BE THEREZhang Huan(44 years old, born 1965)
ZHANG HUAN From Blessings (22nd St) PaceWildenstein Detail of Canal Building in progress (2008) 2007-2008 ash, steel and wood
ZHANG HUAN From Blessings (25th St) PaceWildenstein Giant No. 3 (2008) cowhides, steel, wood and polystyrene foam
ZHANG HUAN Phillips De Pury Contemporary Art Day Sale London, October 17, 2009 Lot: 201 Shanghai Family Tree Nine c-prints flush-mounted to aluminium. Each: 50.8 x 76.2 cm. (20 x 30 in).
ZHANG HUAN Sotheby's Contemporary Asian Art Hong Kong, October 6, 2009 Lot: 648 Ash Head No.1 Mixed media and incense ash 228 (H) by 227 by 244 cm.; 89 3/4 (H) by 89 1/4 by 96 in.
ZHANG HUAN Sotheby's Contemporary Asian Art Hong Kong, October 6, 2009 Lot: 649 Donkey Taxidermied Donkey, Steel and electric motor 320 (H) by 220 by 80 cm.; 126 (H) by 86 3/4 by 31 1/2 in.
ZHANG HUAN Winning Bid: 150,000 HKD Sotheby's Contemporary Asian Art Hong Kong, October 6, 2009 Lot: 651 My New York chromogenic print, framed 76 by 50 cm.; 79 7/8 by 19 5/8 in.
ZHANG HUAN Sotheby's Contemporary Asian Art Hong Kong, October 6, 2009 Lot: 652 Seeds Of Hamburg chromogenic print each 50.8 by 40.6 cm.; 20 by 16 in.
ZHANG HUAN Sotheby's Contemporary Asian Art Hong Kong, October 6, 2009 Lot: 767 Nine Holes chromogenic print, framed 101.6 by 152.4 cm.; 40 by 60 in.
ZHANG HUAN Sotheby's Contemporary Art New York, September 24, 2009 Lot: 265 My America (Performance, Hard ... Executed in 1999, this work is number 1 from an edition of 3 plus 1 artist's proof. c-print, in 4 parts each panel: 74 by 48 in.; 188 by 121.9 cm. overall: 74 by 192 in.; 188 by 487.7 cm.
ZHANG HUAN Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Day London, July 1, 2009 Lot: 294 Chicken pox (2000) six elements--Cibachrome prints each: 20 7/8 x 16½in. (53 x 42cm.)
ZHANG HUAN Phillips De Pury Contemporary Art Part II New York, May 15, 2009 Lot: 254 To Add One Meter to an Anonymo... Gelatin silver print. 50 1/4 x 73 5/8 in. (127.6 x 187 cm).
ZHANG HUAN Winning Bid: $60,000 Phillips De Pury Contemporary Art Part II New York, May 15, 2009 Lot: 256 Foam Series Fifteen c-prints. 49 3/4 x 70 in. (126.4 x 177.8 cm) each.
ZHANG HUAN Winning Bid: $175,000 Christie's Post-War And Contemporary Art Afternoon New York, May 14, 2009 Lot: 406 Youth (2007) incense ash, charcoal and resin on canvas 98½ x 158¼ in. (250.4 x 402 cm.)
ZHANG HUAN Christie's Post-War And Contemporary Art Afternoon New York, May 14, 2009 Lot: 407 Buddha Never Down with Feather... (2004) painted aluminum, stainless steel, feathers diameter: 78¾ in. (200 cm.)
ZHANG HUAN Sotheby's Contemporary Art Day New York, May 13, 2009 Lot: 475 Buddha Finger 20 by 118 by 33 in. 50.8 by 299.7 by 83.2 cm. copper and Tibetan scrolls
ZHANG HUAN Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art London, April 30, 2009 Lot: 215 My America (Performance: Hard ... (1999) c-print 39 3/8 x 102 5/8in. (100 x 260.7cm.)
ZHANG HUAN Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art London, April 30, 2009 Lot: 216 Wind and Water in NYC Pilgrima... (1998) gelatin silver print 46½ x 59½in. (117.5 x 151cm.)
