Zhang Xiaogang

Acquired by the present owner directly from the artist in 1994

This painting is in very good condition overall. There is discrete well-matched inpainting of a vertical linear scratch, located 4 ¼" in from the left edge and extending 1" up from the bottom. There is a network of fine concentric hairline cracks located 14 ½ to 16 ¼" from the right edge and 4 ½-5 ½" up from the bottom. A smaller network of fine hairline cracks is located 12 ¾ - 14 in. from the left and 6 ¾-7 ½" up from the bottom. In the center of the bottom third and in the hat of the center figure, there are scattered pale spots and splash patterns perhaps associated with the artist's studio. The canvas is framed in a black painted wood strip frame.
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Zhang Xiaogang's portraits look increasingly iconic as China moves with ever-greater prominence into global participation. But his conclusions on the great rise in prosperity feel ambivalent. Zhang's faces are inherently the same and their identical clothing, reminiscent of Mao's era, emphasize psychological or spiritual sameness. Additionally, a certain grimness is suggested by these impartial faces; the black-and-white portraits, like the gray atmosphere behind them, reveal a dull vision of the present and by implication the future. His art does not underscore identity so much as refute it; the three extremely similar faces in Family Portrait reveal nothing emotionally. They are separated from each other only by details: the face on the left wears glasses, and the face on the right has a crossed eye, while the head in the middle, slightly above the two black-and-white figures, has been painted in color. While there is no visible suffering in Family Portrait, neither is joy communicated to the viewer.

It is also hard to differentiate among the three sitters by speculating on their age, as they appear to be of the same generation. Their gender is also difficult to determine; the middle figure looks like a female, flanked by two men, but this cannot be said with certainty. They seem to come from a narrow, nearly perfect world; yet little eccentricities save them from an absolutely expressionless repose. A white patch like a birthmark appears across the upper cheek and crossed eye of the figure on the right, while the figure on the left has a similar patch across the lower right of his face. A red patch sits at the bottom of the composition—it has no formal reason for existing. The syncopated paths of the thin red bloodlines that run across the figures add a slight tension—and vitality—to an otherwise heavily controlled image. Seen alone or in the company of similar paintings, Family Portrait compellingly reminds us that individuality is hard to come by in a nation of more than a billion people, even if more than ever before have attained affluence.

--Jonathan Goodman