Zhang Xiaogang is a surrealist and symbolist painter from China. He is most known for his Bloodline series, a collection of work that consists primarily of monochrome portraits of Chinese people (“Zhang Xiaogang”). The year 1993 marked a watershed moment in Zhang Xiaogang’s artistic growth. For instance, he painted enchanting soliloquies in expressionistic and surrealistic styles in the 1980s and early 1990s (Sotheby’s). On the contrary, he neglected expressionism in 1993 to begin intensive interrogations on Chinese identity in an exclusively surrealist manner. This year demonstrated a shift from personal existentialist meditations toward inquests on national and collective heritage (Sotheby’s). The artist intended to transmit the inherent connection between the person and politics in Chinese society, mainly through his Bloodline series.
The concept of family, deeply embedded in Chinese society, is converted into a more specific ‘collective’ version in Zhang Xiaogang’s series of paintings. The art pieces have an uncannily captivating atmosphere that mixes the sadness of old photographs and lost moments in time with an unsettling surrealistic aesthetic (Sotheby’s). Zhang reopens a tale from the past and enriches its discourse with artistic ambiguity by expropriating the photographic medium’s promises of objectivity (Sotheby’s). Roslan et al. state that the discovery of a fascinating old image of Zhang’s mother when she was young was the artist’s primary inspiration for this collection (4). Between 1950 and 1960, personal medium-sized family portraits were shot to meet the official sense of public aesthetics and exhibit the idealized society mode (Roslan et al. 4). Moreover, Zhang Xiaogang reimagined historic family portraits from the Cultural Revolution.
Numerous unexpected red lines creep through some paintings, connecting the nameless and soulless people who are entirely defined by the power of collectivization. The red line might be seen as an artistic phantasm of a violent political discourse on race, class, and nation that culminated in murder and disaster, as well as the real split of families (Duffy-Boscagli 12). Zhang was striving to create the illusion of false pictures in the series to restore the past and lifestyle (Roslan et al. 4). The artist mentioned that the characteristics in the images appear calm. Nevertheless, there is an internal conflict behind them (Roslan et al. 4). Thus, in this state of struggle, the future remains hazy and unknown from generation to generation (Roslan et al. 4). Zhang remarked that the cultural revolution was more of a psychological than a historical phenomenon (Roslan et al. 4-5). Additionally, color spots on the faces are comparable to stage lights or birthmarks. Because old images are generally colorless or grey, it gives the appearance of a flashback.
To conclude, the pain of the Cultural Revolution is still felt in the lives of Chinese people decades later. Duffy-Boscagli claims that their trauma is carried down through families through generations: this is what the word Bloodline means (3). The artist incorporates pieces of his identity into the Cultural Revolution images in the foreground of each series piece. Finally, he demonstrates the inherent connection between the person and politics since one cannot exist without the other. Zhang Xiaogang makes deeply political art by highlighting this relationship. The artist used political symbols to demonstrate how political history is firmly ingrained in his identity, his family’s history, and, by extension, the fabric of every Chinese person (Duffy-Boscagli 18). Politics and personality, community and family, personal memory, and national history: the paintings demonstrate that these aspects are inextricably linked.
Works Cited
“Zhang Xiaogang: China’s Most Important Painter & His Bloodlines Series.”Public Delivery. Web.
Duffy-Boscagli, Biba. “Intrinsically Linked: Selfhood, Politics and Complex Emotions in Xiaogang’s Bloodline Series.”Johns Hopkins University, vol. 2, no. 1, 2021, pp. 1-24. Web.
Roslan, Aimi Atikah, et al. “The Psychology of Grey in Painting Backgrounds.” Idealogy Journal, vol. 7, no. 2, 2022, pp. 1-7. doi.org/10.24191/idealogy.v7i2.358.
Sotheby’s. “‘Bloodline – Big Family: No. 2’ from Zhang Xiaogang’s Era-Defining Series.” Sotheby’s, 2020. Web.