Sotheby’s London offers four short courses in Asian contemporary art for autumn

CONTEMPORARY ART EDUCATION

This autumn, Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London is offering four courses focussing on modern and contemporary art in the Asian region, mostly Russia, India and China.

Changing Dynamics in the Art Market, 12 and 26 October/2 and 9 November (night course)
Examines stakeholders, values and trade issues, focusing particularly on the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries and their respective art markets.

Russian Art: 1890 to Today, 12 and 26 October/2 and 9 November (night course)
Introduces participants to the major artists and artistic movements in Russia from the late 19th century until the present day.

Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes: Art, Revolution and Revelation, 12 and 26 October/ 2 and 9 November (day course)
Gives a panoramic overview of the extraordinary life and achievements of Sergei Diaghilev and the artists and artistes who came under his spell in the early decades of the twentieth century.

Contemporary Chinese Art: 1960 to Today, 11 November (day course)
Explores Chinese art, the evolution of artists’ careers and the unprecedented performance of recent Contemporary Chinese art at auction.

For those based in Asia, look to the art business and history short courses available at Sotheby’s Singapore throughout autumn and into winter, although none focus solely on Asian contemporary art.

KN/KCE

Related Topics: resources, collectors, business of art

Related Posts:

• Blog provides ground view of Chinese contemporary art – interview Katherine Don – September 2010 – Don delves into the Chinese contemporary art scene in this revealing interview
• MoMA Asia Art Archive collaborate, launch Chinese art projects with public programmes – September 2010 – an overview of each important project, a new archive collection and a publication
• 88-Mocca: how one collector is using technology to share his collection – April 2010 – explore how one collector is using technology to turn his collection into an on-line museum and resource
• Discover new artists and keep abreast of shows with artinasia.com – website review – March 2010 – a well-designed eye-pleasing site providing gallery listings and directories of Asian art information
• Top 6 research sources for contemporary Chinese art by Asian art history major – January 2010 – In this post we ask Ashley Lee, one of our previous interns who studies Asian art in the US and London, to divulge her key research websites, databases and publications

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Internship opportunities at Art Radar Asia autumn 2010

Art Radar Asia is offering a number of internship opportunities this autumn 2010.

Although we are not able to provide renumeration, we can promise that you will gain invaluable experience and make many useful, influential and interesting contacts.

As an intern, you will learn to scan art media, conduct interviews, research art stories, and write and edit posts. The internship offers opportunities to learn about publishing on the Internet and working with social media, as well as being involved with a small but hard-working editorial team. It may also involve learning about podcasting and video production.

While our head office is based in Hong Kong we are used to working remotely via Skype and email with our team therefore your location is not important.

We are particularly interested in applicants with one or more of the following skills: professional art experience, an art education (practice or theory), writing, editing, Asian language, native English, video production, social media, Internet marketing, podcasting, WordPress, programming and web design.

The period of the internship is flexible with a minimum period of six weeks. We will consider both full-time and part-time applicants.

To apply please send you resume to Kate Nicholson at jarofbuttons@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Internship opportunities at Art Radar Asia autumn 2010

Art Radar Asia is offering a number of internship opportunities this autumn 2010.

Although we are not able to provide renumeration, we can promise that you will gain invaluable experience and make many useful, influential and interesting contacts.

As an intern, you will learn to scan art media, conduct interviews, research art stories, and write and edit posts. The internship offers opportunities to learn about publishing on the Internet and working with social media, as well as being involved with a small but hard-working editorial team. It may also involve learning about podcasting and video production.

While our head office is based in Hong Kong we are used to working remotely via Skype and email with our team therefore your location is not important.

We are particularly interested in applicants with one or more of the following skills: professional art experience, an art education (practice or theory), writing, editing, Asian language, native English, video production, social media, Internet marketing, podcasting, WordPress, programming and web design.

The period of the internship is flexible with a minimum period of six weeks. We will consider both full-time and part-time applicants.

To apply please send you resume to Kate Nicholson at jarofbuttons@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Mark your diary – Chinese art seminar April 2010 London

ART COURSE CHINESE ART

A half day seminar “State of the Art – China 2010: Trends and Developments in Chinese Contemporary Art” will be hosted by ArtInsight and the University of Westminster – Asian Studies department on 12 April 2010. 

