Visions of Utopia: A Q&A with Photographer Weng Fen

By Louise Chen

Originally published: August 02, 2010

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/277608/visions-of-utopia-a-qa-with-photographer-weng-fen

A keen observer and critic of China's urban development, the Chinese photographer Weng Fen is known for his body of work that conveys both urban grit and a limpid expansiveness of vision often associated with ideas of Utopia. Toting his camera around the country, he spent years exploring the landscapes of such coastal Chinese cities as Haikou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, often viewing them through the prism of a foregrounded figure whose back is turned to the viewer. In his early series "Sitting on the Wall," for instance, teenage girls stare off to the distance, their faceless figures imposing a divide between a crumbling foreground and a crystal-blue vista of urban scenery and sky.

Last month, Fen came to New York for the opening of "Between Here and There: Passages in Contemporary Photography" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a group show featuring a work from his "Sitting on the Wall" series. ARTINFO's Louise Chen met with the artist at Chambers Fine Art gallery to discuss his work, which has in recent years expanded around the world to examine concepts of urban Utopia in the context of globalism — a process that brought him to England's Lake District for his current project, "Staring at the Sea."

Tell me about "Sitting on the Wall," the series that your piece in the Met show was selected from. 

I completed the series in 2001. I spent 10 years on one part of this ongoing series. It was continuously shot on one location in the city of Haikou, China. This set of photography documents the ongoing urban development and transformation the city went through during the past decade.

When did you have your first show in the United States?

I had my first show at Chambers Fine Art , which is this gallery. It was a group show around 1995 or so.

Did you shift from your earlier focus on capturing the phenomenon of urban development in the country to the recent attempts to explore the idea of urban Utopia?

Actually I didn’t change my artistic direction. The concept of urban Utopian has always been woven within my work throughout the years. In my work, the little girls are watching over the whole city with hope, curiosity, and fear. The urban scenery in front of her embodies the imagination and anticipation for the future while the dilapidated landscape alludes to the emotional attachment to the past — these emotions and sentiments partly comprise urban Utopia. This concept has been the core of my work and a starting point, from which has derived a variety of sub-themes and series.

How did this specific Utopian concept come to emerge in your work?

It is related to my life experience. I was born and grew up in a mountainous area on the Hainan Island in China. At that time, all the local residents originally migrated from other parts of China, so people in our town don’t speak their dialect but standard Mandarin. I grew up with strong curiosity to know what it’s like outside of my town and the Hainan Island. After graduating from college, I returned to Haikou, the capital of Hainan province and was struck by the rapid urban development in the city.

Do you plan to continue mining the subject of urban Utopia in your work?

It is not a continuation because I’ve always been concerned about the urban development and its epiphenomena in China, especially in the context of globalization. What interests me the most is the process of examining an issue within a length of time. I’d like to work with a concept, which is at once definite and indefinite.

Photography is the medium you are most associated with, but you work in other art forms as well. What is your approach to working with diverse media?

Different media enables me to take different approaches to a subject from various angles. My work might take different forms, but there’s a common thread running through it. You know my recent works include large-scale installations made of thousands of duck, chicken and quail eggs.

What is the symbolic meaning of the eggs in your work?

The egg is associated with fragility and hope, which exactly characterize the current state of China, a country in rapid development.

 So in other words, it is about opportunity and risk?

Yes, indeed. That's what's facing the whole world.

 Would you describe yourself as an artist who is socially concerned as well as an observer and critic of current affairs?

Yes. Contemporary art is about contemporariness and reflecting on current affairs. In my view, what’s in the past has been addressed by a great many people. We need to face the new challenges and come up with new ideas and solutions. As an artist, I can establish a relationship between myself and the audience through my work, between myself and social reality, and the interrelationship within society. The more relationships you establish, the more expansive the network of relationships will become. It is about communication, encounter, and interaction.

 What are you working on right now?

