Hong Kong garden
Sunflower power... Hockney grows ever more popular in Asia as his Van
Gogh-inspired still-life fetches nearly $15m. John Vincent reports.
If this painting makes you think of Vincent van Gogh then it’s hardly surprising. For the Dutch master’s Sunflowers (1888) had a major impact on British art, inspiring generations of British painters to create their own versions. None, though, made quite such an impression as that executed by David Hockney, whose passion for flower life began in 1995 after a visit to an exhibition dedicated to Dutch Baroque master Johannes Vermeer in The Hague. The Yorkshireman has painted myriad versions of this still-life theme but his most active period was in the mid-90s when he turned out 25 flower paintings and took to presenting them to friends who were ill.
His finest, 30 Sunflowers (1996), was due to have been offered at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong in early April but the global pandemic put paid to that. The virus and its worldwide economic implications appears to have done nothing to deter collectors of high-end art and the oil has now fetched even more than was expected in the spring: $14.8m (about £11.8m), the seventh highest price for Hockney, signalling new heights for Asia as a global platform for Contemporary art.
It is also indicative of the rate at which Hockney’s work has appreciated in the past decade; in 2011, 30 Sunflowers fetched a comparatively modest $2.5m at Phillips in New York. Half of the top prices for Hockneys have been achieved in the past five years and the flower still-life is a popular motif for Asian audiences, so it was a natural decision to sell the painting in Hong Kong.
Created at a pivotal moment in both the personal life and professional career of the artist, 30 Sunflowers, with its richness of colour and texture, is regarded as an update of the classic stilllife for the modern age, bearing striking reminiscence to van Gogh’s Sunflowers while permeated with a radical, personal approach. It also marks the epitome of his return to figurative painting after a decade primarily immersed in photography.
Sotheby’s Asia chairman, Patti Wong, said successful sales in Hong Kong demonstrated the resilience of an Asian market undeterred by travel bans during the pandemic. Nearly 40 countries participated via online or absentee bids.
It was not just art that sold well amid the challenges presented by physical boundaries being transcended by enhanced e-catalogues, live-streaming and social media. Wine, jewellery and watches exceeded expectations, with a six-litre Methuselah of Romanée Conti 1999 fetching a double estimate $272,000, a 5.04-carat fancy blue diamond ring $10.6m and a Rolex Platinum Zenith Daytona with lapis lazuli dial $3.3m, five times over estimate.