weeekend standard, June 25-26, 2005
Then hammer it up ... and up
Sylvia Hui

The scene resembled a Sunday family fair: Mothers and young children holding balloons strolled about, long queues gathered at the refreshment counter where people stood sipping tea because there weren't enough tables, a young man lovingly took his girlfriend's picture at the entrance.

But this was no carnival. It was an art market.

These people were at the Convention and Exhibition Center in Wan Chai for the opening of Destination: Hong Kong, Christie's spring auctions of Asian art, jewelry and watches last month. The pre-sale exhibition alone attracted more than 4,500 people every day. The phen-omenal human traffic barely abated during the four-day event and while most of the horde was likely to be merely window-shopping, there was plenty of serious money on hand also. The sale itself netted nearly HK$1 billion, a record high for any series of auctions in Asia, according to Christie's.

It was no easy task to take in the plethora of lots - 877 were on offer in the paintings and mixed-media art category alone. It included contemporary oils, modern brush paintings and classical calligraphy from China and Southeast Asia. About 400 lots of Chinese ceramics and works of art, large amounts of jewels and watches and even pieces by Im-pressionists and acclaimed masters such as Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud were on hand, although these works were sold in London, not Hong Kong.
But the real action took place in the auction room proper. It was bursting with people. Christie's upped the ante considerably by moving the sale to a venue four times larger than its old stronghold, the JW Marriot Hotel. Bigger crowds - and bigger money - responded.

``Obviously, we were looking for good results, but the result was beyond our wildest imagination,'' said Stephen Cheng, regional chief operating officer of Christie's Asia.

In two days, the auction house's Asian art sales achieved a record level of more than HK$698 million, 42 percent higher than the previous best set by Christie's Hong Kong last October. The star of the sale was Zhao Wuji's Juin-Octobre 1985 which went for a record HK$18 million.

Together with the jewelry and watches, the total sale was HK$990 million, a 38 percent increase over the last record-setting season, continuing the upward march of prices in the auction market.

The venue switch and a change in the auction timetable, which sees Christie's and rival auctioneer Sotheby's hosting sales at different times, are part of an expansion move driven by rocketing sales of Chinese art in the past two years. In the past, the two houses always competed head-to-head - on the same days and across from each other in the JW Marriot and Island Shangri-la hotels.

``We're confident that we can do it on our own in a new venue and a month later than Sotheby's,'' Cheng said before the sale, claiming that Christie's has a 60 percent share of the auction market in here. ``We've seen encouraging results and successful sales since autumn 2003. We've always had a larger market share than Sotheby's, but this spring we are putting our sales further ahead,'' he claimed.

The performance of 20th-century Chinese paintings and modern brush paintings was particularly strong. Christie's 20th-century collection, mostly modern and abstract oil paint-ings such as those by masters Zhao and Wu Guanzhong, fetched a total of HK$208 million last month, the highest achieved in this category anywhere.

``It's a global trend that modern post-war art is going very strong. Hong Kong is no exception,'' Cheng said. ``It's only the start of a nice upswing.''

According to Christie's public relations manager Victoria Cheng, these pieces tend to attract the attention of Western and Southeast Asian buyers as well as well-educated overseas Chinese ``who have had more exposure to Western trends.'' The bulk of mainland buyers, however, stick to the modern and contemporary Chinese brush paintings of the ``traditional'' style.

Popular because of their more quintessentially ``Chinese'' themes and painted by established names such as Xu Beihong and Zhang Daqian, ink and brush paintings are in increasing demand and their price tags reflect that. Xu's Two Horses under Pine Trees, for example, fetched HK$9.7 million at Christie's, triple its estimate, while at Sotheby's spring auction a piece by Xie Zhiliu, Luxuriant Pines, went for HK$9 million against an estimate of just HK$600,000 to HK$800,000.

Managing director of Sotheby's China, Southeast Asia and Australia, Henry Howard-Sneyd, said: ``The Chinese brush and ink market is dominated by Chinese from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, the mainland and overseas. It's a long-time trend that there are few Western collectors of traditional Chinese art.''

