Spiegel Online has published an article by Martin Paetsch, entitled "CHINA'S ART FACTORIES - Van Gogh From the Sweatshop". The article focused on China's southern city Dafen, "Dafen has become the leading production center for cheap oil paintings. An estimated 60 percent of the world's cheap oil paintings are produced within Dafen's four square kilometers (1.5 square miles). Last year, the local art factories exported paintings worth $36 million. Foreign art dealers travel to the factory in the south of the communist country from as far away as Europe and the United States, ordering copies of famous paintings by the container." An article worths reading. Thanks to Joerg Colberg of Conscientious for mentioning the article.
1 comment:
It's probably a reasonable shorthand to call Dafen a sweatshop, but it's really a dense series of tiny individual shops, each with it's own artist or artists working in their own personal styles.
It's far from the mental image of factory workers chained to tables on huge shop floors. The reality is far far more organic and natural than that.
The work varies from pretty pedestrian, to extraordinary. Honestly the culture of the village can be pretty amazing, artists and all of the necessary shops and services that they require create a pretty amazing, and very unique environment.
Look into the Vanke experience center at the Shanghai Expo to see the Dafen Lisa, a mona lisa made of the collective works of hundreds of Dafen artists.
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