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TIME,
Vol 168 No.24, December 11, 2006
Picture
on page 5:
catalogue:
p56 Chinese artists strike it rich. Artwork: The Heavenly Maiden,
No.12 by Zhu Wei (Plum Blossom)
Picture
on page 56:
Art
Work Zhang Xiaogang in his studio. One of his pieces recently sold
for $2.3 million. (Chang W. Lee - The New York Times)
Picture
on page 57:
Above:
Artist Yang Shaobin Work Police Series, No.46 Price of
Entry His work reaches $21,500 (Schoeni Art Gallery)
Below:
Artist Zhu Wei Work Utopia No.45 Price of Entry Zhu's
recent painting sales average about $45,000 (Plum Blossom)
The
Great China Sale
Foreign
collectors want them. Newly minted local millionaires want them. The
rise and rise of the country's modern artists
By
SIMON ELEGANT / BEIJING
Zhang
Haoming looks like a million dollars. Or, more precisely, half a
million, the amount he spent on a recent Saturday afternoon as he
strolled around Beijing's funky 798 district, a series of crumbling
redbrick factories that house the Chinese capital's largest
concentration of art galleries. Appearing at an opening for the painter
Yang Shaobin, the 44-year-old millionaire businessman stands out from
the crowd of black-clad, ponytailed dealers, critics and artists, more
John Travolta than Jasper Johns. His black hair is permed into loose
curls that flounce slightly as he walks, his torso covered by a tight,
long-sleeved silk shirt decorated with swirling white, brown and black
shapes, a large medallion bearing a golden crown clasped around his
neck.
As
he moves from one gallery to the next, checking on works he has already
booked and buying new ones, Zhang is treated like royalty. "That's
mine," he says at a photo gallery, pointing to a picture of a man's
back that has been painted with a classical Chinese landscape, then to
one in which raw meat has been arranged into the shape of Chinese
characters. "And that, and that."
Zhang
is one of a new breed of Chinese collectors who are helping to
turbocharge the contemporary-art scene in China from within. But his
competition is not just local. Contemporary Chinese art is currently one
of the hottest genres anywhere. In the past 18 months Sotheby's has
created a stand-alone modern-Chinese-art division, and Christie's
showcases the art alongside such modern masters as Andy Warhol and
Willem de Kooning. And at a Christie's auction last week in New York
City, pieces by Chinese painters Li Songsong and Yan Lei set record
prices, while Zhang Xiaogang's A Big Family Series No. 16 went for $1.36
million, surpassing its highest estimate. The Warhol Mao, of course,
dwarfed all those sales, going for $17.4 million, suggesting that
there's plenty of life in Western art yet. (And that Mao is one popular
guy.)
If
the incestuous, trend-conscious world of international art collectors
and the hot money of the roughly 500 new millionaires that China's boom
has thrown up come together, it could push prices for Chinese art to
even more dizzying levels. "You are already seeing works that sold
for a few thousand dollars being bought for $50,000, $60,000,
$70,000," says artist and Beijing gallery director Zhao Gang.
"And right now there's no end in sight." He cites the case of
Zeng Fanzhi, until recently a relatively unknown artist. "Two years
ago, I was selling his work for $10,000 for a large painting. The other
day someone offered $200,000, and he refused it as too low!"
The
purchase of a large painting by Zhang Xiaogang at an Oct. 15 London
auction by British collector Charles Saatchi suggests there's every
reason to believe that the tide of interest from overseas will continue
to rise. Saatchi paid about $1.5 million for one of the artist's
Bloodline series. Still, New York City--based collector Larry Warsh
believes he got a good deal. "Saatchi is coming in late, but he's
important because people follow him," says Warsh, publisher of the
magazine Museums and an enthusiastic advocate of contemporary Chinese
art. "It will soon prove to be a bargain."
There
may not yet be any discerning Chinese collectors in the model of the
influential Saatchi. But that's unlikely to affect the demand for modern
Chinese art, since many of the newly minted millionaires simply don't
have anywhere else to put their cash. "It's what I call the panic
of new money," says Zhao, 45, who manages the venerable Courtyard
Gallery. "The government is killing the property market, the stock
market has been up and down like a bouncing ball, and people don't trust
it. They can only buy so many Mercedes. They have to put their money
somewhere, and right now that means contemporary art."
