Zhang Xiaogang - Modern and Contemporary Editions New York Sunday, November 23, 2008 | Phillips

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  • Artist Biography

    Zhang Xiaogang

    Chinese • 1958

    Relying on memory and inspired by family portraits from the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Zhang Xiaogang creates surreal, subtle artworks that explore the notion of identity in relation to the Chinese culture of collectivism. Using a muted, greyscale palette, Xiaogang repeatedly depicts a series of unnervingly similar figures, often dressed in identical Mao suits, to create an endless genealogy of imagined forebears and progenitors. Their somber, melancholy gazes are interrupted only by thin red bloodlines intimating familial links as well as occasional pale splotches of color resembling birthmarks.

    Xiaogang investigates how to express individual histories within the strict confines of a formula. His sitters, while appearing muted and compliant, are given physical exaggerations: oversized heads, tiny hands and long noses. These distortions imply stifled emotions and give a complex psychological dimension to the artist's work.

    View More Works

178

Amnesia and Memory series

2006
The complete set of 12 offset lithographs and screenprints in colors, on Somerset 300g paper, with full margins, plus accompanying book with reproductions of the artist's work and bonus lithograph,
31 3/8 x 23 1/2 in. (79.7 x 59.7 cm)
all signed, dated and numbered 44/88 in pencil (there were also 12 artist's proofs), published by Gallery Artside, Beijing and Seoul, all in very good condition, contained in original grey cloth-covered portfolio case with book inset.

Estimate
$35,000 - 45,000 

Modern and Contemporary Editions

23 Nov 2008, 2pm
New York