PRESS RELEASE

Before Poly Auction¡¯s spring sale of 2012--Preface to Poly Bulletins

2012-04-24 11:51:05

After Sotheby Hongkong¡¯s spring sale, people may have had their opinions of the market of Chinese art in 2012. As the leader of the Chinese art market, Poly Auction will stress the quality of artworks; reduce the number of lots and present more high-end artworks to the collectors. To strengthen the confidence on the market, Poly Auction will both stabilize the price of the items in traditional categories of sale and introduce new categories with high potential. For the collectors, the spring of 2012 will be a good opportunity to enrich their collection.

Although some collectors might be cautious to sale this year, Poly Auction organizes artwork collection tour to visit sixteen countries; and after sincere communication, many precious artworks have been collected.
  In the sector of modern Chinese painting, the most important piece is ¡°Landscape in Red¡± by LI Keran. Mr. LI Keran painted seven paintings with this theme. In the year of 1999 and 2000, two of them were respectively sold at 4 million yuan and 5 million yuan, which successfully stimulated the art market after the financial crisis in Asia. With a size of 131¡Á84cm, the ¡°Landscape in Red¡± presented by Poly Auction is the largest and most delicate piece among this series and is predicted to become another legend of the market.
¡°Jingangshan Mountain¡±, which was painted by LI Keran in 1976 is also the largest piece among its series. This painting was a political task consigned to the artist, but the spiritual immensity reflected in its composition hints the great artistic value. The historical background turns this landscape painting of LI Keran into an epic. The two magnificent paintings of LI Keran presented by Poly Auction could be seen as the most important pieces on the market of modern Chinese painting in the spring of 2012.
¡°Du Fu¡¯s Composition of Poem¡±(208¡Á59.5cm) painted by FU Baoshi has been sold at high price twice on the auction market, which is a solid proof of its artistic and market value. I would like to emphasis the stamp of collector. Before, people do not know who ¡°the owner of Jingzhizhai¡± is, and that makes it difficult to trace the original provenance of this painting and its records of publication. In the year of 2011, Poly Auction¡¯s experts found overseas the collection of Mr. ZHANG Decui, the founder of agricultural economy in China, whose stamp of collection is ¡°the owner of Jingzhizhai¡±. ¡°Du Fu¡¯s Composition of Poem¡± was painted by FU Baoshi in September 1944, at Jingangpo of Chongqing. At that time, Mr. ZHANG Decui was the head of the department of agricultural economy in the Central University of Chongqing. ¡°The Album of Painting by Ancient and Modern Masters•the Collection of ZHANG Decui¡± published in 1979 also recorded this piece of FU Baoshi. The efforts that Poly Auction put into overseas artwork-collection tour bear the fruit of discovering the original provenance of this painting. It is really a pleasant surprise.
After QI Baoshi£¬PAN Tianshou is another summit of Chinese freehand ink painting and he is good at the painting eagle and rocks. WU Guanzhong called him ¡°the best Chinese painter who masters the large composition¡±. In the autumn of 2011, PAN Tianshou¡¯s ¡°The Landscape in Fine Weather¡± was sold at 47 million yuan and set a new record of sale for the painter. In the spring of 2012, Poly Auction will present PAN Tianshou¡¯s ¡°Eagle and Rock¡± (214¡Á48cm). Despite its big size, this painting is very delicately painted. The eagle and the rock are painted with fingers and palms. The painter skillfully transferred the difficulty of controlling the fingers¡¯ movement into a new form of expressing the spiritual pursuit in art and created a new summit of finger painting.
ZHANG Daqian¡¯s ¡°LI Jianfa Visiting Wang Anshi at Dinglin Temple¡± is the great discovery of Poly Auction¡¯s sixteen-country artwork collection tour in 2012. It is painted after LI Gonglin¡¯s ¡°Visiting Wang Anshi at Dinglin Temple¡± in the North Song Dynasty. The landscape in green represents ZHANG Daqian¡¯s spiritual pursuit in his 50s. The piece is painted on very rare material --- the silk made for the imperial palace in Qianlong period. ZHANG Daqian exhibited this painting in Taibei in 1949. Afterwards, this painting was given as a gift to Mr.Xia Sheng, an important economic officer in the government who kept this painting for half a century as testimony to their friendship.
The ancient Chinese paintings presented by Poly Auction are made both by the court painters and the literati painters.
¡°The Sunset at Leifeng Temple¡± by DONG Bangda once collected by the Qing imperial court is still in its original mounting. According to the ¡°Shi Qu Bao Ji¡± edited by Emperor Qianlong, ¡°The Sunset at Leifeng Temple¡± is a series of 10 pieces of the same size which paint the ten scenes of West Lake. The piece presented by Poly Auction in the spring of 2012 is the only one that available on the market, and the other 9 pieces are reserved in the Palace Museum in Taibei.
¡°The Album of Painting and Calligraphy by Emperor Qianlong¡± contains four folds of paintings and four folds of calligraphy. The calligraphy works are written by Emperor Qianlong after YAN Zhenqin, Cai Xiang, Su Shi, Mi Fu; the paintings present pine tree, bamboo, plum blossom and orchid, all of which are recorded in ¡°Shi Qu Bao Ji ¨C the 3rd Series¡±. As what recorded in the ¡°Archive of the Qing Imperial Palace Office¡±, this piece is painted by Emperor Qian Long himself. The simple composition of the paintings reflects Qian Long¡¯s pure attitude towards life despite his role as an emperor.
