Talk

Nixi Cura: Chinese Contemporary Art and the Chinese Art Market

29 Jan 2009

Event times

6.30pm to 8.00pm

Cost of entry

£5/ free to members and students

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Louise T Blouin Institute

London, United Kingdom

Address

Travel Information

  • 295 - along St Ann's Villas, 31, 23, 49, 94, 148 - all pass along Holland Park Avenue (10 minute walk)
  • Latimer Road (3 minute walk), Holland Park (10 minute walk), Shepherds Bush (10 minute walk)
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A Lecture With Nixi Cura Course Director Arts of China Christies Education London

About

In the 1990s, curators, scholars and gallerists began to take serious notice of contemporary art from China, resulting in several seminal traveling exhibitions and increased participation at major contemporary art fairs and biennials. Firmly ensconced in the international circuit, Chinese artists signed up with prestigious dealers to secure regular exhibitions abroad. In Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai, new galleries introduced Western-style contract-based representation to artists fresh from the art academies, while foreign expatriates circumvented the system, dealing directly with the artists to amass their own collections. In 2001, the successful bid for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing further raised the profile of Chinese artists, with the foreign media eager to push China beyond the business pages.

During this first decade of the 21st century, the involvement of auction houses has propelled contemporary Chinese artists—and their prices—sky-high. Works by Zhang Xiaogang and Yue Minjun continually break records. In addition, the auction houses have expanded the potential client base for contemporary Chinese art. Formerly limited to specialist galleries, it is now marketed alongside giants of contemporary art in the West, as well as the emerging markets of India, South and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Since the recent global economic meltdown, the outlook for contemporary art looks less rosy, with sales of Chinese art down significantly from as early as May. This moment of contraction in the market offers an opportunity to take stock of artistic trends, collecting practices and the relative value of contemporary Chinese art.

Nixi Cura is Currently Course Director of the Arts of China Masters programme at Christies Education London, Nixi Cura read East Asian Studies at Yale University, then specialised in Chinese painting and Buddhist art, with a minor in Romanesque art, at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. While conducting her fieldwork in Beijing from 1998-2001, she served as editor of Chinese-art.com, a pioneering web journal on contemporary and traditional arts of China. Her current research interests include the art of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), especially during the Qianlong reign (1736-1795), collecting and antiquarian practices during the Republican (1911-1949) and Manchukuo (1932-1945) periods, and contemporary visual culture in China. She has published a cultural biography of the Admonitions Scroll during the Qianlong reign, co-curated an exhibition of works by the Luo Brothers, and is currently working on an edited volume for the University of California entitled Lost Generation: Luo Zhenyu, Qing Loyalists, and the Formation of Modern Chinese Culture.

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