An online-only art sale, featuring paintings of women across southeast Asia, is a rich window to diverse cultures and distinctive rituals of the region including countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and Burma.
Live till April 22 at Bonhams.com, the sale, ‘Ritual and Culture’, features more than 30 20th century paintings
Among the highlights is a curated group of paintings depicting the charm of women in Southeast Asia, as well as the crucial roles they play in society.
Leading the collection of works is ‘Hanoi’ by French artist Alix Ayme, who had travelled in and painted extensively in Asia. The painting features a classic street scene with a Vietnamese mother strolling along a path, her baby nestled on her hips, as the city Hanoi — depicted by Ayme as a verdant sub-tropical paradise — comes into spring.
Created in the 1920s during the artist’s first sojourn in Vietnam, ‘Hanoi’ is one of her earliest paintings and a rare oil-on-panel example to come to the art market.
Nguyen Trung and Boi Tran draw inspiration from women wearing the elegant Vietnamese gown, the ‘ao dai’, which pays tribute to the beauty and grace of generations of ladies in Vietnam. A similar penchant for the subject is also seen in Burmese modern painter U Lun Gywe, whose ‘Bathing by the Riverside’ perfectly encapsulates the artist’s impressionist style.
A private collection of rare works by Antonio Blanco, a Philipines-born Balinese painter of Spanish descent, will also be on sale. The collection comprises the artist’s figurative paintings and exquisite poems, revealing his pride for his adopted home of Bali.
