ChinaDaily, 2005-08-29
Market snapshot
WANG SHANSHAN and ALFRED ROMANN

Photographs by well-known Chinese artists are almost foolproof investments, but the market is so new and unknown that it can scare buyers away from anything but the big names.

Chinese photography that sells usually falls into one of two categories two extremes with a big gaping hole in the middle.

On one end are the works of earlier artists, refined and scholarly photographs done long before the current renaissance. The other end is the work of new, cutting edge artists conceptual photographers the market has welcomed with open arms, says Li Feng, manager of the contemporary art department at Huachen Art Auction Co.

Huachen, one of Beijing's five major auctioneers, was the first mainland auction house to put photographs up for grabs. In November 2003 it sold five works for US$15,000, including commission, at its autumn auction.

Buyers have not looked back and prices have soared, says Li.

Two works by pioneering photographer Lang Jingshan (1892-1995) sold for US$5,400 and US$2,700. Two years later, Lang's photographs are fetching between US$30,000 and US$120,000 at auctions held by Huachen, Christie's and China Hanhai Auction Co Ltd.

Three other works by Hai Bo, Han Lei and Hong Lei also sold for about US$2,000 each in 2003. At Christie's spring auction in Hong Kong, similar works by Hai Bo sold for about US$20,000, while Han and Hong photographs went for US$10,000.

Other big names such as Liu Zheng, Rong Rong, Hu Jieming and Lin Tianmiao are also attracting buyers.

The turning point in the careers of all of them was discovery by a foreign collector, curator or gallery manager. Their works are Chinese in the eyes of Westerners but Westernized - even awkward - in the eyes of traditional Chinese.

China's new crop of photographers began to appear in the late-1990s. The majority of the more famous names debuted publicly during a 1998 exhibition at the Art Academy of the Shanghai University entitled "China's Vanguard Photography".

Their works were on sale at prices ranging from US$300-500. All the buyers were foreigners, says exhibition curator Zhu Qi.

Foreign expatriates were the first dealers and collectors of artistic Chinese photography. Foreigners run several galleries in Beijing and Shanghai. Beijing's China Art Archive Warehouse, founded by Dutchman Hans van Dijk, and Shanghai's ShanghART Gallery, owned by Swiss collector Lorenz Helbling, have dealt in contemporary photography since 1998, says Zhu Qi.

The top photographers, which the galleries in Beijing and Shanghai presented, have all signed contracts in New York, London and Berlin.

Not only has their fame risen, but also the prices their works fetch. Any work sold at the 1998 Academy of Art exhibition will now go for at least US$8,000 in New York.

"Almost all of these artists are showing an interest in photography," says Zhu.

This interest can be attributed to two factors. A wave of performance art has been sweeping through China since the 1980s. Performance artists are now realizing, however, that they have to find some way to sell their works beyond the performance. They began taking photos of their art or had other professional photographers take them. A series of nine photos from a performance by Zhuang Huan, in which he wrote Chinese characters with ink and brush on his face until his whole face was black, sold for more than US$100,000 at Christie's auction.

A second factor is that taking pictures can be much easier than painting.

"A young artist needs decades to polish their skills in painting, but only a good idea to stand out with a photographic work," says Zhu.

There are artists who are genuinely interested in photography in the mainland's art scene. The ambitious project "The Chinese", by 36-year-old artist Liu Zheng, has earned worldwide recognition, for example. He seeks out moments in which archetypal Chinese characters encounter extreme and unexpected situations.

Liu, a former journalist for the Beijing-based Worker's Daily, has turned his lens to eccentrics, homeless children, street performers, provincial drug traffickers, coal miners, Buddhist monks, prison inmates, Taoist priests, wax figures and the dead and dying. All betray a dark vision and a wicked sense of humour.

Zhang Mingfang, who founded the Aura Gallery in Shanghai and delved into photography several years ago, says foreigners are major buyers of Chinese art.

In recent months, however, he has also seen more and more Chinese customers aged between 30 and 50. They are mainly interested in artists that have already been well received abroad, such as Hai Bo and Hong Lei.

"I expect a rise in the photography market because young customers are getting into Chinese art," he says.

Li Feng, manager of the contemporary art department of Huachen Art Auction Co Ltd in Beijing, echoes these sentiments.

"The young generation in China is more familiar with photos and videos than with oil or ink paintings. They are going to form a big market when they have enough money in their pockets," he says.

There are challenges, however. Preservation and the shifting nature of the market are major obstacles, and they are interconnected. Photos are difficult to keep in good shape for long periods of time, says curator Zhu Qi.

"In the West, photographers sign contracts with collectors. In the contract the former agrees to give the latter a new copy of the photo after two decades," he says.

"But how can one be sure that they will find the artist after two decades? Everything is changing so quickly in China."

Insiders also say that the credibility of photographers is also a key factor in the expansion of the mainland market.

Some photographers have reportedly made more copies of their best-selling photos despite promising to make only 10, or at most 20, copies.

Another problem are the unknowns. There is a lot of unsung talents in the Chinese market because there hasn't really been a comprehensive history of Chinese photography.

Collecting anything other than the most contemporary pieces can be difficult on the Chinese mainland, which has no systematically researched history of photography, says An Ge, exhibition curator with the Guangdong Museum of Art.

"With a history of art we know the importance of individual artists. Without a history of photography how can we know whose works are to be collected and whose are not?"

Not long ago, buyers would only trust works by the earliest masters, such as Lang Jingshan, because anything before that was impossible to catalogue.

A history of photography was published in Taiwan in 1996. On the mainland, however, only a retired professor named Wu Qun in Guangdong has published anything on the subject. He has written two books, "A Simplified History of Photography in Guangdong" and "Chinese History of Photography."

Though they are far from comprehensive, the two books have been important references for art dealers and exhibition curators who are interested in photography.

"Scholars are so active that no one can sit down and work on a time-consuming history," says An.

There is an urgent need for it, because documentation of early photography is scattered and easily lost. Photos are deteriorating and the first generation of photographers in New China are dying, he says.

Landscapes are a case in point. Most are not worth buying, An says, but they keep cropping up.

"A foreigner may find a photo of Tibet interesting, but Chinese photographers have produced so many pictures of Tibet and the Huangshan Mountains that breakthroughs are unlikely."

(China Daily 08/29/2005 page8)

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/29/content_472978.htm

 

 

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