He noted, however, that despite the influx of mainland bidders, many don't end up as the end buyers. ``They're significantly pushing the market on and providing extra weight of interest, forcing top-end collectors to dig deeper,'' he said. In ceramics and works of art, where Qing and Ming Dynasty pieces continue to lead the field, the West is still largely victorious, Howard-Sneyd added. He put the price rise of these items at roughly 10 to 25 percent this season.

He said Sotheby's is closely watching Christie's expansion but he is cautious about following suit. He does not favor the mass-market approach. ``It's the first time any of us has seen this. I'm impressed, but we will not necessarily follow,'' he said.

``We're concerned that we maintain the exclusivity. It's not a question of volume but of authenticity and quality.''

Sotheby's is not pursuing a niche market but simply maintaining a ``high standard of curatorial integrity'' in its sales, he added.

Last month, the auction house achieved HK$189 million with a comparatively small number (311) of lots of Chinese paintings and contemporary art, and HK$259 million with 211 lots of Chinese ceramics and works of art. Total sales, including jewels and watches, was HK$634 million.

``People often say 1.2 billion toothbrushes is a huge market, but our market isn't made up of 1.2 billion people. Our market is [on a] much smaller scale, a much higher level.

``What we're looking for is not to crowd exhibition spaces with sight-seers,'' Howard-Sneyd said.

Christie's Stephen Cheng, however, bristles at the idea the house is simply throwing things at the market. ``We're just trying to meet the market's demand - Chinese paintings are very buoyant at the moment. It doesn't mean we are sacrificing quality. That is entirely not true. At a professional auction house quality is a major issue and must be addressed first.

``We've managed to transform the Convention Center from a place [where] people do trade shows to something like a museum environment. That has changed our per-ceptions of our client group entirely,'' he said.

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Weekend/GF27Jp01.html

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weeekend standard, June 25-26, 2005
Get smart to art
Julia Tanski
[3 images] PHOTO BY: SIMON SONG

With a computer click, we can change our home decor by going online to Corbis, Bill Gates' catalogue of digital images, and downloading one of its 40,000 pictures on to a living room flat screen. According to Forbes Magazine, however, Gates is not the real McCoy. He was left off Forbes's list of top billionaire art collectors as he was considered a "mere dabbler or enthusiastic amateur.''

For Forbes, a true collector is someone who is "playing by the rules of the international art market [and collecting] with consistency, boundless appetites and the necessary billions to satisfy them.'' Those billions could be replaced by hundreds or thousands for you and me. Creating a congenial home environment is important; collecting art can be a spiritual quest.

Since ancient Greece, collecting art has been a human preoccupation. Art collections have evolved from curious objects to paintings to video art, grow-ing from one room to a whole museum.

The definitions surrounding coll-ecting have evolved as well. Religious boundaries gave way to secular ones and then official commands were made redundant by the avant- garde.

The 19th and especially 20th cen-turies saw art become increasingly accessible to the general public. Royal collections became public. Private collections were donated to museums or became museums, such as the Frick Collection in New York. The last 20 years brought about blockbuster exhibitions that everyone had to see.

Venerated auction houses such as Christie's and Sotheby's have also created a posh aura around the art market.

Record-breaking auction sales often dictate what is in vogue and collectors can track their investments online at artprice.com and receive the latest sales results.

Although far from being the most advanced city in terms of collecting, Hong Kong is a great place to start buying art. There are a few galleries that stand out, representing internationally competitive artists of good value. Heading straight to them will help you save time and money.

The most accessible work is contemporary art. And walking along the gallery row area of Wyndham Road to Hollywood Road into SoHo, it would seem that the majority of galleries are selling either Chinese or Vietnamese painters. There is an interest for this art among Hong Kong enthusiasts but it can be hard to know the status of a given artist.

``The difficulty with most Hong Kong galleries is that they promote their artists as established when there is no international or institutional measure to back this up,'' says Dominique Perregaux of Art Statements Gallery.

``In fact, there is no secondary market for these works, as the prices are, on a global level, unfounded. If you want to invest in art, it's a serious game and you have to look beyond the local market as, like other in-vestments, liquidity is key.''

