Born in Bandung, West Java in 1973, Christine Ay Tjoe is one of Indonesia's most prominent female contemporary artists. Her works are rejections of glamour and remunerative prospects of mass production and commerce. They are intensely spiritual and humanist in essence. The rare to market line-up of Ay Tjoe's works in this season's sale showcases the figurative dominant works in her oeuvre, as distinct from the semi-abstract and abstract works. Three works between the years 2001 and 2008 exemplify the longstanding importance of the human figure in her work, ranging from painting to etching and drawing dominant in her early career as well as during her art residency in 2008 in Singapore.
Tiga Raja (Three Kings) (Lot 2389) is an extremely rare and fresh to market work painted by the artist as a gift for a collector in 2001. Managing to vary the the strength and intensity of her lines, Ay Tjoe merely hints at the forms of the kings. In contrast to the rest of their faces and bodies, the hands of the kings are rendered with relatively more detail, with dark patches to mark out shadows and define their shapes. The viewer's eyes are drawn to their bony hands, holding strings of pearls, knitting needles and yarn. The figure of the king on the left has his finger to his lips, his chin tilted upwards as though in a pensive mood. The work appears to be an allusion to the three wise men from the Biblical story, but Ay Tjoe appropriates the story to accommodate her narrative, replacing the gifts of the magi with other items, each holding personal symbolism.