Paintings

Chinese Oil

About Zhang Xiaogang - a Chinese Artist

Zhang Xiaogang was born on 1958 in Kunming, Yunnan province,CHINA. Zhang Xiaogang’s paintings engage with the notion of identity within the Chinese culture of collectivism. Basing his work around the concept of ‘family’ –immediate, extended, and societal – Zhang’s portraits depict an endless genealogy of imagined forebears and progenitors, each unnervingly similar and distinguished by minute difference. Often painted in black and white, Zhang’s portraits translate the language of photography into paint. Drawing from the generic quality of formal photo studio poses and greyscale palette, Zhang’s figures are nameless and timeless: a series of individual histories represented within the strict confines of formula.

Zhang Xiaogang’s work is usually based on its iconography and style, which reveal a strong consistency whether the works are studied from the angle of artistic intention or personal history. If we look at the “phenomenon” of Zhang Xiaogang, and consider elements of his art that have helped to establish his position in the art world, we can look away from Zhang’s psychological and personal history, to focus on his contributions to artistic language in contemporary Chinese art. Zhang Xiaogang’s art has become a canon of contemporary Chinese oil painting, and its merits depend very much on the fact that he has found new solutions to harnessing western classical academic technique (a standard in Chinese academies) to turn it into an indigenous artistic language. Zhang Xiaogang is very much a product of the Chinese art academy system, and out of this heritage he has developed an iconography and identified a special sensibility that in many ways define this era. Because Zhang’s footing is within the academy system, therefore the system may also claim credit for his success.

Zhang has achieved this by bringing together a number of polarities. Zhang uses a technique based on western academic realism to suggest unreality and illusion; he portrays a private insular world by means of a public artistic language, hinting at unspoken public trauma through individuals’ secrets. Over twenty years, Zhang has managed to resolve his own stylistic passage from an early expressionistic period to a form of classicism.This solution makes a cultural connection with the pioneering era when western painting technique was first successfully borrowed by popular art to portray the figure, when it was adapted to mass culture in the spirit of popular folk taste. It is therefore close to traditional Chinese taste, hence successful in making claims to be a new paradigm.

Selected Exhibitions:-

2000

• Max Protetch Gallery, New York

1999

• Galerie de France, Paris

1989

• Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts,Chongqing

Conclusions:

Zhang Xiaogang’s work is usually based on its iconography and style, which reveal a strong consistency whether the works are studied from the angle of artistic intention or personal history. He had focused on his contributions to artistic language in contemporary Chinese art.

What to Do Next...

If you want any information about Zhang Xiaogang or looking for his paintings please visit us on http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/zhang_xiaogang.htm

About the Author

View Zhang Xiaogang paintings, biography, solo exhibitions, group exhibitions and resource of Zhang Xiaogang artist. View art online at The Saatchi Gallery - London contemporary art gallery. Zhang Xiaogang

Is the reason why asians are so chubby because they eat foods that contain tons of sodium and oil from chinese?

i'm talking about eating orange/kung pao chicken foods that are loaded with sodium and oils, oils=fat and too much sodium causes swelling and bloating and asians tend to bloat in the face and stomach when they have excess fat.

I think you have to define what you mean by "asians." There have been various definitions over time (history) as to what constitutes Asia (area). There are also different cultural or racial groups in what would be called Asia today. I suspect that you are talking of perhaps one or two groups. Even so, "rounded" features don't mean that foods cause those features unless you are speaking of actual obesity and not features that are distinctive of a racial grouping.

If you are speaking of obesity, I would tend to agree with the individual that mentioned alteration in food eating habits, e.g. junk foods. That can be seen in the "Native American" population since WWII (that population theorized to have originated in Asia). There are remarkably good medical records that were kept by the military from the 19th century. When these groups started to adopt the "Coke and Potato Chip Diet," they not only tended to become obese but develop diseases not generally seen in their population such as Diabetes melitus. The "D.m." actually was worse than that seen in the general caucasian population. There is a small tribal group in California that I once read about that had existed on what would be considered a caloric starvation diet. They had adapted to a low calorie diet. Settlers felt sorry for them and provided extra foods. The consequence was a group of obese Indians with various medical problems.

That might not answer your question but it is "food for thought."

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