Washington and Wall Street aren’t the only ones paying attention to the Chinese in recent weeks; the art world — after a short period of focusing on other things — is back talking about them, too. And thus journalists. Here are some bits and bobs I’ve been collecting on the topic.

• Last month, before the recent, successful Old Master, Imp-Mod and contemporary auctions, the Wall Street Journal noted that “the global recession seems to be making Asian artists the new stars of the art market.” And not just contemporary Chinese. “China’s old masters are surpassing auction house expectations, too. A scroll painting by 16-century artist Wu Bin sold for $22 million at a Christie’s sale in December.”

     It isn’t all great, though — prices for recent Chinese works are down.

• Forbes also took up the recent Chinese sales, advising “the continued high overall auction volumes and their strong showing in global rankings suggests Chinese artists of late remain on the way up in the world. The trend will continue. First, the bubble that built up in the industry before the global equity crash has passed. Asian contemporary art prices are back to 2006 levels, according to an ArtPrice report, making investment more affordable and hinting at room for a recovery in prices in the future. Longer term, the industry is likely to thrive in China because the country has a fascination with art as a part of its heritage…”

 We’ll see.

• Meanwhile, remember that stunning sale of Chinese bronzes (right), once owned by Yves St Laurent? At a Christie’s auction last spring, a Chinese gentleman “purchased” them with a record-setting bid, then reneged because they had been looted in the mid-19th Century. It was a “patriotic gesture.” Once, a solution seemed near, with French companies paying the bill but returning the works to China, but Georgina Adam recently reported in the Financial Times that:

Christie’s subsequently removed the price of €31.6m from its total for the sale and returned the heads to Pierre Bergé, St Laurent’s partner (link).

• Georgina also recently wrote this about the Chinese art market — surely a sign of caution:

Chinese interest in art as an investment remains high… Beijing’s Minsheng Bank, the nation’s first privately owned bank, has just launched its “No 2 Product, Works of Art Investment Scheme”, which was fully subscribed in a week. The fund will purchase a wide range of art, from ancient to contemporary. The success of the No 2 fund is no doubt due to the performance of China’s first art fund, launched by Minsheng in 2007, and which, according to the bank, produced returns of up to 25 per cent.

Gotta love that simple “No. 2” product designation, though.

Last week, I saw an article about the Fresno museum that heartened me — it suggested that there might be a link with Cal State, Fresno. Was this the deus ex machina that would save the Fresno Met?

Then, I realized I had mis-read the piece: it was talking about the Fresno Art Museum, not the Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art and Science — which closed its doors in January following a $28 million renovation.

Is this a harbinger of more trouble in a city that may not sound big, but is? Fresno is the 36th largest U.S. city: it has an estimated 500,000 people within it boundaries and more than 1 million in its metropolitan area. It’s bigger than Cleveland, Minneapolis, and Pittsburgh, for example, which all have a lot more in the way of museums and visual arts.

Although the city was founded in 1856, Fresnans were late to the art party: they didn’t get around to creating the Fresno Art Museum until 1948 and the Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art and Science until 1984.

The Fresno Met is over: its science exhibits, furniture and other effects will go on the auction block at 9 a.m. tomorrow, according to The Business Journal. Its art collection will be sold “at a future undetermined date,” the article says. Together, the sums raised are not expected to cover the Met’s $4 million in debt.

Is the Fresno Art Museum — the only modern art museum between San Francisco and Los Angeles — also on the brink? Its website made a special year-end plea from Eva Torres, interim director, who wrote:

the Museum is faced with making some very difficult decisions about the next season of exhibitions and educational programs. We’ve “tightened our belts” and already made some critical decisions and adjustments but we’re still in a very vulnerable position.

FAM was operating in the red, slightly, for the year to June 30, 2008, according to its tax returns. 2009 and 2010 are likely worse.

So the news, in an article in the Central Valley Business Times, that trustees were exploring various possibilities, including the assumption of operational control, with CalState-Fresno, is excouraging. Given the state’s budgetary situation, though, that’s not the complete answer.

Fresno is simply too big to be left without local access to art for its citizens. I hope the community mobilizes in a way it did not for the Fresno Met.

UPDATE, 2/17: “A local attorney is asking the state Attorney General’s Office to investigate whether it is proper for the Fresno Metropolitan Museum to sell off its collection to satisfy its debts….” per the Fresno Bee.

Can first-time visitors to major museums like the Prado really allot just 45 minutes for the stop on their itinerary? That was the thesis behind an article in the Travel section of Sunday’s New York Times: “Touring the Prado at Warp Speed” appeared under the rubric “Cultured Traveler” with, I believe, no irony intended.

