New apps make art shopping easier for new buyers

The Ywart app introduces artists, such as Zhao Yiqian pictured and his works. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Two art apps were launched recently in Beijing to attract a growing middle-class audience that have potential to buy art either for their homes or for collections. Rather than simply establish online art-trading platforms, the newly released art apps－Ywart and Artcm－use more high-tech approaches and follow new trends on the social networking services such as live streaming.

With a photo of his or her room, a user can put the selected art work from the Ywart app in any place in the photo to see whether it matches with his room or not. The app includes an interactive option to put shows online using virtual reality.

Beijing-based Ywart was founded by Zhu Tong, a curator and a former museum director who has curated shows both at home and abroad over the past decade. It brings together established artists in China who want to sell their works, mainly paintings and sculptures, priced from a few thousand to hundreds of thousand yuan.

Zhu says he wants to help people to buy high-quality art online and project art out from museums to people's daily lives.

A curator with lots of artist friends, Zhu is confident about his product. His art app introduces works by holding special shows online and offers professional introductions to each piece. It has works from about 3,000 artists, including established ones like Zhou Chunya, Zhong Biao and Xiang Jing and emerging young artists.