Recent years have seen a rapid increase in auction sales of collectibles and “art toys”.
Characters such as Hello Kitty and, more recently, Pepe the Frog, have enjoyed immense popularity among audiences of all ages, particularly in Asia. Now items such as artist Kaws’ Companion sculptures and fellow artist Takashi Murakami’s commercial KaiKai and KiKi lines enjoy similar popularity.
According to auctioneer Phillips, which regularly holds sales of art toys and collectibles, buyers are spread equally between Asia, North America and Europe. Within Asia, more than 60 per cent of the buyers come from Greater China.
In December, Phillips launched an online auction called “Kaws: A Holiday Sale”, and sold the entire selection of compact toys by the US contemporary artist on offer.
Sotheby’s online sale of “toys and multiples” this month did equally well, achieving sales of more than HK$10 million (US$1.3 million). A highlight was the sale of Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara’s 2007 figurine Sleepless Night (Sitting) for HK$600,000.
A big reason for the popularity of such collectibles is the nostalgia they evoke, reminding collectors and buyers of the joy and excitement of receiving and collecting toys when they were children, according to Charlotte Raybaud, Phillips’ head of 20th century and contemporary art in Hong Kong.
[Hong Kong] used to be a place where people would come to produce their ideas - Charlotte Raybaud, Phillips
The city was the global centre of toy manufacturing in the 1970s and 1980s, and Phillips has marked the fifth anniversary of its debut in Hong Kong by releasing a two-part video series, , in which artist and toy designer Eric So traces the history of the local toy industry.
“The first stage was back in the 1960s, when many US and European toy companies moved their toy production to Hong Kong,” So says. “The second stage is now, where there are more and more ‘self-made’ and ‘self-designed’ toys from Hong Kong – the development of new toy designs and the creation of new toys.”
Both So and Raybaud underscore the toy industry’s role in making Hong Kong a creative hub.
“It’s a story that a lot of people don’t think about very often. We’ve always accepted Hong Kong as being a commercial hub, but have overlooked a lot of its history. We used to be a place where people would come to produce their ideas,” says Raybaud.
In the video, So jokes that he himself is “made in Hong Kong”. The figurines and toys he designs are often representations of Hong Kong icons.
He is best known for the Bruce Lee figurines he produced in the 1990s. To So, they “really represented the term Made in Hong Kong, as well as [my] Estate Series, which reflect the community living space style common in Hong Kong during from the 1960s to the 1980s”.
As these objects enter the global art market, toys have been conferred a new status, he says. “They are no longer really toys at all: art toys are now just art,” says So.
By combining art, design, and toy making, So, like Kaws, Japanese artists Nara and Yayoi Kusama, and American artist Daniel Arsham, makes art more accessible.
A particularly successful example of this crossover is Arsham's collaboration with luxury brand Dior, Raybaud says.
In this way, art infiltrates lifestyle and vice versa, whether through fashion, furniture, or collectible toys.
