Chinese Culture Year in Germany

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of China-German diplomatic ties, A Chinese Cultural Year was launched at the end of January in Germany.

The year long event features the history of Chinese art and culture by introducing Chinese music, film, opera, literature and art exhibitions to German audiences including more avant-garde offerings.
In addition to many musical events of Chinese music with its special percussion instruments, more than 1500 artists and scholars will attend events at the Year of Chinese culture in Germany. One project, China! China? China, will be held in six German cities, including Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Leipzig and Munich. It will bring together Chinese artists and scholars to talk about poetry, music, art fashion in a pavillion made of bamboo. Fan Di’an, director of National Art Museum of China says three solo exhibitions by Chinese artists Xu Jiang, Zeng Chenggang and Yin Xiuzhen will also take place.
A large scale public art exhibition will be held at Kassel From October to the spring of 2013. The city known for its Kassel Documents Exhibition, will see a comprehensive art exhibition from Chinese artists, especially young artists.
We hope Sweden will take after this kind of event soon.

China’s Contemporary Art Sculpture Garden

A giant gray Mao-style suit hangs on a red hook from the face of a massive rock. This sculpture by Chinese artist Zhu Yu is one of more than 200 contemporary works on display at Yuzi Paradise, a 1320-acre outdoor sculpture park surrounded by mist-shroeded limestone pinnacles in southern China.
The park, a 45 minutes drive from the city of Guilin, embodies the new China – the one that displayed cosmopolitan, cutting edge art and architecture to the world during the recent years, but it also reflects a centuries old tradition. Since ancient times, emperors and other patrons have commisioned gardens carefully designed to encourage visitors to ponder their place in nature. Similarly the founder of Yuzi Paradise, Taiwanese entrepreneur Tsao Rhy Chang, envisioned a place of natural beauty that stimulates the mind of art. His 21st century garden features works by 140 artists from around the world, including foreign sculptors.

First China Owned Gallery opens in Berlin

The Year of the Dragon brought for the first time a Chinese owned gallery to establish in Europe. Zhong Gallery was founded by a Beijing Art collector Zhu Gaowen and he has picked Berlin for his new gallery. The city is the art central in Germany and many chinese students study art there. Zhong Gallery Berlin looks to bring Chinese art to a wider audience while engaging in artistic exchange with its Beijing gallery. As Zhu mentioned ” Though Chinese contemporary art and the Chinese art market have already gained attention from all over the world, there are still sometimes quite stereotypical opinions outside China. Art is art, but it is also an educational process, which Eight Art Gallery also tries to promote in Sweden. The other goal is to promote young German artist in China on an exchange program of culture. We would like to see more of that.

Though Zhong Gallery Berlin should become a magnet for locals interested in new art from China, it may also find a receptive and active audience in the ever-increasing number of Chinese students, artists and professionals living and working in the German capital.

Chinese Investors will Continue to drive the Art Market in 2012

Last year China’s art market exceeded US$ 31.75 billion, primarily because diversification away from China’s stock market and the real estate sector that will fuel the art market even more this year. The chinese Auction power houses like Guardian and Poly foresee  continued strenght in the domestic Chinese auction world in the year ahead, though excess speculation could see some bubbles within the traditional Chinese art and antique but less on the contemporary art.
Jing Daily says
“An art market can not thrive without a booming economy. Despite weak external demand due to wobbly recovery in US and the sovereign debt crisis in the EU, China’s economy managed to expand 9.2% in 2011.
Experts say that when the per capita GDP reaches 1500-2000 US$ its citizens create demand for art investment. When it hits 5,000 US$ in a country, the art market will enter a fast expansion period. China’s GDP per capita has just reached 4,000 US$ and is in a early stage but market experts believe the art market has huge potential.
China’s art market is facing tremendous opportunities, underpinned by the prosperity of the cultural industry and the gradual maturity of consigners, buyers and other market players.
There is also a growing interest in art funds in China, noting that China had more than 70 art funds as of November last year, with an initial capital of US$ 14.6 million, noting that excess speculation in nascent domestic art funds could cause a problems.
The holding power for art funds is a key factor in generating returns. Generally it should be 3-5 years but art funds in China hold only for 1.5 years in an average, because investors have no patience to wait too long. It takes time for an art fund to establish a position, wait until the price of the works rise and then close the position. As illiquid assets, art suits investors rather than speculators, according to experts.

Pablo Picasso has been dethroned

The world auction market’s top earner in recent year must yield to Chinese artist Zhang Daquin (1899-1983), according to report released by ArtPrice.
Zhang generated US$ 506.7 million in auction revenue in 2011. Second place was compatriot Qi Baishi (1864-1957) with US$ 445.1 million. Andy Warhol was third and Picasso ranked 4th.
The change reflects China’s growing strength in the global art market, where China’s share was 39% of the total US$ 11 billion world revenue.
These Chinese artists are maybe not well known on the global art scene, but they are leading modern masters in China and the Chinese are increasingly buying their own artists. The trend is clear and it will by time show that the Chinese contemporary artists will be the future masters and China will thereby keep their top spot for along time.

Invest in Chinese Art or at least it should be part of your collection.

Art Stage Singapore attracts collectors

The Art Stage Fair gets lots of attention and media coverage as it aims to compete with Art:HK as the regions most prestigious artfair. Galleries, Museums and Auction houses take the opportunity to have their own sideshows, knowing the collectors are in town. That is part of the art infrastructure that the Singapore Government wants to improve and in addition to this, 13 foreign galleries are setting up their galleries at Gillman Barracks, which is a former British army camp,  this spring. The area will be called The Centre for Contemporary Art.
The art fair expect 40,000 visitors and they have classified 1,000 of them as “collectors”. The Art Director Lorenzo Rudolf asks ” Why not become a scene for collectors to dialogue in a region so fragmented” We want to bring together leading collectors in Asia, like a Rotary Club. Also, the focus has to be on the future collectors by inreasing their awareness and interest of art. The show is good and the variety of European and Asian art including installations is well represented by the participating galleries.

Mary Boone Gallery NY presents Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei’s sunflower seeds installation will be held at Mary Boone Gallery in New York now until February 4th. The show will feature 5 tons of the hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds, previously shown at Tate Modern in London 2010. The artist remains travel-banned and Beijing-bound. His Zodiac Heads are shown at Paul Kasmin Gallery (see above).
Recently it was reported that the Chinese authorities have agreed to review Ai’s tax case. It is known that he has already paid a fine with help by Chinese people donations. With the highly international interest, we hope a satisfied solution will be considered by the tax authorities to close this matter and let the artist focus on his artistic life.