Contemporary gongbi artist Wilson Shieh Ka-ho with detail from "Architectural Group". Photo by Alexandra A. Seno
By Alexandra A. Seno
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/17/arts/seno.php
HONG KONG: As the global cultural community continues to show fascination with just about anything from contemporary Chinese artists and to pay high prices for their work, art from Hong Kong appears to be getting short shrift.
"Hong Kong has been left out of the story," observed David Clarke, an art historian and author of "Hong Kong Art: Culture and Decolonization." A decade since the former British territory was returned to Chinese sovereignty, Hong Kong art seems to exist on the fringe.
In terms of the narratives found in its art, it is easy to see how the city fails to grab much attention. With its tiny apartments and relatively stable economic environment, creative statements by Hong Kong artists tend to be more intimate, more personal and intrinsically different from those of the mainland, where the scale is vast and the problems are huge.
"The mainland art market does not know much about Hong Kong artists, and the visual artists in Hong Kong seldom are involved in events on the mainland," said Jay Sun of China Guardian, a Beijing auction house.
According to Howard Bilton, chairman of the Sovereign Art Foundation, European and American collectors who primarily support contemporary Chinese art simply don't know what to make of Hong Kong's modest scene.
"People talk as if Chinese contemporary art only started now. Hong Kong and Taiwan are modern Chinese cities with modern Chinese art," said Clarke, who is also head of the University of Hong Kong art department. Especially in the 1970s and 1980s, the only places Chinese art could really thrive were in these two increasingly prosperous communities.
At a Christie's auction in Hong Kong in November, multimillion-dollar records were established for mainland artists, thanks to buyers from all over the world. However, a 1971 painting by the Hong Kong master Luis Chan, who died in 1995, went unsold. Also known as Chen Fushan, he painted whimsical and colorful scenes. Three of his paintings were sold for under $15,000 a piece, not much past the high end of the estimates but considered expensive even by Hong Kong fans.
"If you are a serious, knowledgeable collector, you will find Hong Kong art is very worthy because of the craftsmanship, originality and the current price. If you are a speculator, then you are going to buy with a different intention," said Henry Au-Yeung, founder of Grotto Fine Art, one of the few galleries in Hong Kong specializing in local works. Formerly with Sotheby's, he launched his gallery business in 2001 and was not expecting to make a profit for a decade. And he was surprised to have broken even in less than four years - with the help of a small but devoted group of affluent local art lovers.
Au-Yeung estimates that, of the 45 artists he represents, including big names like Wucius Wong, only 10 percent can make a living from their works. Some like Warren Leung Chi-wo, who has shown at the Venice Biennale, teach; others have commercial careers - the avant-garde photographer William Lim has a successful architectural practice.
"Most of them have day jobs," Clark said. "There is a private side to Hong Kong art."
Wilson Shieh Ka-ho, the best-selling Hong Kong painter under 40 and a rare full-time artist, said: "Painting for me is like a diary. The first audience is myself." Known for his ink-on-silks, collectors love him for the Hong Kong personality and delicate details of his art. Shieh sold almost everything before his show at Grotto opened in October.
Shieh, 36, works in the traditional Chinese gongbi style, an ancient method of ornate fine-brush painting that requires high technical ability. Instead of typical subjects like birds, flowers and pretty landscapes, he renders subjects from daily life.
Among the 15 works for his October show was "Architectural Group," depicting the city's skyscrapers as women. In a corner, he included a little figure dressed as the Star Ferry terminal, its clock tower represented as a hat akilter, a tribute to the Hong Kong landmark that was demolished a few months ago.
"The discussion about heritage has been pushed by artists. In Hong Kong, art has the potential to bring out critical thinking," said Tobias Berger, director of Para/Site, an alternative exhibition space and a champion of the contemporary art scene. This question of identity has become a powerful theme in Hong Kong art.
The city's Schoeni Art Gallery, which specializes in works by mainlanders, gave its first show for a Hong Kong painter in May. He is Mok Wai-hong, a 30-year-old who studies at Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts. Mok has produced several paintings about Hong Kong protests, such as the clashes that occurred during the World Trade Organization meeting in December 2005 and those during the pro-democracy march on July 1, 2003.
While she was very pleased with the critical acclaim of the exhibit, Nicole Schoeni conceded that she was disappointed with how hard it was to convince patrons to buy his work. "Because he's a Hong Kong artist. Probably, if he was a mainlander, on the same topic it would have been easier because it would be 'more controversial,' " she said, making quote marks in the air with her fingers.
But, as Clark said, "There are many ways of being Chinese and Hong Kong is one of them."
International Herald Tribune Copyright © 2007 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com
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