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| Image | Sale date | Auction house | Location | Sale name | Lot No. | Estimate | Price Sold | Condition | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oct 3, 2016 | Sotheby's | Hong Kong | Contemporary Asian | 812 | $****** - ****** | Love Of Universe |
Works on Paper
38.1 x 66 cm (15 x 26 in)
gunpowder and ink on paper
The Artist and the Critic
Cai Guo-Qiang and Takami Akihiko
The late Japanese art critic Takami Akihiko provided a great deal of help to Cai Guo-Qiang during the latter۪s period in Japan, helping him launch his art practice. Cai saw Takami as a mentor, and Lot 812�to Lot 817, works from his Japan period, were all treasured gifts from the artist to the critic. Appearing on the auction market for the first time, these artworks bear witness to the friendship between the two, and form a valuable archive that sheds light on the artist himself.
Takami and Cai met at the artist۪s first Japanese solo exhibition in 1987. Cai۪s exhibition in Kigoma Gallery that year was not hugely successful, and he was fortunate to meet Takami as he must have struggled with disappointment. Takami helped the artist obtain the patronage of a Japanese gunpowder manufacturer, allowing Cai to conduct his works with Japanese gunpowder instead of Chinese gunpowder. Cai could then greatly expand the scale of his works and realize the large-scale explosive performances he had envisioned. This development directly catalysed the creation of Cai۪s important work, Human Abode: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 1 at the Tama River Fussa Outdoor Art Exhibition. It marked the advent of a six-year series of Project for Extraterrestrials outdoor explosion performances, which became the most important series of the artist۪s career and established his reputation in international art circles.
Takami Akihiko۪s assistance to Cai Guo-Qiang during his Japanese period was profound. He directly helped Cai realise his artistic ambitions and consistently recommended Cai to Japan۪s art world and galleries. Within three years he had brought about a new acceptance of both the artist and contemporary Chinese art in general. Their friendship created a link between Chinese and Japanese art circles, and in 1989, Cai gave a lecture on Japanese contemporary art during the�China / Avant-Garde exhibition�Beijing. After Cai left Japan, they maintained their friendship, and when Takami fell ill in 2011, Cai returned to Japan to pay him a visit. Today۪s auction includes Yuzhou zhi lian, a precious gift from Cai to Takami. The collection also includes an early 1990 gunpowder explosion piece, Bigfoot۪s Footprints: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 6 (Lot 813) and an extremely rare oil painting, Dunhuang bihua zhi yinxiang (Lot 817).
