1. the city | art
WRITING ON THE WALL
Then-up-and-coming artist
Zhang Huan, photographed
for his own three-part
series, 1/2, 1998.
Made in China
A decade after its initial splash,
Eastern art has become big
business in NYC | By Marina Cashdan |
photo courtesy of zhang huan studio
In a performance-art work premiered in 1998, Zhang Huan traversed the gravel-covered courtyard of P.S.1, throwing himself
on the ground in postures of pain and perseverance, smacking wooden clappers with each step. When he reached the central
prop, a traditional Chinese bed frame, he undressed and lie face down upon a four-inch-thick ice “mattress” for 10 minutes,
clenching every muscle in his freezing, mostly naked body. “I wanted to change the ice to water, but the ice changed me,”
Zhang says. “My body went from warm to cooler. And so, that is a lesson: My life cannot change.” The work, accompanied by
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2. Buddhist chanting, was both a contemporary depiction
of the Tibetan diaspora but also the artist’s struggle with
his own assimilation into the Western world.
Now, more than a decade later, Zhang is among
the most sought-after contemporary artists in the
world, and his second show, Neither Coming nor Going,
opens at PaceWildenstein in Chelsea this month. His
endurance during Pilgrimage—Wind and Water at
P.S.1 was just a taste of China’s art scene—relatively
unknown territory for the West at the time.
To many, the Chinese takeover of the contemporary-
art market seems like a tsunami that swept over the
West in the last five years, but Dr. Alexandra Munroe,
senior curator of Asian art at the Guggenheim Museum,
says it’s been a longer process. “If you look at activities
in the auction houses among galleries and among select
museums,” she says, “there has been a steady increase in
activities dedicated to contemporary Chinese art since
the early ’80s.”
Then came exhibitions in the late ’90s and early
noughts—including Inside Out: New Chinese Art at
the Asia Society in New York in 1999, and Between
Past and Future: New Photography and Video from
China, presented jointly at the International Center
of Photography and the Asia Society and Museum in massive 22,000-square-foot former arms factory in the 798 District, a thriving WILD THINGS
2004—that led to a sea change in the West’s perception Chinese and expat artist community. Arthur Solway launched a branch of Cai Guo-Qiang’s
2008 show at
of Eastern contemporary art, putting Chinese work on James Cohan in Shanghai. Both followed in the footsteps of the world’s the Guggenheim
par with American and European artists. This interest biggest collectors of Chinese contemporary art, Belgian philanthropists Guy included Head On,
culminated in a Sotheby’s auction in March 2006, and Myriam Ullens. They opened the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art an installation of
99 stuffed wolves
which marked a turning point in the Chinese art market. in the 798 District in 2007, showcasing their collection of 1,500 paintings, running up the
“The international fury and speculation—critical fury sculptures, installations and video works from Chinese artists including Zhang rotundra.
and financial speculation—in Chinese contemporary Xiaogang, Zeng Fanzhi, Wang Guangyi, Wang Du and the late Chen Yifei.
art really became world news,” says Munroe. This year the momentum has even accelerated despite the economic
downturn. “The Olympics threw enormous focus onto
UPTOWN CHINESE China once again as an emerging superpower,” Munroe
From left: “Portrait says. “There was a lot of attention paid to artists,
09-7-7,” 2008, by
Zeng Fanzhi (of including Cai Guo-Qiang, who was the artist in charge
phtots; “portrait 09-7-7” courtesy of acquavella galleries; woodblock courtesy of pacewildenstein gallery
Acquavella Galleries); of the visual effects and a firework spectacle around the
woodblock print, Beijing Olympics.”
by Zhang Huan (of
PaceWildenstein Munroe has an affinity for Cai, for whom she curated
Gallery). a critically acclaimed exhibition at the Guggenheim last
year, the museum’s first major exhibition by a Chinese-
born artist. Nine cars hung from the ceiling of the
rotunda, firework-like lights emanating from their insides, while a massive
herd of stuffed wolves raced up the rotunda, crashing into a glass barrier.
That show proved to be a catalyst of sorts, spurring many major American
According to the Art Price Index, Chinese artists institutions to beef up their permanent collections, filling in the once
took 35 of the top 100 prices for living contemporary lackluster Asian departments.
artists at auction that year, rivaling Jeff Koons, Damien On the fair front, China has not skipped a beat. ShContemporary,
Hirst and other major Western artists. Shanghai Art Fair, Art Beijing Contemporary Art Fair and ART HK are
Gallery owners jumped on the bandwagon quickly, emerging as some of the most important global art fairs and, this month,
pursuing artists who, just a few years earlier, were SCOPE teams up with ART ASIA in Miami for the second consecutive
unknown. Zeng Fanzhi signed a million-dollar deal with year; the partnership has been extended through 2010.
Acquavella Galleries; Zhang Xiaogang and Zhang Huan “I think there has been a tendency to view Chinese contemporary art
joined PaceWildenstein; and Ai Weiwei and Liu Xiaodong as a fashion,” says Dr. Melissa Chiu, director of the Asia Society Museum
were picked up by Mary Boone. Since 2006, practically and the author of Chinese Contemporary Art: 7 Things You Should Know.
every major New York gallery has signed a Chinese artist. “But I think the real change occurred when collectors of international art
Collectors, gallerists and dealers even ventured into started to include Chinese contemporary artists in their collections. That has
the East. In summer 2008 (just in time for the Olympics) had an enormously positive effect on the level of recognition that Chinese
Arne Glimcher, founder and president of PaceWildenstein, contemporary artists have today—they are accepted internationally.” In other
opened a branch of his gallery in Beijing, located in a words, Chinese contemporary art is no longer just fashionable, it’s classic. M
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