Art Attack

When Shirley Ben Bashat arrived in Hong Kong three years ago, she was bemused to find the art galleries along Hollywood Road offered a rather limited, mundane selection. “Wherever you looked, all they seemed to have were pieces by unknown Vietnamese artists,” remembers the managing director of Opera Gallery. Fast-forward to the present day and the galleries could not be more different. There’s been a complete transformation. The unknown Vietnamese pieces have vanished and been replaced with the latest cutting-edge works of contemporary local, mainland Chinese and international art. The change is part of a larger explosion that’s rocked Hong Kong’s overall art scene. Prices have rocketed, galleries are cropping up in unlikely areas such as Fo Tan and Kwun Tong and local artists’ names are becoming increasingly visible. We ask what’s fueling the boom in contemporary art from mainland China, the implications for local artists, and what the future might hold for the Hong Kong scene overall.

The Boom

Perhaps the most arresting feature of this sudden boom is the jump in figures for contemporary Chinese art in local auctions over the years. According to Evelyn Lin, Head of Contemporary Chinese Art at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Sotheby’s first Hong Kong auction in 2000 drew a total of US$2.9 million, while last year’s fetched US$42 million. Bashat reports similarly staggering leaps. “Things that were selling for US$15,00 just a year ago are selling for over US$1 million now,” she says. Such figures apply to works by the cream of the crop of contemporary Chinese art scene – giants like Zhang Xiaogang, Wang Guangyi, Yue Minjun and Feng Zhengje. The sudden interest in contemporary Chinese art corresponds to the suddenness with which the work itself has emerged. “Real art couldn’t start developing under authorities in modern China until the late 1980s, and when it was finally possible it exploded with talent,” says Bashat. Now everybody wants a piece of it just as much as many foreign businesses want a piece of China itself.

As far as aesthetics is concerned, some experts also attribute the popularity of the work to its ability to appeal simultaneously to both Chinese and Western sensibilities: “You’ll find Chinese people here like it because they feel a historical link with the themes that it deals with, but it also appeals to Western eyes because those concepts and themes are conveyed through contemporary Western techniques,” says Lin. However, Bashat believes that the scene is developing so quickly, the quality of the art is often compromised. “International fame and wealth are snatching up new mainland artists just barely out of the art academy, with many of them developing massive egos before they’ve even really learned to paint.”

Who’s Buying?

The popular conception is that buying contemporary Chinese art is a white man’s game, which in fact is dead wrong. “While it certainly started out as a predominantly Western market, by last year 80 percent of the buyers were from Asia,” says Lin, adding that a lot of Sotheby’s clients are Hong Kong-based bankers. “They are young people with lots of money and energy who are looking for new things to invest in,” she says.
Sadly, that doesn’t in any way mean that we’ve become any less materialistic as a society. On the contrary, much of the art-collecting going on is shamelessly profit-driven. “This is all still incredibly materialistic,” says Bashat; “we’re talking about a commodity worth a lot of money here. It’s not about spiritualism.” Shin Wong, curator of Old Baily Gallery, agrees: “Maybe I’m not supposed to say this, but what this boom really comes down to is a wider overall scheme among loaded, wealthy corporate types to find new, alternative paths of investment. Art has proved to be a safe place to put your money, and it’s a great way of avoiding paying taxes.”

Hong Kong’s Role

At the center of this mania for mainland art is Hong Kong, the main conduit for transactions in the Chinese art market. “Historically, as a British colony, Hong Kong’s attracted plenty of international travelers interested in buying art,” says Wong, adding that “there have been plenty of art buyers already among the wealthy community here, unlike less affluent neighboring regions.” Moreover, Nicole Schoeni of Schoeni Gallery observes that even as the mainland becomes more open, people are still inclined to make their purchases in Hong Kong for reasons of security. “All our clients feel more comfortable buying in Hong Kong because they consider it more experienced and sophisticated,” she says. By contrast, the less experienced buyer still risks getting royally screwed with fakes on the mainland. Such factors together make Hong Kong the principal base for buying mainland art. “You get better first-hand access to the best pieces here than you do in Beijing and Taiwan,” says Wong. “Collectors look at sales here as an index of what’s going on in the Chinese art world as a whole.”

Local Artists Left Behind?

There’s no denying that the global boom in mainland Chinese art has had some positive effects for artists in Hong Kong. For one, it’s generated plenty of interest where there wasn’t any before. “The media noise over record prices at auction houses has attracted many who had never previously thought of art as an area to invest in. These people then go on to visit galleries during the year,” says Bashat. This in turn has spawned the recent sharp increase in local galleries carrying contemporary art of any kind. “When my father started out here in 1992, there were only 5 galleries stocking contemporary art,” says Schoeni. “Now they’re all over the place, which provides more opportunities for aspiring local artists.

In addition to generating wider interest, Wong adds that the success story of contemporary Chinese art provides moral encouragement to local artists. “Local artists definitely feel motivated when they see their mainland counterparts succeeding,” she says, “it gives them hope that they too can make it internationally.”

Meanwhile, Arch Angel Gallery owner Koo suggests that spiraling mainland prices might even also turn out to benefit local artists as mainland art prices itself out of the market. “Chinese art is simply getting too expensive, even for works that aren’t very good,” he says. “As these prices become unsustainable, interest gathers in regional areas outside the mainland.”

Nonetheless, it’s far from an easy ride for our artists, who still remain a largely tortured lot toiling in the shadow of their brethren across the border. A cruel irony is that their very yearning for comparative commercial value may well serve to hold them back. “The environment for Hong Kong artists right now is all about moneymaking, and that’s kind of a barrier to creativity,” says Lin. “It discourages them from being genuinely innovative.”