Cubist Muses

The 1939 painting Nu Debout et Femmes Assises (Standing Nude and Seated Women) belongs to a pivotal year in Pablo Picasso’s career, marked by emotional turbulence and the looming shadow of war in Europe. This grisaille (monochrome) double-portrait of his mistress and muse Dora Maar is rendered in fractured, expressive forms. Picasso distorts anatomy with angular contours and bold linear emphasis, compressing space while intensifying psychological tension. The figures appear both monumental and unsettled, their gazes and gestures charged with introspection and unease. 

Executed with vigorous brushwork in a restrained yet forceful palette of muted tones, the painting reflects Picasso’s exploration of the female form as both muse and symbol. The physical opposites portrayed nod to the schizophrenic times and his own split-living arrangement with two mistresses – Maar and Marie-Thérèse Walter.

It sold for £7 million (HK$74 million) at Christie’s in London earlier this year, reaffirming sustained collector demand for Picasso’s late 1930s works and the historical significance of paintings produced on the eve of global conflict.

High Spies

Walter Spies’ Blick von der Höhe (A View from the Heights) stands among the most evocative works of his late career. It was painted in Bali in 1934 during a period of historical poignancy and personal reflection. The German primitivist artist moved to Indonesia in 1923 when it was under Dutch colonial rule, was interned upon the outbreak of the Second World War, and died in 1942 as a ship transporting prisoners of war was bombed by the Japanese.

Spies’ composition unfolds in a sweeping panorama, seen from an elevated vantage point that looks across layered hills, winding pathways and luminous tropical foliage. He orchestrates light with extraordinary sensitivity, bathing his landscapes in muted golds, cool greens and atmospheric blues. This scene feels suspended between serenity and foreboding, balancing meticulous detail with a dreamlike stillness. 

Blick von der Höhe achieved a remarkable sale price of HK$59 million at Christie’s in Hong Kong this spring – a jump of 86 percent on the artist’s previous auction record. The result underscores the rarity of masterworks from his final productive years.

Mirror Image

A large-scale acrylic on canvas, I See The Mirror (2022), exemplifies the emotionally driven work of contemporary British artist Tracey Emin following her bladder-cancer diagnosis in 2020. It draws the viewer once again to Emin’s bedroom – which featured in her seminal installation, My Bed, revealed at the Tate Gallery in 1999 – but replaces the previous disarray with an orderly yet still disturbing mood of self-reflection as she comes to terms with her post-operation body.

Black paint covers the head of the female figure that lies exhausted and exposed on the bed. A swathe of muddy green and earth tones below signals the release of bodily fluids. This moving outline of loss and vulnerability is reflected in the mirror as the artist summons the strength to overcome her trauma.

I See The Mirror was auctioned for HK$4.3 million at Phillips in Hong Kong in March this year, while another of Emin’s monumental post-cancer works, Take Me to Heaven (2024), sold at Art Basel Hong Kong for US$1.6 million (HK$12.5 million). Both serve to confirm collectors’ resonance with the deeply personal paintings of the polarising artist.

Surge of Interest

Chu Teh-Chun’s commanding oil on canvas, Dynamique Ardente (2006–2007), showcases his mature synthesis of Western lyrical abstraction and the spiritual sensibility of traditional Chinese landscape painting. The work radiates energy through sweeping gestures and layered tonal contrasts. Veils of luminous blues, deep crimsons and flashes of gold surge across the surface, evoking elemental forces such as wind, fire and atmospheric light.

Chu’s composition balances turbulence and harmony. The brushwork moves rhythmically, guiding the viewer’s eye through currents of colour that suggest motion and transformation. Rather than depicting nature directly, the artist channels its spirit, allowing abstraction to convey emotional resonance and metaphysical presence. 

It stands as a testament to Chu’s enduring legacy – he was the first ethnic Chinese member of France’s Académie des Beaux-Arts. It sold for US$1.3 million (HK$10.2 million) at Art Basel Hong Kong this March, demonstrating the sustained international demand for his later works.