'It took me a few years to understand how to buy the art I wanted,' the Taipei-based collector says

From Hollywood to Hong Kong: Rudy Tseng reflects on his journey in the artworld

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While establishing a successful career in the advertising and film industries, Rudy Tseng has also played a defining role in the contemporary Asian art scene, both locally and abroad, since the 1990s. The Taipei-based collector and patron is now a member of the Tate Asia-Pacific Acquisitions Committee and the National Gallery Singapore Board. Here, he reflects on his passionate journey through the artworld,&nbsp;mirroring the rapid globalization of the last three decades.

	Clément Dirié: Do you remember the first time you encountered art?


	Rudy Tseng: I came across modern Taiwanese painting when I was attending high school in Taipei. I was 15 years old and&nbsp;totally into the poetry of the time. I even&nbsp;tried to write a little bit myself.&nbsp;Through poetry, I came to fine art, reading monographs about Japanese artists and the first generation of modern Taiwanese artists. I became fascinated by their lives and started visiting the gallery area in Taipei. There were 15 to 20 galleries in that neighborhood, but my family&nbsp;didn't really visit them;&nbsp;I started doing so&nbsp;and learning about art on my own.

CD: At what point did you start collecting?RT: Much later, when I was about 35 and working in the film industry. I had some savings, so I made my first purchase: a painting by the New York City–based Chinese artist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/40275/Che-Chuang" target="_blank">Chuang Che</a>, who was a&nbsp;member of the Fifth Moon Group, which was founded in 1957 and was instrumental in Taiwan's Modern art movement. I bought the piece from an auction house, because at that point&nbsp;I didn't know the difference between the primary and the secondary markets. Contemporary artists weren't represented by commercial galleries, people thought contemporary artists were a bit mad, and their art was said to be ‘not collectable’.But I quickly became very serious about collecting local artists and modern Chinese painters. I also became interested in contemporary Chinese artists working overseas –&nbsp;in the 1990s, many of them&nbsp;left China and relocated to Paris, Germany, and&nbsp;New York City – and&nbsp;I bought their works at auction, too. Each spring and fall, I received auction catalogs and&nbsp;researched&nbsp;what I thought I might&nbsp;buy. Sotheby’s and Christie’s have had auctions dedicated to Modern and Postwar art in Taipei for a long time.At the time&nbsp;I was also working very hard, so when I traveled, it was primarily&nbsp;to Hollywood. I had little time to visit museums or galleries, but I did start meeting people in the artworld. One of these people was Eugene Tan, who was pursuing his PhD in art history in London and is now the director of the National Gallery Singapore. I spent some time with him in London, where he introduced me to artists, and after a few months, I started collecting contemporary art. The core of my current collection started then, around 1997–98.

CD: Being in London in the mid-1990s must have been quite an experience – you bought works by the Young British Artists and other avant-garde artists. What was it like to bring those works back to Taipei and show them to your friends?RT: When my friends visited my house at that time, they considered me a little mad. They laughed at me and said&nbsp;I was collecting garbage. For instance, I had The&nbsp;Doomsday [1997],&nbsp;an installation by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8272/Huang-Yong-Ping" target="_blank">Huang Yong Ping</a>, which&nbsp;deals with the UK's handover of&nbsp;Hong Kong to China: He had manufactured a large rice bowl and filled it with junk food bought in London; the food was supposed to expire by July 1, 1997. I always had to explain that it was an artwork; my friends would look at me and ask if I was sure the junk food was part of the work.CD: When did you attend Art Basel for the first time?RT: The first time I went to Basel was in 2007. I had been collecting for a while, but when I visited Art Basel, I felt like I was nothing. I freaked out. I remember I first walked around the ground floor and there were a number of Picassos – I wondered if they were real!CD: Did you buy anything?RT: No, I didn’t. I didn’t know how.&nbsp;My first years at Art Basel in Basel were really confusing. It took me a few years to understand how to communicate and buy the artwork I wanted. Also,&nbsp;I was with 30 collectors and gallerists from Taipei&nbsp;and we moved as a group, so it was difficult&nbsp;to talk to gallerists about specific works.&nbsp;That first year,&nbsp;just being in Basel, in Switzerland, in Europe, was an experience, which&nbsp;reminds&nbsp;me of another funny memory: Some members of our group wanted to eat Chinese food, so we found a restaurant and&nbsp;waited for a very long time, yet when the noodles came they weren’t even cooked. When we finished eating, the chef came out of the kitchen – he was a Mexican guy!&nbsp;

CD: Can you tell me about Art Basel in Hong Kong?


	RT: When ART HK, the fair that preceded&nbsp;Art Basel, started in 2008, the director, Magnus Renfrew, asked me to be on the board and I said yes. When&nbsp;Art Basel took over in 2013, it became the must-see fair&nbsp;for everyone in Asia. I haven't been to Art Basel in Miami Beach yet, although I know the city quite well. When I was running Walt Disney International in Taiwan, we had a meeting in Miami&nbsp;every two years. I hope to go very soon. I visit Art Basel in Basel almost every year.

	CD:&nbsp;Since you have&nbsp;worked for an international company like Disney,&nbsp;I’m curious to hear your thoughts on the globalization of the artworld. In a way, you are a testament to this development, having first collected Taiwanese artists, then Chinese and Japanese artists, and now,&nbsp;artists from around the world.

	RT: Each collector has their own strategy. I know very well what I am going to collect, not what others might collect.&nbsp;Becoming a collector is a learning process and demands patience. I think globalization makes the artworld very different, but some&nbsp;regional specificities&nbsp;remain. Each Art Basel fair, for instance, has its own identity. Art Basel in Basel is more focused on European artists and galleries, whereas Art Basel in Hong Kong is more focused on Asian artists and&nbsp;30 to&nbsp;40% of the participating galleries are&nbsp;from the region. Then, in Miami, the focus is more on American and Latin American artists and galleries. You have to know what you want.

	With globalization and digitalization, the rules of the game have changed. I find it much more exciting to&nbsp;queue at a VIP preview hoping to reach a specific gallery before anyone else rather than receiving PDFs two weeks before the fair. But one positive&nbsp;aspect of globalization is that American collectors are acquiring&nbsp;Asian artists and Asian collectors are acquiring Latin American artists. For example,&nbsp;I recently acquired a few&nbsp;pieces by the Mexican artist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7082/Abraham-Cruzvillegas" target="_blank">Abraham Cruzvillegas</a>;&nbsp;I don’t think this would have happened 15 years ago.

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'It took me a few years to understand how to buy the art I wanted,' the Taipei-based collector says