The Malaysian and Indonesian Modern Contemporary Art Auction 2012 organized by KL Lifestyle Art Space took place recently at the Nusantara Ballroom in Sheraton Imperial hotel. After a short time of mingling and such, the auction got off to a good start with 118 pieces of artwork going under the hammer.
Datuk Gary Thanasan, the director of KL Lifestyle Art Space said that he was anxious of the first auction event undertaken by the gallery and particularly with the overwhelming number of attendees. WTW Auctioneers handled the event where among the notable sales of the day included Ibrahim Hussein’s ‘Untitled’ painting which was sold at RM73,000. Yusof Ghani’s ‘Jeram Besut’ painting from 2000 was auctioned off for RM36,000. The ‘Kenyan Orchestra’ painting by Cheong Soo Pieng set a new record when it was sold at RM260,000 while Yeoh Jin Leng’s work fetched RM140,000 which started at RM50,000.
Meanwhile, Datuk Mohd Hoessein Enas’ 1966 ‘Portrait of Bashir’ went under the hammer at RM17,000 and Chia Yu Chian’s 1962 painting entitled ‘Paris’ was sold for a thousand lesser. Most of the artwork lived up to its expected sales figure although some totally breached them with one work by Dzulkifly Buyong remained unsold. In the end, the show proved to be quite a showcase of the diverse art scene of Malaysia with sales reaching 86%, 6 more than the intended target and totally to RM2,739,550 including premiums.
From the Indonesian artists, Srihadi Soedarsono’s Oleg Tambulilingan – The Energy of Love and Care, which was produced this year was not sold off at the auction day but someone wrapped it up the next day while Baseoki Abdullah’s painting went for RM22,000.
