For Immediate Release
Date: August 26, 2010

Small Paintings; Big World: the Biggest Smallest Exhibition of Works by Jin Ming Lee Ever Held

 

Some people always think that bigger is better, while others realize it is quality, not size, that counts.  When I first began exploring art, in China, I was surprised by the average size of paintings because, although I have collected and dealt in paintings for 40 years, I had owned few that were that large: about meter square or larger.  Dealers and artists told me that the reason is that Chinese buyers think that bigger is better.  In our Leona Craig Art business, selling to foreign buyers, on the other hand, I find that Westerners tend to ask if we have smaller paintings by artists whose work they like, if they have seen only the larger ones on display.  Painting exceptional small paintings actually takes a lot more talent, more concentration, and more work than painting larger ones.  For one thing, it takes a steady hand and a good eye to make small details even smaller, while retaining the essence of the subject.  In addition, it takes good equipment: special small brushes and high quality paint. 

 

My friend, Jin Ming Lee (Jin Ming Li; Li Jin Ming), can paint great large paintings, just like any other artist, but, for me, it is the many smaller oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings (from around 15 cm to 50 cm square) that he has been making, throughout his whole life, that show his true talent and avocation as an artist.  I first became aware of them in a book that he published several years ago, showcasing some of his small paintings, and there was one, in particular, that I inquired about buying because it was so beautiful.  At the time, he told me that they were not for sale: they were his treasures.  In truth, they are a chronicle of his desire to paint and of his travels: the scenes from his life.  Much like the rest of us take photographs to make memories of occasions, friends, beauty that we encounter, or souvenirs of our travels, Li, instead, has used art to capture those things.  He tells me that, sometimes, he just used a shred of paper or other found items with which to paint or draw, and, sometimes, he painted them, later, from memory.  Indeed, his intentions were pure: he did not make them to sell them, he made them for himself.  It reminds me of what Picasso once told a friend: he said that painters paint so that they will have something that they actually like with which to decorate their homes.

 

Therefore, it surprised me when, just after opening our gallery, in Guangzhou, Jin Ming told me that he wanted me to hold an exhibition of his small paintings.  He said that I, unlike many Chinese dealers, really appreciate art for art’s sake, no matter what the size or style, and that is why he wanted it to be me who debuts his collection of small treasures to the world.  In truth, unlike many other Chinese galleries who have exhibition after exhibition just to try to get attention or to try to drum up business, I was not planning on having exhibitions except in the very few cases that I feel are exceptional.  However, this request from Li is truly an exceptional event, and I did not even have to give it a second thought: I just said, yes.

 

So, over the last several months, I have had Jin Ming Lee scurrying around trying to locate all of those paintings and drawings, as there are hundreds of them, dating back six decades.  We have even had fun arranging them on the floor of his studio, laying them out so that there were paths to walk through, calling them galleries one, two, three, etc.  He wanted me to use my eye to decide which ones we will include in our gallery exhibition.  In fact, there are few that I don’t like, but my idea was to make the exhibition have consistency and cohesion, while also displaying a certain amount of breadth, in style, period, and subject, which means that certain of those that could be included were not and ones that he was not, originally, planning on including will be: friendship is always, after all, built on compromise.

 

In the end, what we have put together is an exquisite collection of beautiful, interesting, and precious little paintings and some early drawings by Jin Ming Li.  The exhibition will include around 100 works, in total, even a few larger ones, so that people unfamiliar with his work will not think that he paints only small paintings.  Yes, they are his personal treasures because of what they represent to him, but they will be treasures to the rest of us to for even more reasons.  For one thing, they show us scenes from Li’s long life, as an artist and as a world traveler.  Some are studies for larger paintings that he would eventually paint.  What is more, many show scenes from China, which no longer exist, like paintings of Dongguan, back when it was simple farming areas, way before it became the factory city that it is today, paintings of Guangzhou, as seen from Baiyun Mountain and from the Renmin Bridge, thirty years ago, as well as other areas of China that no longer could be recognized.  Always fascinated by water scenes, having been born in Hong Kong and having grown up in a water village in Heshan, there are pictures in the collection of the old-style boats with their fan sails, known in the West as “junks”.  There are old pictures for advertisements that Li was asked to paint that remind me of the ads I used to see, in the U.S., in the 1950’s.  There are scenes from Li’s days working on the collective farm, as a teenager, when it was difficult to find art materials, and he would draw, daily, on small sheets of found paper.  There are scenes and ads from the old days of communism, the so-called socialist realism genre, much like those of the USSR, praising the workers’ paradise, and there are scenes from the Cultural Revolution.  Thus, in a sense, they also present a pictorial history of China over almost the entire history of the PRC.  In fact, before seeing these I had only seen such histories, in painting, in the works of two of his teachers from the Guangzhou Fine Art School: Tan Xue Sheng and Xu Jian Bai.  I am so pleased to find, not only their artistic tradition of technique, passed down to them from Lin Feng Mian, another great artist from Guangdong and a father of contemporary Chinese art, to Jin Ming Li, but also their tradition of chronicling life in the PRC and other parts of the world, as they experienced it.  These works also show the breadth of artistic style that Li has mastered: from traditional Chinese to impressionistic, from realistic to more abstract.

