The 5th AAB at Orange, the Sanlitun Village, April 24th, before opening.

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The 5th Affordable Art Beijing (AAB) was successfully held at the Orange in the Sanlitun Village on 24th-25th April. This two-day event sells hundreds of works of contemporary art at affordable prices. No one work is more expensive than 10,000RMB, while the most affordable work on sale this year will be just 50RMB. The AAB team concentrates on making more people like art and giving the platform to the new artists.

Founded in 2006, AAB is the first event of its kind in China. The first event held in 798 involved fewer than 100 artists but was a resounding success with people queuing to get in. 2007 and 2008 also saw the event held in 798 before moving to Sanlitun in 2009. The new downtown location has given more people access to the venue and event thereby allowing artists to show their work to a much larger audience.

Tom Pattinson in the opening speech

Last Saturday, we visited Tom Pattinson, the founder of AAB, and asked him about his creative idea of affordable art.

Artron: What’s your standard for choosing the artworks?
Tom: First of all, the most important one is the price. They have to be fewer than 10 thousand yuan. Then we have to make sure we have a nice mix. The qualities have to be high, but we need a mix of price range. So some of them are 2 hundred, 5 hundred or 1 thousand yuan, some of them are 9 thousand, 10 thousand yuan. Also, we need a mix of styles, both modern and traditional. Some are colorful and happy; some are quite sad. Finally, the mix on material is needed. We have paintings, prints, sculptures and even furniture. We want to choose different artworks which have a diversity range. So hopefully we want to have the artworks which can appeal to everybody. Though different artworks have different prices, we are able to make sure the value.

Artron: “Affordable” means the price is low, while the artists who join AAB are almost new, will you concern about the quality of artworks?
Tom: No. I think what we do is to find young artists who have recently graduated or the artists who have not the experience of major exhibitions before. We give the first opportunity to them. We have been doing this for 5 years, so you can see the record from the previous years, there are many artists who start with us and now have gone on major shows, international shows and solo shows. So I think what we do is trying to find the artists who have the best talent, give them a platform and an opportunity. We do not choose everything we get. We have our selecting process to find the artworks which have quality.

People are queuing to buy artworks.

Artron: Today is the first day of the 5th Affordable Art Beijing, how about the sales?
Tom: Every year we have more and more people. Today when we open the window, there are maybe 200 people outside waiting to come in. During the morning, there is always a very long queue for waiting to buy an artwork. In the first two hours, we have sold nearly 40% or 50% of the whole artworks. Because these people really love art and want to get the best bargains. For today, there have been already 2 or 3 thousand people coming through. They are all different types of people, families with baby carriages, old people, and people from all over the world. It shows more people are getting interested in contemporary arts. Also, more local people are taking part in to buy some artworks, enjoying being part of this event.

People are checking  the information about the artworks.

Artron: In the galleries of China, there is a very far distance between art and normal people. But in AAB, we can feel art is so close. How do you think about that?
Tom: In my opinion, it is important to combine the culture of a city and the people in it. A city is not exciting unless it get a strong and vibrant culture. If it is just economy and business, it is boring. People need arts, films. For me it is important to make everybody, not just rich people, be able to get in art market. Come to experience it and look around, make them feel like it is theirs’. People should own their own city. They should build their own culture. Art is not a luxury, like a special handbag or a pair of shoes. People make art because it makes people happy and is part of culture. It is nice that we have families come together and enjoy the artworks, talk about it or maybe buy something. This may help more people to be involved in it; more people would love art or collect artworks. Especially in China where the art culture has been quite new, maybe about 25 years, it is meaningful to let more people access art, not only the privileges of rich people.

Artron: During your experience of organizing AAB, what’s the happiest or the most unforgettable part?
Tom: To be honest, when I begin to organize AAB in the first year, I was very selfish, because I wanted to buy some arts for myself. But in these later years, I have been very busy especially in the last there year, I have no time to buy any artwork. But it is lovely to see families come in and look art and enjoy art. The most interesting thing is that you see people buy their first art here, and then you realize that they are becoming interested in arts. Whether young couple or old people, they are happy, when they are leaving with their paintings. That for me is the most important thing.

Photo: Yan Chuan (Artron.net)