- Usugrow – Japanese Tattoo Artist
As an avid collector of underground/ outsider art, it’s great to see Asians making a big impact in the Contemporary art scene.
Unless you were living under a rock the past 5 years, you saw first-hand one of the most exciting movements in recent art history…the Chinese Contemporary Art explosion. While the bubble has definitely burst, it did give attention to other Asian artists.
Who are some of your favorite Asian artists?
November 7th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Really? It burst? Does that mean that the interest has faded, or that the money isn’t there anymore?
November 8th, 2009 at 3:19 am
Both. But the stuff that people were so enthusiastic was stereotypical and shitty.
I work in the CCA field. The “Chinese art boom” really hurt Chinese art, because artists dropped the amazing originality they had in the 1990s in order to churn out these chinoiserie images popular in the West that are so stereotypical I find them rather offensive.
Honestly, the CCA that was popular, especially outside of China, was largely quite boring. I’m so glad the boom is over – the art might get interesting again.
November 9th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
I haven’t seen enough of the asian/chinese art work. but if if they are indeed stereotypical, that’s not good. i can see this being somewhat annoying in comedy, but in art? it sucks if the chinese had to sell out or even dumb their work down a bit in order to be viewed as more appealing for the western customers/tastes and they did this by stereotyping their work. that sucks.
November 9th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
it’s important to showcase asian themes in their art work, but if it’s more in the lines of stereotypes, that really is not my cup of green tea.
again, if this is true, again, the asians cater to the white man! joking.
November 9th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
I don’t know the genre so well, but all I know is the very best artists, like Picasso or Van Gogh, aren’t associated with a country. You don’t call Picasso ‘Spanish Art’, or Van Gogh ‘Dutch Art’. You call it Cubist and Post Impressionistic.
I think it’s just a way to package art by calling it ‘Chinese Art’. I’m sure the artists themselves even don’t like the label.
November 10th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
I think asians have been left out of any sort of artist movement due to racism/bias. I’m not a art history person, but historically speaking, I think that’s why there are not any well known popular asian artists in the likes of van gogh, renoir, monet, etc. These guys were all in Europe.
But now that asian artists are emerging since globalization started, i think it’s ok to label this movement as such. given the historical boundaries and limitations.
kind of like they say “modern American art”, cuz american history is so short. So they’ll label american artists of the 20th century, and etc.
basically, i feel the most talented asian artists were left out historically.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I would add that there are very famous artists from Asia recently who are not labeled with a specific Asian art movement, like Takashi Murakami. Of course, they exhibit Asian influences, but they are their own person. And, yeah, I guess you’re right because in college, they have ‘Western Art History’ and “Asian Art History’ classes so that they can distinguish the two. But, people who know art love Asian art, too. There’s a lot of great stuff from Asia, like the Japanese woodblock prints, which influenced the Impressionists a lot. It’s heavily documented.
Takashi Murakami and Kanye.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1584891/20080404/west_kanye.jhtml
November 10th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
yeah, but Takashi is like the only one of a very very few Asian artists who are well known, from asia.
i guess i don’t mind labeling them “chinese artists” – i think the are specific reasons for this. but i do mind some of them depicting artwork by using stereotypes. that’s not cool.
December 18th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
I’m sure everyone has heard of Yue Minjun (http://www.yueminjun.com/), right?
Interesting blog. I discovered it through the Disgrasian Huffington Post write up about that Marie Claire Asian trophy wife article.