What is the fascination with Chinese Art?

Question

Personally, I just don't get it. I saw some paintings by Zhang Xiaogang that have gone for several million dollars and, honestly, i think they kind of suck. What do people see in this junk? I'd rather have dogs playing poker in my wall. Am I just too stupid to see how these are the greatest paintings in the history of humanity? They must be since they've broken records for sales.

 

http://images.google.com/images?q=Zhang+Xiaogang&ndsp=18&um=1&hl=en&start=0&sa=N

 

louis, i'm not chinese, however most of the people that are paying millions of dollars for these paintings are westerners, so apparently they see something that i don't.

 

Answer 1

Art is all about what's perceived as "new" even when it's not new at all. Heck, Post-Impressionism from artists like Gauguin and VanGogh came about because they were fascinated with Japanese paintings by Hokusai and Hiroshige that had just been shown in Europe during the late 1800's. Everything old is new and there's nothing new under the sun. The key for an artist is to be ahead of the curve. If everyone's looking at Asian art now, ten years from now they will be looking at South American art.

 

Answer 2

It seems that people like it because of how strange it looks.

 

Why? Because...if it looks strange, it's probably because there's some sort of a message about it, or so people think.

 

I think some like it because of what it represents to them.

Others like it because they think it's strange and disturbing.

And even then, there are others who like it for other reasons.

 

Let's not forget that beauty is in the eye of the beholder as well.

 

Oh, and one last thing - it's selling big time because, well, lots of people happen to like it.

Answer 3

are you chinese? i think you really have to understand the chinese culture and history, especially the recent 100 years or so to understand these paintings. and you kind of have to be chinese to understand how a chinese person would perceive this part of the 5000 years history.

 

Answer 4

It's probably because they're unique and don't look like anything else