Features
Beijing's
art scene makes a comeback
By Benjamin
Robertson in Beijing, China
Friday 03 October
2003, 15:21 Makka Time, 12:21 GMT
Shanghai
may be China’s economic capital, but Beijing residents believe that
when it comes to culture, their city has no rival. Yet, art in
modern China still has a long way to
go.
Beijing’s cultural aficionados are celebrating the
city’s first art biennial exhibition. Held from early September to
late October, 270 artists from more than 40 countries have their
works on display.
"The biennial is a wonderful showcase
opportunity for Chinese art, it will allow understanding to increase
between East and West," said a spokeswoman.
Although criticized by some contemporary artists as
leaning too heavily towards traditionalist paintings, the exhibition
is widely seen as putting Beijing on the global art map.
"It will certainly make Beijing look more
international," said Brian Wallace, owner of local gallery Red
Gate.
There is little doubt that Chinese art has come a
long way from the late 70s when the cultural revolution,
responsible for the destruction of artists and their
works, came to an end.
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Red Gate gallery:
one of many
new outlets for China's
artists | Chinese artists now
regularly exhibit on an international level with a number of
worldwide galleries devoted exclusively to mainland art. Personal
artistic creativity and output is now unrestricted, although at a
local gallery level, censorship still applies.
"Artists can now paint whatever they
want," said Wallace. "It is at the exhibition stage one has to
be careful. Our next exhibitor has some highly graphic works of him
and his wife in bed together- he knows we cannot hang those
up."
Early days
But the contemporary art market is still in its
early stages. According to Wallace, 99% of all buyers are
foreigners.
"People are buying art for aesthetic reasons only;
there is currently no second hand market for these works. Most local
people, when they come in here, don’t even know they are in a
gallery…they certainly don’t know how to appreciate art."
Lionel Fang is joint owner of the Yan Club, one of
only a few Beijing galleries that holds year
round exhibitions.
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"Chinese art is not complete. It is
developing from a low level... Not many people are currently
willing to buy a painting for their living room.”
Lionel Fang
art gallery
owner |
"Chinese art is not complete. It is developing from a low level.
In China, much will depend on how people will accept art and what
their financial situation is like. Not many people are currently
willing to buy a painting for their living room.”
The Yan Club, together with Lu Jie’s elaborately
named gallery- The 25,000 Cultural Transmission Centre- is
located in the newly founded bohemian art district Factory 798.
The galleries form part of a vast complex of galleries,
shops and bars that are spearheading China’s modern art movement
through exhibitions and interactive workshops.
Lu Jie's latest venture examines Chinese identity
through art by retracing the route of the 1934 Long
March.
"In a developed country like the US, the education
system introduces art to the population but here we need to reach
out to the audience directly. If artists totally abandon the public
and work only for the international audience then there is a
problem.
An event like the biennale creates a market where
artists are focused on welcoming international buyers rather than
seriously engaging with representing modern Chinese culture,” he
said.
Knowing your audience
The problem of reaching out to the public is
compounded by the poverty of many artists, and subsequent attraction
of trying to create something that has wider appeal, even if that
means sacrificing artistic originality and cultural
heritage.
"There are only eight or nine original artists in
Beijing, the rest copy or are in the process of learning," says
Sheng Qi, a painter and performance artist. The latter is the one
genre of art still prohibited by government officials.
Lu Jie says: "Art in China is ahistorical-we play
with politics and history, we don’t really examine or engage with
it."
Sheng Qi who, following a June 1989 crackdown,
cut off a finger in protest, said: "Most of these artists are not
really artists, they do not understand art."
Budding work
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Factory 798: Newly
founded
bohemian art district in
Beijing |
Factory 798, with its still intact Mao Zedong slogans emphasizing
Marxist-Leninist thought contrasting sharply with chic fashion shows
and futurist sculpture, is seen as a symbol of what contemporary art
can become.
The government, long a thorn in the side of anything
that had even a hint of controversy, has gradually been realizing
this.
"Rather than ignoring galleries and curators as was
the case in the past, the government is trying to co-opt us. Now
they are interacting with artists hosting these biennials in
Shanghai, Guangzhou and now Beijing," said Wallace. "They have
realized that contemporary art is an important part of Chinese
culture.”
The result is visible not just in the very public
biennial, but in the subtler merge of the traditionalist museums and
ministries with the independent galleries.
"The government now talk regularly with us, they
include us in discussions on policy decisions affecting the art
market," Wallace added.
The results may not immediately translate into the
sort of changes some artists would like to see – improved
educational structure, freer licenses to exhibit and perform and
market based initiatives such as hosting auctions – but they do
suggest a change in the way the government and the public will look
at contemporary art.
According to Lu Jie: "We should start this journey.
If you don’t start how do you know what is in front of you or behind
you? How do you even know what is with you right
now?"
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