 

As part of the third generation of artists from the 20^th century revolution, in Chinese art, Jin Ming Li is always in demand as part of exhibitions.  Some might say, “Not another Jin Ming Li Exhibition,” and they would be right.  Many of the paintings, included in this exhibition have never before appeared in public but have been part of Li’s personal collection, including his first oil painting from 1961 and his only purely abstract painting, titled, “Garden.”  Li is a master whose work has been exhibited around the world.  His paintings have won national exhibition prizes and are included in collections of a number of museums, both inside and outside mainland China.

 

Our exhibition, entitled “Jin Ming Li: Small Paintings; Big World”, will have its grand opening October 23 at 3 p.m. at L C Yilang, 11 Guigang San Ma Lu, Dongshan Kou, Guangzhou, China, and will continue through November 19^th.

See some of the art of Jin Ming Lee on the Jin Ming Lee Page of Leona Craig Art Gallery on-line

 

Contact:
Ayu Chen, Guangzhou, China: 86 136 3240 7809
Craig Mattoli, Guangzhou, China: 86 136 3241 0877

Website: http://www.leonacraig.com

11 Gui Gang Three Road, Dongshan Kou, Yuexiu district, 
Guangzhou, China 510080
广州市越秀区东山口龟岗三马路11号
086 020 37625069

        

Several months ago, we asked Lu Wen Xia to make a funky bamboo teapot for us.  Her response was that she would expect me to ask her to make the most artistically demanding teapot in her repertoire, and that, since she knew how demanding my artistic tastes were, she would make one that was extra special.

Over those months, she made several attempts and decided that they were not good enough, so, she started over.  In addition, her husband, Lu Jian Xing, a famous Yixing sculptor and teapot maker, decided to lend a hand.  The couple has done joint teapot art, in the past, and we recently helped them with documentation and interviews when the Houston Museum of Fine Art included some of their teapots in their collection.  In fact, afterward, they told us that they had the feeling to do some collaborative work, again, and we told them that we would take it.  However, it was a pleasant surprise that they also wanted to work together on this special teapot for us.

They came to Guangzhou, this week, to visit, and they brought their new work along to personally present to us.  We have titled it "Crushed Bamboo", and we show a picture of it, below.



Not only is it special because it is one of a kind and because both Lu's worked on and signed it, but Lu Wen Xia also told us that she added special touches that she has never added to her teapot art, before this.  Those touches include the following features.  Both a ladybug and a firefly on the teapot, whereas, she has only ever before, included one insect.  There is wormholes and "cracks" on the bottom of the teapot, like you might find in a real bamboo log.  The manner in which the teapot is scruched on the lower half is unique to this teapot.

We appreciate the teapot, but we appreciate, even more, that both Lu Wen Xia and Lu Jain Xing wanted to work on it together to make something truly special for the teapot art collection of Leona Craig Art.  To see more pictures of the teapot, please, follow the link, which can also take you to the Lu Wen Xia and Lu Jian Xing teapot art pages of the gallery:  http://www.leonacraig.com/catalogue_art_gallery/Teapots/crushed_bamboo_lu_wen_xia.htm

Also, look for sculpture from Lu Jian Xing, coming soon to the Leona Craig Art Gallery online http://www.leonacraig.com/Leona_Craig_Catalogue.htm

        

 We recently went to visit Zhao Qian Xu (correctly, in Chinese convention of last name first: Xu Zhao Qian), and we were really impressed by his recent works.  We always liked his work, beginning with the scene shown, below, Warm Winter, with its ominous forest background, contrasted with the gentle rabbits in the foreground.  Of course, to appreciate this painting, you have to actually appreciate art.  It is not filled with gimmicks, glitz or girls, like I see in many contemporary Chinese paintings.  It is just well-executed, well thought out art.



He told me that he prefers to work in a more free, more abstract style, however, because it gives him the freedom to create, rather than just being a painter of objects.  He also told me that the Chinese market does not know how to appreciate the more abstract art, so that he has to paint realistic thing, too, to satisfy his local audience.  Indeed, one of the first paintings that I bought of his was the rather abstract watercolor still life of flowers in a vase, which is shown, next.  In fact, we just acquired a second abstract flower painting from him, done in colored ink, combining Western and Traditional Chinese painting techniques, which we also share with you, below.

 

I appreciated this one, and I appreciate the abstraction techniques that he is using in other of his more recent paints, as well. For example, this portrait of a herder, is from a series of paintings of Zang minority peoples of the Tibetan Plateau, which he did a few years, back, all of which are done in dark blues and purples, giving them a mysterious twilight feeling.  In those paintings, also, the forms of animals and people  partially melt with the background and appear slightly apparitional, as you can see in the example, which has a surrealistic feel.  Could it be that Xu is also using the colors and the technique to morn the eventual ending of their nomadic way of life that has been trapped in time?



We noticed that he has used a similar “blurring” technique to give some of his other subjects a more abstract, playful feel.  Again, he is making the subjects and surroundings of these paintings blend in, and we think that it is a very effective technique that gives the paintings a softness and true beauty, much like the original Impressionists created softness by using pastels.  For me, it makes them much more uplifting and appealing to the eye.  Some recent examples follow.

   

Of course, as shown in the first painting, he can paint realistically, too.  We show several others, below.

