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K-pop superstar T.O.P has collaborated with Sotheby's on an upcoming sale of Asian and Western contemporary art
The auction will be held on October 3
Seoul, South Korea
CNN
—
K-pop superstar T.O.P, of South Korean boy band Big Bang, is a rapper, singer-songwriter, actor and – of little surprise to his 5.8 million Instagram followers – a passionate art collector.
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Korean Pop star T.O.P teamed up with Sotheby's to curate an art auction entitled #TTTOP. The entire 28 works on offer sold for $17.4 million on 3 October 2016, well above pre-sale estimates of around $11.5 million. A portion of the proceeds from the sale will be donated to the Asian Cultural Council.
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Sotheby's and T.O.P spent over a year selecting and curating the 28 artworks. Scroll through the gallery for some of the auction's works.
courtesy of sotheby's hong kong
Some of the pieces were made specifically for this auction by T.O.P's artist friends, such as Takashi Murakami and Nawa Kohei.
courtesy of sotheby's hong kong
The year 1983 saw some of the most productive and successful days in Basquiat's artistic career. This work embodies a limited yet acidic palette of primary colors and his signature yellow.
courtesy of Sotheby's hong kong
Rudolf Stingel's work often makes an appearance on T.O.P's Instagram feed. In this piece the artist used gold-plated copper and marked it with individual words, initials, and phrases.
courtesy of sotheby's hong kong
South Korean post-war artist Seobo is well known for his abstract art but is most famous for his Ecriture series, which he began in the 1970s. Sotheby's says the work presents freedom in both calligraphic brushstrokes and in one's mind.
courtesy of sotheby's hong kong
Lee once said "when I passively accept external winds, an even greater world is opened." This oil painting is the largest work from the South Korean artist's Winds series, which he produced between 1982 and 1986.
courtesy of sotheby's hong kong
The auction includes a collection of 23 works by American graffiti artist and sculptor, Keith Haring, all of which display a variety of his unique visual vocabulary.
courtesy of sotheby's hong kong
Haring first rose to prominence in the early 1980s with graffiti drawings he made on the streets and subways of New York. His bulky lines and angular figures can still found on some New York City walls today.
courtesy of sotheby's hong kong
The 23-piece lot includes a limited edition coloring book that was included with the catalog from an exhibition at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York in 1982. The book invites his fans to fill in the blanks with him, as he once filled in the blank walls of the New York subway.
courtesy of sotheby's hong kong
This work, by Japanese artist Gokita Tomoo, is a mixture of pop art, Surrealism, Cubism, Neo-Expressionism and Japanese graphic design.
courtesy of sotheby's hong kong
American artist Wood is well-known for his paintings, drawings and prints that depict spaces with a flat perspective. This piece is part of the artist's "New Plant" series, which he completed in 2009.
Sotheby's
American artist Auerbach works across painting, artists' books, photography and sculpture. This woven canvas is an early example of her iconic "weave" paintings.
Sotheby's
Widely considered the greatest living painter, Richter's work over his fifty-year career has earned him international acclaim.
Sotheby's
Chung lives and works in Seoul and has exhibited internationally since the late 1960s. He is one of the foremost Korean "Dansaekhwa" ("Monochrome") artists, a group that emerged when the Republic of Korea was still under a military dictatorship.
Sotheby's
Haled as the "Father of Video Art", Paik Nam June fled Korea during the civil war and moved to Japan, where he studied art history and music. He eventually settled in New York in the mid 1960s and became the first artist in the world to embrace new technology.
His photos speak widely of a developed interest in art and design (he owns more than 100 chairs) – a quick glance sees T.O.P (whose real name is Choi Seung Hyun) posing in tribute to a lanky Alberto Giacometti sculpture, lounging in a metallic chair by Ron Arad and palling around with the likes of Takashi Murakami.
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More prominent posts of late nod to the star’s new project with Sotheby’s. Over the past year, he has collaborated with the auction house on #TTTOP, an upcoming sale of Asian and Western contemporary art.
Today’s auction will feature 28 works from renowned artists as well as lesser known, emerging talents.
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Yuki Terase, a contemporary Asian art specialist at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, describes T.O.P’s tastes as “eclectic” and identifies “Infantry” by the late American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and a commissioned piece by T.O.P’s friend, Japanese artist Kohei Nawa, as auction highlights.
“It reflects and represents what young Asian collectors are starting to collect,” Terase says. “They don’t collect according to categories, culture, or schools of thought, they just collect what appeals to them aesthetically. So, it’s very personal. T.O.P is not bound by any books or series of how the collection should be.”
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Partnering with a big personality is part of Sotheby’s – one of the world’s oldest auction houses – efforts to draw in a younger demographic through social media. Terase says the #TTTOP auction campaign has already generated more than 13 million impressions online.
In this episode of the Invitation, CNN Style speaks to T.O.P in Seoul, ahead of the October auction, where a selection of highlights were shown at The Shilla Seoul.
There, amongst some of his favorite artists, T.O.P reveals his deep appreciation for art.
Sotheby’s evening auction #TTTOP will be held Oct 3 in Hong Kong. The embedded animation shows chairs by some of the designers that feature on T.O.P’s Instagram: Wendell Castle, Antoni Gaudi, Pierre Jeanneret, Choi Byung Hoon, Ron Arad, as well as architect Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev Center and designer Jolyon Yates’ Savannah Rocker.