China’s contemporary artists have been toasts of the West for years now, and the interest has probably helped draw even more people into the profession. Last spring, Baron Guy Ullens, the big Belgian collector of Chinese art, told me that “50,000 to 70,000 [are] going to art school in China right now.”
But now comes word that in Beijing, at least, commercial development of shops, highrises, restaurants and galleries is threatening artists, even those in art zones.
According to The Guardian:
This week a group of artists said they were beaten with bricks and batons by thugs trying to evict them from their studios. More than a dozen of them mounted an unusual public protest in the heart of the capital on Monday against the demolition of art zones and the overnight attacks upon them….
The demolitions in Chaoyang district are only the latest of many. One person whose studio is threatened has been evicted four times already.
The artists say that some of them signed contracts for periods of up to 30 years and had spent a lot on improving the studios but had been in the Zhengyang and 008 zones for a matter of months before their landlords said the developers were moving in.
The police are investigating, but they also dispersed artists who were protesting on one of Beijing’s main streets, Chang’an avenue, and confiscated their banners. The Guardian mentions nothing about the political aspects of this, if any, but one has to wonder. Artists have irritated politicians there before, with Ai Weiwei being a big target and another example taking place at last summer’s Beijing 798 Biennale. As The Art Newspaper reported then:
The inaugural Beijing 798 Biennale, held in the sprawling 798 art district in China’s capital, saw a chaotic opening on 15 August, with major works by Chinese artists widely censored by authorities.
Specifically, works dealing with Sichuan province, prostitution, Nazis and female genitalia were removed.
Read more from The Guardian here and The Art Newspaper here.
UPDATE: The New York Times also has a good article on this here.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of The Guardian and The Art Newspaper