Style Edit: Sotheby’s maps 3,000 years of abstraction in landmark Hong Kong show
From ancient artefacts to Joan Mitchell and Mark Rothko, “Beyond the Abstract” is the most sweeping survey of abstract art ever shown in Greater China
Running until March 27, the exhibition brings together painting, sculpture, works on paper and historic objects that trace a dialogue across the centuries, from ancient artefacts to the titans of 20th‑century art.
It is billed as the most comprehensive survey of abstract art ever mounted in Greater China, and the roll-call of talent backs up that claim: Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly, Sanyu, Zao Wou‑Ki, Lucio Fontana and Alexander Calder are just some of the names on show.
At ground level, the space is anchored by a single, towering work: Mitchell’s La Grande Vallée VII, a 1983 diptych. Of the five diptychs and one triptych in the series – considered the American painter’s most personal – four now belong to institutions, making this canvas an exceptionally rare masterpiece to come to market. It headlines Sotheby’s Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction on March 29, with expectations at the time of writing in excess of HK$110 million.
Mitchell’s painting is flanked, conceptually and literally, by other heavyweights. These include Rothko’s No. 10 – painted in 1949 at a pivotal moment for American abstraction – which appears alongside Zao’s gestural Nuage and a newly discovered Sanyu, Beijing Circus. Also on show is Frank Stella’s monumental Sight Gag, Fontana’s record‑breaking Concetto Spaziale, La Fine di Dio, and works by Calder and Bridget Riley.