Such
speculative interest could evaporate overnight if the market cools, of
course. But that's where the non-Chinese buyers come in. The
international contemporary-art market is highly cyclical--many would say
current prices are at all-time highs--but there remains a core group of
wealthy art collectors who will be comparatively unaffected by external
conditions. It's the buyers from that group who are now turning their
attention to China, argues banker and avid collector Carl Kostyal.
"About 10 to 20 collectors are at the leading edge of contemporary
art globally," says Kostyal. "They are already buying in China
and have been for a year or so. Then there is another group of 200 to
300 for whom this buying is bringing China into their sights."
Kostyal, who recently flew into Beijing for two days of gallery tours
and visits to artists' studios, believes that a second--and
larger--group will soon begin to buy, further bolstering the market.
Skyrocketing
prices have left galleries and dealers scrambling to keep up with the
demand. Sotheby's held its first sale of purely Chinese contemporary art
in New York City only last March. A dozen or so foreign galleries from
New York, London and Hong Kong have opened branches in Beijing and
Shanghai in the past 18 months. Meanwhile, scores of local galleries
have sprung up.
Inevitably,
the flood of money has left some members of the art world in China
unhappy. "Modern art in China has become a monster," says
respected collector Guan Yi. "People's attention is no longer
focused on the art itself but [on] what kind of return they will get on
their investment, like the stock market."
The
contrast between such sentiments and the attitudes of the current crop
of leading artists, like Zhang Xiaogang, Zhu Wei and Fang Lijun,
couldn't be starker. Mostly now in their 40s, many of the artists
suffered through the tail end of the Cultural Revolution. The cultural
flowering that followed in the '80s was another casualty of the
Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Many artists left the country. Now
back, they're thrilled at being rewarded instead of hounded for
expressing their feelings in their work. Fundamental issues like
politics, ideology and spirituality remain important themes. Images of
Mao Zedong, the Red Guards and other icons of the recent past are
central to the works that have brought many of them fame.
For
the young artists just breaking into the scene, such images have little
resonance, except as tools to raise their prices, says gallery director
Zhao. "To them it's like being in manufacturing--they are cranking
