03 December 2023 

For this year-end post, I would like to recap a very exciting 2023 with unbelievable beta for EKCART Asia across all collections. Our flagship JUANITA’S acquisition closed in May with final purchases at Bonham’s bringing the total works to 38. The book is in production under the creative direction of Ornan Rotem of Sylph Editions in London. We hired a stellar scholar, Melissa Walt who is writing a book on Zao Wou-Ki, to write the book’s essay. Our estimated time of delivery for the book as of this writing is Q1 2024. 

All our Juanita artists have global museum representation and some have had shows and Biennales (the Venice ones, not the Dhaka or Kathmandu ones…) all over the world. But the best news to date came this week when the MET NY (Metropolitan Museum) announced that one of our female Taiwanese artists, Tong Yang Tze, will have her work gracing its Great Hall. Previously, she has had a large running script banner hanging in M+ Hong Kong’s Great Hall. The MET mentioned this. 

The second Frieze Seoul in September was my “new art fair” of the year. I vow to go to a new one every year just to expand my knowledge and eye and get ideas to diversify our portfolio. As it is, I am working on a Korean collection with a local dealer. Apparently classical Korean art is very undervalued and there are “certain” new names to watch. Watch this space for our next concept collection. 

At Frieze Seoul, I also finalised details for our latest collection, PASTEL PASSIONS (19c to the present) with London works on paper (WOP) and drawings dealer Stephen Ongpin Fine Arts (SOFA) who is one of the best in the world. SOFA is a regular participant in only the best fairs — TEFAF Maastricht and Frieze Masters in London and Seoul. I met Stephen originally because we both shared an interest in 18c French drawings. It took a couple of years, a few art fairs and meetings to decide on assembling a collection that foresees pastels as a future trend and the opportunity to acquire rare works in excellent condition. 

Last week we opened the pastel acquisitions with a Gustave Popelin (1859-1937) “Portrait of a Young Woman in Three-Quarter View” and “Untitled/Cabbages” (1963/64) by Sam Szafran (1934-2019) who is still relatively unknown but had a show at Paris’ L’Orangerie from September 2022- January 2023 attended by 330,000 people. 

CN Liew, our Malaysian HAPPY HEDGE (LGBTQ) artist with Kelvin Yang of Galerie du Monde in Hong Kong designed a glamorous two-tiered mooncake box for Four Seasons Kuala Lumpur using a work from our Fire series. Our work was also used for an ASEAN political meeting in Kuala Lumpur. 

At Frieze London in November, Hettie Reatchlous of ARTUNTAMED, our millennial dealer for TKE Residency and I picked up another Studio Lenca work called “Back of the Bus” which is not Jose Campos’ usual large portrait but is a meaningful work for him because as an immigrant he travelled “at the back of a bus” with his mother. 

Hettie and I visited Jose at the TKE residency in Margate where he kept us up with his news. He is the chosen designer in perpetuity for the Latin American Fashion Awards trophy. One of his large works has gone to PAMM (Perez Art Museum Miami). This month, one of his smaller works (100×100 cm) hammered at Philips for 11,254 GBP. We bought ours, which are much bigger for 10,000 and 10,800 GBP. 

Later this month, I am also sending out a proposal to collectors for a  Classical Chinese Scholar’s Table collection  called TABLE FOR ONE which I am creating with Nader Rasti of RASTI FINE ART in Hong Kong, London and Beijing. Like Juanita, it will have a scholarly book to accompany the collection. This is called Table for One because the Chinese “Renaissance Man” or gentleman scholar  文人wenren sits alone among luxurious and intellectual accrouements in the privacy his study. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN to all EKCART ASIA collectors who believe in this project. I would also like to welcome our new collectors into this amazing world of education and expression where pictures can be seen in two ways — for current pleasure and future profit. 

 

 Since 1950, on average, art has outperformed other asset classes at 8.4 pc per annum compounded.  Damien Leslie, senior lending portfolio manager, Sotheby’s London

I came away from March’s stellar (as always) TEFAF Maastricht not just with three new works for the Juanita Collection but with a ton of new ideas about old things (hint -hint) that I will present later this year after a little more research. 

This note is long overdue and I would like to take advantage of these volatile times to discuss the  role of art as an asset class (not just as an investment but of stored of value) and the opportunities in the USD 1-5m market since collectively, EKCART ASIA trades at that level and there MAY BE potential among the individual works we own as I will explain below. This sector of the market is the one most covered by the media but is also widely misunderstood.

