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Lot Essay
Nine Readings of the Relationships in Intimacy
You Yong / Art Historian and Independent Curator
This is undoubtedly one of the rarest and most exceptional works. Zhang Enli completed this monumental set of three works when he was 37 years old. Each panel measures 250cm in height and 200cm in width. The sheer number of characters in this work is truly breathtaking. It encompasses a total of 57 figures —— the animals can be considered as archetypal characters —— beasts may become humans, and humans can turn into beasts.
Some of the intimate relationships depicted in the painting are distorted and fragmented, so viewers need to reconstruct them in their minds. For instance, in Intimacy 1, the woman whose breast is being fondled has two faces—the left one is kissing while the right one is smoking. In Intimacy 2, a man can be seen kissing two left hands that are superimposed on each other, which might appears to be a hidden tribute to Duchamp.
1. Developmental Context
Stage One: 1990 to 1997. The heavy use of black in the background expresses a sense of ruggedness and violence. Representative works from this period are largely concluded in three series: The Butcher, The Smoker, and The Bar.
Stage Two: 1997 to 2000. At the turn of the century, the artist created large scale monumental works that investigated new subject matters. Three main groups of works: Dancing, Kissing, and Eating, gave rise to masterpieces such as the Banquet, Intimacy, and other polyptychs. The developmental lineage of these works can be traced from subsequent series such as Big Tree, Water, Pipes and Hoses, and Mosaic, to the artist’s current abstract paintings. The myriad forms of Zhang’s paintings are all connected by these hidden yet intimate relationships. Such lineage can also be found in the present monumental work.
During the seven years from 1995 to 2002, the Dancing and Kissing series were developed into Intimacy, the set of three paintings with epic proportion.
2. Dancing
In Intimacy, the left panel is composed of the Dancing theme and the right panel is composed of the Kissing theme. The Dancing series took place between 1995 and 2000 with 13 published pieces, but the actual total should exceed this number. There must have been other exceptional works that are left out of the catalogue raisonné—especially the early works.
In the 1990s, Ballroom dancing was a craze in the cities in China. As the night falls, restaurants, churches, air raid shelters, skating rinks, and classrooms could all be turned into impromptu dance halls. At 35 years old, Zhang Enli held his first solo exhibition entitled “Dancing”. It took place at the old ShanghART Gallery located in front of the Fuxing Park. The exhibition hall space comprised two small houses, which were less than thirty square metres combined.
The Dancing series shows a certain social reality in Chinese cities in the 1990s. Dejected and helpless, ordinary citizens and poor intellectuals felt many uncertainties in their futures. Amidst the lingering gloom, they took solace in dancing. We cannot simply consider these phenomena as mere social realism depictions, because their misery is the same misery that is experienced by all of humankind, and their condition is a universal human condition.
Intimacy is the culmination of the artistic achievements from the Dancing and Kissing series. Cryptic yet thought-provoking, the 28 couples depicted in this work epitomise the complicated yet intimate emotional relationships in our society.
3. Kissing
The Kissing series is another developmental lineage that leads to the birth of Intimacy. A total of six works were published, and they were all produced during the last two years of the 20th century. Kissing 1 was completed in 1999, measuring the same size (100 x 80 cm) as the first work from the Dancing series that was completed in 1995.
Despite its namesake Kissing, one can argue that it is more apt to call this group of paintings "Gnawing". In these works, two people wrestle and gnaw at each other breathlessly. As they twist and constrict with all their might, their faces grimace and distort. Their actions are brutal and barbaric, and their skin turn blood red as their bodies ignite. They are like animals stuck together and ready to mate, neither feeling timid nor feeling ashamed.
All emotions can be sealed with a kiss. In paintings, photography, movies, and popular culture, there are countless instances of kissing, and many of them are earth-shattering kisses that left lasting impressions on the audience. If we narrow our search to the last few decades in Chinese painting, one would discover that there is a dire shortage of kissing expressions. The impoverishment in this category is especially apparent when we examine the mountains of formulaic kissing scenes in kitschy commercial paintings. These cliched ways of kissing desensitise us the same way that other scenes of lewd encounters leave us numb. Although there is nothing wrong with these depictions, we know that they do not reflect reality.
Discussing kissing is like discussing love. One can define atoms and planets, yet can never define love. Its abundance of contradictions is simply a fact of life that we all know too well. Yet, it is apparent that many are confused by this in art. Compared to our ancestors, the world we live in is much more complicated, and the changes come too rapidly. Fortunately, artists are more attuned to these changes than the regular crowd. As the world ushered in a new century, Zhang Enli forecasted these seismic shifts by expressing a sense of agitation in this series of works. These incisive predictions ready us for the new cadence of the next era.
4. Hair
Hair is a crucial element in Zhang Enli’s early works. It began as a physiological phenomenon, but it was subsequently developed into an artistic device. Zhang started losing his hair when he was in his 20s. By his 30s, his hair had almost completely thinned out, and his anxieties intensified accordingly. This group of works was completed in 2002,the same year the artist turned 37 years old. His crown was balding, and the receding showed no signs of slowing down. It was apparent that in a few years, the remaining areas would follow suit.