I can hear the groans. But wait. The article quoted Gabriele Finaldi, the Prado’s deputy director for conservation and research, as saying: “Forty-five minutes is the perfect amount of time to get to know the Prado.”

He advises skipping the Prado’s English and Dutch paintings and heading for the Velazquez, Titian, Rubens and Goya paintings, plus a few other galleries.

Heresy?

Not everyone wants to spend hours in the Louvre or the Met or the Prado. It is better, probably, that they spend a little time seeing the best works than no time at all — if they feel obligated or intimidated into staying hours when they’d rather be doing something else, they may say “skip it.” Seeing the highlights might even bring people back for more another time — their appetites whetted.

Why do ardent museum-goers guilt those who aren’t interested into feeling deficient? It has always been a mystery to me why some people naturally appreciate any particular art form, while others don’t. I call it a gift — some people have it, some don’t, even if we wish they did.

So Finaldi makes some sense, with one problem: cost. If the price of visiting a museum is too high, people will feel obligated to spend the entire day — and those straddling the line of interest (probably) will not go.

Membership is the answer, of course: “Free” admission, once one is a member, allows visits of any length. That’s why museums need all the creative strategies to increase membership (which I’ve mentioned here before) they can get. Short-term “summer memberships” are one tactic I haven’t seen enough of; discounts to stores and restaurants neighboring a museum are another. There’ve got to be others.  

If you want good press, it helps to be on the side of angels — as Michael Rush was last year when, as director of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis, he mobilized against the University’s attempt to close the Rose and sell its collection.

Rush, you’ll recall, did not have his contract renewed and since then, well — you can read about what he’s been up to in today’s Boston Globe (here). It was, ahem, a Valentine on the occasion of Rush’s guest-curating of Virtuoso Illusion: Cross-Dressing and the New Media Avant-Garde at MIT’s List Visual Arts Center, among other things. In the article, he reveals a few more weird goings-on, last year, at Brandeis.

Which all jibes with the latest on the Rose itself, as recounted in a Feb. 12 article in The Brandeis Hoot, which followed new budget cuts at the university. It says that the students speaking out to save the museum have felt intimidated and that the Rose is still for sale:

This particular fine arts student is sitting in the atrium of the Shapiro Campus Center with her friend. Above them hangs one of their hand-made banners quoting board of trustee member Meyer Koplow ’72 saying “some of the solution [to the budget gap] will come from realizing value ultimately from some of the art at the Rose [Art Museum].”

The article says the Rose has only a sole employee at the moment, the director of operations, but quotes University Provost Marty Krauss saying in an email “that the university is currently searching for a new museum registrar, collections manager and educational director.” But, the Hoot says, the Rose has stopped lending art and will have just one exhibition during this academic year.

The lawsuit filed by Rose trustees against the university, meanwhile, is set to go to trial next December. That’s a long way off, and a lot of time for new developments.

Photo: Courtesy Brandeis University

Not many romantics out there — or not many willing to suggest their favorite romantic/erotic painting to Real Clear Arts. As I mentioned yesterday, I thought I’d post a picture or two in honor of Valentine’s Day.

I could go the Picasso route, choosing something from the erotica show that packed the Jeu de Paume in 2001: it included about works on paper — drawings, etchings and gouaches, plus paintings, sculptures and ceramics. I remember trying to fight the crowds there to get close to the works. That didn’t come to the U.S. but did travel to the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal. 

No, I decided to go elsewhere, to take a more subtle tack — to the Cleveland Museum of Art, which acquired Jacques-Louis David’s Cupid and Psyche (1817) in 1962. I love the delicious, amused expression on Cupid’s face, not to mention David’s gorgeous depiction of youthful flesh. 

As the museum’s website describes it:

Here, David depicted Cupid trying to slip away from his lover’s bed. Smitten with Psyche, Cupid had whisked the mortal to his palace, visiting her only in the darkness of night, warning her that she must never see his face. Thus, he always stole from their bed before sunrise. In this painting, however, his wing is trapped beneath her body and his knowing, almost comical gaze communicates his plight.

The whole thing works for me.

The same scene, btw, proved an inspiration for many artists, some of whose work is illustrated on the Wikipedia page for “Cupid and Psyche.”

UPDATE, 2/14: Finally, a few nominations from readers: “The Kiss” by Klimt (which is here) and Rubens’s “Honeysuckle Bower” (which you can see here).

UPDATE, 2/17: Another reader writes: “By far the most wonderful Valentine art work is the whole of Harry Callahan’s Eleanor series.  His love for her suffuses years of work and the photos are lovely, too.” (You can see the book cover here.)

 Photo Credit: Courtesy Cleveland Museum of Art