ILLUSTRATED:

This lot, "Bloodline - Big Family: Childhood No. 1" is painted in the style of the "childhood memento photos" typical of China in the 1950s and 1960s. It shows a little girl standing on a grey concrete floor against the background of a photo studio's artificial sky, a screen composed of daubed white clouds and blue ground color—a backdrop that adds a sinister touch to what should be a warm and happy picture. Holding a copy of the Quotations of Great Leaders, with the emblematic five-pointed star on the cover, the child stands straight, a vague sense of nervousness and fear in her eyes. The only thing that sticks out from the monotone gray are the red face and hair, while a patch of color, like a birthmark, on the girl's left cheek marks the one individual difference from other stereotypical photographs. And there is the red thread symbolizing the bloodline connecting the girl inside the painting with her relatives outside of it. In his series of "Big Family" pictures, Zhang explores the uniformity in an era when "public expression" and "public model" dominated all social life, only countered by lingering vestiges of the more private and personal "Bloodline," the residues of ineradicable individuality mirrored in the "spiritual birthmarks"—aberrant colored blemishes on the portrayed faces.

"I have always been interested in the relationship between public norms and private space. It's a topic that has bothered me for many years, until I discovered that in Chinese culture, people subconsciously attempt to strike a fine balance between the two. I think this is an extremely fascinating subject."

"It is absolutely true that we live in a 'big family.' Within this 'family,' we have to learn how to deal with and accommodate all kinds of blood relationships. And all these bloodlines and inherited qualities connect us to something bigger, to a collective, to society as a whole. This concept of 'collectivism' is deeply ingrained in our consciousness." - Zhang Xiaogang

It is perhaps necessary to remind audiences that even Zhang Xiaogang, one of the best-known and most sought-after among contemporary Chinese artists, only developed his current style and format after a long period of experimenting with many different techniques and forms of expression; and each of the previous steps and phases made an important contribution in pushing him to the present stage of artistic maturity and international renown.

Born in Kunming in Yunnan Province, in 1958, Zhang graduated from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 1982, a time when China had just entered a period of intellectual and artistic liberation. Voraciously absorbing the influences of Western philosophy and aesthetics, he particularly admired the work of post-impressionist painters such as Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. At the same time his outlook was shaped by avant-garde French existentialism, as well as absurdist drama and Salvador Dali, one of the masters of surrealism. In fact, much of Zhang's work from the 80s displays a strong surrealist bent, and during those years he was also a member of the Southwest Arts Group and associated with the New Wave Arts movement that sought to establish a more humanist and individual approach to painting and art.

In 1984, Zhang was hospitalized with acute alcohol poisoning, an experience that triggered a period of artistic exploration and expression in the surrealist style, in which the artist was seeking answers to questions about existence, life and death? Zhang once said about his work of those years, known as his "Ghost Period," that it represented the outcry of a twisted and tortured soul, experiencing the terror and tragedy of the fine line between life and death. He would eventually emerge from this dark phase in 1987, when he painted the "Lost in the Dreams" series and settled into a somewhat more stable life as a lecturer at his alma mater. Instead of focusing on death and gloom, his creative process now took its inspiration from Eastern mysticism and Taoist philosophy.

In 1992, Zhang went to Europe for the first time and spent three months traveling around to visit many museums and galleries. Afterwards, he was confused, realizing that even if he'd spend his entire life in the attempt, he still wouldn't be able to reach the heights embodied by the European masters. But actually it would be closer to the mark to say that he became aware of the simple fact that while what he had studied and learned so far came almost exclusively from the West, he himself was born and had grown up in a different cultural sphere, well outside that of Europe. Zhang suddenly understood that maybe it was necessary to give up his pursuit of painting technique, and stop emulating Western art. He realized the great and fundamental importance of personal experience, of profound conceptions and ideas that lie at the heart of all true art. The first thing he went to see after his return from Europe to China was the Tiananmen, the Gate of Heavenly Peace, and the second was pictures from his own childhood. Looking at the latter, he found them to be very private, yet at the same time also affected by social norms and standards. All these family pictures had been taken at a photo studio, and their structure and composition reveals much about Chinese aesthetic and ideological patterns and norms, about the customary answers to questions such as, "What does a good photograph look like?" or "What is the beau ideal for the typical Chinese?" Naturally, back in those days one obligatory requirement was to show a positive, determined attitude and unconditional loyalty to the state. Zhang wanted to capture the spirit behind these photos, and from this germ his "Bloodline - Big Family: Big Family" series grew.

