798 District Blog

The exchange of contemporary art between Belgium and China is a new achievement of the two countries’ cultural interaction. The exchange can help us not only examine the contemporary art of the two countries from a new perspective, but also pinpoint the cultural similarities and differences related to the two countries’ contemporary art. The exchange of contemporary art between Belgium and China is a new achievement of the two countries’ cultural interaction. The exchange can help us not only examine the contemporary art of the two countries from a new perspective, but also pinpoint the cultural similarities and differences related to the two countries’ contemporary art.

Read the full article

NEW YORK, NY.- Eli Klein Fine Art presents Zhao Bo’s second solo exhibition in New York, his first at the Gallery. Through his paintings, Zhao Bo records the monumental cultural and political shifts in China, shown from the perspective of Chinese people. China’s opening to the West in the late 1980s ushered in a new era and these paintings provide a snapshot into this unique period. He clashes Communist and contemporary icons together in the same scene, revealing that Chinese society is more interested in adapting to contemporary culture than adhering to staid traditionalism.

Mocking the social realist propaganda of Communist China, Zhao Bo replaces the ideal Chinese worker or citizen with an ostentatious cartoon. The bright colors and enthusiastic poses express the vitality and exuberance of this new Chinese generation. Rather than revering Chairman Mao and principles of Communism, these wide-eyed figures revel in the glow of billboards and luxury goods. Yet, their placement in front of important Communist markers, such as Mao’s tomb or signs proclaiming, “Long live the people,” is a constant reminder of the government’s presence.

Zhao Bo received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in Chongqing, China. His works have been exhibited in museums in China and the United States including the Denver Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Art Museum of Shanghai, the He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen, and the Art Museum of Chongqing.

The exhibition will be on view at Eli Klein Fine Art through April 22, 2010

Read the full article

HONG KONG.- Sotheby’s Hong Kong 20th Century Chinese Art Spring Sale 2010 will be held on 5 April, offering a meticulous selection of more than 65 lots estimated at approximately HK$75 million. Many of the paintings are exceptionally rare, appearing for the first time on the art market.

Lily Lee, Head of Sotheby’s 20th Century Chinese Art Department, said: “The 20th Century Chinese Art Autumn Sale 2009 has garnered impressive results with the record-breaking sale of Lotus et Poissons Rouges (Lotus and Red Fish), a landscape painting by Sanyu, achieving the second highest auction price for a Sanyu painting, and an auction record for a landscape painting by the artist. Zao Wou-ki’s 7.4.61 sold for almost twice its estimated price at HK$15.78 million.

Following last season’s success, our spring auction will bring together the outstanding works of Zao Wou-ki from the “Paul Klee Period” of his career in Paris during the 1950s as well as those created during his “oracle-bone inscriptions period” and in the 1970s. Several of these paintings have never been auctioned before, including a large-scale painting 10-3-78 as well as Village de Montagne se Disperent, a work that has been unseen in public for nearly half a century.”

Exceptional Works by Zao Wou-ki (1950s – 1970s)
A pioneer of Chinese abstract paintings, Zao Wou-ki (Zhao Wuji, b.1921) started out in expressionist figurative paintings, followed by a transition from painting symbolic images to expressionist abstract oils.

Read the full article

NEW YORK, NY.- An exceptionally broad range of pre-modern Japanese art will go on view this March during New York City’s Asia Week in two exhibitions held by JADA, the Japanese Art Dealers Association.

The works of art range from a 12th century Buddhist sculpture to satirical ephemera of the 18th century and a four-foot tall model of pagoda once owned by New York railroad baron E. H. Harriman and later in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In addition, the exhibitions will present a complete suit of armor formerly in the collection of Japan’s leading Hokosawa clan (one of three works of art once in the possession of the millennia-old ruling family to be presented). Also in the exhibitions will be goldleaf screens, sculptures, prints, lacquers, and hanging scrolls that illustrate a reverence for nature as well as those that illuminate Japanese artists’ love of humor.

JADA 2010: An Exhibition by the Japanese Art Dealers Association
Among the earliest works in JADA 2010, an episodic survey of traditional Japanese art, is a Standing Jizō Bosatsu (Skt. Ksitigarbha), a wood sculpture that dates from the Heian period, 12th century. The delicate hands, facial features, and the shallow carving of the drapery mark this work as stylistically related to the work of Jōchō, whose famous image of the Buddha Amida is worshipped at the temple Byōdō’in near Kyoto. Jizō, a merciful protector of abandoned souls, appears again in a 16th or 17th century elaborate, intact traveling shrine. Decorated with a robe with cut gold, the figure holds both a crystal jewel and staff, Jizō stands on a lotus and cloud base within a shrine that features interior gilding.

Read the full article

NEW YORK, NY.- On March 23, Christie’s South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art sale will feature 91 works from the leading 20th and 21st century artists from South Asian.
The sale will focus on prime examples of many different movements and styles, with highlights including works by modern masters Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, Maqbool Fida Husain, Akbar Padamsee,
Syed Haider Raza, Francis Newton Souza, as well as works from leading contemporary artists Atul Dodiya and TV Santhosh among many others.

Christie’s celebrates acclaimed master Syed Haider Raza, whose Gestation, 1989, represents a highlight in this month’s sale (estimate: $600,000-800,000).
In Gestation, Raza presents an arrangement of shapes and earthy colors seamlessly merging his characteristic horizontal bands with elegant obliques.
In this seminal work, Raza generates an inherent rhythm and elegance…

Read the full article

MADRID.- Once again, ARCOmadrid_ 2010, the International Contemporary Art Fair, offers a unique opportunity to see work by major names in the contemporary art world. Many of the top artists, those heading the art market rankings, will have work on show at the art fair in Madrid, making it a unique chance to catch some true master pieces of our time.

Read the full article

The 798 Art District team wishes everybody a prosperous and happy Chinese New Year

More creative zones are being developed in Beijing and around the country.

These are similar to 22 International Art District, near Baiziwan and home to indie record company Modern Sky; and Shang Bar, near Wanda Plaza, for fashion companies.

Wang Xiaoyun, director and research fellow at the Regional Research Center of the Cultural Industries Institute of Peking University, says 20 of these cultural areas are being constructed in Beijing, more than 40 in Shanghai, and more than 50 in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.

“The creative industry has been developed for less than 10 years in China, but at a really fast pace,” says Wang, who is a consultant to Beijing municipal government on creative industry zones.

“Take 798 art district for example, it is mature and has developed into more than just an art area,” Wang says…

Read the full article here