“Big Family”

In my study this morning I found, folded in a copy of Granta 89, a New York Times article from last year about the Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang. Here are a few lines from the article by way of introduction: “Mr Zhang, 47, is one of China’s best-known artists. For years, his works–like those of other avant-garde artists of his generation–could not be exhibited in China, often because they were deemed too modern or politically questionable… Much of Mr Zhang’s acclaim over the last decade stems from a series, called ‘Bloodline: Big Family,’ of largely largely black-and-white paintings inspired by formal family photographs of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Mr Zhang’s rendering of these portraits–the figures often devoid of emotion, seemingly trapped in a time that still defies explanation–has become his trademark. Few other Chinese artists’ works are so easily identifiable here, or so popular.”

zhang-xiaogang