More on the contemporary Chinese art fever. The New York Times reports that British art collector Charles Saatchi has just launched a Chinese edition of his website (the English version of which gets 13 million hits a day) as a place for Chinese artists to display their work:
Known a decade ago for spotting talent and turning his discoveries into superstars, as he did with so-called Young British Artists like Damien Hirst and Rachel Whiteread, Mr. Saatchi is fixated these days on Chinese artists, the hottest sector of the global market. And when he saw these shyly tentative Web postings, something clicked.
“There are so many artists in China who want their work to be seen,” he said in a recent interview at his London home, pausing every now and then to scan the large computer screen on his desk. “These students, like all the others, want to know what’s going on around the world.”
So in January he decided to create a Chinese version of his Web site to cater to that audience. [Full text]
– See also Chinese artists on the English version of Saatchi’s site.
(Photo: Zhang Yue’s self-portrait, via the New York Times)
