ZHANG XIAOGANG (B. 1958)

Zhang Xiaogang emerged as a leading figure of a new avant-garde in China through his singular vision and iconic Bloodline: Big Family Series. With this series, Zhang appropriated the imagery and format of formal family portrait photography, reaching back into the images and memories of the Cultural Revolution in order to explore the psychological character of his generation through one of their most formative collective experiences.

In Fantasy (Lot 69), the artist adds red patches floating above the flesh of the figure, like a trauma that is then written into one's individual fate as if written into their genetic code. The 'bloodlines' are the tentative, tendon-like threads linking family members, and Zhang further adds a surrealist yellow to the flesh of the male figure, emphasizing the imminent political and ideological tensions that created divisions between the individual and society.