‘The Man From Bantul — The Monster,’ by I Nyoman Masriadi,set the auction record for a Southeast Asian painting in 2008,
selling for about $ 1 million
Daniel Komala says he has a knack for plucking young Asian artists such as I Nyoman Masriadi from obscurity and turning them into auction stars.
The chief executive of Jakarta-based Larasati Auctioneers says many of the top names in Asian contemporary art, whose works now fetch millions at sales in New York and Hong Kong, got their start at the company he founded 10 years ago.
Masriadi and Agus Suwage made their auction debuts at Komala’s company a few years back and their works were going for a pittance before Larasati’s bigger rivals began selling them, Daniel says. “Look at the icons in the Asian contemporary art market today. They all started at my place,” he says.
Collectors hunting for the next crop of top Asian artists should take a look at Larasati auction catalogs and buy their works while they are still affordable, Daniel says. To make his case, he flips through Sotheby’s brochure of its sale of Southeast Asian art in Hong Kong starting today and pointed at Agus’s 1997 oil-on-canvas “Charity,” which is expected to fetch as much as $32,000.
“That was one of ours,” he says, referring to a charity event he organized in 1999 when the same painting sold for Rp 9 million, about $980 then.
Now is a good time to buy the works of rising artists such as Hadi Masoed and Ristyo Eeko Hartanto because they are still cheap, he says. Like established painters such as Masriadi and China’s Yue Minjun, their works address universal themes such as fear with an eloquence that cuts across cultures and are cheap relative to their merit, Daniel says.
Sotheby’s pioneered auctions of contemporary Southeast Asian works in Singapore in 1996, says Mok Kim Chuan, Sotheby’s Singapore-based head of Southeast Asian painting.
Sotheby’s held the 2008 sale that set the auction record for a Southeast Asian painting with the sale of Masriadi’s “The Man From Bantul — The Monster” for about $1 million.
Daniel started selling art during the Asian financial crisis. He set up Larasati and in 2000 organized the company’s first auction at Jakarta’s Aryaduta Hotel.
The chief executive of Jakarta-based Larasati Auctioneers says many of the top names in Asian contemporary art, whose works now fetch millions at sales in New York and Hong Kong, got their start at the company he founded 10 years ago.
Masriadi and Agus Suwage made their auction debuts at Komala’s company a few years back and their works were going for a pittance before Larasati’s bigger rivals began selling them, Daniel says. “Look at the icons in the Asian contemporary art market today. They all started at my place,” he says.
Collectors hunting for the next crop of top Asian artists should take a look at Larasati auction catalogs and buy their works while they are still affordable, Daniel says. To make his case, he flips through Sotheby’s brochure of its sale of Southeast Asian art in Hong Kong starting today and pointed at Agus’s 1997 oil-on-canvas “Charity,” which is expected to fetch as much as $32,000.
“That was one of ours,” he says, referring to a charity event he organized in 1999 when the same painting sold for Rp 9 million, about $980 then.
Now is a good time to buy the works of rising artists such as Hadi Masoed and Ristyo Eeko Hartanto because they are still cheap, he says. Like established painters such as Masriadi and China’s Yue Minjun, their works address universal themes such as fear with an eloquence that cuts across cultures and are cheap relative to their merit, Daniel says.
Sotheby’s pioneered auctions of contemporary Southeast Asian works in Singapore in 1996, says Mok Kim Chuan, Sotheby’s Singapore-based head of Southeast Asian painting.
Sotheby’s held the 2008 sale that set the auction record for a Southeast Asian painting with the sale of Masriadi’s “The Man From Bantul — The Monster” for about $1 million.
Daniel started selling art during the Asian financial crisis. He set up Larasati and in 2000 organized the company’s first auction at Jakarta’s Aryaduta Hotel.
