Dafen Village

Studio in Dafen
Dafen Oil Painting Village entrance sign

Dafen (Chinese: 大芬; pinyin: Dàfēn; Jyutping: daai6 fan1) is a suburb of Buji, Longgang, Shenzhen in Guangdong province, China. The area is an artist village for the production of replicas of masterworks and outsourcing of original art creation.[1]

History

In the early 1990s a group of about twenty artists under the leadership of the painter and businessman Huang Jiang took up residence in this town. They specialised in the making of large numbers of replicas of oil paintings by masters such as Van Gogh, Dalí, da Vinci, Rembrandt or Warhol.[2]

Replicas

These replicas were sold in many countries for relatively low prices. The endeavor was quite successful and the demand for replicas increased. In order to fulfill the demand more and more artists took up residence and started to make a living, the estimate (2006) being in the thousands.

Many of the artists are trained at art academies in the required techniques and produce dozens of replicas daily.

The official policy states that these replicas are of paintings of artists who have died more than seventy years ago and consequently out of copyright. An obvious exception to this would be Andy Warhol (cited above) who died in 1987, and Dalí, who died in 1989.

The only requirement is that it is made clear that these paintings are replicas. Currently, the village sells both originals and replicas. It is possible to commission paintings for low prices. The village is a gated development, recognizable by the large sculpture of a hand holding a paintbrush outside its gates.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Why Not Outsource All Your Art Ideas to China". Crave. March 22, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Workshop of the world, fine arts division", theatlantic.com (2007)
  • Osnos, Evan (2007-02-13). "Chinese village paints by incredible numbers". Chicago Tribune. - Lu Jingxian contributed
  • Oil Painting Gallery: China Romandy Art.
  • J. Wang & S.M Li. "State territorialization, neoliberal governmentality: the remaking of Dafen oil painting village, Shenzhen, China." Urban Geography Volume 38, 2017 - Issue 5: Interpreting China’s new urban spaces: State, market, and society in action. Pages 708-728. Published online on March 2, 2016.
  • "Demand grows for Chinese fake art", Al Jazeera - 30 August 2010]
  • "China to the Rescue? Not!", by Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, 20 December 2008

Coordinates: 22°36′34″N 114°08′14″E / 22.60944°N 114.13722°E / 22.60944; 114.13722

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