Tsz Mei Wong
Land scape
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW commonplace. In former day, A glimpse of the plush interiors of the leading auction houses or a trip to the forbidding galleries can give the visitor second thoughts about purchasing a piece of artwork. Therefore purchasing artworks seemed to be the activity of a handful of connoisseurs and high-livers at that time. Over the past years, as average people could buy what they like through internet, and then the gap between arts and public is narrowed. Some ambitious persons even thinking of buying fine art as an investment. Why not? As it is little difference of speculating quality fine arts and other financial products to make our assets increase in value. Moreover, the purchased work could be hung for appreciation, to savour it over time, but other speculating items could only be knocked in safe or deposit in bank without immediate function. Nevertheless, to the uninitiated the prospect of buying quality fine art can be daunting, and to buy the contemporary Chinese paintings would demand much more care or attention, for the westernizied-cum-Chinese eclecticism blurred the distinction of the distinguishing characteristics of Chinese paintings. Therefore, before launching an investment in art, in the uniqueness of an artistic style, we start by educating ourselves about the art market as much as we do about the art itself. Rarity is one of the criteria to valuate an artwork and Chinese quality is unique which is in a class by itself. To make a comprehensive survey of the miscelaneous artforms, Chinese painting should not be mistaken for western painting. It is the same that the misattributions of Van Gogh, Manet, Renior would not happen, as their idiosyncrasies stand out noticeably.
Nowadays, public exhibitions, selling art online are established as the crucial, indispensable means of putting the producers and consumers of art in touch. As independent artists, they made their living by selling on the art market to clients who might be anybody at all. An increasingly important intermediate role is played by art dealer, whose ongoing commercial gallery shows( both the online marketplace and the traditional bricks and mortar) made contact possible. Furthermore the linking of exhibition and periodical publications are to become a regular feature of art and media market. Therefore, we are easily dazzled by the flood of art informations and invariably would not be equal to the strain on our concentration to scrutinize every piece of work. And still the fact remained that most of the public preferred not to make up their own minds and simply relied on the expert opinion. It turn into the causation that artists were compelled to woo the critics and to organize their own promotion. Many sounding rhetoric of art criticism may not be totally reliable. Should the practised connoisseur and the less experienced art lover alike know the aesthetic standing of Chinese art which offers us the unique feast to the eyes, the contemporary Chinese painting actually following the imperatives of tradition without sticking to the old ways would not be overlooked. I do my art work just for the sake of it. I can only pursue perfection in this region, and would carry on regardless of other thing.
Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Wong. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?
Now I am studying how to draw nude. Nudity is the most important subject in western arts. At present. I am handling a work of it, I hope that I can let the readers see it when it is finished. I hope that one day my work would awe the viewers with both its variety and size.
An interview by Katherine Williams, curator and Josh Ryder, curator landescape @ europe. com