Jing Daily’s Top Posts For The Week#
In case you missed them the first time around, here are some of Jing Daily’s top posts for the week of October 18-22:
Looking Back At The 1970s, ’80s, And ’90s: Three Artists Speak At MoMA
Three influential artists of China’s early contemporary art scene came together at New York’s Museum of Modern Art this past Friday evening, October 15, 2010, to celebrate the publication of a new book to which they all contributed—even if they didn’t know it at the time. In a series of one-on-one conversations followed by a group Q & A, artists Huang Rui, Huang Yongping, and Lin Tianmiao (all speaking through interpreter Vincent Cheng), reflected on their experiences in the art scene that first began emerging more than 30 years ago. Their personal stories and insights brought a rapidly fading era back into colorful focus.
As reported in Jing Daily last week, the MoMA volume, Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents (MoMA/Duke University Press, $40), surveys the field from 1976 to the mid-2000s, through a selection of original materials many of which can be found at the Hong Kong-based Asia Art Archive.
A New, Younger Demographic Emerging In China’s Luxury Market: Toddlers
Although the high-end children’s market is still centered in Europe, it’s no surprise that China is seen as a prime potential destination for top brands’ children’s lines, and not just because of the country’s population. China’s one-child policy has, over the past 30 years, brought the emergence of the “Little Emperor,” an only child who can best be described as “spoiled rotten” by parents and grandparents. Generally raised in China’s more prosperous coastal cities, “Little Emperors” present a huge opportunity for Western luxury brands that have already made fans of mom and dad.
This week, the Chinese news portal PCBaby looks at the prospects for top luxury brands in the Chinese children’s market, suggesting the industry has experienced three stages of development since 1990: product awareness (1990-2000), brand awareness (2000-2010), and high-end brand maturity (2010-).
Phillip Lim’s “4 x 3.1″ Project For Lane Crawford Hits Beijing (Photos)
This weekend, New York designer Phillip Lim was in Beijing for the mainland China launch of his “4 x 3.1″ multimedia fashion project for the high-end Hong Kong department store Lane Crawford. Earlier this month, Lim debuted the project in Hong Kong. Previously detailed in Jing Daily’s article on “Chinese-American Designers Looking East,” 4 x 3.1 features Lim’s newest collection as well as four short films created by four emerging artists—Victoria Tang in Hong Kong, Rain Li in Beijing, Elle Muliarchyk in New York, and Yi Zhou in Paris—each envisioning a personal story about the Phillip Lim girl.
Taking place at Lane Crawford at Seasons Place and the Dongbianmen Watchtower, the Beijing debut of 4 x 3.1 attracted the Chinese capital’s media and fashion elite, including our friend Nels Frye of Stylites in Beijing, who was on hand to take part in the festivities.
Strong Sales For Chinese Artists At Sotheby’s, Christie’s Auctions
Last weekend at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s in London, collectors indicated that the upward momentum we’ve seen in the prices of works by blue-chip Chinese artists at recent auctions continues to gain steam. At Christie’s Day Sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art, works by Zao Wou-Ki, Chen Zhen, and Wang Guangyi went well above high estimates. To put the Chinese sales into context, 100% of works by Chinese artists sold, compared to 66% of overall lots sold at the auction.
Chen Zhen’s work “Uninterrupted Voice” was particularly notable at this auction, selling for $386,483, more than double its high estimate of $160,100. Additionally, the performance of Wang Guangyi at Christie’s — as well as Sotheby’s — last week hints that Wang’s appeal among new collectors is growing.
Art Salon: The Culture Of Contemporary Chinese Art (China Institute, New York)
Last night, at the China Institute in New York, Jing Daily attended the first of two Art Salons for the fall season, focusing on the work of two American contemporary artists working in uniquely Chinese styles: painter Arnold Chang and photographer Michael Cherney. Introduced by China Institute President Sara Judge McCalpin to the sell-out crowd, Chang and Cherney discussed their artistic backgrounds and processes, turning then to the topic of their recent collaborations, which blend aspects of traditional Chinese ink painting with photography and speak to a broader theme in today’s art world of what Chang referred to as “artistic globalization.”
Speaking first, Arnold Chang discussed his early artistic education, which began – coincidentally enough — in the area near the China Institute, where he studied under the influential artist and collector C.C. Wang.