tycobb Posted November 3, 2004 Share Posted November 3, 2004 NEWS Graffiti artist gets his day Posted Mon, 01 Nov 2004 Chinese calligraphy painted by an elderly Hong Kong man renowned for daubing the streets with graffiti has sold at auction for HK$55 000 ($7050), auction house Sotheby's said on Monday. The sale of the black-ink characters painted on board was the first commercial recognition given to 83-year old Tsang Tsou-choi who has spent almost five decades covering public spaces with Chinese characters. Tsang calls himself the King of Kowloon — an area of Hong Kong — because he believes he is descended from an ancient line of Chinese royalty. He claims the millions of characters he has painted over walls, phone boxes, paving stones and even cars, were the names of descendents stripped of their royal status over the centuries. "The buyer was a local first-time purchaser who believes Tsang's work is representative of modern Hong Kong," a spokesperson for Sotheby's said. The HK$55 000 the work fetched was more than double the reserve price of HK$25 000, she added. Derided as a pest by police who arrested him many times for vandalism, but hailed as an artist by others, Tsang is now wheelchair-bound and unable to deface public spaces. Instead he continues to daub his lists of names on paper, board and anything else given to him by wardens at the old people's home where he now lives, reports said. Tsang reacted to the news of the sale with surprise, asking "is my art worth that much?" according to a report in the South China Morning Post. The sale was arranged by a friend, photographer Lau Kin-wai, who told the Post the money would mostly go to Tsang but some would go towards an exhibition of his work. AFP GOOD FOR HIM. GO KING..GO! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest imported_b0b Posted November 4, 2004 Share Posted November 4, 2004 I was in HK abotu 3 years ago and the dude is up in some fucking busy spots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Producto Posted November 4, 2004 Share Posted November 4, 2004 50 years of bombing?? fucking king and a half Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfamousOne Posted November 4, 2004 Share Posted November 4, 2004 ninja style baby... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T.T Boy Posted November 5, 2004 Share Posted November 5, 2004 ive seen a few flicks of this guy, but ive heard hes up like an animal, on everything. someone should start a thread if they have any photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T.T Boy Posted November 5, 2004 Share Posted November 5, 2004 here we go, i did a quick googl search and found a cool pbase gallery on him. this stuff is beautiful. pbase wont let me link photos so heres the link. http://www.pbase.com/frankomania/tsang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodney Trotter Posted November 11, 2004 Share Posted November 11, 2004 I've just come back from a trip to Kowloon. I'm sad to say I didn't see any of this guys writing anywhere. I did see a few BNE ONE and Petro tags down the back alleys though. Over in mainland China I came across people doing a similar thing on a couple of occasions. If you go to public parks you'll see these old guys with brushes on the ends of poles writing their words and messages on the floor. Although rather than using ink they use water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest imported_b0b Posted November 11, 2004 Share Posted November 11, 2004 Originally posted by Rodney Trotter@Nov 11 2004, 02:37 PM If you go to public parks you'll see these old guys with brushes on the ends of poles writing their words and messages on the floor. Although rather than using ink they use water. Quoted post I was in Shanghai about a year ago and that was going on big time - they are writing nice things about wishing people luck & health apparently. Picture from my trip: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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