Red Wave 2.0

When Soviet Union collapsed in late 80's, during Perestroika Western art market was flooded by Red Wave of contemporary art. It was considered next big thing, collectors swarmed to Eastern Bloc with purses full of escudo. Artists had their 15 minutes of fame, pigged out on caviar and champagne and shortly, vanished to oblivion. I have suspicion that present day fascination with Chinese Art will be short lived as well.


As proof I found good article in Vanity Fair of April 2008, Beijing's Olympic Makeover. Author, William Langewiesche most likely knows the subject well and has ground to have an opinion. Here is the quote, kind of rarely found in the media: "Much is made of Beijing’s rising arts scene and the existence of an unofficial counterculture here — as if such departures from uniformity amount to significant openings for personal expression and creativity. It’s nonsense. The arts are impotent by definition, the counterculture is pretend, and creativity is allowed to flourish only in measure of its irrelevance to power. Ultimately this will prove to be a huge problem for China — larger than pollution or quarrels with Taiwan. As it is today, no one turns to China to learn about anything but China itself."