ArtTactic and Sotheby’s Insight Report — the first of its kind —-Peak Performance: The Art Market Beyond USD 1 million 2018-2022 says that works at this price point comprise 74pc of the value of the total declared art market but make up only 4pc of the lots. This is USD 33B out of USD42B over the five year survey of the three major auction houses— Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips. In these five years, the sector has grown 9.5pc from USD 7.44B in 2018 to USD 8.15B in 2022. (The total global market value of the art market in 2022 was USD65B).

What is the importance of the USD 1-5m art market to EKCART ASIA and the broader art market? 

ArtTactic founder Anders Petterson said in a panel discussion with Sotheby’s, “The one million market represents the intersection of art and finance for thinking of art as an asset class.” The upper end of the art market has also shown great resilience in the face of financial downturns as Dr David Bellingham, an art historian and the programme director of the MA in art business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, mentions in his report summary. I have used facts from Dr Bellingham’s report throughout this note. 

The panel discussion in London brought up further advantages of this sector. 

First — It has shown to have the highest resilience and liquidity over the five years of this survey.

Second – Especially among new collectors, there is not only demand for works of art across all categories but also the desire for public affirmation thus the competition at auction to “show off trophies.” (The USD 20-50m market has stronger private sales) .

Third- New collectors are coming straight into this price point without going thru the “traditional initiation of collecting” by starting with works on paper (WOP), drawings, prints or other less expensive categories —- going from emblematic to better to best. It is not unusual for a first time buyer to start a collection with multi/million dollar work/s.This may not be just about wealth but more-so confidence developed from readily available information from the internet, exhibitions, x-branding with fashion and media, more inclusive engagement with dealers and auction houses. 

At this level, there is a thin line between collecting art as a vehicle of diversification of a financial portfolio and love for the pieces themselves. 

There are three trends in the over one million market that EKCART ASIA could be in a position to take advantage of. 

This market has become symptomatic of geographical shifts in global wealth, as well as changing demographics but there are three interesting trends in this market that I want to emphasize that may have great positive effects on EKCART ASIA. 

With the transfer of wealth by baby boomers, there have been seminal single owner sales in the last few years — Macklowe – Ann Bass – Ann Getty – Paul Allen – Mo Ostin -David M Solinger – Wolf and even our dealer Michael Goedhuis with Bonham’s in mid May. 

“Collections are going to be a big theme in the market because there is an increasing fascination on how collections are framed — to learn, to inspire, that make connections (collectors) never thought of, “ said Brooke Lampley, chairman and global head of sales at Sotheby’s. 

But “single owner” need not be a person. It could be an actively managed and beautifully presented collection like JUANITA. Or our benchmarks, Estella (2008) and Origo (2016). Today’s market is more sophisticated and open minded that art is not seen as so precious and venerated that it should only be in museums or homes of the wealthy. Or sold only upon death. 

The growth and popularity of the young contemporary market (artists born after 1977) has seen names like Lisa Brice, Fiona Yukhnovic, Nicolas Party, Shara Hughes, Caroline Walker sell for as low as 20,000 dollars in the primary market five years ago then sell at auction for close to or a little over a million dollars in the last few years. This is  good news for our HAPPY HEDGE LGBT (Kelvin Yang at Galerie du Monde) and TKE ARTUNTAMED (Hettie Reatchlous) collections which hold works of racially, culturally and sexually diverse artists from all over the world in this age group. 

There is a return to value as many collectors have noticed —-that at this price point, one can take a risk with a very young artist of the moment without a career track record or a rare old master or works already tried and tested in the “modern or classical” category. “ Many are starting to think and compare values between artists with proven longevity vs trendy Wet Paint (flipping new work usually by young artists) or Zombie Formalists (crapstraction- a great word!). 

And finally, for my disappearing act, and to add flavour and thought to this note, I leave you with these recent “disappearing million dollar” sales (literally, go figure…) — coincidentally both by Sotheby’s—- an esoteric Yves Klein paper receipt “Zone of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility” from 1959 sold this April and Banksy’s famous self destructing “Girl with Balloon” sold in 2018. 

 

All the best in art and life,

Kitty Go 

Founder EKCART ASIA

In the previous post I discussed the British Rail Pension Fund (BRPF) which began in 1974 when the inflationary world economic situation was so similar to what we are experiencing now. Its period of unwinding was from 1987 to 1999.

Today I would like to discuss La Peau de l’Ours (The Skin of the Bear/Bearskin) in more detail as I promised in my last post. It is the next publicly known historical model closest to the BRPF.

