Asia Art Archive celebrates 20 years with live and online auction
Founded by Claire Hsu and Johnson Chang, the non-profit organisation is known for its star-studded auction, which this year will include both live and online events.
The money it raises from its annual auction and gala dinner is vital to its operations. This year’s banquet tables will be shrunk to reflect social-distancing limits of four seats but it is hoped that the star-studded auction will generate plenty of online bids from patrons who don’t make it to the October 30 live event.
There are about 30 artworks on offer, including works donated by some of Asia’s best-known artists.
Mt. Fuji of my heart speaks (2014) is a print donated by Yayoi Kusama. The polka-dot-obsessed Japanese artist experimented with traditional woodblock printing techniques after a visit to the iconic mountain. While the conical outline of Mount Fuji is instantly identifiable, the luminous composition of mainly primary colours is not a realistic representation, but a reflection of what the artist felt, as the title suggests.
Chinese artist Zhang Huan has created an “ash painting” as a birthday gift to the Asia Art Archive and the people of Hong Kong. Northward (2020), which features a seagull made from incense ash, seems to allude to the debate over the degree of autonomy that the city has as a Chinese “special administrative region”. According to the artist, the bird is a symbol of harmony and hope in traditional Chinese paintings, while the seagull has specific associations with the uniqueness of character and resourcefulness. Perhaps that’s why his seagull is flying east rather than north.