Sotheby’s Hong Kong opens “PSYCHO” exhibition: 18 works from Rothko to Van Gogh explore the human inner world

Sotheby’s auction house opened on September 17 at its new Sotheby’s Maison in Hong Kong the exhibition “PSYCHO: Identity Alienation Shadow Duality”, a selection of 18 modern and contemporary artworks — as well as rare books — exploring human identity, alienation, shadow and duality. The exhibition remains open through September 27, 2026.

The word “psycho” comes from ancient Greek, where it meant the soul or the “breath of life” — and the enigmas of the human psyche have teased artists, philosophers and scientists for millennia. In the spirit of Sigmund Freud’s theories on the clash between the unconscious impulse and self-awareness, the exhibition invites visitors into liminal worlds where the way of seeing becomes an inquiry into what it means to be human.

Among the stars of the selection is Mark Rothko with “Untitled (Plum and Dark Brown)” (1964), painted shortly before the sketches for the Rothko Chapel in Houston, with dark tonalities that draw the viewer into a quiet dialogue with the beyond.

Yayoi Kusama is represented with her iconic pumpkin “Pumpkin (TWPOT)” (2010), a work that in 2019 set an auction record for a pumpkin painting by the artist. Also featured is Yoshitomo Nara’s monumental installation “The Crated Room in Iceland / Drawing Room” (2009), not publicly exhibited for 17 years, as well as Matthew Wong’s “The Edge” (2019) — one of the last works of his short but brilliant life.

A special place is held by Adrian Ghenie with the portrait “Lidless Eye” (2016), a modern revisitation of the self-portraits Vincent van Gogh painted in 1889 at the Saint-Rémy-de-Provence asylum, while recovering from his nervous crisis — testimony to how historical art continues to haunt the present.

Vincent van Gogh self-portrait — the “PSYCHO” exhibition presents Adrian Ghenie’s “Lidless Eye” (2016), a modern revisitation of Van Gogh’s Saint-Rémy self-portraits. Photo: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

The composition is completed by rare literary editions: the first edition of Bret Easton Ellis’s “American Psycho” and a 17th-century volume of Robert Burton’s “The Anatomy of Melancholy”, first published in 1621.

The exhibition is held at Sotheby’s Maison in Landmark Chater, Hong Kong, as part of preparations for the autumn auction season in Asia, where the evening auction of modern and contemporary art takes place on September 28.

Source: Sotheby’s