out a commodity," he says with a sigh. "But then, at prices
like these, you can hardly blame them."
Time
Magazine Link
美国《时代》周刊2006年12月11日报道
大中国卖场
作者：SIMON
ELEGANT / 北京
图片说明：
5页：
目录页：56页
中国艺术家走运了。配图：朱伟作品 天女散花12号
(Plum Blossom画廊供图)
56页：
工作中
张晓刚在他的工作室。他的一幅作品最近卖出230万美元。（纽约时报Chang
W.Lee供图）
57页：
上图：艺术家
杨少斌 作品 警察系列46号 最低报价 21500美元
(Shoeni画廊供图)
下图：艺术家
朱伟 作品 乌托邦系列45号 最低报价 45000美元
(Plum Blossom画廊供图)
现在有那么一群人，被海外收藏家们追捧着，被本地新兴百万富翁们追捧着。这群人，就是横空出世的中国当代艺术家。
张浩铭（音译）瞧上去生龙活虎，精神棒得像时时怀揣着百万美钞。实际上，在不久前的一个周六下午他的的确确一掷了百万的一半——五十万美金。那事儿发生在北京的798，一个圈集了中国首都大部分画廊的光怪陆离的厂区。画家杨少斌的开幕展上，张这位44岁的百万富翁伫立在一群黑外套马尾辫的艺术商、评论家、艺术家中间，与其说他像波普艺术家贾斯伯·琼斯，倒不如说像是年轻时代的约翰·特拉沃塔。头上烫成蓬松大卷儿的黑发一直随着他的步履颤颤悠悠，身上紧贴身躯的长袖丝绸衬衫装饰着白棕黑色漩涡状花纹，脖子上紧箍着的大金链子上坠着个沉甸甸的金色皇冠。
当张浩铭从一家画廊踱到另一家，瞧瞧自己已经预订的作品，买买另一些新作品的时候，那场景的确有些像皇上临幸。“这个我买了，”他在一家摄影作品画廊指着一幅在男人裸背上绘着中国传统山水的摄影作品说，然后又指指另一幅用生肉摆拍成汉字的作品，“还有那个，那个也是。”
张浩铭属于从中国内部催生出当代艺术热的一拨新本土收藏家，但他的竞争对手不只来自本土。不管在哪儿，中国当代艺术都是目前最当红的一个艺术流派。过去18个月间苏富比建立一个独立的中国艺术部门，上周在纽约的克里斯蒂拍卖中中国当代艺术家的作品则被搁在安迪·沃霍尔、威廉·德库宁这些现代大师的作品旁一道拍卖，画家李松松、严磊创造了自己的拍卖纪录，张晓刚的“大家庭16号”卖到了136万美元，超过该作最高估价。当然，所有这些作品中，沃霍尔的毛泽东像还是当仁不让的鹤立鸡群着，以1740万美元拔得头筹，这个结果的含义是：西方艺术还生机勃勃着呢（另一个含义是，毛泽东真是个受欢迎的家伙）。
假如对潮流敏感的宗系复杂的国际收藏界与中国现在接近500个新生百万富翁的热钱凑到了一块儿，可以想象中国艺术品的价格还能再往上攀升一截子。“你已经看到那些本来卖几千美元的作品卖到了5万，6万，7万，”北京一个艺术家兼画廊董事赵刚说，“而且现在还看不到个头儿。”他以一位不久之前还几乎寂寂无名的画家曾梵志为例，“两年以前，他的一幅大画在我这儿只卖1万美元。现在，有人出20万美元买他一幅画，他还不乐意，嫌价太低！”
10月15日伦敦的一次拍卖中张晓刚作品的买家Charles
Saatchi认为，有很多理由相信海外收藏界对中国当代艺术品的这股痴迷还方兴未艾。Saatchi花了150万美元买下张晓刚“血缘系列”中的一幅作品。另外，纽约收藏家Larry
Warsh则相信他做了笔好买卖，Warsh是《博物馆》杂志的出版人，也是中国当代艺术的热情鼓吹者，“Saatchi出手的时机有些迟了，不过他的举动很重要，因为后边还会有人以他为榜样，”Warsh说，“很快他会发现这笔买卖划得来。”
迄今为止还没任何证据表明中国的收藏家们会以Saatchi为榜样，然而这似乎不会影响对中国当代艺术的需求，因为新兴的富翁们没有别的办法来花掉他们的现金。“这叫做热钱的焦虑，”45岁的四合苑画廊经理赵说，“政府不让你投房地产，股市又涨跌得跟拍皮球似的，买一堆奔驰自个儿也用不了。他们总得把钱投到哪儿吧，现在这个哪儿就是当代艺术。”
诚然，一旦市场冷却，这股投机的兴趣能一夜之间蒸发得无影无踪。但到了那个时候，非中国买家就会介入。国际当代艺术市场是风水轮流转的——很多人说无论如何当前的价格都过高了——可别忘了，总有那么一群核心的富有买家不那么介意外界的风云变幻。银行家兼收藏家Carl
Kostyal就是这群核心买家中正开始对中国感兴趣的一位，“全世界大约有10到20个藏家是当代艺术收藏界的领潮者，”Kostyal说，“这些人从一年前开始收藏中国的作品，然后另一群200到300位藏家会追随着他们把中国纳入自己的收藏视野。”Kostyal最近飞到北京进行他的画廊、艺术家工作室两日之旅，他相信第二批——更大的一批——收藏家将会很快进入，最终支撑起整个市场。
放卫星般的价格只能令画廊与画商蜂拥而上。苏富比去年3月才在纽约开了第一个中国当代艺术专场，18个月以来十几家从纽约、伦敦、香港来的画廊就已经在北京、上海开设了他们的分支机构。同时，许多本土画廊也如雨后春笋般开张。
不可避免地，滚滚钱浪不能使中国艺术界所有人都高兴起来，“中国当代艺术已经变成一只怪兽了，”颇受尊重的收藏家管艺说，“人们不再注意艺术本身，而只看他们的投资能得到什么回报，和股市没区别。”
这种感叹与当前顶尖艺术家如张晓刚、朱伟、方力钧等人的态度之间存在着天壤之别。这些当代艺术家现大都四十出头，他们中许多人经历过文革末期，经历过80年代的百花齐放，经历过89年天安门事件的伤痛，许多人曾经离开祖国，现在又回来了，他们渴求的是回报，而不是在作品中表达自己的感受。如政治、意识形态、精神崇拜这些基本的东西还是重要的主题，毛泽东、红卫兵、以及其他一些近代符号仍然占据着作品的中心，并为他们带来了名声。
对刚刚登场的年轻艺术家而言，上述这些形象除了作为抬价的工具外毫无意义，画廊董事赵刚说，“对他们来讲就是一个制造工业——跟批量生产日用品一样，”他叹了口气，“可是，就目前这个价，你又怎么能怪他们呢。”
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