YCA era is on its way…?
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007YCA era is on its way…?
I have been wondering why there have been no visitor guides in Chinese at the Tate modern or many other major museums and galleries in London. Not because there is no one interest in Chinese contemporary art. It might be the other way around, people think – there are less Chinese interested in Art, or to be specifically, contemporary art.
Charles Saatchi, who was instrumental in the YBA phenomena, has changed history again. Before his new Gallery has opened, his website team has already translated the Saatchi Gallery website into Chinese. Both the English and Chinese accessible Website doesn’t only demonstrate the internationally well-known gallery itself; it also accurately reflects the attitude of the Western art market. Why? There are reasons as below:
What is Stuart?
Stuart is a website, which created by Saatchi Gallery. Its aim is to provide a platform, which allows artists to present artworks from all over the world. According to the New York Times, there are 23 Chinese art students who presented their work in Stuart so far. As Saatchi says, ‘There are so many artists in China who want their work to be seen’. And also, the students want to know what’s going on around the world.
Behind the prefect idea…
Stuart sounds prefect! Perhaps everyone would think this is a prefect idea that young students don’t have to deal with local galleries anymore, instead, they can easily open an account and post their work on the Saatchi Gallery website. At the same time, many international galleries and dealers can also make direct contact with artists if they are interested in their work. It is free (by which I mean their appear to be no restrictions), democratic and easy to access. It may attract more art collectors to the site, and it is also providing possibilities that many Young Chinese artists’ work might be collected at an early age. However, there are also concerns, which cannot be ignored.
The phenomenon of the YBA (Young British artists) transforms to the YCA (Young Chinese Artists)
How do you value a piece of art? The most direct evaluation may be by price. At the end of the last century, when the art world were still speculating whether Tracey Emin was a great artist, Saatchi gave the answer by adding ‘My Bed’ to his collection for 150,000£. With his foresight and wealthy background, Saatchi had enough clout in making part of Western art history. Today, in tandem with a dramatically expending Chinese economy, the Chinese art market also wields great power of drawing attention from collectors from all over the world. Unsurprisingly, Charles Saatchi is still at the top of the list.
After Saatchi has collected many Chinese contemporary artworks from the avant-gardes, such as Fang Lijun and Zhang Xiaogang. He turned his attention onto Young Chinese Artists. Is this a sign that this could be a repetition of the YBA phenomena in China? (In this sense, the term YBA should be written in YCA) One might think this is great as without the government support and limited promotion through galleries, Chinese Contemporary Art has its own way to survive by presenting internationally and being collected by foreigners (mainly American and British).
A western discourse might be created in China.
However, things always have pros and cons. A western discourse might be created in China. I have many questions in mind: What is a great piece of Art? Why art is being so easily judged by its price? Is there not a danger that Chinese Contemporary Art will be diverted into western criteria i.e. that what is the best Art is based on a western point of view? Who is making Chinese contemporary art history? Or the term Art History will no longer exist, which will be replaced by Visual Culture. Then, this is must be an international one. The Chinese have not undergone the Enlightenment, Modernity or Postmodernity. One could argue that the whole idea of ‘grand narrative’ does not exist in China, or it does but it is the different one and within the different ‘discourse’. I guess that might be one of the reasons why Chinese contemporary art is so fascinating to the westerners.
To be continued…