China

Western Masterpieces Offered up to Chinese Buyers

“Western Masterpieces Offered up to Chinese Buyers”

By Sébastien Blanc via “SCMP”

“Beijing (AFP) – A $50 million Rembrandt portrait takes pride of place in a Beijing hotel room, with Picassos and Renoirs dotting the walls as major Western auction houses look to tempt China’s super-rich with Europe’s finest art.

The exhibition, running until Sunday, ranks among the more distinguished displays of Western art seen in the Chinese capital, but is actually a private sale . . . “

Christie’s Shanghai: The Making of an Auction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L3wgWSc-hA

“Chinese Painting”

“Chinese Painting”

via the Metropolitan Museum of Art

“The Chinese way of appreciating a painting is often expressed by the words du hua, “to read a painting.” How does one do that?

Consider Night-Shining White by Han Gan (1977.78), an image of a horse. Originally little more than a foot square, it is now mounted as a handscroll that is twenty feet long as a result of the myriad inscriptions and seals (marks of ownership) that have been added over the centuries, some directly on the painted surface, so that the horse is all but overwhelmed by this enthusiastic display of appreciation. Miraculously, the animal’s energy shines . . . .”

“China’s Broken Art Market”

“China’s Broken Art Market”

by Felix Salmon via “Reuters“

“When 2011 came to an end, the dominance of Chinese artists in the international league tables was clear, if puzzling. Three of the top five artists, in terms of sales, and both of the top two, were Chinese; Zhang Daqian alone managed to gross more than half a billion dollars at auction that year, the first time any artist had come anywhere near that level.

But no one knew what was really going on. One theory — which the peddlers of . . . “