Zhang Chun Hong

executed in 2008
each signed ZHANG CHUNHONG, titled, and with two seals of the artist

United Kingdom, London, Saatchi Gallery, Ink: The Art of China, 19 June - 5 July, 2012, p. 178

Kuo, Jason C., Chinese Ink Painting Now, Distributed Art Publishers, New York, USA; Timezone 8, Hong Kong, China, 2010, p.219

Overall in very good condition. Hanging scroll size: 287 x 78 cm; 113 x 30 3/4 in. each
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Born and raised in China, Zhang Chunhong graduated from the Chinese Ink Painting department at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing. Raised in an academic family, she pursued graduate studies abroad, receiving a Masters from CSU Sacramento in 2002 and an M.F.A. from University of California, Davis in 2004. Zhang currently lives and works in Lawrence, Kansas. As a student of both Chinese and American arts, she discovered a balance between the two cultures and artistic styles. Zhang's signature depiction of long flowing hair is an obsessive theme that recurs in her art. "According to Eastern Culture," she explains, "a young woman's long hair is associated with the life force, sexual energy, growth and identity."¹

Twin Strands (LOT 579) is a signature work that represents the close relationship between Zhang Chunhong and her identical twin sister Zhang Chunbo. The images are portraits, with Chunhong on the left and Chunbo on the right, highlighting their distinguishing physical trait: Chunhong is left-handed and Chunbo is right-handed. Each strand of hair is meticulously rendered with a confident and refined brushstroke, a tribute to Zhang's rigorous training in traditional Chinese gongbi (fine-line) painting and studies in Western drawing. The diptych is also symbolic of Zhang's reference to the Chinese folk tradition of door gods, which take the form of a pair of prints flanking a doorway to protect the people living inside. Traditionally the gods are male, but here Zhang suggests that women are fully capable of protecting a home. In addition to addressing her own personal and cultural identity, Zhang is acutely aware of her stylistic inspiration from the water studies by Southern Song master Ma Yuan, which are known for their depictions of different states of water: calm, rolling, raging. Herein, each strand and brushstroke is meant to suggest the constant flow of water as symbolic for states of flow in life.

Zhang is the recipient of the Pollack-Krasner grant and her works have been exhibited at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, Asia Society (Texas), and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo. Her works are held in the public collections of the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, The Kansas City Collection, Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, White Rabbit Collection, China National Art Museum, and Hong Kong University.

¹The Big Bang: Contemporary Chinese Art from the White Rabbit Collection, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2010, p. 340