Chinese art and visual culture, 5-11 October
*The material trappings of classical literati culture are still being appropriated by the nouveau riche: artist Lu Hao has collaborated with Ferrari for a one-off Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano China in the distinctive green cracked “glaze” of the Song dynasty’s (960-1279) Ge Kiln porcelain.
*Beijing may be lending to Taiwan, but Taiwan feels it can’t reciprocate for fear the pieces won’t return.
*Sotheby’s Hong Kong sale returns this week were very impressive: contemporary Asian art made nearly $15 million, 20th-century Chinese art made $14 million, and Fine Chinese Paintings took in $23.5 million. Just like in New York, it’s the Chinese who are buying, and buying in a big way.
*Stan Katz asked the provocative question of why do universities support museums?
*Female Chinese contemporary artist Cao Fei was nominated for the Hugo Boss Prize 2010.
*Ai Weiwei’s So Sorry opens tomorrow, 12 October, in Munich.
*China Design Now, the first exhibition to examine contemporary Chinese design from the Victoria and Albert Museum, has moved from the Cincinnati Art Museum to the Portland Art Museum. It will run from 10 October 2009 to 17 January 2010.
*The New York Times profiled the Gao Brothers’ underground art openings and their statue Mao’s Guilt as examples of the steps needed to elude the authorities when a work’s subject is politically sensitive. The video included with the article includes some intriguing comments on the Gao Brothers’ work by local Chinese visitors.
The second work mentioned specifically in the article, their Execution of Christ, riffs on Goya and Manet – just like Yue Miinjun’s Execution that I mentioned last month in The Art of Tiananmen. There’s an interesting question: why the perpetual repetition of this composition in particular?