ZHANG HUAN Winning Bid: £3,000 Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art London, April 30, 2009 Lot: 265 Foam (1998) c-print mounted on aluminium image: 60 1/8 x 40in. (152.7 x 101.5cm.) sheet: 67½ x 47 3/8in. (171.5 x 120.4cm.)
ZHANG HUAN Sotheby's Contemporary Asian Art Hong Kong, April 6, 2009 Lot: 733 Dragonfly (Set Of Five) measurements note 200 by 170 cm.; 78 3/4 by 67 in. silkscreen prints CATALOGUE NOTE Zhang Huan is a master of the surreal gesture, so that his brief performances carry with them the results of an esthetic easily capable of shocking and amazing his viewers. Fifteen years ago, in 1994, Zhang showed just how capable he is of enduring circumstances most of us would find impossible; in 12 Square Meters, he sat motionless for an hour in a filthy public lavatory while coated with fish oil and honey. Flies were drawn to Zhang Huan's naked body, and his performance was memorable because it entailed what can only be called a feat of endurance. Over the years Zhang Huan would become famous for his willingness to take on such extreme conditions; however, more recently he has returned to making objects, saying that he has run out of ideas for performance-based actions. Some of the artist's most interesting recent work has been paintings produced with ash; in a quote from an artist's statement, he says: "I use ash to express and combine all the dreams, aspirations, all the spiritual longings, all the ideas that people have somehow infused into incense ash." Ash, resonant in both Asian and Western culture of cremation, has in Zhang Huan's hands become a medium of filial piety and awareness of spiritual longing and tradition. Zhang Huan has always been attracted to spectacle, and his giant sculptures of the Buddha's body parts?a hand or a leg, for example?suggest that he is most interested in restoring spirituality to the art he makes?and to his audience as well. Working with as many as one hundred assistants, Zhang Huan shows us what spectacle is capable of meaning in a culture in which ritual devotion remains powerful. His grand sense of size indicates that he wants his statement to overwhelm the sensibility of his audience. By using incense ash, the artist literally works with pious materials, so that the very making of the image is infused with a sense of devotional power. In a sense, he is returning to the actions and beliefs of more traditional artists, whose intensity of emotion and belief he wants to re-create in his own art. In a recent show in New York City, Zhang Huan offered viewers a huge American flag. Movingly, the artist has produced an icon of his stay in America. With National Flag No. 6 (2007) (Lot 736), he has also produced a very large version, in ash, of the Chinese flag, which seems to flap in the wind. What meaning does the use of ash have in regard to this public iconography? The flags are enduring symbols of these two imperial nations, both of which have sought a place of dominance in the geopolitics of contemporary public life. As icons of patriotism, they mean more than the simple presentation of an image. The Chinese flag, in its grand dimensions, tells the viewer a lot about the Chinese drive toward power, which is increasingly valid as time continues. It may also say something about Zhang Huan's own ambitions, which are considerable themselves. Yet we remember that the image has been made with incense ash, a material of religious meaning that would suggest Zhang Huan is aware of the futility of such drives, being cognizant of the spiritual need for something else besides pride. With both intelligence and ambition, he conflates states of being?patriotism and piety?into a symbol of an entire nation. This image thus indeed takes on a greater meaning than what it seems to be. In Titled Series: Recruit (2007) (Lot 734), we see a diptych of two soldiers in uniform, with one soldier in shadow and the other's face highlighted. Again, this scene may reference China's ambition to become a world power; and again, the use of incense ash tends to undermine the imperial reach of the image. The surface of these ash paintings is strikingly rough, a quality that Zhang Huan uses to fine effect, shifting light and shadows brilliantly. Whatever the symbolic meaning of the recruit in a specifically Chinese sense, we also know the image's universal suggestion of war, a category of aggression that acts as a perfect metaphor for our current affairs. Zhang Huan creates images whose overall content is quite a bit larger than the sum of their parts; they correspond to his own purpose?the creation of an art that reflects both the particularities