The Art Basel Collectors’ Breakfast included a conversation between the seasoned art collector and the fair’s Hong Kong director, Angelle Siyang-Le
When? November 29, 2023
Where? Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong
Who? Alan Lau, Angelle Siyang-Le
Here’s what you missed:
On November 29 morning, Art Basel invited a group of art lovers and collectors to Island Shangri-La’s Restaurant Petrus for an intimate breakfast and to attend a conversation between vice-chair of M+ museum Alan Lau and Art Basel Hong Kong’s director, Angelle Siyang-Le.
While feasting on eggs benedict, French toast and other breakfast classics, guests listened avidly to Lau’s own collecting journey and outlook. While the conversation started on a light note—with Siyang-Le asking Lau how he starts the day and Lau admitting “I do the one thing you’re not supposed to, I check my phone”—the dialogue gradually veered towards Lau’s thoughts and approach to art collecting.
Unlike most art lovers, he didn’t initially see the appeal of painting and his entry point into art was street art—his first purchase was a work by Tsang Tsou-choi, the famous King of Kowloon, who used to mark the streets of Hong Kong in his distinctive style and was only indoctrinated into typical art world spaces like white cube galleries and museums after his death.
“When I first started collecting, I collected strange things, like videos and installation. I didn’t understand paintings—particularly abstract paintings,” says Lau, referring to the genre people usually start their collections with. “What captivated me about contemporary art is the concept. I come from a science background, so I understand concepts. It’s only more recently that I started to understand paintings, when I started hanging out with more curators, artists and gallerists who are [now] teaching me how to appreciate paintings.”
The arts patron has come a long way from his first King of Kowloon work purchase (the one he admitted thinking would be the start and end of his collection) to becoming a discerning collector through mishaps and experiences. “There was one point where I was buying a piece every month”, the collector says, talking about the addictive nature of art collecting. He retold an anecdote about having to return a particularly large sculpture to a gallery because it couldn’t fit into any of the elevators in any storage facility holding his collections.
But it’s really Lau’s involvement with institutions both international and local which has made his collection and influence more prominent in recent years. He referred to his roles on the boards of Tate’s Asia Pacific acquisition committee, local art centre Para Site, and M+ as his “side gig”—but one that he’s truly passionate about. Talking about his involvement with M+, he says, “Before there was an actual building, it was just a museum committee. I’ve seen it go from an architectural drawing on a pdf to a physical building where thousands of people visit every day. It’s then you realise the extent of the impact you can have.”
The talk ended with a Q&A session with the audience, with lots of interesting questions including one on how M+ seeks to position itself among other museums in Hong Kong and how it hopes to sustain successful programming. Lau answered, “When people visit from other Asian countries, such as South Korea, Japan or Singapore, they don't come and say, ‘oh, this is a Hong Kong museum’, they see themselves in artworks by artists from their countries. If you look at the collection in its entirety—you see it’s really telling an Asia story.”
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