V isceral, enigmatic, and articulating an elegant yet searing power, Bloodline: Mother & Son No. 1 is an incomparable masterwork situated at the very beginning of Zhang Xiaogang’s seminal and era-defining Bloodline lexicon. Unsurpassed in terms of personal significance as well as historical gravitas, the painting is earliest that gave birth to the Bloodline series. The painting’s only other comparable, Mother & Son No.2, resides in the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan, rendering the present painting the only nascent masterpiece from the series in private hands – a tremendously rare and academically significant work representing the historical inception of Bloodline – Big Family. Inspired by old family photos, the present painting portrays Zhang Xiaogang and his mother, initiating the artist’s lifelong exploration of the theme of family ties, while introducing virtually the entire artistic vocabulary that would characterize his subsequent Bloodline series. Among these motifs are the two red lines that join the mother and son to a television and a speaker, as well as the patches of light that cover a quarter of their faces, and finally the combination of the television set, which features a photo collage of the mother. The entire tableau is framed by a layer of bricks, richly rendered in oil paint, with similar bricks making up the background, a visual strategy akin to Zhang Xiaogang’s Tiananmen series of the same year. At the center of the painting, at the space between the two figures, is a letter from Zhang to his mother: “Hi, Mother… I am well, you needn’t worry. My life is happy, I have work, a place to live, and I needn’t worry about clothes, food, or money. My life seems to improve with each passing day. What else is there to be unhappy about, what do I have to be dissatisfied with? What is there to be worried about?” Finally, at the top of the painting, a musical score of a popular song lends a contemporary context. Bearing the weight of the psychological disposition of a single family as well as an entire generation, Bloodline: Mother & Son No. 1 encapsulates the artist’s private familial memories, the collects ive histories, dreams, and disillusions of an estranged generation, as well as his epocahl position in global art history. Internationally acclaimed and exhibited at prestigious biennales in the mid-1990s, Zhang Xiaogang’s singular Bloodline – Big Family aesthetic is underlain by a rich range of influence from artistic trends and personal experiences during two dense decades of societal and cultural shifts. Zhang’s teenage years coincided with the Cultural Revolution: in 1968, his parents were sent away for re-education, his father to the countryside and his mother to Chengdu. Afterwards, as part of the first graduating class of 1982 from the Sichuan Academy of Replica Handbags s, Zhang’s earliest artistic influences beyond Socialist Realism included Jean-François Millet and Vincent Van Gogh. Zhang soon mastered technical command of various lineages of Western oil painting, and for his graduation project, he travelled to the Tibetan plateau, painting the ethnic peoples with experimental lyrical expressionism and emotion-filled brushwork. After graduation, Zhang’s works across the 1980s engaged with Surrealism, symbolism, trompe l’oeil and a number of modern Western styles. In the ’85 Movement, Zhang played a leading role in the Southwestern Art Research Group: while the Northern Artists Group, led by Wang Guangyi, focused on rationalism and idealism, the Southwestern Group focused on Western modernism and individualistic expression.

From the ’85 Movement to the nascence of the Bloodline series in 1993, two important milestones occurred. The first is the defining political events of 1989, which sparked a critical transition in Zhang’s mindset from individualistic introspection to emphatic explorations of the linkages between art and reality, self and history. It was during this period from 1989 to 1992 that the patches of light, so prevalent within the Bloodline paintings, first appeared in Zhang’s works. Always spilling from the right side of the canvas and illuminating sections of his subject’s faces, these pools of light manifest as presences of the real world – “acknowledg[ing] the reality of the natural world, and yet [maintaining] a strong subjective resonance” (Jonathan Fineberg and Gary G. Xu, eds., Zhang Xiaogang: Disquieting Memories, London, 2015, p. 66). The connection between the subjective self and external reality forms a key part of Zhang’s artistic and philosophical enquiry: for him, the “ambiguities” or “in-betweenness” of art brings him “closer to reality” (ibid). Zhang began to develop what he called “psychological realism” – one that “projects shadows onto [his heart]” (ibid). Gradually, the patches of light became abstract and expressionistic, eventually taking the form of the aberrant splatches of colour in his Bloodline works. Reminiscent of aged film or birth marks, these patches interrupt the otherwise greyscale palette of the series, representing vestiges of individual histories within nationalistic collects ivism.

