Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts

Monday, January 08, 2018

Meeting controversial artist Qiu Zhijie - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson
Author Ian Johnson of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao meets controversial artist Qiu Zhijie for the New York Review of Books.Before the interview, Ian Johnson puts Qiu and their first meetings into perspective. Here is the introduction of the interview.

Ian Johnson:
One of China’s most influential artists is forty-eight-year-old Qiu Zhijie. A native of southern China’s Fujian province, Qiu studied art in the eastern city of Hangzhou before moving to Beijing in 1994 to pursue a career as a contemporary artist. At the time, contemporary art was illegal in China and artists often lived in villages on the outskirts of town, held underground exhibitions, and were patronized almost exclusively by foreigners. 
Qiu quickly made a name for himself as one of China’s leading artists, creating one of the most famous images of that era: a picture of himself from the waist up, shirtless, against a white wall with an enormous red character, 不, or “No,” painting across his face and torso. Another was a video of him copying a classic piece of calligraphy, the fourth-century Preface to the Poems Collected from the Orchid Pavilion, one thousand times until it became illegible. More recently, he has embarked on major conceptual art projects, such as an exploration of the suicides that take place at a major bridge that for decades was a symbol of Communist self-reliance, and dozens of enormous idea mapsthat juxtapose mythology, politics, and social critique. 
I got to know Qiu in 1999 when I wrote about the controversy surrounding an influential exhibition called “Post-Sense, Sensibility, Alien Bodies & Delusion.” Held in the basement of an apartment block, it was a backlash against the political pop art of that era, purposefully creating art that couldn’t be sold or collected: a human cadaver encased in a block of ice, for instance, or dead animals nailed to the wall. Disgusted, the authorities closed the show the day it opened—a response reminiscent of the one that greeted the Guggenheim’s current major retrospective of Chinese art, with authorities forcing the museum to remove live animals from several exhibits. 
Qiu’s work features prominently in the Guggenheim show. He was the only artist commissioned to make an original work, one of his idea maps; his Orchid Pavilion calligraphy is also on display. 
Unlike prototypical dissident-artists such as Ai Weiweiwho have shunned China’s art establishment and work mainly abroad, Qiu is now firmly part of the Chinese art establishment. He teaches at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the most influential art school in China, as head of the Department of Experimental Art, and curated the Chinese pavilion at last year’s Venice Biennale. Last month, I met Qiu at his studio in the eastern suburbs of Beijing, where we talked about the challenges of maintaining artistic integrity inside the system, censorship, how he lectures on Communist Party ideology, and the Party’s transformation to a party of nationalism.
The interview in the New York Review of Books.

Qiu Zhijie (by Ian Johnson)

(The New York Review of Books is mostly hidden behind a firewall, but was this time free available for us. If you run into a firewall, you will have to wait till China File offers free access next month.)

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request.

Are you looking for more experts on cultural change at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Friday, March 25, 2016

Revenue art auctions dropped 50% - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf
Rupert Hoogewerf
Sales of living Chinese artists at auctions dropped to almost half in 2015, reports the Hurun Art List 2016 this week. Causes: a slowing economy and the anti-corruption drive, tells Hurun chairman Rupert Hoogewerf to AFP.

AFP:
By far the most valuable artist was ink painter Cui Ruzhuo, 72, who is known for his large-scale traditional landscapes, said wealth publisher the Hurun Report, which collated auction results for the 100 most lucrative Chinese artists. 
Cui’s works fetched US$120.4 million, the report said, far ahead of second-placed oil painter Zeng Fanzhi, who saw his sales value crash by 62 percent. 
“A heady mix of the continued anti-corruption campaign, which has put a stop to gifting art to government officers, and a slowdown in the economy have combined to see both sales and the number of top works at auction pretty much halve,” said Hurun Report Chairman Rupert Hoogewerf... 
The 100 artists’ auction sales totaled US$56.5 billion. 
Cui was one of just eight artists who saw an increase in sales, with his revenues up 69 percent from 2014. 
He made headlines last April when an eight-paneled snowy mountainscape of his sold for US$30 million at Poly Auction in Hong Kong — the highest ever by a living Asian artist. At that same auction, another of his landscapes that sold for US$3.7 million was mistaken for rubbish and thrown out by cleaners, with Cui telling the Wall Street Journal: “I believe it was an accident.” 
Only three artists on the list were women. They included Chen Peiqiu, age 94, at No. 16.
More at AFP.

Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request list.

Are you looking for more experts on cultural change at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

New York Times Journalist Ian Johnson discusses the search for more quality among China´s yuppies.

 

Friday, May 17, 2013

Changing trends on China's art market - Wei Gu

Wei Gu
Wei Gu
The China art market is maturing, as the Art Basel's first Hong Kong art show took off. WSJ wealth editor Wei Gu discusses with Kate Cary Evans, founder of Art Radar Asia, the latest trends in China's art, as prices are falling, opening up for more investors.


Wei Gu is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.    
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Top-100 best-selling Chinese artists - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf or Hurun
Rupert Hoogewerf
The founder of Hurun, China's rich list Rupert Hoogewerf published a list of best-selling Chinese artists of the past 5000 years.  "What is remarkable is that 34 of the Top 100 are alive today," Hoogewerf tells in China.org.

China.org:
The Hurun Best-Selling Chinese Artists 2013, a ranking based on the sales volume of their work at public auction in 2012, was released by the Hurun Research Institute on May 9. Data for the list were provided by Artron.net, a professional artwork portal in China. 
"The artists on this list represent last year's best-selling artists from 5000 years of Chinese history," said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report. "What is remarkable is that 34 of the Top 100 are alive today." 
Among the listed 100 artists, 76 finished their works after the foundation of People's Republic of China in 1949. Among the top ten, nine are traditional Chinese ink painters, with Zhou Chunya being the only one still alive -- and also the only non-Chinese ink painter. 
Total sales of the top 100 artists reached US$4.1 billion; the threshold to be listed is US$10 million.
More in China.org (including the top-10 paintings)

Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Apart from art, also education is high on the investment agenda of China's wealthy. The China Weekly Hangout discussed in February with HKU lecturer +Paul Fox, and former NYU Shanghai lecturer +Andrew Hupert whether education in China is a goldmine or a black hole, both for the students, and the educational institutions.

 

 What do Chinese tourists want? The +China Weekly Hangout is going to discuss who those tourists are and how countries can attract those high-spending individuals. Our announcement is here, or you can register for participation here. A full overview of our hangouts is here.   
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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Art, jewelry, fine wine and watches alternative investments for wealthy - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf
Rupert Hoogewerf
Real estate and stocks might still top the investments of China's rich, alternative investments like art, jewelry, fine wine and watches are gaining ground, according to Rupert Hoogewerf, in a new report of the Hurun Rich list, released this week, writes the Global Times. 

Art, jewelry, fine wine and watches are the most popular alternative investments for millionaires in China, defined as individuals with assets of over 6 million yuan ($1 million) in the report. 
"The continuing housing control policies and the stock market slump last year have pushed millionaires in China to look for new investment opportunities," said Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher. 
The report was based on interviews with 1,219 millionaires in China last year. 
China's stock market also remained lukewarm, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rising by just 3.2 percent in 2012 compared to 2011. 
Alternative investments could bring satisfaction to investors that property and stocks could not, Hoogewerf noted. 
"Buying more houses will not bring investors much emotional gratification. But investing in art, such as a painting by Wu Guanzhong (the late renowned Chinese painter), will bring more satisfaction to individuals and increase their social standing," he said. 
But as alternative investments are still new in China and do not necessarily offer a good return, he advised investors to seek help from professional consultants. 
China has become the world's leading art market. Total transactions in China's art market surged from 20.4 billion yuan in 2008 to 61.6 billion yuan in 2012, according to data from Chinese art website Artron. 
He Ping, a retired millionaire in Shanghai, said he currently invests in bonds and stock futures. "I prefer investments that are less risky and have a more stable return," he told the Global Times Monday.
More in The Global Times. Hurun founder Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Will China change under the new tenure of president Xi Jinping? The China Weekly Hangout discussed this in earlier this month with China hands +Steve Barru and +Fons Tuinstra.

What has China learned since SARS ten years ago, now a new bout of bird flu is hitting the country? On Thursday 18 April the China Weekly Hangout will discuss the current status of the bird flu and was is happening on the ground with +Harm Kiezebrink, a Beijing resident who assisted the WHO and the Chinese government during SARS. Also sustainability expert +Richard Brubaker of CEIBS (the China Europe International Business School) published  this week a paper on the "Lessons from SARS" and promised to attend. Moderation is done by +Fons Tuinstra, president of the China Speakers Bureau. You can see an overview of all hangouts here.
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