Zhang Xiaogang is one of the major Contemporary Chinese painters. This "Big Family" painted by him in 1995 was bought by collector Maurice Saatchi, founder of the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, who launched in London the Saatchi Gallery in partnership with Phillips auction house. Xiaogang's work was awarded the Bronze Prize at the 22nd São Paulo Biennial Exhibition in Brazil in 1994.Born in 1958, influenced by the infamous Cultural Revolution of the 60s, Zhang Xiaogang has exhibited all over the worlds since the early 90s and is now one of the Chinese painters representative of the "new wave" or "Avant-Garde" who are taking in between $4 and $6 million a year. His work currently goes for more than 1 million dollar.
In 1980 he was a founding member, along with his contemporaries Zhang Qikai, Luo Zhongli, He Duoliing, and Ye Yongqing, of the ‘Weed Society’. It was a non-official painting group which held free uncensored art shows and had a great impact on society at the time.
Read this interview of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, colleague of Zhang, to learn more about the current conditions of artistic and political life in the China of the Olympic Games.
No comments:
Post a Comment