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Painting, Politics and China’s Art Market: Q&A With Zhang Xiaogang

Recent works by the artist are part of a joint exhibition with American conceptual artist Sol LeWitt being held at Pace Beijing Gallery

'Idealist,' 2015
'Idealist,' 2015 Photo: @Zhang Xiaogang

Painter Zhang Xiaogang’s fame has typified the world’s interest in things Chinese over the past decade-plus, as well as the commercial boom that overtook the art market. One painting, “Eternal Love,” sold for $10.2 million at auction in 2011, an auction record for contemporary Chinese art at the time. His best-known works combine dreamlike memories of childhood with the alienation of having lived through Mao’s radical political movements and the post-Mao economic transformation.

Recent works by Mr. Zhang, who turns 58 this year, are part of a joint exhibition, his first, with American conceptual artist Sol LeWitt, who died in 2007, being held at Pace Beijing Gallery. Pace approached Mr. Zhang late last year for a solo exhibit, but, he says, he couldn’t create enough new paintings. Mr. LeWitt’s unemotional style is a polar opposite to his own, Mr. Zhang says: “Then I realized that if we were going in opposite directions and the earth was round, there would be a chance that we would encounter each other. “

China Real Time recently caught up with Mr. Zhang to discuss his new works, the past and the art market. Edited excerpts (translated from the Chinese):

Q: Among your representative works is the group of paintings “Bloodline: Big Family Series.” The works are full of Cultural Revolution memories and coldness. How do your new works compare?

A: My new works still contain many memories from my childhood. In the painting “Idealist," for example, the window is blocked by bricks. That actually happened when I was a child. During the Cultural Revolution, I was living with my parents in Chengdu. We lived in a four-story building for government cadres. Outside of the building, the Red Guards every day used machine guns to shoot the building without aiming. The administrators thought it dangerous and decided to block all of the windows with bricks. For two years, the whole building had not a single window. It was all very dark. There was no electricity either. We could only use oil lamps. Later my parents were sent to jail, too. I had no school to go to, no homework to do. Every day, I just ran and played with my friends in this giant dark blockhouse. Strangely, when I was a kid, I didn't feel it was a hard time. I found it fun and cool. Of course, the reality was quite the opposite.

Q: In your paintings, you place objects irrelevant to daily life. The people in your paintings behave very dramatically. What is the purpose of doing so?

A: This time I tried to keep my emotions low. I wanted to add more of my imagination and add some illogical content. In "Idealist,” a person is riding a bike on a table. That couldn't really happen in the real, normal world, but I dreamed about doing it one day as a grown-up. In my opinion, goats are just like wizards, so I added a goat here, too. In another painting, "The Order of the World," I put books and meat in a bathtub with water. I treat each painting as a vessel and let in some absurdities to make my works more dramatic, more fantastic and let the audience use their imagination to think about them.

'Conjecture About Geometry,' 2016
'Conjecture About Geometry,' 2016, @Zhang Xiaogang

Q: This year is the 40th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution. Your generation still remembers it clearly. But fewer and fewer young people know about it. What do you make of that?

A: I asked my 22-year-old daughter what she knew of the Cultural Revolution. Surprisingly she said, “Was it something before 1949?” She didn't know anything more. See how successful our [Communist] party's education is. Education makes people forget history. It represents the Chinese way of twisting real history. We are always like this. When I became an adult, I found that what I learned from school was quite the opposite from reality. But I believe true history is still there. It just needs time to make its appearance.

Q: Your works have achieved very good records in Western as well as Chinese markets, especially at the auction houses. But the markets change from year to year. Are you concerned that someday the markets will lose interest?

A: It’s possible. But it won't make it better if you just sit there and worry. I know works like Sol LeWitt's are more welcomed in the Chinese market now. I'm not that kind of artist. I don't know how to use reason to make purely conceptual and abstract artworks. I only do what I can do. I can't control other people’s tastes. Some artists are fortunate to have a large audience, and some may not be so fortunate. But I believe when I paint with sincerity I will still have my audience. It doesn’t need to be many. A few are enough.

Q: Do you still care about the art market? Are you concerned about a market bubble?

A: How could I not care? I still live off it. I just rarely look at the price. The art market is far away from me, especially the auctions. I can't afford the price in auction either, so there’s no need for me to care. It's another game. The ups and downs of the price are not understandable to me at all. I'm not a finance or economics person. It's just for a very small group of people. I still believe art should be shared with other people. If [the wealthy] like them, they should just keep a few. No need to hold all of them in their hands. You can’t take it with you when you die.

'The Order of the World'
'The Order of the World,' 2016, @Zhang Xiaogang

Q: You spent some time working in New York. Compare the differences between contemporary New York artists with Chinese ones.

A: Chinese artists have double the troubles of their peers in New York. On one side, both Western and Chinese artists need to meet the challenges from the history and language of art—those are things from art itself. On the other hand, in China, everything happens and changes so fast. The political, economic and social spaces all change every single day. You don't have time to think out one thing before another thing happens, too. It goes on and on. In the Western world, an artist can consider only one angle of art and try it for ten years. In China, artists need to make more effort to control themselves before considering art itself.

Group Exhibition: Sol LeWitt and Zhang Xiaogang, runs now through November 19 at Pace Beijing Gallery.

-- Olivia Geng


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