Gu Wenda

GW: I think pure art is pure luxury.

Gong Yan

GY: To speak from another perspective, many rich people may lack some sort of “culture”. The luxury brands allow the artists an opportunity to educate these rich people. Rich people will acknowledge the artwork only when the artwork enters into the luxury world. So I hope those luxury brands can select artists who are of really good quality.

Huang Kui

HK: Art become luxury when some elites start to play with it.

Huang Yuanqing

HY: Of course, a good work of art will become a luxury after it has been passed down from one generation to another. But in today’s China, it seems a work can become a luxury even before it is completed. I think this is just too much.

Lu Chunsheng

LC: The Louis Vuitton things can be used, but some art works cannot be used.

Liu Dahong

LD: I think this is a kind of recession, the recession of the artist himself. When artists start to kowtow to wealthy people, just like many university principals, they are actually downgrading themselves.
First of all, it is the lack of confidence. Artists equate luxury to preciousness and success. This is caused by their lack of confidence.

Li Lei

LL: This is bullshit. What is luxury? Luxury is bullshit. It is a sham. Luxury items are just something slightly more refined, more polished, and then they say, “I am shinier than you are.” Why are they shinier? Because there is Dadou’s thinking in it, there is varnish on it, etc.
This is completely possible. What’s the meaning it this. The meaning lies in the fact that if you are willing to accept the concept and think, “Yes, this is really right, really, and I feel satisfied when I hold it in my hands.”
LL: My direct involvement breathed life into it. The pigments and the canvas are dead objects. When I paint on the canvas I put my emotions and my artistic judgment on the canvas. This process is the process of artistic creation. Its value comes from what I give to it. It’s my life that I have given to it.

Li Shan

LS: In the past, art was luxury. Those rich people and elites in academia would open a scroll of painting, sip some tea and enjoy it. That was really sumptuous. Such luxury far outreached that in western world. It is luxurious to an infinite extent. Those rich people would put the paintings in their sleeves and withheld it from others so that they could enjoy it all by themselves.
LS: Now the rich ones in china take artworks as stock shares. There is no sense of luxury now. The capitalistic nobles, landowners and magnates in the past were really luxurious. Nowadays, those who call themselves noble, landowners and magnates are really far from being able to enjoy luxury. They cannot really enjoy the pleasure that luxury brings them. Their taste and ability to appreciate art fail to enable them to be luxurious.

Luo Yongjin

LY: The creators of artworks are intellectuals, who have spent money to receive good education, to experience things cultural. The works they create have to be exhibited in places like museums and galleries, where only people who meet certain requirements have access to. It is unimaginable to have artworks presented in a small muddy hut in a peasant village. Generally, regions of lower living standards do not have the relevant conditions to have access to them.

Qiu Anxiong

QA: Artists produce luxury. Laugh…

Shen Fan

SF: Art has already become luxury items a long time ago. Do we have to wait till now to say they are or are not luxury items?
We are still developing the western regions, and then somebody has collected lots of art works. This to me is very extravagant, right? There are many children who cannot go to school, while there are people raising several dogs or what not. It is again extravagant. It is the same, just like keeping dogs.

Tang Maohong

TM: It has something to do with the history of modern China. 20 years ago, China was still very poor. It’s a little like treating Chinese art as a toy. This is quite dangerous.
TM: It has already happened. The commercial force is so powerful that it turns all creativity into goods, the diversity of art is disappearing.

Wang Nanming

WN: In my opinion, a good work of art will never become a luxurious item.

Xu Longbao

XL: Art is not the same thing as luxury. Art can also be divided into different kinds, some are expensive, and some are not. Don’t think that all art are luxury. I think it is better for the artist to be better off financially. Paintings and sculptures require lots of funds, but they have nothing to do with luxury. Perhaps art has nothing to do with luxury.

Xue Song

XS: Owning, buying – the satisfaction comes from the fact that he owns the work. We have seen some famous works before. They have already influenced us. I think I already “own” them.

Xu Zhen

XZ: It is because what we see more are the luxurious art, while we do not see more of the non-luxurious art. We can only say that luxury-oriented art is much closer to our life and work. We see a large quantity of commercially luxurious art which is measured in monetary terms, and a small quantity of spiritually luxurious art. But we rarely see art which are impulsive or spontaneous. They are all different types.

Yang Fudong

YF: It’s quite simple. Something can be bought, while others cannot. Art can be called luxury items. Of course some things cannot be exchanged with cash. You cannot buy skin. You cannot buy God.

Yang Hui

YH: Art is not luxury, but it is always to be luxury.

Yu Xiaofu

YX: First of all, I think art is luxury. It is more expensive. If it is expensive it is luxury.

Yu Youhan

YY: I think they are completely opposed to each other. Art is about the heart and soul, while luxury items are about appearances, whether it means the appearance of your skin or the so-called Feng Du in other people’s eyes. They are all about appearances.
YY: It could be so for some people. He doesn’t know art. He just spends a lot of money to buy a painting of a famous artist, and then he hangs it somewhere to show people he can afford it. Then the work becomes luxury. It is not a genuinely ideal concept.Most people do not know what the heart and the soul mean.
YY: Yes. Ding Yi drew a beautiful scarf. It was very delicate. The checks were even smaller, and so they look even more refined. Perhaps some artists would not be invited. And even if they are invited they cannot perform well there. Basically it is… they are not comrades in the same trough.

Yang Zhenzhong

YZ: If we can produce a work that people need, that they find necessary… I cannot name one. None. Can you think of a work that is a necessity?

Zhang Ding

ZD: Art is the biggest luxury.

Zhang Haitian

ZH: For example, when I was in Zhejiang Province, even some peasants would buy my works. They really like them, but they did not have a lot of money. I would always take this into consideration and sell the works to them at a relatively low price. When it was necessary, I would sell them at even lower prices. At this stage, I really felt that the works were luxury items to them.

Zhu Julan

ZJ: I think art itself is luxury. Of course luxury can exist in either the material dimension or spiritual dimension. What I am talking about is more on the spiritual dimension. If you have the ability to enjoy art, it means your life is very luxurious. It requires a lot of knowledge, artistic accomplishment and emotional investment. From another angle, art has its commercial value. It is very expensive, so we call it luxury. Of course there are lots of good art works which truly are luxury items. They are very expensive things. But we still have to distinguish between the two. That is, even if I have no money, I can still enjoy art; but even if I have money, I may not necessarily be able to enjoy art.

Zhang Peicheng

ZP: I don’t think art should be classified as the luxurious items. Of course it depends on the person. If a person still cannot feed and clothe himself, buying paintings is of course a luxury for him. If a businessman makes a lot of money and then he spends some of that money to buy a few paintings, then they are not luxury. They may even increase in value.