China reach

Cet été, deux galleries new-yorkaises ont chacune ouvert des "filiales": encore un signe des promesses faites par l'art contemporain chinois...
Un article de Portfolio.com.

by Carol Kino

Jul 30 2008                                                                                                                                                        This summer, two major New York galleries open Asian outposts. It's the latest sign of how mature—and lucrative—the Chinese art market is becoming.                                                                               

                     

Interior view of Pace Beijing (Photograph courtesy of PaceWildenstein)

Western auction houses have been making a killing off China. Within the last two years, Chinese artists have become fixtures of the New York and London contemporary-art sales. In 2003, Hong Kong overtook Paris to become the world's third-largest auction market, behind London and New York. And despite fears of a crash, that market is still growing: In spring, Sotheby's series of Hong Kong sales achieved $227.5 million, its highest total ever for the region, while Christie's took in $310.7 million—a 58 percent increase over the same series in 2007.

It's little surprise that American galleries want to claim a piece of the pie—and the arrival of two major New York galleries in mainland China this summer suggests the next phase for the country's integration into the global art scene.

On July 10, Chelsea's James Cohan Gallery opened a boutique-like space in an Art Deco villa in Shanghai. Mega-gallery PaceWildenstein, which has several New York locations, opens its first foreign outpost on August 3, in a massive factory in China's cultural center, Beijing.

Arne Glimcher, who founded Pace in 1960, says that it was China's burgeoning contemporary-art scene that got him. "It's the most exciting artistic development I've seen since the 1960s. This is a real shot in the arm for me."

In the past decade or so, China—especially Beijing—has seen a number of foreign galleries establish footholds. "The business has become totally internationalized," says Meg Maggio of Pékin Fine Arts, who founded her first Beijing gallery in 1996. First the city had an influx of galleries from other parts of Asia. Then came the Europeans, like Italy's Galleria Continua, which opened in 2005, and Denmark's Galleri Faurschou, which launched with a Robert Rauschenberg show last fall. More recently, a few New Yorkers have founded spaces, including Christophe Mao, whose Chambers Fine Art specializes in contemporary Chinese art, and Jack Tilton, who in 2007 opened an artist's residency nearby.   

Compared with New York, Tilton says, China is a remarkably inexpensive place to do business. "Building a building is, like, $40,000 to $60,000," he says, "so you can build something enormous for no money." He has put up three buildings so far, with an eye to selling them some years down the road. 

Pace and Cohan have invested considerably in their new projects—yet with strikingly different approaches. Pace's strategy is to go after the artists by becoming the first truly major player in Beijing. Cohan is aiming straight for collectors: By setting up shop in Shanghai's relatively small gallery-land, they hope to find new buyers among the world's super-rich, whether they live there or are just passing through.

A year ago, Glimcher signed two Chinese stars: Zhang Huan, a performance artist who also makes monumental cowhide sculptures and ash paintings and who counts François Pinault among his big collectors; and painter Zhang Xiaogang, whose monumental portraits have a lengthy waiting list and hefty auction prices—the current record is $6,083,363.

Glimcher began scouting spaces in the Factory 798 district, Beijing's Soho, eventually settling on a 22,000-square-foot munitions factory built in the late 1950s. Pace Beijing's first show, "Encounters," will pair artists from Japan and China with the Westerners who've inspired them—many of whom, like Chuck Close and Alex Katz, are conveniently represented by Pace. It has been reported that the gallery has put $20 million into the venture, though Glimcher won't confirm that huge number.

Establishing a branch in Beijing, Glimcher believes, is the way to cement a national reputation and market for his Chinese artists, while also developing their presence internationally. Being able to offer primary representation on the artist's home turf puts you in a key position to squelch speculation and make sure the work gets into the right collections and museums—probably the best way to assure a market in the long run. And in Beijing—unlike London, Cologne, and other major international art cities—it's a relatively open playing field. "There's no big gallery to deal with," Glimcher says.

A local presence will also allow the gallery to put early dibs on upcoming Chinese talent. Glimcher has enlisted Leng Lin, an influential curator who has helped promote most of China's major stars, first by organizing auctions and more recently through his own gallery, Beijing Commune, which Pace has operated with him since April. While Pace Beijing will draw from artists who've previously shown with Leng—the upcoming schedule includes Yue Minjun, whose grotesque self-portraits have brought nearly $7 million at auction—Beijing Commune will become a project space for younger, emerging talent. And "the best of the best," Glimcher says, "will come to Pace New York."

By contrast, James Cohan says his move to Shanghai is all about cultivating new clients for his current artists—a stable that includes video pioneer Bill Viola, British-Nigerian installation artist Yinka Shonibare, and Dutch sculptor Folkert de Jong.

"We believe that in all markets there's a maturation process," Cohan says. Though new collectors initially seek out work from their own country or region, he intends to be there for the second collecting wave. "We're interested in being in a position where we can educate and inform the Chinese art world about what's going on an international level," he says. "It's a long-term proposition." So far, they have put in about a quarter of a million to secure and renovate the space and obtain a business license. "The great thing about China," Cohan says, "is it's very cheap to do that."

The concept of opening in Shanghai was suggested two years ago by Cohan's longtime director, Arthur Solway, a fluent Mandarin speaker who has relocated there. Last September they took a booth at the first edition ShContemporary art fair, stocking it with contemporary masters like Viola and Nam June Paik, which sold well to new Asian clients. They'll participate in the second edition (September 9 through 13) too. "Everything here works on Mach speed as well as on steroids, which makes it incredibly exciting," says Cohan. "The potential is so great—you wake up with so many ideas."

http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/culture-inc/arts/2008/07/30/Galleries-Go-to-China/?TID=wiredpartner