  

As you can see from some of the paintings that we have displayed, Xu also does paintings of the China minority peoples.  Technically, there are over fifty so-called minority groups in modern China.  These people, like the Zang of Tibet, the Hakka of Guangdong, the Miao and the Yi, to mention but a few, still live much the way they have for centuries.  They continue their cultures, wear traditional clothing and have not caught up with modern times, not that they seem to care.  It is much like the Amish, in my native Eastern Pennsylvania.  As residents of China, now, we get to see the real Chinese people, their homes, and the way they live, not just the modern skyscrapers and city life that China likes to show the rest of the world on TV.  Personally, I appreciate this side of China, more than the other: I always prefer to travel the back roads, no matter where I am.

I also believe that the art about these people and their live is the true treasure, in Chinese art, not the attention-grabbing ash Buddhas or train wreck “installations” or smiling red faces, over and over, again, that grabs the headlines.  To me, those sorts of things will not survive the test of time.  We show several more of Xu’s minority people paintings, below, for your pleasure.

But that also brings me to another trait of Zhao Qian Xu’s that attracts me to him, as an artist.  Unlike too many modern artists, he is not in art for the money.  When he was young he dreamed of being an artist, although coming of age during the Cultural Revolution of Chairman Mao, his plans were derailed, and he ended up working on the docks of Guangdong.  However, nothing can stop a true artist, and he would paint scenes from the docks when he wasn’t working.  He eventually entered the army where his artistic ability was recognized, and the Army sent him to the Guangzhou Fine Art Academy to learn more.  Today, he is at the Art Institute, in Guangzhou, which is run by the Ministry of Culture, so, he does not face the financial insecurity that many artists face on their own.  I see too many artists who crank out work, just for the money, and they have lost their souls as artists: they have become businessmen.  Xu, on the other hand, is more subtle about his art.  He tells me that he does not promote himself because he is not out for the money; he only wants to make art.  Thus, although his larger paintings command prices in the range of tend of thousands of dollars, we feel that they are underpriced versus the market, given the ability, care, and thought that  go into his paintings.

That is really one of the reasons that we set up our gallery, in Guangzhou, as the artists of Guangzhou, in general, have been left relatively undiscovered by the market.  Guangdong has a rich tradition in contemporary Chinese painting, beginning with artists, like Li Tie Fu and Lin Feng Mian, followed by the students of Lin Feng Mian who came back to the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, in the mid-1900’s to continue the new tradition of Westernized Chinese painting.  They and their students are still producing paintings, today.  Moreover, while Beijing likes to take the credit for being the center of the contemporary Chinese art market, Hong Kong, which is part of Guangdong, not far from Guangzhou, is more a center for the real art markets where Chinese art is sold to the world, not just to government officials from whom artists have curried favor.

You can view more of the paintings of Zhao Qian Xu (Xu Zhao Qian) on our website at http://www.leonacraig.com/catalogue_art_gallery/wall_art/zhao_qian_xu_page.htm , and from there you might like to peruse other parts of the site and see the art of more of our artists.  Or stop in and visit our gallery, next time you are in Guangzhou.


11 Gui Gang Three Road, Dongshan Kou, Yuexiu district,
Guangzhou, China 510080
广州市越秀区东山口龟岗三马路11号
086 020 37625069

        

When you come to visit Leona Craig’s new art gallery, LC Yilang (Chinese for Art Gallery) on Gui Gang Three Road (Chinese pinyin: Gui Gang San Ma Lu), in Dongshan Kou, you don’t just come for the art, in the gallery, but also for the art that is all around this hidden jewel of a district, in the center of Guangzhou.  The neighborhood was, originally, built up by Baptists and Overseas Chinese, in the early part of the twentieth century, followed by the political elite, and even Mao Zedong had a house down the block.  While others open galleries in the next new hot art districts, Leona Craig Art has quietly taken up residence in an undiscovered, yet, utterly hip part of town, in old Guangzhou.  It is the first foreign-run gallery, in Guangzhou

Craig Mattoli, the curator of the collection and the head of international sales, lived in artsy parts of New York City, including Soho and Chelsea, in the 1970’s, before they became stylish.  Now, he has discovered the Soho of Guangzhou, Dongshan Kou, across the water, north of Ersha Dao Island, in an area of small houses that are stealthily being restored. Having created an “art inn” from an 18^th century estate that he restored, in the 1990’s, near the artist community of New Hope, Pennsylvania, Mattoli has an appreciation for the art of building, decoration, and restoration.  “Prior to stumbling onto this section of Guangzhou, I was surprised to find that so many beautiful old buildings, in China, were left to crumble, while skyscrapers replace them.  I was so pleased when I discovered this area.”  Mattoli says.

Already, more than the art of restoration is developing in Dongshan Kou.  There are other delights, in the neighborhood, waiting to be discovered, and a short walk to the south takes you to Ersha Dao where the Guangdong Provincial Museum of Art is located.  “I immediately loved the area when I first saw it, and I knew that this was the place that I wanted to open a gallery,” Mattoli said, “In fact, even though some of the other houses in the area have a more formal feel, I was drawn to the bi-level loft spaces in this building, and I love the more Bohemian atmosphere of this unassuming neighborhood: it reminds me of areas where I live and played, in other major cities in North America and Europe.  Besides, to really understand the art of a people, you need to immerse yourself in the culture, not hide in some chic enclave, insulated from it.”  This particular part of the Dongshan Kou is known as the turtle’s back because it is a on a hump, in the center of the area.

