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Sunday 14 December 2008
Picture looking grim for Shenzhen artists’ village
The world’s leading centre for mass-produced works of art, a mainland village once famed for its reproductions of famous masterpieces, is now picturing a gloomy future amid the global financial meltdown.
Picture looking grim for Shenzhen artists’ village
He Huifeng 14 December 2008
The world’s leading centre for mass-produced works of art, a mainland village once famed for its reproductions of famous masterpieces, is now picturing a gloomy future amid the global financial meltdown.
Dafen in Shenzhen has been the world’s biggest artist colony, producing high-quality reproductions for export, since the 1990s.
At its peak, between 2006 and early last year, its art factories exported paintings worth 500 million yuan (HK$567 million) annually. An estimated 60 per cent of the world’s cheap oil paintings were sourced from the tiny and once quiet village.
But Dafen’s mainstay industry has taken a substantial hit this year. Exports of oil paintings have fallen by at least a third and some dealers have reported a 70 per cent drop in sales since September.
Huang Tong, head of the Huang Jiang Oil Painting Company, which opened 19 years ago, said it was the worst decline the village’s art factories had seen.
“In the past, each European or American client would order several container loads of paintings during the December peak season,” he said.
Now it’s not easy to deliver even a full container. Dafen sent a team to the Canton Fair last month and returned without even one order, compared to “our usual haul of tens of millions of yuan”, he said.
“Many artists have cut their prices by 30 per cent but there are still few buyers.”
Zhou Xiaohong , deputy head of the Art Industry Association of Dafen, said global demand for the village’s oil paintings had declined since the subprime mortgage crisis began.
“American property owners and hotels were usually the biggest consumers of Dafen’s works. The more houses built in the United States, the more walls that needed our paintings,” he said. “Now, our business has frozen following the crash of the western property market.”
Domestic demand had also dropped sharply, gallery owner Gu Feng said. “I usually sell three or four works in one afternoon. This week - nothing.
“My old clients who run a hotel told me their hotel also had no business. They had neither the budget nor the mood to decorate their rooms.”
As big dealers such as Mr. Huang and Mr. Zhou struggle against the financial meltdown, many painters are putting down their brushes and leaving Dafen.
“This is the worst time I have ever seen,” said Yang Lihui , who has painted for an export dealer in the village for years.
“The boss closed the workroom and laid off all eight artists, including me, last month since we have had no orders for four months.”
The artist, now in her 40s, has had to scrape a living as a street painter since the layoff. She paints pictures of flowers and landscapes, and sells them from the external wall of a gallery.
“I have nowhere to go. I pay 600 yuan a month to the gallery and they let me sell my works on the street,” she said.
Earlier this year, Yang could earn between 100 and 200 yuan from her dealer for each work while her co-workers - low-skilled immigrants - made about 20 yuan working on two paintings simultaneously. The workers paint the same motif many times and churn out several copies in a day.
But now, both original artists and immigrant workers on reproduction assembly lines in Dafen are losing their jobs.
“Many co-workers have gone back to their hometowns for the coming Lunar New Year. I’m staying as I want to have a try at my street business,” Yang said.
“I have run the stall for a week and sold just one work for 300 yuan. So far the income is not even enough to pay rent for the wall. I may have to leave Dafen to go to Beijing. I don’t want to leave Dafen but it’s too export- oriented. No business is no business.
“I don’t know when the bad times will be over. This year has been really hard on Dafen.”
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Picture looking grim for Shenzhen artists’ village
He Huifeng
14 December 2008
The world’s leading centre for mass-produced works of art, a mainland village once famed for its reproductions of famous masterpieces, is now picturing a gloomy future amid the global financial meltdown.
Dafen in Shenzhen has been the world’s biggest artist colony, producing high-quality reproductions for export, since the 1990s.
At its peak, between 2006 and early last year, its art factories exported paintings worth 500 million yuan (HK$567 million) annually. An estimated 60 per cent of the world’s cheap oil paintings were sourced from the tiny and once quiet village.
But Dafen’s mainstay industry has taken a substantial hit this year. Exports of oil paintings have fallen by at least a third and some dealers have reported a 70 per cent drop in sales since September.
Huang Tong, head of the Huang Jiang Oil Painting Company, which opened 19 years ago, said it was the worst decline the village’s art factories had seen.
“In the past, each European or American client would order several container loads of paintings during the December peak season,” he said.
Now it’s not easy to deliver even a full container. Dafen sent a team to the Canton Fair last month and returned without even one order, compared to “our usual haul of tens of millions of yuan”, he said.
“Many artists have cut their prices by 30 per cent but there are still few buyers.”
Zhou Xiaohong , deputy head of the Art Industry Association of Dafen, said global demand for the village’s oil paintings had declined since the subprime mortgage crisis began.
“American property owners and hotels were usually the biggest consumers of Dafen’s works. The more houses built in the United States, the more walls that needed our paintings,” he said. “Now, our business has frozen following the crash of the western property market.”
Domestic demand had also dropped sharply, gallery owner Gu Feng said. “I usually sell three or four works in one afternoon. This week - nothing.
“My old clients who run a hotel told me their hotel also had no business. They had neither the budget nor the mood to decorate their rooms.”
As big dealers such as Mr. Huang and Mr. Zhou struggle against the financial meltdown, many painters are putting down their brushes and leaving Dafen.
“This is the worst time I have ever seen,” said Yang Lihui , who has painted for an export dealer in the village for years.
“The boss closed the workroom and laid off all eight artists, including me, last month since we have had no orders for four months.”
The artist, now in her 40s, has had to scrape a living as a street painter since the layoff. She paints pictures of flowers and landscapes, and sells them from the external wall of a gallery.
“I have nowhere to go. I pay 600 yuan a month to the gallery and they let me sell my works on the street,” she said.
Earlier this year, Yang could earn between 100 and 200 yuan from her dealer for each work while her co-workers - low-skilled immigrants - made about 20 yuan working on two paintings simultaneously. The workers paint the same motif many times and churn out several copies in a day.
But now, both original artists and immigrant workers on reproduction assembly lines in Dafen are losing their jobs.
“Many co-workers have gone back to their hometowns for the coming Lunar New Year. I’m staying as I want to have a try at my street business,” Yang said.
“I have run the stall for a week and sold just one work for 300 yuan. So far the income is not even enough to pay rent for the wall. I may have to leave Dafen to go to Beijing. I don’t want to leave Dafen but it’s too export- oriented. No business is no business.
“I don’t know when the bad times will be over. This year has been really hard on Dafen.”
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