art materials

It was something to be expected a few years ago. In the wake of the booming Chinese economy, the Chinese art materials market would take off sooner or later. But when it happened in 2006, the dimensions and the focus on contemporary Chinese art surprised many. For the past several years, modern Chinese artists have been the darlings of the international art materials market, with their work selling for double and triple auction estimates. Sales of contemporary Chinese art at Sotheby's and Christie's, the two main global auction houses, have gone from about $20 million a year in 2004 to about $200 million last year. The high prices major Chinese artists are now commanding at auction not only rival well-known established Western artists like Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, but reflect the interest that well-heeled Chinese consumers are now finding in their own home-grown artists. Galleries are booming in Beijing and Shanghai and Western art reps are eagerly signing every talented Chinese art student they can find. In 2006 Sotheby's and Christie's, the world's biggest auction houses, sold $190 million worth of Asian contemporary art, most of it Chinese, in a series of record-breaking auctions in New York, London and Hong Kong. In 2004 the two houses combined sold $22 million in Asian contemporary art. This enthusiasm has some art watchers nervous that the Chinese market is just a bubble that could drive down the quality of the work produced.