Zhang Xiaogang is a contemporary Chinese artist who is best known for his surrealist style portraits. Starting from the early 1990’s, the artist painted a series of portraits which were inspired by family photos during the cultural revolution; this critically acclaimed series was called “Bloodline”. The “Bloodline” series marked Zhang Xiaogang’s maturity as an artist and he was able to incorporate many of his childhood experiences into this series. The traumatic experiences of growing up during the cultural revolution is reflected within this series. Zhang Xiangang’s parents were both sent to study campus in remote countryside of China, making him emotionally distant from his family. Even after the cultural revolution, he never had a close relationship with his father and his mother suffered from mental illness. The idea of sharing an intimate personal moment or emotion is an avant-garde idea and a distant departure from the socialist realist art of Mao era. Many of Zhang Xiaogang’s contemporaries also grew up during the turbulent era of the cultural revolution and have many oppressed emotions for them to share with the world. The Bloodline series acts as a brief historical lesson for the viewers who are interested in arts and the artists that emerge during the late 20^th century. The core idea of this exhibition will focus on the Bloodline series and its representation of family dynamic and the power of visual imagery to express emotions and memories that were been oppressed.

Bibliography

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Huang, N. “Locating Family Portraits: Everyday Images from 1970s China.” Positions: Asia Critique18, no. 3 (2010): 671-93. doi:10.1215/10679847-2010-018.

“Zhang Xiaogang: In Conversation.” Phillips. Accessed February 08, 2019. https://www.phillips.com/article/32296875/zhang-xiaogang-in-conversation.