of China and the universals of the human condition. His ambition thus comes across as being slightly larger than life. Untitled (2006) (Lot 735), a mixed-media piece, depicts a donkey, whose body is partially outlined by feathers. Given the very large dimensions (360 by 250 cm), this image concurs with Zhang Huan's larger-than-life view of things. It shows the donkey standing in the midst of horizontal lines that might well be hay or even water; these lines are printed on the lower two thirds of the paper, with the top third devoted to bands of mostly black, on top of which one finds the white silhouettes of more feathers. The donkey recalls Chinese agricultural labor, while the feathers attached to the animal's front, eye, back, belly, and tail lend it a bit of magical presence. The image's stark, black-and-white simplicity makes it that much more affecting; the viewer senses that Zhang Huan is making open reference to peasant tradition, both in the content of the image itself and in the directness of the way it is communicated. The five silkscreen prints that comprise Dragonfly (2006) (Lot 733)refers to a well-known image taken from Zhang Huan's performance 12 Square Meters; in that particular action, after his hour of endurance, the artist walked from the public latrine into a nearby pond (his progress was documented by the photographer Rong Rong). In the first four prints, we follow the artist into the water, seeing his back only; with each image, his body moves deeper into the pond, while a red dragonfly, much larger than Zhang Huan himself, hovers closely over him. By the time we encounter the fourth image, there is only a circular ripple of water to indicate his presence, and here the dragonfly, tail up, is quite some way above the pattern of water. In the last image, the dragonfly is gone, but a small hillock, much like an island, rises up from the same point where Zhang Huan totally submerged himself. The series references both the artist's earlier work and, with the dragonfly, traditional Chinese painting. It even suggests a myth, in which the artist's sacrifice turns into an island, surrounded by mist. In this work and in the others described here, Zhang Huan consistently moves toward a personal mythology, made larger and grander by both his ambition and his identification with China itself, growing by leaps and bounds. His work now has not only the status, but also the aura, of the classic.
ZHANG HUAN Sotheby's Contemporary Asian Art Hong Kong, April 6, 2009 Lot: 734 Titled Series: Recruit measurements note 160 by 250 cm.; 63 by 98 1/2 in. ash on linen CATALOGUE NOTE Zhang Huan is a master of the surreal gesture, so that his brief performances carry with them the results of an esthetic easily capable of shocking and amazing his viewers. Fifteen years ago, in 1994, Zhang showed just how capable he is of enduring circumstances most of us would find impossible; in 12 Square Meters, he sat motionless for an hour in a filthy public lavatory while coated with fish oil and honey. Flies were drawn to Zhang Huan's naked body, and his performance was memorable because it entailed what can only be called a feat of endurance. Over the years Zhang Huan would become famous for his willingness to take on such extreme conditions; however, more recently he has returned to making objects, saying that he has run out of ideas for performance-based actions. Some of the artist's most interesting recent work has been paintings produced with ash; in a quote from an artist's statement, he says: "I use ash to express and combine all the dreams, aspirations, all the spiritual longings, all the ideas that people have somehow infused into incense ash." Ash, resonant in both Asian and Western culture of cremation, has in Zhang Huan's hands become a medium of filial piety and awareness of spiritual longing and tradition. Zhang Huan has always been attracted to spectacle, and his giant sculptures of the Buddha's body parts?a hand or a leg, for example?suggest that he is most interested in restoring spirituality to the art he makes?and to his audience as well. Working with as many as one hundred assistants, Zhang Huan shows us what spectacle is capable of meaning in a culture in which ritual devotion remains powerful. His grand sense of size indicates that he wants his statement to overwhelm the sensibility of his audience. By using incense ash, the artist literally works with pious materials, so that the very making of the image is infused with a sense of devotional power. In a sense, he is returning to the actions and beliefs of more traditional artists, whose intensity of emotion