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International Herald Tribune

BASEL, Switzerland: First, Western art galleries turned east, moving into China to cash in on its booming contemporary art scene. Now, Chinese galleries are trekking west.

Seven Chinese galleries participated in the main fair of Art Basel and in its satellite events this year, showing some of the most spectacular works in Art Unlimited, the exhibition platform for large-scale projects, video installations and live performances aimed at the institutional art market.

The Boers-Li Gallery in Beijing, a first-timer at the fair, showed Qiu Anxiong's "Staring Into Amnesia" (2007), an authentic 1960s Chinese train car inside which black-and-white war footage was projected onto the windows.

"My work is not about ideology. It is about reviving the memory of China," Qiu said.

There were also works by a three-man collective, Yangjiang Group, presented by Vitamin Creative Space of Guangzhou, China, which were shown in both the Art Unlimited section and Art Statements, a section featuring emerging artists working with rising galleries.

In Art Unlimited, the group presented "Garden III (Pine Trees)," (2008), a faux Chinese garden installation with trees, a path onto a bridge and a paper pond moving to music. At Art Statements, they showed scenes from daily life, including gamblers socializing around a dinner table.

Moving in the opposite direction, two big New York art galleries are about to open satellites in China.

China's economic boom has produced a growing class of wealthy private collectors whose interest in the local art market is reinforcing demand from Western collectors.

"Powerful buying from the West has been reinforced recently by intensive interest from new buyers from Mainland China, some 30 to 50 of them, as well as from Singapore and Taiwan," said Michael Goedhuis, a New York art dealer and a veteran of the Chinese art scene since 1993.

In July, the James Cohan Gallery, from the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, will be the first U.S. gallery to open in Shanghai, where its senior New York director, Arthur Solway, who is fluent in Mandarin, has already relocated.

"We want to address the second wave of collecting that will inevitably happen in China," James Cohan said from New York. "There is a certain maturity process in all collecting markets. Right now it is very focused on the domestic market, but we see mainlanders and Taiwanese focusing more on international collecting."

The PaceWildenstein Gallery, also in New York, will follow in August with a spectacular space in Dashanzi, the Beijing art district that has developed in and around Factory 798, a former munitions plant.

"China, Beijing specifically, is just emerging internationally as an art-making center," said Peter Boris, vice president of PaceWildenstein, who will be chairman of Pace Beijing.

"There are now only a few buyers in mainland China, but there will be more. Our target clientele are Asian collectors and the new wealth created there," Boris said in an interview at Art Basel.

刘 柠

2007 年，随着奥运会的临近，中国经济开始冲刺：据中国国家统计局公开的数据，去年全国GDP增长11.4%，CPI（价格指数）增长4.8%；在北京、上海等 一级城市，一年内房地产价格至少上涨一倍，涨幅超过过去6年的总和；资本市场更是一片尖叫，5年未遇的牛市令人血脉贲张。

行 情最看好的，既不是房地产，也不是资本市场，而是艺术品市场。这个市场的发力，非自去年始。但从2000年至今，海外对中国艺术品市场价值的整体评估，已 上升百倍以上。曾几何时动辄被警察取缔，长期以来在社会边缘辗转流浪的前卫艺术家，在前卫艺术的“政治正确”性确立之后，摇身一变，成为时尚的新宠，随便 翻开一本刊物，艺术家的名字与娱乐明星、著名电影导演和开发首都CBD商圈的大地产商等“成功人士”一起，装点着时尚杂志的封面。在北京的798和上海可 以俯瞰“新天地”的顶级商业画廊中，每个晚上都上演鸡尾酒派对，脱下工装服的艺术家西装革履；继法国尤伦斯（UCCA，Ullens Center For Contemporary Art）抢滩798之后，纽约的古根海姆艺术博物馆（Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum）和巴黎的蓬皮杜中心（Pompidou Center）正考虑在北京建立分部。

