Christie’s Education is delighted to announce our first international academic conference in Asia which will take place in Hong Kong from 26-27 November 2020 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and will run in parallel with Christie’s Hong Kong Autumn Auctions.
This conference will be the third in our International Art & the Market Series, which launched in 2016 in London with Creating Markets, Collecting Art, followed in 2018 in New York by Celebrating Female Agency in the Arts
The conference will explore the global impact of the Chinese art ecosystem from both historical and current perspectives.
With this call for sessions, we welcome proposals coming from a wide range of disciplines which consider China’s contribution to the arts from a transnational and trans-historical perspective. We encourage sessions dealing with issues of cultural exchange, artistic cross-fertilization and appropriation, the circulation of works of art, collecting networks and the economics of taste and value, as well as today’s art market.
The conference will take place over two days, with a dinner for session chairs and speakers on the first evening.
Proposals are invited for Academic Sessions
Sessions should engage with current scholarship on any aspect of the Chinese art market. Session proposals may address the following topics, arranged under four broad themes:
Collecting in Asia and Beyond
• Taste and collecting inside China: the historic tradition
• China and Japan: early cross-cultural exchanges and collecting trends
• The development of Chinese art collections outside China
• The development of collecting societies roles: networks and influence
• The resurgence of collecting in China since 1990: impact on changing tastes and values
• Taste and collecting trends in China today
Artistic Developments in China and the Exchange of Artistic Traditions
• The Silk Road and beyond: the dissemination of Chinese arts along China’s international trade routes
• Art for Export: Chinese influence on European art and design
• Beijing and Shanghai in the first half of the 20th century: influence of Western art and design movements
• The Chinese artistic diasporas and their experience of the Western art scene
• Current trends in demand for Western art in China and its future direction
The Art Market
• The role of Chinese and European dealers in market development, and their international networks
• Chinese art at auction outside China: global variations, impact and market influence
• The market for art produced during 1950-1980
• Trading and collecting modern and contemporary Chinese fine and decorative arts in the Literati tradition
• The growth of Chinese Auction Houses and their impact
• New trading platforms and technologies and their use in the Chinese art market today
• Public exhibition and display outside China: the role of museums in defining taste and appreciation
• The role of world fairs in promoting Chinese works of art to the wider public in the 19th & 20th centuries
• The rise of the private museum in China: new approaches and acquisition strategies
Deadline for Session Proposals
We encourage academics across disciplines and art professionals to submit proposals for individual sessions. Each session will be either 115 minutes (4 x 20 minute papers) or 90 minutes (3 x 20 minute papers) in length.
Sessions may be complete with paper titles and speakers specified, or may be sessions which require a call for papers. You may also propose a panel or discussion session.
Session proposals should include, in English or Chinese (accompanied with English), a title and an abstract, maximum 300 words, the name and contact details of the convenor, and a brief CV (max two pages) of the convenor. Please submit a session proposal by October 15th, 2019, via this link.
Dr Véronique Chagnon-Burke
Academic Director, Christie’s Education New York
Dr Cecily Hennessy
Academic Director, Christie’s Education London
Sara Mao
Director of Christie’s Education Asia