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Zeng Fanzhi's Last Supper sells for Asian record $24.7m

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Zeng Fanzhi's Last Supper sells for Asian record $24.7m

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http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/blogs/all-blogs/eye-on-asia/2013/11/zeng-fanzhi-the-last-supper.html

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Updated October 17, 2016 23:30:34

No doubt you've heard of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, but there is another giant of China's contemporary art scene who has smashed into the West, with his works selling for tens of millions of dollars.

Zeng Fanzhi is considered by many to be China's greatest living artist.

He has fused Oriental and Western styles and one of his works, a communist parody on Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, recently broke records for Chinese contemporary art, selling for $30 million.

For the first time, Zeng is having a major retrospective in his homeland.

"I paint with two brushes at the same time. I control two brushes like Chinese master chopsticks. I normally use one brush to paint, another one to destroy," he told Lateline.

His abstract landscapes are titled This Land so Rich in Beauty - a line taken from a Chairman Mao poem.

The paintings are a statement on China's grand propaganda art.

"For many years I've always made the art I like. No-one controls me and I am not afraid of censorship. I am able to exhibit my works on my terms," he said.

Zeng is a high school drop out. He is the son of factory workers from the gritty city of Wuhan in central China.

At art school, Zeng's art teacher instructed him to paint cultural colourful scenes but he refused and instead painted what he saw around him.

"I lived next to this hospital. I could see those patients' faces every day. I think real life is just here. I thought I should paint what I saw, what I heard every day," he said.

In 1993 Zeng moved to Beijing and painted his breakthrough Mask series.

"It shows my mood when I just moved to Beijing, a strange city. I felt lonely and confused when I moved to a new place, and started a new life," he said of the series.

In 1998 an American tourist brought Mask Number Six for $20,000. Ten years later it sold for $13 million.

Zeng spends 330 days a year painting, only taking a month off during the height of summer.

He says his art maps the development of China over the last three decades.

"China has undergone huge changes and I have too. My work reflects my psychological state and social changes," he said.

"I always want to move forward. Once I reach a level that I can master, it's time to move on."
Watch China correspondent Matthew Carney's profile on Zeng Fanzhi on Lateline tonight at 9.30pm (AEDT) on ABC News 24 or 10.30pm on ABC TV.
First posted October 17, 2016 18:06:10

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Modern art giant makes statement on China's grand propaganda

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Updated October 17, 2016 23:30:34 No doubt you've heard of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, but there is another giant of China's contemporary art scene who has smashed into the West, with his works selling for tens of millions of dollars. Zeng Fanzhi is considered by many to be China's greatest living artist.

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1. What do the careers of artists like Ken Done and Damien Hirst tell us about the influence of critics, dealers, art advisers and private collectors?                                                                                                     Were Done’s and Hirst’ unfavourable reviews owing to the fact that they are ‘not good artists’ or because their work, with its strong market sensibility, challenges the various assumptions about artists and their careers? (Peter Anderson, ‘Ken Done’s image problem’, Art Monthly Australia, 1995, pp.4-6 )                                

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1. What do the careers of artists like Ken Done and Damien Hirst tell us about the influence of critics, dealers, art advisers and private collectors?                                                                                                     Were Done’s and Hirst’ unfavourable reviews owing to the fact that they are ‘not good artists’ or because their work, with its strong market sensibility, challenges the various assumptions about artists and their careers? (Peter Anderson, ‘Ken Done’s image problem’, Art Monthly Australia, 1995, pp.4-6 )                                

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2239504/As-prices-Damien-Hirsts-works-plummet-pity-credulous-saps-spent-fortunes-tosh.html

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At last, the real shark is exposed: As prices for Damien Hirst's works plummet, pity the credulous saps who spent fortunes on his tosh

Not everyone recognises that the artist emperor is naked, but in the art world there's a growing unease that his clothes might be looking a bit threadbare.

In decades to come, people will look back and wonder why, in fashionable circles at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, rubbish such as this was displayed as art.

Nonsensical

With just an 'E' in his Art A-level, Hirst was delighted to be admitted to an art school that did not seem to rate skill - his tutor at Goldsmiths College, Michael Craig-Martin, was a 'minimalist conceptualist' whose most notorious work is a half-full glass of water entitled An Oak Tree.
Hirst, who had a placement at a mortuary while a student, decided to make death his unique selling point. Now, many great artists have painted the dead and the dying, but Hirst's approach was more that of a butcher.

