What Emerging Art Markets of China and MENA Mean for the Future of the Global Art World

Shifting power structures, alternative systems of artistic valuation, end of Neo-liberal status quo…… Keep reading as MADE IN BED’s contributor Cherry Chang discusses the Chinese and MENA art markets, and their implications for the future of the global art world.

Yue Minjun, Armed Forces pl.17. Source: Artnet.com

Geopolitical stability and ease in cross-border transactions are crucial in determining the future state of the art market. The political risks of rising nationalism as a response to the disenfranchisement and wealth disparity resulting from globalization are further complicated by the pandemic’s uneven impact across different nations and their respective speed to recovery.

The threat of disintegration in the US is particularly felt under the Trump administration’s political polarisation and culture wars, in additional to an isolationist foreign policy burdened by sanctions. The sentiment for separation also haunts Europe — with Brexit, anti-EU movements are on the rise in fellow European nations. Alongside regulatory complications resulting from Brexit, there will be significant change to trading structures in Europe, with either Paris as new trade centre, or reduced trading with EU from non-EU all together.

The destabilisation of old political power structures calls for a paradigm shift for the art world, which will not emerge from the current hegemonic narrative of US/Eurocentrism. Accounting for the immense development in infrastructural ease and connectivity between economies in Asia and MENA, question rises as to how China and MENA nations’ art markets have developed? How are local cultural heritages incorporated and what are their implications on the future course of the global art market?

Xi’s China: “Multivariate Model” and “Neo-Traditionalist” Agenda

Today, many markets that were once considered “emerging” have moved centre stage in terms of both collectors, artists, and art market infrastructures. China, in particular, boasts an extremely sophisticated “multivariate model” that consists of three distinctive operations: (1) import and the repatriation of looted cultural objects from Western markets, (2) a protectionist internal market for traditional art such as ink paintings, calligraphies and antiques, and (3) export of contemporary “international” art to the global market.

Chinese art and market has come a long way since its infancy in the 1990s. In place of “packaged” commodities of exotic “Chinese-ness” created for Western misapprehension as exemplified by Political Pop and Cynical Realism, is a rapidly growing middle class and UHNW Chinese collectors today who crave new ways of engaging with the arts and cultural sector. Their taste is more experiential, and the nation’s art production reflects the national’s revived cultural confidence. Amongst the generation of Chinese artists and collectors post-millennium, there is a collective weariness towards the essentialist and limiting perspective Western institutions have on Chinese art, which has progressed little from the readings of collective/individual binaries, contention toward authority and the likes of Ai Weiwei.

Li Ziqi's videos depict her daily life with grandmother in rural Sichuan. Source: Screengrab from Liziqi/Youtube.

China’s rise to the world’s dominant economic power within five decades allowed the nation to regain its cultural confidence that had been lost since the Opium Wars. The official cultural policy places a heavy emphasis on the revival of Chinese folk customs and traditions. Such policies has profound impact on the operations of Chinese art market. The “Neo-Traditionalist” movement has a wide reach that can be seen both domestically and internationally, with state subsidies to establish contemporary relevance of Chinese traditions in digital forms such as historic dramas, interactive online games, KOLs/influencers like food blogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), in addition to public leisure construction projects such as the Xi’an Grand Tang Mall that are widely popular among domestic tourists as the site for “influencer check-in” (网红打卡).

China has the world’s fastest growing middle class, who increasingly want to travel domestically and within Southeast Asia. State funded cultural programs in the form of popular entertainment and experiential tourism are crucial in shaping the taste and consumption habits of Chinese citizens on a national level. Together with Xi’s $4-8 trillion Belt and Road Initiative that will connect 138 countries through new railways, energy plants, and infrastructure, the direction towards a Sinocentric “Neo-Traditionalist” model will undoubtedly prevails in redefining Chinese understanding and proclivity for arts and culture in favour of the current regime, and its potential to expand beyond national border appears optimistic as China asserts economic influence through its investment in ASEAN and MENA.

UAE as an Outlet for MENA and Iran’s “Neo-Traditionalist” Boom

The West’s Orientalist fascination for Middle Eastern art predates the auction market. As early as 1755, Sotheby’s sold Islamic books and manuscripts. Yet up until 2003, auction houses persistently treated Middle Eastern art as mere decorative objects and paid little attention to their modern and contemporary counterparts. It was not until the death of Lebanese/Syrian publisher, Riad El Rayyes, Sotheby’s and Bonhams hosted the first Modern Middle Eastern sales in London.