“十 年修得同船度，百年修得共枕眠。”艺术与资本如此“和谐”的结局到底是不是艺术家所期待的？答案是肯定的，这是自从前卫艺术运动在本土出现（指当代，远的 不算）至今，3代艺术家中前两代修来的善果。正如在798修葺一新的“尤伦斯当代艺术中心”刚刚落幕的“85新潮回顾展”主展厅的墙上所写的主题词所说 的：“我认为中国艺术家除了没有钱，没有大工作室，什么都有，而且什么都是最好的。”纵然经历过饥饿、贫困，治安联防和警察的追剿，国家体制与资本的放逐 及艺术家的自我放逐，我们念兹在兹的前卫艺术家们矢志不渝，不懈打拼，终于以自身的努力和偏执，创造了“前卫中国”（Avant China）的艺术品牌，迎来了全球化时代“创意中国”（Creative China）的艺术新浪潮，从而向世界证明，中国艺术家“什么都是最好的”。因为“什么都是最好的”，“大工作室”自不在话下，大House、“大奔”、“大蜜”也应运而来，成为今天牛逼艺术家“成功”的标识。

继 去年3月，张晓刚的油画《血缘系列：三位同志》在纽约苏富比拍卖会上，拍出211万美元的高价之后，中国前卫艺术品的价格一路飙升：11月，在北京保利秋 季拍卖会上，刘小东的油画《三峡新移民》以2200万元的价格被一位本土企业家收藏；同月的香港嘉士德（CHRISTIE’S）艺术品拍卖会上， 旅美中国艺术家蔡国强的《APEC景观焰火表演14幅草图》以7424万港元的天价，创中国当代艺术品拍卖的世界纪录。进而，在位于四川成都郊外的著名风 景胜地青城山麓，由地方政府主导并划拨土地，由开发商投资，日本一流设计师设计，专为张晓刚、王广义、方力钧、岳敏君等8位国内顶尖艺术家兴建，最终产权 归艺术家个人所有的私人美术馆群（青城山"中国当代美术馆群，由8座私人美术馆和1座中心美术馆构成，共占地110亩）建设项目启动，将在今年内竣工并投 入使用。如此大手笔的艺术开发，不仅国内是破天荒，世界上都鲜有先例。一个不言而喻的事实是，资本，不仅作为酵母，使艺术品市场发生“化学反应”，而且早 已成为决定性的主导力量：不仅决定艺术品的价格，而且决定艺术家的归属，甚至前卫艺术的发展方向。乃至美国《纽约时报》发表评论指出：中国前卫艺术是一场 “新革命”，其本质在于“艺术向资本主义致意”。

其实，岂止是“向资本主义致意”，短短几年时 间，中国本土的艺术商业机制迅速成熟，其商业化程度甚至已然超过被称为“资本主义”的美、欧、日等国，堪称“优等生”。4年前，北京的艺术区还只有798 一处，现在有不下十处（草场地、索家庄、环铁、宋庄等），并蔓延至全国7个城市；5年前，商业画廊不足30家，现在有数百家（仅798内就有206家）； 5年前，国内拍卖当代艺术品的拍卖行不超过5家，现在超过50家。今天，哪个资深艺术家不是“前店后厂”式经营，哪个展览会不是展销会？批评家做策展人， 策展人当经纪人，甚至索性开画廊——批评家、策展人、经纪人一体化，中国之大，几乎已没有免费撰写艺术评论的批评家和免费发表评论文章的艺术类刊物。在中 国市场的强烈诱惑下，苏富比和嘉士德这两个艺术拍卖的百年老店，甚至打破成规，越过画廊等中间环节，向艺术家直接索画；至于相反的情形——艺术家送货上门 （送自己的作品给拍卖行），早已不是新闻。某种普遍的价格焦虑，竟然让践行百年、代代相传的游戏规则遁于无形，令人哭笑不得。