Budi Tek (1957–2022) – Artforum International
Up to date artwork collector and philanthropist Budjiardo “Budi” Tek, the influential founding father of Shanghai’s Yuz Museum who elevated the presence of Chinese language and Asian artwork on the worldwide stage, died March 18 in Hong Kong on the age of sixty-five following a six-year battle with pancreatic most cancers. Since starting to gather in 2004, Tek constantly delivered to consideration not solely artwork made in China within the politically risky decade spanning 1985–1995, to which he was particularly drawn, however the work of younger and rising modern Chinese language artists. Tek was moreover instrumental in bringing worldwide modern artwork to China, a lot of it by Western artists—akin to Italian sculptor Maurizo Cattelan, whose 2000 Untitled (The Tree of Life) occupies the middle of Yuz Museum Shanghai—influenced by Chinese language artwork.
Born in 1957 in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Chinese language mother and father, Tek grew up in Singapore, ultimately making his fortune as president and director of Indonesian poultry firm Sierad Produce, which sold everything from rooster feed to reside birds to processed meat. Regardless of his success, he informed LEAP in 2013, he famous that in Indonesia within the latter half of the previous century, Chinese language immigrants and their descendants have been considered lesser. Looking for to disprove the notion that Chinese language folks weren’t cultured, Tek in 2006 established the non-public Yuz Museum in Jakarta (the establishment has since shuttered). Eight years later, he established the a lot bigger Yuz Museum Shanghai, repurposing and deserted plane hangar within the West Bund district, which had not but grow to be the bustling arts hub it’s at the moment. A fan of what he referred to as “mega artworks,” large sculptures and installations which can be notoriously tough to point out, Tek rapidly put the 9,000-square-foot house within the service of such works, held in his 1,500-piece assortment. Amongst these he displayed have been Xu Bing’s tiger pores and skin long-established from 600,000 cigarettes, from the artist’s 2004 Tobacco Venture; Solar Yuan and Peng Yu’s 2009 Freedom, a colossal mechanical set up that includes a wildly whipping rubber hose; and Adel Abdessemed’s 2008 set up Like Mom Like Son, comprising three wingless jet planes braided collectively. Exhibitions hosted by Yuz Museum Shanghai embrace these that includes rising multimedia artists Chen Ke and Ni Youyu in addition to main exhibits of Western artists together with Alberto Giacometti, KAWS, and Andy Warhol. The establishment twice displayed Random Worldwide’s immersive Rain Room, which Tek particularly liked; at his dying, a landmark present of labor by Yoshitomo Nara, organized at the side of the Los Angeles County Museum of Artwork (LACMA) and Qatar Museums, had simply opened.
Tek, who was recognized with most cancers shortly after inaugurating Yuz Museum Shanghai, had lengthy sought to cement his legacy by taking the establishment public, a transfer that mirrored what many characterised as his sometimes beneficiant nature. Yuz Museum in 2018 entered a partnership with LACMA through which the 2 establishments shared artworks and teamed up on curatorial efforts; Quatar Museums entered this alliance in 2019. Although the pandemic, tightening restrictions in China, and Tek’s illnesss considerably slowed progress towards Yuz Museum turning into public, LACMA final yr staged the well-regarded “Legacies of Alternate: Chinese language Up to date Artwork from the Yuz Basis,” that includes numerous works from Tek’s private assortment. On March 7, it was introduced that Tek had donated seven works from the present to LACMA, amongst them work by Zhou Tiehai and Yu Youhan, an set up by Qiu Anxiong set up, and Ai Weiwei’s 2011 Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads.
A religious Christian, Tek described amassing as “an train in endurance; it’s the religion, hope, and love of an inventive life.” Along with his work with the Yuz musuems, he was a member of Asia-Pacific and a collector member of Tate Britain. Tek was anointed an Officer of the Legion of Honor of France in 2017. “My life goes to be ending—all people’s life is ending—however the artworks may have a for much longer lifespan than us, as a result of they recorded historical past,” he informed Artnet News in 2019. “It’s very particular for me to be the keeper of this historical past.”