In 2017, Christie’s New York sale of the $450.3 Salvator Mundi to Saudi prince Mohammad bin Salma sent shockwave to the art world. It is clear that Abu Dhabi, as the outward looking Arabic/Middle Eastern capital, has proclaimed the stewardship of pan-Arabic cultural rebranding and regeneration. Yet one might still be baffled by the Emirates’ overzealous import of Western art, on top of what seems to be an imprudent total absorption of the Western institutional framework, instead of investing in the nurturing of its domestic artists and institutions. The unconventional strategy, however, does fit UAE’s unique state of cultural identity and trajectory, being much younger but nonetheless wealthier than most other nations.

UAE’s lack of established infrastructure has prompted local institutions to outsource “foreign talents”. This approach is not dissimilar to China’s effort in the 90s to boost its global marketability by appealing to Western hegemonic internationalism — the hybrid paradigm of global blue-chip art and emerging regional talent will provide an immense leverage for the young market that barely existed two decades ago. As with the case of most emerging markets, art is often seen as an investment vehicle with potential high returns but also greater risk. A sophisticated institutional infrastructure in the UAE will contribute to the overall stability and confidence for the MENA market, attracting external investments into the region’s arts and cultural sector.

According to ArtTactic’s 2020 MENA Modern & Contemporary Art Auctions report, Iranian artists accounted for nearly half of auction sales value in 2020. Since 2008, Iranian art has been a “Lone Rider” that dominated MENA art market, despite most sales being held by major auctions houses in London and Dubai. The beginning of US sanctions in 2012 caused a setback in the Iranian market, but the effect was short-lived and has turned increasingly against US’s favour. In March 2021, Iran signed a 25-year cooperation agreement with China — although no official document has been released, China will allegedly invest up to $400 billion in Iran’s oil and energy, as well as most sectors of Iranian economy. Whereas US sanctions had forced Western companies to withdraw from the Iranian market, Chinese tech companies will likely to benefit from its growing economy and highly educated population. This strategic alliance means China will also help to facilitate further connectivity between Iran and its Gulf neighbours, as discussions of BRI and Saudi Vision 2030 integration had already been in place since 2019.

Iran and China share many similar cultural characteristics, with diverse imperial and religious influences that resulted in an prosperous heritage in poetry, calligraphy, artistic practices and folk customs that traces back to two of the world’s most ancient civilisations. Both nations are also ideological antagonised by the US and had been excluded from Western markets. Contemporary Iranian artists embraced by the global market are often emigrants like Shirin Neshat who, not dissimilar to Ai Weiwei, regularly aestheticise events and politics at home to appeal to Western, liberal democratic tastes.

Comparing the shared obstacle faced by contemporary artists in Iran and China today, art market expert Robertson points out:

“International contemporary art, which has set the cultural standards by which we judge all art (and its global market, which has set the prices for this commodity), is a Western instrument. The procession of artists from new markets travelling to the West in order to realise their creative and economic ambitions has been the norm for the last two centuries.”

Hossein Zenderoudi, Crowns of Love (1972). Source: zenderoudi.com

Xu Bing, New English Calligraphy - Zen Poetry III (2004) Source: Christies.com

The growing distaste for “international” contemporary Iranian art by Iranian artists and collectors alike will certainly shift the direction of MENA art market — Neo-Traditional Modern Saqqakhaneh School, rooted in the history of coffee-house paintings and Shiʿite Islam visual elements, will likely to continue to flourish. Furthermore, artworks inspired by deconstructed calligraphy, folkloric motifs, and the reconfiguration of Qajar imageries led by artists like Hossein Zenderoudi, Mansoor Ghandriz, and Ghasem Hajizadeh respectively will also contribute to new horizon of international perception of Iranian arts and culture. It would be interesting to see more artistic exchanges between Iran and China as economic and political alliances strengthen between the two nations. Will the two art worlds find resonance in the indecipherable calligraphies of Hossein Zenderoudi and Xu Bing, and forge a more profound understanding and appreciation of the other culture over communal rituals of coffee and tea?

Conclusion:

As dominant powers of the West disintegrate, China is building infrastructures to connect regions that were formerly alienated or neglected by the global market. The notion of one ubiquitous culture for mankind has become increasingly imperious and obsolete. Cultural development is not linear but simultaneous and sporadic. Cross-cultural exchange does not have to follow the current paradigm of binary confrontation.

Transnational connectivity and cooperation between emerging economies in regional markets will give access to wider international participants, providing new opportunities for more genuine and profound understandings of different arts and cultures. At the same time, emerging markets must reconsider the inclination of outward-looking assimilation as the only path to progress, but connect on terms of negotiation and introspection.

Citation:

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Cherry Chang

Contributor, MADE IN BED