin October.

The auction of the bowl is part of a series of six sales totalling 300 lots with a total estimate of nearly £68m.

Nicolas Chow, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, said: “The gold-pink falangcai bowl ranks without question among the very finest imperially enamelled porcelains made for the Kangxi emperor. There is extraordinary quality and breadth in our offerings of Chinese art this season.”

Sotheby’s is offering the bowl at its Hong Kong Chinese Works of Art Spring Sale on April 3 at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

https://www.antiquestradegazette.com/news/2018/record-breaker-rare-chinese-gold-pink-kangxi-bowl-comes-to-auction-at-sotheby-s-hong-kong/

Documentary on Underglazed Five-Coloured Porcelain

Dear readers,

I recently came across this educational and enlightening documentary on underglazed five-coloured porcelain (in the link below). While it's in Mandarin, they do have English subtitles. 

Enjoy!  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdFBdZxrx_Q&feature=youtu.be

Gallery Talk: Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

Dear readers,

Thought you might enjoy the short video (in link below) highlighting some of the items being auctioned off by Christies in 2012. These items once belonged to a few distinguished American collectors. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEB2IYnhrqk

I'd also like to take this opportunity to wish all my Chinese readers  Gong Xi Fa Cai! May the year of the dog bring more joy, laughter, happiness, prosperity and health to us all! 

Regards

May Naik

Featured Items for Feb 2018 and Website Updates

Dear readers,

Below are our featured items for Feb 2018. Please feel free to drop by if you happen to be in or around the neighbourhood.

Venue: Naik Antiques and Oriental Gifts
Address: 111M, Jln SS21/37, Damansara Utama, 47400 PJ.

By the way, I'm delighted to announce that we have revamped our website to make it more user-friendly for all our online visitors....be it local or international! Please feel free to visit www.emperorsantique.com to find out more.

For further inquiries, please feel free to contact me at 018 3867939.

Thanks!

May Naik

Chinese Investors are Radically Changing the Art World — Here's What They're Buying by Hui Leng Tan

China lost heaps of artwork in the last century due to historical turmoil, 

but now that the country is an economic power, the rich are buying back some 

of their heritage.

Ancient porcelain and old ink paintings are all fair game with major 20th Century 

Chinese ink painters Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong and Zhang Daqian drawing the big 

bucks.

On Dec. 18, a collection of 12 landscapes by Qi sold for 931 million Chinese yuan 

($171 million) at a Beijing auction, setting a record for Chinese artwork sold at an 

auction worldwide, China Daily reported.

Last year, Zhang generated $31 million more in auction sales last year than 

abstract genius Pablo Picasso, according to French database Artprice, making 

the Chinese artist the top in auction turnover.

According to a report from art website Artnet and the China Association of 

Auctioneers, the market for Chinese art and antiques is moving toward Asia, 

with major auction houses shifting inventory to Hong Kong. In the category, 

78 percent of the work was sold in Asia last year — up from 66 percent in 2011.

Art dealers tell CNBC that many of the transactions take place outside of the 

mainland and are increasingly stored overseas so as not to incur taxes and issues 

with Chinese customs.

The full article is available at the link below:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/27/chinese-investors-are-radically-changing-the-art-world--heres-what-theyre-buying.html