A Real Era

The contemporary asian art auction was hold on 6th April. I went there and witnessed the most time of the auction.

The result of auction appeared the serious polarized phenomenon, the works belonging to the famous artists attained an unprecedented high price and other works just got a minor price or some even didnot be sold.

Based on the final data, No.654 UNTILED by Zhang Xiaogang acquired the highest price of the auction with HK$ 4,820,000, and followed with No.662 HATS SERIES-ARMED FORCES by Yue Minjun for the price of HK$ 4,580,000. The third one was No. 677 MASK SERIES by Zeng Fanzhi, and the price was HK$ 3,620,000.

In another hand, the five contemporary Chinese conceptional art works the auction emphasised also didnot make the organizer disappointed. No.709 SIXTY-YEAR CYCLE CHARIOT by Huang Yongping made the deal with HK$ 3,380,000, the twice time of expected price and been the new record of artist self. And the other four conceptional art works were all surpassed the estimate price.

Reviewing these high price art works, we can notice that they are all created by the artists who have already got the significant status in the global art field. It is not suprised that to be known the result of their success though the contemporary Chinese art now is experiencing the ever harder time since 1980s. But for those younger artists, the result of the auction is not so optimistical. Most of them have not attained the estimate price, and part of them face the fate of failure. That indicates the situation of the contemporary Chinese art in the crisis of economy nowadays, the art collectors or art dealers prefer to pay a high price for the masters' works rather than runing a risk to invest the less well known artists even their works are actually good.

Under the prosperous appearance of the auction scene, that is the truth of the markets controlled by the captital. Neither the works of Yue Minjun nor Zen Fanzhi and Zhang Xiaogang, they can escape the title of political pop. And that is the main reason still stimulate the western society to pay attention to them in the result of the high prices in the auction. There is no one or two days since contemporary Chinese art have failed into the peep approach to the non-transparent Chinese social politics of the West. And the phenomenon is still continued... till now.

However I am so lucky to see some other art works with real art spirit appeared in the acution and got a nice price, like No.725 PUMPKIN by Yayoi Kuwama with the HK$ 2,720,000. Yayoi Kuwama is the most significant female artists in the past 30 years. Her unique and independent art style has an impact significance in the art field. Not like the works by the Chinese artists, her works are not related to any of the society or politics. What she cares about is the human themselves, the inner spirit. Her works are always filled with imagination and children temperament, what represents her strong personal desire to describle the world she feels. The works by her are not to complain the society, but to ask people to review their original intention of what they want to live in this world. As an artist, she is pure and great, absolutely.

Pumpkin by YAYOI KUSAMA