I’m working on an art project called “Chi-Na Travel Agency” with artists based in Hainan. Aside from being the name of the country, “Chi-Na” is pronounced similarly to a Chinese verb meaning “to deconstruct,” which alludes to the rapid urbanization. We organized a nonprofit travel and cultural agency offering free tours in my home town. We are inviting people with different social backgrounds to come visit in groups.

 Why do you want to show people the town where you are from?

This project is meant to present and address the issues and conflicts between the local traditional culture and rapid urbanization. The town where my family has been living for generations is being converted to an air space headquarters with a space-themed park nearby. The seashore area will become a tourist town. So the local residents are faced with a series of issues such as displacement, migration, and confronting urbanization. We are seeking a way to preserve the nature and culture while embracing the new development. We want to explore the possible approaches we can take to addressing these issues.

Who have you invited to take the tour?

The first group is my students, and later there are people from out of the Hainan. We want to provide the opportunity to experience the culture and the nature in the city and to simply establish a relationship between the town and people from other parts of the country and the world. Eventually I want to invite leaders from a variety of industries to come visit the town. I want to build this project into a forum in which disparate ideas clash and give rise to new inspirations and concepts. It is like a hub for communication and interaction.

Steven Holl's Portfolio of Chinese Projects Examined

By Louise Chen

Originally published: July 28, 2010

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/35333/steven-holls-portfolio-of-chinese-projects-examined

At the same time that a retrospective of Steven Holl Architects' work is on view in a 16th century castle in Lecce, Italy, another exhibition featuring seven of the firms projects in Chinese cities is opening on Friday, July 30, in the historic Chinese city of Hangzhou.

Titled "Urbanism: Steven Holl + Li Hu," the exhibition features models, drawings, and 3D animations of recent projects, like the Nanjing Museum of Art and Architecture, Beijing Linked Hybrid, Shenzhen Horizontal Skyscraper, and Chengdu Sliced Porosity Block, and aims to present and celebrate the collaborative efforts of Steven Holl’s New York office and its Beijing branch, launched in 2006. Despite the 12-hour time difference between the two cities, the architects have been productive. They are adding three new major projects in Hangzhou — the Shan-Shui Oxygen and Boiler master plan, the Triaxial Field Pavilion, and a campus for the Music Museum. Designs for all three will all be on view in the exhibition.

The Shan-Shui Oxygen commission was won in a heated design competition that pitted Steven Holl Architects against rivals Herzog & de Meuron and David Chipperfield. The firm has designed an oxygen and boiler plant on the city’s outskirt while maintaining a harmonious relationship with the natural scenery of the renowned West Lake. To transform the old site, the architects are incorporating green technologies throughout the complex. Within the rebuilt shells of the oxygen and boiler plants, new experimental architectural spaces may be utilized as cafes, bars, and exhibition or performance spaces.

Presenting a close look at some of the most radical additions to the skylines of China's cities in recent years, the exhibition also offers a close view at the negotiation that continues to occur between modernity and tradition, development and sustainability throughout the country.

Strength in Numbers: A Preview of the 2010 Setouchi International Art Festival

By Louise Chen

Originally published on artinfo.com, July 12, 2010

http://uk.blouinartinfo.com/features/article/35187-strength-in-numbers-a-preview-of-the-2010-setouchi-international-art-festival

For those art-loving globetrotters seeking to escape the unbearable heat, Japan can offer a getaway to its tranquil Naoshima Island and the six adjacent islands, on which the inaugural Setouchi International Art Festival 2010 is kicking off on July 19, and running through October 31.

Dubbed “the 100-day Art and Sea Adventure,” the festival honors Japan’s island lifestyle and culture while simultaneously presenting outstanding recent art and architectural works to an international audience. Featuring 76 artists and their projects, the exhibitions will be dispersed on the Seven Islands of the Seto Inland Sea: Naoshima, Teshima, Megijima, Oijima, Shodoshima, Oshima, and Inujima.

Over the years, the Seven Islands have become a focal point of contemporary art in Japan. Aspiring to turn one secluded island into a cultural hub, the former mayor of Naoshima, with the help of the Fukutake family, founded the Benesse House Museum, a space designed to highlight the interaction between art, architecture, and the natural environment.

