The Times acclaimed Yayoi Kusama as an existing epic artist in the world, and Emperor Akihito of Japan awarded her with the Japanese cultural medal, which meant that Kusama had become a national treasure level artist of Japan. In ten years, the total auction price of Kusama’s works has increased from $940000 in 2004 to $35.45 million in 2014

Emperor Akihito awarded the Japanese cultural medal to Kusama in 2016

Yayoi Kusama
Pumpkin
59×50cm
Autograph: Yayoi Kusama
Created in 1999
Screen printing
Spring auction of 2020, Jointwells Hong Kong

Yayoi Kusama
Lemon Tea
84.8×68cm
Autograph: Yayoi Kusama 9/50
Created in 1988
Screen printing
Spring auction of 2020, Jointwells Hong Kong

Murakami (left) and Virgil abloh, leader of OFF-WHITE (right)

Takashi Murakami is one of the most important Japanese contemporary artists in post-war period. He studied traditional Japanese art at the Tokyo University of the Arts and became the first person to receive a doctorate in Japanese painting in its history.
All of Murakami’s works show the basic concept of “super flat”. His works finally present the style of commercial patterns and flat image like computer screens through his flawless, precise and meticulous handcraft. According to Murakami, the concept of “super flat” faithfully reflects the social reality at that time, as well as the general spiritual outlook of Japanese society after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. In addition, from historical perspective, Japan’s unique geographical structure has made the country face the threat of strong natural disasters for a long time, which is perplexing. For the Japanese, they not only have experienced personally the flattening in history, but also the metaphorical meaning of this concept is rooted in their national character. In particular, the power of Western politics and culture swept Japan after World War II, which has made the flattening of democratic system and culture well known but impossible to retrieve.

Takashi Murakami & Pharrel Williams
Created during 2008-2009
The Simple Things
Transaction price: HK$21,725,000
Auctioned at Christie’s Hong Kong, 23th November 2019

Takashi Murakami
When I Close My Eyes, I See Shangrila
Transaction price: HK$13,840,000
Auctioned at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28th November 2015

Takashi Murakami
Happy Kaikai & Kiki
Autography: Takashi Murakami 153/300
Print
68×68cm
Resource：Private collection in Asia
Spring auction of 2020, Jointwells Hong Kong

Takashi Murakami
An Homage to Monopink
Autography: Takashi Murakami 203/300
Print
74×53.5cm
Resource：Private collection in Asia
Spring auction of 2020, Jointwells Hong Kong

Takashi Murakami × ComplexCon
Created in 2016
DOB-Kun (2 pieces)
Resources：Kaikai & Kiki Studio, Japan
28×19×24cm
Spring auction of 2020, Jointwells Hong Kong

Ron English, who is known as the new Andy Warhol, is one of the most outstanding pop masters. Ron English is involved in a wide range of art fields, including record design, graffiti art, painting, fashion toy design, etc.
In Ron English’s works of art, we can always see familiar pictures or characters. Under his reinterpretation, these pictures and characters can always bring us brand new feelings. Typical works include McDonald’s uncle (who is called “Fat Mai” because of Ron English’s design), Marilyn Mickey (a combination of Marilyn Monroe and Mickey Mouse) and grin (Charlie Brown, a little boy in Snoopy cartoon, designed to be a horror version), etc. There is no doubt that he is the most talented and controversial contemporary artist. His works have always been famous for realism techniques and creative use of cartoon characters.

Ron English

Scene of Ron personally signing

Ron English
MC Supersized
Autography: English
Oil Painting
Resource：Purchased from Ron English
Spring auction of 2020, Jointwells Hong Kong

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•     © RON ENGLISH

Ron English
Cartoon Character Fantasy
Autography: English
Resource：Purchased from Ron English
Spring auction of 2020, Jointwells Hong Kong

Ron English
Serve the people(Left),
Pink Imperial Stormtrooper(Center),
MC Supersized(Right)
Autography: English (on the back)
Resource: Purchased from Ron English
Spring auction of 2020, Jointwells Hong Kong

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17 century
Wood lacquer Gold Statue of Pelden Lhamo
Height: 65cm