and belief he wants to re-create in his own art. In a recent show in New York City, Zhang Huan offered viewers a huge American flag. Movingly, the artist has produced an icon of his stay in America. With National Flag No. 6 (2007) (Lot 736), he has also produced a very large version, in ash, of the Chinese flag, which seems to flap in the wind. What meaning does the use of ash have in regard to this public iconography? The flags are enduring symbols of these two imperial nations, both of which have sought a place of dominance in the geopolitics of contemporary public life. As icons of patriotism, they mean more than the simple presentation of an image. The Chinese flag, in its grand dimensions, tells the viewer a lot about the Chinese drive toward power, which is increasingly valid as time continues. It may also say something about Zhang Huan's own ambitions, which are considerable themselves. Yet we remember that the image has been made with incense ash, a material of religious meaning that would suggest Zhang Huan is aware of the futility of such drives, being cognizant of the spiritual need for something else besides pride. With both intelligence and ambition, he conflates states of being?patriotism and piety?into a symbol of an entire nation. This image thus indeed takes on a greater meaning than what it seems to be. In Titled Series: Recruit (2007) (Lot 734), we see a diptych of two soldiers in uniform, with one soldier in shadow and the other's face highlighted. Again, this scene may reference China's ambition to become a world power; and again, the use of incense ash tends to undermine the imperial reach of the image. The surface of these ash paintings is strikingly rough, a quality that Zhang Huan uses to fine effect, shifting light and shadows brilliantly. Whatever the symbolic meaning of the recruit in a specifically Chinese sense, we also know the image's universal suggestion of war, a category of aggression that acts as a perfect metaphor for our current affairs. Zhang Huan creates images whose overall content is quite a bit larger than the sum of their parts; they correspond to his own purpose?the creation of an art that reflects both the particularities of China and the universals of the human condition. His ambition thus comes across as being slightly larger than life. Untitled (2006) (Lot 735), a mixed-media piece, depicts a donkey, whose body is partially outlined by feathers. Given the very large dimensions (360 by 250 cm), this image concurs with Zhang Huan's larger-than-life view of things. It shows the donkey standing in the midst of horizontal lines that might well be hay or even water; these lines are printed on the lower two thirds of the paper, with the top third devoted to bands of mostly black, on top of which one finds the white silhouettes of more feathers. The donkey recalls Chinese agricultural labor, while the feathers attached to the animal's front, eye, back, belly, and tail lend it a bit of magical presence. The image's stark, black-and-white simplicity makes it that much more affecting; the viewer senses that Zhang Huan is making open reference to peasant tradition, both in the content of the image itself and in the directness of the way it is communicated. The five silkscreen prints that comprise Dragonfly (2006) (Lot 733)refers to a well-known image taken from Zhang Huan's performance 12 Square Meters; in that particular action, after his hour of endurance, the artist walked from the public latrine into a nearby pond (his progress was documented by the photographer Rong Rong). In the first four prints, we follow the artist into the water, seeing his back only; with each image, his body moves deeper into the pond, while a red dragonfly, much larger than Zhang Huan himself, hovers closely over him. By the time we encounter the fourth image, there is only a circular ripple of water to indicate his presence, and here the dragonfly, tail up, is quite some way above the pattern of water. In the last image, the dragonfly is gone, but a small hillock, much like an island, rises up from the same point where Zhang Huan totally submerged himself. The series references both the artist's earlier work and, with the dragonfly, traditional Chinese painting. It even suggests a myth, in which the artist's sacrifice turns into an island, surrounded by mist. In this work and in the others described here, Zhang Huan consistently moves toward a personal mythology, made larger and grander by both his ambition and his identification with China itself, growing by leaps and bounds. His work now has not only the status, but also the aura, of the classic.
