Six out of the ten top prices achieved for Richard Lin, the Taiwanese/British artist who died in 2011, have been achieved since May of this year including a sale for $1m in Taiwan. Seven of the top ten prices came this year which will gratify some of the collectors who have been stocking up on the artist’s work.
As the search for overlooked historical masters continues to pervade the art market, Bonhams has focused on Lin with a selling show of works from the artist’s estate. As you will learn from Bonhams release, below, the exhibition includes two works to be sold at the auction house’s November sale in Hong Kong:
The international auction house Bonhams is to mount the first European retrospective exhibition of the work of the renowned Taiwan-born minimalist artist, Richard Lin. The show – Richard Lin: Selected Works from the Artist’s Estate – will run from Tuesday 2 October to Friday 12 October at Bonhams London headquarters, 101 New Bond Street.
Bonhams Global Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Ralph Taylor said: “Richard Lin is now recognized as one of the leading artists of the 20th century. His reputation in Taiwan and elsewhere in East Asia has never been higher. Curiously, although he lived and worked in the UK for many years, he is less well known in Europe. This wonderful retrospective exhibition, assembled with the generous and enthusiastic help of Richard Lin’s estate, is intended to put that right.”
One of Richard Lin’s daughters, Katya, interviewed in the autumn edition of Bonhams Magazine said:” “My father often felt like a stranger almost everywhere: his works should not be ‘strangers’. They are not strangers to the Taiwanese nor in most parts of Asia now, but I imagine they are ‘strangers’ to many in the UK and Europe. I am therefore extremely excited that Bonhams have undertaken the exhibition – and that I am personally a part of it.”
Born in Taiwan in 1933, Richard Lin was schooled in Hong Kong and the UK before studying art in London. Graduating in 1958, he quickly made his mark with solo shows and represented Britain in the leading contemporary art show, Documenta III in Kassel in 1964. The emergence of his White Series during the 1960s established his unique style and redefined Chinese landscape painting.
Among the more than 20 works in the exhibition are White Ascending (1968-1969), Daffodils (1971), and Metal Relief (1961). There are also works from Lin’s time living and working in Wales in the 1970s which have never been seen in public before, including One, Two, Three (1970) and Talisin (1971).
Two pieces from the exhibition will be offered at Bonhams Modern and Contemporary Art Sale in Hong Kong on 26 November – Black Sun (1958-1960) estimated at HK$850,000-1.250,000 (£85,000-125,000) and Untitled (1961) estimated at HK$1,000,000-2,000,000 (£100,000-200,000).