Known for its idyllic seaside vistas, Naroshima Island, with a population of 3,400, covers an area of 7.81 square kilometers. On the 17th, an opening reception will be held on the island for the newly launched Lee Ufan Museum, designed by prominent Japanese architect Ando Tadao. One major exhibition on Naroshima is Hiroshi Sugimotos 2002 Appropriate Proportion project, a life-size replica of his former neighborhood’s wooden Go’o Shino Shrine, installed on a stretch of pebble road.

Not far from the shrine stands the American artist Teresita Fernandezs Blind Blue Landscape, a curved wall embedded with thousands of shards of mirror, each of which reflects a fragment of the surrounding landscape.

On Teshima Island, Olafur Eliasson is re-staging his enchanting optical-architectural installation Beauty — presented at the MoMA in 2008 — a 360° arena-like space with shifting light made to resemble the spectacular illuminations of the Aurora Borealis.

Another must-visit installation can be found on the island of Shodoshima, which will feature a recent work by Korean-American artist Do-Ho Suh, whose gossamer architectural installations at New York’s Lehman Maupin gallery have received critical acclaim. Titled Net-Work, the piece roughly takes the shape of a net, a cobweb of semi-opaque jointed human figures, which are connected by threads running inside their legs and arms. The work seems to allude to the way in which joining together, as the Seven Islands will do for this festival, can reinforce and enhance individual strength.

At Chinese Classical Art Auctions, One Belgian Couple Has a Magic Touch

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By Louise Chen

Originally published on artinfo.com, July 06, 2010

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/35017/at-chinese-classical-art-auctions-one-belgian-couple-has-a-magic-touch/

This spring, the Asian market for ancient Chinese artworks, which languished during the worldwide recession, rebounded dramatically, with numerous lots setting new records. However, amid all of that action, one set of lots, sold from the Guy & Myriam Ullens Collection at Beijing Poly International Auction Co., Ltd. last month, stood out. All 12 lots on offer from that collection — an assortment of works by ancient and modern Chinese artists, including seven antiquities that were exhibited at Beijing's Palace Museum in 2002 — sold, fetching RMB 146.2 million ($21.4 million).

The success of the auction was not entirely unexpected, considering that the Ullenses — a Belgian couple who started collecting rare ancient Chinese artworks in the 1980s and founded the nonprofit Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in 2007 in Beijing — are among the most prominent collectors of Chinese art worldwide. Last year, in Poly's fall sale, the Ullens' two lots — Ming court painter Wu Bin's 1615 Portraits of Eighteen Arhats (which the couple purchased in 1992 for only $620,000) and Letter Leaf by scholar Zeng Gong, who is considered one of eight greats of the Tang and Song dynasties — were respectively sold for RMB 16.9 million ($24.7 million) and RMB 10.8 million ($15.8 million), breaking records in ancient Chinese painting and calligraphy.

While questions about the Wu Bin work's attribution were raised by some Chinese art collectors before the painting headed to China, it was later authenticated by Poly auction specialists based on an inscription in the distinctive handwriting of Qing dynasty Emperor Qianlong, who was known for his connoisseurship.

Ambitious collectors and the newly-moneyed class in China are awaiting the next surprise from the Ullenses, who own an unknown amount of rare classical works.

Tagore Works Lead Sotheby's South Asian Art Sale to $8.2 Million

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Published by Louise Chen

Originally published on artinfo.com, June 19, 2010

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/market-news/article/34923-tagore-works-lead-sothebys-south-asian-art-sale-to-82-million

Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore headlined the South Asian Art Sale in London last night, not with his famous manuscripts, but with 12 paintings that fetched £1.6 million ($2.37 million), massively exceeding their £250,000 ($370,000) estimate. The evening sale, which also featured works by prominent South Asian artists Raza, Souza, and Chandra, managed a 78 percent sell-through rate and brought in £5.5 million ($8.2 million) for the house.