A selected treasure of 2020 Spring Auction Session held by JointWells HK

An interesting fact indicates that there exist considerable female deities in the deity pedigree of Tibetan Buddhism as a peculiar feature of the religion. The Tibetan Buddhist followers regard wisdom as the key to the practices of Buddhism, they believe that it is wisdom that can cut asunder all the trouble like a blade, kill all the evil in their minds, and help them with understanding and explaining the Ways of Buddha to finally attain the Buddhahood; such doctrine can be found in the theories of Vajrayana Buddhism——another name for Tibetan Buddhism. The creation of many female deities in Tibetan Buddhism like the Mother Buddha, Consort, and Dakini, which are all icons of wisdom, shows how much wisdom is valued through means of anthropomorphization and feminization of which. However, those anthropomorphized female deities are not really ‘mothers’ nor ‘wives’ in mundane world but just metaphors for the importance of wisdom——wisdom cultivates all Buddhas like mothers give birth to children.

Pelden Lhamo means the auspicious woman of heaven or mother of heaven in the Sanskrit language and pronounces as ‘Pelden Lhamo’ in Tibetan. Pelden Lhamo is a transcendental protector of Buddhism of great importance. The origin of hers is a complex story. Pelden Lhamo was originally a personage in the ancient India myth and was called ‘Lakşmī’ in the Sanskrit language. The myth tells that she was born when the Lord of Heaven and his enemy, the Jealous God, were churning the Ocean of Milk. Lakşmī was shaped into a live female deity afterward in the Brahmanism and Hinduism and was named as ‘the heaven of the merit and virtue’, as well as ‘the auspicious heaven’. It is said that she’s the daughter of Taksaka and Hariti, the wife of Vishnu, the mother of Kama (the god of love) and the sister of Vaiśravaṇa (the god of wealth) and that she’s the god of destiny and fortune. She was vanquished by Vajradhara and become a protector of Buddhism in the end. And as a protector of Buddhism, the merit and virtue she acquires is beyond our imagination. It is recorded that any Buddhist follower who recites her sutra, places Buddhism statues for worship, prepare offerings of flowers and flavors and chants her name will be blessed with wealth and treasures in the chapter The Heaven of Merit and Virtue in the sutra Suvarnaprabhasa. It is also recorded in The twelve famous Sutras of Bodhisattva that she has twelve names and that if a Buddhist follower successfully keeps on reciting all her twelve names and following her path in practicing and offering, then the end of this follower’s poverty will be attained and the follower can be rich and wealthy. For the merit and virtue that Pelden Lhamo owns to bring in blessings and bring out misfortune, a kind of Buddhist Ceremony was then formed in her names to repent for sins, reduce suffering and bring benefits, which is called Buddhist Auspicious Repenting Ceremony.

The status and images of Pelden Lhamo has been through drastic changes after joining the deity pedigree of Tibetan Buddhism: she ascends to transcendental protector of Buddhism from the original mundane protector of Buddhism and become a deity to which the Buddhist followers can convert; her name has changed too——she becomes auspicious mother of heaven rather than auspicious woman of heaven; the image of hers used to look calm and gentle, now she looks angry and powerful, and the images can differ between different sects. She is usually portrayed as having two arms or four arms, and the former one is mostly worshiped by Gelugpa sect as one of their Red and Black protectors of Buddhism while the latter one is worshiped by Kagyupa sect and Sakyapa sect.

This statue is of Pelden Lhamo with two arms. Wearing a Five Skull Crown on the head, the figure is bristling with anger; the Pelden Lhamo is depicted as a strong and powerful image with a stout face with three bulging eyes and a mouth to show her teeth; her body is robust and strong and the muscles appear soft and full; in addition, the figure’s female feature is obvious with uplifting breast. There is a piece of human-skin cloak on her bare upper part of the body, a ghost plate and a vine of human heads on her belt, armlets on her arms and bracelets around her feet. She holds a Gabbra bowl with human heart and blood in it in one hand and a skull staff with the other hand as she sits on the back of a yellow mule, of which the saddle is made by human fell with the head hanging below (it is said that the corpse belongs to her own son), and a pair of divination dice are attached to the saddle. The ornaments around her body are all finely designed and sculptured and she sits half cross-legged on the mule back in an elegant manner. This Pelden Lhamo statue with peculiar pose, exquisitely crafted and elaborately ornamented, has a vivid image and demonstrates advanced artistic and technical craftsmanship. Plus, this statue is much bigger compared with statues of the same figure, making it a rare treasure indeed.

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