Locating Supply: Galleries and Artists and the Guanxi Connection

Family/Co-operative Galleries

Family/co-op galleries were the smallest and the lowest earning of all gallery types. If a group of artists were forming a cooperative it was usually based on pre- existing guanxi. They often did not accept new artists and had a core group that exhibited together. The most common groups were artists from the same geographic region. They had often studied together and moved to Beijing to develop their careers. It was a frequent occurrence for people from the same hometown or region to work together or live in close proximity to each other. Previous research shows that this often occurs in other communities too. Hu (2008) found that in Beijing there was a ‘Zhejiang village’, a ‘Xinjiang village’ and a

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‘Henan village’. These places were not villages but communities of people who originated from the aforementioned locations. The same also occurred in Orange County California where Mainland Chinese only associated with their own and Taiwanese with people from Taiwan (Avenarius, 2007).

An alternative type of co-op gallery was seen in the case of Zheng Jun who opened a gallery at 798 with a group of friends. Initially these artists were unacquainted even though they lived next to each other in a Northeast Beijing village. After the government decided to demolish that district the artists banded together, protested and with the help of other artists and critics were able to stop it from being destroyed. At that time the artists went through a strong bonding process. They then agreed to open a gallery which only those eight artists exhibited at. This model could be described as a closed model of supply (see Figure 5.4 below). It was based on prior guanxi and did not change over time.

Figure 5.4 Locating Artists: The Closed Model of Supply (Author’s Research)

In the family/co-op category there were also galleries that were run by a person who had another family member that was an artist. In these instances it was almost always the wife who ran the business and the husband who worked from his studio. When these galleries were first formed the main priority was to sell and exhibit the family member’s artwork. During the initial set up, these galleries relied on the artist’s direct guanxi connections of friends who lived in the local art district or who had been university classmates. Zhang Shuyi, a gallery owner whose husband painted traditional Chinese artwork explained,

“My husband was an artist. …Before the two of us had this gallery we had actually made a lot of friends who were all artists, including a lot of

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classmates who were painters. …So when I started this gallery, I also chose some of my friends who had pretty good artwork” (2010, para.77, 79).

Family/co-op galleries were the only type that willingly accepted artists that walked in off the street providing the quality of work was of a certain standard. Like Zhang Shuyi, when the gallery opened her only resource was the friends she knew. Later she had a wider range of selectivity. However, those close friends which were selected first still took priority as, “…you still have renqing there” (Zhang Shuyi, 2010, para.93).

Nevertheless, throughout the startup, development and establishment phases, family/co-op galleries also located artists through guanxi intermediaries. Huang Lijuan who opened a gallery in Songzhuang illustrated this when she discussed locating new artists:

“When my husband doesn’t have anything on he often goes about meeting up with friends. Then he looks at their artwork. Those that have a similar style to [my gallery], we are able to go and chose some of the artwork that can be included with mine. Then also some friends introduce some of their friends. …So artists introduce their friends to you, and also some

customers that do art also introduce their friends” (2010, para.23).

This method of locating artists in all the family/co-op galleries could be described as a passive model of supply (see Figure 5.5 below). Locating artists to provide the gallery with artwork depended on existing guanxi or new relationships where the owner or employees did not need to leave the work premises to form them. These galleries had existing ties to artists and friends who introduced them to other artists that could supply the gallery when it first opened and as its operations continued. Then the gallery came into contact with customers and other artists due to its doors being open to the general public. These people made self-

introductions to the gallery or introduced new artists, acting as a guanxi

intermediary. At no stage in supplying the gallery with artwork did they need to actively find new artists themselves.

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(NB: Introduced guanxi refers to the use of an intermediary to establish a new relationship)

Figure 5.5 Locating Artists: The Passive Model of Supply (Author’s Research)

These findings showed similarities to other guanxi literature on supply chain management. Fu et al. (2006) found that entrepreneurial firms used different types of guanxi to supply their companies with personnel in different stages throughout the company’s growth. Initially, they relied on relatives and then as the firm developed began to branch out to strangers to access advanced skills and once again employed friends and relatives at the final stages. This was reflected in the passive model of supply. Initially relatives and close friends were used to open the gallery and then new talent was accepted once the gallery had been operating for a time.

Privately Owned Chinese Galleries

Privately owned Chinese galleries used either the passive model of supply or combined it with their own efforts to locate artists. The galleries that used the passive model had their reasons for doing so. Wu Min, the owner of a medium sized gallery in 798, explained her difficulties in locating eight emerging artists for her opening exhibition,

“I thought this is too tiring! I went to a number of different studios and what’s more they weren’t all in the same place. I thought that I can’t get this tired. And also, …the results weren’t very good” (2010, para.782).

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After the first exhibition Wu Min changed her strategy due to the time it took her to personally locate the artists. She began to use the artists she had just become acquainted with as guanxi intermediaries to introduce her to other artists. Not only was time reduced but she found there were a number of benefits.

“It was much more convenient for me when the artists found their own friends …They understand their friends’ artwork even better [than me]. They think about who they want to do an exhibition with, they think this is the best [way]. … They do the looking themselves, …we plan the exhibition together, decide on the theme together, we find the artists together, so basically it’s always the artists that help me to complete [the exhibition]” (2010, para.792).

The artists took on some of the responsibilities that would normally be assigned to a gallery employee or manager. The artist Yu Hong explained how this took place,

“It just so happens that a gallery is looking for a group of artists to do an exhibition. So he asks me to help him look for a group of people. So who do I find? I will find some people I am acquainted with. I won’t go looking for people I don’t know. People with good character, people that I have good guanxi with. I’ll ask them to do this together with me” (2011, para.268).

