Zhang Huan: Spring Poppy Fields, Pace Gallery

Pace gallery is opening up its Burlington Gardens site to an enticing set of recent works by prolific performance artist Zhang Huan. Breaking out of the medium for which he has become an iconic figure of Chinese contemporary art – performance – these new painted works would seem to suggest a new direction in his career, but is this definitely the case? A look back at Zhang Huan's personal history can tell us a lot:

The art scene from which Zhang Huan emerged was dynamic and unpredictable. As a performance artist, working in a country where performance art has been periodically outlawed, his output was always provocative and daring from its point of origin.

It was in the early 90s that Zhang Huan established his formidable reputation as a performance artist. During this period he developed a striking personal style, with performances that were often physically gruelling and always dramatic. Take, for example, 12 Square Meters in which he sat for several hours in a squalid outhouse infested with flies, both completely naked and covered head to toe in honey. At this time he was a based in what was known as Beijing East Village. This self-contained artistic community, which borrowed its name from New York’s East Village, was one of several groups that worked collectively in discrete parts of the city.  Against a backdrop of varied artistic oppression within China, the big apple’s avant-garde scene evidently had a strong appeal to Huan who went on to live in the city for eight years.  It was during this period that his reputation grew; this important Chinese artist became an internationally influential figure in performance art. 

Huan has since moved his studio to Shanghai. The most recent exhibition, entitled Spring Poppy Fields, comprises a series of fourteen brightly coloured paintings in oil on linen, produced since 2011. On the face of it, these recent works are a departure from his irreverent and visceral acts;  a submission to the conventions of paint on canvas. However, these paintings have more in common with his performance work than is immediately apparent. They incorporate many of the same conceptual themes including allusions to Buddhist iconography and mythology. These paintings also seem to have been greatly informed by Huan’s extensive travel to Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and India. Fruitful material for further examination. 

So, while we won’t get the chance to be shocked or repulsed by one of the artist’s notorious actions, Spring Poppy Fields promises to give us a lucid impression of his conceptual concerns, all articulated through a mesmerising colour palette.