Beijing To Build “World’s Largest Art Museum”: What’ll They Fill It With?

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This week, as part of its 12th five-year plan, Beijing announced a new phase for the National Art Museum of China, a massive, glass-covered structure that is being touted as “the world’s largest art gallery.” Currently in the design process, the new National Art Museum will be located next to the current museum and near the Beijing National Stadium, with construction expected to begin next spring. While the new National Art Museum sounds like another example of the Chinese government building a mammoth public venue for the sake of getting another “world’s largest” title under its belt, as museum director Fan Di’an told delegates at the recent National People’s Congress, China’s public art facilities haven’t lived up to the promise of the country’s burgeoning interest in the arts.

As Fan pointed out last week, the current National Art Museum — which was built in 1963 in Beijing’s Dongcheng district — is a meager 8,300 square meters in size. Compare that to New York’s Museum of Modern Art, at 58,529 square meters, and the Louvre, which boasts over 60,000 square meters of exhibition space. Since attendance became free at the National Art Museum on March 2, according to Fan Di’an, it has clocked nearly 6,000 visitors at peak times, “nearly hitting capacity,” according to Xinhua. Clearly, the current digs are inadequate, certainly for a city that most consider to be the cultural heart of China. But how will director Fan Di’an fill the 130,000 total square meters of exhibition space he’ll have when the new phase is complete?

 

One clue comes from an interview Fan Di’an recently gave at the “Art Power” awards in Beijing, where he was named “Best Museum Administrator.” Speaking to Sina, Fan said that the Chinese contemporary art world is becoming stronger as more artists become globally recognized, more curators have the ability to promote Chinese art, and more (and better) museums are built across the country. Fan’s interest in contemporary art and the priority he places on public arts education have made him something of a star in the Chinese art world, a break from the stereotype of the stodgy apparatchik or stuffy administrator. Fan also counts many first-generation Chinese contemporary artists as close friends, such as his former Central Academy of Fine Arts classmate Xu Bing. With the ample room he will be afforded with the new National Art Museum, expect to see Fan display an impressive array of contemporary Chinese works alongside his other interests, which include everything from 1950s Chinese prints to artifacts from Dunhuang in Xinjiang province.

With so much room to fill, not just in Beijing but in new provincial art museums throughout mainland China, it won’t be surprising if we see museum and gallery representatives showing up at the upcoming Sotheby’s spring auctions in Hong Kong, where works by some of China’s top artists will be on the block. Directors like Fan Di’an would almost certainly love to get some pieces from the Ullens collection on the walls and prevent them from leaving the country once and for all. Now that new Chinese private collectors are getting more involved with the auction market and works by blue-chip Chinese artists are getting scarcer and scarcer, it’s no surprise that excitement is growing in China for the upcoming spring auction season.

Time to return – Leading artists assemble to define contemporary art

By He Jianwei 

The China Avant-Garde Exhibition, held at the National Art Museum of China 21 years ago, was the first time many in the West saw contemporary Chinese art.

Critics of the day called it the final curtain for the ’85 New Wave Art Movement, a vague period of time in the mid-’80s when Chinese Avant-Garde emerged.

In the years since, these artists have won attention with their exhibitions abroad and have broken auction records around the world.

Last year, 21 representative artists from various periods and schools of the last 30 years were assembled for the first time at the newly founded Contemporary Art Academy of China.

These leaders returned to the museum last Wednesday to show their latest paintings, sculptures and installations in an exhibit which is itself the history of China’s contemporary art.

A giant stainless steel sculpture of a laughing man welcomes visitors at the front gate of the National Art Museum of China. The face – its mouth open and eyes closed – has become a dominant icon in the paintings and sculptures of creator Yue Minjun.

That sculpture is part of The Constructed Dimension: 2010 Chinese Contemporary Art Invitational Exhibition, a collection of the last 30 years of development in Chinese contemporary.

More than 70 works by 20 artists are on display. Their oil paintings, sculptures, installations and photographs each represent a different area of contemporary art.

Zhou Chunya: Let Luxury-Arts Partnerships Increase Art Appreciation In China

Contemporary Chinese Artist Won This Year’s Martell Artist Of The Year Award In Shanghai

Contemporary artist Zhou Chunya (Image: 21CBH)

Earlier this month, the French cognac brand Martell held its annual “Martell Artists of the Year” event at the Shanghai Art Museum, awarding top honors to Zhou Chunya. Zhou, who made his name in the 1990s as a member of China’s first generation of contemporary artists and has become a favorite among international as well as Chinese collectors, is best known for his vivid paintings of green dogs, although his more recent works have taken a more pastoral turn.

This week, Zhou Chunya penned an interesting op-ed for 21CBH concerning the growing number of luxury-arts partnerships that we’re seeing not only in Europe and North America but also in China, writing that although these partnerships have their detractors, he feels they could play an instrumental and constructive role in the development of greater arts appreciation. Translation by Jing Daily team.

Recently, I attended Martell’s “Artist of the Year” opening ceremony at the Shanghai Art Museum. By now, this exhibition has already moved on to Beijing, and its next stop will be at the site of this year’s Asian Games in Guangzhou. I’ve been an artist for a few decades now, and I’ve lost track of the number of exhibition openings I’ve attended, but the one at the Shanghai Art Museum was by far the largest I’ve been to, and never before have I seen so much media attention at an opening.

Over the past two years, major fashion brands have — one after another — cooperated with artists on a range of activities. Chanel created its “Mobile Art” exhibition, Hermes is planning its H-BOX show, LV has hung works by Zhou Tiehai in its stores, and Prada has projected films by Yang Fudong on the walls [of its boutiques].

Some people say that these arts activities are just a matter of luxury brands engaging in high-end marketing in the name of art. So then, as independent artists, should we refuse to serve as a high-end marketing tool for luxury brands? Personally, I feel the answer is, “not necessarily.” Art needs independent creation, but it doesn’t necessarily need “independent display.” Why can’t we use their popularity to promote art? Especially because they can attract so much media and public attention.

Many artists have had similar experiences. Every time I go to Europe to take part in an exhibition, I always see long lines wrapping around the museum. When art appreciation becomes a habit, a way of life, naturally a society’s art industry will develop. To think of it now, perhaps luxury brands have a role to play in helping the general public develop this sort of lifestyle. It’s worth mentioning that over the past 15 years, high-end European luxury brands have continuously worked with artists, lending their name to all types of arts events and exhibitions.

What’s more, there are examples like the Cartier Foundation or Prada Foundation in Milan that have established their own art museums, dedicated to promoting the arts. Even after the financial crisis hit, and the American government suspended support of many art museums, these luxury brands maintained their support for their art programs.

When luxury brands spare no effort to emphasize that “our products are also works of art,” getting help from their art initiatives, they’re actually also doing another thing — they’re exposing the general public to true works of art, letting people know what art is. Even famous arts venues like the Shanghai Art Museum that host large-scale events have trouble attracting more than 5,000 visitors a day. But how many people pass by a downtown luxury boutique and stop to take a look in the window every day?

China’s luxury consumers are increasing, and within five years China may be the world’s top luxury market. If the world’s leading luxury brands can bring art to these consumers, art will naturally reach a greater audience. And as high-end consumption gradually becomes a way of life for people, we could expect art to become a part of these people’s aesthetic consciousness as well.

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