"Nice to See You Again" Yoshitomo Nara Image source / Sotheby's
Kaws' painting The KAWS Album, inspired by The Simpsons, fetched HK$116 million
Constantly refurbished blind box explosive Molly image image picture source / Bubble Mart WeChat public account
Rabbit Stainless steel sculpture Jeff Koons
Takashi Murakami's sunflowers
《Pop Heart - Lovers Cuddle》 Mr Doodle
《Girl with Balloon》 Banksy ◎刘雨潇
Kaws dolls, Takashi Murakami's sunflowers, Bansky's graffiti, Kusama's polka dots, Kenny Wong's Molly... These have become important landscapes in urban life, and young people enjoy the fruits of trendy art tirelessly, highlighting their attitude and aesthetics. Trend art has also gradually entered the mainstream market from the status of subculture and has become a cultural phenomenon that cannot be ignored.
What exactly is "art on trend"? Why is it sought after by contemporary young people? What does it have to do with consumption? What value does it provide, and what crises does it hide?
All-round "invasion"
Since Marcel Duchamp put the urinal in the museum in 1917, the curtain of postmodern art has been slowly lifted. It breaks down the barriers between elite culture and mass culture, breaks the original cultural hierarchy order, blurs the boundaries between life and art, collage, appropriation, graffiti, copying, irony, mix-and-match, parody, behavior... The diversity of artistic creation methods brings people a new artistic experience and art appreciation model, and the close connection between consumer culture, popular culture and contemporary art is also unfolding. Consumers become important players in art, even producers of content.
Among them, the most typical representative is pop art (Pop Art), which has prevailed in Europe and the United States since the 1950s and 1960s, which mostly uses the ready-made products in daily life as raw materials, treats life itself as art, and advocates an art that is enjoyed by all, which can be participated in by everyone and easy for everyone to accept - the trend art we are talking about today is also born from this. Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein and others have entered art history as representatives of Pop Art, followed by Jeff Koons, Keith Haring, Murakami Takashi, and Murakami Takashi. Yayoi Kusama and others have also gained worldwide fame. They have all created highly recognizable IP images and have been very successful in the commercial market.
Another thing that injects a lot of nourishment into trend art is Street Art. Street art or street culture is not an art genre in the strict sense, but closer to a cultural phenomenon, formed in New York in the mid-to-late 20th century, is also the inheritance and development of pop art, initially in the form of graffiti, artists in the streets, subways, carriages to express their dissatisfaction, against authority, catharsis. Street art has injected more free and rebellious spirit into the current trend art, such as artist Banksy expressing anti-war and anti-consumerism ideas through mysterious street graffiti and bold and out-of-the-box behavior. Artist Mr Doodle liberates people from tense thinking through huge, interlaced patterns for a free, soothing, and relaxing immersive experience.
Trend artists have gained great recognition in both the auction market and the consumer market. Jeff Koons' controversial "Rabbit" sold for $91.075 million at Christie's New York auction house on May 15, 2019. Kaws' painting The KAWS Album, inspired by The Simpsons, fetched HK$116 million at Sotheby's Hong Kong Spring Auction in April 2019. In this area of co-branding with the brand, "Takashi Murakami x LV", "KAWS x Uniqlo", "Jeff Koons x Supreme", "Yayoi Kusama x LV"... The consumer market has also given a warm response, and huge wealth and attention have poured into the trend artists.
From paintings, sculptures, installations to performances, images, music, from dolls, costumes, bags to games, exhibitions, virtual interactions... The restrictions of space, region and media form have been completely broken, and trend art is "invading" and shaping contemporary urban life in all directions.
"Fun" is the most frequently cited reason
Snapping is the most direct way to get involved
While Local Chinese trends haven't yet achieved a reputation for KAWS dolls, Jeff Koons's balloon dogs, Murakami Takashi's Sunflowers, banksy's graffiti, there's still a lot of fresh stories to come by. Since the 1990s, with the development of the market economy, trend art has continued to take root in China, and after 2017, it has ushered in an outbreak, with various trend brands, trend exhibitions, and big IP appearing in a concentrated manner.
