http://798district.com/798/en/home/
http://www.ucca.org.cn/
"the step toward a more cultured society"
This little quote opens Beijing's Summer art calendar, where I was surprised to discover a concentration of great exhibitions, collections and projects.
Communist china, with its liberal economy, is definitely changing quickly since its entry on the global market, and rapid modernisation. Walls are falling down and are opening one after another.
The arts, a great and old aspect of China's historical/cultural heritage are slowly becoming a social tool for young social activists.
China is everywhere, even on the art markets where not only contemporary Chinese artists are gaining acknowledgement, but Chinese art buyers are having an extremely strong influence on the rise of art market's prices.
After the cultural revolution's destruction of a huge quantity of art works, or simply the loss over the last century of Chinese artifacts to occidental collections, it seems the Chinese are back in search of their past and ready to spend quite a lot, without forgetting the benefit of economic interests, on art.
Here are a few links to some interesting articles, I have stressed what I considered some relevant points, I would suggest you check them out:
http://798district.com/798/en/blog/2012/08/christies-presents-fine-chinese-ceramics-and-works-of-art-in-september/
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/38578/5-reasons-the-chinese-art-boom-may-not-buoy-the-global-art-market-after-all/
--> " those familiar with the Chinese art market stress that Poly and Guardian are not looking for space to hold auctions, and they aren't even throwing a sideways glance at Western art. They are setting up shop to more easily seek out the many Chinese treasures that sit in the parlors of American and European collectors, in order to take them back to China and sell them there. Consequently, while their global reach may expand, their sights aren't really on the international art market, but bringing Chinese treasures back home. "It is no secret that the PCR [Chinese government] wants to achieve dominance in the international market for Chinese art, and the rapid rise of Poly International demonstrates that they are well on their way to achieving that goal," James Lally, a New York-based Chinese art dealer, remarked to ARTINFO. "
http://www.chineseartappraisal.com/chineseartmarket.html
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Here yet again the social division appears through the different perceptions of the art world. A majority of the Chinese population is quite removed from any particular artistic awareness. As I discussed with a Chinese graduate friend, pursuing a degree in International relations, she was very surprised to hear me speak of artists as spokesmen of change since she principally saw art as pure leisure, a hobby.
I strongly this article, link to BBC website
"The search for photos of China's past"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18784990
Touches a great number of topics discussed in the blog, quest for lost identity, use of photography as a voice for the lost, damages of the cultural revolution, reconstruction, art as a social tool...
Very interesting would love to share it with you.
"Old photograph fever is currently sweeping China. A new and intense appetite for images of the country's past has resulted in a publishing phenomenon - sales of books of historical photographs have rocketed."
"But now China is opening its horizons, looking to the West and to the past, to reclaim its cosmopolitan history."
"After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Chinese leaders concluded that young people did not fully appreciate what the Communist Party had done for China, so they began an ambitious new policy of historical education, the Patriotic Education Movement. The craze for old photographs is partly a by-product of this movement."
"Rapid urban development in China has meant that historic buildings and neighbourhoods have been swept away and replaced with skyscrapers. They exist now only in people's memories or in these photographs."
(about this quotation please read my previous article on photography, you might know why I was so keen that surfing the internet brought me to this article, with which I immediately connected.)
This little quote opens Beijing's Summer art calendar, where I was surprised to discover a concentration of great exhibitions, collections and projects.
Communist china, with its liberal economy, is definitely changing quickly since its entry on the global market, and rapid modernisation. Walls are falling down and are opening one after another.
The arts, a great and old aspect of China's historical/cultural heritage are slowly becoming a social tool for young social activists.
After the cultural revolution's destruction of a huge quantity of art works, or simply the loss over the last century of Chinese artifacts to occidental collections, it seems the Chinese are back in search of their past and ready to spend quite a lot, without forgetting the benefit of economic interests, on art.
Here are a few links to some interesting articles, I have stressed what I considered some relevant points, I would suggest you check them out:
http://798district.com/798/en/blog/2012/08/christies-presents-fine-chinese-ceramics-and-works-of-art-in-september/
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/38578/5-reasons-the-chinese-art-boom-may-not-buoy-the-global-art-market-after-all/
--> " those familiar with the Chinese art market stress that Poly and Guardian are not looking for space to hold auctions, and they aren't even throwing a sideways glance at Western art. They are setting up shop to more easily seek out the many Chinese treasures that sit in the parlors of American and European collectors, in order to take them back to China and sell them there. Consequently, while their global reach may expand, their sights aren't really on the international art market, but bringing Chinese treasures back home. "It is no secret that the PCR [Chinese government] wants to achieve dominance in the international market for Chinese art, and the rapid rise of Poly International demonstrates that they are well on their way to achieving that goal," James Lally, a New York-based Chinese art dealer, remarked to ARTINFO. "
Here are a few links to some interesting articles, I have stressed what I considered some relevant points, I would suggest you check them out:
http://798district.com/798/en/blog/2012/08/christies-presents-fine-chinese-ceramics-and-works-of-art-in-september/
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/38578/5-reasons-the-chinese-art-boom-may-not-buoy-the-global-art-market-after-all/
--> " those familiar with the Chinese art market stress that Poly and Guardian are not looking for space to hold auctions, and they aren't even throwing a sideways glance at Western art. They are setting up shop to more easily seek out the many Chinese treasures that sit in the parlors of American and European collectors, in order to take them back to China and sell them there. Consequently, while their global reach may expand, their sights aren't really on the international art market, but bringing Chinese treasures back home. "It is no secret that the PCR [Chinese government] wants to achieve dominance in the international market for Chinese art, and the rapid rise of Poly International demonstrates that they are well on their way to achieving that goal," James Lally, a New York-based Chinese art dealer, remarked to ARTINFO. "
http://www.chineseartappraisal.com/chineseartmarket.html
-------------------------
-------------------------
Here yet again the social division appears through the different perceptions of the art world. A majority of the Chinese population is quite removed from any particular artistic awareness. As I discussed with a Chinese graduate friend, pursuing a degree in International relations, she was very surprised to hear me speak of artists as spokesmen of change since she principally saw art as pure leisure, a hobby.
I strongly this article, link to BBC website
"The search for photos of China's past"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18784990
Very interesting would love to share it with you.
"But now China is opening its horizons, looking to the West and to the past, to reclaim its cosmopolitan history."
"After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Chinese leaders concluded that young people did not fully appreciate what the Communist Party had done for China, so they began an ambitious new policy of historical education, the Patriotic Education Movement. The craze for old photographs is partly a by-product of this movement."
"Rapid urban development in China has meant that historic buildings and neighbourhoods have been swept away and replaced with skyscrapers. They exist now only in people's memories or in these photographs."
(about this quotation please read my previous article on photography, you might know why I was so keen that surfing the internet brought me to this article, with which I immediately connected.)
