AMSTERDAM ART FACTORY SELLS WHAT CONSUMERS WANT
by Judi Seebus

Amsterdam- An ad man and an art expert are shaking up the Dutch gallery world with a new venture that has all the characteristics of a convenience store. Located in a disused factory in Amsterdam, the Kunstfabriek sells original oil paintings designed by a Dutch team but executed by artists in China.
"Most people want a realistic painting but the problem is they are very labour-intensive and therefore expensive", says Jan Peter van Doorn, the 48-year old co-founder of De Kunstfabriek (art-factory), which opens this month. "What we've done is to split up the painting process in two parts: the concept and the execution. We come up with an idea, take a photo of it and then leave it to our artists in China to make the actual painting. The same thing happens in the fashion world or shoe design. Why not in painting?"
'Chinese artists are well-known for the quality of their realistic works', adds co-owner Bert-Jan van Egteren, 34, who worked as a contemporary art expert for Christie's auction house. 'Most contemporary artists in Holland work with multimedia these days, but academies in places like China and eastern Europe still belong to the old school. Chinese artists are affordable and they're much better than most Dutch painters.'
Indeed, some of the 200 paintings for sale at the Kunstfabriek are so realistic they look like a giant photograph. All the works are one-offs but they bear the stamp of the Kunstfabriek rather than the signature of the artist 'to indicate they were produced by a team'.
The Kunstfabriek is targeting a broad public with relatively low prices. Thanks to the low level of wages in China, the paintings currently go for between NLG 1000,-- ($ 500) and NLG 2500,-. Contacts are also being developed with artists in low-wage eastern European countries such as Bulgaria and Rumania.
But Van Doorn dismisses charges that Kunstfabriek is exploiting low-wage workers in developing countries.' It's not our aim to provide development aid. But the fact is we've been welcomed in China with open arms. We have good contacts with our artists..we pay them well, at least twice as much as the going rate.'
The works on display at the Kunstfabriek encompass a variety of variety of genres including landscapes, still lifes, interiors and nudes. Many of the landscapes are typically Dutch, featuring black-and-white Frisian cows or an old windmill. Some are surrealistic due to computer manipulations and unlikely colour combinations.
Potential buyers are able to steer the design to some extent, Van Doorn concedes, but there are limits.' It's not possible to order a copy of a holiday snapshot', he says.
So far, at least, Kunstfabriek appears to have filled a need. In it's first week, it sold 70 works while breakeven point is estimated at 550 sales a year. The two founders have pumped around NLG 250.000 into the project and now combine Kunstfabriek management and design tasks with another activities.
Van Doorn and Van Egteren have no pretentions about their own artistic skills-'we're just amateurs' - and readily concede that the Chinese painters consider the work a step backwards in their own artistic development.'In their eyes, our paintings have nothing to do with art,' notes Van Egteren.
The pair also acknowledge that their innovative concept has incited the wrath of the established art world. 'There has been a lot of criticism that what we produce is kitsch, not art,' confirms Van Egteren. 'There have even been phone threats!'
'But discussion isn't necessarily a bad thing,' adds Van Doorn, with the knowing air of a man with two decades of experience in the advertising industry. 'The only thing that counts for us is whether the buyers like painting or not'.

Het Financiële Dagblad, April 17, 1999