Mattoli began collecting Chinese art when he came to China, five years ago, first, finding teapot art.  As time went on, he discovered more and more forms of Chinese art, including contemporary oil painting.  In business, as a private investor for two decades, including in art and antiques from America and Europe, Mattoli also realized that the best investment opportunity, in China, was art.  “I’ve been collecting art of various sorts since grade school, and I have been trading in art for several decades.  I believe that my eye and my experience can contribute to the development of the local markets for art,” Mattoli offers.

For the past several years, his Leona Craig Art business has been selling Chinese art around the world.  Now, he believes that it is an appropriate time to ratchet up the awakening of local Chinese to the value, both financial and psychological, of art and decoration, and, thus, he created this adorable local gallery.  “The idea of home decoration is not so much a part of the present local culture, as it is in the West,” Mattoli notes, “but, as with many other Western trends, the Chinese are gradually catching on, and art and decoration will become more a part of Modern China, as time goes on.”

The gallery will offer people an opportunity to experience modern oil paintings, sculpture, hand-embroidered pictures, and teapot art.  Although the space is not huge, Mattoli says he liked it more for the artistry of its restoration than for its physical size.  “As we become more popular, the building offers opportunity for the gallery to expand upward though it,” Mattoli points out, “On the other hand, if we tried to make a gallery to fit all of the art that’s on our website, it would be overwhelming, anyway.  We moved here so that people could get a taste of modern Chinese art, then, go on to discover the overall art, tranquility, and natural beauty of this area of Guangzhou: it gives them more reason to want to return to visit us.”  The gallery will also offer a physical place for collectors and artists, alike, to find Leona Craig Art, in China, itself.  “We’ve only begun to discover Chinese artists, and we’d like to discover more.  The local gallery presents the opportunity for more artists to find us, instead of just on the internet or at shows.  Now, they can come and knock on our door,”  Mattoli says.  He also points out that, through the Leona Craig Art website, he can help artists reach a more international audience, and that, in addition to introducing their art to collectors, Leona Craig Art has gotten artists, whom are already in the collection, noticed by magazines, museums, and book publishers.  Located on number 11 Gui Gang 3 Ma Lu, LC Yilang will be run by Ayu Chen.

Contact:
Ayu Chen, Guangzhou, China: 86 136 3240 7809
Craig Mattoli, Guangzhou, China: 86 136 3241 0877
Website: http://www.leonacraig.com



11 Gui Gang Three Road, Dongshan Kou, Yuexiu district,
Guangzhou, China 510080
广州市越秀区东山口龟岗三马路11号
086 020 37625069

        

My friend Jin Ming Li (Jin Ming Lee, Li Jin Ming) asked me to write about him for the preface of a book of his paintings, and the following is what I wrote:

Some of the first paintings that I liked when I first discovered modern Chinese painting were by Jin Ming Lee.  Often, artists are expert at either landscape paintings or portraits, but the two paintings that I had discovered were one of each of those specialties: a Mediterranean harbor scene, which I own, and a portrait of a herder girl on the Tibetan plateau.  Had I discovered a true artist?  For me, color has always been an important ingredient of the art that I tend to like, and Jin Ming Lee seems to always understand the use of color.  His paintings are usually bright and cheerful with colors that are happy and vibrant, and even in his more somber paintings, the colors go well together and offer a sense of calm.  More importantly, he understands how colors go together, and the colors in his paintings are always in harmony, which is an important part of the overall presentation that a painting offers, for one color out of place can ruin the feeling that one gets.

 

Of course, the most important thing about painting is in the brushstrokes.  After all, from a few stokes of a pen, a pencil or a brush, we, as onlookers, see a scene or a portrait.  It is an art, perfected by my ancestors, the Italians, in the renaissance, about half a millennium ago.  Again, Jin Ming Lee shows not only understanding, but true ability.  In his Mediterranean harbor scene, the bold brushstrokes that form the water make it look like the boats in the harbor and buildings on the dockside are being reflected in ripples in water.  In the portrait of the herder, the girl’s brightly colored Zang traditional clothing, upon closer inspection, is seen to be composed, mostly, of single bold strokes.   Yet, in portraiture, he shows that his bush can be applied quite delicately, showing that he truly understands the painter’s art.  Before I met him, I had seen photos of him, and he usually appeared confident and somewhat serious, yet, I detected something more beneath the surface.  When I first met him, I found him to be an impish little boy, just like me, playful and a bit mischievous.  Picasso said that artists are children who never grew up; others, from Rembrandt to Miro, may not have said it, in words, but have shown it in playfulness in their art.  It takes someone, who knows what fun is, to make art, and my friend Jin Ming Lee understands fun and the fun in art.  They say the same thing about physicists, which was my first career, and I am always happy to find other people who believe that life is about having fun, who don’t take it too seriously but enjoy it all, instead.  People, like that, retain the wonder of the child, throughout their lives, and can still be in awe of the simplest things, from a beautiful view to a great thunderstorm.

