Oil on canvas

100 x 70 cm. 39 3/8 x 27 5/9 in.

Tilled, signed and located in Chinese, dated on the reverse

LITERATURE
2019, A Selection of Paintings by Zhang Langlang, People's Fine Arts Publishing House, Beijing, p.190-191
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Asia

Forever Youthful, Forever Painting
The Inspiring Life Journal of Zhang Langlang

In 1943, Zhang Langlang was born into a family of artists in Yan'an. His father Zhang Ding, the former president of Central Academy of Arts & Design (now Acadmy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University), was involved in the design of the national emblem. His mother Chen Buwen was an established writer and once worked for Premiere Zhou En'lai as his secretary. Under such influence, Zhang also became interested in literature and arts and set up a poetry society named Sun Brigade, which was well-received by young scholars. In 1968, his “revolutionary” statements landed him in jail, where he stayed for almost ten years until 1977, when he started teaching at the Central Academy of Fine Arts after being proved innocent. Zhang was a visiting scholar at Princeton University in 1980 and joined Cornell's faculty in 1993. As a modernist, his artworks are rich in colors with unparalleled visual appeal. Inspired by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani, he also drew from his literary literacy to make his paintings imaginative and emotionally captivating. He embraces every life event, good or bad, with a generous mentality that is unique to the artists of his days.

The “Turbulent” Old Days
Zhang projects his unfulfilled ambitions onto young faces, which are frequent subjects in his paintings. Painted in 2015, Turbulent Youth(Lot 46) shows the face of a young man, who holds a firm gaze despite the strong wind blowing off his long hair. Instead of depicting hardships, Zhang resorted to the connotations of blue, green and bright yellow paint to present the character as a depressed yet determined aspirant. The slightly visible red lumps on his forehead are emblems of his unyielding resolve regardless of the physical injury.

Make Lemonade out of Lemons
Zhang grew up with a cat, and this explains his special affection for the animal. “I have been fascinated by Van Gogh's works since very little. In my rendition of Sunflower(Lot 45), I included a cat to make the painting more lively,” said Zhang. In the 2017 version of Sunflower, the potted plant is placed against a night-sky-like background, resembling a spark of hope in the dark emitting an otherworldly radiance, while the kitty is sitting aside on alert with a vigorous stare. The simple and beautiful utopia in the painting stands in stark contrast with Zhang's bumpy ride in reality. Following Van Gogh's footsteps, Zhang is committed to painting out the missing pieces of his life's puzzle with incomparable passion and a loving heart that makes his artworks both uplifting and sincere.

Price estimate:
HKD: 160,000 – 250,000
USD: 20,400 – 31,900

Auction Result:
HKD: 448,400