Market Boom

Life is ironic. Business had been slow for almost a year at the art advising company at which I worked in San Francisco, following the tragic death of one of our busiest and most beloved clients. But yet we carried on, eagerly anticipating the next major painting to be offered our remaining clients by a dealer, and wrapping up the installation of our largest corporate contemporary art collection. Paintings and other artworks came to our attention in bits and spurts, and when they did, we were elated and quickly became busy with the art (and minutiae) of making the deal; and when they didn't, we returned to reorganizing our library and assembling private collection catalogues. Then in 2005, when I reluctantly left the company in order to begin the cross-country move with my husband, the art world witnessed the biggest market boom in recent history - the Chinese art explosion. And I missed it, entirely.

So for the past several years I've been reading, watching, and keeping an eye on the evolution of the art world in China, and in Barbara Pollack's current article in this month's ARTnews she gives a good synopsis of the major developments. Following are some of the artists whom she references as being the most successful at auction, along with an example of their work:

Yue Minjun:


Zhang Xiaogang:


Liu Ziodong:


Liu Ye:


And finally Zeng Fanzhi, the most successful at auction, with Mask Series No. 6 (1996) selling at Christie's Hong Kong this past May for $9.6 million, the highest price ever paid for a Chinese contemporary work:


Hard to believe that Fanzhi's paintings - a mere 5 years ago - sold for under $50,000. Talk about a boom indeed.

The conversation about price speculation and the ensuing role of the 1,600 auction houses on mainland China, the tidal wave of artists in mass becoming elevated without critical review and selection, and the anticipated next steps of buyers in China beginning to look overseas for contemporary artwork continues to fascinate me.