Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

The Other Ai, Embraced By China’s Elite

October 15, 2013 by Marion Maneker

Ai-Xuan4

Artprice’s list of top Contemporary artists includes a famous Chinese painter named Ai at number 15 with nearly €10m in auction sales. It’s just not Ai Weiwei, the dissident artist who commands so much respect in the West. This Ai is Ai Xuan, Weiwei’s older half-brother who is an oil painter who sticks to traditional subject matter. Recently he began working in ink which greatly increased his output:

The artist’s work is sought after by China’s wealthy and powerful. Filmmaker Feng Xiaogang, China’s “box-office king,” owns several of his paintings, according to a representative of the director.

Yet Mr. Ai’s works rarely translate outside of China today. Beryl Chan, an independent art adviser based in Hong Kong, describes them as “very traditional, academic and… repetitive” in terms of subject matter.

While his sibling Ai Weiwei’s conceptual, politically rooted works resonate internationally, the older Mr. Ai’s realist, technically meticulous precise oil paintings are seen as outdated in Western contemporary art circles.

“It’s not Western collectors’ taste,” Ms. Chan noted.

Born to different mothers, the artists are both sons of the poet Ai Qing, who was persecuted and banished to do labor in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Although the brothers live just minutes apart in Beijing, the last time they had a conversation was in 1996, as their father was dying.

“We are very different, have had different paths and don’t have much in common,” the older artist said of his relationship with his younger brother. “We didn’t grow up together.”

Meet Ai Weiwei’s Artist Brother (SceneAsia/Wall Street Journal)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Prince of RiptidesPrince of Riptides
  • Flashy Venice Biennale Artists AnnouncedFlashy Venice Biennale Artists Announced
  • Bloomberg Warns of C-Suite Pressure on Sotheby’sBloomberg Warns of C-Suite Pressure on Sotheby’s
  • TEFAF Sales Against Fewer LookersTEFAF Sales Against Fewer Lookers
  • The Painting DetectiveThe Painting Detective
  • Abstraction Traction Pulls Ellsworth Kelly Back into LimelightAbstraction Traction Pulls Ellsworth Kelly Back into Limelight

Filed Under: Artists

About Marion Maneker

LiveArt

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor
 

Loading Comments...