The Nanjing Trend Art Festival, which just ended in the autumn of 2021, invited big-name trend artists from all over the world to participate in the exhibition, and domestic artists include Shi Jinsong, Peng Lei, Zheng Yuanwu, Zhang Changjiang, Jia Haoran, Big Orange, etc., whose works include screen prints, multimedia installations, graffiti, collages, inflatable dolls and so on. Zheng Yuanwu brings his signature linear graffiti, retaining its usual simplicity and suppleness, rich in color and full of innocence. Peng Lei brings with him angry white eyes and dense fangs a small monster, expressing a witty ridicule of reality. The huge orange inflatable doll is placed outdoors, continuing the round and soft image, which is an enlarged version of cuteness. The form of "exhibition + market + talk + pop-up" also increases the playability of the trend art exhibition, and users of different occupations and ages come here to enjoy different ways of playing related to trend art.
In addition to artists, the 2021 Shanghai Trend Art Fair also invited the participation of academics, galleries, museums, pop-up shops and Douyin brands to try to define, understand and display "trend art" from more angles, including the large rabbit of domestic artist Zhang Zhanzhan, the durian bear of Daniel Zhang, and the green dog of Zhou Chunya. Many works have a certain academic value because they integrate into the artist's own thinking about society, but this does not mean that the works must be popular in the current Chinese market and form a trend among young people. Part of the more popular part of the Chinese market is the trend art that has gained great recognition from auction houses, and the other part is the "user-friendly" trend art that is closer to life, simple and happy and interactive.
The Shanghai Trend Toys Exhibition, which has been held for three consecutive years, directly focuses on the field of tide play, which is directly and closely related to the market, providing users with instant happiness and companionship. Large tide cards and niche designs of treasure can be found, including Kenny Wong's Molly, Long Jiasheng's Labubu, Biqi's PUCKY and Ayan's Dimo, among others. Tide play is an important part of the trend art, giving users the most direct companionship, in the hot tide play market, "fun" is the most often mentioned reason, snapping is the most direct way to participate.
The "Weird cute garden party" held in beijing's 798 art district is a representative of the current small trend art exhibition, 12 Chinese and foreign artists redefine "cute" through paintings, sculptures, installations, toys and other forms, and the funny, naughty, funny, funny and ugly images meet the "cute needs" of millennials. Exhibitions of similar scale are frequently staged in major cities, like condiments and gas stations for urban life.
Trend artists are best at making consumer symbols
From the perspective of the overall stage of artistic development, "trend art" is still within the scope of "pop art" in the form and expression of language, and has not innovated, and has been widely criticized for its weakness in thinking and close fit with the consumer market. However, as a cultural phenomenon that appears in the process of China's urbanization and modernization, trend art cannot be evaluated only from the perspective of contemporary art or aesthetics, because it truly reflects the living conditions and life ideals of contemporary Chinese young people, and undertakes the functions of group interaction, identity manifestation and self-expression.
The cleverness of painting or sculpture techniques has long ceased to matter, and trendy artists have created a striking IP and an interactive ecosystem with self-centeredness, and this discourse system has gradually broken the circle under the support of strong consumption power. Baudrillard pointed out that "consumer society is characterized by the denial of truth on the basis of an empty large number of consumption symbols". However, what trend artists are best at is to create powerful consumer symbols, give meaning to these symbols, and then capture mutually recognized peers in the circulation of the market. Unique symbols, IP with stories, strong replicability, highly recognizable visual images, pure color use, close group interaction... These are the wealth codes for trendy art to occupy the market.
Just as on the streets of Brooklyn, New York, in the last century, artists used tacit "code words" to reveal their identities, today's consumer society still continues such rules. Through social networking sites, trend artists cooperate with galleries and brands to strengthen the exposure of their works, creating an ideal picture of trend life and attracting fans and followers. Fans complete the self-identity through the use of symbols created by trendy artists, and participate in this group interactive game.
At present, the more popular social networks in China are the world-class trend artists. The typical representative is Kaws, whose iconic skull image reveals a cute and naughty, spoof but a little shy, which triggers a hipster hot spot. The celebrity social circle created by Kaws is undoubtedly a huge attraction for young consumers, bringing strong identity imagination and group identity.
