The news that the well-known collector Zhou Dawei unveiled in Beijing with 25 million "coin kings" on May 23 attracted a lot of attention, and not long ago, on May 11, he just donated to the Pompidou Center for Contemporary Art in France the "Group - (4 Knife Combination)" produced by Chinese contemporary artist Xu Zhen Wuding Company, which reflects a Zhou Dawei outside of our common sense.
Famous collector Zhou Dawei
The "Coin King" opens the collection avenue
We are familiar with Zhou Dawei's collection of contemporary art and old oil paintings, in fact, the coin collection is the real beginning of Zhou Dawei's collection, when it comes to coin collection, I have to say that The Chinese mechanism coin king "Fengtian Deco one or two", Zhou Dawei's collection has a deep relationship with this coin.
This legendary silver coin ranks first among The Dragon and Silver Treasures of China, and is the product of the famous "Round and Two Dispute" coin system debate in China's modern monetary history. For many years, the conservative forces advocating the formulation of "two" as silver denomination units had temporarily prevailed, so between the 29th and 34th years of Guangxu, both the central and local governments carried out trial production of "two systems" of gold and silver coins.
In the same period, the war was settled, a hundred wastes were waiting to be lifted, the merchants' vitality was not restored, and the silver and money in the market were all lacking, and the fengtian provincial authorities believed that the currency system was chaotic to be sorted out, so the Shengjing general Zengqi separated the mint from the machine bureau and set up a separate Fengtian Silver Dollar General Bureau. Therefore, it is speculated that "Fengtian Decoction One or Two" was made on a trial basis by the Fengtian General Bureau of Silver Dollars under the circumstance that both the central and local governments were brewing currency measures.
So far, only one piece has been found, as a heirloom orphan, once it was born, it attracted a lot of attention, including Zhou Dawei, specifically when to start collecting coins, Zhou Dawei can directly trace back to his childhood, since then there has been intermittent collection, of course, with the continuous progress of its collection, he knows the coin king of the numismatic world", "Fengtian Decoction One or two", from the day he knew it, he has always wanted to get this coin.
Because of the preciousness of this coin, it will only appear once every twenty years, so it is very difficult to see it, let alone have it, but the opportunity appeared inadvertently, in 2010, Taiwanese collector Zhang Xiuqing due to physical reasons, want to find the "coin king" of the people, because the collection of coins before and Zhang Xiuqing had intersected Zhou Dawei after learning the news, the first time rushed to Taiwan to communicate with Zhang Xiuqing, and finally in 2011 at a price of 25 million yuan to take this "coin king" back to the mainland.
The opposite of "Fengtian 癸卯一二"
For this coin, Zhou Dawei did a lot of desk work, such as its inheritance, Zhou Dawei said that it is like a number of family treasures, according to him, the earliest record of this coin was China's participation in the 1904 World Exposition held in St. Louisiana, Missouri, the United States, the "Chinese Exhibitor Catalog", after which the collector Geng Ed spared no effort to pursue this coin, until October 1950, from Hong Kong to get a clear rubbing and pay 2000 US dollars according to the seller's request price, and then included in the collection. After Geng Ed's death, the remains were auctioned in batches, the first one was held in June 1971, when the transaction price of "Fengtian Decoy One or Two" was 3,000 US dollars, and 20 years later, in the "Goodman Chinese Coin Collection" in California in June 1991, Mr. Zhang Xiuqing, a Taiwanese collector at Taipei Hongxi Art Museum, bought it for 187,000 US dollars, which refreshed the Chinese coin auction record, and has been hidden in Taipei Hongxi Art Museum and rarely appeared in the public eye since then.
About the auction in 1991, there is also a small episode, according to Chen Jimao, chairman of Dingfeng Auction, at that time, the psychological price of auctioning them was 60,000 US dollars, because the international price of Chinese coins was up to 30,000 US dollars before, but Chen Jimao heard from other places that someone wanted to collect this coin for 160,000 US dollars, at that time he communicated with Zhang Xiuqing, and finally bid with determination regardless of cost, the price we see now is 187,000 US dollars. Chen Jimao introduced that if there were still collectors entering the market at that time, the final auction price of this dragon silver would exceed 500,000 US dollars. This special session reversed the pattern of low transaction prices of Chinese coins in the world.
