Art began at least 30,000-40,000 years ago with the cave drawings of ancient man, discovered in France, and a recent find, in Germany, of a small ivory sculpture of a woman and a small sculpture of a mammoth from around the same period. The cave drawings were done as a way of sharing cavedweller experiences in daily life and commenting on what they did, through pictures of hunting, animals, and the like; it was also the first home decoration. The meaning and use of the small sculpture of the woman are still under contention. Perhaps it is of religious significance since female fertility was worshipped, in early religions; perhaps it is just a trinket. Whatever the case, the real significance is that man was already feeling a need to express himself, artistically, and possessing art was prized by him. About 30,000 years later when man became civilized, art was still part of his culture, as can be seen in ancient tombs around the world: they are always adorned with art of various sorts, including painting, ceramics, and sculpture. Thus, two important points of art are sharing and social commentary, including religion. Over time, the social commentary becomes an artistic historical record of trends of the times, people, and events. A third point is that it has been valued by people for tens of thousands of years.

Indeed, over the past several millennia, art by famous artists, which includes painters, sculptors, furniture makers and architects, had been made, mainly, for royalty and the elite class. Those were the people who could afford to pay for artistic abilities. Painters and sculptors were employed to make portraits and statues of the elite class and their family members or to record important events, like battles. Furniture makers and architects designed and built their castles and filled them with furnishings, including chairs, thrones, beds, tables, and the like. The Vatican, the head of the Catholic religion, employed famous artists like Michelangelo and Raphael, to create religious art. Indeed, much of the royalty were supposedly given their right to rule, directly by the Gods. As a result, much of the focus of art, over several thousand years, was on royalty and religion.

The first major development that would change painting occurred during the Renaissance when art masters, in Italy, applied geometry to painting and developed theories of perspective and depth, and mastered chiaroscuro, the interaction of light and shadow, to create a believable three-dimensional appearance on a two-dimensional surface. In fact, the early Qing emperor, in the late 1700’s, had an Italian painter, first, introduce such techniques into Chinese painting. The last Qing emperor completed the task, in his Cultural Revolution of the early 1900’s, when he gave his own mandate to Chinese artists to go abroad and bring Western painting techniques fully into Chinese art.

Between those two developments, in Chinese painting, another revolution occurred in Western art: Impressionism. As we noted, royalty and the elite employed artists for portraiture and to chronicle important events, in pictures and sculpture. That all changed in the early 1800’s with the invention of the camera. Some say that many artists were distraught, believing that they would no longer be needed. Other people say that it was the impetus for the invention of Impressionism. Whatever the truth, artists, no longer, needed to paint precise pictures of events or people, nor were they required to focus on topics of royalty or religion: they had a chance at freedom of expression, in a number of ways.

The painting that gave Impressionism its name was a work by Claude Monet, in 1872, of the harbor at Le Havre, France, which is titled: “Impression: Sunrise.” 



He said that he gave it such a title because he could not claim it was a precise painting of the harbor but more his impression of it, adding that landscape painting is always an impression, anyway, and an instantaneous one, at that. The name Impressionism was coined by a sarcastic art critic who reviewed the exhibition in which the painting was first included. Indeed, the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, thousands of years before that, said that the aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. Impressionism simply gave those ideas more legitimacy.

Art had been experiencing a certain amount of freedom for some time, even before that. Folk art paintings and sculpture by unnamed artists, made for personal decoration or for friends, had been ongoing for centuries and was not confined to the lofty topics of art created for the royal-religious sector but was made for pure enjoyment and decoration. Indeed, that sort of art has brought high prices, in recent years, as appreciation for it has emerged and has been promoted by collectors and dealers. These days, for example, painted and carved blanket chests and closets, quilts, paintings and sculptures from my home area of Pennsylvania from the 1700’s and 1800’s can bring several hundred thousand dollars, not because of the maker but because of its intrinsic artistic strength.

With the Impressionists, also, a new focus for art subjects emerged. In 1868, for example, Monet painted a picture, titled “The Luncheon”, which was a scene of a simple luncheon in the home of a woman who would become his wife, eventually.

