Everybody talks about Chinese art. How the industry is flourishing, how popular it has become internationally and how it-if you have the money-is a great investment.
But looking at what the industry has gone through in recent decades to get to where it is, success is relatively new.
Few people are as well placed as David Chan, director of Shanghai Gallery of Art at Three on the Bund, to offer a first-hand account of the Chinese art scene.
"In some ways, China is undergoing a radical social transformation and has generated an interesting context. Artists are just responding to what's already around them," he says.
Being a successful artist in China nowadays can be overwhelming. "Artists are becoming very busy because of the international interest," Chan says.
There is a common belief that contemporary art is fairly new in China. "(But) in fact, in the 1980s it was starting already with different kinds of movements. Then in the 1990s it really kicked off," he says.
In 1989 the Pompidou Center in Paris held an exhibition featuring Chinese artists called "Magician of the World."
"It was very controversial as it was really the first time a major institution showed artists from a developing country," Chan says.
Chan felt that after 1999 interest in Chinese art would wane but the interest just kept growing.
"Since 1999 there has been an emergence of Chinese collectors driven from outside interest in China and from many international galleries showing Chinese art," he says.
This does not mean that artists now are just responding to the interest and cashing in through it, Chan adds.
"Making money is human nature and it is not for me to judge. The market value definitely has an influence, which is the role of a gallery, to put distance between the artist and commercialism," he says.
Artists should think about their career, Chan says. "If they are merely doing things to supply the market, it's not good. Art should not just be made to be sold."
Chan says the idea of a struggling artist is one everyone would like to hold on to. "But artists are human beings and also need to feed their family," he says. "It comes down to how you view art. Art is very much about posing questions and asking people to think about things."
The Hong Kong native has a rich art background himself, having trained in fine arts in Massachusetts in the United States before moving to Canada where he completed a degree in art history. In 1996 he worked for a commercial gallery in Vancouver called Art Beatus that specialized in Chinese art.
"We started to promote Chinese art as it was before the interest in Chinese art took off," he explains.
There he worked with artists such as Xu Bing and Huang Yongping-now widely renowned internationally and on home soil-and three years later worked on a major project which included being admitted to Art Basel (a major art fair in Switzerland).
In 1999 the Venice Biennale hosted about 25 Chinese artists. "It was a very important year validating the importance of Chinese artists internationally," he says.
As contemporary Chinese art is a fledgling on the global art scene, the works are sometimes said to be heavily influenced from the West.
"I think a lot of people, especially in the 1990s, thought Chinese art was derived or copied from the West," Chan says. "But I do not think this is true as the only way a Chinese artist could see works from outside their country was through magazines. They did not have the opportunities to travel so much then."
On the other hand Chinese artists might copy a Western bust in oils as practice, but that did not mean they would not have their own interpretation, Chan emphasizes.
Observing many Chinese artists' work from the 1980s to today, Chan says they have progressed from Western art on a very different trajectory.
And he is adamant there have been many major changes. "In the 1990s there wasn't really a market for Chinese art as China has institutions but not commercial galleries or foundations that would offer grants to young talents."
But now there are increasingly more galleries and museums opening, especially in Beijing and Shanghai. "Artists can now have a very good start as there are so many opportunities."
(Shanghai Daily February 4, 2008)