State of the Art - China 2010

This symposium includes leading figures in the Chinese art scene, like Simon Kirby, director of Chambers Fine Art, Beijing, artist Sheng Qi, and other well-known industry professionals who will analyse the future of Chinese contemporary art. It will consider the development of art spaces, the fluctuating art market, and Asia’s growing importance in the international art scene.

Though the seminar fee is £95 for attendees, there is a student rate of £25. It will be held in Central London at the University of Westminster.

AL/KCE

Related Posts:

• Ai Weiwei is next artist in Unilever Series at Tate Modern – Mar 2010
• “The Empire Strikes Back – Indian art Today” at Saatchi Gallery: critics’ review roundup – Feb 2010
• Indian artist Anish Kapoor’s solo at Royal Academy – what did the critics call it? Performance art and Turkish toilet – Jan 2010
• Why do critics like Zhang Huan but not his show? Live pigs installation at White Cube 2009 – review roundup – October 2009
• Korean Eye exhibition in Saatchi Gallery London extended due to popularity – Aug 2009

Subscribe to ArtRadarAsia for news about contemporary Chinese art.

Will Vietnamese non-profit art space Sàn Art shift the art scene from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh city? – interview Dinh Q Le

SOUTHEAST ASIAN CONTEMPORARY ART

Here is a useful Art Info interview with artist Dinh Q. Le, one of the four founders of the renowned Vietnamese non-profit Sàn Art. Multimedia artist Dinh Q. Le will be having a solo show at MOMA in 2010. Read on for his perspective on the Vietnamese art scene, the challenges and opportunities ahead and how San Art is already drawing artists away from Hanoi to create a new vibrant art scene in Ho Chi Minh City.

 Sàn Art was established in 2007 as an independent, non-profit, artist-run exhibition space located in Ho Chi Minh City. The contemporary art space is completely supported by grants and individual contributions, and dedicates itself to the exchange and cultivation of contemporary art in Vietnam.

 

Interior photo of the San Art exhibition space

The focus of the interview with Dinh Q. Le is about Sàn Art’s cultural context, history, and future in Ho Chi Minh City. After frustration with trying to fund a non-for-profit organization in Vietnam, Dinh Q. Le set up the Vietnam Foundation for the Arts (VNFA) in Los Angeles with the help of his dealers Shoshana and Wayne Blank, owners of Shoshana Wayne Gallery.

Dinh Q. Le

VNFA’s original programs were focused on disseminating information about art from outside Vietnam, lecture series, and grant programs. After realizing the need to showcase artists’ works, they switched some of the funding from the VNFA lecture and artist grant programs to fund the opening of Sàn Art.

Here are some questions and responses from the interview:

What was the art scene in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) like when you first returned to Vietnam in 1993? What inspired you to get involved?

The biggest reason I wanted to do something to help was because of the respect I felt for young artists at the time. They were well trained as painters and traditional sculptors and could actually make a decent living by creating works catering to the emerging tourist art market. But they decided to abandon their traditional training and try out installation and conceptual art, even when they had little information on these practices. I thought they were very brave.

How does Sàn Art fit within the Vietnamese art system? Is it recognized by the government?

Sàn Art acts as a bridge between local and international art scenes. We are nationally recognized. All our openings have been televised nationally by government stations and written up in the local and national newspapers. I guess, in a way, they are supportive. But at the same time, they are also keeping their distance and keeping a watchful eye on us.

Photo from current exhibition titled "Collection Show" running from December 1-28. Unknown Monsters; acrylic on canvas Dimensions Variable; 2009 Artist: Tyke Witnes

How do you think Sàn Art has impacted the local art scene?

The biggest impact is that Sàn Art created a community that was not here before. Hanoi used to be the place to go if you were an international curator coming to learn about the Vietnamese contemporary art scene, but today many artists from Hanoi are considering moving to HCMC.

Upcoming solo exhibition of American artist Hap Tivey, titled "Light Shreds - 2000 Car Paintings" opening on December 31st.

With new leadership in place, a new building, and two years of experience behind you, what does the future hold for Sàn Art?

We hope that Sàn Art will have a closer working relationship with the HCMC Fine Arts Association and the HCMC Fine Arts University so that we can reach out to the older members of the Fine Arts Association and to the students at the university. Sàn Art can contribute a tremendous amount of content to their programs through our international connections. Like many artist-run spaces, our most fundamental hope is for Sàn Art to be financially stable so we can keep serving the community.

