Art 'To Give Me Goosebumps'

尤伦斯青睐哪些中国艺术家

Belgian billionaires Myriam and Guy Ullens de Schooten auction off art for a circular reason: in order to buy more. Now they have additional pocket money. Their Zeng Fanzhi painting 'The Last Supper' sold for $23.3 million in Hong Kong last week, breaking the world auction record for contemporary Asian art. They had bought the painting, a variation on da Vinci with masked communist Young Pioneers instead of apostles, for about $20, 000 in 2001.

利时亿万富翁米利亚姆·尤伦斯(Myriam Ullens)和居伊·尤伦斯(Guy Ullens)夫妇拍卖掉自己藏品的原因是为了流通，也就是为了能买进更多。现在他们有了更充裕的资金。他们收藏的曾梵志画作《最后的晚餐》(The Last Supper)近期以2,330万美元的价格在香港出售，打破了当代亚洲艺术品拍卖的世界纪录。尤伦斯夫妇在2001年以2万美元的价格买下了这副取材于达芬奇(da Vinci)同名画作的作品，画中带着面具的共产主义少先队员替代了原作里的门徒。

'Our job as collectors is to promote young artists, ' says Mr. Ullens de Schooten. He will use the money to buy the work of emerging artists and to maintain his storage of around 1, 000 pieces, most by Chinese artists. The collector, who made his fortune running family beet-sugar holdings and Weight Watchers International, also owns the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. His role there suits his peripatetic lifestyle, he said in an interview: 'Our main 'houses' are a plane and a boat.' Below, an edited transcript.

居伊·尤伦斯说，作为收藏家，我们的职责是提携年轻一代艺术家。他将用拍卖所得继续买进新晋艺术家的作品，并维持手中约1,000件的藏品量（大多来自中国艺术家）。这位通过经营家族制糖控股公司和Weight Watchers International致富的收藏家，同时也是北京尤伦斯当代艺术中心(Ullens Center for Contemporary Art)的所有者。他在那里所扮演的角色与他自己逍遥派作风相当搭调，在一次访谈中他说道，艺术中心的“主楼”就是一架飞机和一艘船。

'I was born in San Francisco on Jan. 31, 1935, but left at six weeks old; my parents were diplomats. When I started doing business in China in the early 1980s it was beginning to open up, so I started buying classical objects. From that, I met Chinese artists including Ai Weiwei and Wang Keping, who had decided they were going to live their own lives and not work for the state anymore. Before that, Chinese artists had really been supplying the propaganda department and the army. They found an old Ming Emperor tomb that had a beautiful garden, got the key to it, and we were meeting there. I was supplying them with catalogs from Sotheby's and Christie's.

以下是经过编辑的访谈内容：

The one who became the most famous in China was Liu Xiaodong. The first major work of his I bought was a portrait of his wife Yu Hong painted in 1993. Myriam and I spent a day with them in Beijing when he painted a portrait of us in 2008 for around $100, 000. I think Liu smoked about three packs of cigarettes while he was doing it. Mimi didn't like her portrayal. She felt it looked too Chinese and not enough like herself, but I very much like mine. Both of those are in storage.

1935年1月31日，我出生在旧金山，但在六个星期大的时后就离开了那里；我的父母是外交官。上世纪80年代初，我开始在中国做生意，当时中国刚刚向世界开放，我开始买进一些艺术品。因为这个原因，我结识了艾未未和王克平这样一些艺术家，他们决定不再为国家工作而选择过自己的生活。在那以前，中国艺术家一直为政府宣传部门和军方服务。他们发现了一个明朝皇帝陵墓，陵墓有一个很漂亮的花园，拿到了进去的钥匙，那里就是我们聚集的场所。我会把苏富比(Sotheby’s)和佳士得(Christie’s)的拍品目录拿给他们看。

We all don't hang out as much anymore; Ai Weiwei, Wang Keping and Liu all became very important people -- more difficult to meet, more formal, and they watch what they say now. That's normal when you start painting for $1 million or more.

这些人中，刘小东后来在中国成了最有名的艺术家。我买下的第一件他的主要作品，是他在1993年为他夫人喻红创作的肖像。2008年，我和米利亚姆在北京跟他们共处了一天，当天刘小东为我们每人画了一幅肖像画，花了大约10万美元。我记得刘小东在作画的时候好像一共抽了三包烟。我夫人不喜欢自己在刘小东笔下的样子，因为她觉得画得太像中国人了，不够像她本人，但我非常喜欢我的那幅。这两幅画我都还藏着。

Much of my art is stored in Geneva. We have a house in Switzerland, but you can't put anything in a chalet -- there are very few walls you can use. I'm thinking of one day digging a big hole and having a huge underground gallery.

我们大家不再像以前那样经常相聚了；艾未未、王克平和刘小东都成了非常重要的人物，越来越难见到，场合越来越正式，而且他们现在也开始注意自己的言论了。对于画作能卖100多万美元的艺术家来说，这种变化很正常。

Some Chinese artists whom we collect are so young that they have had no galleries to look after them, like Xu Qu. I just bought several works from Xu Qu's studio ranging from $13, 000 to $20, 000. We put Xu Qu in our show at the Ullens Center earlier this year. That also included works by young artists Li Shirui, Qiu Xiaofei and Zhao Zhao that we also bought.

我大多数的藏品都在日内瓦。我们在瑞士有一座木屋，但那里面什么也放不了，因为只有非常少的 可以用来挂画。我在想以后也许可以在那里凿一个大洞，建一个地下画廊。

I want my art to give me goose bumps. When I get them, I know it's something good, like with a mixed media sculpture of luggage by Yin Xiuzhen. She's a darling. She works directly on something sentimental within you.'

我们藏有一些非常年轻的中国艺术家的画作，还没有什么画廊去挖掘他们，徐渠就是其中一个。我刚刚从徐渠的工作室买来了几件作品，价格从1.3万到2万美元不等。今年早些时候我们把徐渠的作品在尤伦斯中心展览中展出。展品还包括我们买下的李姝睿、仇晓飞、赵赵等年轻艺术家的作品。

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我能看上的是那些让我兴奋得起鸡皮疙瘩的艺术品。只有当我确信一件艺术品是优秀的，我才会入手，就比如尹秀珍用各种材质制作的行李箱缩微雕塑品。她太赞了。她的作品会直接触动你的内心。