Jin Ming Lee should be a good artist since he can trace his artistic lineage directly to one of the original revolutionaries, in modern Chinese art, Lin Feng Mian, who was the teacher of several of his art teachers, including Xu Jian Bai Ying Qi Cang, and Tan Xue Sheng.  The teachings of those artists focused not only on technique but also the philosophy of modern art: to not just paint pictures but to capture emotion.  Of course, education can only elicit and hone the talent that is already there, and desire is the further ingredient, necessary to advance learning.  For Jin Ming Li art is more an avocation than, simply, a vocation: he has the soul of an artist.  Even as a small boy he liked to paint, painting along side his father, who also painted.  After graduating from college, during the reign of Mao Zedong when the government decided where a person would work after college, Li was assigned to international trade, not art.  However, that had no affect on his artistic pursuits: he simply used his travels to paint more varied subjects and scenes.  Indeed, much like people, today, always carry their cameras around to make memories, in photos, of things they have seen, Jin Ming Li logs his memories in paintings, using whatever materials he can muster at the moment.  He even has a large collection of small paintings, much like other people have albums of photographs.  While some artists that I have met, over the years, paint to make a living, for Jin Ming Li painting is more than a living: it’s his life.  While there are others who are good painters, few paint for painting’s sake, like Jin Ming Li, and I enjoy his paintings, even more, because I know that they are not about his occupation as a painter but about the little boy inside and how he sees and wants to remember the world around him. 

In truth, I like and respect few people, but I have both affection and respect for Jin Ming Lee.  Since we first met, we have become great friends.  Last year, he took me to his hometown, Heshan, which is the birthplace of another prominent artist from the original revolution in Chinese painting: Li Tie Fu.  Heshan is a water village area, so, perhaps, that is why he likes to paint boats, and is even called the boat king, by some, but to me he’s a prince of a man and an all round great artist.  Perhaps that is also why when I opened my gallery, in Guangzhou, he was the first person that I wanted to invite to see my new world and my creation: the gallery.  As it turned out, we had one more thing in common.  Way back when, while he was still an art student, Jin Ming Lee would come to the area where I decided, decades later, to opene our gallery to paint and instruct others in painting.  Now, he’s returned to the area, in our gallery’s collection, to show a new generation what art is all about.



You can see the art of Jin Ming Li on our website at http://www.leonacraig.com/catalogue_art_gallery/wall_art/jin_ming_lee_page.htm

Website: http://www.leonacraig.com

11 Gui Gang Three Road, Dongshan Kou, Yuexiu district,
Guangzhou, China 510080
广州市越秀区东山口龟岗三马路11号
086 020 37625069

        

We recently put another comment about overpricing in the Chinese Yixing zisha teapot art market on our Red Hill China blog, which covers general business and investment, in China.  You can find it at http://blog.redhillchina.com/2010/01/02/another-comment-on-overpricing-in-the-chinese-yixing-zisha-teapot-market.aspx . ... << MORE >>

People often like to make mountains out of mole hills.   For example, girls at a hair salon might call themselves color or nail technicians; a janitor may describe himself as being in custodial management or as a maintenance technician.   In China, people like to say that they own or run a factory, even though that factory might be two people with ...

<< MORE >>

Last month we attended an art show, in Guangzhou, where we met several new teapot artists whose work we have added to the gallery.  The first is Wu Dong Jun.  We were attracted by a very unusual teapot design of his, titled Mainstay, which won him the creative design award at the 2007 Yixing Pottery Exhibition.  It is a very modern design, like no others we have come across, in our extensive wanderings through the Chinese teapot markets.  It sits atop tall slender legs and has a low-profile body and modernistic handles.  It is also done in chic but simple colors of black and brown; we display it, below:



We looked though his portfolio and decided to add several other uncommon, but more traditional designs, all of which you can find on the Wu Dung Jun Page of the Leona Craig Art Gallery on-line.

The second artist whom we recently added to the gallery is Zheng Qiu Biao.  Zheng, much like many other artists of the past, from Da Vinci to Picasso, is both a painter and a sculptor.  When that is put into a traditional context, in China, it means that he does traditional Chinese watercolor painting and calligraphy and he sculpts Chinese Yixing zish teapot art.  Several of his teapots have been collected by the Chinese Nationality Art Treasures Museum, one of which is an original design, shown, below.  Tha teapot, titled Chinese Culture, has an unusual shape, comes in an uncommon 1500 cc size, and is inscribed with Chinese calligraphy and carvings of a picture of the royal carriage of Qin Shi Wang (Qin Shi Huang) who was responsible for having the terra cotta army built.



Another teapot of his that was also purchased by the museum is inscribed with several hundred Chinese characters from Buddhist sutras.  An important point in all of this is that Zheng, being also an expert at Chinese calligraphy painting, inscribes all of the calligraphy on his teapots, himself.  As we have found out, though our experience in the Chinese teapot markets, although many teapots are decorated with Chinese calligraphy, it is often done by calligraphers, not the teapot artists, themselves.  You can see all of the teapot art of Zheng, included, so far, in the gallery, on the Zheng Qiu Biao Page of the Leona Craig Art Gallery.

Over the past year since we put up the Leona Craig Art Gallery on-line, we have found about a dozen teapot artists and almost 100 pieces of Yixing zisha teapot art that we have seen fit to include in our gallery.

We hope that you enjoy and appreciate all of the Art of Leona Craig Art.

        

I have been in China, now, for five years, and I have been searching the teapot markets for that long, too.  Indeed, the first pieces of art that I bought, here, were teapots.  As we have said in other reports (see, e.g, the In Country Analysis Page of our website), the teapot market has certain advantages over other Chinese art markets, in that teapots are sold by the many tea shops, the fact that they are all made in one area, Yixing, creates economies of scale in marketing, and the art has been further promoted by the government (remember, they have a lot of clout, here) as a truly Chinese art.  Of course, as we have also noted in other reports on the teapot market and the general art market, this skewed promotion has also caused excessive prices by some artists.

