art | Zhang Xiaogang

Zhang Xiaogang
The Boy Who Sticks Out His Tongue
2001
oil on canvas

This is a photograph we took of a gem at the Art Gallery of New South Whales.

With a subtle sleekness Zhang expresses so many of the dilemmas facing modern China: the urgent quest for engagement with the world without prejudice to its own values and traditions, the tension between public and private, between collective good and private ambition, between self - so strongly illustrated in this image – and society.