Interview｜Art Patrons: Du Yan (collector)

2018/3

M: Introduce the work this time. Which piece did you choose? Why did you choose this work?
F: The work I brought here is the work of John Baldessari, an old grandfather who lives in Australia and is over 80 years old. I think the reason I like his works very much is that his works have some humor, which I think is very personal, because everyone’s point of humor is different, so the point of looking at other people’s works is also different, so I think everyone has a wide range of ideas.
M: Can you summarize the characteristics, interests or preferences of your personal collection?
F: My preference in my collection is now some contemporary female artists’ works, for example, a series of “Bourgeois”, sarah lucas, larah owen, Kusama, which has a personality and style very much like mine, because I am also a mother, I am also a woman with a family and children, so I can get the point of Bourgeois, which is my appearance. I may be a gentle mother or a gentle wife, but in essence, my heart is subverted, it needs to be subverted, my inner me wants to cry out. I think that’s what women are now, actually very tough, both in appearance and in behavior.

M: So when did you start collecting?
F: About five or six years ago.
M: When did you first decide that you wanted to collect works related to women?
F: I first started to collect and paid a lot of tuition fees, whether I was looking at Chinese contemporary art or Western contemporary art, I looked around, but then I had a baby for three years, so I was quiet for a while for those three years, and then after I gave birth I returned to the art circle and became active. After seeing their works, I can feel what they want to express, what they want to express, what they crave for attention and recognition, and I think this is indeed the reason why we need to pay more attention to female artists. In fact, I think we need to pay more attention to women artists, including post-war women artists, who are very good, but less attention is paid to them, like women photography artists, including cinie shellman, and barbery cooger, which are artists I like, their works are very strong feelings, very strong explosive power. (4min35)
M: You see this exhibition is very interesting, it actually has two layers, on the one hand, it is an exhibition of Chinese contemporary collectors, this exhibition is called Patrons of Art, and many of the collectors involved in the exhibition also have relationships with art institutions, there are some institutional patrons. In your opinion, what role does such a group of Chinese art collectors or art patrons play in the field of Chinese contemporary art?
F: I think Chinese collectors are becoming more and more recognized internationally, especially now that Chinese collectors are working very hard and actively participating in various exhibitions, visiting artists’ studios and communicating with artists and galleries, which is a learning process. Including the study of art history, we all work very hard to learn. I think now some galleries and even our Chinese collectors will also influence the choice of some Western collectors. Our market does not necessarily take the West as the representative, our Chinese artists are becoming more and more international, more and more accepted by the international recognition, so I think it is good.
M: What about for the whole ecology? The whole ecology includes galleries, art institutions, collectors, artists, what role do you think collectors play in such an ecology? How does it relate to the other components?
F: As you said, this ecology is an ecological chain, with galleries there are artists, with galleries there are us, we have to go to galleries, and galleries go to artists, this is an ecological chain. But I think the gallery and we collectors do not really want to buy a piece of work to study these artists in order to invest. We really like the gallery, and they are friends with the relationship contact, and then we then contact the artist, understand their works to understand his personality after understanding the artist’s concept of creation before we start to collect art.
M: What do you think is the significance of this exhibition, which is composed of more than 30 art collectors or art patrons?
F: I think it is particularly good that Mr. Qiao took us to organize this exhibition, he led us to do this exhibition to summarize the works of the more active collectors in China, so that we can have such a platform to communicate with each other to discuss the current artists, discuss the way we collect each other, the direction of collection, because everyone has different tastes and different things to collect. I think it is a good starting point for male and female collectors, and I think this is a good way to represent Chinese art collection, so that we can unite.