Li Zheng Tian was a dissident artist, in the 1960’s, long before it became fashionable.  In recent years, he has settled down, has opened his own atelier, and has written his own philosophy about art.  Now, there are people trying to market his art.  However, there are some problems with all that.

An amusing beginning to our story is that when I recently bought a book about Michelangelo for the gallery and one of my staff read it, she said: “Oh, look, it’s Li Zheng Tian’s philosophy of art.”  Indeed, copying things is really at the heart of this commentary.  Over the years, Li has made a number of paintings, and, then, has gone on to make many copies of those paintings.  Worse still is that many of the copies were not really painted by him but, instead, by his students at the atelier and, then, signed by him.  Even one of the artists whose work we have in our gallery spent some time at Li’s atelier, several years ago, and he told us that he even was one of the students who made copies of Li’s work.

Now, some dealers are trying to market Li’s work, and the existence of multiple copies of paintings has, naturally, presented them with problems, in their quest to boost his prices.  When that marketing began, several years ago, I heard one option being discussed was buying up all the copies of each painting and destroying all but one.  Of course, when there are as many as ten to twenty copies of a work, the use of such a that tactic would mean that the price of the one would have to be ten to twenty times the current price, just to break even.  Then, I saw Li, along with one gallery's staff members [even less professional than his students], working on some of his paintings at a particular gallery, trying to make them different than the other copies.  Loved seeing them use cans of spray paint on one of the paintings: reminded me of the graffiti I used to see on subway cars in New York City, but, then, isn't graffiti "in", these days, anyway.  On another, Li was trying to make it look more like the computer enhanced version of that painting, which had appeared in a magazine, but, frankly, his efforts could not match the skill of the computer.  If only he could paint as well as the computer-enhanced version made it appear that he could.

Lately, the tactics have turned both more devious and more heinous.  At a recent auction of many of Li’s works by a well-known Taiwanese collector, none of the works sold, even at very low prices.  Although we are not certain, that may have to do with one of the new tactics, which is for Li to deny that it is his work.  It is but one more sad statement about what art has become for some people in the Chinese art market: it is more about money than art or integrity.  It is also the reason that we, at Leona Craig Art, always get artists to personally sign certificates of authenticity for any of the work that we have in the gallery.

The second tactic that is being used in this new marketing effort for Li’s work is less heinous.  Instead of the earlier thought of destroying all but one copy, which was economically unfeasible, the marketers have turned to spin.  Now, they are saying that the reason that there are so many copies is that Li went on to make copy after copy, as he sought to perfect the paintings.  Although that may convince some people, I, personally, see it as a sad attempt to cover the realities.  First, I have paintings from other artists who have worked and reworked paintings, over years, until they felt satisfied with them.  Even if it were true about Li, it would only say that he was in a rush to sell the art, rather than to create satisfactory works.  However, this tactic also sidesteps the real truth, which is that many of those copies, if really perfected, were “perfected” by his student, not by him.  Thus, in light of the reality, it says that his students are better artists than he, which is just one more reason that we have chosen, so far, to not become involved with his art.

In the art market, in China, we see countless examples of unethical practices and unprofessionalism.  We also get many offers to participate, in the former, but we prefer to deal in art that we like by artists whom we respect, using practices that allow us to sleep soundly at night.