Chinese-French painter Zao Wou-Ki's artwork Juin-Octobre 1985 (Photo: China News Service/Zhang Wei)
Chinese-French painter Zao Wou-Ki's artwork Juin-Octobre 1985 was sold at 510,371,000 HK dollars (about 65,245,829 U.S. dollars) at Sotheby's Modern Art Evening Sale in Hong Kong on Sunday, establishing a world auction record for an oil painting by an Asian artist.
Previous record for an Asian oil painting was set by master artist Wu Guanzhong's The Zhou Village, which achieved 236 million HK dollars (about 30.4 million U.S. dollars) in 2016.
The auction record set by Juin-Octobre 1985 on Sunday evening doubled Zao's previous record of 203 million HK dollars (about 26 million U.S. dollars). Besides, with this result, the work has become the most valuable painting sold by any auction house in Hong Kong.
Measuring 10 meters long and 2.8 meters in height, Juin-Octobre 1985, the largest work by Zao, was commissioned by internationally renowned architect I.M. Pei for the Raffles City in Singapore. It was unveiled to the world in October 1985.
The monumental and exceedingly rare triptych represents the stylistic hallmark of Zao's "Infinite Period," exemplified by an open composition symbolizing the artist's liberated transcendence of mind and self.
Bringing together the East and the West in his work, Zao was influenced by Zhang Daqian, the great master of Chinese ink painting, and Claude Monet, particularly by the French artist's waterlily paintings.(1 U.S. dollar = 7.82 HK dollar)