Related Posts:

• Acclaimed Vietnamese artist and collector Dinh Q. Le reveals which Vietnamese contemporary artists he is collecting now – interview Wall Street Journal– September 2009
• Vietnamese performance art – new research underway– August 2009
• Post Doi-Moi – Vietnamese Art After 1990 at Singapore museum to 28 September 2008– May 2008

Subscribe to Art Radar Asia for more market and auction house news

SF/KCE

Saatchi back with new gallery, school programme, China show, – Reuters, BBC

COLLECTOR SHOW CHINESE ART

Influential British art collector Charles Saatchi is back after three years out of the limelight, opening a major new gallery in central London showcasing some of China’s hottest artists reports Reuters. The man who introduced the world to Britart stalwarts like Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin has been largely absent from the art scene since his gallery was forced out of its previous home on the River Thames in 2005. Now he is back with a huge new exhibition space in upmarket Chelsea, where he hopes free entry to the imposing former headquarters of the Duke of York will attract passers by.

Critics have lauded the imposing three-storey building with its glass and white-walled interior, and welcomed back one of contemporary art’s biggest players. But the inaugural show, opening on Thursday, has earned mixed reviews.

“The Revolution Continues: New Art from China” is dedicated to Chinese artists including established stars like Yue Minjun, Zhang Xiaogang and Zeng Fanzhi, whose painting fetched $9.7 million in May, a record for Asian contemporary artwork.

Some critics have categorized the crazed, laughing men of Yue or the gray, stylized portraits of Zhang as repetitive, even “mass production” art.

Generally more popular were the sculptures, particularly an installation piece called “Old Persons Home” by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, involving 13 aging men on wheelchairs moving randomly around a large basement room. Their striking resemblance to late world leaders turns the work into a commentary on the pitfalls of power and conflict. The gallery calls it “a grizzly parody of the U.N. dead.”

But the gallery’s head of development, Rebecca Wilson, said Saatchi’s target audience was less the experts — critics, collectors and curators — and more the general public, most of whom are unfamiliar with contemporary Chinese art. “There was a feeling that all of these artists were suddenly emerging from China, doing very well at auction, there were the Beijing Olympics coming up,” she told Reuters. “There was this kind of convergence of interest in China, so we felt it should be the exhibition that we open with.”

IRAN, IRAQ ART TO COME

Early next year the Saatchi Gallery will put on a show dedicated to contemporary Middle Eastern art, including from Iran and Iraq, by artists never seen in Britain before.

“None of those artists have been seen in this country before and will be very little known elsewhere in the world as well,” said Wilson. “I think Charles has been searching for months to try to find interesting works.”

Saatchi sells some art after an exhibition ends, partly to fund his enterprise. Auction house Phillips de Pury is supporting the gallery to ensure entry will be free.

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BBC coverage:

Only free contemporary art museum in world

The BBC reports that the Saatchi gallery claims to be the only completely free entry contemporary art museum of its size in the world. Simon de Pury, of auction house Phillips de Pury & Company, who is sponsoring the exhibition, said they expected “millions” of visitors.

Ground-breaking school education programme to come

The gallery said it was seeking to establish a “ground breaking” education programme “to make contemporary art even more accessible to young people.

“It is anticipated that the facilities that the Saatchi Gallery plans to offer – at the gallery, via its website and the gallery’s own classroom – will ensure that teachers receive the best on-site and outreach support for their students.”

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Artists: Zhang Dali, Zeng Fanzhi, Wang Guangyi, Zheng Guogu, Zhang Haiying, Zhang Hongtu, Zhang Huan, Qiu Je, Xiang Jin, Shi Jinsong, Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun, Li Qing, Wu Shuanzhuan, Shen Shaomin, Li Songsong, Zhan Wang, Liu Wei, Zhang Xiaogang, Zhang Xiaotao, Cang Xin, Shi Xinning, Li Yan, Bai Yiluo, Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, Zhang Yuan, Yin Zhaohui, Feng Zhengjie

Find more on

• Chinese art, Iraqi art, Iranian art
• Events on now, events coming
• Reports from London
• News about collectors

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