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Xiaogang Zhang
1958
China
Born in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China.
For some years now, the works of this prominent figure on the avantgarde Chinese art scene have reached record prices in the sales rooms. His series of enigmatic family portraits, grouped together under the emblematic title Bloodlines, established his reputation in the 1990s. Reviving the Cultural Revolution tradition of family portraits, mixed with European Surrealism, this Chinese painter with a modern soul has made questions of identity and memory the core subjects of his investigations. Attempting a pictorial psychoanalysis of contemporary Chinese society, he presents its anxieties and traumas, stating all the while: “On the surface the faces in these portraits appear as calm as still water, but underneath there is great emotional turbulence.”
Text : Carole Vantroys.
Translation : Pamela Hargreaves.
For some years now, the works of this prominent figure on the avantgarde Chinese art scene have reached record prices in the sales rooms. His series of enigmatic family portraits, grouped together under the emblematic title Bloodlines, established his reputation in the 1990s. Reviving the Cultural Revolution tradition of family portraits, mixed with European Surrealism, this Chinese painter with a modern soul has made questions of identity and memory the core subjects of his investigations. Attempting a pictorial psychoanalysis of contemporary Chinese society, he presents its anxieties and traumas, stating all the while: “On the surface the faces in these portraits appear as calm as still water, but underneath there is great emotional turbulence.”
Text : Carole Vantroys.
Translation : Pamela Hargreaves.
Artwork of
Xiaogang Zhang
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