As clients become more sophisticated, there is a thirst for something else and few galleries have this approach. In most Hong Kong galleries it seems that more attention is paid to interior design than to the knowledge of the salespeople. The truly exceptional gallery spaces will most often be relatively bare but the gallery director will add the insight that makes the difference.

Remember that no question is stupid. Being informed of the basics before going into a gallery will, however, speed up the process and create a better relationship. The Internet can provide a good overview of terminology and techniques. In the gallery, take full advantage of the person in front of you. Let them help you to understand the works they represent.

Setting out to buy art is a complicated business, however, and the golden rule - ``buy what you like'' - is misleading in its simplicity. It encourages impulse buying and omits a necessary step: Developing your eye. John Batten of the John Batten Gallery advises the person who just walks in and wants to start collecting, ``to walk out again.''

``Successful collecting is all about building up confidence and knowledge - art is visual and regularly visiting galleries builds a collector's knowledge about what is `visually intelligent,''' he says.

He encourages beginners to start with photography as it comes in all sizes and prices, but advises that only with ``a knowledge of photographic history can you judge how and why a particular photograph falls within the photographic canon. With knowledge and time, these judgments become second nature, your viewing becomes confident and the photographs you buy will reflect your knowledge.''

When comparing Chinese photography with that from other Asian countries, Batten is outspoken. ``It is Chinese photography that will most be seen in the world's public museums - curators are preoccupied with China and governments are keen to promote trade by encouraging cultural and art exchanges, so money is available for Chinese art exhibitions, whereas the Philippines and Indonesia - which could be argued to have equally if not more talented artists - are much less seen.''

Batten represents artists from all over the Asia-Pacific, looking for ``reasonably priced and excellent artists that will last the test of time.''

Insightful articles on the local art scene and local cultural issues as well as precise information on particular artists can be accessed on his Web site, www.johnbattengallery.com. ``Always deal with honest art dealers who are or have been in the business long-term,'' he advises beginners. ``Avoid hard-sell tactics and gallery employees who have little artistic knowledge but a great sales pitch. Good dealers should be happy to allow you to buy artwork over a period of time and, if you ever change your mind in the future, have a policy to buy back or exchange that artwork.''

Director of 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Katie de Tilly, says: ``The artists I would suggest to a first-time buyer depend on the budget the buyer has.'' De Tilly represents sculptor Wang Keping, photo weaver Dinh Q Le and the photographic couple Mu Chen and Shao Yinong.

Whether your interest is to simply buy art or to collect it is part of getting to know yourself, says Amelia Johnson, of Amelia Johnson Contemporary Gallery.

``There is a big distinction between buying art and collecting art and the types of people who do it,'' she ex-plains. ``If you are a true collector, you are passionate about it. You spend a lot of time going around galleries, meeting artists, meeting dealers. It is not about making a return on your money. If the art you buy does make massive money, you feel rewarded for your taste.

``Buyers, on the other hand, buy to fill a space in their room. They come in and say, `I really like that, but I have no room for that on my wall.' A true collector would never say that.''

Johnson also deals in international contemporary art. From Japanese figurative painter Chiharu Nishizawa to Australian textural painter Mitchell McAuley to Anglo-Chinese ceramicist Caroline Cheng, Johnson has a selection of core artists who she represented for several years at the now-defunct Martini Gallery and now at her own space. She also consults for private and corporate collectors.

She advises her clients to use their gut feeling and to create a relationship with the artist. ``The beauty and excitement of contemporary art is that there are no rules. You can end up buying something worthless or make a real killing. Meeting the artist and understanding what he is trying to say and where he is coming from, having that relationship, is very important.''

How easy is it to meet artists in Hong Kong? Most artists are present at gallery openings and are available for interviews through the gallery owner. In New York, you would have to wade through a phalanx of chatty people to get even a glimpse of the artist at a one-man-show at Leo Castelli's Gallery on the East Side. In Hong Kong, the painter may be twiddling his or her thumbs waiting to talk.