ZHANG HUAN Sotheby's Contemporary Asian Art Hong Kong, April 6, 2009 Lot: 735 Untitled measurements note 360 by 250 cm.; 141 3/4 by 98 1/2 in. mixed media (woodblock print and feathers) CATALOGUE NOTE Zhang Huan is a master of the surreal gesture, so that his brief performances carry with them the results of an esthetic easily capable of shocking and amazing his viewers. Fifteen years ago, in 1994, Zhang showed just how capable he is of enduring circumstances most of us would find impossible; in 12 Square Meters, he sat motionless for an hour in a filthy public lavatory while coated with fish oil and honey. Flies were drawn to Zhang Huan's naked body, and his performance was memorable because it entailed what can only be called a feat of endurance. Over the years Zhang Huan would become famous for his willingness to take on such extreme conditions; however, more recently he has returned to making objects, saying that he has run out of ideas for performance-based actions. Some of the artist's most interesting recent work has been paintings produced with ash; in a quote from an artist's statement, he says: "I use ash to express and combine all the dreams, aspirations, all the spiritual longings, all the ideas that people have somehow infused into incense ash." Ash, resonant in both Asian and Western culture of cremation, has in Zhang Huan's hands become a medium of filial piety and awareness of spiritual longing and tradition. Zhang Huan has always been attracted to spectacle, and his giant sculptures of the Buddha's body parts?a hand or a leg, for example?suggest that he is most interested in restoring spirituality to the art he makes?and to his audience as well. Working with as many as one hundred assistants, Zhang Huan shows us what spectacle is capable of meaning in a culture in which ritual devotion remains powerful. His grand sense of size indicates that he wants his statement to overwhelm the sensibility of his audience. By using incense ash, the artist literally works with pious materials, so that the very making of the image is infused with a sense of devotional power. In a sense, he is returning to the actions and beliefs of more traditional artists, whose intensity of emotion and belief he wants to re-create in his own art. In a recent show in New York City, Zhang Huan offered viewers a huge American flag. Movingly, the artist has produced an icon of his stay in America. With National Flag No. 6 (2007) (Lot 736), he has also produced a very large version, in ash, of the Chinese flag, which seems to flap in the wind. What meaning does the use of ash have in regard to this public iconography? The flags are enduring symbols of these two imperial nations, both of which have sought a place of dominance in the geopolitics of contemporary public life. As icons of patriotism, they mean more than the simple presentation of an image. The Chinese flag, in its grand dimensions, tells the viewer a lot about the Chinese drive toward power, which is increasingly valid as time continues. It may also say something about Zhang Huan's own ambitions, which are considerable themselves. Yet we remember that the image has been made with incense ash, a material of religious meaning that would suggest Zhang Huan is aware of the futility of such drives, being cognizant of the spiritual need for something else besides pride. With both intelligence and ambition, he conflates states of being?patriotism and piety?into a symbol of an entire nation. This image thus indeed takes on a greater meaning than what it seems to be. In Titled Series: Recruit (2007) (Lot 734), we see a diptych of two soldiers in uniform, with one soldier in shadow and the other's face highlighted. Again, this scene may reference China's ambition to become a world power; and again, the use of incense ash tends to undermine the imperial reach of the image. The surface of these ash paintings is strikingly rough, a quality that Zhang Huan uses to fine effect, shifting light and shadows brilliantly. Whatever the symbolic meaning of the recruit in a specifically Chinese sense, we also know the image's universal suggestion of war, a category of aggression that acts as a perfect metaphor for our current affairs. Zhang Huan creates images whose overall content is quite a bit larger than the sum of their parts; they correspond to his own purpose?the creation of an art that reflects both the particularities of China and the universals of the human condition. His ambition thus comes across as being slightly larger than life. Untitled (2006) (Lot 735), a mixed-media piece, depicts a donkey, whose body is partially outlined by feathers. Given the very large dimensions (360 by 250 cm), this image concurs with Zhang Huan's larger-than-life view of things. It shows the donkey standing in the midst of horizontal lines that might well be hay or even water; these lines are printed on the lower two thirds of the paper, with the top third devoted to bands of mostly black, on top of which one finds the white silhouettes of more feathers. The donkey recalls Chinese agricultural labor, while the feathers attached to the animal's front, eye, back, belly, and tail lend it a bit of magical presence. The image's stark, black-and-white simplicity makes it that much more affecting; the viewer senses that Zhang Huan is making open reference to peasant tradition, both in the content of the image itself and in the directness of the way it is communicated. The five silkscreen prints that comprise Dragonfly (2006) (Lot 733)refers to a well-known image taken from Zhang Huan's performance 12 Square Meters; in that particular action, after his hour of endurance, the artist walked from the public latrine into a nearby pond (his progress was documented by the photographer Rong Rong). In the first four prints, we follow the artist into the water, seeing his back only; with each image, his body moves deeper into the pond, while a red dragonfly, much larger than Zhang Huan himself, hovers closely over him. By the time we encounter the fourth image, there is only a circular ripple of water to indicate his presence, and here the dragonfly, tail up, is quite some way above the pattern of water. In the last image, the dragonfly is gone, but a small hillock, much like an island, rises up from the same point where Zhang Huan totally submerged himself. The series references both the artist's earlier work and, with the dragonfly, traditional Chinese painting. It even suggests a myth, in which the artist's sacrifice turns into an island, surrounded by mist. In this work and in the others described here, Zhang Huan consistently moves toward a personal mythology, made larger and grander by both his ambition and his identification with China itself, growing by leaps and bounds. His work now has not only the status, but also the aura, of the classic.
