Own Original Chinese Copies of Real Western Art! - New York Times
Photo New York Times
The New York Times’s Business section last Friday featured an article on China’s handpainted reproduction oil painting industry. The apparent novelty of the report centered around the ability of hunderds of Chinese artists to copy Western masterpieces (van Goghs are featured prominently) despite their humble working conditions (attendant working-class details like sparse interiors, drying laundry, ‘dog-eared’ copies of art books, etc). This included many photos from Dafen artist village, but thrown into the same mix was the industry of made-to-order family portrait paintings produced by artists in Xiamen, apparently because they copy from digital photos sent from the US. The US-Chinese trade is mostly of interest here, with consumers figured solely as Americans and producers Chinese. Finally, several IP issues are raised, and the article seems to accept that the sphere of ‘imitation’ of works in the public domain is being claimed. Embedded in the article was a note that companies had been producing the same kind of product for years in Northern New Jersey, but have now been closed down. So it seems that the only thing strange and new here is not that there is a contest of originality, merely that the Chinese are doing it.