Review of Art in 2011

In 2011, the international and domestic art circles have become more closely linked to the global political, economic and cultural situation. The two major biennials of the year, the Venice Biennale and the Istanbul Biennale, have received focused attention.

The 54th Venice Biennale (June 4th to November 27th), titled "ILLUMInations", condensed the concept of "light" by the curator Bice Curiger. The classic theme of the proposed arts emphasizes the significance of cultural and artistic thinking on the national group. There are no shortages of outstanding works in the thematic exhibitions of artists from 83 countries, but they have also been questioned for their problems in the exhibition. In the final jury selection, the best national pavilion Golden Lion was awarded the German pavilion showing the legacy of the late artist Christoph Schlingensief. Christian Marclay’s video “The Clock,” and the most promising new artist Silver Lion awards the British Pavilion representative artist Haroon Mirza. Franz West of Austria and Sturtevant of the United States have won the Golden Lion of Lifetime Achievement for their unique but unique artists.

Another news about the Venice Biennale sounded a bit frustrating. After the resignation of the biennial of the food importer Giulio Malgara, Paolo Baratta will formally return to the position of the Venice Biennale. The roundaboutness is closely related to the political situation in Italy. It is believed that the former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi's resignation is supported.

Under the joint planning of Jens Hoffmann, director of the CCA Wattis Institute in San Francisco, and Adriano Pedrosa, curator and writer in Brazil, the 12th Istanbul Biennale (September 17 to November 13) was named “Untitled” focuses on exploring the deep relationship between art and politics. It focuses on artistic works that are both innovative in art and politics. The theme was inspired by the late Cuban-American artist González Torres (Felix González-Torres). In 1957-1996), his style and artistic theme were presented at different levels of the current biennale in an "absent reproduction" manner. Among them, five small-scale group exhibitions took Gonzalez Torres five Work is the source of the concept.

In the mainland art market, the two major auction houses continued to lead. Ka Dechun took Qi Baishi's “Songbai Gao Litu·Sui Shu Si Yan Lian” to shoot out a high price of RMB 425.5 million and a total turnover of RMB 5.3 billion. At the same time, he was injected into the domestic art auction market for the opening season; Poly 61.3 The 100 million record includes the two billion-dollar auction items of Yuan Wangmeng's "Indigo Swallow" and Wu Guanzhong's "Lionswood." On the autumn auction market, Pauley maintained the status of the king of mainland China auction houses, with a total turnover of 4.92 billion. Xu Beihong’s “Kyushu No Matter" was also the highest price of 266.8 million yuan; on the other hand, Jia Deqiu was painting in Chinese calligraphy and painting. The porcelain furniture arts and crafts, Chinese oil paintings and sculptures, rare books of ancient books, and jade watches from the famous watches and jewellery brands made a total of 3.858 billion turnovers. Two hundred million works were produced, and 60 of them were super-magnificent.

Hong Kong is still a contest between the two major international auction houses. Total turnover of Sotheby's Autumn Auctions exceeded HK$3.2 billion, and the total number of auctions exceeded 3,000. It was the second-highest ever auction record for Sotheby's Hong Kong. The works of major Chinese artists are still favored by European and American collectors. , Zhang Xiaogang (microblogging) at the high price of HK$65.6 million was bought by a private European collector and became the second highest auction price for the artist. The turnover of Christie's autumn auction in Hong Kong reached HK$2.85 billion (US$366 million), with a total of 20 world auction records for each category, with 69 pieces of the auction price exceeding US$1 million.

When referring to this year's domestic art market, one cannot but mention that the Ullens collection has made a heavy appearance on Sotheby’s Hong Kong Spring Auction and Poly Spring. Sotheby's "Ullers Collection of Important Contemporary Chinese Art: Breaking Through the Dawn - Tracing the Source of Contemporary Chinese Art" The evening auction had a total turnover of 427 million Hong Kong dollars, which was more than three times its 130 million Hong Kong dollar valuation cap. Zhang Xiaogang, 1988 The painting “Life and Love” was sold for HK$79.06 million, which refreshed the world record of Chinese contemporary art auctions. The most popular batch of works also included works by Sui Jianyi, Zhang Peili, Guan Wei, Wang Guangyi, and Yang Lancang. Debuted at the "Chinese Modern Art Exhibition" in the 1989 February at the China Art Museum. The second auction of Hong Kong Sotheby's and the special event "Transformation - Innovation and Evolution of Contemporary Chinese Art" was abandoned on October 5 with a total turnover of HK$132 million. The transaction rate of 90 lots was 94.3%. Zeng Fanzhi In 1998, "Mask Series 1998 No. 26" (HK$ 20.26 million) took the highest price of the night. In the previous session of Poly Spring's "Baron Ullens possession of important Chinese contemporary art" special event appeared in the auction of the actual sale of the auction, two of which reached tens of millions.

Another important move of Ullens this year is the appointment of Philip Tinari, who has long been dedicated to the review and planning work in the field of contemporary Chinese art, to take over from Jér^ome Sans (in March 2008 as UCCA). Curator) served as curator of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art and took office in December.

This is also a sad year. Many outstanding artists, filmmakers, and cultural celebrities have died. Among them, the great performance artist and the 1995 “Sleeping Relief Manager” set the record of living painter's paintings Lucian Freud (1922-2011), once considered the most important The world-famous artist, Cy Twombly (1928-2011), and British pop art pioneer Richard Hamilton (1922-2011), created a film, video, installation, behavior, and creation. The Czech artist Ján Mancuska (1972-2011) who died young in the drama, the famous Czech abstract artist Zdenek Hickora