Contemporary art coming out of China is multifarious. Artists such as Ai Weiwei, Zhang Xiaogang, Fang Lijun and Chen Zhen, working across media from painting, to sculpture to installation, each unfold with a unique voice. What unites the group of works from our Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale is an undercurrent of identity and a collective consciousness. Growing up under Mao’s Cultural Revolution, each of the artists in this collection respond to similar themes, despite their varying styles and working methods. Under the Cultural Revolution, there was one vision, one line and one theme: China’s greatness under Mao. Red was the colour flooding the country from propaganda, to street signs, even domestic doors. When it all came down late in the 1970s, artist’s trained in Maoist Socialist Realist style began to experiment and explore, tapping into new creative potential.
Fang Lijun Nature Group, 2005. Bronze, in 12 parts.
For an artist like Fang Lijun, re-appropriation of this Maoist style turned out to be the most contemporary way to produce work. For him, ‘realism in art is like the vernacular of speech.’(Li Luming,e d., ‘Dialogue with Fang Lijun’ in Fang Lijun, Hunan: Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House, 2001, pp. 37-43). None of the artists in this collection have turned to abstraction – they all deal in some way, shape or form, with identity. Whether it is a metaphor for life, a portrait, or a series of distorted faces – each one is underpinned by a notion of the self or of humanity at large. This can be seen in Nature Group sculptures from 2005. The twelve bronze sculptures in varying heights – are composed of heads, each distorted, atop a set of feet – mouths agape, nostrils fared. The expressions are different, yet Fang Lijun retains a sense of ‘sameness’ within the faces.
Zhang Xiaogang Bloodline Series, 2005. Oil on canvas. Private Collection. © Zhang Xiaogang
The same can be said for Zhang Xiaogang’s Amnesia and Memory: Sleep, 2006 a poetic, yet slightly alien portrait of a detached youth. While Zhang Xiaogang’s style is immediately recognisable, his sitters, whether family members or not, are each connected by a certain likeness – again, echoing the work of Fang Lijun. The notion of collectivity, especially ‘the family’ was pushed under Mao. Thus when Fang Lijun says that the sameness, ‘lies in my aim of annihilating the individual yet retaining the abstract essence of a human being’, the notion of a collective identity in post-Mao China comes to the fore.
I can no longer consciously separate life from art.
– Chen Zhen
In a non-figurative way and with an entirely different set of tools, Chen Zhen also explores themes of identity within his work. L’Autel-Le Dépôt/Le Repos, 1992 is a signifcant early work from 1992 by the artist, who immigrated to Paris in the mid-1980s to study. His installations, L’Autel-Le Dépôt/Le Repos, no exception, have a strong Western aesthetic, yet are grounded in traditional Chinese philosophy that was previously forbidden during the Cultural Revolution.
Chen Zhen L’Autel-Le Dépôt/Le Repos, 1992. Water, sand, metal, glass, wood, acrylic paint, objects.
In installations such as this, Chen Zhen explores polarities – exploring the often paradoxical relationship between the physical and the spiritual. For Chen Zhen, the body in relation to medicine is important: ‘In China we say that an old patient can become a good doctor without having to study medicine… This means that I can no longer consciously separate life from art.’ (Chen Zhen interviewed by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Zeitschrif Umělec, 2000, vol. 4). The cabinet, with typographic text throughout and found objects such as a trumpet explore the human body through the metaphor of a pseudo pill cabinet. The water in which objects are submerged have a spiritual connotation for Chen Zhen who describes the process of purifcation: ‘Take the object, plunge it into another medium (water), as into a kind of rite of transition and purifcation. A transparent mummifcation.’ (D. Rosenberg & X. Min, eds., Chen Zhen, Ivocation of Washing Fire, Pistoia: Gli Ori, Prato-Siena, 2013, p. 54)
Ai Weiwei Coloured Pots, 2006. Painted neolithic vessels, in twelve parts.
Ai Weiwei Untitled (Divina Proportione), 2007. Huanghuali wood.
Ai Weiwei, the most widely recognised of the group, has an artistic practice that is actively questioning China’s current political culture through China’s history – from antique vases to traditional chairs. Chinese identity and universality is evident in works such as Untitled (Divina Proportione), 2006 where Leonardo DaVinci’s divine proportions are translated into a sculpture made from the traditional huanghuali Chinese wood.
With any momentous political, societal or economic developments, history has shown that the arts flourish in a new avant-garde. A change in mentality and thought ignites inspiration and new philosophies – these are the underpinnings of Contemporary China.