  

This simple domestic scene was considered so radical a subject for a painting that he could not sell it to his dealer. However, this is the type of thing that would eventually become a major focus of future art: showing real people, real scenes of life, and real emotion. Instead of perfect people in perfect settings in an unrealistic perfect world, the focus of the Impressionists and their progeny was on truth and reality and to show emotion of the subject and of the artist, in art. Works, for example, by American artist, Edward Hopper, from the early 20th century, of ordinary people doing ordinary things, are highly prized, today; we show his painting of a diner, in New York City, late at night, in 1942, titled, “Nighthawks”.



Those are the sorts of things, in fact, which came into Chinese art, during the Qing Cultural Revolution. In fact, Lin Feng Mian, one of the fathers of modern Chinese art and originally from Guangdong, emphasized those aspects of art to his students, among whom were Xu Jian Bai and Tan Xue Sheng, who went on to emphasize those things to their students at the Guangzhou Fine Art Academy, in the middle of the 1900’s.

Since the birth of Impressionism, artistic freedom has brought about a number of additional movements. Expressionism, in a sense, goes beyond impressionism by loosening up impression even farther, as shown, for example, in “The Scream” by Edvard Munch.



In addition, much like we all use colors to describe certain things, like, black for bad, orange for warm, or blue for sad, Expressionists used colors to express their feelings about things, using what might seem unnatural colors to make a picture even more beautiful, like in the painting of Franzi by the German Artist, Ernst Kirchner, in the early 1900’s.



What we call Abstract art, today, had its birth with Matisse, who also continued the liberty of making things less real and more abstract, as exemplified in his “The Roofs of Collioure”, in which the colors are playful and the representation is more primitive.



Additional abstractions include things, like Cubism and Deconstuctivism, whereby objects are taken apart and put back together in different ways, as exemplified in works of Picasso, as shown below, in a picture of a woman and in another of three musicians.

 

Since then, the patterns have become even more abstract. Surrealism, as exemplified by the paintings of Dali, goes in another direction, in which common things are represented in novel ways.

As a collector of artistic things for several decades, I have seen and collected a lot of different types and styles of art. I have owned works by Miro, Dali and Chagall, which are more on the abstract side of art, and I have owned works from the Dutch School, who focused on precise paintings of their subjects with such exquisite details that you would think it was a photograph, not a painting. I have also owned folk art of various types. The only real thread that ties it all together is that I have always chosen art that has struck me, for whatever reason, not because of who the artist was. Only after I decided that I liked something would I inquire about the artist and the price. Further research would then tell me if the price was reasonable versus the market.

For me, art, like many other things, is about relationships. Relationships create patterns, and patterns may be more or less apparent. How colors, dots, and lines in a painting relate to one another, combining to create an image, is what is important in art: both harmony and dissonance can make interesting and attractive paintings. To understand that even better, consider how modern newspapers and TV display pictures. If you have ever taken a close look at a picture in a newspaper, you will notice that it is composed of various dots, some closer together than others. It is even more fun to look at a painting by Roy Lichtenstein, an American Pop Culture artist, from the 1960’s, in which he paints, in dots, as shown in one of his “redhead” paintings. With electronic cameras, printers, and TV’s, we have all been taught about pixels, which are the very dots, themselves.



Of course, that technique of painting, entirely in dots, is even older than our knowledge of pixels. One of the offshoots of the larger impressionist school were the pointillists, like George Seurat, as seen in his painting of the Seine River.



Of course, the name pointillism, just like impressionism, was coined by mocking art critics. Now, we can look back on that art of the 1800’s as having great foresight into what the perception of sight is really all about, and a more rigorous form of pixilation is now applied to our other media for visual display, in magazines and on TV. Dali, having had the benefit of past art and life, in the twentieth century, made an even more creative use of pixilation, in a painting off his wife, Gala, which shows the profile of US President, Abraham Lincoln, when viewed from afar.



On the technical side of painting, experts say that, in level of ability, it is generally more difficult to paint portraits than to paint still life than to paint landscapes, although I suppose that also depends on the amount of detail, in a painting, in each of those broad categories. Again, however, that seems to dovetail with what I am saying about relationships, in making a painting. Landscape paintings, especially scenes that take in a broad view, do not require the detailed relationships that are required in making close up pictures of things or faces, as in still life or portraiture. Paintings, in the end, are composed of colored brushstrokes, of various sizes and relative orientations, which are meant to correspond to a representation of something, visually or mentally, through the patterns that are inherent in their placement on a canvas.

