In addition to images from amateur collectors, the auction brings together 50 photographs from the Bertrand Cheuvreux Collection. A French gallery owner based in Barcelona and creator of the Fondation pour le Développement d’Art Contemporain (FDAC), Bertrand Chevreux (1953–2008) became fascinated with contemporary Chinese photography in the 1980s and took frequent trips to meet with artists who had become his friends. His collection will go on sale on December 7.
Reflecting his activity, Chevreux’s collection takes us through the history of contemporary Chinese photography, and specifically of performance photography in China, still little known outside the country. Performance, the recurring motif of the Bertrand Chevreux Collection, emerges as an essential element in contemporary Chinese photography. From the early images of Beijing’s East Village by Rong Rong to He Yunchang’s extreme performances and Cang Xin’s “Identity Exchange” to Chen Lingyang’s revolutionary feminist series Twelve Flower Months, the Bertrand Chevreux Collection, inspired by Li Wei’s spectacular leap in “A Pause for Humanity 3,” invites us to take a bird’s eye view of contemporary China.
Worth noting are also powerful images by Dai Guanguy, bathed in ink, and those by Han Bing who uses his body as a shield against bulldozers about to raze old Beijing districts.
Bringing together 50 photographs, the profits from the auction will go to the FDAC and toward the creation of a Young Contemporary Chinese Photography Award. Thanks to the sale, the success of established artists will help foster emerging talents.
The auction “Arrêt sur images,” organized by Eve Auction in collaboration with the expert in Asian art Pia Cooper, also proposes important photographs from amateur collections, including the work of Huang Yan, Qui Zhijie, Zhang Huan, Li Wei, and the Gao Brothers.
Auction “Arrêt sur Images”
Public exhibition from Saturday, December 3 to Tuesday, December 6, 11 AM to 7 PM
Auction, Wednesday, December 7 at 7 PM
L’Hôtel de l’Industrie
4, Place Saint-Germain-des-Près
75006 Paris
France
