Guiada por uma notícia da edição impressa do Público – “China ameaça liderança do mercado da arte contemporânea” – e motivada pela reprodução de uma das pinturas da “ameaça”, procurei na net mais informação sobre o artista mencionado na dita notícia, Zhang Xiaogang.

Independentemente – ou talvez não – da minha atracção fatal pela China (atracção que não tem a ver com quaisquer apelos de exotismos extremo-orientais, mas que vem da sedução provocada pela convivência próxima durante alguns anos), a imagem picou-me a alma. Na página da galeria Saacthi, reproduções de outras obras e um pequeno texto confirmaram-me a legitimidade deste desejo de posse que me assaltou, aquele “eu quero”, infantil e primário, que lida mal com a impossiblidade real e ilude a frustração de saber que, dada a projecção deste pintor e os preços que os seus quadros atingem e atingirão, nunca poderei possuir uma destas pinturas e a única atitude que me consola é a resposta idiota que ocorre em situações semelhantes: “se me sair o euromilhões,…”. E o Zhang Xiaogang entrou naquela – enorme – lista ideal do que irei fazer quando acertar nos mágicos cinco números e duas estrelinhas.

Para a série “Bloodline: Big Family”, Zhang Xiaogang inspira-se em retratos de família da época da revolução cultural chinesa:

“Anyone who has been in contact with contemporary Chinese culture will have noticed the attraction that portrait photographs, generally stiffly posed and very formal, have for the inhabitants of China. Photographs record all important rites of passage – the individual as a baby, the individual with parents, with siblings, with members of his or her extended family, with fellow-pupils, co-workers, with participants in some collective event. (…) [the artist] is fascinated by the tensions between the forces of public life and individual privacy…In recapitulating the collective experience of violated privacy, Zhang has created convincing images of the suppressed psyche of China’s recent past. (…) On the surface the faces in these portraits appear as calm as still water, but underneath there is great emotional turbulence. Within this state of conflict the propagation of obscure and ambiguous destinies is carried on from generation to generation. (…) The paintings are about the process of coming to terms with China’s recent history. They are also about the conflict between what is public and what is private in present-day China. How far can the individual push claims to uniqueness; how gar can he or she assert a right to independent action? In traditional Chinese society, the individual was rarely, if indeed ever, a completely separate entity. He existed only in relationship to others – first to the family group, then to the whole hierarchy of an elaborately structured society. ‘Individualism’ – a sense of the self as a complete universe in its own right – was not an option. Nor was it really an option in the kind of communist society envisioned by Mao tze-dong.” [Edward Lucie-smith]

Ligações:

Between Reality and Illusion, [Edward Lucie-smith]
A Chinese painter’s new struggle: to meet demand, [China Daily]
The Family in Contemporary Asian Art: Zhang Xiaogang [Exposição]
the-artists.org

[CM]