It is the relationships and patterns, embedded in a work of art, that are important to me. However, patterns and relationships in art can less obvious but more fun than traditional realism brushstroke patterns. I am told that I show good taste in and understanding of art. If that is so, it may have something to do with my diverse background. I have been making and collecting art since I was in grade school, and I have been singled out for my artistic abilities, on a number of occasions. However, creative vocations come in many forms, and I went on, next, to work on a PhD in mathematical physics, which involved building mathematical models of subatomic particles. Physics models are much an art of composition and design, using math and pictures. While in physics, I became interested in arbitrage because it reminded me of a model in elementary particle physics, but with practical applications: it is also rather an art.

That I can see similar patterns in all of those things is because I am an inductive, rather than a deductive, reasoner. Perhaps, as a result, I like to see inventiveness: something new and different, done in a manner that also shows good understanding of relationships and patterns, in a new and creative way. If I have already shown you greater and greater levels of abstraction, then, we might as well make the final leap into more abstract relationships, as shown in contemporary artist, Li Jin Ming’s Garden.



Over the years, I have developed an appreciation for many different types of art, involving many different relationships. I will admit that I do not like all of the art that others have elevated to the level of genius, especially, some of the more modern abstract art. I do, however, like many of the non-precise types of art, including impressionism, expressionism, and other works of modern and abstract art, although it depends on the actual work: I certainly do not like it all. I find, though, that those sorts of art are more playful, fun, creative, and interesting. I do expect an artist, though, to have good technical skills: I want to know that his abstract painting is about his understanding of relationships, not just the luck of a monkey throwing paint at a canvas. Over the years, I have also found, that the art that I collected, no matter what the genre, has always turned out to be good investments; so, I must be doing something right.

Since I have been involved in art, in China, over the last six years, I have found art that I like, and I have also found things that disturb me. In the teapot market, for example, I have found a lot of overpricing, about which we are currently preparing a more detailed article for publication. I have seen overpricing in other markets, as well, but, at least, there are international auction markets, in painting and sculpture, which tend to rationalize those general markets. I have seen, sometimes, art that is praised as new and inventive, but my experience tells me that it is just a Chinese artist who has lifted something that was done by a Western artist from the past, and no one, in China, realizes it because of their unfamiliarity with the history of Western art. I have seen creative paintings, only to see them done, over and over, again, with only a slight change of topic but with nothing that shows artistic growth or development. I have also seen too much of a focus on bigger is better and on paintings of cutesy little girls with makeup, which some artists and dealers tell me comes from what Chinese buyers want, in art. It is also disturbing to me that, inexperienced, in art, many collectors and even dealers are focused on the prospect that art, like stocks and real estate, can make money, not on the art, itself. In our gallery, you will not see what other people might be pushing as the latest, greatest trend in art or in artists. As someone who appreciates art, for real, I really do not care about other peoples’ opinions, and I am not swayed by them. As a professional investor, I realize that it is not the highly-visible segment of any market, be it stocks, real estate, or art, where real money can be made.

I like art, including the art of decoration. I even bought, restored, and decorated a 1,000 square meter estate from the 1700’s and turned it into one of the first art inns, in the 1990’s. I collect artistic things for decorating my personal spaces. It feels good to have nice and interesting things and surroundings, in which to live and to work: it gives me a certain amount of comfort, and it lifts my mood. A better mood, just from sitting in my house or office makes me enjoy relaxation, even more, and it makes me more productive in my work. Even when I was in college and could not afford much real art, I bought reprints of famous paintings that I liked and hung them on the walls, and I built much of my own furniture, so that I could have furnishing that I was comfortable with at prices I could afford. I bought pottery art to decorate and also to use for cooking. I arranged my room for maximum comfort. Indeed, feng shui is the Chinese version of that sort of thing, instructing that things should be arranged, in a room, a garden, or an estate, in a certain way, which goes back to what I said earlier about how I look at all art as relationships. My personal feng shui, if you’d like to call it that, involves arrangement of furnishings, paintings, sculpture, rugs, lamps, books, and other knickknacks, using colors and textures that go together, contrast with or complement one another, in a way that makes the room feel comfy and roomy for work or relaxation. Paintings can bring beautiful landscapes scenes from outdoors, into your home. They can bring interesting portraits of people from different lands and cultures into your life, and colorful and interesting impressions and expressions, living with you, can bring a smile to your face every time you notice them. Those types of things are the real “good of art”, in its various forms.

