Zhang Xiaogang is considered one of the most important artists in the contemporary Chinese art world. He was born in 1958 in the city of Kunming in the Chinese province of Yunnan. His parents encouraged him to take up art at an early age – their main concern was for their son to stay at home and not get into trouble. He came of age during the political upheavals of the 1960s and 70s – known as the Cultural Revolution – a period that continues to influence his oeuvre today. After studying at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts from 1976 to 1982, the hoped-for teaching position failed to materialise and Xiaogang fell into a severe depression, suffered from alcoholism and was hospitalised. He also deals with this dark period in some of his works.
Inspired by family photos from the time of the Cultural Revolution as well as the European tradition of Surrealism, his works deal with the concept of identity within the Chinese culture of collectivism. In his surreal portraits, often rendered in shades of grey, Xiaogang depicts a never-ending abundance of “family”: Figures that are disturbingly similar, yet differentiated from one another by minute differences. In the series “Bloodline”, which made the artist world-famous almost overnight, all the characters are a variation of his own mother, and he does not assign them a gender in each case.
Not only the nameless and timeless figures, but also a number of symbols appear again and again in his works, especially in the series “Amnesia and Memory”. The red baby, with which he recalls all his memories of childhood repressed for decades – a contrast of positive life symbol and strict one-child policy, or the television, which serves both information and propaganda purposes, are striking examples. In coming to terms with the past, he developed a style all his own and his paintings became the epitome of new, contemporary Chinese art.