The second milestone leading up to Bloodline was Zhang’s four-month trip to Germany in 1992. During his brief t.mes in Europe, two artists influenced Zhang profoundly: Gerhard Richter and René Magritte. Whereas Richter’s treatment of photographs inspired Zhang’s attention to the private and collects ive histories behind photos, Magritte’s whimsical fantasies influenced Zhang’s gradual detachment from anguished pathos and tormented turmoil towards a more distanced, collects ed approach to art and expression. Zhang wrote: “Calm yet irrational, imaginative but restrained, realistic and terrifying but at the same t.mes alienating, using visible objects to bring thoughts into an invisible tunnel, depicting an indescribable, mysterious philosophy […] this charisma of Magritte’s has enchanted me all these years. It has also become the standard to which I hold my art and the state that I hope I will someday achieve. Through [Magritte and de Chirico] I learned how to ‘keep a distance’ when examining our heavy history or facing our ever-changing reality” (Zhang Xiaogang, ‘My Soul Mate Magritte’, in Art World No. 5, 2001).

The exposure to foreign cultures also led Zhang Xiaogang to think more deeply about his position as a Chinese artist. “I looked from the ‘early phase’ to the present for a position for myself, but even after this I still didn’t know who I was. But an idea did emerge clearly: if I continue being an artist, I have to be an artist of ‘China’” (Extract from "Dialogue with Zhang Xiaogang" in Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990, Asia Art Archive, 2009). The identity of ‘Chinese artist’ had never occurred so clearly in Zhang’s mind. He later commented to an art critic: “before I went to Germany, I had never truly, seriously looked at a Chinese face". Only after returning to China did Zhang examine the faces of the Chinese, which had never appeared to him so lucidly. This awakening exerted an enormous influence on his subsequent career: people around him became important subjects, and he embarked on a long creative quest for a face that belonged to the Chinese.

Shortly after Zhang’s return to China, his quest for a ‘Chinese face’ found fruition during a visit to his parent’s home in Kunming. Leafing through old photographs, he experienced an epiphany: "I cannot say clearly which part of me was so deeply moved by those carefully retouched old photographs. They sent.mes on endless fantasies and reveries" (Extract from "Dialogue with Zhang Xiaogang" in Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990, Asia Art Archive, 2009). Photographs of his parents in their youth, of himself as a child, of him with his brother and parents - all these made strong and lasting impressions on him. Basing a new series of paintings on these old photographs, Zhang’s Bloodline works resonate with a uncannily enthralling aura that combines the poignancy of old photographs – lost moments in t.mes – with a disquieting surrealist style. By usurping the photographic medium’s claims to objectivity, Zhang reopens a chapter from the past and enlivens its discourse with painterly ambiguity. The impassive and icy stares of his protagonists, inaccessible and indifferent, do not coerce us into an emotional response or any reading of narrative; rather, their grey apparitions beckon silently as flat relics of a familiar history, now emptied of its currency and rendered obsolete. Albeit united via facial features, posture, uniform, and the symbolic red bloodlines, Zhang’s figures remain disconnected, inaccessible not just to viewers but to each other. As such, Zhang constructs an open-ended remedy for dealing with a complex cultural past; his relived uneasy nostalgia of an ideologically extreme period, now a bygone era, and the traumas it enacted and left behind. Through his expressionless and disconnected figures the artist looks back on the flux of history with no certain terms, taking back the claimed objectivity of a family photograph and questioning notions of subjectivity, selfhood, and otherness within the complex construction of modern China’s identity.