Art Statements has been in Hong Kong for just over a year and has a collection of internationally recognized conceptual artists.

After a year of building relationships with clients Dominique Perregaux says they are now beginning to buy.

``This is normal. It takes a year of looking, learning, coming back again and again, to finally decide to invest in a work of art.''

His advice to someone interested in collecting is ``to think beyond the emotional reaction of the work to its international credibility. You need to follow trends and world-class standards in the sense of having confidence in what the world market has put together as a choice.

``Next, you need to let your dealer or dealers, with their professional experience and their role as a link to the global art world, give you options.''

Perregaux represents artists such as Erwin Olaf, Micha Klein and Fabien Verschaere, whose current exposition at the Guangdong Museum of Art is one of many international venues for the artist.

``In Hong Kong, people need time to understand and acknowledge the quality and importance of such artists,'' says Perregaux.

Patrick Lee is one of the SAR's most talented artists who Perregaux is putting through the test - to gain international and institutional credibility - by exhibiting his work at galleries worldwide. ``It took a lot of time before finding such a great artist in Hong Kong, as my credibility is at stake,'' he says.

Perhaps this international barometer is what is lacking in most Hong Kong galleries. If an artist can be recognized on a larger level, and his or her work has meaning for you, it could be an excellent investment. Achieving this delicate emotional and economic balance is pivotal to a successful art collection.

Hanart TZ Gallery's positioning and artistic resources are already established on this international level. Gallery director Chang Tsong-zung has served as a consultant on many of the big international exhibitions on Chinese art, such as Paris-Pekin in 2002, as well as for the West Kowloon project. The artists he represents are a who's who of contemporary Chinese art.

``In Hong Kong, collectors like to have something to share with others - a cultural communion. Ink painting has a strong footing in this approach to art,'' says Chang.

The Yellow Box is a show of contemporary calligraphy and painting that Chang curated earlier this year at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in Taiwan. Calligraphy and ink painting's importance is bound to grow as traditional Chinese art without Western influence has attained extravagant prices over the last two years.

``Traditional cultural habits are more resilient than thought,'' concludes Chang. Even with the Cultural Revolution and communist upheaval, Chinese people did not forget their cultural traditions.

Chang says Para/Site Art Space is ``the most intelligently constructed art space in Hong Kong.'' This charitable organization was founded by seven local artists in 1996 as a response to the limitations of conventional exhibition space. Other international artists are now also exhibited at its Central and Sheung Wan sites and it produces a quarterly bilingual art magazine PS.

Hanart has hosted Para/Site Central since 1998 but leaves the organization curated and managed independently.

For a more advanced research, the Asia Art Archives (AAA) is a mine of information. Located on Hollywood Road and unique in the world, it is a type of library where you can research artists or exhibitions and page through catalogues, reference books or periodicals. The AAA also organizes seminars and exhibitions on current issues or artists. It is a cultural resource bank of living artists and current art.

A collection can grow from anything - stamps or statues or Warhols. No one can dictate what to buy but putting down money for art work demands reflection. Collecting is a subjective process and in order to create a personalized art collection, it takes passion and money. The latter will determine where you start and the former where you end.

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Weekend/GF25Jp01.html

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www.chinaview.cn 2005-06-22
Masterpieces of noted Chinese artists up for auction

HANGZHOU, June 22 (Xinhuanet) -- China will auction 75 pieces of traditional paintings and calligraphy by ten renowned modern Chinese artists in early July, the organizer of the auction has said.

The artwork to be auctioned between July 2 to 3 in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, includes masterpieces of distinguished late Chinese masters Wu Changshuo, Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, Pan Tianshou and Zhang Daqian, known as the "most reputed master of Chinese traditional painting", whose works have been fervently pursued by bidders both at home and abroad.

The auction will display a wide array of paintings and calligraphy works that have been rarely seen in the public before,and their market value is estimated to reach over 50 million yuan (about 6 million US dollars), said Lu Jingqing, general manager of the Hangzhou-based Xiling Seal-Engraving Society Auction Co. Ltd.,the organizer of the upcoming large-scale auction.