"I often find myself, quite subconsciously, trying to get under the surface of things and get a taste of what lies hidden behind the outer appearances, those things we usually consider to be 'secret.' … This probably means that it's not my destiny to become one of those 'socially and culturally involved' artists who show great concern for public issues, and even less likely that I'll ever be one of those 'systematic types' who go for a mannerist approach. Rather, I'm in the habit of treating art and life as an organic whole. Art comes from the soul. I believe that intuition is more important than abstract concepts, and that firsthand experience beats theoretical knowledge. I place all emphasis on emotional depth, but I do admire the radiance of rationality." From Zhang's self-assessment, it is not difficult to perceive that his art is characterized by a considerable degree of "closedness" and "privateness." He candidly admits that he prefers keeping a distance in observing and experiencing reality, including towards his own dark history, using uncritical artistic language and subtle expression that also suggests something of an inner soliloquy.

With "Family Portrait" in 1993, Zhang Xiaogang entered a new phase, relinquishing for the time being his pursuit of expressionist techniques and enhanced structure and composition, and picking up the art of charcoal drawing, a very popular form of street art in early modern China. This posed a bit of a conundrum for art critics at the time, who felt, to begin with, that family portraits were a highly conventional subject brimming with personal undertones. And how could there be much artistic value in interpreting this subject through the somewhat clichéd medium of carbon drawing? Yet there can be little doubt that through his new approach, Zhang managed to capture one of the most common collective experiences, shared by practically every Chinese household in the 1950s and 60s: the attempt to create the perfect family portrait. The artist once recalled how he was holding one of these old photographs in his hand, and couldn't help being moved by its carefully retouched artificiality. It was exactly this "retouched artificiality" that was typical not just of the family portraits, but, even more essentially, of the families themselves in that era. Through this extension, we can see a snap shot of that period of time and its particular fragility, numbness, and tension and how Zhang has captured the pulse of those long gone days.

"The figures of the 'Big Family' series are derived from three influences: one are the old family photographs I have at home; pictures of my father and mother when they were young, their images linked to mine and that of other family members by a strange sense of conformity and random interchangeability, linked, as it were, by our blood relationship, like a fine but firm red thread binding us together with the force of archetypal consciousness and endless genealogy. The second influence is the Western technique of perspective drawing; the third the generic style and stereotyped character of the old photos, their sheer monotony and formulaic repetition, giving an impression of anonymous uniformity." - Zhang Xiaogang

Unlike the early works of the series, which consisted mainly of group portraits, "Childhood No. 1" from 1998 shows a single figure, as is not uncommon in the later "Big Family" paintings. This can probably also be read as a reflection of China's one child policy, under which only children tend to be treated as "little emperors," and "childhood memento photos" have soared in popularity. Yet in the mind of many Chinese, the dominant format and style of such pictures is still determined by parameters set in public photo studios during the pre-reform era. Photo studios throughout China shared a standard formula for taking family or individual portraits. Through his painted portraits, Zhang exposes some of the elusive and ambiguous qualities that make up the concepts of family, society, and nation in China, and through unspeakable social upheavals and historical traumas that continue to affect and shape his country.

Zhang Xiaogang's work has been shown at numerous exhibitions in Europe, the Americas, Australia, and Asia, and many of his pieces are held in private and public collections, including those of major galleries and museums. His "Big Family" series in particular is renowned for its understated expression of the collective psychological mood and memory of an era. Rooted in his own emotions and viewpoints, Zhang employs his unique artistic language to voice his observations and experiences, to depict his impressions of immediate and extended family, of society and collective consciousness. Zhang Xiaogang thus represents one of the most complex and profound of China's contemporary artists.