Saatchi offered Hirst a £50,000 commission to do whatever he liked and the result was the famous shark in formaldehyde in a giant glass cabinet (pictured), which he called The Physical Impossibility Of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living - a pretentious title that impressed the gullible.

Hirst followed up the shark by having a dead cow and calf split in two and exhibited in separate glass containers. He then diversified into dead sheep, and there was publicity beyond price when an exhibit featuring a rotting cow and bull was banned by New York public health officials.

When he moved on to spot paintings (rows of randomly coloured circles), Hirst candidly explained that he was useless at painting, so it was left to his assistants to produce them in their hundreds.

In thrall to the YBA, the British Council appointed Emin to represent the UK at a great Venice art fair. Incredibly, she has since been appointed professor of drawing in the Royal Academy, a distinguished institution founded in the 18th century to promote artistic excellence.

One of the tragedies of all this is that young people even now are being encouraged by the art establishment to believe that self-promotion and controversy matter more than talent and hard work, and real artists are being ignored or sidelined because they don't fit the conceptual template. But the tide is turning at last.

Patronising

In recent weeks even the BBC's arts editor has admitted that many curators secretly despise much conceptual work, and critics have begun tentatively to query if it hasn't been overrated.
People are challenging lofty and disdainful voices such as those of Serota and his colleagues and point out that they're peddling rubbish.

Ruth Dudley Edwards's Killing The Emperors, a satire on the world of conceptual art, has just been published by Allison and Busby.

VIDEO: A selection of Hirst works that have sold in the past...

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At last, the real shark is exposed: As prices for Damien Hirst's works plummet, pity the credulous saps who spent fortunes on his tosh

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Not everyone recognises that the artist emperor is naked, but in the art world there's a growing unease that his clothes might be looking a bit threadbare. In decades to come, people will look back and wonder why, in fashionable circles at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, rubbish such as this was displayed as art.

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2. Can artists influence their own career paths? How has Damien Hirst and Ken Done gone about managing and promoting their respective careers? 

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2. Can artists influence their own career paths? How has Damien Hirst and Ken Done gone about managing and promoting their respective careers? 

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Newport Street Gallery | About Damien Hirst's art collection

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Newport Street Gallery presents exhibitions of work from Damien Hirst's art collection. Located in Vauxhall, south London. Free admission.

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3. How can a powerful group of individuals - artist, dealers, art advisers, private collectors and critics - influence Damien Hirst’s reputation, career and sale of his art?

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3. How can a powerful group of individuals - artist, dealers, art advisers, private collectors and critics - influence Damien Hirst’s reputation, career and sale of his art?

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4. Is it realistic to think critics can remain independent of the art market? And is it such a bad thing if the influence of the market spreads beyond advertising and into editorials and critical writing? (Lawrence Alloway)

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4. Is it realistic to think critics can remain independent of the art market? And is it such a bad thing if the influence of the market spreads beyond advertising and into editorials and critical writing? (Lawrence Alloway)

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5. What role has François Pinault and his private museums - Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi, Venice - played in rebuilding and repositioning Damien Hirst's reputation and value within the market? 

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5. What role has François Pinault and his private museums - Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi, Venice - played in rebuilding and repositioning Damien Hirst's reputation and value within the market? 

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Consider this within the context of the exhibition entitled “Treasures of the Wreck of the Unbelievable.”
http://www.artnews.com/2017/05/08/a-disastrous-damien-hirst-show-in-venice/

http://www.artnews.com/2017/04/21/one-mans-trash-is-damien-hirsts-treasure-in-venice-the-artist-offers-his-grandest-work-yet/

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/apr/16/damien-hirst-treasures-from-the-wreck-of-the-unbelievable-review-venice

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Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable

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Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable Damien Hirst Until 3 December 2017 'Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable'.

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'The Chaser's War on Everything'

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Parody of 'The Davinci Code' from the television series 'The Chaser's War on Everything'

Directed by Craig Melville

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Ken Done - Australian artist - limited edition prints, swimwear, books and accessories.

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Sydney gallery has many original artworks, prints, books, swimwear and accessories for sale. Visit our online shop now. New book release.

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The Chaser's War on Everything - Pro Hart Memorial