Tread carefully in Chinese art market, experts say (Reuters)

SINGAPORE (Reuters) ? Investors should not indiscriminately buy pieces by popular contemporary Chinese artists since commercial success has made some complacent and later paintings and sculpture may lack the originality of earlier work, art advisers warn.

Asia's wealthy have showed increased interest in art in recent years, pushing up prices and sparking concerns of a bubble -- particularly in the market for contemporary Chinese art as the country rises as an economic and political power.

In Hong Kong, auction market turnover skyrocketed 300 percent from 2009 to 2010. Citigroup estimates that Chinese buyers accounted for 23 percent of the $61 billion in global art sales last year.

Some collectors like to think values will continue to rise due to limited supply and continued strong demand as Asian collectors become more affluent, but not all pieces will necessarily do well, experts said.

"You can be buying the right name and the wrong pieces, and your collection is not going to increase in value," said Suzanne Gyorgy, a director at Citi Private Bank Art Advisory and Finance, who advises wealthy clients about their collections.

For example, a 1994 portrait by Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang from his Bloodline series -- stylized portraits of imaginary Chinese families with piercing eyes -- sold for $8.4 million last year at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong, but a 2005 piece by the same artist fetched just $1.2 million at a Christie's event.

"The work they (the artists) are doing now is really just kind of miming the original work," Gyorgy added.

Part of the reason is artist wariness about trying new things for fear their income may take a hit.

"Some established artists are reluctant to go into experimental mode because they can easily sell what they produce," said Gil Schneider, managing director at consultancy firm ArtComplete.

Lorenzo Rudolf, the organizer of the annual Art Stage exhibition in Singapore, said that while the loss of originality is a genuine concern, collectors should not worry about works done with the help of many assistants.

What is important is that the artist remains creative, he said, noting that Andy Warhol employed a large number of artists to produce the pop art that bears his name.

OLD MASTERS, IMPRESSIONISTS

Schneider, previously with Sotheby's, said the Chinese contemporary art market has been overheated for the past five or six years and collectors might want to look at works by artists from countries such as the Philippines and Thailand instead.

Others agreed that investors might well want to look elsewhere for the best value.

Citi's Gyorgy said Impressionist and Old Master paintings are now more attractively priced compared with contemporary art.

"Those markets have been somewhat less popular so as a result, you can get wonderful, wonderful works of art for relatively, not that much money," she said.

"Look at highs of the contemporary market where the American painter Clyfford Still just had a painting that sold for $61 million... A recently discovered Velazquez painting came to market and sold for $4 to $4.5 million."

But many serious art collectors will stick to contemporary art, despite the investment risk, because they find works by artists who are still alive more relevant to their times.

"Art which has a certain age is established. It has gone through several stages of selection... Everybody wants to find fresh, new faces," Art Stage's Rudolf said.

(Editing by Elaine Lies and Yoko Nishikawa)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/arts/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120116/stage_nm/us_singapore_art

barkley beltran space ball jim mora the weeknd echoes of silence gio gonzalez san francisco fire