EXHIBITED:

Zhang Xiaogang: Amnesia and Memory, Gallery Artside, Seoul, Korea, November 1-20, 2006

ILLUSTRATED:

Zhang Xiaogang: Amnesia and Memory, Gallery Artside, Seoul, Korea, 2006, illustrated p. 37

Zhang Xiaogang has been the standard-bearer for Chinese contemporary art for many years now. One cannot mention Chinese contemporary art without thinking of him and his "Bloodline – Big Family" series. These works have not only become a milestone in art history, they have also become a cathartic release of sentiments about the past and shared memory. Each transformation, each exhibition, even each health issue he faces, raises a call from the masses: "Are you all right?" His large scale exhibition at the Today Art Museum in early 2011 put these questions to rest.

The importance of his "Big Family" series has been affirmed by countless critics and theorists. When art theorist Lu Peng compiled his History of 20th Century Chinese Art, he selected one of Zhang's "Bloodline" paintings for the cover. As he saw it, there was no artwork better suited for the cover, better suited to represent 20th century Chinese art history.

Critic Cheng Meixin believes that "there is no artist in China with more incisive and mindful artistic language. His early Big Family series of paintings is imbued with profound culturally critical insight, cutting into the mental history of a people. Those dull, complacent faces are essentially a depiction of the cultural bloodlines of a people's collective destiny and thousands of years of feudalism. Though the avant-garde art of the period was under foreign linguistic influence, these works were rooted in the native context, to powerful effect, breathing a fresh cultural viewpoint into Chinese art."

"History" and "Memory" have been persistent creative themes in Zhang's art. Famous art theorist Li Xianting believes that Zhang Xiaogang's paintings focus on man's historical problems. He uses old photographs, like grayscale sculptures, to condense an era onto the canvas. In 2001, the 44-year-old Zhang Xiaogang began exploring the issues of "Amnesia and Memory". He wrote to friends in art circles, laying out his ideas regarding memory and amnesia. The next year, he began work on the "Amnesia and Memory" series. They followed the thread of "Big Family" and "Bloodlines", exploring the conflicts and contradictions that arose when a people in the midst of change faced the past and the future. Among Chinese artists, Zhang's sensitivity gave him an artistic expressive method that was wholly different from that of any other artist. His personality and his inward-facing character lent his artistic language the expressive power that comes with deeper mindfulness. That is to say, he naturally lacked the ability to burn off his pain.

Unlike "Bloodline" and "Big Family", which were not widely accepted at first, the "Amnesia and Memory" series was well received from the very beginning. In 2003, works from the series were featured in important solo exhibitions in Seoul and Paris. Also, one of the paintings was featured in an exhibition at the Museum of Africa in France, entitled "Eastern Daybreak – One Hundred Years of Chinese Painting."

In recent years, Zhang Xiaogang has been experimenting in different mediums, including sculpture, as well as the new materials that appeared in his solo exhibition at the Today Art Museum. According to him, his goal "wasn't to create works in different mediums; that was just a means. When I want to express my ideas, if I think that another material is better suited to this expression, then I will use that material. I am not a linguist, and I'm not one to put too much thought or effort into materials. I mostly want to tell stories, stories about my life. So for me, the question of what material I'm using, or whether or not I will use it tomorrow, is not all that important. What matters is how best to express the story I wish to tell."