Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
T.O.P recently curated a contemporary art auction that sold $17.4 million worth of artwork, which ended up setting records. But don’t take my word for it, Sotheby’s has it all.
#TTTOP, a special contemporary art evening sale guest-curated by Asian pop icon T.O.P, was a triumph, realising a total of HK$136 million / US$17.4 million with multiple auction records set. Exceeding the pre-sale high estimate, this sale is also the highest-value sale of Western contemporary art ever held during a major auction series in Hong Kong. A portion of sale proceeds will benefit the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) to support emerging Asian artists.
In an interview with T.O.P, he talked about his taste as a collector.
“I am not biased (or concentrated) to only collect one specific artist’s works, but always seeking to find new artists from many countries,” T.O.P. told artnet News in an email, listing Mark Grotjahn, Rudolf Stingel, Mark Bradford, and Gerhard Richter as among his favorites. “I select works simply by their ‘beauty’, how much of a new concept it consists, how much of beauty it expresses, and how convincing it is for me,” the singer added. “An art work should always be new and beautiful.” With that in mind, T.O.P. set about curating the auction with the goal of amassing “a never-before-attempted combination of artworks from differing eras, genres and cultures—a rare juxtaposition of contrasting styles and messages,” he explained in a statement, noting that he feels a responsibility to bring more arts and culture to the young people of Asia. “I sought works of relatively unknown, talented artists to feature alongside masterpieces by blue-chip artists, from both Asia and the West.”
“As an actor and musician, my job is to be observant, sensitive to sounds and sights,” T.O.P. added. “I realized that the same is true of curating: my goal is to create a new experience for audiences, for them to feel something different.”
It’s always been sort of weird to me that people call T.O.P a tryhard and shit like that because of his weird Instagram when it’s quite obvious to me that he really is just like that and he takes art as seriously as it seems. I’m ignorant when it comes to art, so maybe this isn’t as big of a deal as it seems, but it certainly seems like an accomplishment and something that would let people know how real this endeavor is to him.
