Spotlight on contemporary Chinese art - I

Great things are now expected yet from upcoming Chinese artists. From calligraphy to gunpowder, Chinese artists have a wealth of cultural elements untouched by Western artists to bank on. The political and social turmoil Asian artists face in their homeland also help shape powerful, iconoclastic works that can hold their own against contemporary Western counterparts.Chinese art: a speculative bubble?

It also appears that the Chinese art stars will keep on rising. Both buyers maintained that the Chinese art market is actually undervalued compared to Western modern and contemporary art. Laughing off the suggestion that Chinese art is a speculative bubble, Lin says: “The Chinese art market is still at the beginning stage. In terms of investment, the price range of Asian art is still very attractive. Compared to Western contemporaries, there is still a long way to go.”

Vinci Chang, Christie’s head of sales (Chinese 20th century art & Asian contemporary art) echoes the view and points out that the sales of Asian ontemporary Art Chinese 20th Century Art at Christie’s grew 800 percent from 2004 to 2008, with a "growing international buyer base." The auction house refused to divulge in the exact figure.

Buyers’ taste for art also has room to mature, Lin adds. “Among younger generation of new art buyers in Asia, 47 percent of them are from mainland China -- a very high percentage. And they’ve only recently started to focus on the Chinese contemporary art scene.”

At this stage, about half of these new investors are speculators, Lin says. With more education, she expects the proportion of buyers with a genuine appreciation of the artworks to grow. “The images and language of Chinese art is approachable and easy to understand for the young Chinese generation. The market is very young, and with China’s strong history and more learning about the collectibles, we will eventually learn to appreciate (the artworks intrinsically)."