Zhang Enli

signed in Pinyin and dated 94, framed

Private Asian Collection
Acquired by the present owner from the above

This work is generally in good condition. A minor instance of paint loss measuring 0.5 cm is noted on the white impasto at the center of the work which is only visible upon close inspection. When examined under ultraviolet light, there appears to be no evidence of restoration.
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The Poetic Aesthetics of the East
Zhang Enli

Due to his unique painting language, Zhang Enli occupies an important and prominent position among contemporary Chinese artists. Zhang was born in 1965, but he avoided the political fixation of many mainstream artists of his generation. His canvases never feature prominent political symbols, nor do they engage in the crude mockery that characterised Chinese art in the 1990s. Instead, he focuses on the study of brushwork itself, and his exhibits a distinctively traditional Chinese quality. Working with the tip of the brush, he re-examines painting itself. He shuttles between concrete and abstract, seeking clues about life in everyday objects and quotidian settings. The year 2000 was a watershed moment for Zhang that marked a major transition in his style. Two paintings in the present auction, Old Man and Bird (1994) (Lot 1075) and Wooden Shelf (2012) (Lot 1076), perfectly exemplify the two different phases of his creative career.

Born in Jilin province in 1965, Zhang Enli graduated from the Art Institute of the Wuxi University of Light Industry. In the 1990s, most of his works were inspired by his initial impressions of Shanghai. These scenes of city life reveal the artist’s interest in portraying human psychology. Stylistically, they betray the strong influence of German Expressionism. The artist later stated that his early portraits possessed an instinctual element, which perhaps we can interpret to be a certain restlessness about life. Laoren yu que was painted in 1994. The subject is one commonly spotted in Shanghai’s parks and alleyways: a local person with a birdcage. Much like the Dancing series that concluded this period of his career, Zhang used black as the main colour in Laoren yu que. The contrast of colours is intense, and the brushwork is coarse and bold. The elderly person in the painting stares intently at the crow in the cage. The imbalance of power between them creates a sense of tension suggestive of the relationships between hunters and prey in the big city.

Zhang’s first solo exhibition did not come until 2000, when the ShanghART gallery hosted “Dancing”, and his creative style changed in the years that followed. He painted more still lifes and fewer people, but more significantly, his paintings grew more abstract, and his brushwork began to exhibit the poetic style of Chinese ink painting. The artist deconstructed his still life subjects into the most basic lines, dots, and planes, transforming them into experiments within art itself. The subject of Mujiazi is a large wooden frame, but like many of the artist’s paintings from this period, the key of the painting is not the frame itself, but rather, the handling of space within the frame, and the study in perspective. The artist once stated, “Each artwork has a basic point. Some of them might be simply a kind of an experiment. When I painted a bathroom, it was a study of perspective, but also of line and the specific tiles, all mixed together. Another example is my paintings of tree trunks. From afar, they look like trees, but up close, they are no more than lines”.¹ For the viewer, Zhang Enli’s paintings possess psychological suggestions on a deeper level. There are many blank spaces in the wood frame itself, similar to his Container series. The frame is in fact an extension of the body, he explains: “It began with the basic recognition that the body is a kind of container. From there I thought of boxes, troughs, a big tree, an empty room, even small things like ashtrays or cigarette packs. From this little detail, I discovered something essential about objects, and that’s how containers became symbols for me”.²

Strictly in terms of the results on the canvas, Zhang Enli’s paintings masterfully illustrate what is “the fullness in simplicity, the magnificence in frugality, the virtue in subtlety, the tension in moving freely, the luxuriousness of brevity, and the vigour in restraint”. Through his painting process, the artist interprets the innate essence of objects, as Gu Zheng wrote in an essay that accompanied a 2010 Zhang Enli solo exhibition: “At a time in Chinese art when it is popular to infuse artworks with all sorts of external significance, his paintings, and every brushstroke within them, absolutely refuse to allow people to read in them any clear message or declaration. He asks the audience to draw back with him and reflect on the essence of the painting. He invites the audience to follow his colours and lines on a gradual discovery of his simple yet gorgeous depictions of the quotidian trifles of this world”.³ This style of painting—highly individual, attentive to perception and experience, and brimming with poetry—has given Zhang Enli an enduring position in the art world. His works have been collected and recognised by numerous international museums, including the Tate in London and the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

The artist once stated in an interview, “I make plain things beautiful”. Zhang Enli has distinguished himself from other Chinese contemporary artists by excavating the hidden poetry of objects. In recent years, his work has more frequently been exhibited in Western countries. As he has incorporated Eastern poetics into the Western-led field of contemporary painting, he has become an aesthetic standard-bearer for a new generation of Chinese artists.

¹ Yi xie yu yishu xianggan de shi xu ke duihua zhang enli, Xu Ke, 2008

² Hans Ulrich Obrist: The China Interviews, Office for Discourse Engineering

³ Zhang Enli huihua er zhang, Zhang Enli, Minsheng Art Museum, 2010