Among the exhibits of Wu Changshuo (1844-1927), a master of freehand brushwork as well as a landscapist and a portrait painter, the painting of chrysanthemum and stone that symbolizes longevity in China has drawn particularly great attention from bidders.

The 249 by 102 centimeter "Pond in Spring," one of the two most remarkable paintings depicting cattle by Pan Tianshou (1897-1971),is expected to set a new price record in the forthcoming auction after the painter's "Eagle, Rock and Flora" was auctioned off at nearly 11.72 million yuan (over 1.41 million US dollars) at the China Guardian Auction's 2005 Spring sale.

Pan is well known for his flowers, birds and landscapes in freehand brushwork and was skilled at painting with his fingers. His famous masterpiece "A Corner Beneath Little Dragon Cascade", was exhibited in the United States in May, 1984.

Qi Baishi (1864-1957), well-known for his vivid painting of shrimps, flowers, birds, insects and figures, developed a simple and vigorous art style. He combined Chinese ink and color in a bold way that formed contrasts and harmonies of rich black and bright color.

Xu Beihong (1895-1953) is most famous for his riderless, galloping horses among his other traditional Chinese paintings, oils and pencil drawings that cover a wide range of subjects.

Founded in December 2004, the Xiling auction firm was a subsidiary to the centennial-old Xiling Seal-Engraving Society, a famous Hangzhou-based academic group that specializes in seal-engraving, a traditional Chinese art.

Wu Changshuo served as the first president of the Xiling society, the site of which has been placed under state protection for its historical and cultural value.

Chinese painting and Chinese calligraphy, dated back to some 2,500 years ago with the origin of hieroglyphs, has evolved various styles and schools since its origin.

Enjoying equal importance in the history of Chinese art, Chinese painting and calligraphy constitute an important part of the heritage of national traditional culture and interest in both forms has been growing among people both at home and abroad.

Various training courses and competitions among youngsters and people from all walks of life, and exhibitions of ancient and contemporary paintings and calligraphy works, were held across the country today, carrying forward the development of the path of traditional Chinese culture.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-06/22/content_3120509.htm

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The Art Newspaper.com, June 16, 2005
Banking on China
Influential forces in the Western art world are hovering around the Chinese art scene but the reality is that it is far from mature
By Georgina Adam and Cristina Ruiz
[image] Xiao Hui Wang, Erotic flowers, 2005. With Scalo Gallery

BEIJING. A delegation of Chinese artists, collectors, curators, architects and businessmen left Basel for the Venice Biennale yesterday; they spent two days touring the fair as well as seeing the satellite shows Liste and Volta. Their visit to Art Basel, at the invitation of the fair organisers, is a sign of the growing importance attached to the cultivation of the Chinese market.

Sam Keller, director of Art Basel, confirms that: “Our goal is to bring Chinese artists, galleries, museum people and collectors to Basel.”

Two galleries from China are currently showing at Art Basel. Shanghart has been exhibiting at the Swiss fair for 10 years and last December also participated in the US edition of the event at Miami Beach. The other is CAAW/UrsMeile, a co-operative venture between the China Art and Archives in Beijing and Galerie Urs Melie from Lucerne, which has exhibited at Art Basel for eight years.

Both galleries are showing work by contemporary Chinese artists, while a number of other galleries, including Scalo and Art and Public also have some Chinese works on their stands. In total, there are 45 Chinese artists represented at the fair (see p.6).

So who exactly is buying this work? The market used to be almost exclusively international, with foreign collectors and institutions, such as the Bern-based Sigg collection, buying. More recently, some of the rare but colossally rich mainland Chinese are showing the first signs of interest. “They are spending money like hell”, says Mr Meile.

“Many of those interested in the work have travelled extensively and so do not find contemporary Chinese art as challenging as the previous generation did,” says Laura Zhou of Shanghart. The gallery encourages its Chinese clients to come to fairs like Art Basel to develop their knowledge and taste.

There are also signs of increasing strength in the domestic market; the Beijing painter Liu XiaoDong (b. 1963) recently sold a series of nine paintings of Chinese and Taiwanese soldiers to a Chinese company in Xi’an for $500,000, through a Beijing gallery.

