![\"\"](\"https:\/\/randian-art.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com\/2023\/04\/zh-hant\/image-117.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe run of commercial exhibitions on the mainland saw few spikes of real quality from Chinese artists. In Beijing, Tang Song\u2019s \u201cEulogy\u201d at Boers-Li drew deserved attention for its abstract strength born of sincere reflection. Cheng Ran made thoughtful gestures at Urs Meile in May with \u201cThe Last Generation,\u201d and \u201cI Am Not Not Not Chen Zhou\u201d at Magician Space was careful and compelling (though the next appearance of this artist at the same gallery was disappointingly cocky\u2014a suspended plastic chicken). The group exhibitions \u201cMemo I\u201d at White Space and \u201cNew Figuration I\u201d at Hadrien de Montferrand were encouraging\u2014particularly the latter, which offered some highly individual approaches to portraiture. Some existing smaller galleries seemed to suffer a decline in quality, whereas newer kids on the block (Gallery Yang, for example, not to be confused with Yang Gallery) showed potential with exhibitions by Li Binyuan and Dong Yuan, among others, in 2013. Long solos by Zhang Xiaogang and Yin Xiuzhen (auction and Biennale veterans, respectively), made for a rather un-progressive program at Pace in Beijing, which has perhaps been distracted by the diversion of its gaze toward Hong Kong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the private museum side, a massive self-titled solo outing by Wang Xingwei at UCCA inspired confidence with this artist\u2019s surprising and wilful versatility. In Nanjing, the Sifang Art Museum\u2019s inaugural show was also memorable \u2014though for different reasons. Philippe Pirotte\u2019s curatorial comment in \u201cThe Garden of Diversion\u201d was less sanguine than provocative\u2014reflecting on the corrosive character of much private museum exposition in China. Both of these shows felt timely. The keenly anticipated \u201cDuchamp in China\u201d exhibition, however, was disappointing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commercial or not, exhibitions by foreign artists were very strong in 2013\u2014at least in Beijing. The Irish artist Brendan Earley delivered a great solo show at Urs Meile (\u201cIn the Midnight City,\u201d) and Galeria Continua was illuminated by Berlinde de Bruyckere\u2019s dark sculpture. A concise look at the work of Louise Bourgeois warranted repeat visits to Faurschou Foundation. Taryn Simon\u2019s \u201cA Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters,\u201d which ran through to the start of 2014 at UCCA, has heft which eclipses much of what went before it over past year in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the earlier part of 2013 brought anti-climax, in some ways, with the first edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong, and relative decline for Shanghai as SHContemporary stopped (though rehab may come in the form of the little-publicised Art021 and SHcon\u2019s purported resurrection in 2014), the close of 2013 reached a many-headed crescendo. Auction prices for Chinese works\u2014namely the \u201cLast Supper\u201d by Zeng Fanzhi, which went for US$23.3 million at Sotheby\u2019s Hong Kong and Zao Wou-Ki\u2019s 1958 oil painting \u201cAbstraction,\u201d which fetched US$14.7 million in Sotheby\u2019s first mainland auction\u2014set shocking new records. Ink-mania has taken hold this year, with new galleries springing up to cater to it and validation (though the reviews have been very mixed) from a huge show at the Met in New York (\u201cInk Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China\u201d) which opened in early December. Watching eyes were quickly distracted from this, however, by the Hanart scandal which erupted later in the month, apparently revealing the true fate of Chinese art works \u201cmislaid\u201d following the 1993 Venice Biennale, though Hanart has recently issued a statement which paints things in a somewhat different light. In America, the \u201c28 Chinese Artists\u201d exhibition which opened recently at the Rubell private museum in Miami has had much publicity, though the works on show do not diverge much from what one would expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With these and other events has 2013 gone un-smoothly by. Besides talk of expectations, the state of development of the contemporary art scene in China and the factors that influence art anywhere (the market, cost of studio\/gallery space, rotations of curators and institutional machinations)\u2014at least from where this viewer stands, it\u2019s hard to know where to look. As 2014 gathers pace with its promises of exhibitions and events, one wonders what could follow or supplant this feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The passing twelve months have seen the … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/randian-art.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com\/2023\/04\/zh-hant\/image-118.png\")
\u300a\u675c\u5c1a\u548c\/\u6216\/\u5728\u4e2d\u56fd\u300b\uff0c\u5c55\u89c8\u73b0\u573a<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/randian-art.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com\/2023\/04\/zh-hant\/image-119.png\")
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/randian-art.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com\/2023\/04\/zh-hant\/image-120.png\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/randian-art.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com\/2023\/04\/zh-hant\/image-121.png\")
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/randian-art.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com\/2023\/04\/zh-hant\/image-122.png\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/randian-art.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com\/2023\/04\/zh-hant\/image-123.png\")