Evolution of a master

Zhang Xiaogang says his latest show goes beyond intellectual expression — it gets physical, Zhang Zixuan reports.

For the first time, artist Zhang Xiaogang says, he decided to set free his brain and let the hand take control.

The 54-year-old painter has been crowned with many titles, such as "Chinese contemporary art icon" and "China's most expensive living painter".

Usually dressed in jeans, sneakers and a cap, the low-key artist has never really gotten used to such accolades. What he seeks is the gratification the act of painting brings him.

"When it becomes a physical demand, the drive is infinite," Zhang says.

In a specially built black space within Pace Gallery Beijing, his ongoing solo exhibition features his newest paintings created over the past two years. This time Zhang has refused to be confined by a preset theme, but has been following his body's instruction.

The artist insists he feels and follows the delicate changes in his muscles as he works. He totally indulges himself in the process of art-making, which is "primordial, manual and fascinating" as he describes it — stroke by stroke and piece by piece, without predicting what the next one is going to be like.

He also believes a work has its own life, which is supposed to inspire him.

"When I forgot about (being in the) vanguard and returned to painting itself, all my childhood memories and my feelings toward modern life start to visualize and guide me somewhere, which makes me very excited," he says.

Since the start of his very successful Bloodline — Big Family series in the mid-1990s, Zhang has witnessed and experienced a particular history of China.

"Zhang is a conservative artist. His art originates from the past and emphasizes one's interrelationship with the past, which takes us back to a world with roots, warmth and emotional tension," observes Leng Lin, chief executive of Pace Gallery Beijing and curator of the exhibition.

"To some extent," Zhang confesses, "I am a pessimist, and I don't believe in the future.

Adding that the arch-criminal is rapid change, he says that "looking back makes me dependable".

As a result, symbols that represent the past, such as the light bulb and the flashlight, recur in his new works. Several of his works feature the plum blossom, a symbol he has embraced since 2009.

The painter found that in the published volumes of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), plum blossoms painted by the emperors have a sense of loneliness. But in the revolutionary age, the plum blossom evolved into the embodiment of the revolutionist.

Both meanings have influenced Zhang. From his modern point of view, the plum blossom becomes the magnification of bonsai, which indicates family.

"When something has to be said, it becomes a language itself," says the artist, adding he is not into creating a literal record but capturing the wish for memory.

"The memory has been rewritten all the time. I'm not a historian, so authenticity is not important to me at all," he says.

The work Father and Son combines his childhood memory as a son and his present life as a father to his daughter. In this way he "makes time travel, convert and create a new space".

He also puts completely irrelevant objects together to create a sense of absurdity and misplacement.

He lets the plum branches lie on a bed, for instance, or mixes the plum blossom with medicine bottles.

"Zhang Xiaogang's ‘amnesia' is the space of creative play where past and present, remembering and forgetting, the ‘me' and ‘not me' come together," US art historian and art critic Jonathan Fineberg writes in the article The Space of Amnesia: Zhang Xiaogang's New Work.

"As the longest-lasting contemporary Chinese artist, Zhang constantly retains the stimulation from those elements that he had feelings for," echoes Leng, the curator. "He doesn't narrow down to a specific direction, but expresses his sentiments on canvas as much as he can."

Although religiously unaffiliated, Zhang does believe there is a certain divinity existing in the world, which becomes manifest in fine art.

"When an artist can't explain why he or she expresses in a specific way, that's the divinity of fine art," he says.

During the last decade Zhang describes himself as "painstaking and split". In that time, he has held eight solo exhibitions and tried different art approaches such as text and sculpture.

Overwork eventually led to severe heart disease and bypass surgery in 2010.

Since then, the artist has given up alcohol, smoking and coffee to cope with his fragile health. By making these lifestyle changes, Zhang says he can work continuously for 10 hours.

He has even assembled a morning exercise group on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, with netizens from all over China. At the opening ceremony of Zhang's latest solo exhibition, the group members came to Beijing and met in reality for the first time.

With assistance from his contract gallery, Pace Beijing, the artist says he can concentrate solely on creation instead of extending a legacy. In 2013 the artist will present solo exhibitions at Pace Gallery shows in New York and London.

But Zhang admits that the huge success of the Big Family series has been overshadowing his later growth — a burden if not an outright curse.

"But that's the fate of being an artist. I have already been very lucky and happy," Zhang stresses in his consistently moderate tone. "Now my biggest wish is to improve every year, even if only a little bit."

Contact the writer at

zhangzixuan@chinadaily.com.cn.

IF YOU GO

10 am-6 pm, daily except Monday, until Feb 28. Pace Gallery Beijing, 798 Art Zone, 2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-5978-9781.