Maverick contemporary artists buck modern trend

Around the world, Chinese contemporary art continues to be a hot ticket item. But where it was once Beijing artists who stole the limelight, attention is now turning to innovative, independent-thinking Shanghai artists.

Chinese contemporary art is soaring in both profile and price. While Beijing artists are grabbing most of the limelight, an untold story is the rise of the Shanghai art scene.

Characterized by new media, installation and experimental art forms, Shanghai\’s cutting-edge artists have reacted against the trend of \”art for the market.\”

Chinese art caught international attention only very recently. The turning point came in 2006 when Sotheby\’s and Christie\’s, the world\’s largest auction houses, sold Chinese contemporary artworks for record prices.

Since then Beijing-based painters such as Zhang Xiaogang, Wang Guangyi and Liu Xiaodong have dominated the scene. Zhang in particular with his family portraits of \”cultural revolution\” (1966-76) imagery has topped the bill, beating records again this April with a painting that sold for more than US$6 million.

But sudden success has bred speculation of an inflated market that rewards art with the \”China brand\” – obvious Chinese imagery that appeals to foreign bidders.

\”There\’s great interest in the Chinese art market, but it\’s also a puzzle, there\’s very little academic knowledge about it,\” says Pippa Dennis, organizer of Asia Art Forum. \”And Shanghai has an incredibly important role, but this story is often untold. The Asia Art Forum addresses that gap.\”

The event, which starts tomorrow, is organized in collaboration with Arthub, a non-profit art and cultural organization which promotes contemporary art creation in China and the rest of Asia.

The forum features speakers who have been intimately involved with the Chinese and Shanghai art scene. One of the speakers, Karen Smith, is a Beijing-based curator who for the past decade has brought Chinese art to the West in a series of exhibitions at major museums.

Smith says that in the 1990s Shanghai\’s contemporary art scene was more traditional than that of Beijing, but the tables have now turned as Beijing artists attract commercial value.

\”In the past, Shanghai art was \’sweeter\’ and more visually appealing whereas Beijing was more politically oriented and deliberately rough. But today, Beijing\’s art circles are competitive because some artists sell for millions,\” she says.

\”By contrast Shanghai art circles consisting of names such as Xu Zhen, Zhou Tiehai and Ding Yi are smaller, foster discussion and are more experimental.\”

According to Smith, a core group of contemporary Shanghai artists reacted against creating art for the market. They are characterized by new media and installation art that\’s harder to sell at auction, with fewer painters than in Beijing. http://www.kphy.com

Museums exchange skills and exhibitions

The Shanghai Museum and the British Museum are to cooperate on a
series of exhibitions.

An agreement signed during British Prime Minister Gordon Brown\’s
visit to the city also includes exchanging items and sharing
skills.

The exhibitions will include \”Ancient Greece and the Olympic
Games\” in Shanghai in April, and \”Ancient bronze and jade wares\” in
the UK in February 2009.

During the 2010 World Expo, the British Museum will hold an
exhibition on Ancient India in Shanghai in conjunction with
London\’s Victoria and Albert Museum.

Chen Xiejun, curator of the Shanghai Museum, said the two
museums had been sharing expertise since last May.

Chinese painting and calligraphy experts are helping compile an
index of Chinese painting and calligraphy masterpieces in the
British Museum, giving more people the chance to see the works on
the Internet, Chen said.

(Shanghai Daily January 21, 2008)

http://www.pq365.com

Epic Tibetan Thangka paintings to debut during Olympics

A total of 1,288 traditional Thangka paintings, which follow the epic tale of Tibetan hero \”Gesar\”, will be shown here from July 30 to August 20 as a key program for the Olympic Culture Festival.

The artwork series, which depicts the Life of King Gesar, a Tibetan heroic tale and the world\’s longest epic that has been transmitted orally by ballad singers or lyricists for centuries, took more than 100 Tibetan folk painters five years to finish.

