Treasures to be Explored: the Works of Liang Yue

I have known Liang Yue for a long time. He attended the exhibitions of Hundreds of Years, Hundreds of People, Hundreds of Surnames, Portraits of a Hundreds Artists, Stories Told by a Hundreds Artists, Name Cards of a Hundreds Artists, all of which I served as a curator. It was pleasant to work with such an excellent artist, and he also added colours to my exhibitions.

I noticed Liang's works a long time ago; I knew he majored in engraving at the Guangzhou College of Fine Arts. His works probed urban changes, like his Certification Series, Advertising Series, City Series, and Knowing Too Late Series. He also attended the famous Huangshan Conference and China Modern Art Exhibition in 1989.

As invited artists of the Red Gate Gallery, both of us came to Beijing in 2004. In the years that followed, we worked on our art at the Beijing Today Gallery.

Liang's works were extremely experimental, reflecting his well-organized thoughts towards the human race, society and the world. They also granted him with a hardship conception, featuring post-modern characteristics.

Two kinds of Liang's works have good potential in today's contemporary art market. One is his oil paintings, and the other is his photography works called City Series.

Compared with Liang's other forms of artwork, his oil paintings were not promoted well, with a poor market operation, but they are being recognized now and are increasing in value, like a treasure previously unexplored. His counterparts have sold their works for extremely high prices; so I think there is space for Liang's work to grow in value.

According to market principles, I expect a one-square-metre oil painting to sell for about 70,000 yuan, which is a really good opportunity for collectors.

However, Liang's abstract oil paintings are not part of the present wave. Take a look at those famous artists who sold their works with high prices: Zhang Xiaogang, Wang Guangyi, Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun they were all in the paradigm of politics, as their works reflected the present and were accepted by the masses easily. Liang's works should be collected by those who really know art, so it takes time. It may take five or ten years; ten years at most.

The art form of conceptual photography and some of its works began being accepted by collectors in about 2005; they earned a good price and reputation in the market. Some works of the famous artists even had good prices at that moment.

Liang's City Series, cleverly combining a city scene in an old photo with a new one, showed his consideration of history. He had chosen Beijing and Shanghai, and most of the scenes were familiar to us. From his works, we could easily tell the changes that had taken place in the cities. Liang showed his concern for a bygone era, but also his expectations or confusion about the future.

I think his works were even more conceptual and direct in conveying urban changes. In the market, Liang's works have little difficulty in standing out, which also means this is the best time to collect them.

In a society of products, the artists make works, but as soon as the works go onto the market, they become products;  this is what some artists refuse to accept, but cannot avoid. The art market is cruel, as sometimes it does not rise to the true value of the artworks it trades. We always see that some excellent artworks have low prices and vice versa.

However, Liang is an excellent artist: his time will come.