At Red Hill Capital and Leona Craig, we are investors and lovers of good art and crafts.  I began collecting art, in 1970, in college, and my initial purchases were ceramic art because it was both beautiful and useful.   I collected 18^th & 19^th century furniture, sculpture and paintings, during my career as an arbitrageur on Wall Street, in the 1980’s.  In the 1990’s, I took my collection of art and antiques, restored an 18^th century estate and created an internationally-acclaimed country inn.  Moreover, having designed and made furniture as a hobby since college, I made folk art and hand-carved and “antiqued” furniture, as a side business at the inn.  The reason that I mention those things is that I want you to understand that I have experience in art, in art markets, and, as an arbitrageur, a sense of internal comparison among art markets and their relationship to other investment markets.

The Chinese, in general, have little or no understanding of art.  Indeed, I have read a number of articles this year, in magazines and newspapers, saying the Chinese people buy art with their ears, not their eyes, that the uneducated nouveau riche Chinese overpay and have no idea if the art is good or bad, unless someone tells them.  I know many Chinese art dealers who admit that they know nothing about art but that it is a good investment and business.  I am not here to criticize.  To me, everyone is my guru because I learn from everyone, and I realize that we are all just different individuals and that good, bad, smart and stupid are all relative terms and depend on the situation.  My purpose is to determine the facts, to look at the causes of the situation, and to figure out if and how to benefit: that is the art of investment.

Up until only about a century ago, art was something that was owned by royalty, their family and friends.  Indeed, much of art, through the ages, has been commissioned by the royalty or other branches of the government.  A century ago, art was commissioned by the royalty and government to make coins, to furnish homes of the wealthy/royal class, to make portraits of family and important scenes.  The common man had no need for art; they could not afford to buy it.  In some cases, through history, owning certain artistic pieces was even prohibited at the threat of death.  In that regard, the general public of the world have had only a century of experience, even much less, if you want the more common man, with the possibility of owning art.  During that same time period, as has been able to change, more into a broader definition of art: some art for art’s sake, not just for practical purposes.  That regression, to being able to simply create, as we did as children, art that we want to create has opened up many new and creative avenues of art, during that time.  It has also opened up some avenues of crap that has been marketed well enough to convince people of artistic genius where it does not exist.

China has been a feudal system, basically, for millennia.  From princes to emperors, there has been a royal ruling class.  There were several decades where the people had democracy, then, they went into a feudal communist system, thereafter.  The people have existed, mostly, in a feudal agrarian society, and that has only been changing for a little more two decades.  If I compare it to the U.S., a half a decade ago, at least, people were concerned about home decoration, not just the rich, but also the relatively poor.  People bought “nice” furniture and that had some sort of framed “paintings” on their walls, and nice rugs on the floors.  Now, there is a growing new rich class, in China, and those are the market for home decoration and art as investment; the idea of home decoration has still not caught on with the billions of Chinese masses.

Art, like the rest of finance, is much about marketing.  Critics and dealers tell us that a painting is brilliant and valuable, just like stock brokers tell us that the price XYZ (never mind the details: you do not need to know anything about the company) is going up, and you will look brilliant and make a killing.  People, especially the new rich, understand that art can be an investment, but they usually have little experience in art, at least that is my observation, confirmed by many others.  Again, there is nothing shameful about not understanding art, just as there is no shame in some people’s lack of understanding of physics or cooking.  However, it does lead to those people overpaying for art, out of  unconcern about the amount of money spent, a need to show off, or because of duplicity on someone else’s part.  In turn, that can lead to distortions, in art markets, schools, styles, or artists.

Arbitrage is about taking advantage of relative differences between markets or investment asset classes.  The price of ABC stock must be correctly relatively priced with that of stock XYZ.  That is accomplished by relative PE (Price-EPS) ratio.  The return in the stock market must be priced correctly with that of the AAA corporate bond market, which must be correctly relatively priced with B-rated bonds and Treasuries.  Price per square inch of Van Gogh must be correctly relatively priced with Damien Hirst.  If prices are not properly relatively priced among all of the possible investments, there is an arbitrage opportunity represented by the inappropriate spread between the markets.

I have been in the arbitrage business for over two decades.  I understood the idea of arbitrage, even from my knowledge of quantum theory where arbitrage has some analogies.  As an arbitrageur, I see opportunities in non-mainstream investment strategies.  As a veteran of investment markets for over three decades, I have seen many irrational situations in markets, including distortions, misalignments, and bubbles, and I have taken advantage of many.

So, a general piece of information that we can take away from the discussion, so far, is that inexperienced people with a lot of money will tend to overpay, at least at times, for art that is heavily marketed to them..  The art markets, in China, are mostly supported, locally, by people with a lot of money or by ruling class people, many of whom know nothing about art except that it is supposed to be a good investment.   Buyers, like that, are susceptible to being told what is good art, and what it is worth.

On the other hand, most of the auction market for Chinese art is outside the country, including Hong Kong, Macau, London, and New York.  However, as the September Christie’s Chinese art and antiques auction showed, uneducated nouveau riche buyers are, now, even phoning in bids to those places from the mainland.  However, many of the sales of art, outside the country, are to people who know art and its proper valuation.  They have a further advantage in their buying, in that the Chinese Yuan is greatly overpriced, and most Chinese artists think in terms of their own local buying power, not the relative valuation of their art, in the world art market.   That is enhanced by the lack of information flow, into the country and because many of those artists cannot read anything but Chinese writing.  Of course, those who do rise to prominence on a larger-than-China art stage tend to command better-aligned prices.  There are even other skews, in the markets, for example, political art from China is appreciated, in the outside world, but not inside.  Artistic teapots are more appreciated, in the West than in China.  Indeed, there are even some crafty Chinese artists who do outrageous works, not always really good, either, that play to those audiences, in the west.