While the trend culture gradually enters the public eye, the diversity and inclusiveness of the trend culture itself has prompted it to absorb the "subculture" respected by the more niche circles around the world, in order to renew its vitality and further strengthen the self-identity of this group. In many works, artist Du Qiurui uses typical elements of Beijing, integrates the image of small urban citizens, interprets urban life scenes, and uses cute hippie techniques to tell some serious themes. The designer of the brand Qinghe United, Chairman Rub, blends martial arts culture, PUNK culture and traditional elements, and the work has a strange sci-fi feel. Millennial-born artist Guo Yuheng absorbed the otaku culture and doll culture, using pink colors and intricate decorations to interpret the understanding of life and death, showing the anxiety and confusion of the post-00s generation.
The elements and connotations of trend culture are not static, from the expression of street culture by American artists to the understanding of japanese artists on two-dimensional culture, trend culture has been in the process of dynamic development, constantly absorbing new groups. The participation of subcultural groups can also allow trend art to obtain a delicate balance between the niche and the public, which can not only gain prestige in the market, but also maintain the uniqueness of the group and realize the expression of identity.
Does not arise in self-restraint
Just sinking in the catering market
Trend art, as well as the original pop art, has been inseparable from consumerism since its birth, embracing consumer culture with great enthusiasm and using the power of consumption to complete its own shaping and promotion. Therefore, the criticism of consumerism can almost be appropriated into the criticism of trend art, from commodity fetishism to the crisis of spiritual ecology, such as the sword of Damocles has been hanging above the trend art, how can trend art respond to this?
As an artistic phenomenon, trend art itself has its inherent cultural value and relatively clear laws of artistic creation and expression to achieve the constraint on art itself. For example, Takashi Murakami's "Sunflower" comes from thinking about the second dimension and the ultra-flat, Yoshitomo Nara's "child" reveals the loneliness and sensitivity of adult society, Jeff Koons's excavation of desire and voyeurism, Daniel Arsham examines the present life from the future time and space... These ideas of artistic creation can be completely borrowed. Banksy, one of the hottest trend artists of the moment, has gained more than 10 million followers at INS, and his most famous feat was to destroy the work through a paper shredder secretly installed in a picture frame when the work "Girl with Balloon" sold for more than 1 million pounds, and he said that "the desire to destroy is also a desire to create". It can be seen that such works are not weak, and can bring the audience another way of thinking and watching, and trend art can also be very tense.
Trend art realizes artistic creation through the excavation of different cultural elements, the insight into the psychology of contemporary young people, and the reflection on social reality. Trendy artists should always have higher requirements for themselves, because what they have to do is not to cater to the market and catch up with hot spots, but to use the power of the market to achieve self-expression - the personality of the artist will never fade.
Only self-discipline can be self-driven. Whether China's trend art is going up, into museums, auction houses, academic criticism circles, or going down, into the market, into the lives of young people, it needs to maintain a strong thinking about social reality, maintain its own aesthetic independence, make the works closely related to the real urban life, and respond to the dilemma of urban life with the trend of works. Once the trend art loses its inner self-restraint and strong self-examination, it can only become a market doll, the shouting of the empty head, and become childish and vulgar.
Unfortunately, the rebellion provided by the current Chinese trend art is always lacking some strength, closer to the cool and self-proclaimed of adolescents, as well as the search for resonance, trend art itself is difficult to undertake the heavy responsibility of transforming society, but it can indeed provide some paradise-like comfort for people living in the city, through the dazzling visual image, we can feel the embrace of happiness by these trend art players, the acceptance of exhaustion, the cynical attitude, bravery, openness, The sense of innovation and the innocence buried deep in our hearts – these are the things that can really impress the public, and are closely related to the daily life of our city.
In addition, the development of trend art may also require Chinese trend artists to carry out almost crazy self-marketing, just like the predecessors Picasso, Dali, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and others have done, to build themselves into a trend icon, to create a strong cultural symbol - behind this self-marketing, self-expression, itself also conveys the artist's strong desire for expression and vitality. After all, only artists with thinking and flaunting personalities can break through the barriers of circles and circles and walk to the front of the times.
So who will be the next trendy artist to shine?