Art forum generates hot debate

"Every time we pass an outdoor sculpture along the road, I wish my car would go faster so I wouldn't have to look at it," said Shanghai artist Chen Yifei. He was expressing embarrassment to some foreign friends visiting Chinese cities.

The wit of the famous oil painter sparked sympathetic laughter from the audience of a forum in Beijing early this week.

Chen was one of the speakers at the Chinese Art Industry Forum 2000, which touched on topics such as public art, art and the Internet, art collecting and investing, the art market, as well as art media.

The forum, which was part of the China Art Exposition 2000, ended on Tuesday, and attracted about 200 artists, critics, curators, collectors, gallerists and journalists.

"Art as an industry has emerged into the public eye in recent years," said forum organizer Wu Jing. "It has become necessary to examine the challenges and opportunities facing the industry."

This was the first time in China such a high-level forum was held on the development strategies of the country's art industry. But the forum did not cover such important topics as art legislation, art administration and art education.

Public art

Held at the same time as the China Art Exposition 2000, which has a special exhibition featuring contemporary Chinese sculpture, the forum went beyond sculpture to public art in Chinese cities.

With China's rapid urbanization since the 1980s, cities mushroomed across the country and public art as part of the cities' cultural landscape has been increasingly noticed, said Ren Jun, a sculptor from Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province.

Outdoor sculptures now appear in many cities. Built as symbols of the cities, the sculptures usually represent the common ideas of the artists, government officials and ordinary residents.

But, in the early years, professional sculptors did not play an active role in designing and building the sculptures. Most often, government officials had the final say and many public sculptures turned out to be hasty but costly pieces for the officials to show off during their tenures.

As a result, a large number of mediocre sculptures were produced, "polluting" the cities, criticizes Chen Yifei.

Fortunately, in cities like Shanghai, the situation has improved in recent years, Chen noted, taking as an example the public art on the recently built Centennial Avenue in Pudong New Area. Artists collaborated with the government in building the projects, which have been well received by the public, Chen said.

Some experts called for public art that reflects the life of ordinary people and the spirit of a modern society, rather than being limited to traditional heroic styles of works.

Art market

Since 1992, the Chinese art market has gradually taken shape while experiencing many ups and downs in line with the national and global economic environment.

Galleries, auctions and art fairs have emerged as main channels artists sell their products, collectors find their favourites and dealers earn their profits.

But disorderly practices such as underground sales, tax evasion and art fabrication in the Chinese art market have proved to be headaches for many people and remain the targets of endless complaints.

"More professional galleries that represent artists and operate in accordance with international practice must be established soon in China," said Gong Yunbiao, an organizer of the Shanghai Art Fair, one of the most acclaimed art fairs in China.

He pointed out that art fairs should be made up primarily of galleries that represent artists.

But in most of the art fairs in China today, artists still sell their works themselves in stands they rent. Because they have little business experience, they often lose out on sales without the help of professional dealers and gallerists.

Lin Song, a Beijing art critic and gallery owner, said professional galleries appeared in China in the late 1990s, mostly in large cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Even today there are only about 20 qualified galleries in the country that represent artists in a real sense, Lin noted, saying the rest are no more than art shops that sell paintings and calligraphy as tourist souvenirs.

Hua Yuzhou, a Shanghai gallery owner who studied arts administration in Japan, said professional staff with strong backgrounds in art, management, marketing and foreign languages are critical to the success of a gallery.

Guo Qingxiang, an ambitious collector supported by the powerful Wanda Group in Dalian of Northeast China's Liaoning Province, has been collecting Chinese ink paintings by master artists of the 20th century in recent years.

More and more Chinese enterprises like Wanda have taken it as their responsibility to protect the nation's cultural heritage and are enthusiastically involved in art collecting, he said.

But some experts noted that it is urgent to raise the quality of art collectors. Art critics and researchers should take a more active part in the art market, they said.

"As artists, we must realize and accept the existence of art market; but it is a mistake to care too much about the market and even intentionally pander to low tastes," Xia Junna, an up and coming oil painter in Beijing, told the forum.

Art media

What role should the mass media play in promoting art in a modern society?

What is the future of traditional art media vs new media and the Internet?

Should art media focus more on art specialists or the general public?

These questions were also discussed at the forum.

Experts agree that the media have an important role in raising the public's aesthetic taste and promoting the healthy development of China's art industry. It doesn't matter if they are general media like China Daily and CCTV, specialized traditional art publications like Art World and China Art Weekly, or Internet media like artnews.com.cn and guaweb.com.

On the issue of Internet art media and traditional media, Wang Ping, an editor from the Hangzhou-based China Art Weekly, said: "The 'wolf' is coming, but is not terrible. There is still a lot of space and considerable advantages for traditional media to develop."

"As part of the art market, art media should increase their importance by interplaying with other sectors of the market and the society," said Wang Yishan, executive director of the Collector magazine.

Yin Jinan, an art critic and professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, noted that the art coverage of general mass media such as TV stations and newspapers should be improved by being more professional, balanced and pluralistic.

"(Their coverage) should first attract the attention of art professionals and art lovers. It is unlikely that a report that is uninteresting to people who love art would interest those who don't care about art at all," he said.

Date: 08/18/2000
Author: YANG YINGSHI, China Daily staff
Copyright? by China Daily

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