ZHANG HUAN Sotheby's Contemporary Asian Art Hong Kong, April 6, 2009 Lot: 736 National Flag No.6 measurements note 250 by 400 cm.; 98 2/5 by 157 1/2 in. incense ashes on linen CATALOGUE NOTE Zhang Huan is a master of the surreal gesture, so that his brief performances carry with them the results of an esthetic easily capable of shocking and amazing his viewers. Fifteen years ago, in 1994, Zhang showed just how capable he is of enduring circumstances most of us would find impossible; in 12 Square Meters, he sat motionless for an hour in a filthy public lavatory while coated with fish oil and honey. Flies were drawn to Zhang Huan's naked body, and his performance was memorable because it entailed what can only be called a feat of endurance. Over the years Zhang Huan would become famous for his willingness to take on such extreme conditions; however, more recently he has returned to making objects, saying that he has run out of ideas for performance-based actions. Some of the artist's most interesting recent work has been paintings produced with ash; in a quote from an artist's statement, he says: "I use ash to express and combine all the dreams, aspirations, all the spiritual longings, all the ideas that people have somehow infused into incense ash." Ash, resonant in both Asian and Western culture of cremation, has in Zhang Huan's hands become a medium of filial piety and awareness of spiritual longing and tradition. Zhang Huan has always been attracted to spectacle, and his giant sculptures of the Buddha's body parts?a hand or a leg, for example?suggest that he is most interested in restoring spirituality to the art he makes?and to his audience as well. Working with as many as one hundred assistants, Zhang Huan shows us what spectacle is capable of meaning in a culture in which ritual devotion remains powerful. His grand sense of size indicates that he wants his statement to overwhelm the sensibility of his audience. By using incense ash, the artist literally works with pious materials, so that the very making of the image is infused with a sense of devotional power. In a sense, he is returning to the actions and beliefs of more traditional artists, whose intensity of emotion and belief he wants to re-create in his own art. In a recent show in New York City, Zhang Huan offered viewers a huge American flag. Movingly, the artist has produced an icon of his stay in America. With National Flag No. 6 (2007) (Lot 736), he has also produced a very large version, in ash, of the Chinese flag, which seems to flap in the wind. What meaning does the use of ash have in regard to this public iconography? The flags are enduring symbols of these two imperial nations, both of which have sought a place of dominance in the geopolitics of contemporary public life. As icons of patriotism, they mean more than the simple presentation of an image. The Chinese flag, in its grand dimensions, tells the viewer a lot about the Chinese drive toward power, which is increasingly valid as time continues. It may also say something about Zhang Huan's own ambitions, which are considerable themselves. Yet we remember that the image has been made with incense ash, a material of religious meaning that would suggest Zhang Huan is aware of the futility of such drives, being cognizant of the spiritual need for something else besides pride. With both intelligence and ambition, he conflates states of being?patriotism and piety?into a symbol of an entire nation. This image thus indeed takes on a greater meaning than what it seems to be. In Titled Series: Recruit (2007) (Lot 734), we see a diptych of two soldiers in uniform, with one soldier in shadow and the other's face highlighted. Again, this scene may reference China's ambition to become a world power; and again, the use of incense ash tends to undermine the imperial reach of the image. The surface of these ash paintings is strikingly rough, a quality that