2009 - MICHIGAN ORIENTAL ART SOCIETY - Our 38th Year
SUNDAY, September 6, 2009 • 1:30 pm
SITE: St. Johns Hospital – Oakland: Education Center
27351 Dequindre Rd; Madison Heights
North of 11 Mile Rd (across from Target store)
Conveniently located North of I-696 and East of I-75
Meeting Information: Patricia Beer @ 586-558- 9767
Interactive Audience Participation Program
The Chinese & Japanese Art Market: Past, Present and Future
Presented by: Stuart and Barbara Hilbert - The Jade Dragon Antiques
The theme of the Hilbert’s presentation will be an update on all things concerning Chinese and Japanese antiques: what is in, what is not, what has risen in price, what has dropped; a summary of where that market has been and where it is going.
The Chinese as a nation are avidly seeking to reclaim their treasures and what the future most likely holds in this arena given the great shortage of excellent art material. Major auction house sales around the globe will be compared and who is buying what, where and at what price.
Stu will briefly explore the collecting interests of collectors of Chinese works of art both domestically and abroad, and whether a “bubble” exists in Chinese antiques. What does the future hold? Present trends in modern Japanese and Chinese art.
The market for Japanese antiques will be assessed and a summary of where that market has been and where it is going.
Barbara will address the genuine versus fake and whether deliberate fakes have hurt the present art market. It is important for a collector to be aware of the different areas in both Chinese and Japanese art that have been heavily reproduced, and in many cases, deliberately faked. Different buying venues will be discussed in this respect. The effect of these very skillful reproductions and deliberate fakes and their various effects of the art and antique markets will be briefly examined.
After their presentations Stu and Barb will entertain questions related to the topic from the audience, so please come ready with questions to pose.
Both Stu and Barb began their careers in the 60’s as educators in California, coincidently both had a strong interest in Asia where they sought teaching positions eventually ended -
- up at the same school in Tainan, Taiwan. An artist and teacher, Mr. Dong, played cupid, they met, fell in love and got married in a Chinese ceremony in a town that mostly spoke Japanese. They traveled extensively throughout Asia while working in Taiwan and began earnestly collecting jade, porcelain, and other scholar’s objects. Time passed quickly and life so exciting that forgotten were their main goals were in life. Moving to England, Stu enrolled in Cambridge’s Asian Studies program, which ended up being a very challenging and wonderful experience (see Bio on back). Barbara accepted a teaching position near Cambridge, providing them with the necessary income for Stu to continue his studies.
In 1977 Barb and Stu moved to Ann Arbor . Stu enrolled in the Political Science Ph.D. program at the U of M with an emphasis on Chinese politics, and Barbara enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Education with an emphasis on China, both had one-half teaching appointments at the time. Their new business, The Jade Dragon, and their daughter Lianne were both born in 1983. Throughout the years, many of us enjoyed visiting their booth at the Southfield shows, finding irresistible treasures to bring home and are sorry they no longer exhibit at this venue.
After the meeting: Members are invited to join Barb and Stu Hilbert for conversation and dinner at Mongolian Chinese Buffet. American, Chinese and Japanese selections are available dim sum, sushi, a grill where you choose your ingredients, plus they cook individual take home dinners to order. Mongolian Buffet is less than a mile from the site where we meet on the northeast corner of 12 mile road.
Members and visitors are invited to bring Chinese and Japanese artifacts for display and sharing.
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SYNOPSIS: Asian Art Market Presentation by Stuart and Barbara Hilbert at the Michigan Oriental Art Society meeting September 2009
Stu contrasted Western (Europe & the United States) collecting interests with Eastern (domestic Chinese & Japanese)collecting interests. For example, in the West, early Chinese burial jades are avidly collected whereas in the East, few collect them...they collect later jades from the Ming & Qing Dynasties. In Japanese art, the West avidly collects inro, netsuke, ojime and other forms of domestic Japanese art, whereas the Japanese consider them mostly utilitarian items and do not generally collect them. It then becomes clear that what is "hot" in China is quite different generally from what the West generally collects, and the same may be said for the Japanese collector--who avidly collects Korean and Chinese art. It was suggested that the major auction houses are great sources for the best in both Chinese and Japanese art. Today, however, many collectors are talking about "bubbles" in the art field....for example, modern Chinese art has dropped in the last few years by at least 30/35%, whereas Japanese art hit a bubble about a decade ago. In sum, the domestic Chinese and the Chinese diasporas* are presently driving the Asian art markets--and collecting areas such as mark and period Chinese porcelains and 18th century Qianlong jades have soared in price.
Barbara discussed the flip side of these rising values, the increase in exceptionally clever fakes. Creating a fake that could fool even the sophisticated collector, dealer, or curator becomes possible if no expense needs to be spared. Materials that mimic original substances can be used or can be transformed by technological advances. Expert craftsmen with deep knowledge of the wares of earlier periods can be employed. These fakes are not limited to Chinese antiques. Japanese reproductions that would fool the uninitiated also exist as do copies of Western antiques. Because of the number of clever fakes on the market, provenance has become increasingly important. Many Chinese buyers prefer to buy from trusted Western dealers and the value of Chinese antiques from known collections has shot up in
value.
*A diaspora (in Greek, διασπορά – "a scattering [of seeds]")
is any movement of a population sharing common national
and/or ethnic identity. While refugees may or may not ultimately
settle in a new geographic location, the term diaspora refers
to a permanently displaced and relocated collective.