Other highlights of the auction included Haider Raza's Rajasthan,which went for £527,250 ($780,000). Last week, Christie's London sold Raza’s Saurashtra for an artist-record $3.4 million.

Of the 12 Tagore lots on offer from the Dartington Hall Collection of Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst,Portrait of a Woman went for £223,250 ($330,000), resetting the artist record achieved when his Death Scene sold for £144,500 ($214,000) at Sotheby's in 2008. The ink-on-paper work Lady with a Fan — purportedly a portrait of Lady Ranu Mukherjee, a famed Indian socialite and a close friend of Tagore in his twilight years — earned £103,250 ($153,000).

Originally a gift from Tagore to the Elmhirsts 71 years ago, the paintings had been kept in their Dartington Hall Trust in Devon since then. The announcement of the sale generated political tension, due to the belief of some Indian art organizations that the paintings should be returned to India. Before the sale, a senior official from India’s Culture Ministry went to London to press the issue, but Sotheby's officials argued that the Indian government had no legal claim on the paintings. The Indian government did not bid in the auction.

A prominent family with a 300-year history in the country’s culturalrealm, the Tagores played a significant role in the Bengal Renaissance, a social reform movement that began in the late 19th century and ran through the early20th century. A quintessential polymath, Tagore produced 2,000 paintings, composed 2,230 songs, and penned the national anthems for both Bangladeshand India.

After dropping out of law school at University College London, Tagore returned to India, founding the publication Sadhana while managing his family's estate between 1891 and 1895. After achieving success in the arts, he traveled the world as a cultural emissary, influencing authors from Japan's Yasunari Kawabata to France's Andre Gide.

India is currently staging a yearlong celebration of Tagore's 150th birthday, which has triggered a surge in sales of his literary worksin India. In New York, meanwhile, his family name continues on in the form of the Sundaram Tagore gallery in Chelsea, whose eponymous owner, a former director at PaceWildenstein (now Pace), is a descendant of Rabindranath Tagore.

Ferragamo Bares Claws in a Collaboration with Artist Xue Song

By Louise Chen

Originally published on artinfo.com, June 10, 2010

http://in.blouinartinfo.com/contemporary-arts/article/34879-ferragamo-bares-claws-in-a-collaboration-with-artist-xue-song

Combining Italian luxury with a Chinese touch,Ferragamo is launching a line of limited-edition bags and wallets emblazoned with two tigers by Chinese artist Xue Song, a collaboration available exclusively in the fashion house's Hong Kong stores.

Xue created the original painting of the two fierce cats against a red jungle background after a visit to the Ferragamo Museum Archive in 2009. A cherished animal in Chinese culture, the tiger embodies power, ferocity, beauty, and vivacity — symbolizing the Chinese aspiration for progress. The two tigers are rendered by silkscreen on the front of each leather tote.

The new line is bound to catch the eye of local fashionistas with an interest in Western style and an appreciation for Chinese traditions. But they won't have an easy time getting their hands on it — Ferragamo's first line launched specifically for the Chinese market is only being shown at Salvatore Ferragamo boutiques at Canton Road, Tsimshatsui, and in the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong.

The 80-year-old fashion house has been known for tapping into the energy of the art avant-garde throughout their history of creative image-building. Many renowned artists have been invited to collaborate with the Florentine brand, including Futurist painter Lucio Venna — for a 1930s advertising campaign — and Pietro Annigoni, who painted Ferragamo’s portrait as well as the house's Florence headquarters. (The latter was incorporated into the company’s letterhead in the 1950s-1980s.) For this latest project, the fashion company was drawn to Xue’s art by the way he infuses traditional Chinese forms with contemporary elements and techniques, reinterpreting a collective cultural memory.

Ferragamo has recently opened stores in Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou, and is planning to launch 10 more stores in mainland China. According to company CEO Michele Norsa, greater China — including the mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan — may overtake Japan as the company's largest market after the U.S. by the end of 2010.

