Portrait | Harvard Art Museums

Gallery Text

Painted from a photograph, Zhang’s Portrait situates the subject in an eerie gray dreamscape. By imbuing the precision of photography with the modulated tones of a painting, Zhang imparts a surreal quality to the work. The portrait belongs to the artist’s Bloodline: Big Family series, based on family photographs taken before and during China’s Cultural Revolution. In the 1980s Zhang was part of a group of artists and philosophers opposing government repression and advocating for humanism, individual freedom, and democracy. Despite its formal portrait conventions and the ubiquitous collared jacket, the painting represents an individual. Yet the notion of collectivity, central to the Cultural Revolution, still permeated Chinese society, as is evident in the repetition evoked by this series of paintings. The jagged red line, a reference to the bloodlines that tie a family together, cuts across the subject like a wound, imparting a subtle violence to the cool gray portrait.

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 2012.118
People: Zhang Xiaogang, Chinese (Kunming, Yunnan Province born 1958)
Title: Portrait
Classification: Paintings
Work Type: painting
Date: 1996
Culture: Chinese
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/339976

Physical Descriptions

Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 40 x 30.2 cm (15 3/4 x 11 7/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: Zhang Xiaogang (1996-?) to; European collector (?-2006) consigned to; [Christie's, London] (2006) sold to; Reade and Elizabeth Griffith (2006-2012) gift to; Harvard Art Museums, 2012.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Reade and Elizabeth Griffith
Accession Year: 2012
Object Number: 2012.118
Division: Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact: am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions: The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Exhibition History

32Q: 1120 Contemporary Art, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 08/10/2017
32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/31/2019 - 01/08/2020; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/04/2021 - 01/02/2022

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu

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2012.118: Portrait