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| Shiro Kuramata's 1989 Miss Blanche chair |
Whether collecting for pleasure or investment, modern and contemporary Asian design has not received much attention to date, but this could soon change once M+, Hong Kong’s new visual culture museum, opens at the end of 2020.
“I think it’s probably inevitable that once M+ opens and
more people see design displayed in a museum that it will spark greater
interest,” says Aric Chen, a consulting Curator-at-Large for the museum.
“That’s actually not very good for us [museums] as prices
will start to rise,” he notes with a laugh, “but hopefully it will also create
new patrons.”
Formerly a Lead Curator at the museum, Chen spent six years
building its design and architecture collection from scratch, focussing on 20th
century Asian design, and acquiring several thousand objects and archival
materials.
“The vast majority of the collection is historical, because
part of what we’ve been trying to do is to help create historical narratives of
design in Asia, when there really isn’t another dedicated museum of this kind
in the region. Designers in Europe and North America have had the advantage of
knowing and seeing design history and then as a result, are able to expand upon
that in their own work. Asian designers haven’t had that opportunity so much,”
Chen says.
Chen roughly estimates that contemporary work so far
only represents around 10% of the M+ design collection, but is well diversified
with pieces by Nendo (Japan), Zhang Zhoujie, (China), Li Naihan (China), Gunjan
Gupta (India), Hans Tan (Singapore) and Lanzavecchia + Wai (Singapore), to name
a few. “Though the collection is now very substantial, it is still growing
all the time,” Chen notes.
“It’s not fusion, it’s not east-meets-west, but more of a
transformation. It’s taking something they’ve learned abroad and giving it
Chinese characteristics,” he adds half-jokingly, “which turns it into something
else.”
Meanwhile, he notes Japanese design often exhibits a “deep,
polite restraint.”
Now based in Shanghai, the Chicago-born curator says the
development of a full eco-system has yet to be completed for Asia
design and this is one reason it has been slow to appear on the radar
of collectors.
“In some ways, collectible design is extremely new and
emerging in the region, but at the same time, it’s also been around forever.
Historically, there was not so much distinction between fine arts and
decorative arts in Asia, at least in terms of how they were defined in the
West. Here a vase or a screen was seen as a work of art, while in Europe it
would have been seen as a piece of ‘decorative’ art, so in that sense, ‘
collectible design’ has incredibly deep roots in our region,” he notes.
But Chen also says that while there are highly desirable
design works produced in the 20th century, “all the dots have yet to be
connected” to make them collectible: “We still need a stronger infrastructure
including academics, curators, galleries, museums, fairs, and media to bring it
all together in Asia, and it’s still early days.”
Pointing out that historically, the design market has always
lagged behind the art market, Chen notes this has been true in Asia too.
“If you think about the contemporary art landscape in China, say, 20 years ago,
it looked vastly different. Suddenly some people started to make a lot of money
on contemporary art and others started to jump in the game. Some of it was
speculative, but there was also a rise in appreciation, and you began to see
more museums, galleries, and growing support for nonprofit spaces. With design,
we’re still maybe 10 years behind the art world. But anecdotally, I think the
market is there, it’s just a matter of someone with the wherewithal to take the
first step, to create a high profile platform and dig in for the long haul in
order to build an anchor point for the eco-system,” he says, and referring to
the founding director of Art HK (and more recently the Taipei Dangdai art fair)
Chen adds, “when you think of Art HK, it took years of struggling and building
up slowly before Art Basel acquired the fair and took it forward. We still
don’t have a Magnus Renfrew yet in design.”
Chen believes the ‘market’, which he feels is most likely a
design fair, will need to lead the push, to help create interest not only in
the content, but also “in the field as a discursive and academic subject.” As
it happens, Chen, who in his current, consulting role at M+ no longer makes
acquisitions for the museum, has taken on a stint for Design Miami/ as its 2019
Curatorial Director, a newly-created, one-year position overseeing curated
content, commissions, and collaborations for both editions of the collectable
design showcase, at Basel and Miami Beach. “It’s another way of contributing to
the discussion,” he says.
The collectability of Asian design has started to prove
itself at auction. Japanese designer Shiro Kuramata's 1989 Miss Blanche chair
sold for £269,000 during the 20th Century Design auction at Sotheby's London in
2015. And further encouraging signs, though limited, are evident. Christie’s
organised an auction of Chinese contemporary Design in Shanghai in 2014, which
was sold out, and it followed with a small auction of 35 lots dedicated to
Chinese and Asian Contemporary design in Hong Kong in 2015. However, while it
has not organised other auctions in the field, Phillips offered design last
November as part of its Day Sale of contemporary art with several pieces
by Gio Ponti and Hans J Wegner, amongst others.
A few commercial galleries have also starting to create the
right eco-system, Chen notes, pointing to the Los Angeles and Beijing-based
Gallery ALL, which has been participating in Design Miami/ since 2015 and this
year is bringing works by Zhipeng Tan, including the 33 Step Chair, which is
shaped like an inverted human spine.
Also at Design Miami/ this year, the New York-based Erik
Thomsen Gallery will present rare, nineteenth and early twentieth-century
Japanese and Chinese baskets made by the pioneers of bamboo art and design from
Iizuka Rokansai to Waichisai Wada III.
While he admits there is still only a small representation
of Asian designers at Design Miami/ in Basel this year, Chen is optimistic that
more will be on view in December. “We’re having some interesting conversations,
and I’m quite hopeful,” he says.
AS FIRST PUBLISHED IN PRESTIGE MAGAZINE June edition
AS FIRST PUBLISHED IN PRESTIGE MAGAZINE June edition