Lot 2
  • 2

Zhang Xiaogang

Estimate
150,000 - 200,000 GBP
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Description

  • Zhang Xiaogang
  • Bloodlines Series: Girl with Grey Background
  • signed and dated 1995
  • oil on canvas
  • 70 by 50cm.
  • 27½ by 19¾in.

Provenance

Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1995

Literature

Hanart TZ Gallery and Galerie Enrico Navarra, Eds., Umbilical Cord of History: Paintings by Zhang Xiaogang, Paris 2004, p. 77, illustrated in colour

Catalogue Note

Executed in 1995, three years following his debut at the Sao Paolo Biennial which first brought him international recognition, Girl with Grey Background is a stunning example emerging from Zhang Xiaogang's most highly acclaimed body of work: the Bloodlines Series. Begun in 1994, a period characterized by a deep cultural identity crisis in China following the bloody events of Tiananmen Square in 1989, this pertinent series has come to embody the revolutionary spirit of Chinese avant-garde art.

 

Exquisitely painted, Zhang's Girl with Grey Background's soft style is a synthesis of Richteresque paint handling (he studied the latter's work on a visit Germany in 1992) and the traditional approach derived from ancient Chinese chalk drawings. On closer inspection, we see thinly painted electric-red veins emphasizing the ever-present family bloodlines; most immediately, however, we are struck by the pathos of the ruefully haunting liquid eyes that stare out at us. The left eye in particular is slightly mysterious, almost gazing off-centre in an undetermined direction.  Adding an element of intrigue, it is difficult to tell if she is looking at us or away from us - or perhaps that it is a hereditary trait that was passed down through the bloodlines.  The red bloodlines, on the one hand the tangible expression of the branches of the family tree, are the carriers of heritage but also - and more importantly - heredity.  Zhang's work has a very personal quality as well and Girl with Grey Background is steeped in the family experiences of his own life.  In the present work, the genetic defect is evident in the slightly lazy left eye of the girl while curiously enough, Zhang's brother suffered the same genetic quirk.  The incredible depth of the monochromatic and softly painted background hypnotically draws the viewer into the picture and evokes sensations of serenity and stillness.

 

While on one level Girl with Grey Background is a metaphor for the destructive aspects of China's era of revolutionary struggle, it is also Zhang's potent personal metaphor for human biology and the power of individual genes to transmit disease from one generation to the next.  The flawless handling of paint and pristine execution Zhang employs in Girl with Grey Background make it one of the most enigmatic works from his celebrated Bloodlines series.