These Chinese painters create a brand-new style of painting
Contemporary Western painting meets traditional Chinese painting at this intersection where artists from very diverse backgrounds have created new forms of expression. An intriguing occurrence that is mirrored by the art market, which sustains them through the challenging times.
Hong Regime
There are times when artists from the same nation exhibit exceptionally creative thinking. Their upbringing as well as the political and social environments in which they are or have been raised encourage a hypercreativity that is unique on a global level.
Today, China and its diaspora are the scene of a significant artistic blossoming, without our being able to speak of a school. After the nation's opening up in the 1990s, the Chinese contemporary scene had already practically taken off, and the art market reflected this with pieces such as expressionist figuration. For instance, in 2013 the works of 1964-born artist Zeng Fanzhi brought in a maximum price of $23.2 million.
While most Chinese celebrities from the 2000s are no longer as well-known as they once were, Zeng Fanzhi has transformed his image entirely. He is currently represented by the prestigious Hauser & Wirth gallery, which opened an exhibition of his most recent paintings, which include an intriguing and enigmatic technique, at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, an abandoned church, at the Venice Biennale.
We won't discuss his amazing drawings, which he saved for himself and took over six months to complete. They resemble Dürer. His most recent works, which alternate between figurative and abstract themes, are composed of an abundance of densely colored dots. His gallery sells large forms for as much as 1.8 million dollars, and it appears that they start at $500,000. He also joins the new wave of Chinese artists who are capable of creating novel genres of painting despite having extremely distinct styles because to his involuntary self-renewal.
Strange, enthralling, and frightening
Chinese modern art purchasers have a special affection for native artists who have received recognition from Western organizations. In this instance, Matthew Wong, a Hong Kong-born painter who was born in Canada in 1984, took his own life at the age of 35. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is hosting a sizable display honoring him, dubbed a symphony of pointillist colors, through September 1, 2024. His landscapes are displayed here in close relation to Vincent Van Gogh's artwork.
Wong's paintings convey a claustrophobic psychological prison with low or nonexistent skies and an overwhelming amount of patterns, which makes them both interesting and disturbing. The artist's record, acquired in April 2023, is valued at $6.1 million. These days, a large picture can get $3 million. Chinese collectors take great pride in Wong, says dealer Vanessa Guo, who runs the Marguo gallery in Paris.
The Center Pompidou will host an exhibition by about twenty Chinese artists who were born between 1970 and the early 1990s, from October 9, 2024, until February 3, 2025. The list of participants is still being withheld by the institution, however it appears that two very renowned painters in China, Qiu Xiaofei (born in 1977) and Hao Liang (born in 1983), are included.
Western art and Chinese tradition
What unites them is their own arrangements of an academic synthesis between Western art and Chinese culture. Beijing-based Qiu Xiaofei has witnessed a dramatic change in his approach in the last few years. He is the focus of an exhibition in Europe for the first time, taking place at the Xavier Hufkens gallery in Brussels through August 3, and is represented by the international Pace gallery.
Between $50,000 and $300,000 has already been sold for each of his works, including one that is currently on display at the Centre Pompidou. One of his paintings was recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum in New York as well. From classical figuration, he transitioned to painting the entire canvas in a patchwork of colors, from which characters frequently derived from art history emerge.
There is a method for applying various ink layers using color transparency in traditional Chinese landscape painting. This produces lighter and denser areas. I'm attempting to use this method for oil painting.
Qiu Xiaofei
He explains: "There is a technique in traditional Chinese landscape painting for applying multiple layers of ink by utilizing the color transparency." This produces lighter and denser areas. I'm attempting to use this method for oil painting.
tiny heads and enormous legs
Beijing-based artist Hao Liang decided to express himself via silk painting. It will be on display at the Gladstone Gallery (1) in Brussels in October 2024, and it will take up the whole stand of Vitamin Creative, one of the most significant contemporary Chinese galleries, in Canton during the Art Basel event in June 2024. He creates enigmatic photos that are wrapped with a black filter, resembling intricate dreamlike imagery. 2016 saw us in Paris at the Vuitton Foundation, where we saw his extremely precise work done in very limited amounts. In April 2023, a 2011 piece set a record for the artist at auction, selling for 3.1 million dollars. His silk-painted tiny forms go for about $120,000, while some of his more recent pieces can fetch as much as $1.8 million.
Lu Yang's remarkable parallel universes
The Vitamine Creative gallery represents Firenze Lai, a highly skilled artist who was born in Hong Kong in 1984. She now resides in London and creates representations of human silhouettes in vibrantly colored spaces. She experiments with color contrasts and the intentionally rudimentary portrayals of her characters, who have big legs and little heads, in her paintings. In the spring of 2024, her most recent piece was on display at the Lodovico Corsini gallery in Brussels. It had been ten years since she had exhibited anything. All of his pieces were sold for between 80,000 and 200,000 euros.
Quite modern scenes
While experimenting with color contrast in her compositions, Paris-based artist Xinyi Cheng (born in China in 1989) is also drawn to the moods of the characters in a very different genre. She is greatly influenced by the tradition of Western painting and frequently paints very modern themes, such as two men at the barbershop or friends at a restaurant. François Pinault, a collector who displayed his artwork at the Bourse de Commerce in 2022, is a supporter of it. In the same year, Lafayette Anticipations held an exhibition on the subject.
Having been represented by the prestigious American gallery Matthew Marks, which features prominent figures in contemporary art, since the start of her career, she was previously represented by the French gallery Balice-Hertling. His galleries are selling his pieces for between 20,000 to 90,000 euros, a huge increase in price over the last few years. One of his paintings sold in New York in March 2023 for $154,000.
All of these artists have a few things in common: they are highly demanding, have limited production, and prioritize quality. They also frequently received training at a crossroads between China and the West, considerable backing from Chinese-speaking nations like Taiwan, and increasing interest from the West. Their ranking has not changed despite the turbulent times at all levels, and demand is still quite high.
Seen in Le Echos - France © www.vwart.com