Zhang Huan uses to fine effect, shifting light and shadows brilliantly. Whatever the symbolic meaning of the recruit in a specifically Chinese sense, we also know the image's universal suggestion of war, a category of aggression that acts as a perfect metaphor for our current affairs. Zhang Huan creates images whose overall content is quite a bit larger than the sum of their parts; they correspond to his own purpose?the creation of an art that reflects both the particularities of China and the universals of the human condition. His ambition thus comes across as being slightly larger than life. Untitled (2006) (Lot 735), a mixed-media piece, depicts a donkey, whose body is partially outlined by feathers. Given the very large dimensions (360 by 250 cm), this image concurs with Zhang Huan's larger-than-life view of things. It shows the donkey standing in the midst of horizontal lines that might well be hay or even water; these lines are printed on the lower two thirds of the paper, with the top third devoted to bands of mostly black, on top of which one finds the white silhouettes of more feathers. The donkey recalls Chinese agricultural labor, while the feathers attached to the animal's front, eye, back, belly, and tail lend it a bit of magical presence. The image's stark, black-and-white simplicity makes it that much more affecting; the viewer senses that Zhang Huan is making open reference to peasant tradition, both in the content of the image itself and in the directness of the way it is communicated. The five silkscreen prints that comprise Dragonfly (2006) (Lot 733)refers to a well-known image taken from Zhang Huan's performance 12 Square Meters; in that particular action, after his hour of endurance, the artist walked from the public latrine into a nearby pond (his progress was documented by the photographer Rong Rong). In the first four prints, we follow the artist into the water, seeing his back only; with each image, his body moves deeper into the pond, while a red dragonfly, much larger than Zhang Huan himself, hovers closely over him. By the time we encounter the fourth image, there is only a circular ripple of water to indicate his presence, and here the dragonfly, tail up, is quite some way above the pattern of water. In the last image, the dragonfly is gone, but a small hillock, much like an island, rises up from the same point where Zhang Huan totally submerged himself. The series references both the artist's earlier work and, with the dragonfly, traditional Chinese painting. It even suggests a myth, in which the artist's sacrifice turns into an island, surrounded by mist. In this work and in the others described here, Zhang Huan consistently moves toward a personal mythology, made larger and grander by both his ambition and his identification with China itself, growing by leaps and bounds. His work now has not only the status, but also the aura, of the classic.
ZHANG HUAN Winning Bid: $20,000 Christie's First Open Post-War And Contemporary Art New York, March 11, 2009 Lot: 121 12 Square Meters (1994) color coupler print mounted on board 45½ x 32½ in. (115.5 x 82.5 cm.)
ZHANG HUAN Christie's First Open Post-War And Contemporary Art New York, March 11, 2009 Lot: 122 1/2 (1998) color coupler print mounted on board 45½ x 38½ in. (115.5 x 97.7 cm.)
ZHANG HUAN Phillips De Pury Under the Influence New York, March 9, 2009 Lot: 160 Shun No. 13 Woodcut. 67 1/8 x 40 7/8 in. (170.5 x 103.8 cm). This work is unique.
ZHANG HUAN Phillips De Pury Contemporary Art Day Sale London, February 13, 2009 Lot: 148 Family Tree Nine c-prints. Each: 53 x 41 cm. (21 x 16 in).
ZHANG HUAN Phillips De Pury Contemporary Art Day Sale London, February 13, 2009 Lot: 149 Chicken Pox Six c-prints. Each: 57.8 x 45 cm. (22 3/4 x 17 3/4 in). Galleries showing Zhang Huan
Solo Shows with Zhang Huan
Group Shows with Zhang Huan
Exhibitions
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