Every January, Singapore Art Week transforms the city into a crossroads of creativity, where collectors, curators, and cultural pilgrims converge. This year, one of its most anticipated moments arrives on 25 January, when Sotheby’s stages its Modern and Contemporary Art auction at The Edition Singapore—an elegant setting befitting works that span continents, centuries, and artistic revolutions.

More than a sale, the auction reads like a carefully choreographed journey through Southeast Asia’s artistic legacy and its dialogue with the wider world. From rare Indonesian masterpieces to pioneering Vietnamese silk paintings and blue-chip contemporary icons, the event underscores Singapore’s growing role as a cultural anchor in the global art ecosystem.

Headlining the auction are two exceptional works by early Southeast Asian masters, paintings that are as historically resonant as they are visually arresting. Walter Spies’ Die Schlittschuhläufer (The Ice Skaters), painted in 1922, predates the artist’s legendary journey to Java and Bali, where he would later become a defining figure in the development of modern Indonesian art. The painting depicts a surreal, moonlit scene of skaters gliding across ice—an unexpected subject from an artist later synonymous with tropical landscapes and Balinese mythologies. Rarely seen and deeply personal, the work is considered one of Spies’ few autobiographical paintings. Having remained in a private collection for nearly 15 years, its appearance at auction is a rare glimpse into the formative imagination of an artist whose life was cut tragically short.

Equally momentous is Raden Saleh’s The Eruption of Mount Merapi, by Day, painted in 1865. Saleh, widely regarded as Indonesia’s first modern artist, was a keen observer of nature and politics alike. After witnessing the eruption of Mount Merapi, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, he produced a celebrated series capturing the event. The present painting is the only known daytime depiction from that series ever to appear at auction. Held in a European private collection for more than a century, its unveiling in Singapore feels like both a homecoming and a historic revelation.

That these works are being offered in Singapore is no accident. According to Sotheby’s, the number of new bidders from Southeast Asia participating in its global sales has risen by 60 percent since 2022, a reflection of the region’s growing confidence and influence on the international art stage.

“We are excited to welcome collectors from all around the world to our first live auction of the year in Asia,” says Jasmine Prasetio, Managing Director of Sotheby’s Southeast Asia. “Singapore Art Week creates a vibrant context for celebrating art, culture, and collecting, and we are proud to bring our finest offerings directly to this dynamic community.”

Building on strong results for Vietnamese art in recent years, the auction presents an exceptional group of works by modern masters Le Pho and Mai Trung Thu. Le Pho’s rare silk painting Mère et enfant, fond fleurs captures an intimate moment between mother and child, rendered with the artist’s signature fusion of Asian materials, post-Impressionist color, and Renaissance-inspired composition.

Mai Trung Thu’s Coquetterie (1966), meanwhile, draws inspiration from a canonical work housed in the Louvre, reinterpreting European art history through a distinctly Vietnamese lens. Together, these works speak to a generation of artists who navigated colonial legacies while forging a modern visual identity of their own.

For the first time, works by David Hockney will appear at auction in Singapore. Three pieces from his celebrated 2011 iPad series The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire mark a pivotal moment in contemporary art, when digital technology became not just a tool but a medium in its own right. Fresh, luminous, and deceptively simple, the works capture the changing English landscape while redefining what drawing could be in the 21st century.

They are joined by a selection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist works, including Marc Chagall’s Couple et mimosas (1967), a tender composition depicting the artist with his late wife Bella amid bursts of mimosa blossoms. Originally used to produce a lithograph for the suite Nice et la Côte d’Azur, the painting synthesizes Chagall’s most enduring motifs of love, memory, and color.

The auction also celebrates abstraction across cultures, led by Zao Wou-Ki’s Sans titre (2004), painted during a period of international acclaim following his election to the French Academy of Fine Arts. Radiant with golden yellows and emerald greens, the work exemplifies Zao’s mature fusion of Western abstraction with the spiritual and spatial sensibilities of Chinese ink painting. Other abstract pioneers include Chu Teh-Chun, Lalan, and Singapore’s own Cheong Soo Pieng, whose works chart the evolution of modern art in Asia.

On the contemporary front, blue-chip names such as Lee Ufan and Takashi Murakami anchor the sale. Lee’s Correspondence embodies his signature minimalist philosophy, while Murakami’s vibrant canvas layered with smiling flowers and skulls in a cool blue palette, offers a playful yet incisive example of his “superflat” aesthetic.

Open to the public from 21 to 24 January ahead of the live auction, the exhibition offers visitors a rare opportunity to encounter museum-quality works in an intimate setting. For seasoned collectors, it’s a chance to acquire art with deep historical roots; for art lovers, it’s an invitation to trace Southeast Asia’s place within a global story of modern and contemporary creativity.

As Singapore Art Week continues to evolve, Sotheby’s January auction feels less like a transaction and more like a cultural marker, one that reflects how art, history, and lifestyle increasingly intersect in this global city.

Sotheby’s holds their next Singapore auction on 25th January 2026, at The Edition Singapore. The exhibition is open to the public from 21st to 25th January 2026, also at The Edition. More details available on their website