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AFFORDABLE ART BY MASTERS
StarMag, Dec 18, 2005
DID you hear about the 1958 Picasso print, Femme au Corsage à Fleurs, that went for £35,850 (RM241,629 at current rates) at a Christie’s auction in London in 2002?
Names like Picasso, Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh regularly fetch high prices at auctions in Paris, New York or London. Who can afford such prices except the very rich, right? But what many Malaysians are not aware of is that fine prints by the Masters are available to us working class mortals at much more affordable prices.
Elm Quay Fine Arts wants to show Malaysians that works by the Masters aren’t actually as far out of reach as we think.
“As an art dealer and an art collector, I don’t want to see people pay a lot of money for works that are not so good,” says Raja Ihsan Shah, director of Elm Quay Fine Arts.
He often goes to Paris in search of prints by the Masters for his gallery’s collections. Some of these prints from the School of Paris are now on display at the Art Loft in Starhill Gallery, Kuala Lumpur. The 28 pieces on display are all original prints.
“They’re not reproductions. They are actually made by the artists themselves or under their supervision in their lifetime.
“When it comes to prints, they’re difficult to describe and, normally, nine times out of 10, people will not understand what I mean by prints. Are they posters, reproductions, cheap fakes?”
Raja Ihsan says that for hundreds of years, printmaking has been a medium of expression for many of the European Masters. Artists like Rembrandt, Picasso and Goya approached fine prints as a challenging art form. To them, it was just a different medium but no less important than painting, drawing or sculpture.
He explains that printmaking involves collaboration between the artist (the “creator”), the printmaker (the “translator”), and the publisher (the “financier”).
In the collection on display at Art Loft are etchings, lithography, linocuts and photo prints. There is even an oil painting.
Explaining original prints, Raja Ihsan says, “Actually the main players in the art market are the auction houses. A majority of the works on auction consist of fine prints. Only a small proportion of the market consists of the unique, one-of-a-kind artworks.
“The majority of the day-to-day auctions are the minor auctions, the not so publicised ones, consisting of original prints, from different categories and techniques.
“When we say prints we mean the pictures do not exist anywhere else except on these specially-made prints,” says Raja Ihsan.
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Buste de Femme by Pablo Picasso. |
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Among the artworks on display at Art Loft are Pablo Picasso’s Buste de Femme (linocut, 1962) priced at RM6,000; Henri Matisse’s Femme au Chapeau (lithograph, 1939) priced at RM8,000; and Henri-Cartier Bresson’s Mexico (vintage photogravure, 1938) priced at RM3,800.
The cheapest piece at this exhibition is Marc Chagall’s L’Ame du Cirque (lithograph, 1981) priced at RM3,800, while the most expensive is Philippe Ancellin’s Toiles de l’Atelier (oil on canvas, 1994) priced at RM40,000.
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L'Ame du Cirque by Marc Chagall. |
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Speaking about Chagall’s L’Ame du Cirque, Raja Ihsan says, “It is extremely cheap. Chagall approved it. At the same time he did this, he did a bigger piece. The oversized lithographic (of the same picture) was selling for US$30,000 to US$70,000 (RM114,000 to RM266,000).”
Of Picasso’s Buste de Femme, Raja Ihsan says, “The quality of this (linocut) is unbelievable. If you feel the surface with your hand, you will be able to ‘feel’ every single colour. This was done during Picasso’s lifetime.”
Raja Ihsan says there is a market here in Malaysia for these fine prints. However, even if he can’t sell the pieces here, he is not worried because the art market is worldwide. In fact Christie’s auction house of London has expressed interest in auctioning one of the prints that he has.
“Printmaking is not an inferior medium,” says Raja Ihsan.
“The difference is, it’s within the reach of many more people. But the actual work is still art – there is no room for error.”
This is not Elm Quay’s first exhibition of works by the Masters. The gallery, which was set up in 1993, has previously had exhibitions featuring the works of Old and Modern Masters.
‘L’ecole de Paris Paintings & Original Prints’ at the Art Loft (Level 4, Starhill Gallery, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur) ends on Jan 3.
Copyright Star Publications (M) Bhd
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