Former donators need help

The name of Liao Jingwen should be written down in the art history, not merely in a blog. The widow of Xu Beihong (1895-1953) donated all the other 1,250 works of arguably the most famous 20th-century Chinese artist and the 1,100 cultural relics in Xu’s collection to the central government after the artist’s death in 1953. But [...]

Rongbaozhai in the Liulichang Street

Established more than 300 years ago, the Beijing-based art dealer was first known as “Songzhuzhai” (House of Pines and Bamboo). It changed its name to “Rongbaozhai” (House of Glory and Treasures) 110 years ago when it opened a shop at Liulichang Antique Street in Beijing, which still stands at the site. Rongbaozhai’s collection has been [...]

Liulichang — the antique street

    Liulichang was the site of a colored-glaze kiln in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). The antique market didn’t come into being until the middle of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) when the kiln was moved.    Strolling along the market, you will find ancient Chinese style buildings housing paintings, calligraphy, old coins, seals, jade and collectible [...]

Contemporary art suffers most

      Beijing Huachen Auctions, one of the largest art auction houses in China, canceled all its contemporary art sales at the fall auction on November 20. At its website the company’s general manager Gan Xuejun called it a “cautious but necessary” measure amid the economy turmoil.   Three weeks ago the China Guardian [...]

Let’s face the music

  Can China’s contemporary art market survive and even thrive in the global financial crisis? Yes it can, but its probability of thriving is not great.   The number and scale of art exhibitions in the coming years might shrink dramatically as people in the art world anticipate a gloomy economic situation in the near [...]

Post-Olympic interest

  The world market has had a strong interest for Chinese arts since the beginning of the new century, but is it still there after the 2008 Olympics? Many insiders doubt it. They are talking about an ominous sign at the recent rounds of autumn sales – Indian contemporary art is getting hot. Arguably the best-selling Indian [...]

Differences between Chinese and European buyers

Chinese collectors are much younger than their European counterparts, and spend heavily on young artists and calligraphers. The main buyers of art in China are those aged between 30 and 45, who have succeeded in the financial sector or in real estate. Many of them speculate in art just as they do in bonds or [...]

Best-selling Zhang Xiaogang in Chelsea

Best-selling Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang is giving a solo show at the Pace Wildenstein in Chelsea of New York. Born in 1958, Zhang is a contemporary Chinese symbolist and surrealist painter. His Bloodline series of paintings, which are often black and white, stylized portraits of Chinese people, usually with large, dark eyes, posed in a [...]

Liu Xiaodong remains to be the hottest

“Xiao Hao, Peyi and Xiao Yao” by Liu Xiaodong is to appear at the autumn sales of the China Guardian Art Auction Co Ltd — the largest art auction house in the mainland — next month. Liu, 45, is a graduate of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. He is arguably the hottest [...]

“Dream of Red Mansion” ancient copy to sell

“Dream of Red Mansions”, by Cao Xueqin (AD 1715-1763) , is one of the greatest masterpieces of the Chinese literature. One of its earliest copies, from the early 19th century, is going under the hammer of China’s largest aution house - China Guardian Auction Co Ltd next month in Beijing. The bottom price is given on request. Compared [...]