Zhou Dawei's collection once again refreshed the price of this coin, for this process, Zhou Dawei said: "Anyone who collects coins knows that the 'coin king' is' Fengtian 癸卯一二', I grew up dreaming of which day to have it, we know that it broke the coin record in 91 years, brought back to the Chinese from the United States by Mr. Zhang, the founder of Taiwan's Hongxi Art Museum, this is a pioneering achievement, I began to collect art, there was contact with Mr. Zhang's family, when I learned that Mr. Zhang was looking for this coin in 10 years, I was lucky to take this coin over. ”
For the collection of coins, Zhou Dawei is also very systematic, his focus is mainly concentrated in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China period mechanism coins, that is, China from the imperial era to the new China this stage of the mechanism coin, for the collection of Zhou Dawei said: "Coins are systematic, any collection to the end must be professionalized and systematic, so that there is a possibility to promote its culture, my coin collection system is mainly concentrated in modern China's mechanism coins, that is, the early Days of the Republic of China at the end of the Qing Dynasty." ”
"Fengtian 癸卯一二" obverse
As for why only the mechanism coin is concerned, Zhou Dawei said: "Ancient Chinese money is square hole or round hole, mechanism coin is an overseas imported product, its arrival with a certain degree of aggression, of course, is also a witness to china and foreign exchanges, mechanism coin appeared in a large number of mid-Qing and late Qing, especially in the late Qing Dynasty began to make their own silver dollars, in a sense this is also the beginning of China's modernization." ”
Coins in foreign countries have always been a very important collection, more known as the imperial collection, China in the coin collection of the Republic of China has a number of important collectors, and then there was a fault until after the reform and opening up gradually flourished, but the scale is not large, in Zhou Dawei's view of such a reason for people's understanding is not enough: "Many people do not realize the importance of coins, I think its value will be discovered in the future, in the United States there have been many coins with a price of five million dollars or even ten million dollars, Not long ago, Sotheby's just auctioned an important collection in the United States, and for the next six years, the market valuation of coins auctioned at $300 million is 300 million US dollars, and under such influence, Chinese coins I think will get better and better. ”
Regarding the collection of coins, Zhou Dawei is most concerned with the historical and cultural significance of coins. In the days to come, he will hold many activities to show this "coin king", so that its cultural value and historical significance will be disseminated in a larger scope: "I think more from a cultural point of view, and then I will discover more like me to do art, be friends of the expo, promote the cultural and historical significance of coins, so that more people can contact and understand that coins are not only a collection of investment, but also a collection of great cultural value and exploration." ”
Philatelic philatelic coin collections to art-historical collections
The collection of coins allows us to see the different side of Zhou Dawei, in fact, in addition to the collection of coins, Zhou Dawei also has a collection of stamps and ancient books, which are related to his childhood experience. About the beginning of the collection, Zhou Dawei told an interesting experience in his childhood, he recalled that when he was five or six years old, he had already begun the road of collecting, there was a stamp collection fever in China in the nineties, Zhou Dawei was also a member of the army of thousands of collections, although he was very young at that time, but it did not affect his judgment, he chose monkey tickets as the focus of his collection, and then the market proved that his vision was correct, because the monkey ticket rose from 200 to 2000 in a year's time. It doubled tenfold, which had a strong impact on the young Zhou Dawei, who joked: "People like me who love to make money, love to collect, and love culture have been greatly impacted." ”
Zhou Dawei Collection Wu Dayu Untitled Oil on canvas 53x38cm
It is also this experience that makes Zhou Dawei get closer and closer to the collection in the subsequent life path.
Perhaps due to the lingering influences of childhood, Zhou Dawei studied art history when he was in college, which greatly helped him in his subsequent collection path. We can now look at Zhou Dawei's collection context and find that in the field of old oil painting, his thinking is very clear, that is, from Wu Dayu to Wu Guanzhong to Zao Wou-ki, Zhu Dequn, etc. For this, Zhou Dawei said that this is mainly due to the study of art history.