The teapot market has a number of advantages, in its economy of scales in marketing the Yixing name, in its promotion as a true Chinese art, like the older wispy watercolor paintings or calligraphic writing (what other country claims its written words as art?), in claimed tutelage or familial relations with famous teapot artists of the past century, and in purchases of teapots of certain artists by the right people.   A further advantage is that it is easy to keep inventory of small teapot art, in a small tea shop, of which there are many.  On the other hand, there are not many galleries for oil paintings because there is a general lack of local demand for those, it takes much more space to have a painting gallery, and tea shops also sell tea as a major part of supporting their teapot business, while galleries only sell paintings.  Moreover, there is even an additional utilitarian reason for buying a teapot: to make tea.  Those things, combined with lack of interest or understanding of art, have led to distortions within the teapot art market and with misalignments with other art markets.

As arbitrageurs, we do not like to overpay for art or any other investments.  We know that people paid tens of thousands for tulips, in the 1600’s tulip market bubble, and we know that U.S. investors overpaid for dotcom’s and technology stocks, in the 1990’s.  We know that they overpaid for oil a year or so ago.  We know that people are overpaying for some teapots, right now, and undervaluing others.  We also see a lot of people charging way too much for many teapots, in tea shops, teapot markets and galleries, and on-line.  That is why we have been especially careful in building our teapot art gallery over the past few years.   We have selected teapots that are artistic and reasonably priced, and we have tracked down artists who make beautiful and creative teapot art at reasonable relative prices.

There are a number of contemporary teapot artists who have either had famous mentors or are relatives, in one way or another, of famous past artists.  Given all of the government and other support, to begin with, and noting the importance, in China, of guanxi, the Eastern version of the old boy network, many of those artists have managed to raise their prices to relatively unreasonable levels.  Even though they crank out one after another copy of work that is either a copy of teapots by famous artists of the past or their own uncreative works, they sell those overproduced banalities for tens of thousands of dollars.  An original copy of a  teapot by Jiang Rong, a famous artist from the later part of the 20^th century will cost around $10,000 based on artistic quality and scarcity of originals.  A copy of a teapot by her famous father, Jiang Yan Ting, will cost even more.  On the other hand, I can buy a copy of not so bad quality at the teapot markets for several hundred dollars, at most.  I can buy a copy of a copy of a Jiang Rong teapot made by her adopted daughter for around $5,000, or I can buy a copy from another of her not-too-distant relatives for around a thousand..  In this case, I may buy a copy by an anonymous artist, if it is good quality and the price is reasonable, in the range that I mentioned, or I would buy one from the other elative, but not the overpriced one by her daughter: I am not into buying names.  We see similar situations among the members of other teapot dynasties.  We have our own sense of value based on the relativity of all markets, and we do not buy teapots that show no creativity but only have a name brand attached.  It is the same reason that we do not buy the work of painter, Li Zheng Tian, who has produced many copies of the same paintings, like some teapot makers, many of which were finished off by the assistants in his atelier.  We even know that part of the mispricing, in the teapot markets, is because members of the government are overpaying for teapots of “name” artists, just like they over pay for real estate.  We even heard that a dealer got a call from one of those artists who had seen his teapots underpriced on the dealer’s website.  He told him, directly, that certain old boys had paid much higher prices and that he would be in real trouble, if they saw those prices.  That is in addition to buying by uneducated nouveau riche buyers to whom the higher the price, the better, so that =y can brag to their friends.

The lack of art appreciation has pushed down prices of innovative and artists teapot art, while the guanxi-affect has caused overpricing of the other segment.  A collateral affect that we have observed, in the teapot market, is that many other artists are trying to promote their names and connections, which has also lead many teapot dealers to try to raise their general prices, and the market is very distorted, as a result.

At Leona Craig, we have endeavored to seek out creative artistic teapot art and artists, which is an undervalued segment of the market.  We have considered many others for inclusion in our gallery.  Indeed, we continue to search for good art and artists, and we failed, so far, to find reasonable and talented artists who make some of the more classical shapes of teapots (we have found a few who are unreasonable).  We also found other artistic teapots that were over priced.  For example, we found a lovely lotus pad with frogs theme, which has been around for at least a century, but this one showed creativity with one a frog peaking out from in between the top and bottom leaves.  One artist, who makes it and who is part of a teapot making dynasty family, was asking for $5,000, while another, whose mentor sells unmemorable teapots for tens of thousands of dollars, was asking almost $1,000; we felt that both prices, relative to the market, were too high.