La Peau was started by Paris financier and collector Andre Level (1863-1946) in 1904 with 12 other collectors who contributed 250 francs each (about 1200 USD today) annually for 10 years. This capital pool would be used to buy art which Level believed would increase in value. The collection would then be sold in 10 years.

La Peau bought Matisse, Braque, Picasso, Van Gogh — all contemporary artists at that time. They collected over 100 works Including a Picasso for 1000 francs which they bought directly from the artist. All were auctioned in 1914 at the famous Paris auction house Hotel Drouot (still in business today) for four times their investment.

Because of their great financial success, the syndicate turned over 1/5 of the profits to the artists.

The strategies La Peau applied in the early 1900s is not so different from what we are doing at EKCART Asia. One of them is to be allayed with a dealer or collector. Another is to buy early and low. Depending on when the art was acquired, in the early 1900s —- Picasso would have only been in his 20s-30s (this is probably why they were able to buy a painting directly from him for 1000 francs). Matisse would have been in his 30s-40s and Van Gogh would be in his late 40s-50s.

The name Bearskin could be the goal of the collection itself. It is from the French fable “L’Ours et le deux compagnons » (The Bear and the two Companions) which gives the lesson “Never sell the bear before one has killed the beast.” The Anglo version could be “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.”

In my next post, I continue the historical proof of the appreciation of art from 1700s to watershed sales from 1970s and beyond.

This entry is to bring some encouraging news about buying art to those who have taken a beating in equities. Or anything. Or you may just be having a bad day.

Our example is the best known successful institutional art fund which began in 1974 and was part of the British Rail Pension Fund (BRPF). Over a period of seven years, the BRPF invested about USD 70 million in art which was 2.9pc of its total assets at that time.

Unlike Le Peau de l’Ours which was begun in 1904 (more on that in a future blog), the BRPF happened in our lifetime and we can identify with that time in history which brings back memories of the horror of rationing and lining up at gas stations.

I am bringing up this topic because the BRPF decided to invest in art because they were facing similar economic scenarios we are experiencing today – the 1973 OPEC oil crisis, FT Index falling by 70 pc and the Down Jones by 40pc, very high inflation rate in 1974 with UK at 30pc and the US at 12pc, the sterling pound was depreciating against European currencies and the USD, the commercial property market was dropping.

Basically traditional assets were doing badly, just like today.
(Unlike today, things moved slower and unlike today there was no China)

The 2400 piece collection was mostly of fine art such as Old Master drawings, 19c paintings, Impressionist and Modern Art but it also held Chinese and continental porcelain, Japanese prints, French furniture, silver and vertu, Oceanic and African tribal art. The general breakdown by value share is as follows –

Old Master paintings 18.8 pc
Old Master drawings. 11.1 pc
Impressionist Art 10.2 pc
Chinese works of art 10.2 pc
Books and manuscripts 10.0 pc
Antiquities 8.3 pc
Renaissance/Medieval art 6.9 pc
Others such as Japanese 24.0 pc
art, silver, furniture, 19c art, etc
–
From 1987 to 1999 the fund sold off its collectibles for 168 million pounds with an annual compound return of 11.3 percent or 4 pc per year allowing for inflation.

The identified advantage of this was that fine art had an inverse relationship to the main fund’s traditional investments, making it an ideal hedge. The fund’s formal objective was never to beat equities but to hedge against inflation.

EKCART Asia bought Yao’s “Good Times: Fishing on the Wild River, 2017 in 2020. This imposing work is made of four panels totalling 130 x 305 cm (each panel is 130 x 76.25 cm)

Yao created Taiwan’s entry when it joined the Venice Biennale in 1997. He is a pro flic artist who excels in various media — photography, sculpture, installation, video, performance art — and has a loyal following in greater China particularly in his home country which is respected for their erudition in all art genres especially Chinese ink.

Yao is an art historian, curator and teacher whose work is visual and intellectual with a strong foundation in Chinese classical painting but using Western materials like the technical pen. This work is an iconic example of this marriage of cultures in the “blue and gold” scenery Yao is famous for.

Another large work, Good Times: Lion Leopard Lake, 2020 was mentioned as a highlight of Asian Art London in the November 2021 issue of Apollo magazine. He has had prestigious exposure in 2022 as the Taiwan Venice Biennale entry again with “Walking Dog and Dragon”, specially mentioned as a New York Winter Show a “pick” in April by William L Coleman, director of collections at Olana museum, New York. In June three smaller works were brought by Taiwan’s Tina Keng Gallery to Frieze New York.

