Posts

Feature Post.

The Village That Painted the World: Why Dafen Grew — and What It Reveals About Us

Image
  Author- Brian Hawkeswood                                       Nach unten scrollen für die deutsche Übersetzung There is a particular kind of astonishment one feels on first encountering the story of Dafen Village — a place that, at its height, was said to generate over six hundred million US dollars annually by producing hand-painted copies of other people’s art. Not prints. Not posters. Oil paintings. Thousands upon thousands of them. Sunflowers blooming in unison. Water lilies multiplied beyond nature. Starry skies laid down in shifts like factory steel. And one is tempted — as many artists are — to respond with indignation. How is it possible that ordinary painters struggle to sell a single canvas while an industrial enclave built upon imitation thrives? The answer is neither mysterious nor conspiratorial. It is economic, historical, and cultural. And perhaps more revealing abou...

The Slave Market and the Theatre of European Anxiety

Image
Author Brian Hawkeswood.                                                                                                   Nach unten scrollen für die deutsche Übersetzung https://artelbestudio.blogspot.com/2025/04/orientalist-beautiful-form-of-realism.html When Jean-Léon Gérôme exhibited The Slave Market in 1871, Europe was not an innocent observer of slavery. The Atlantic system had only recently been dismantled in parts of the Western world; Brazil would abolish slavery in 1888. European empires were expanding across Africa and the Middle East. Racial hierarchies were being codified in pseudo-scientific language. Anthropology, colonial administration, and academic painting shared an overlapping visual culture.         ...