According to Zhou Dawei, during his university studies, he was very fortunate to be able to follow the famous sinologist, gao Juhan, a scholar who has in-depth research on Chinese Yuanming painting, and his graduation thesis is also about Song and Yuan paintings, but unfortunately, it is rare to see Zhou Dawei collect traditional calligraphy and paintings, and Zhou Dawei's explanation for this is: "There are too many fakes, his eyesight is not so good, the real works are over 10 million, over 100 million, it is difficult to have a collection system, this museum has done a very good job, So as a kind of research and interest. ”
Zhou Dawei Collection Zao Wou-Ki Untitled Oil on canvas 60x81cm
For the plot of art history, Zhou Dawei told: "I myself am from a science class, studying art history, since 2003 collection, the earliest concern is related to art history of the academy oil painting, and then slowly transferred to contemporary art, now mainly based on contemporary art and old oil painting two clues, most of which focus on contemporary art, I now collect everything is based on its cultural value as the core." ”
Construct a new type of international artistic interactive relationship with Tibet and Tibet
In addition to the collection of old oil paintings, Zhou Dawei's collection focuses on the field of contemporary art, which is also the place where he has devoted the most efforts at present, we know that he funded galleries and artists, opened contemporary art fairs, and collected many works by contemporary artists, such as Xu Zhen, Liu Wei, Yang Fudong, and then artists like Chu Yun, Zheng Guogu, Yan Xing, Chen Wei, Chen Ran, Huang Ran and so on: "I also collect a lot of their works. From the post-89s artists, I basically have a more comprehensive collection, including classics and new works, and I continue to buy them. I pay more attention to the work itself, and what position the work occupies in the artist's creative trajectory. For artists who have been following for a long time, I pay more attention to the systematization of them. ”
In terms of institutions, Zhou Dawei also has his own watch list: "There are several galleries whose artists I pay more attention to. Including the institutions I support myself, such as Antenna Space, leo xu project, galleries that focus on young artists, such as blank space, and of course big-name institutions, vitamin art space, ShanghART gallery, Long March space, their artists I also have a continuous attention. Foreign institutions such as the Tate, the Centre de Pompidou, etc., are also his focus. Zhou Dawei's current collection is not limited to China, he also has his eyes on the United States, Europe and even some countries in Southeast Asia.
Chow Tai Wei's "Group- (4 Knives Combination)" by Xu Zhen, produced by Wuding Company, donated to the Pompidou Center for Contemporary Art
In addition to the collection of contemporary art, he is still doing a very meaningful thing is to push Chinese contemporary art out, not long ago, on May 11, he donated to the Center for Contemporary Art Pompidou in France Xu Zhen Wuding Company's "Group - (4 Knives Combination)", this donation allows us to see a new possibility, because this donation has opened up a new model for us to communicate and interact with Western museums, which will be the "Venice model". After the Basel model, a new attempt, we will only show the above two models, and this new model can allow Chinese contemporary art and artists to participate in the core of the Western art system.
Collector Zhou Dawei (right) poses for a group photo in front of Xu Zhen's work at the donation site of the Centre Pompidou for Contemporary Art
For this donation, Zhou Dawei said: "I will go to see what the entire art ecology needs, what China's art ecology needs, then I will do it, especially in areas where no one has yet done it." Just as this donation of Chinese art works entered the Centre Pompidou."
Zhou Dawei's generation of collectors does not seem to be content with just collecting, they prefer to fully integrate into the process of art development, to promote the development of art and the establishment of art ecology, which can be seen from his funding of galleries, opening art fairs, in-depth participation in the construction of the art primary market, in addition to the establishment of the cc art foundation, which is a very international way of art operation.
Zheng Guogu's work "My Teacher and Me" collected by Zhou Dawei
Although there are such thoughts and specific actions, Zhou Dawei said that he still wants to treat himself as a collector, and he is pure love for collecting, and he uses "terminal illness" to describe this love. Collecting as for Zhou Dawei means: "Let the boring life have a little more fun, collecting has experienced a lot, there are excitements, pains, setbacks, there are constant pursuit of new collection goals, my life is very rich." ”
In the face of some doubts, Zhou Dawei seemed very indifferent, in his view: "Everything I am doing now is needed for contemporary art, I do a lot of projects and do not make money, but there is its necessity, there is its ecological necessity, everyone must strive to build this ecology well, this is the core." ”
In the days to come, Zhou Dawei will focus on building his own contemporary art collection, and a little further afield, he hopes that his work will enable Chinese contemporary art and global contemporary art to move forward.
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