Zhang Hong-tu

Zhang Hongtu (Simplified Chinese: 张宏图; Traditional Chinese: 張宏圖; Wade-Giles: Chang Hung-t'u; Pinyin: Zhāng Hóngtú) (born 1943) is a Chinese artist based in New York City.

Zhang was born in Pingliang. He works in a variety of media such as painting (sometimes with soy sauce), sculpture, collage, ceramics, digital imaging and installation. His work explores the freedom to criticize the Chinese authorities afforded to an artist living in the West. It also reflects on themes of authority and belief (specifically the power of iconic imagery) and cross-cultural 'East and West' connections. These themes are largely derived from his "outsider" standing as a Muslim in China and, after his move to the United States, as a Chinese citizen in the Western world.

He studied at the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts in Beijing.

In 1987 he took part in the founding of The Chinese United Overseas Artists Association, along with Li Shuang, Qu Leilei, and Ai Weiwei.

Biographical

Early life Zhang Hongtu was born in 1943 into a Muslim family in Pingliang, 100 miles northwest of Xi'an. His family was constantly on the move however, so that Hongtu never quite belonged to any of the places he moved. Zhang Hongtu's father, Zhang Bingduo, was a devout Muslim and traveled throughout China to start schools in the Arabic language. From 1947 to 1950, with the Chinese civil war raging, Hongtu's father mobilized his family, moving them from Pingliang in the northwest to Shanghai, Suzhou, and Nanjing, and then north to Zhengzhou. Before the communist defeat, Zhang Bingduo intended to escape with his family to Hong Kong, but was convinced to move to Beijing by a Muslim professor.

In Beijing, the members of the Zhang family were outsiders. Hongtu's father worked various jobs for the new government, including the Minority Affairs Association, the Xinhua News Agency, the Central Broadcasting Administration, and eventually he became the vice president of the National Muslim Association. However, their religious affiliation in an officially atheistic state made life increasingly difficult. Bingduo was branded a Rightist in 1957. And while he avoided being sent to a reeducation camp, Hongtu's mother lost her job and talk of religion disappeared within the household. It marked the beginning of what Jerome Silbergeld notes as "a long romance between Chinese and Western icons" in Zhang Hongtu's work. In his deconstruction of cultural icons, Zhang Hongtu has used cutouts and contrast. He cuts images out, turning positives into negatives and solids into voids. Repainting Shanshui is a series that Zhang Hongtu began in 1998 to explore the parody of values and conventions of Chinese and Western art. For Zhang, the image of Chairman Mao seemed ubiquitous, and with just a few brushstrokes he was able to juxtapose Western and Eastern cultures in a humorous critique. This artwork is seen as one of the first "political pop" artworks from a Chinese artist. The Saatchi Gallery, which housed an exhibition of Zhang Hongtu's work, notes that "The uncanny resemblance between communist leader and puritan farmer ironically confuses propaganda, religion, and ideology with the kitsch of advertising and cult of personality; like Elvis and Jesus, once you start looking Mao can be found everywhere." The painting was rejected because it "offended Christian values."

The painting was intended to be a satire about the deification of Chairman Mao, surrounded by disciples who made themselves in his image.

Selected exhibitions 2004

Selected work, William Holland & Drury Gallery, Marlboro College, Vermont

2003

Icon & Innovations: The Cross-Cultural Art of Zhang Hongtu, The Gibson Gallery, State University of New York at Potsdam

2002

Paris-Pekin, Espace Cardin, Paris

ConversASIAN, National Gallery, Cayman Island

2000

New Paintings, Cheryl McGinnis Gallery, New York

1996

Soy Sauce, Lipstick, Charcoal, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Chairmen Mao, Groton School, Massachusetts

1995

Zhang Hongtu: Material Mao, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York

1994

The Fifth Biennial of Havana, Cuba

Small World - Small Works, Galerie + Edition Caoc, Berlin, Germany

1982

The Spirit of Dunhuang, Asian Arts Institute, New York