With more than 32 million yuan (4.57 million U.S. dollars) investment from Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and other civilian funds, the paintings are said to be the biggest Thangka art project in the world in terms of scale and technique.

Each painting is two-meter long and 1.4-meter wide, and underwent eight hand-made processes, including gold outlining and brocade mounting.

\”Ganzi is King Gesar\’s hometown. The artwork reflects our traditional ethnic culture and contributes its own beauty for the Olympics,\” said Li Changping, head of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

Li said following the exhibition in Beijing, the paintings will begin a global tour in Asia, Europe, North America and other places.

Academic research organizations in Tibet have visited 57 local ballad singers who were able to sing the epic and made 5,000 hours of recording. It is said that more new artists are able to sing the epic.

With the help of the Tibet Academy of Social Sciences, 86-year-old Samzhub, one of China\’s 150-odd surviving King Gesar ballad singers, has completed verbatim recording of 45 episodes of the epic and 30 publications in the country\’s three-decade campaign to preserve the 1-million-line, 1,000-year-old Tibetan epic.

\”Samzhub\’s version, including opening, ending and many important stories, is comparatively intact. It\’s a historic record for an artist to sing \’Gesar\’ from stem to stem all by himself,\” said Cering Puncog, vice director of the Ethnic Institute under the academy.

In addition, the country\’s local academy organizations are stepping up their recording and publication work for \”Gesar\” in Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2008)

http://www.zokn.com

The shooting star

Even after nearly two decades, Xiao Lu can recall vividly the New Year\’s Eve of 1989, when she drew worldwide attention.

Although she does not remember whether she was nervous or excited that morning, she is sure that the night before she was sleepless, \”thinking hard whether I should do it or not\”.

At dawn, the decision was made.

At about 11 am on Feb 5, 1989, Xiao met with her friend Li Songsong in the corridor outside the west wing of the National Gallery of Fine Arts (now called the National Art Museum of China).

\”You got the pistol?\” Xiao asked eagerly.

\”Yeah!\” Li replied, taking out the pistol. He eased its bolt and then handed it to Xiao.

\”Loaded with three bullets,\” said the young painter Li, who had sneaked out his revolutionary grandma\’s war trophy of the 1940s.

\”Okay,\” said Xiao, grabbing the pistol, her palm sweating and her face flushed.

The national gallery was packed with visitors. The first ever China/Avant-Garde Exhibition had just opened.

The works on display by 186 artists included paintings, installations, performance art, photographs and videos, challenging the conventional, Socialist Realism approach to art.

At the exhibition halls, an artist was touting prawns; another was sitting amid chicken eggs; and yet another was giving away condoms.

Some were crawling on their hands and feet on the open ground in front of the national gallery, which was covered with a black cloth with \”No U-turn\” traffic signs painted on it.

\”The atmosphere at the exhibition was weird but electrifying,\” Xiao recalled.

The pistol hidden in her pocket, Xiao took a deep breath and hurried into the First Exhibition Hall on the ground floor of the national gallery. http://www.kphy.com

Museums exchange skills and exhibitions

The Shanghai Museum and the British Museum are to cooperate on a
series of exhibitions.

An agreement signed during British Prime Minister Gordon Brown\’s
visit to the city also includes exchanging items and sharing
skills.

The exhibitions will include \”Ancient Greece and the Olympic
Games\” in Shanghai in April, and \”Ancient bronze and jade wares\” in
the UK in February 2009.

During the 2010 World Expo, the British Museum will hold an
exhibition on Ancient India in Shanghai in conjunction with
London\’s Victoria and Albert Museum.

Chen Xiejun, curator of the Shanghai Museum, said the two
museums had been sharing expertise since last May.

Chinese painting and calligraphy experts are helping compile an
index of Chinese painting and calligraphy masterpieces in the
British Museum, giving more people the chance to see the works on
the Internet, Chen said.

(Shanghai Daily January 21, 2008)

http://www.cne.cc