Thinking outside the circle

Entitled Painting Map, the show curated by Bao will feature 60 Chinese painters and offer a comprehensive insight into the development of contemporary Chinese painting. In it, visitors will be able see works by key Chinese artists such as Liu Xiaodong, Mao Yan, Xu Lei and Liu Wei.

As an independent curator, Bao says the group show will appeal just as much to visitors with little art experience as to collectors with a wider understanding of Chinese art history.

"It's like a map without any navigation. Visitors can wander about freely and confront the works on their own terms," he adds.

Talking about the increasing number of contemporary art expos in China - more than 10 international art fairs are held across China every year compared to the 100 or so major events in the rest of the world - Bao says China needs to develop such fairs.

Compared with the West, where modern art has been developing for more than a century, the concept is still regarded as something of a novelty by many in China despite having been first embraced by Chinese artists during the mid-1980s.

In Bao's opinion, these fairs provide an ideal platform for promoting art beyond industry circles. From March to May, Beijing played host to three major art expos: Gallery Weekend Beijing, Jingart Beijing and Art Beijing. Some industry insiders have raised the concern that frequent art fairs may increase competition and waste time and money for art dealers. For Bao, frequency is not the problem.

"They're only looking at the market in terms of art circles. They're ignoring the bigger market outside this. There are still a lot of people who don't know anything about contemporary art."

Contact the writer at dengzhangyu@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/07/2018 page20)