Visual Arts Library
Bloodline: Two Comrades
Artist: Zhang Xiaogang
Date:
1994
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 150 x 180 cm
Event: Chinese History
Motif:
Faces
Artist's Statement For me, the Cultural Revolution is a psychological state, not a historical fact. It has a very strict connection with my childhood, and I think there are many things linking the psychology of the Chinese people today with the psychology of the Chinese people back then. I am very interested in the relationship between Chinese individuals and their society, and I chose to use the family to express this relationship. I think that to express this feeling, the photos of the Cultural Revolution are quite peculiar. People in the West stress the self, the individual character. In China, if you concentrate on your individuality, you will end up being very isolated. Since we were very small, we were educated with the consciousness that we were living in a big family and you must always consider the network of relationships with people living around you. Our society is made of all these relationships, so that's why my paintings are entitled Big Family. You can even perceive it in old photographs. The way in which pictures are taken, the clothes the people wear, the expressions on their faces in fact are a way to fit into this social standard. Taking a picture, everybody would say, "Hey let's get together, let's pose", trying to look very happy, but in fact the society at that time had a destructive effect on personal relationships. The different color of the child stands for a difference between the parents and the child. I changed the color to add a sense of absurdity. The lines and the light are meant to destroy the customary effect created by these photographs. Posing for a photograph, people already display a certain formality. It is already something artificial. What I do is increase this artificiality and this sense of formalism. From an interview with the artist conducted by Francesca dal Lago.
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