張曉剛鉅作《血緣 — 大家庭：全家福2號》創作於1993年，是《血緣 — 大家庭》系列兩幅重要開山之作的第二幅，第一幅由德島縣立近代美術館收藏。今次上拍的是系列中仍為私人珍藏的唯一已知作品，殊為難得，標誌著《血緣 — 大家庭》系列的開端，極富學術意義。1993年是張曉剛創作生涯的分水嶺。八十至九十年代初期，他以表現主義和超現實主義風格建構一闕闕夢囈式的獨白；1993年則是他摒棄表現主義、以純粹的超現實筆觸對中國人身份認同提出詰問的一年，他慢慢走出關於個人存在的哲學迷思，轉而探索國族歷史和集體回憶。此作的藍本來自家族舊照片，畫中人是張曉剛的父母及其兄長，三人構成一張經典的全家福。中間的嬰兒被繪成明亮的黃色，跟畫像中褪色般的褐黃呈現出強烈的色彩對比。嬰兒的身體延伸出兩條紅線，把他跟雙親聯繫起來。畫面左上方顯示著天氣圖標和流行曲簡譜。此作完成後，標誌著以全家福為題的最初兩幅作品面世，張曉剛與著名藝評家張頌仁為這個系列取名為「血緣 — 大家庭」。第一幅是《血緣 — 大家庭：全家福1號》，在第22屆聖保羅國際雙年展中首次展出，現藏於德島縣立近代美術館。此作是《血緣 — 大家庭：全家福2號》，它寄託了整代人沉重的心理狀態，是現今市場上最早期的《血緣 — 大家庭》系列作品。

《血緣 — 大家庭》系列的獨特美學靈感源自家庭老照片，各大藝術風潮和張曉剛在先前二十多年社會文化驟變中的個人經歷，也對其創作影響良多。張曉剛的青少年時期正值中國文化大革命，1968年，他的父母分別被安排到農村和成都接受「再教育」。1982年，他成為四川美術學院的第一屆畢業生，除了社會現實主義，其藝術風格啟蒙還包括米勒和梵谷。求學期間，他很快就掌握了西方不同流派的油畫技法，為了完成畢業作品，他遠赴西藏，以實驗性的表現主義筆觸，感情充沛地為當地的少數民族作畫。畢業後，張曉剛在八十年代創作的作品帶有超現實主義、象徵主義、錯視畫和不少西方現代藝術的影子。在「85新潮」美術運動裡，他是「西南藝術研究群體」的領軍人物，有別於在王廣義帶領下「北方藝術群體」所主張的理性和理想主義，「西南藝術研究群體」著重的是西方現代主義和個人表達。

在「85新潮」和1993年《血緣》系列面世之間，發生了兩件里程碑式的大事。首先是1989年的政治運動，令張曉剛的心態從著重個人內省，過渡到探討藝術和現實、自身和歷史的關聯。正是1989至1992年間，《血緣》系列裡常見的光斑首次出現在張曉剛的作品裡。光線總是來自畫面右方，落在人物臉上，象徵現實世界的存在，「反映自然現實，同時保留了強烈的主觀情感」（Jonathan Fineberg及徐鋼合編，《Zhang Xiaogang: Disquieting Memories》，倫敦，2015年，頁66）。主觀自我和外界現實的聯繫構成了張曉剛在藝術和哲學探求上的重要部分，對他而言，藝術的「曖昧性」和「居間性」令他「更加接近現實」（同上）。他開始發展出「[向自己內心] 投下陰影」的「心理現實主義」（同上）。人物臉上的光斑逐漸變得抽象和富表現主義色彩，最終被《血緣》系列裡不自然的斑點取代。這些光斑彷如老膠片上的痕跡或胎記，為這個灰濛濛的系列帶來點點異色，代表了在國家集體主義下殘留的個人意志。

第二件里程碑式的大事是張曉剛在1992年旅居德國四個月。儘管停留時間短暫，藝術家格哈德・里希特和雷內・馬格利特依然對他影響深遠。里希特有如攝影般真實的繪畫，使他開始留意照片背後包含的個人和集體記憶；馬格利特天馬行空的想像力，則使他慢慢褪下令人痛苦的悲悵和煎熬，轉向更加冷靜自持、不動聲色的藝術表現手法。張曉剛曾經寫道：「冷靜而又非理性；充滿幻想而又保持住應有的節制；真實恐怖卻又令人感到陌生；利用可見的物體，使人的思維跨入不可見的隱秘隧道，呈現出某種神秘的哲理[…]馬格利特的這種魅力使我長久的著迷，同時也成為我長期以來對自己藝術的某種價值判斷和境界追求。正是通過他們[馬格利特和德・基里科]，使我學會了如何『有距離地』去體驗我們的深重的歷史，以及我們所面臨的多變的現實。」（張曉剛，〈我的知己——馬格利特〉，《藝術世界》，第5期，2001年）。