A Luxury Shoebox Apartment Draws the Spotlight in Hong Kong

BY LOUISE CHEN

Originally published: July 30, 2010

http://sea.blouinartinfo.com/features/article/34867-a-luxury-shoebox-apartment-draws-the-spotlight-in-hong-kong

Hong Kong is a notoriously tightly packed city, but architect Gary Chang has devised a way to stretch out and relax — even if you live in a 330-square-foot studio.

Nicknamed “Domestic Transformer,” Chang's redesigned apartment of those measurements can morph into 24 domestic configurations through the use of sliding steel walls, which with a push reshape the space into a dining room, a yoga studio, a home theater, or other desirable spaces. The furniture is either foldable or hidden between the walls, which themselves are embedded with closets and storage shelves. With yellow-tinted, light-absorbing French windows and a large reflecting mirror masking the sliding tracks on the ceiling, the apartment always seems drenched in warm natural sunlight — an eco-friendly touch that allows inhabitants to forgo electric lights for much of the day.

In a densely populated city, the most precious commodity is space. Growing up in mountainous Hong Kong, Chang learned how to cope with tight space long before studying architecture — he grew up in the apartment's tight quarters with his parents and sisters, sleeping in the living room. After graduating from architecture school, he returned to remodel the space with his economical designs. Now, after his family has moved out, he has chosen to remain in his tiny home. “I’m always here, I don’t move but the house moves,” Chang says in the video below.

Chang’s design offers both efficiency and livability — a combination not to be underestimated in a world with diminishing resources.

A Feast by French Culinary Legend Escoffier Wings to Hong Kong

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BY LOUISE CHEN

Originally published: June 14, 2010

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/34904/a-feast-by-french-culinary-legend-escoffier-wings-to-hong-kong/

Hong Kong is always a culinary destination, but later this month it will offer a gustatory experience notable both for its historic nature and the fact that it's not Chinese in the least: the recreation of a 12-course banquet that legendary chef Auguste Escoffier originally served at the Hôtel Ritz Paris over than a century ago. The menu will be resurrected for one night only at the luxurious Hullet House hotels St. George restaurant on June 26.

This gourmet event is being held to celebrate the restaurant location's 110th birthday. Priced at HK$1,888 ($242) per person, the banquet will feature such dated delicacies as Suprème de Vollaile aux Artichauts (chicken supreme with artichokes), Pommes nouvelles (new potatoes), and Cœurs de Romaine (hearts of romaine), which are the dishes that have so far been revealed.

When directing the Ritz's restaurant in the early 20th century, chef Escoffier not only gained a worldwide reputation for haute cuisine, but also transformed the modern day culinary profession. Among his many notable achievements are the invention of the first la carte menu, the reorganization of the professional kitchen, and the simplification of the menu format.

Though only founded in 2007, Hullet House occupies the former 19th-century headquarters of the British marine police, which is one of the four oldest buildings in Hong Kong’s 1881 Heritage area, a focus of the city’s project to revitalize historic neighborhoods. The design of the building takes cues from Chinese imperial architecture and English country house, offering magnificent views of Victoria Harbor from private suite balconies. It had been going through major renovation since 2002.

The feast is the latest effort by hotel owners David Yeo and Iain Ward — a historian and ex-mariner respectively — to channel old Hong Kong's colonial charm.

A Survey of Steven Holl's Architecture Comes to an Italian Castle

By Louise Chen

Originally published on artinfo.com, August 05, 2010

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/architecture-design/article/35149-a-survey-of-steven-holls-architecture-comes-to-an-italian-castle

Steven Holl, the award-winning architect behind such acclaimed buildings as the 2007 "lens" expansion to Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, is having a welcome turn in the spotlight thanks to a survey of his recent European and Chinese projects at the 16th-century castle of Acaya in Lecce, Italy. Titled “Su Pietra,” the exhibition — running from July 10 through January 15 — is an ambitious detailing of Holl's design process, with displays ranging from drawings and building models to 3-D animations, with images of his postmodern structures cast onto the castle's ancient stone walls via high-definition projections.

