From Knox County Times:
Keeping pace in modern technology has prevented contemporary Chinese artists from dying before the West learned of them.No wonder the stock market is lagging, and the money is being invested in Chinese art. On June 21 at Sotheby’s, Chinese artists, which most will not have heard of, set records. Yue Minjun’s (Â≤≥ÊïèÂêõ) “The Pope” set a world record for a contemporary Chinese work at $4.3 million. Zhang Xiaogang‘s “The Bloodline” did okay at $2 million plus.
China has had no tradition of contemporary art or contemporary art museums. In considering accomplishments, or lack of, in Chinese contemporary art, one needs to remember that China is maybe where the West was in 1885-1900. By that time, art was making great advances in Europe. Every American artist that could scrape together $2 rushed off to Paris….[Full Text]
[Image: Yue Minjun’s “The Pope,” 1997. Selling at $4.3 million, it set a world record for contemporary Chinese painting, via Knox County Times]
– Read also related previous report here via CDT
