Japan’s godfather of art? Billionaire Maezawa rings in new era

Czech architect puts tree house on a pedestal

TOKYO, June 10, (Agencies): With a single post on Instagram, Yusaku Maezawa announced not only his purchase of an $110.5 million Basquiat masterpiece, and his place in auction history, but arguably signalled a new era for art in Japan.

The price, a record for the artist, is reminiscent of 1980s Japan when corporate big-spenders splashed out on Impressionist art — along with foreign property and businesses — in an asset-buying spree.

But billionaire Maezawa insists he is just an “ordinary collector” — despite his extraordinary bank balance. His purchases are born out of love and driven by gut instinct, rather than the instructions of any art advisor.

“I buy simply because they are beautiful. That’s all. I enjoy classics together with the history and stories behind them, but possessing classics is not the purpose of my purchase,” he told AFP.

Rather than squirrel away his latest purchase — Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 “Untitled”, a skull-like head in oil-stick, acrylic and spray paint on a giant canvas — he plans to loan it out to galleries worldwide.

“I hope it brings as much joy to others as it does to me, and that this masterpiece by the 21-year-old Basquiat inspires our future generations,” he said after the New York sale last month.

The 41-year-old’s style is a step change from the corporate image of Japan’s traditional art collectors who possess paintings as investment tools or to cement their social status.

Paper tycoon Ryoei Saito, who bought Vincent Van Gogh’s “Portrait of Dr Gachet” in 1990 for $82.5 million — a then record — and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s “Bal du Moulin de la Galette” for $78.1 million — famously triggered outrage when he said he would have the canvases put in his coffin and cremated with him when he died. He later recanted.

“Many Japanese rushed to buy paintings for investment during the bubble economy,” said Shinji Hasada, an official at Shinwa Art Auction, of the 1980s and 1990s boom period

Customs figures showed works of art valued at $246 million were imported in 1985, but the figure shot up to $3.4 billion in 1990.

But many of the bubble-era masterpieces were sold off in a fire sale when the Japanese economy collapsed. Today Japan’s art collection market has shrunk to around one-twentieth of its peak, Hasada explained.

And while collectors such as former chairman of publisher Benesse Soichiro Fukutake, who helped transform a remote island into an art haven, have bolstered interest, Hasada believes Maezawa could inject new life into the sector.

“In all eras of history, patrons have come out to boost the art world, and in that sense he is the modern one we have been waiting for,” Hasada said.

An aspiring rock star as a teen, he moved on to selling music merchandise via mail order and then online. In 1998 Maezawa founded Start Today, which operates the nation’s largest online fashion mall, ZOZOTOWN.

Today, he is 11th richest person in Japan with a fortune of $3.5 billion, according to business magazine Forbes.

His Instagram feed, where he proclaimed to the world that he was the one who purchased Basquiat’s painting, is peppered with shots of his luxury living — including private jets, yachts and designer watches, but also his beloved art. Many traditional collectors are more secretive — “Untitled” had previously not been seen in public for decades — but Maezawa wants to engage a new generation with his passion — some 73,000 people follow his posts.

PRAGUE:

Also:

Balancing on one narrow concrete leg on a slope in a Prague orchard stands

This undated handout picture provided on May 27, 2017 by the Contemporary Art Foundation shows 41-year-old tech billionaire Yusaku Maezawa at an undisclosed

location. (AFP)

a uniquely shaped grey house designed by Czech architect Jan Sepka for a eco-friendly friend.

The 80-square metre home, with a misshapen round base that tapers off as you get to the third storey, is an eye-catching sight among the conventional houses in the residential Kyje quarter in the north east of the Czech capital.

Building work on ‘The House in the Orchard’, made predominantly from wood and accessible by a metal bridge which also helps with the stability, finished last year after nearly five years of planning.

PITTSBURGH:

Pictures of young refuges from the war-torn countries of Syria and Iraq have been defaced by spray paint at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Arts Festival, though organizers believe the vandalism was random and not politically motivated.

Photographer Maranie Staab, of Pittsburgh, is in Iraq photographing the ongoing crisis there in Mosul. But she posted a picture of the defaced images, and a message for the vandal or vandals on Facebook: “If the person that did this happens to see this, I would welcome the opportunity to speak to you about these kids.”