Sol LeWitt and Zhang Xiaogang

In the early 1990s, Zhang Xiaogang abandoned his mythological, legendary subjects and went on to delineate realistic figures and scenes evocative of the era of Cultural Revolution, when both life and ideology became homogeneous. More recently, however, he has progressed toward a smooth, esoterically abstract pictorial language. There are fewer recognizable objects in the background, and portraits collapse into straight symbolism. In Zhang’s new series exhibited here, the “intellectuals” he depicts (as well as the signature glowing spots he adds to their faces) remain in the picture, but their bodies regress to those of toddlers. Meanwhile, scenes are described more vividly and whimsically, colors are brighter, and the scale is smaller. Within landscapes of green plains, the subjects in his still lifes and portraits—a child in a bunny mask, deer silhouetted in doorways, as well as power strips, extension cords, and a toddler tricycle illuminated under a lamp—are all kept at safe distances from one another. These scenes, which accentuate a sense of decline and deterioration, are more surreal than his earlier work.

In contrast, Sol LeWitt’s installations—extending across walls as well as sitting atop pedestals—exemplify introversion and reserve. LeWitt’s Minimalist, Conceptual language, as always, bears markers of the necessary limitations underpinning formal reduction and simplification. The juxtaposition of LeWitt’s works with Zhang’s recent paintings—which augur a return to specificity—underlines the constraints inherent to both artists’ creative practices. But the pairing also reveals how the artists generated new energy by continuously reorganizing and rearranging forms and contexts within their own limited sets of rules.

Translated from Chinese by Yitong Wang.