In an update to the Christie’s story posted last week, the first day of this auction went off with a bang like the Hindenberg. Breaking the bank for modern Chinese art was Cai Guo Qiang’s fourteen piece gunpowder and ink set, created for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, that went to an anonymous buyer Sunday for a whopping HK$74.2 million. According to Bloomberg, “the previous record for Chinese contemporary art was struck in April at Sotheby’s, when Xu Beihong’s Put Down Your Whip took HK$72 million.” The second highest sale Sunday went to deceased Taiwanese artist Chen Cheng-po’s “Sunset at Danshui,” an oil painting that fetched HK$45 million. So far, Christie’s has raked in over HK$400 million for the first day and a half of its 5-day sale.
With the auction going on until the 29th, it’s anyone’s guess as to what will happen next. Will Cai Guo-qiang be the new heavyweight in the art realm or will another contender take the title? What we do know is that the auction has put naysayers to shame as some analysts thought a turbulent market might tighten some wallets. This is apparently not the case as all but two pieces have aroused significant financial interest. Perhaps the artists behind these two works have caught, what they call in the music world, Spearsitis, a condition whereby an artist suffers from bloating and a failure to inspire, normally brought on by an unquenchable thirst for frapuccinos and attention.
Image: “Sunset at Danshui” by Chen Cheng-po
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