The just mentioned, Red Gate Gallery, is located in Dongbianmen Watchtower. It's one of the four watchtowers that once guarded old Beijing and is the last standing of them all. A sense of desertion still hung over the secluded tower, but then in 1991 Australian Brian Wallace -- who we just heard from -- started filling it with riotously colored paintings and erotic images, all from contemporary Chinese artists. In today's Spotlight, we'll be knocking at the door of the ancient red gate, and see how modern art works illuminate the dim hallways.
This is the Dongbianmen Watchtower. And you don't expect anything more than a typical ancient building when you walk under the old stonewall, or stand in front of the wooden red gate.
Only one step forward, and you find yourself surrounded by amazing modern paintings, and artistic-minded people. Here you are at the Red Gate Gallery, where the space is currently dedicated to artist Wang Yuping's one-man show -- entitled "Who Can Play With Me?". Asking the question in the name of his son, and his son's pals, Wang stooped down to listen to the lonely world of children who crave real attention from their peers. This is the second exhibition of Wang's works at the Red Gate, a gallery which he says he trusts.
He said, "A friend introduced me to Brian, the owner of the gallery. After seeing my work, he asked me if I was interested in exhibiting at the Red Gate. I thought I would give it a try. That was the beginning of our cooperation."
All the 22 artists represented at the Red Gate are contemporary Chinese. The media used and working techniques are diverse. But the eagerness to respond to a changing society through individual commentary is always there.
Brian Wallace, owner of Red Gate Gallery, said, "Most of the works are reflects of the terrific changes which are going on here in Beijing, or in the other cities. The social changes. So, that sort of works are the main interest of me."
The Chinese tradition is a consistent influence for the Red Gate artists. He said, "The artists are drawing on their own history, here. This particular artist Wang Yan has been doing these landscape paintings and skulls. He's always working with Chinese landscape painting whether it is, or not painting, or in a ceramic form, or body painting. So he's drawing on his own history."
The marriage of the traditional and the modern has produced a hybrid many can relate to. But the imported idea of "contemporary art" is still new in China. And local collectors, with scant knowledge of modern art, are generally too skeptical to invest.
Zhang Zhaohui, art critic, said, "Overseas galleries, in New York, or like Hong Kong, or like Paris, the galleries are based on local patrons, or local buyer system. But in Beijing, galleries, especially this kind of galleries, has no local collectors. That's the big problem."
Hard business it certainly is. The average 20,000 yuan, or 2400 US dollars, that Wallace spends on an exhibition is not always covered by sales from the artists' works. But he's glad to be able to say that those who display their works at the Red Gate never regret doing so.
Brian Wallace said, "Our job is to promote them as much as we can, through exhibitions here at the gallery, by joining with other galleries in China, or overseas, by placing artists in exhibitions overseas, whether they are at a gallery, or at a museum. So the form of cooperation is quite relaxed, I guess. But with that commitment on both parts, we are working together over a long period of time."
And the curator, who believes in "quality of art" and "patience", has never had any doubt of his "gut feeling" about the choice of artists.
Brian Wallace said, "I have a good understanding of the artists I work with and the work they produce. I also understand what my audience, different public-visitors, or buyers, or collectors, etc, particularly like. But I think that the best thing red gate has is our judgment of which artists are going to go a long way."
It will certainly take time for Wallace's diligently built-reputation to yield financial fruit. But the sense of excitement, freshness and openness behind the red gate has certainly given him confidence to stick to the path for as long as it takes.
(CCTV.com June 9, 2004)
