Lecture | China Seminar
Book Talk: A Modern History of China’s Art Market
- Date
- Wednesday 26 March 2025
- Time
- Series
- LIAS China Seminar
- Location
-
Herta Mohr
Witte Singel 27A
2311 BG Leiden - Room
- 1.80
Abstract
Over the past few decades, China’s art market experienced an awe-inspiring transformation. During the Cultural Revolution, art collecting activities and art trade were outlawed. The first art auction did not take place in China until the early 1990s. Today China’s art auction market has become the largest in the world, with a market share similar in scale to the United States and ahead of the United Kingdom. The two largest art auction houses in China, China Guardian Auctions and Beijing Poly International Auction, founded in 1993 and 2005 respectively, have annual sales that exceed most of their Western peers.
How did the art market in China achieve such fast growth within a short period of time? How did the Chinese government develop its arts & culture laws and policies in this rapidly changing environment? How do Chinese contemporary artists evolve their creative practice in this environment? How have these transformations impacted the international art world? This book talk we will attempt to answer these questions.
Biography
Kejia Wu is an art historian, columnist for the Financial Times Chinese Edition and a trustee of New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. She authored The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF)’s Art Market Report in 2019. Her book A Modern History of China’s Art Market was published in May 2023 by Routledge. It provides the first account of the drastic transformation of China’s art market. Kejia was presented the Asia Art Pioneers Award by ArtReview Asia, LEAP magazine, and The Art Newspaper China Edition in 2019.
She was a member of the faculty at Claremont Graduate University and Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Previously, she oversaw Asia projects and strategy at Sotheby’s in the office of the CEO while based in New York. Prior to moving to New York, Kejia worked in Asia for more than a decade advising various art organizations including the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the first Gerhard Richter retrospective at the National Art Museum of China, the Chinese Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale, Art Dubai, and ArtSingapore. She was co-founder of the East Modern Art Center (EMAC), the first nonprofit contemporary art center in Beijing, and was in charge of its contemporary art programs and operations. The art performance created at EMAC, Dancing with Farmers (2001), was featured at the Chinese Pavilion of the 56th Venice Biennial in 2015.