An architect whose sensitive designs often play with feints of lighting and minimalist touches to all but disappear into their surroundings, Holl is something of a futurist naturalist — an approach that can be clearly seen in his European projects. In Hamarøy, Norway, for instance, the architect's 2009 Knut Hamsun Center — a monument to the country's controversial Nobel Prize-winning author and Nazi sympathizer — is a block of black wood topped by reedy plant life, resembling an angular chunk of obsidian growing out of the landscape. The Herning Museum of

Contemporary Art in Denmark, on the other hand, is an ethereal complex of broad white surfaces that sits, almost hovering like a low cloud, in the midst of a field. 

The Chinese part of the exhibition, meanwhile, revolves around the themes of urbanization, multi-functionality, and sustainability. After launching his Beijing office in 2006, the architect and his partners Li Hu and Chris McVoy have built up one of the most sought-after international firms for new landmark projects in a major Chinese city, creating structures known for their shifting views, malleable spatial arrangements, and dynamic use of water and air to create micro-climate outdoor public areas.

The best-known of these was Holl's first project in China's capital city, the 722,000-square-feet Linked Hybrid complex, which consists of eight towers linked by a ring of sky bridges. It was chosen as the “Best Tall Building” of 2009 by the Chinese Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats. Then, in Shenzhen, the Vanke Center — dubbed “the horizontal skyscraper” — stretches for 200,000-square-feet, a span as long as the height of the Empire State Building, offering a 360-degree view of the surrounding tropical landscape.

The Skin of the World: An Exhibition of Li Tianyuan's Photography

By Louise Chen

Originally published on artinfo.com, June 18, 2010

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/277255/the-skin-of-the-world-an-exhibition-of-li-tianyuans

Although he established himself as a painter, Li Tianyuan recently has been garnering more attention for his photographic works. The Skin of the World, curated by Wang Jiang, includes Li’s most recent large format (8 x 10 film) color photographs, on view at 4-Face Space Gallery June 12–27 in Beijing's 798 art district.

At first glance, Li seems to take a traditional approach to this series of portraits, capturing moments and subjects with subtle lights and shadows evocative of Rembrandts paintings. The juxtaposition of two half-body shots in contrasting tones within a single image adds a sense of depth to the all-black background. “Rather than a conversation, the portraits present the confrontation between the two selves, one as subject and the other object,” commented art critic Gu Zheng at the opening.

The portraits' subjects range from renowned artists and designers to the average student. Each subject embodies his or her distinct social role; each resides in a specific geographic space — so after locating each subject on Google Earth, Li lines the bottom of each photo with the corresponding camouflage-like image cropped from the original panoramic shot. By repeatedly employing the same composition, the artist presents a variety of faces that embody the diversity of the world, raising the question of how we detect the heterogeneity beneath a quasi-homogeneous surface.

MENASA Fair Debuts in a Crowded Regional Art Market

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By Louise Chen

Originally published on artinfo.com, July 15, 2010

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/contemporary-arts/article/35219-menasa-fair-debuts-in-a-crowded-regional-art-market

Building on the early successes of fledgling Middle-Eastern art fairs like Art Dubai and Abu Dhabi Art, the inaugural edition of MENASART Fair opened in Beirut on Tuesday — the latest attempt to promote the region's artists and cultivate the growing interest in contemporary-art collecting among wealthy buyers in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. 

The fair, which was sponsored by Lebanese financial groups MENA Capital and Al-Mawarid Bank, concluded yesterday at the Pavilion Royal in Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure Center. Among the 30 exhibitors the fair attracted were the U.K.’s Waterhouse & Dodd and Beijing-based nonprofit Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, which presented Zhang Huans large-scale stainless panda sculptures, previously seen at the Shanghai World Expo.

The fair also hosted conferences for dealers, collectors, and curators to address issues such as recent trends for contemporary art inSouth Asia and challenges for emerging Middle Eastern artists in light of globalization.

