This fall Sotheby’s New York will hold its fourth sale of Contemporary Art Asia: China Korea Japan on September 20th, 2007. The sale, which will include 275 lots, will primarily feature works by seminal Chinese contemporary artists, including mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas, such as Yue Minjun, Chen Yifei, Zhang Xiaogang, Ai Weiwei, Zeng Fanzhi, Liu Ye, Fang Lijun and Liu Dan, among many others, with a smaller offering of works from Japan and Korea. Property from the sale will be on exhibition beginning September 14th and is estimated to bring $19.2/27.7 million*. Xiaoming Zhang, Assistant Vice President and Specialist of Sotheby’s Chinese Contemporary Art department in New York, said: “We are pleased to stand alone in the field by continuing to offer works by contemporary Chinese, Korean and Japanese artists in dedicated sales on an international platform in New York. Within a maturing market we are seeing consistent demand for historically important works that demonstrate a deep understanding of these cultures and their pasts, and our sale in rich in such works by Zhang Xiaogang, Liu Dan, Chen Yifei, Fang Lijun and Ai Weiwei, among others.” Highlighting the September sale is a work by one of the leading artists in the Cyncial Realism movement, Yue Minjun, following the sale of his The Pope at Sotheby’s London earlier this year, which brought $4.2 million, a record for a Chinese contemporary artist at auction. Perhaps one of his most powerful paintings to date, Infanta (The Princess) from 1997 is a rare example of the artist’s nod to Western art history The painting, which incorporates the wide and abundant smile which typifies the artist’s work, finds inspiration in Diego Velazquez’ famed canvas Las Meninas from 1656, which depicts the Infanta Dona Margarita reluctantly posing for the artist. The work is estimated to sell for $1.8/2.5 million. One of Zhang Xiaogang’s earlier works from 1992, Chapter of a New Century - Birth of the People’s Republic of China, will also be a cornerstone of the sale (pictured here, est. $1.5/2.5 million). In this painting, the central image is that of a reddish baby reclining in a towel on top of a wooden chest, looking at the viewer with wide eyes and an open book before him. The baby is emblematic of a fledgling Red China in the Modern world, while the locked chest with its unknown contents may refer to both the problems and possibilities hidden away in the new government and its historical legacy. Also rounding out this section are works from his enigmatic Bloodline Series, including Bloodline Series: Comrade, 1995 (est. $400/600,000), and Bloodline Series: Girl, 1997 (est. $150/250,000). The works in this series attempt to find continuity not just in Chinese culture but in the vast embrace of Chinese people themselves. A number of works in the sale by Chen Yifei, who practices in the school of Realism, comprised of artists inspired by a humanism that owes much to Western Old Masters, will also be on offer. Highlighting this group is Chen Yifei’s The Cellist, 1983, estimated to sell for $800,000/1 million. The oil depicts the image of a strikingly attractive young musician dressed in black, who is portrayed drawing her bow across the muted, deep reddish brown of her instrument. Her face, arms and hands are brilliantly highlighted against the dark tones of the cello and the black of the background, and the portrait demonstrates Chen’s mastery of detail. Other works by the artist include Blue Water, 1985 (est. $150/250,000), Out of Darkness (Suzhou), 1986 (est. $150/250,000) and Shanghai Dream, 1998 (est. $250/350,000). Among the works offered in the September sale by Ai Weiwei is his grandiose Chandelier, 2002, reflecting the competitive drive among Beijing’s builders for ever greater opulence (pictured here, est. $400/600,000). At approximately eighteen feet tall, the chandelier, executed in crystal, light bulbs and metal, would suitably adorn the foyer of a grand office building or hotel. Divorced from such a location, however, and lowered to the level inhabited by the viewer, Chandelier overwhelms its viewers, exemplifying the urge toward competively conspicuous consumption that is common among China’s nouveaux riches.Zeng Fanzhi’s Mask Series No. 15, 1997, which depicts a solitary masked figure before the viewer, centrally positioned on the picture plane in a gray, close-cropped interior. The non-descript shallow environment is illuminated by a harsh spotlight from beyond the picture’s right edge. Caught as though in a daydream, the exposed figure nevertheless seems anxious, like a defensive action for which he is illprepared may soon be required. Other highlights from the sale include Cai Guo-Qiang’s Man, Eagle and Eye in the Sky: Eyes (six panels), 2003, the result of an eponymous large-scale collaborative project enacted in Siwa, Egypt (est. $500/700,000); Zhao Wuji’s 31.08.2001-09.09.2002, a dialogue between nature and abstraction (est. $350/450,000); Tang Zhigang’s Children in Meeting, 2000, from his whimsical series depicting official gatherings (est. $180/250,000); and Liu Ye’s Der Ausflug (Outing), 1992-93 (est. $200/300,000). A number of lots from Japan, including Yayoi Kusama’s Nets, 1997 (est. $40/60,000), and Korea, including Kim Whanki’s Pot, 1957 (est. $80/100,000), will also be featured. In 2006, Sotheby’s worldwide total for dedicated sales of Contemporary Asian Art was $70,331,730, establishing Sotheby’s as the global leader in this category. Sotheby’s regularly holds dedicated sales of Contemporary Asian Art twice each year in both New York and Hong Kong and also offers lots in evening and day sales of Contemporary Art in both New York and London. Sotheby’s began holding sales of Chinese Contemporary Art in Hong Kong in fall 2004 in response to a dramatic increase in client demand for such works, and sales volume and totals have grown steadily since then. In spring 2006, Sotheby’s was the first to hold dedicated auctions of Contemporary Asian Art in New York in a watershed sale that broke at least 20 artist records.