A HIGH-PROFILE lawsuit in which Chinese painter Fan Zeng is trying to sue Shanghai-based Wenhui News and its two critics will open at Changping District People’s Court in Beijing this Friday.

    Fan took art critics Guo Qingxiang and Xie Chunyan to court after the two published reviews in the newspaper insinuating that Fan was not as talented as some had thought.

    In May last year, Guo’s essay “Artists Should Be Evaluated by Their Works” mentioned “a popular Chinese painter who appears frequently on TV and in newspapers selling his philosophy and opinions on art and literature.” Guo did not reveal the name of the artist but criticized him harshly.

    Wenhui News followed up Guo’s essay with two others by Sun Xun and Xie Chunyan insisting that “artists should let their work do the talking.” Xie’s essay also criticized openly “someone surnamed Fan who sells well and brags a lot.” “Money can buy many things, but can it buy the essence of art?” Xie asked in his essay.

    In September, Fan sued the newspaper asking for a public apology and 200,000 yuan (US$30,500) in reputation damages. He also charged Guo and Xie, asking for 5 million yuan and 200,000 yuan in damages respectively.

    Fan, aged 73, has appeared on CCTV lecturing on the Chinese classics. With his paintings selling at more than 100,000 yuan per square chi (about 0.11sqm), the artist generously donated 10 million yuan to Sichuan earthquake victims in 2008.

    A collector and researcher of Chinese painting and calligraphy, Guo is known for his art taste and being relentlessly candid. Having discovered many potential painters in the past 10 years, Guo himself is known as a dark horse in the art criticism circle.

    “A friend once asked me to purchase 200 of his paintings,” Guo said in his essay. “His paintings were not absurdly expensive then. I transferred 2 million yuan and soon received the first batch of works.”

    However, Guo said he found the paintings repetitious in theme and technique. “He calls it his own style by imitating Ren Bonian’s portraits and Li Kuchan’s flower-and-bird paintings.”

    Before delivering the second batch of paintings, Guo went to check them out at his studio. “I was surprised to find that he hung a dozen pieces of white paper on the wall and painted in the way a worker did on a factory assembly line — first heads, then outfits, then his signature, and finally his seal pressed on by his pupils. That’s like painting banknotes,” Guo said.

    Guo also provided photographs of Fan’s studio as evidence for the “assembly-line painting routine.”

    Xiao Wenquan, a Shenzhen-based lawyer, said Fan was unlikely to win.

    “Freedom of speech is a long accepted principle in art criticism. Moreover, the essays in Wenhui News did not specify the subject of criticism. It’s very unwise to claim that you are the person they criticize and sue them on this basis,” he said.

    “If what they said is untrue and intended maliciously to ruin one’s reputation, then we call it defamation. Otherwise, it’s just criticism.”

    (Li Dan)

A HIGH-PROFILE lawsuit in which Chinese painter Fan Zeng is trying to sue Shanghai-based Wenhui News and its two critics will open at Changping District People’s Court in Beijing this Friday.

    Fan took art critics Guo Qingxiang and Xie Chunyan to court after the two published reviews in the newspaper insinuating that Fan was not as talented as some had thought.

    In May last year, Guo’s essay “Artists Should Be Evaluated by Their Works” mentioned “a popular Chinese painter who appears frequently on TV and in newspapers selling his philosophy and opinions on art and literature.” Guo did not reveal the name of the artist but criticized him harshly.

    Wenhui News followed up Guo’s essay with two others by Sun Xun and Xie Chunyan insisting that “artists should let their work do the talking.” Xie’s essay also criticized openly “someone surnamed Fan who sells well and brags a lot.” “Money can buy many things, but can it buy the essence of art?” Xie asked in his essay.

    In September, Fan sued the newspaper asking for a public apology and 200,000 yuan (US$30,500) in reputation damages. He also charged Guo and Xie, asking for 5 million yuan and 200,000 yuan in damages respectively.

    Fan, aged 73, has appeared on CCTV lecturing on the Chinese classics. With his paintings selling at more than 100,000 yuan per square chi (about 0.11sqm), the artist generously donated 10 million yuan to Sichuan earthquake victims in 2008.

    A collector and researcher of Chinese painting and calligraphy, Guo is known for his art taste and being relentlessly candid. Having discovered many potential painters in the past 10 years, Guo himself is known as a dark horse in the art criticism circle.

    “A friend once asked me to purchase 200 of his paintings,” Guo said in his essay. “His paintings were not absurdly expensive then. I transferred 2 million yuan and soon received the first batch of works.”

    However, Guo said he found the paintings repetitious in theme and technique. “He calls it his own style by imitating Ren Bonian’s portraits and Li Kuchan’s flower-and-bird paintings.”

    Before delivering the second batch of paintings, Guo went to check them out at his studio. “I was surprised to find that he hung a dozen pieces of white paper on the wall and painted in the way a worker did on a factory assembly line — first heads, then outfits, then his signature, and finally his seal pressed on by his pupils. That’s like painting banknotes,” Guo said.

    Guo also provided photographs of Fan’s studio as evidence for the “assembly-line painting routine.”

    Xiao Wenquan, a Shenzhen-based lawyer, said Fan was unlikely to win.

    “Freedom of speech is a long accepted principle in art criticism. Moreover, the essays in Wenhui News did not specify the subject of criticism. It’s very unwise to claim that you are the person they criticize and sue them on this basis,” he said.

    “If what they said is untrue and intended maliciously to ruin one’s reputation, then we call it defamation. Otherwise, it’s just criticism.”

    (Li Dan)