Phillips
Asia to Present Zhang Xiaogang’s
Bloodline: Big Family,
No. 11
On
View at Phillips’ Hong Kong Gallery 25 March – 2 April 2019
To be auctioned on 26 May in the 20th Century & Contemporary
Art Evening Sale at
JW Marriott Hong Kong
HONG KONG – 25
March 2019 – Phillips announces Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang’s masterwork, Bloodline:
Big Family, No. 11, as a highlight of the 20th Century &
Contemporary Art Evening Sale on 26 May 2019. The painting hails from the artist’s
most compelling body of works – the Bloodline (1993 – 1999) series – conceived during
a period characterised by a deep identity crisis in China following the
Tiananmen Square incident in 1989. This iconic series has come to embody the
collective vision of socialist China and Zhang Xiaogang’s own dissonant voice.
Isaure de Viel Castel, Head of Department, 20th Century &
Contemporary Art Department, and Senior Director, said: “Phillips is pleased to present this
painting from Zhang Xiaogang’s most prominent Bloodline series. Coming
from an important Private European Collection, this work was exhibited in the
first solo show dedicated to the artist in Europe in 1999 at Galerie de France.
Having remained in Europe ever since, we are delighted to have been entrusted
with its sale and to present it for the first time in Asia.”
Phillips has established itself
as a leading platform for selling modern works alongside cutting-edge
contemporary art, and with the ongoing interest in pursuing historically
important works by preeminent Asian artists. Last spring, Phillips achieved a
strong result with 100% sell-through rate for the collection of Nick Scheeres
which includes important contemporary Chinese works by celebrated artists such
as Zhang Xiaogang, Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun, as well as such modern masters as
Richard Lin and Sanyu.
Zhang Xiaogang
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 colour 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.
Phillips Hong Kong Spring Sale 2019
23-28 May
2019 at JW Marriott, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale: 26 May
###
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and design. With dedicated expertise in the areas of 20th Century and Contemporary
Art, Design, Photographs, Editions, Watches, and Jewelry, Phillips offers
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*Estimates
do not include buyer’s premium; prices achieved include the hammer price plus
buyer’s premium.
PRESS CONTACTS:
HONG KONG – Ingrid Hsu, Public Relations Director, Asia IngridHsu@phillips.com
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