Zhang Xiaogang

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although there are more pink tones to the face in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. No restoration is apparent under ultra violet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

"Old family photos and those charcoal drawings you see everywhere on the streets of China... touched my heart... Perhaps because even today those old images not only satisfy people's love of reminiscence but also contain a simple directness and a unique visual language."

The artist cited in: Lorenzo Sassoli De Bianchi, From Heaven to Earth, Chinese Contemporary Painting, Bologna 2008, p. 243.


Executed in 2005, Girl is archetypal of Zhang Xiaogang’s highly acclaimed Bloodlines series which he began in 1993. Representing the artist’s sole concern for over a decade, this body of work invokes a monumental dialogue with the revolutionary spirit of the Chinese avant-garde. The present work stands testament to the maturation of the artist’s style by delivering with full power the sophisticated conceptual language that has earned Zhang Xiaogang recognition as one of the most influential painters in modern China.

The austerity and palpable atmosphere of Girl encapsulates a critical juncture in twentieth-century Chinese history, conjuring allusions to received impressions of China under the authoritarian aegis of Chairman Mao, whose influence is still felt today. Although painted at a time of fast-paced change and modernization in China, Zhang Xiaogang’s paintings look back to the country’s turbulent political past, to a time when the misjudged policies of the Cultural Revolution brought protracted periods of widespread social, economic and political chaos. Following the revolution, Mao’s regime sought to dismantle the traditional order and hierarchy that had been in place since Confucius in 500BC, and with the rise of Communism the family metaphor was increasingly applied to the nation. In this sense, Zhang’s generic, anonymous subjects could be read as a metaphor for the whole nation under the leveling principles of the Cultural Revolution, in which biological bonds of family were replaced by bonds of political comradeship.

Working from vintage black and white photographs, Zhang Xiaogang taps into the sensibilities of that era, identifying something quintessentially Chinese in the formality of the poses and the seriousness of attitudes that his sitters project. Indeed, attuned to this by-gone era via the link of photography, Zhang Xiaogang’s work owes a pronounced debt to Gerhard Richter’s black and white Photo Paintings from the 1960s. Set against a nebulous grey background, the yellow colouration tinting the young girl’s right eye and the presence of a trailing, delicate red line links her with the entire dynasty of Zhang Xiaogang’s haunting portraits. In the context of Zhang Xiaogang’s art we feel instinctively that these features are troubling. These bloodlines are the carriers of heritage but also – and more importantly – inheritance. While on one level Girl stands as 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. This is particularly pertinent to the artist’s personal family history. Firstly, in the mid-1980s, the artist came close to death from alcoholism; secondly, and more importantly, his mother suffered from schizophrenia.  Zhang Xiaogang, the youngest of four boys, suffered the prejudice that mental illness fomented. As the artist learned to his cost, ostracision from society was the inevitable result of the stigma attached to congenital defect. For Zhang Xiaogang, who has a young daughter himself, there is a tangible fear present within Girl of the incipience of his mother’s illness and the guilt attached to the thought of passing the defect on to the next generation. This fear is an ominous subtext to the painting, in which the potential for transmission besmirches the patches of light that touch the figures’ faces, made all the more tragic by the hauntingly liquid innocence of the eyes.

Standing before this poignant work, one senses the personal empathy of the artist as he connects with the trauma endured by himself and his entire generation. As the limpid, watery eyes of the sitter stares out at us like glistening black pearls, there is a sense of catharsis for tangibly endured suffering. When seen in its totality the vast artistic project of the Bloodlines series paints a vivid picture of familial and societal relations at a pivotal moment in modern history.