All in all, we have searched though thousands of shops and dealers and on-line, and we have made good progress, in the past year.  We now have about seventy different works of teapot art, included in the Leona Craig Gallery, from about a dozen different artists, six whom we have chosen to represent with larger collections of their works.  Lu Wen Xia makes beautiful detailed original teapot art, mostly in the wood and bamboo themes.  Her creations have the look and of natural wood and bamboo, and her work has been collected by the Chinese ministry of culture and other branches of the government, as well as collectors, in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Europe and the U.S.  Zhu Qiu has chosen to do artistic teapots, even though he knows what the Chinese markets are like, but he has the soul of an artist.  Nevertheless, he has managed to win gold prizes with his work in shows, in East Asian countries.  He has devoted much study to the wood themes, and he manages to make realistic, colorful, and beautifully-textured wood theme teapots, as well as some simpler traditional teapots.  His brother also borrowed an original silkworm teapot by Qing Dynasty artist, Chen Ming Yuan, and Zhu has produced a beautiful and exacting copy of that.  He has also done a number of creative and artistic teapots in other nature themes.  Qian Jian Sheng is a nephew of Jiang Rong who has learned teapot art from his aunt as well as other famous mentors.  His work includes creative and beautiful variations of some classic teapot themes, and coming from a teapot dynasty family, he has access to the very best clay.  Jiang Mei Zhen, whether or not she is related to the late Jiang Rong, makes really beautiful teapots in lotus and leaf themes, in beautiful green clay.  She also makes a silkworm on mulberry leaves teapot after a design by early 20^th century teapot artist, Xie Man Lun, which is quite fun and lovely teapot art.  Our artist Chen Dong Zhu concentrates on variations on a tree stump theme with various creatures on the stump and a thin outer layer of rough brown clay over yellow base clay to give the appearance of bark pealing off a dying tree stump.   The final artist that we have, so far, featured in our gallery is Sun Jin Li, who has created a number of teapots in the shapes of animals and monsters; the work is very creative, and is even already being copied by other artists.  We believe that the art that we are including in our gallery is fine art at reasonable prices.  In fact, when we look at the prices of the same teapot art at other dealers, both on and off line, we find that we offer the same teapot art at prices, sometime, one-fifth other prices.

You can see the collection of Yixing zisha teapot art that we have put together, thus far, at Leona Craig Yixing Zisha Art Gallery on-line at http://www.leonacraig.com/Chinese_Teapots_Intro.htm.  We hope that you appreciate our efforts and that you like the look of our teapot art.  We will continue to search the markets for more teapot art and artists who make beautiful art that also represnts good investment value, so, check back with the gallery from time to time.  You can read more of our analysis of the teapot art market, other Chinese art markets, and other topics in investment and finance on our In-Country Analysis Page at  .

You can also read our other blogs:
http://blog.incountry-china.com - for information about life, culture, language, customs, amd travel, in China.
http://blog.redhillcapitalco.com - for comments and analysis of general finance and investment
© 2009 Red Hill Capital Corporation, Delaware, USA; all rights reserved

        

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The art of making zisha teapots, originated, in Yixing, China, during the Ming Dynasty, over 500 years ago (1368-1644 AD).  Indeed, that first teapot, called the Gong Chun, was very artistic, and is still copied and varied, into the present day.  However, today, true teapot art is not appreciated, in China.  Having only risen from a poor rural society, several decades, ago, the idea or mindset of interior decoration has not yet caught on with most people, in China.  As a result, few people appreciate art, and even fewer understand the concept.  The teapot market, in particular, suffers from this lack of art appreciation.

Even when people have caught on to the idea of art investment, they still usually lack experience with knowing what is good or bad art.  A prominent art dealer, in Beijing, recently said it best: "Chinese people buy art with their ears, not their eyes."  In the teapot market that translates, first, into the amount of effort that has gone into convincing Chinese people that Yixing zisha teapots are a true Chinese art.  Thereafter, people tend to invest large sums of money into  a teapot artist who has a name, for some reason, but produces many copies of standard teapot themes, nothing innovative or creative.  Moreover, those teapots by famous artists command prices that are way out of line with other segments of the teapot and more general art markets, going for $10,000 to $20,000.  The result is that teapot prices are skewed away from really the thoughtful, technically detailed, and artistic end of the teapot market, and that segment of the market contains art that is relatively undervalued. 

To fill in some background (see our website on the In Country Analysis Page for more analysis of the General Art and Teapot Art Markets), Teapot art from Yixing has been marketed by the government and by Yixing.  The teapots are unique because zisha clay comes from only that part of the world.  China (or India, according to the present dispute) discovered tea, and it was the first to make teapots, during the Ming Dynasty, having used ceramic cups to steep it in a few dynasties before.  Thus, it is easy to promote Yixing zisha teapots as a true Chinese art: marketing economies of scale that any teapot maker can lay claim to.  There have been some famous teapot makers over the many years.  Many of the current high-priced masters are either from family or are students of famous teapot makers.  At Leona Craig Art, we simply cannot justify paying up to $20,000 for a close copy of a famous teapot maker of the past.  We invest in art, and we understand that art markets must make sense vis-a-vis one another.

At Leona Craig we appreciate art in all of its different forms.  We have been buying ceramic art for four decades at various places around the world, and we have always bought it for its artist content in addition to its quality and technical execution.  Indeed, we appreciate the execution of those masters who dwell on the traditional or mundane, but we prefer more creative teapot art.  Indeed, we have endeavored to put together a reasonably priced collection of teapots, most of which are artistic or creative variations on standard themes, and we have also focused on finding teapot artists who create true and different art.  We believe that, as time goes on, the more artistic, creative, and relatively scarcely copied teapots will become more prized in the market.

You can see some of the work of the latest teapot artist that we have added to the Leona Craig Art Gallery, Zhu Qiu, on the Zhu Qiu Page of the Leona Craig Yixing Zisha Teapot Art Gallery.