SHANGHAI: Andy Warhol s pop art portraits, Damien Hirst s kaleidoscopic butterfly wings and Zhang Xiaogang s monochromatic families were on sale this weekend under the Shanghai Exhibition Center s Soviet spire as the art world looked to China to sustain booming sales.
The SH Contemporary art fair, China s largest international exhibition of its kind in its second year, is a front line of the mainland s fledgling and highly profitable art market.
The four-day event, which concluded Saturday, is the creation of Lorenzo Rudolf, who aims to repeat his success as head of the Basel art fair in Shanghai.
China s clout in the art world is growing alongside its economic power. Last year it overtook France in the international sales rankings after the amount spent in the country on art rose 78 percent from 2006.
It is now the third biggest market after the US and Britain, according to art market analysts artprice.
The big question is what kind of art are Chinese buying?
The Shanghai fair aims to expand Chinese tastes by exposing mainland collectors to works from leading galleries across the world.
With more than 130 galleries from 26 countries participating, Rudolf has carefully balanced European and North American galleries with Asian ones.
But European galleries participating in the event said Chinese collectors remain focused on work from closer to home.
It s not a buying spree, Ernst Kilger, a Vienna gallery owner said, surrounded by Warhol portraits.
He said the event had produced some promising contacts with Hong Kong, Indonesia, New York, Los Angeles and other Europeans, but not too many Chinese to be honest.
Overall art sales are down this year due to the slowing global economy, and in Shanghai it was no different, exhibitors said.
It was the first time Pablo Tache s Barcelona gallery had exhibited in China, bringing a selection of work by Spanish artists, hoping to attract Chinese collectors.
But after two private collectors viewings and a VIP night they had yet to make a sale.
It s not been as good as we thought, Tache said. Obviously, we were hoping to have a few sales.
Those that work closely with mainland collectors agreed that for the moment Chinese remain focused on work by homegrown artists.
Robin Peckham, a spokesman for Beijing s Boers-Li Gallery, said his gallery has been helping several semi-retired Chinese chief executives who are dedicating increasing amounts of their time to art to expand their collections.
The collectors have been traveling to fairs and have been shown private European collections, but their interest has been limited.
Most of the collectors we work with are shying away from foreign work, international work they like to stay with things that reflect their historical experience better, Peckham said.
Some European galleries, however, were finding sales success at the Shanghai fair. Among them was Paris Galerie Maeght which brought over work by Chinese and Japanese artists and targeted younger, entry-level collectors.
What we want to present here are not the expensive artists, Galerie Maeght s Louis Gendre said. That is why we choose the young artists because we don t want to show expensive paintings. We want it so that people can buy. -AFP
