Zhang Xiaogang valuation
The Bloodline family portraits: identical grey faces from a Cultural Revolution photograph album.
Zhang Xiaogang was born in Kunming in 1958 and lived through the Cultural Revolution as a child; his parents were sent away for re-education.
What a work by Zhang Xiaogang is worth
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation is free, made online from the photographs you send, and it commits you to nothing. We act for sellers across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.
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Bio
Zhang Xiaogang was born in Kunming in 1958 and lived through the Cultural Revolution as a child; his parents were sent away for re-education. After a difficult decade of expressionist work and heavy drinking, a 1992 trip to Europe and then the discovery of his family's old studio photographs produced the Bloodline series, which is what he is known for: stiff, frontal, near-identical family groups with smooth grey faces, painted in the manner of a retouched studio portrait, connected by fine red lines and marked with patches of light like a photographic flaw. He is among the most internationally recognised Chinese contemporary painters.
The Bloodline paintings are the centre of the market and the smooth, evenly finished grey surfaces are the condition issue, since any retouching, abrasion or stretcher mark shows immediately on an unmodulated ground. Works are unique and the title, date and dimensions identify a specific painting, as the compositions are deliberately similar. There is an editioned output of prints and of sculpture. Signature and date are usually on the face, lower corner, in Chinese characters and pinyin. Gallery provenance and exhibition history are the normal reference.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.