歐洲之行同時讓藝術家在異邦文化衝擊中，對中國藝術家的定位有更深入的思考。「我一直從『早期』看到當代，找自己的位置。看完了以後還是不知道自己是誰。但有一個想法很明顯得出現了︰我要繼續做藝術家的話，我必須是『中國』的藝術家。」「中國藝術家」這個身份從來未曾如此清晰的出現在張曉剛的思考中。他後來與一位評論家這樣說︰「我去德國之前，從來沒有真正地，認認真真地看這一張中國人的臉．．．我們為什麼要畫書本、畫冊上搬過來的人物，而不去畫身邊那些真實鮮活的人物呢﹖這讓人困惑。」回國後，張曉剛才真正清楚的把中國人的臉仔細看一遍，黃皮膚的臉孔從沒有這樣清晰的出現在張曉剛的面前。這覺悟對他其後的創作產生了非常巨大的影響，身邊的人成為張曉剛重要的題材，漫長的創作旅程由是展開，為的是尋找一張中國人的臉。

在張曉剛回昆明探望父母時，這段旅程找到了轉捩點。藝術家在偶然之間，翻看著一張一張的老照片，一種無以名狀的感覺悄然來襲。「我無法說清楚那些被精心修飾後的舊照片究竟觸動了自己心靈深處的哪一根神經，它們使我浮想聯翩，愛不釋手。」 父母親年輕時候的照片、自己童年照片、兄弟合照及家庭合照，再再給了他衝擊。這些在文化大革命期間、八十年代中國改革開放前拍攝的照片，讓我們看到一張張對未來充滿盼望的臉，但歷史總是愛開玩笑，在這些標準家庭照的背後，是一段不能遺忘的歷史。潛藏的衝突，寄喻了個人在浩瀚歷史中的渺小及無力，讓張曉剛找到表現中國歷史的可能性。不久就開始創作《血緣》系列，作品的氛圍神秘怪誕卻引人入勝，結合了老照片飽含的傷痛——遺失在時間裂縫裡的歲月——和令人不安的超現實風格。他顛覆了攝影繪畫的客觀性，重訪一段塵封的歷史，並藉由繪畫的曖昧性重新加以詮釋。畫中人的目光冷若冰霜，木無表情，難以捉摸，絲毫無法引起觀眾的情感反饋和敘事想像；相反，他們幽魂般的灰調身影彷如家族遺物，早已失去價值，變得一文不值，卻還在發出無聲的召喚。張曉剛筆下的人物通過統一的五官、姿態、制服和標誌性的血緣紅線彼此相連，但他們之間依舊關係疏離，觀眾也無法看透他們的面具，令人不禁想起馬奈的名畫《陽台》裡同樣神情冷淡的三人。張曉剛透過這種手法，為一段眾說紛紜的歷史寫下任人解讀的救贖；那是一個受激進意識形態主宰的年代，雖已遠去，創傷卻已留下，回想往事總會勾起心中的惶惑。藝術家透過面部呆滯、彼此疏離的家庭成員，回溯歷史洪流，他抹走家庭照片的客觀性，在複雜的現代中國身份建構下，對主觀、自我、他者等概念提出質疑。

《血緣》系列擁有劃時代的意義，其美學意涵引起一代又一代人的共鳴，為中國當代藝術帶來立竿見影且歷久不衰的影響，並成為全球文化對話裡為人深入探討的一支。即使身處世界藝術潮流，張曉剛依然保持自我，雖然他的作品有時會被誤作為「玩世現實主義」，但是根據安涅・格林舍的觀察，「張曉剛的作品一點兒也不玩世」，反而充滿創造個人願景的抱負。同一道理，雖然《血緣》系列常被指是張曉剛從「表現主義藝術家」到「超現實主義藝術家」的圓滿過渡，甚至連他本人也有同感，但是這些二十世紀的西方現代主義術語，未必能夠反映實情。「壓抑」也許是比較恰當的形容詞；之所謂超現實主義不在表達，而在隱藏和抗拒，才能引起關注。張曉剛畫下一張又一張公式化的美麗面龐，再用脆弱的血紅細線將它們一一連起來，這些精彩畫作記錄了他的個人家族記憶、社會的集體心理狀態、夢想和疏離世代夢想的破滅，同時也反映出他在全球藝術史上的重要地位。