BetaBanter: We bought our quad for USD 80,000. Tina Keng was asking USD 29,000 for works which were smaller than our individual panels. It is not advisable to generalise, but on the surface, that would come to USD 116,000 vs our USD 80,000.

Yao Jui-Chung at the Tina Keng gallery at Frieze NYC May 2022

This title epitomises EKCART ASIA and its collections. It is a play on the title of the famous German art dealer Rudolf Zwirner’s memoir “Give Me the Now”. He is the father of an even more famous global art dealer David Zwirner who has a chain of eponymous galleries.

I started The Juanita Collection 1 (TJC) a few years ago with USD 1 million of my own funds earmarked for a collection I would run myself. However, because two other parties offered commitments, I decided to round out the total acquisition amount to 1.5M with 1.2 M of my own money.

THEN I noticed a jump in prices at the last art fair I attended in HK compared to others over the years so I decided to approach potentially like minded people who will see my vision for ink collections that can appreciate and continually evolve —since like Hollywood and fashion, artists’ names and careers are built up by followers, collectors and museums.

As of this writing, TJC has 2million USD in cash and 1million USD in art.

Our hold is 3-5 years which is about the same time you would wait for a startup to get going but in this case you don’t have to hire anyone or spend on equipment because I’m all the equipment and tech we need for now. Although I know I have much to improve in the tech department.

I intend to grow this collection the old school way with liquidity, transparency and accountability while developing and maintaining relationships within the global art ecosystem to secure the future of our next collections.

And for TJC to win, we have to be ahead of the market and the auctions. In the art world, if you buy it at auction, you may be too late (unless something is super rare)
Like equities, if it’s in news, you are too late. Thus the title of this post, Give Me The Next.

To illustrate my strategy for wanting the current art market to GIVE ME THE NEXT, I would like to use two acquisitions from Autumn 202I where we have been very early into the game thanks to the experience and connections of our London dealer Michael Goedhuis.

The first is TONG YANGTZE (b. 1942) whose work we own in gold paper, which is rare. In the last quarter of 2021, the M+ museum opened in HK to great fanfare and her very large imposing work on white xuan paper dominates the main hall. This is an unbelievable permanent collection exposure for this Taiwanese artist.

Another example in the auction space is TAI XIANGZHOU (b. 1968) whose small work went for over 2x the high estimate in the November 2021 HK sales. I can think of a few reasons – he had a (mostly monochrome black and white) show from March to September 2021 at the Art Institute of Chicago and the image of the auctioned piece was that of “The Auspicious Cow” (Ox zodiac).

Ours is a REALLY beautiful one featured in books and I THINK there are only 2 or 3 existence, one is ours. The other one I saw at Ben Brown, an international gallery with presence in HK and London.

I have many other examples of our artists included in media and publications, participation in Biennales, etc. so please ask if you would like to know more about any of the artists. One of our works which we got for “half off” a Sotheby’s valuation is the cover of a book on Chinese Ink.

We now have around 20 works which I started buying in 2019. All are by mid-life and mid-career artists, all have been at major Chinese and Western museums like the MET, Tate, British Museum, and most if not all have been to Biennales, big art fairs like global Basel, Masterpiece London, TEFAF New York and Maastricht, etc.

 

This post is a welcome to an exceptional experience and orientation of an alternative asset whose value and visual joy has always been there but whose appreciation has been long in coming. The Juanita Collection 1 is EKCART ASIA’s first Chinese contemporary ink portfolio that reflects the depth of Chinese culture applied to today’s art. 

I believe art as assets no longer need to be owned a certain way or held for a very long time. If you think about it, art is one of the oldest assets in the world with possessions being bartered, bought and sold since the beginning of time. In our memory, it has sold in different categories at various levels and prices, to cover costs of death, divorce and/or bankruptcy. Or simply the desire for a change in fashion or heart. 

The latest newsworthy one is the two-part Macklowe divorce sale of a collection gathered within a 50 year marriage – USD 670M for 35 lots  was the total in November 2021 for part 1 (…yes you read that right,,if you do the math, each work is the price of a building or a flat depending on where you live and the total is the value of a public company,,,). Part 2 will be in May this year. 

Because I am so excited to share my knowledge and passion in this field and hopefully ignite your personal, cultural and aesthetic interests, I will periodically send out notes like this just to keep things animated and interesting, gossipy and newsworthy. We might as well use this time to learn from each other and have fun in the art world, one of the most exciting businesses to be in. 

If Bernard Arnault can combine a business brand and Basquiat by using his (Tiffany) blue Basquiat for Tiffany ads with JayZ and Beyoncé you know he’s onto something…