Other sales of Liu’s work include a 1994 work which made $76,932 in May at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong, while another work has recently sold to a Hong Kong collector, for $108,000.

Certainly, this is a booming market at auction: last month Christie’s made its highest ever total at its contemporary art sale in Hong Kong, racking up a sensational $16 million.

Many of the highest-grossing artists in these Hong Kong sales are established names such as Xu Beihong, Fu Baoshi or Lin Fengmian, which were bought massively by Asian private buyers, mainly from Taiwan. Another popular painter is Fang Lijun, the major proponent of cynical realism. Lorenz Helbling of Shanghart dismisses most of them as “salon painters.”

Mr Meile is concerned that the recent auction results can unsettle the market for contemporary Chinese art, disturbing the balance between artists and their galleries and pumping up expectations. As the market is so new, some Chinese artists are not accustomed to working within a gallery system and sometimes will bypass their dealer by selling directly from their studios. This could lead to problems in the case of multiples such as photography, when the dealer needs to know exactly how long the edition is.

The expanding market is underpinned by a dramatic reversal in official Chinese government policy towards contemporary art.

Not so long ago Chinese authorities were in the business of closing down contemporary exhibitions. Curators and artists organised shows furtively: at the 2000 Shanghai Biennial, for example, the official State-subsidised exhibition was accompanied by a crop of impromptu “underground” shows in warehouses and basements, most of which were announced just a few days before they opened to avoid pre-emptive moves by the police. Now Chinese authorities have become enthusiastic champions of domestic contemporary art; last week they inaugurated the first Chinese pavilion at the Venice Biennale and there is talk of a permanent Chinese pavilion to be built in time for the next biennale in 2007.

So what accounts for this volte-face? To say that money is the driving factor would be simplistic. The real reason is a desire to be taken seriously on the international cultural stage. “The Chinese want to be big in Venice and Basel. Compared to a few years ago, there is a generation of no less repressive but more subtle generation of leaders in power. They realise that contemporary art does not seriously threaten their authority,” says Jonathan Napack, a Hong Kong-based advisor to Art Basel.

He cites the example of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin who was embarrassed on an official State visit to France in 2002 by his inability to discuss paintings with president Jacques Chirac; no sooner had he returned to China than he promptly organised remedial lessons in modern art with Fang Di’an, now vice president of the Central Academy of Art in Beijing and the commissioner of the Chinese Pavilion at the current Venice Biennale.

The coup de grace to the legacy of the Cultural Revolution was delivered shortly afterwards when the the ruling Communist Party changed its platform at the prompting of President Jiang and his allies: “The Party no longer represents the workers and peasants but the advanced forces of society,” he said. He was referring to entrepreneurs and other groups such as contemporary artists.

“There is probably a desire to co-opt these people now,” says Mr Napack.

However, notions that this transformation of cultural attitudes and the market will happen overnight are hopelessly optimistic.

There is currently only one major Chinese collector of contemporary art, Guan Yi, 39, son of a chemical manufacturing magnate.

He has opened a private museum just outside Beijing, which is open to the public by appointment. The 1,500-square-metre space houses the Canton Express, the sprawling central installation in curator Hou Hanru’s exhibition at the 2003 Venice Biennale. Mr Yi, is one of the speakers at the Art Basel/Bulgari Conversations debate on Chinese museums this Saturday.

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11821

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Asia Art Archive

Art Basel

Saturday 18th June: Panel on the Future of the Museum: Profile China
Location: BVLGARI Pavilion

China's cultural sector is growing rapidly in size and scope and sophistication in parallel with the country's staggering pace of economic development. There has been much talk in the arts community about the Chinese government's intention to build 1,000 new museums across the country by 2015. All over the country, similar developments are brewing. While cautionary tales are looming, at a moment when the homogenising forces of globalisation also are effective in the world of museum and museum architects, for many, especially in the greater China region, the spectre of cloning a Bilbao like boom is just too seductive. The future of the museum is Asia. The future of the museum is China.

