The Chinese art market was active in the 1990s, reached its peak in 2011, and entered a period of adjustment from 2014, showing a state of "weakness" or even "dismal". Some galleries have closed down, auction companies have difficulty surviving, some famous paintings have suffered "waist cuts", and the development of the art market has entered deep consolidation and washing...
In the context of such an artistic era, the "ice pier" is used as a souvenir of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The existence of objects in the form of art derivatives, which exploded overnight, appeared the phenomenon of "one pier is difficult to find", and directly became a new top IP, injecting a shot in the arm into the development of cultural artworks.
Works of art and ice piers are also the fruits of intellectual labor to meet people's spiritual needs, but when entering the business model, there is such a big contrast, which has to cause us to reflect. So behind the explosion of the ice pier, what is the common business logic of the development of art derivatives and art markets from creation to marketing?
From the perspective of creation, we should adhere to the people's nature and the characteristics of the times
Artistic creation is the "production stage" of art, which is the process of expression of the creative subject to the object. Before creating works of art, artists must understand why they are creating, whether to cater to their own aesthetics or the spiritual needs of the public, that is, the subject of the demand for creation. Knowing the subject of demand, we must first "search for the draft of Qifeng", and then integrate aesthetics to create works that meet the needs of the subject. The birth theme of "Ice Pier" is very clear, it is the mascot of the Winter Olympic Games, carrying the mission of combining Chinese culture and Olympic spirit, and passing on China's cultural self-confidence to the world.
Understanding the subject of demand, we look at the creative stage, the image of "ice pier" stands out from the 5816 works collected by the Winter Olympics worldwide, why? The earliest idea of "ice pier" comes from "ice sugar gourd". As a local specialty of Beijing, the rock sugar gourd can represent Beijing, but if it is used as a souvenir of the Winter Olympic Games, it has limitations and cannot strongly represent the Chinese symbol. The national treasure panda, which carries a deep image of a big country and rich cultural connotations, fits perfectly with the middle way that China has always followed.
Ice piers, the name uses overlapping words, easy to strengthen people's memory. The panda is loved by the crowd at home and abroad because of its cute image, and its personality is distinct and in line with the public aesthetic; in the appearance of the warm panda with an ice and snow shell, equipped with snow athletes' wearable devices, full of science and technology and a sense of sports, so that the giant panda bursts out of the mild original ecology with a fighting Olympic spirit, the Chinese cultural symbols and ice and snow sports are integrated and given new cultural evolution and development attributes. The epochality is obvious, easy to be recognized, and it is very conducive to dissemination and value transformation.
Returning to the artwork, the artist's distinctive creative language can also make the public remember deeply. Qi Baishi is famous for painting shrimp, shrimp is his personal symbol, his works are very close to life, full of fun, reflecting the people's nature of the works, has been sought after by collectors, is currently the highest auction price of a single group of chinese modern painters. Xu Beihong, on the other hand, used horses as a personal creation symbol, and his works were sought after as early as the Republic of China period. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Xu Beihong realized that artists and the fate of the country breathed together and suffered together, so Ma Gangyi in this period conveyed the gods, endowed with vitality, and became a rising national spiritual symbol, fully reflecting the epochality of the work.
From the perspective of marketing, we pay attention to multimedia communication and grasp the circulation
"Ice Pier" has been massively exposed through various media, and it is a household name with the help of large traffic. In particular, the commemorative commemoration of the ice pier (gold pier) awarded to the Olympic champion on the spot, and the scene of the athletes holding the ice pier in hand, formed a visual communication effect. Athletes, media people, and spectators have spontaneously disseminated the ice piers in their hands on their self-media platforms in various ways, showing the love of international friends for the mystery of pandas. At the same time, because of the lack of early estimates, but also coinciding with the traditional Chinese Spring Festival, resulting in the inability to quickly meet the needs of consumers, objectively formed a similar way of "hunger marketing", when the top stream with goods meets the supply of limited flow, it will inevitably lead to "a pier is difficult to find".
As for works of art, its communication channels are mainly through the primary market and the secondary market. The primary market is dominated by galleries and art dealers, while the secondary market is dominated by auctions. In today's rapid change of information, "wine is not afraid of deep alleys" has become an old saying, which is not suitable for today's dissemination. For artists, it is necessary to pay attention to communication channels, intervene more in art trading platforms and new media channels, and only when they become top-notch IP and produce high economic value, can their cultural core be excavated to the greatest extent.
For example, Zhang Daqian, "the first person in five hundred years", created more than 30,000 works in his lifetime, which is suitable for the circulation of the market. Because there are too few surviving works of an artist, the number of collectors is also small, and it cannot cause the artistic effect of the circle. And too many quantities, it is not scarce, and the value cannot be improved. He was good at innovation, especially in his later years, creating a new style of Chinese painting; he was good at taking advantage of the situation, and had contacts with dignitaries and dignitaries and three religions and nine streams, and had strong social influence, and was the first chinese modern painter whose works were auctioned for more than 100 million yuan.
The integration and industrial transformation of artworks and derivatives
The above mentioned the creation and marketing of artworks and derivatives, then, between the two, how to effectively integrate and transform, this is the problem that we should all think about. After all, the artwork is alive, endowed with the artist's ideas, and when it is transformed into derivatives, it is implanted with the designer's ideas. The value of derivatives is based on the value of the artwork itself, taking us as an exhibition, while exhibiting, supporting derivatives at the same time as the exhibition is much better than directly putting derivatives in stores for sale. At the same time, because of the spread of derivatives, the reaction plays a role in promoting the value of the artist's artwork, and the high viscosity between the two is the core of fusion and transformation.
In the past few years, we have developed a cultural and creative series, combining national treasure pandas with calligraphy and painting to create the IP of "Black and White Moon" and "Painting Little Immortals" of the pandas. Black and White Moon is a panda with a literary temperament, whenever it turns the rosary beads on its beard, it can travel to the world in the painting and start a fantasy journey of wandering. The calligraphy and painting immortal official "Painting Immortal" is responsible for controlling the world order of calligraphy and painting. Black and White Moon and the painting Xiaoxian shuttled through the ancient and modern famous paintings, leading everyone to appreciate the beauty of Chinese culture from a unique perspective, which won the Beijing International Copyright Best Design Creativity Award. It is explained here that whether it is a work of art or a derivative, it is necessary to improve its ability to innovate, and give the excavation of the spiritual value of traditional culture, and make breakthroughs through creativity and even digital combination. At the same time, pay attention to people's emotional experience and life interest, the works produced under the guidance of this concept can touch people's hearts and stimulate consumers' desire to buy. In the final analysis, cultural identity is the foundation of the value of art.
Of course, this is only a matter of product creation and production, so how can we form the scale of the art industry? Whether we can learn from the successful model of the ice pier, hot spot creation, event marketing, publicity, interactive experience, or borrow a large platform, multi-channel publicity, and the protection of the original version at the policy level, funds and channel exports, etc., these are all issues that need to be discussed and solved urgently.
The author of this article is Zhao Wenqin, deputy director of the New Literary and Art Group Theory Committee of the Sichuan Literary and Art Critics Association, vice chairman of the Chengdu Literary and Art Critics Association, and director of the Chengdu Shiwujia Art Museum
Source 丨Kawakan News
Editor published 丨 Sichuan Xianyi step culture communication co., LTD