Private galleries also relied on other sources to act as guanxi intermediaries including friends, acquaintances, other art dealers, relatives and Fine Art professors.

Private galleries also located artists through methods that did not involve guanxi including the internet, artists’ blogs, exhibitions, art fairs, visiting other galleries, university graduation exhibitions, magazines and newspapers. Jiang Xinhua explained, “I will search the Internet. I often go to exhibitions and get to understand some artwork that I think is interesting. Then I will go and find that artist” (2010, para.408). Even so, galleries that identified artists by themselves still preferred to make contact via an intermediary. They felt it was politer and the natural way of doing business.

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In private Chinese galleries two models of supply were identified, the former passive model and a passive-active model (see Figure 5.6 below) which combined guanxi and guanxi intermediaries with active research to locate artists. In this model galleries actively searched for artists who they felt had strong artistic work that was of value. However, those privately owned galleries that actively searched for new artwork also allowed introductions to take place through artists, friends and other art dealers. Moreover, private Chinese galleries did not use artists who approached them directly. If a previously unknown artist approached the gallery most managers assumed that the artist’s work was poor and he or she had been unable to find representation elsewhere.

(NB: Introduced guanxi refers to the use of an intermediary to establish a new relationship)

Figure 5.6 Locating Artists: The Passive-Active Model of Supply (Author’s Research)

Privately Owned International Galleries

Of the three privately owned international galleries, two used the passive-active model of supply (see Figure 5.6). However, one gallery in 798 used what could be termed as a purely active model. Due to his success and high income it is worth taking note of the reasons why he pursued this strategy. Wang Qing had a core group of eight artists whom had all risen to fame through the efforts of his gallery. He selected these artists after months of research and chose them for the artistic

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value of their work. He used people to gain second opinions but never to act as a guanxi intermediary when approaching the artists. He wanted to have complete control over the selection process. He explained that if he used a guanxi

intermediary to locate artists he would feel a certain level of obligation to that person. He would owe them a renqing. He said,

“The beginning of the problem is renqing. For example, one day you want an artist and you get him through the introduction of this teacher. [From] that [artist] you earn a lot of money, and are also very successful. Then you owe that person a renqing” (2010, para.1654).

Some galleries also reported feeling obligation towards the guanxi intermediary due to mianzi. Jiang Xinhua also the owner of a gallery in 798 that used the passive-active approach commented, “Chinese people have this mianzi. If you take me along to take a look then we both give each other mianzi. When it’s related to mianzi then it’s complicated. It’s not as good as you going directly [to the artist]” (2010, para.400).

Even with the obligations and cultural nuances, very few galleries approached artists from a purely active model of obtaining artwork. Figure 5.7 below shows the active model of supply. Existing guanxi was used with the intention of gaining information and advice. The gallery made direct contact with the artist rather than going through intermediaries. One factor that contributed to this style may be due to the number of artists represented in the gallery. Wang Qing selected eight core artists to be represented indefinitely. Most other private galleries selected a large number of artists to ensure there were new exhibitions continuously on display. The cooperation with a larger number of artists may have resulted in the use of a passive model to make more efficient use of time.

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Figure 5.7 Locating Artists: The Active Model of Supply (Author’s Research)

Artists

Artists differed from galleries in that their role in using guanxi intermediaries was active as opposed to passive. Galleries had control over the selection process whereas artists needed many alternatives before their work was sold. This came with the exception of top tier artists as galleries sought to build guanxi with them. As a result, artists were the most prolific, but not necessarily the most successful, users of guanxi intermediaries to sell their work. They were aware that building guanxi with gallery owners and artists might not secure sales. However, by building guanxi with many people it was assumed that there would be success. When talking about why he tried to build guanxi with many people the artist Su Xing explained,

“So there are some things where you have to go through a kind of a bridge, a kind of guanxi, sometimes Chinese people drink alcohol. It’s like this so they can get to know each other while they are talking. …He is interested in your artwork. …I have paintings. He likes [them], so then [if] the conditions are right then there will be cooperation. Otherwise I would never be able to find that boss …Sometimes you don’t know people at those exhibitions, they don’t let you participate, even if you paint well they still won’t let you participate. He believes in guanxi, it’s just that simple. In China it’s just like this, so sometimes I also take the initiative to go and get to know some people” (2011, para.920).

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There were a number of other reasons why artists preferred to use an intermediary to make contact with galleries. The first was recognition of their work. Most artists believed that if they contacted the gallery directly then the gallery would assume they had low quality artwork. In addition, some artists felt that it was a loss of mianzi to approach galleries on their own. It was also commented on that there was a lack of xinren towards the art dealer. Finally, it was also difficult to meet the decision maker in the selection process by directly visiting a gallery. For these reasons, artists tried to build guanxi actively in their communities.

The importance of building guanxi was a fundamental aspect of the artists’ lives. They were the foundation of the supply chain and even galleries that did not build their own guanxi with artists were able to tap into an artist’s guanxi network to supply their gallery. Wu Min, the owner of a gallery at 798, seldom went out with artists for meals (see Appendix P). However, her entire supply of artists was located through other artists. She remarked that this was a resource that she integrated into her business model. “Artists help me by introducing me to a few artists. They also help their friends by introducing them to the art organisation. It’s all mutual. It’s a resource that must be integrated. Everyone knows that” (2010, para.1194).

After interviewing the artist Du Shui it was found that he had exhibited at Wu Min’s gallery in 798. After graduating he began painting diligently but found that he was unable to sell any work. After analysing the situation he realised,

“Actually I had always believed that it was the paintings that were

important. Then I began to realise that I must come into contact with some people, come into contact with some critics, come into contact with some galleries, build guanxi with them, eat meals, drink alcohol, have fun” (2011, para.166).