Dafen () is a suburb of
Buji,
Longgang, Shenzhen, in the province of Guangdong, China. Since 1989, the area has been an artists' village for the production of replicas of masterworks and
outsourcing
Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...
of original art creation as a specialised urban cottage industry.
History
In 1989, the painter Huang Jiang started copying paintings and has since been considered the founder of Dafen's replica industry.
In the early 1990s, a group of about twenty artists who trained at art academies took up residence under the leadership of businessman Huang Jiang. They produced dozens of replicas daily of
oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...
s by masters such as
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...
,
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...
,
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
,
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...
, and
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
.
In the 1990s, Huang sent a painting to
Walmart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
and received an order of 50,000 paintings, which he had to produce within fourteen days.
After the
2007–2008 financial crisis, Western demand declined and domestic buyers ordered
Chinese art
Chinese art is visual art that originated in or is practiced in China, Greater China or by Chinese artists. Art created by Chinese residing outside of China can also be considered a part of Chinese art when it is based in or draws on Chinese ...
copies, forcing a change in style.
As of 2014, 7,000 artists were based in Dafen, living and working in the factories, copying paintings, and five million paintings were being exported to the United States and Europe per year. Some artists can finish up to 100 paintings in twelve hours.
In 2018, 8,000 people lived in Dafen, and the local government promised to develop it into a tourist destination.
A 2019 publication estimated the Dafen area produced revenues of around US$630 million annually. Previously, talent was needed in the production, but the village has innovated with "large scale printers and clusters of tablets and phones ... use
for templating", so that minimal training is required.
Replicas
Official policy states that the replicas produced at Dafen Oil Painting Village are copied from artists who have died more than fifty years ago, and consequently out of
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
. However, the artists copied include
Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Amer ...
, who died in 1986.
Knockoffs of contemporary artists such as
Fernando Botero
Fernando Botero Angulo (born 19 April 1932) is a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor, born in Medellín. His signature style, also known as "Boterismo", depicts people and figures in large, exaggerated volume, which can represent political ...
and
Yue Minjun
Yue Minjun (; born 1962) is a contemporary Chinese artist based in Beijing, China. He is best known for oil paintings depicting himself in various settings, frozen in laughter. He has also reproduced this signature image in sculpture, watercolour ...
are also sold.
The village sells both originals and replicas. It is possible to commission paintings for low prices. The settlement is a gated community, recognisable by the large sculpture of a hand holding a paintbrush outside its gates.
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{coord, 22, 36, 34, N, 114, 08, 14, E, region:CN-44_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title
1989 establishments in China
Contemporary art galleries in China
Culture in Shenzhen
Longgang District, Shenzhen
Populated places established in 1989
Tourist attractions in Shenzhen
Villages in China