Picasso set to make a splash in Hong Kong

Picasso is set to make a splash in Hong Kong this autumn, with not one, but three sales in the city.  Two of the city’s top galleries and auctioneer Sotheby’s are hosting exhibitions of the Spanish artist’s work that will also offer fans the chance to buy pieces from across Picasso’s career.

Picasso’s ‘Jeune fille aux cheveux noirs (Dora Maar)’

Gallery owner Ben Brown says that while the market for Picassos in Asia is small right now, he is optimistic that it is set to grow. The Hong Kong branch of Mr. Brown’s eponymous London-based gallery will hold a Picasso sale and show from the middle of November to Chinese New Year.

“I’d be pleasantly surprised if I sold anything from my show to an Asian buyer, though it’s an opportunity to educate people about Picasso, to see his paintings in person,” said Mr. Brown. He plans to offer about 15 Picasso paintings for sale in Hong Kong, priced from US$2 million to US$15 million. They will mostly be works from the 1960s and 1970s.

“The type of people who can afford a Picasso, (many) of them come through Hong Kong at least once a year, so Hong Kong is a good catchment (area),” Mr. Brown said.

There are only a handful of serious collectors of Picasso paintings in Asia, primarily in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, according to art-market experts in the region. However, many dealers say they believe China in particular is emerging as an important market for a wide range of blue-chip Western art. Earlier this month, an Asian buyer paid 18.1 million Hong Kong dollars ($2.4 million) for “Le Modèle dans l’Atelier,” a 1965 Picasso, at Seoul Auction in Hong Kong.

Mr. Brown’s exhibition will follow closely on the heels of a Picasso event at Edouard Malingue’s new, 150-square-meter Rem Koolhaas-designed space in the heart of Hong Kong’s financial district. Since Sept. 27, the Malingue gallery has housed an all-Picasso show, which runs to Dec. 4. Works on display include a watercolor study for “Deux Femmes Nues” — the painting itself, created between 1906 and 1907, hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York — and a 1962 portrait of the last Mrs. Picasso, Jacqueline Roque.

Mr. Malingue, the eldest son of a top Parisian art dealer, was based in London before he relocated to Hong Kong last year to set up the Edouard Malingue Gallery.

Hong Kong’s run of Picasso-themed events is rounded out by Sotheby’s. The auction house has announced a late November exhibition and sale of works by Impressionist and Modern painters, ranging in price from US$2 million to US$25 million. The sale will include pieces by Renoir, Chagall, Degas and Monet, though seven works by Picasso are expected to steal the spotlight. The sale showcases works from across much of Picasso’s life, including his early Blue Period, Cubism from the 1920s, and his post-1960 Expressionist paintings. The star of the exhibition is “Jeune Fille aux Cheveux Noirs (Dora Maar),” a 1939 portrait of the artist’s lover, Dora Maar.

“The most exciting and active growth in collecting today is occurring in China and other countries in Asia,” said David Norman, co-chairman of Sotheby’s department of Impressionist and Modern Art. “We wanted to bring great works of art directly and exclusively to that audience.”

The sale takes place in Hong Kong between Nov. 26 and 28, and the exhibition will be previewed in Beijing from Oct. 22 to 25.