2012年3月20日星期二

Chinese Contemporary’s Achilles Heel



After disappointing sales for Bonham’s in Hong Kong, the auctions held by Poly International Auction Company in Beijing has impressed even the duopoly of Sotheby’s and Christies. The FT articleInto the Void by Natasha Degen reported that Poly’s last auction was a success with the 80% Chinese and 10% Western patrons bidding on the highest quality works seen together in the auction market.
The art market has curiously become important inChina which experts argue is due to the absence of an established museum infrastructure. Chinese museums do not have high curatorial standards and rarely exhibit contemporary art. “Right now there’s a void, so the galleries and the auction companies have naturally filled that void,” said Beijing dealer Meg Maggio. “It’s like we’re missing the third point on the triangle.”
American collector of Chinese Contemporary and owner of 210 works said the shortage of important exhibitions in China, and in the West, was Chinese contemporary art’s “Achilles heel.” “There’s not a good conceptual understanding of what the art’s all about,” says Logan. “Everybody can quote the prices but there’s not a real thorough understanding of why this art is important and where it fits into the total scheme of things.”
Beijing has been developing to correct this void of knowledge which is affecting new collectors, wanting to own Chinese Contemporary. The Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art is opening this fall, the Central Academy of Art’s Museum of Contemporary Art is under construction, there is also the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre and The Poly Group is restructuring their art museum of antiquities to include Contemporary Art.
Predictions are that the new museums and serious contemporary art spaces will divert attention away from the auctions, or private/commercial sector, to curators and critics for validation.
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Wu Guanzhong, Ancient City of Jiaohe (1981)
Sold to a Singaporean Chinese for a record ¥37 million or $4.9 million at Poly

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