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Momentum continues unabated for Malaysian art auction scene

Posted: 04 Nov 2012 06:26 AM PST

The Malaysian art auction scene continues unabated. Will the momentum last?

EVEN before the first bid at the 4th Henry Butcher Art Auction Malaysia (HB4) in Kuala Lumpur last Sunday, word was out that a second event by another company, which had held its debut auction on Sept 30, is slated for next month.

This will make it an astonishing five auctions in Malaysia in a year! Many art followers are wondering if the still-fledgling and nascent market – if it could be called one – can sustain such profligacy.

Already, some form of collector fatigue seems to have set in. HB4 showed palpably "softer" and more sober prices which, however, from the buyers' perspective meant "better buys". Five works were not sold, five others sold below the low-estimate pegs and yet 15 others yielded less than 20% above the low estimates.

The biggest casualty was Datuk Hoessein Enas' Morning Mist IV, which limped to RM71,500 and was bought-in – a far cry from the RM198,000 paid for Morning Mist V at HB2 last year.

The others not sold were a work each by Ismail Hashim, J. Anu, Ramlan Abdullah and Raja Shahriman.

Overall, it was a chest-thumping success with HB4 registering a robust turnover of RM3,746,540 with a 94.6% success on the back of the 87 lots sold (out of 92 pieces). What's more, 14 new artist's records were set, including Latiff Mohidin's staggering premium of RM605,000 for his Samarkhand III.

Latiff, whose second Retrospective at the National Visual Arts Gallery in KL will start next month, also took the No. 2 top buy when his New Landscape fetched a premium of RM374,000. Datuk Ibrahim Hussein (Ib) was No. 3 and No. 5 with RM264,000 (Untitled; 2001) and RM170,000 (Untitled; 1973), respectively, with Datuk Chuah Thean Teng's Bathing Baby sandwiched in between. At RM176,000, it is the world-acknowledged batik art founder Teng's new personal best.

Chang Fee Ming's Awaiting, the only one of five left in the country, also set a new artist's record at RM143,000. There is his typical velvet lushness, variegated sarung patterns and signature figures lopped off at the top. This eclipsed his previous record of RM132,000 for Rezeki at HB2.

Singapore pioneer Chen Wen Hsi's (1906-1991) Gibbons Looking For Fish fetched RM126,500 for the artist's Malaysian record, but that is only a third of his record price back home.

At the Sept 30 Malaysian And Indonesian Modern And Contemporary Art Auction (MIMCAA1), another Singaporean pioneer, Cheong Soo-Pieng (1917-1983), also scored his Malaysian personal best of RM286,000. This auction set up by Datuk Gary Thanasan made a stunning debut of RM2.76mil in sales, with a 87% success rate.

For the first time since its 2010 inception, the Henry Butcher auctioneers decided to hold two auctions this year. They also initiated The Young Contempo Auction held on Sept 29 as part of the Art Expo Malaysia 2012, to raise funds for young artists. A total of RM208,410 was collected from the 26 works sold, with nine works unsold.

The HB art auctions have helped develop the secondary art market with price ranges for specific series and media by certain artists. They also ferret out significant museum-quality works at home and from abroad, enhance scholarship and documentation of works and artists, and create/expand art collection among serious individual and institutional buyers.

The rule of thumb is that the works should be unusual, hard to source and not easily available at the neighbourhood commercial art galleries, but the auction houses may stray and mystify on their selection process.

With so much economic uncertainty in the world today, art is also seen not only as a safe purchase but also an investment with potential for exponential returns. Other factors include the phenomenal rise of China as the No. 1 world art market (art sales estimated at US$12bil/RM36bil in 2011), and the global trend of art-ertainment such as art fairs/expos and festivals.

The advent of art auctions has seen a bigger role by the institutional buyers, especially for the big-ticket items and for those by the Big Two – Latiff and (the late) Ib with the score: Latiff 2 Ib 2. Previously, as in during the 1990s, museum buyers from Singapore, Japan and Australia mopped up important works by the emerging and younger set.

Ib and Latiff were always pitted against each other for the No. 1 honours. At HB1, Ib drew first blood when his vintage1969 work, The Dream, returned to Malaysian shores and ownership after 40 years, with a payout of RM500,500.

In 2011, another prodigal work returned from overseas – Latiff's Pago-Pago Forms, which soared to RM572,000.

At HB3 in May this year, Ib's Red, Orange And Core set the current Malaysian record of RM797,500.

HB1 raked in RM1,737,910 (51 out of 62 works sold), HB2 RM3,173,710 (98 out of 104 works sold), and HB3 RM4,007,300 (85 out of 86 works sold).

The stunner at HB3 was the 1,220% increase from the low estimates of two works by Malaysia's international-class artist-caricaturist-scholar Huang Yao (1917-1987). They were Reap What You Sow and Bridesmaid.

Malaysia's best-known abstract expressionist Yusof Ghani had a bad spell at HB1 when none of his works was sold. But at HB3, his Siri Tari VII sashayed to a RM93,500 premium.

Another sop was when an Anuar Rashid iconic work did not sell at HB2. But at HB4, he came back with a vengeance with a RM57,200 creaming for his 1979 Untitled.

Of the 12 HB4 debutantes at Sime Darby Convention Centre, the best performers were back-in-the-limelight batik artist Ismail Mat Hussin and the activist-artist Wong Hoy Cheong.

The Lamborghini Aventador by Argentinian artist Gustavo Charif sold for RM27,500. Proceeds from this piece will be used to purchase a collection of books on Latin American art, which will be donated to the library of the National Visual Arts Gallery.

Although MIMCAA was to open a new flank for Indonesian art, the first auction was a damper because of the lack of star quality and promotion.

While Ib's Fighting Cockerel was the top lot in MIMCAA1 with a RM418,000 premium, the biggest surprise was the debut of Yeoh Jin Leng with his 1984 Landscape, which had the audience in a frenzy as the bids raced up to the final gavel of RM154,000. The work is reminiscent of his 1966 Padi-Fields.

People will look to the MIMCAA2 on Dec 2 as a weather vane – will the sales be robust or will they head slightly south? Good or bad, the jury might still be out as December is a popular vacation season for the moneyed class.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Ahad, 4 November 2012