| Concern china oil painting reproduction
China’s low cost and hunger for exports have already changed many industries, from home appliances to food and life. The art world,at least art for the masses,seems to be next,and is emerging as a miniature case study of China’s successful expansion in a long list of small and obscure industries that when taken together represent a sizable chunk of economic activity.
United States customs data show that imports of Chinese paintings nearly tripled from 2000 to 2008, with bulk shipments reaching $30.5 million last year. Retail sales are several times that, as the customs data are based on the price that entrepreneurs pay for bulk purchases. The biggest market for oil paintings portrait painting canvas wall art abstract art frames from China turns out to be in Florida condominiums and other second homes being built as part of the global housing market boom. Hotels and restaurants also buy large numbers of Chinese paintings.
China is rapidly expanding art colleges, turning out tens of thousands of skilled artists each year willing to work cheaply. The Internet is allowing these assembly-line paintings to be sold all over the world; the same technology allows families across America to arrange for their portraits to be painted in coastal China. Many of the paintings depict scenes that Chinese artists have never seen. “European landscapes, like the Mediterranean or Venice or Paris, are the best sellers for us,”
As in the United States and Europe, a handful of contemporary painters in China can command hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars for each of their highly creative works - artists like Chen Yifei, Zhao Wuji and Wu Guanzhong. But the main push by China has been in the broad market for works that retail for $500 or less, with painters who work from postcards or images on the Internet or, in Mr. Zhang’s case, a large, dog-eared copy of an art book in English on van Gogh.
China’s ability to turn what has long been an individual craft into a mass production industry may affect small-scale artists from Rome’s Spanish Steps to the sidewalks along Santa Monica’s beach in California, as well as many galleries and art colonies in between. |
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