Sothebys Adjusts to the Market place Amid COVID19 - Spring 2020
HONG KONG.- Sotheby’s announced the launch of In Confidence: Selected Masterpieces, an innovative hybrid sale format that combines the advantages of a private sale with those of an auction. Under this novel sale approach, bids are placed exclusively by submitting written absentee bids. Bidders will be notified if they have been outbid and will have a final chance to submit a best and final offer by the pre-set deadline, at which point the winning bidder will be established. All bidding information and results will remain confidential. The bidding process will be monitored by an independent auditor. To be held from 15 - 23 May 2020, In Confidence: Selected Masterpieces presents a carefully curated assemblage of masterworks spanning a breadth of categories from Chinese Works of Art and Paintings to Modern and Contemporary Art, Jewellery and Whisky. Highlights include a céladon carved 'dragon' meiping from the Qianlong period, a triptych from 1980 by Zao Wou-Ki, a captivating example of Yayoi Kusama’s early New York period Infinity Nets, a splashed-ink-and-colour landscape on gold paper by Zhang Daqian, a Burmese jadeite bead necklace, as well as a cask of 1973 vintage whisky offered directly from the Dalmore distillery. A total of 13 lots estimated in excess of HK$350 million will be offered, with lot value ranging from HK$5 to 70 million. Nicolas Chow, Chairman, Sotheby’s Asia, International Head and Chairman, Chinese Works of Art, comments: “The art world has changed dramatically over the last few months. As collectors continue to look for opportunities to buy and sell great art, Sotheby’s has swiftly adapted and evolved the ways in which we serve our clients. The brand-new sale format of In Confidence brings together the discretion of a private sale and excitement of an auction in the most effective way, meeting the needs of top-level sellers and buyers under the current climate.” HOW TO BID UNDER THIS NEW SALE FORMAT? 1. 15 May: E-catalogue goes live. 2. 15 May – 23 May: Open for absentee bidding. Bidders who place bids between 15 to 22 May will be notified if they have been outbid and will have a final chance to submit a best and final offer by the preset deadline. Bidders who place bids during the final 24 hours of the auction will not be notified if they have been outbid. 3. 23 May (6pm Hong Kong Time): Auction closes. At this time the highest bid on each lot will be established and the winning bidder will be invoiced at one increment above the next highest bid or the reserve if there are no other bids. A buyer’s premium will be added to successful bid price. https://artdaily.cc/news/123564/Sotheby-s-launches-innovative-new-sale-format-----In-Confidence--Selected-Masterpieces-#.XtP_A6hKhsA ####
2. Editor’s Note: The inclusion of the Clyman Fang head in the Centemporary art sale is far more than a nod to Clyman ecclectoc tatste. It is another effort among many of Sothebys cross marketing to their modern and contemporary art collectors. The very top end of the tribal market brings sales that are in comparison almost inconsequential when compared to modern and contemporary works. Sothebys calls that an opportunity.
NEW YORK, 27 May 2020 – Sotheby’s is thrilled to announce that we will offer The Clyman Fang Head – one of the most important works of African Art ever to appear at auction – in our Contemporary Art Evening Auction to be held in New York the week of 29 June. On offer from the The Collection of Sidney and Bernice Clyman with an estimate of $2.5/4 million, the reliquary statue will be the first work of classical African Art to be presented in any contemporary art evening sale.
During our marquee sale week this June, Sotheby’s will also present African Art from the Collection of Sidney and Bernice Clyman in a dedicated auction and a selection of fine art from the collection will be offered across our Contemporary, Impressionist & Modern and American art sales.
Clients and visitors can expect extra precautions to ensure the safety of our employees and visitors, as well as creative opportunities for those wishing to preview our exhibitions and participate in our auctions – from in-person and virtual appointment viewings to enhanced digital experiences. We will announce a more a detailed schedule in due course, including relevant exhibition plans.
“The Clyman Fang Head is a legendary and iconic work of art, and we are privileged to showcase a work of its quality and provenance on one the biggest stages in the art world at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale. It is unprecedented to present a work of classical African Art in a contemporary art auction, and our decision to do so celebrates the Clyman’s visionary taste and foresight in pairing African Art with modernist and abstract 20th century art, and highlights the natural aesthetic affinities between these works. The Clyman Fang stands out as an indisputable masterpiece of the Clyman’s collection, and we are excited to share it in a new setting this June."
ALEXANDER GROGAN, VICE PRESIDENT AND HEAD OF SOTHEBY’S AFRICAN & OCEANIC ART DEPARTMENT IN NEW YORK
“We are excited to present the exquisite Clyman Fang Head to a new audience of collectors for the first time in our Contemporary Art Evening auction. Beyond its renown as a legendary icon of classical African Art, what struck me about this singular sculpture when I first saw it in the Clyman home alongside their collection of Post-war art was how its form appeared so radical and purely modern. It is a privilege to position the Fang Head in dialogue with groundbreaking 20th Century artists who were deeply influenced by African art such as Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. As one of the finest examples of its kind, the Clyman Fang Head transcends categories. Offering this work in our Contemporary Art Evening Auction is a testament to the sculpture’s enduring aesthetic relevancy and represents a shift not only in how we showcase masterworks at Sotheby’s, but how collectors look across traditional boundaries to seek the very best of modern visual expression.”
DAVID GALPERIN, HEAD OF SOTHEBY’S EVENING AUCTION OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN NEW YORK
SIDNEY & BERNICE CLYMAN
“African art is not realism and not completely abstract. Rather, it combines both in a new form of art that inspired and excited the modern masters in the beginning of the [20th] century and which was incorporated in their masterpieces. When African sculpture and the work of expressionism, cubism and abstraction are placed side by side, they "work" together and "belong". This is what we find so exciting. The unique imagination of these self-trained craftsmen in their work for mystical, religious and other purposes was a far cry from the conventional art we all knew. Even though years have passed, the thrill of seeing and holding these wooden sculptures has not passed.” *
- Sidney & Bernice Clyman
The Clymans began their long collecting adventure as clients of the renowned dealer Gaston De Havenon in the early 1970s when the market for collecting African Art emerged in America. In over half a century of collecting, the couple assembled a small but superb group of masterpiece-caliber examples of the major sculptural styles of sub-Saharan Africa. Through the influence of visionary gallerist Allan Stone and the pioneering African-American dealer, Jazz musician and painter Merton D. Simpson, the Clymans also began collecting abstract 20th century art. These dealers and the artists they represented opened an exciting universal world of artworks, and this concept found a fertile and harmonious place in the Clymans’ Scarsdale home in a dialogue between African art and 20th century artists such as Wayne Thiebaud, Willem De Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Jean Dubuffet, Franz Kline and Nicolas de Staël.
THE CONTEMPORARY ART EVENING AUCTION
https://www.sothebys.com/en/press/sothebys-to-present-the-clyman-fang-head