The board of the fair includes Laure d’Hauteville, who created Beirut's first contemporary art fair, ArtSud, in 1998, and helped the ArtParis fair expand to Abu Dhabi, and Jean-Marc Decrop, who is a former French cultural attache in Paraguay. "This fair is designed to represent art from the cradle of civilization," said MENASART artistic director Pascal Odille in a statement, "and boost the political, social and artistic representation in the region."

Sotheby's Oceanic and African Art Sale Earns $8.4 Million

By Louise Chen

Originally published on artinfo.com, June, 19, 2010

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/277248/sothebys-oceanic-and-african-art-sale-earns-84-million

Sotheby’s concluded its June sales of Oceanic and African art in Paris on Wednesday, achieving a total of $8,448,741.

Of the 82 lots on offer, 12 works from the collection of Marsha and John Friede spurred a fierce bidding competition, with many pieces exceeding their estimates. The highest-earning work in the sale was an early-19th-century Hembigurea ancestor figure from the Congo, which fetched $1,042,109 above the high estimate of $619,150. This June marks the 50th anniversary of the Congo's independence.

Other top lots included a 42-inch carved female figure by a craftsman of the Inyai-Ewa People, which earned $685,133; the work had previously been in the collection of Douglas Newton, a former curator, who built The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Another crouching female figure that had been included in the first show of Oceanic art in the U.S., at Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York in 1934, was sold for $476,897, a price that more than doubled the high estimate. 

Oceanic art has inspired numerous modern masters such as Paul Klee, Alberto Giacometti, and Pablo Picasso. The sales in New York last month and Paris on Wednesday showed a continued global interest in collecting this category as they achieved strong prices far exceeding the estimates.

How a Chinese Teapot Fetched $2 Million

By Louise Chen

Originally published on Artinfo.com, June 22, 2010

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/34957/how-a-chinese-teapot-fetched-2-million

In addition to a cultivated taste for tea, the Chinese also have a penchant for teapots. Last month, a 1948 purple clay Yixing zisha teapot by the master ceramicist Gu Jingzhou sold for nearly $2 million at a China Guardian auction in Beijing, topping the list of the most expensive Yixing teapots in the world.

A living legend at almost 100 years old, Gu has honed a sophisticated craftsmanship that can measure up to that of Ming court artisans of the 14th century. This teapot is made from a clay that can only be found in the town of Yixing in China, where the zisha clay usually comes in five natural colors — of which purple is the rarest, containing no lead but a variety of minerals that are healthy for tea drinkers.

Yixing teapots often interest buyers for their engagement with ancient Chinese literature, as poems and designs are engraved on them by calligraphers and artists. This multimillion-dollar pot is adorned with notable calligraphic engravings by modern master Wu Hufan and bamboo carvings by painter Jiang Handing.

Though historically they are most often coveted by Chinese collectors, a few teapots have also been purchased by foreign collectors at auctions at Christie's and Sotheby’s in Hong Kong. If $2 million dollars seems extravagant for a clay pot, just wait until another Yixing piece comes up for auction — the prices of these vessels are expected to continue to rise.

China Adopts New Rules for Auctions of Cultural Relics

By Louise Chen

Originally published on Artinfo.com, July 02, 2010

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/market-news/article/35104-china-adopts-new-rules-for-auctions-of-cultural-relics

Today in China new rules went into effect that are aimed at bringing uniformity to the sale of cultural relics at auction, a practice that has historically been governed by vague and contradictory rules. The new guidelines, codified as the Standard for Auction of Cultural Relics and Art Works, were drafted by the nonprofit organization China Association of Auctioneers (CAA) under the supervision of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).

The new regulations define auction terminology and outline standard practices for various parts of the auction process, including consignments, catalog production, and the archiving of auction records. The new standards also reinforce a provision passed by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in 2003 that requires owners of cultural relics to acquire and provide ownership certificate to auction houses.

