Edutainment > Contemporary Chinese Art - the Market in Spring of 2009

This article written in May 2009 tries to shed some light on the current situation of the market for contemporary Chinese art, and especially on the market for modern Chinese prints. We at artelino began to sell modern Chinese art prints in the Internet in 2003 when this genre was still more or less unknown outside of China.

The images on this page are link-sensitive and take you to other articles or web sites in which you might be interested.

The Great Craze for Contemporary Chinese Art

Around 2007 a crazy bubble for contemporary Chinese art popped in like a bat out of hell - expected by some experts, but not to this extent. A wave of record auction prices for paintings by contemporary Chinese artists started at Christie's and Sothebys' auctions in Hong Kong, New York and elsewhere. Other auction houses soon jumped on the band wagon.

During the boom five Chinese artists, hardly known in the international art market a few years ago, had made it to the top ten best sellers worldwide - neck to neck with such Western artists like Gerhard Richter or Damien Hirst. The art world soon got used to pronouncing fluently names like Zhang Xiaogang or Fang Lijun and paid 6-digit and 7-digit dollar amounts for a painting or sculpture by one of these Chinese artists. And even unknown painters could sell their works well during the bubble phase.

The Long Cold Winter of 2008/2009

Contemporary Chinese Art II

Wen Mujiang - Biography
Red Tone No.8
copyright Wen Mujiang, born 1970

The bubble ended in autumn of 2008 when the worldwide financial crisis shocked the world and dragged the world economies into the worst global recession since 1929.

On March 23, the New York Times reported about the new situation for the Chinese art market in an article headlined:

"China's Once-Hot Art Market Is Now Feeling the Chill."

The New York Times presented the artist Zeng Fanzhi in his newly acquired and decorated 200 square meter studio adorned with Asian and European antiques, a small gym, and a traditional Chinese garden.

Many Chinese artists have become rich during the booming market phase. They bought lavish estates and big cars and established huge studios. Some hired personnel and began to "produce" artworks in masses. The best selling artists sold in direct cooperation with renowned auction houses - much at the distress of conventional galleries who in the past traditionally "controlled" the market for contemporary art.

There are also reports in the Internet of market manipulations by using well-known auction houses. Lesser known Chinese artists consigned their art works to "big name" auction houses and bought their own lots out at a predefined price to push their market value up.

Overall, the market for contemporary Chinese art was a huge circus during the peak of the bubble.

Is there an End of the Downward Spiral in Sight?

Contemporary Chinese Art III

Wang Yuhui - Biography
Blazing Color in Water
copyright Wang Yuhui, born 1959

The market has now come down - no doubt - down from a very unhealthy atmosphere. Before, demand was fueled by speculation and greed and less by art collectors.

But the market has not collapsed completely. Art exhibitions are still taking place in the Beijing and Shanghai art galleries. Financially strong and long-term planning art entrepreneurs use the slump to invest in the Chinese art market. The New York Times mentions PaceWildenstein of New York preparing the opening of a new 1,850-square-meter gallery in Beijing.

Zhang Biao, one of the artists by whom artelino has offered art prints over the last years, recently had a successful exhibition of paintings and sculptures together with Yu Xiangming at Beijing's Today Gallery with 70% sold.

The market for contemporary Chinese art is by no means in agony. Collectors and art friends and maybe also again some speculators, are still willing to spend money for art works by leading Chinese artists. Many see it at as chance to buy on a reduced price level.

The galleries seem to have managed to get back into the business that they seemed to have lost to the large auction houses. PaceWIldenstein for instance now represents Zhang Xiaogang and Zhang Huan.

The Market for Contemporary Chinese Art Prints

Contemporary Chinese Art IV

Xiong Xiqiu - Biography
Game No. 3
copyright Xiong Xiqiu, born 1979

The market for Chinese art prints is a developing, fledgling market that had hardly profited from the boom in contemporary Chinese art. This is astonishing, but has probably historic reasons. China has never had a market for art prints in the past. The "new wave" in Chinese printmaking set in around 1980. But it was based on state-employed printmakers and state-run exhibitions.

While art paintings and sculptures are bought by the very rich, the typical market for art prints is the well-to-do middle class, still a very small number in China's society that is today more characterized by many very poor people and very few, very rich people. This may be another explanation why the market for Chinese art prints is still in development.

Demand from Western buyers outside China for Chinese art prints has never gained great momentum so far. It is difficult to say why and hard to understand for me, as so many Chinese artists make really mesmerizing and very genuine art prints. I can only speculate about the reasons. One may be the large sizes of Chinese prints that make it difficult for collectors to store them and makes shipping expensive. Another reason may be the mixed image of China in the Western world. There was a similar effect in the 1930s with Japanese prints when the once blooming export business of Japanese print publisher Watanabe Shozaburo came to a near standstill.

Art Auctions by artelino

The sales of artelino in Chinese art prints developed steadily from 2003 until early 2008. But the auction results remained small in comparison to the auctions of Japanese art prints. There were seldom more than 15 bidders in one Chinese art prints auction.

With the beginning of the recession in the U.S.A. in early 2008, sales in our Chinese art auctions began to slow down. In early 2008 a major collector and power seller passed away, and in autumn of 2008 a few more regular collectors stopped buying. In addition, dealers from Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China - important for artelino's Chinese art print auctions - remained absent when the global recession set in.

Currently it looks to me like our auctions of Chinese art prints are slowly attracting new clients.

Outlook on the Market for Chinese Art Prints

Contemporary Chinese Art V

Xu Chengchun - Biography
On the Hill
copyright Xu Chengchun born 1961

On long-term I firmly believe in modern Chinese prints. In my view, they can only be a winner for several reasons:

Chinese art prints are excellent with interesting subjects, small editions and they often come with a refreshing new style like for instance the silkscreen prints by female artist Xiong Xiqiu.

Chinese art academies are excellent. By tradition they train the students in figural drawing and painting and in craftsmanship. Chinese art students learn technical skills while Western art students are often technically challenged and think that "creativity" is sufficient to become a great artist.

Printmaking as a section of the Fine Arts is encouraged and promoted by Chinese officials. Apart from the provincial and national great print exhibitions, there are now several important International print exhibitions that have been established over the last years. These are huge events with great participation by international artists. Foremost I want to mention the Shanghai Art Biennial, the International Guanlan Print Exhibition and the International Yunnan Art Exhbition. I am sure there are more to come.

And last but not least, I think that demand from the growing Chinese middle class will develop fast. Even now with daily news about closing factories and bankruptcies in China, the Chinese economy is still growing at a pace of 6% - during the worldwide recession. A country like Germany has hardly seen more than 3% growth of the GNP since 1990. And a scenario of a collapse of China's economy into oblivion like during the era of the Cultural Revolution is not very probable in my view.

Dieter Wanczura
(May 2009)

	Web www.artelino.com

The images on this web site are the property of the artist(s) and or the artelino GmbH and/or a third company/institution.  Reproduction, public display and any commercial use of these images, in whole or in part, require the expressed written consent of the artist(s) and/or the artelino GmbH. .