The paintings of literati presented by Poly Auction gather the four most famous painters in the Ming Dynasty, namely QIU Ying, TANG Bofu, SHEN Zhou, WEN Zhengming.
Modern and contemporary Chinese art also will present some important works and sales.
¡°Predictor¡± by CHEN Yifei is a piece made in early 1980s, which is rarely seen on the market. This painting and others painted in the same period of time, such as ¡°The Ode to the Yellow River¡± prove to the Western world of art that the Chinese people have the capability of create their own art works. ¡°Predictor¡± has been kept by a collector in North America for years. After cautious consideration, the collector consigns it to auction for the first time this year. Poly Auction is very honored to present this piece in the forthcoming spring sale.
This spring, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and The Poly Group of China co-hold the ¡°Itinerant Exhibition of Oil Paintings in Xinjiang¡±, which organizes painters of ¡°the School of Chinese Realistic Painting¡±  and painters in Xinjiang to paint more than 100 paintings. This itinerant exhibition goes to GUANG Zhou, SHANG Hai, Urumqi and Beijing. Some of the works exhibited will be presented in Poly Auction¡¯s spring sale of 2012.
In the spring of 2012, Poly Auction will present 2 night sales of antiques: ¡°Ming Dynasty•Researching the Ancient Time II¡± and Art of the Court in Ming and Qing Dynasty.
¡°Ming Dynasty•Researching the Ancient Time II¡±  is a continuation of the former sale in the autumn of 2011, which keeps on presenting the high-end antiques in Ming and Qing Dynasty. The Flowerpot in Light-Blue Glaze made by Jun Kiln in early Ming Dynasty is an excellent example of the flower pot made by Jun Kiln in early Ming Dynasty. The Jun-Kiln flower pot is usually in green-blue, purple-blue or purple-red and is very much liked by the Emperors in Ming and Qing Dynasty. This piece presented is in very rare large size and with a character ¡°FIVE¡± graved at its bottom. Its base made in blue-and-white jade also shows the luxury of the imperial decoration. It is used to be in the collection of ¡°Ship-King¡± Mr. ZHAO Congyan, sold in an auction overseas and finally collected by the XU Art Museum in Hongkong.
¡°Kettle Painted with Blue and White Flower Branches and with Inlaid Metal and metal in Ottoman Empire Style¡± is a combination of the art of the Ottoman Empire and the Ming Dynasty. The special part of this piece is that the Islamic technique of inlaid metal used makes one of the two pieces of this kind that exist in the world; and the other one is the piece TKS15/1410 collected in the Topkapi Palace in Turkey. According to the archive of the Topokapi Palace, this piece should be made by the craftsmen of the court of the Ottoman Empire in the late Sixteenth-Century. Because of the mixture of technique of Chinese porcelain and the Ottoman Empire¡¯s inlaid-metal, this piece is highly appreciated by the Islamic and European collectors.
  In the night sale of Art of the Court in Ming and Qing Dynasty, the imperial jade seals of Emperor Qianlong in Qing Dynasty ¡°White Jade Seals with Dragon with the Eight Disciplines for the Senior Age¡±. This set of seals is made for the 80th anniversary of Emperor Qianlong, including three pieces of seals: ¡°Eight Disciplines for the Senior Age¡±, ¡°Exert Oneself Constantly¡± and ¡°Five Blessings to the People¡±. The three seals are all in white jade which are of the same size and the same color, among which the seal ¡°Exert Oneself Constantly¡± was sold at 56.56 million RMB in the spring of 2011 in Poly Auction.
While assuring the high quality of the items presented in the sales of modern Chinese painting, ancient Chinese painting, contemporary Chinese art and antique, Poly Auction keeps on exploring new categories and strengthening the company¡¯s over-all competitive advantage.
In the spring of 2012, Poly Auction will present a sale of design, which provide the outstanding Chinese and international designers a stage to present their works. This will be an international stage where the collectors and find the works of Western designers, Asian designers and Domestic designers together; this will be an artistic stage where through the cooperation between the well-known designers and the Poly Auction¡¯s department of contemporary art, the works presented will be of very high artist value; and this will also be an open stage where the works of design will be on preview after delicate organization.
The sale of snuff boxes presented for the first time by the department of antique will include the snuff boxes made of metal, glass, porcelain, jade, bamboo etc. The most special pieces in this sale include ¡°Snuff Box Made of Bronze and with Figures painted in Enamel¡±, ¡°Snuff Box Made of Glass and with Flowers Painted in Enamel¡± and ¡°Snuff Box with Figures Made of White Jade in Su Area in Qing Dynasty¡±. The sale of Stamp, Coin and Bronze Mirror is the new category started in the autumn of 2011 with a sale of 80 million yuan. In the past half year, Poly Auction put more efforts in this field by recruiting experts and enhancing cooperation with other departments. In the spring of 2012, the sale of stamp, coin and bronze mirror will be renewed with items better adapted to the needs of the collectors to achieve efficiency and stability in its sale. And we are looking forward to receiving the support from the collectors.