Yung Ho Chang, Principal Architect of Atelier FCJZ, Head and Professor, Beijing University Graduate Center of Architecture;

Beijing, PRC
Chaos Yang Chen, Curator, Founder CHAOSPROJECTS|Visual Thinking; Beijing, PRC
Hou Hanru, Curator; Paris, FR
Claire Hsu, Executive Director; Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong, PRC
Huang Yong Ping, Artist, Paris, FR
Uli Sigg, Collector; Mauensee, CH
Wang Huangsheng, Director Guangdong Museum of Art, Ershadao Island; Guangzhou, PRC
Guan Yi, Collector, Beijing, PRC

Conversation Host: Hans Ulrich Obrist, Curator Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Paris, FR

http://www.aaa.org.hk/newsletter.html

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china daily, 2005-06-13
Coming of age
LUO MAN

SHANGHAI: Any fool can predict prices of Chinese art are going up. The question is: For how long?

Look at the track record.

At Christie's Hong Kong auction at the end of May, Zao Wou-Ki's 10-metre-wide "Juin-Octobre 1985" broke all previous records by selling for little more than HK$18 million. Earlier that month, at Sotheby's May 1 auction, Lot 163 was the shocker.

Xie Zhiliu's 1960 "Luxuriant Pines" was expected to sell for as much as HK$800,000(US$102,828) but, after a bidding war that caught everybody by surprise, the hammer finally dropped at HK$9.08 million(US$1.17 million).

"It's a significant difference. It is a whole new level being set for this artist," says Henry Howard Sneyd, the top man in Asia for venerable auction house Sotheby's.

What's more, says Sneyd, it is more than likely that other artists will follow in the same footsteps.

Everybody knows prices of Chinese art are picking up speed faster than a bullet train, but what is currently catching people by surprise is the rapidity of the rise. In less than a year, the market has more than doubled.

"It's in a curve that is revolutionizing the art world," says Sneyd. "I don't think it was possible to predict it was going to double within a year."

That curve is also attracting investors with enough money to speculate in a fickle market of subjective desires.

There is a whole new crop of collectors out there, people who made their money in manufacturing and are now spending enormous sums on paintings, both Chinese and Western.

"There seems to be a rather large number of new buyers in the market," he says. "I think the Chinese might want to stand on the world stage ... and collect world-level paintings."

These collectors are often willing to overlook prices to get their hands on the pieces they want. And when their sights are set on a piece of oriental art, the results can be staggering.

Since the turn of the millennium, no year has gone by without a price record being broken.

These high prices are often set by small groups of bidders that, for one reason or another, compete for a single piece, driving prices up to stratospheric levels.

"That's the beauty of auctions," says Sneyd.

Auction houses such as Sotheby's, Christie's and China Guardian have also lent the art market more credibility and eliminated some of the risks usually attached to unknown quantities, such as the oft-mysterious Chinese art.

"What's difficult is to find art that is of the highest quality," Sneyd says. "In the West, we usually know where the art is."

In China, a lot of art is coming into its own. Much of it was not recognized for a long time.

Eric Chang, a Chinese art specialist at Christie's, said prices of modern and contemporary pieces are racing forward in an effort to catch up to those of Western pieces of the same period. But he is weary of predicting how close they will get, or when the gap may narrow.

It is not uncommon for art investors to buy art simply for the possible financial returns, but, says Chang, it is difficult to make predictions.

"They buy it as an investment," he says.

Traditional Chinese pieces still make up the bulk of sales.

During Christie's last Hong Kong auction, at the end of May, a blue and white Ming Dynasty basin sold for HK$30.4 million.

(US$3.91 million)The price was more than double the previous record.

A pair of rose jars from the 18th century also set a record HK$24.2 million(US$3.11 million).

Although modern and contemporary Chinese paintings are not fetching those prices yet, their time may come.

"It's a little like the stock market. People can tell you that a stock will go up, but those who are really good at it can tell you when," Chang says.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-06/13/content_450809.htm

 

 

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(Art-Eastasia list)

http://www.chinaresource.org
http://www.fluktor.de

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