As far as what I think is good art: that covers a wide territory, as I have mentioned, somewhat, in the preceding discussion. I have owned colorful, fun art by Miro, which was totally abstract, and I own several more abstract and expressionistic paintings by Chinese artists, now. I also own other works that are in deconstructionist and surrealistic styles. I appreciate realistic paintings with good subjects, like landscapes of some of the more exotic or no longer extant areas of China and social commentary from past and present. I like the impressionistic paintings of some of the older generation of Chinese contemporary artists and of some of the younger ones. Their paintings are full of emotion and color, and some of the older paintings, from the early 1980’s and before, show scenes from a China that was, in times gone by. Although other dealers might focus on attention-getting things, like political art or other themes that get international media attention, I believe that some of the real value, in Chinese art, is in things, like paintings of the Chinese minority peoples, who are still living their simpler traditional way of life, dressing in their traditional clothing, in the far reaches of the Chinese empire. I enjoy other scenes from ordinary real life, in the present-day Chinese countryside, much like I see in my own wandering on the backstreets and back roads of China. These and other forms of true social commentary on life in the real China, not the big-city China that China likes to display to the world, are things that I believe will gain in value as time goes on. After all, social commentary was the original motivation for making art, tens of thousands of years ago, and it was high on the list of the new revolution, in art, that began with the Impressionists. Indeed, while political art is really a subset of social commentary, too often it is done just to get attention through sensation, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, it is so common, in the Western world, as to be relegated to daily cartoon art, in newspapers. Thus, while it can be interesting, if done properly, it can also be trite. Other Chinese art that I value are scenes from the past of places that have been ploughed under by the Chinese industrial revolution and scenes that capture the true beauty of nature in the far reaches of China. Those sorts of things were part of the tradition of the older artists, in the new revolution of Chinese art, which began in the early twentieth century, and it continues with some, today. What makes those sorts of things, even more valuable, in my mind, is that much of that part of China was not seen by the West, when China was closed, and much of the vast, geographically and culturally diverse land that makes up China, still, is not seen by many people, Chinese or Western, today. To me it is a real treasure trove whose value will eventually be recognized and appreciated. Beyond those things, any truly creative art is worth considering, but know your art history, so that you will be able to distinguish true creativity from veiled plagiarism.

My advice, therefore, to Chinese art buyers and collectors is to forget bigger is better: quality, not size, counts. Forget paintings of cutesy little girls with makeup, smiling red-faced men, ash Buddhas and train wrecks. Forget sensationalism. A fierce thunderstorm, in the morning, yields to soothing sunshine for the rest of the day (Lao Tze). Concentrate on good social commentary, paintings of the China of the past that no longer exists, nicely painted still life, interesting landscape paintings, and portraits of real people, and open your mind to less realistic styles of art, like impressions, expressions, abstractions, and to playful, creative, or thought-provoking works of art, including those that are just pure fun. Good, less realistic art can actually be the most highly valued.

Forget about money and famous names, and focus on things that make you feel good or that pique your interest. Then, if the price is reasonable, buy it, and as time goes on, you will find that you have made a good investment, at least in terms of enjoyment and satisfaction, and, probably, in terms of money, as well. Remember, also, that the real money, in any market, is not made in the highly visible part of the market but in the under-researched, undiscovered areas. The inefficient parts of markets are always the best places to invest: that is what arbitrageurs do. So, be open to new artists: have the confidence to buy their art before they become famous. In the end, the other “good of art” is that you can buy it, enjoy it for a time, and, then, sell it to someone else to let them enjoy it, while you replace it with other art, as your knowledge, tastes, needs, home, or decorative style change.

© Craig L. Mattoli, Leon Craig Art, Guangzhou, China, 2010; all worldwide rights reserved.
Chinese version to appear in Beijing Collector & Investor Magazing