The adoption of the new rules marks the end of a three-year process of legal research and investigations of the auction business in China and reached an important milestone in December when the CAA hosted the International Cultural Relics and Art Auction Forum in Beijing, a meeting that made important progress toward finalizing the new rules. That meeting focused on market regulations and strategies for reclaiming stolen cultural treasures, and involved the participation of presidents from international auction houses, experts on cultural relics, and government officials.

In recent years, China has vigorously pursued cultural relics that it believes were removed from the country illegally. One notable case was Christie's sale of the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé lastyear, which featured two bronze animal heads taken out of the Old Summer Palace during the 1860 Opium War. In addition, another major efflux of early cultural artifacts took place between 1980s and 1990s as some Chinese families sold their family heirlooms to the foreign collectors.

According to the recent statistic released by deputy mayor of Beijing Cai Fuchao, about 1,000 auctions featuring classical art and cultural relics have been held in the city during the past six years, generating RMB 40 billion ($590 million) in sales. “The capital city has become the market hub of primary artworks & cultural relics in China,” Cai said in a statement. “Ten-thousand pieces of looted cultural relics are estimated to return every year, and the number will be increasing year by year.” With the new Standard, auction officials hope that number will continue to grow. 

Dead Mandela Painting Sparks Outcry in South Africa

By Louise Chen

Originally published on artinfo.com, July 15, 2010

Within a week of his 92nd birthday, former South African president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela has received the rather grotesque tribute of being depicted dead and undergoing an autopsy in a painting being exhibited in an upmarket Johannesburg shopping center.

The artwork, on view at Hyde Park Mall, has generated a storm of scathing criticism directed at South African artist Yuill Damaso, who modeled the composition of the painting on Rembrandt's celebrated 1632 The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulip.

In Damaso’s rendering, Mandela is lying on the autopsy table in exactly the same position as the executed criminal in the original Flemish masterpiece, with a host of fellow prominent South African politicians gathered around the table, including fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Jacob Zuma, former president Thabo Mbeki, and opposition leader Helen Zille. In a macabre touch, the late child AIDS activist Nkosi Johnson, who died of the disease at 12, is depicted dissecting Mandela’s left forearm.

Enraged by the painting, the African National Congresscondemned Damaso for assaulting Mandela’s dignity. "The ANC is appalled and strongly condemns in the strongest possible terms the 'Dead Mandela' painting," the congress said in a statement released to Agence France-Presse. "It is in bad taste, disrespectful, and it is an insult and an affront to values of our society."

According to the artist, he meant no disrespect with the artwork but meant to highlight Mandela's mortality as a way of humanizing the historic figure,  who survived apartheid and the Sharpeville Massacre to lead his country into becoming a desegregated democracy. 

Mandela's fictional death in Damaso's painting, however, is particularly insensitive at the moment considering the failing health of Mandela, who was unable to make an appearance at the opening ceremony of the World Cup or the final game yesterday in Johannesburg.

Art Dubai Names Antonia Carver as Director

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By Louise Chen

Originally published on artinfo.com, July 30, 2010

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/34911/art-dubai-names-antonia-carver-as-director/

Leading Middle Eastern art fair Art Dubai has appointed Antonia Carver, a journalist and curator who has most recently led Bidoun Projects, as its new director. Prior to the appointment, she worked as editor-at-large for Bidoun magazine (the publishing side of the Middle Eastern cultural outlet) and the Art Newspaper (which first reported her appointment), as well as the Dubai International Film Festival, where she served on the board.

The Dubai Art Fair is partly owned by the Dubai International Finance Center, a conglomerate of financial companies that is a major patron of the arts in the Middle East. Last year, Abaraaj Capital, an equity company that is part of the DIFC, presented the first annual Abraaj Capital Art Prize at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, awarding three emerging artists — from Iran, Algeria, and Turkey — with $200,000 and showing their works at the museum and the Dubai Art Fair.

Officials from the fair say that they plan to work closely with the Sharjah Biennale to raise the international awareness of artists from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia as they expand into those regions. Recently there has been a surge in contemporary art in the Middle East, as wealthy locals have flocked to international and regional art fairs, snapping up works along the way.