PRESS PAGE

RELEASE: MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART - Celebrating 50 years of Singapore's independence

PRESS RELEASE | SINGAPORE | 12 January 2015

SINGAPORE - Larasati Auctioneers kick off 2015 with a compact, specially designed museum like collection to celebrate Singapore's 50^th Anniversary.

Held at the Goodwood Park Hotel on Scotts Road on 24 January 2015, the "Modern & Contemporary Art" fine art auction offers no more than 50 lots of remarkable Southeast Asian works, arguably the best in their divisions.

Among the sale highlights are Adrien Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres's "Women in the Garden", Affandi's "Proas and Sun", Jerry Elizalde Navarro's "Sarong from Solo", Ida Bagus Made Poleng's "Bali Life", Arie Smit's "Temple in a Village" and I Nyoman Masriadi's "Ice Cream and Energy Drink".

ILLUSTRATION

Indo-European artist Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres has been a central influence on the visual myth of the Balinese female as artistic muse within 20th century Asian art. His rich luminously tinted canvases of beautiful maidens within lush tropical landscapes inspire a sense of Bali as the Polynesia of the East; Le Mayeur's island paradise to Gauguin's Tahiti. Set within his worn picturesque garden in Sanur, Women on the Garden is an outstanding example of his semi-impressionistic style infused with tropical sensuality, depicting the grace and languor of young temple dancers moving in a climate of warmth and charm. This work is certainly a crème de la crème of the collection.	Adrien Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres (1880-1958), Women in the Garden, oil on canvas, 55 x 65 cm Estimate: S$ 500,000 – 700,000
The other main highlights is Affandi's Proas and Sun. This work exemplifies Affandi's power to create a story from his encounter with people or scenery that he met everyday and painted them with fervent brush stroke, inundating his subjects with such emotion that every work screams out the personality of the artist.	Affandi (1907 – 1990), Proas and Sun (1964), oil on canvas, 100 x 129.5 cm Estimate: S$ 80,000 – 110,000
Navarro's Sarong from Solo is one of his most sophisticated works that the artist developed in Indonesia, picturing a female nude lying beside a sarong made of batik cloth on her back. As with most of Navarro's works, this painting seamlessly portrays sensuous beauty of an Indonesian lady with the beauty of a traditional batik motif from Solo composed brilliantly by the artist with varying colours to capture the dramatic setting of the subject matter.	J. Elizalde Navarro (1924 – 1999) The Sarong from Solo (1990) acrylic on canvas 90 x 90 cm Estimate: S$ 13,000 – 15,000
Ida Bagus Made Poleng (1915-1999), Bali Life, acrylic on canvas, 89.7 x 142.3 cm Estimate: S$ 75,000 – 95,000 Poleng was a member of Pitamaha, a group of artists established by Rudolf Bonnet and friends in Bali in the early 1930s in Bali. Some of his works featured figures based on diagrams of Balinese magic. Under the influence of Rudolf Bonnet (Dutch, 1895 - 1978), he focused instead on scenes of daily life with more naturalistic looking figures and foliage in softer colors. Awards: Wija Kusuma (Gianyar, Bali), Dharma Kusuma (Bali, 1980). Collections: Taman Budaya (Denpasar, Bali), Tropenmuseum (Amsterdam, Holland), Rijkmuseum voor Volkendkunde (Leiden, Holland). Exhibition: Museum Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia, 1995. It is well known that many of Ida Bagus Made's best works were left unsigned purposely by the artist so that no collectors would buy them. The present lot is one of them. It remained in the artist's personal collection until he passed away in 1999. After his death, Ida Bagus Made left a WILL stating all paintings (well over 100 works) that he had kept to himself through out his life shall be put under the care of the Puri Museum in Ubud. The present lot, a truly exceptional piece by the artist, was among them.
I Nyoman Masriadi (b. 1973) Ice Cream and Energy Drink 2005 acrylic on canvas 200 x 100 cm Estimate: S$ 170,000 – 220,000 Painted in 2005, "Ice Cream and Energy Drink" is exemplary of the signature wit, smart, charm and uniqueness found in almost all Masriadi's best work.
Born in Zaandam, Holland, in 1916, Arie Smit's love and great admiration for tropical places has brought him far away from his homeland to Bali where he has now lived since 1956. Bali provides perfect setting for his artistic creation. It is Bali with its extraordinary landscape and exotic culture, that Arie found what was always missing in his home country: light. His works from the 1960s up to the present testify to his never-ending passion and obsession with light and colours. Thus this depiction of various outdoor scenes is a result of his continuous search in capturing and reflecting all kinds of colours on to his canvases.
Characterized by the strong, bold lines, and expressionist tones, the work is spontaneous in nature and subjective in the choice of colours. It is in his concern in creating the overall mood of the scene that details are diminished, objects are simplified, and figures are scaled down. Through his work, Arie shares with us his artistic vision and feelings.	Arie Smit (b. 1916), Temple in a Village (2000), acrylic on canvas, 59 x 67 cm Estimate: S$ 23,000 – 28,000

About Larasati Auctioneers

Since Larasati's first auction held on 30 April 2000 in Jakarta, Indonesia, the regional auction house's reputation has grown rapidly for auctioning rare and emerging Indonesian as well as other Asian works at record prices. In 2003, Larasati marked a milestone in its pursuit to become a major player in the Asian market, with its entry into Singapore and becoming the first Asian-based auction house that crossed national borders.

In 2009, Larasati became the first auction house from Southeast Asia to enter Hong Kong, the third largest auction market in the world. In view of growth opportunities and successful operations over the last 10 years, Larasati is expanding and One East Larasati is now the new umbrella for its auction business in Hong Kong and beyond.

Currently, One East Larasati manages its auctions in four different countries: Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Netherlands.

In line with LARASATI's aim to feature significant works of Indonesian and other Asian fine art, the Larasati's boutique collection of January 2013 will reflect the evolution and recent development of traditional, modern and contemporary paintings and therefore the auction will not only become a matter of buying and selling art, but also enhance the appreciation of art in the region.

Contact: +65-6737 2130, or email to: c.e.metanfanuan@larasati.com