This realisation filled Zhang with anguish, anxieties, and sorrow. He was not worried about his appearance. What troubled him was the fear of aging and death. And the way to overcome fear is to express it. Since 2000, he painted a series of works entitled Hair. This internal monologue is a crucial thread in Zhang’s artistic output.
In September, 2014, Zhang Enli held a solo exhibition entitled “Hair” at Shanghai Nights—a commercial karaoke club. This landmark exhibition signaled a final judgement on his internal struggles. On the issue of hair, he had completely triumphed over his fears.
In this triptych, the artist’s self-portrait is enigmatically hinted at places. How can we identify Zhang amongst 57 figures? The secret is to spot the artist’s hairstyle during this period. Prime examples of this can be found in Intimacy 2: bald figures can be spotted at the top as well as on the right side of the panel kissing in an embrace. In Intimacy 3, we may also find the artist wearing a suit in a frontal portrait surveilling, kissing, and scolding.
5. Self Portrait
On multiple occasions, the artist inserted his self-portraits in the paintings, each sporting different characteristics.
The first appearance can be found at the top of the painting in Intimacy 2. A figure with a prominent bald head is kissing a chubby little hand. Around the head, spaces are left mostly blank except a few wispy improvisational brushstrokes. This rendering makes the bald head appear to float in midair. In this instance, the artist assumes the form of the observer.
The second appearance is in the middle section along the right side of Intimacy 2. The bald figure is kissing a girl in an embrace. Even though not much hair remains on his head, each strand is frantically standing. This couple differs from the other 23 pairs: they represent a pure spring in a cesspool of desire. The bald man is deeply devoted, and the girl is innocently enamoured. This couple is precisely the artist and his lover. This time, Zhang assumes the form of the kisser.
The third appearance is at the bottom left of Intimacy 3. A bald man in a suit and a cigarette between his fingers is furiously admonishing those around him. Frothing at the mouth, he vehemently criticises the current state of affairs in the society. Here, the artist assumes the form of the scolder.
Not only do the self-portraits of the artist serve as focal areas, they also function as central hubs for a complex network of chaotic visual elements. These self-portraits intervene the painting via three different dimensions—observation, action, and language. This also changes the composition of the painting. Firstly, Zhang is the artist. Secondly, he is the subject in the painting. Lastly, he is a viewer who observes the characters in the painting.
As we the viewers view the subject, the subject is also looking at us. As we critique the painting, the subject is also criticising us. Life is painted in the painting, and the painting is living in our lives. The self-referential loop of interchanging identities forms a dynamic structure that enables the work to open dialogues with viewers from different eras.
6. Blackness
During the entire decade of the 1990s, Zhang Enli was immersed in the bleakness of dark hues. He painted black figures surrounded by raging black flames against black backgrounds. Amidst this dense cloud of blackness, white and red contour lines were used to bring forth the figure. Initially, these lines serve to delineate the subject. However, they were later used as fuses to detonate hormonal explosives.
From violence to revelry, when did the artist emerge from the darkness? This group of works mark the end of the 90s and the beginning of a new century.
Evidently, black backgrounds have now transformed into black contour lines. The clothes, torsos, and faces of the figures now have large area of blank spaces. The marked change in brightness introduces a sense of dynamism in the picture, and the expressive power of individual lines is also amplified.
The weapons and strategies that Zhang had acquired during his “Black Period” have gradually turned into a distinctive language, and his fluency is thoroughly demonstrated in this work. After the completion of Intimacy, the roads opened up, and he confidently marched forward. Using this idiosyncratic language, Zhang engages the world again, forming new narratives on old subject matters, objects, and spaces.
7. Colours
Compared to his other large-scale works, Zhang Enli exercised restraint and simplicity in terms of use of colours in Intimacy. Other than charcoal black, he barely used more than three hues—crimson, dark brown, and ochre.
These three colours, especially dark brown, are frequently used in classical academic oil painting as the base layer. Various degrees of brightness are then modelled on top, with translucent washes to be further layered if necessary. This is the paradigm in realistic oil painting; however, Zhang Enli did not attend the art academy, and rules as well as conventions are made to be broken. Even the slightest breakthrough can hugely expand the boundaries of the painting discipline.
The breaking of paradigm infuses his painting language with a new sense of liveliness, authenticity, and rusticity. As the picture is being rendered, the process is also revealed. Not only did the artist depict the form of the subject, but he also painted a spiritual truth from the deepest part of his psyche.
8. Composition
Compositions are never merely collections of formalistic qualities in Zhang Enli’s paintings. The composition is the content itself.
I surmise that the artist began the painting with the four couples located at the bottom half of Intimacy 1. This theory can be substantiated by two points:
First, this area is a stylistic continuation of the artist’s iconic gloomy palette from the 1990s. It is an extension of the Kissing series. In terms of “blackness” and heaviness, this portion is the darkest. It is possible that the artist intended to set the tone of the entire painting based on the somber mood of these four couples. However, after he finished the bottom half of Intimacy 1 and stood on the ladder to work on the upper half, his vantage point changed. His view expanded, and so did his mind. The painting opened up and became much lighter.
Second, Intimacy 1 depicted ten couples, and the execution of these figures become much freer and relaxed as they progress upwards in the painting. This is evident when we compare two female figures with the same posture. Both of them are kissing with their neck extended and head thrown back in a state of ecstasy. The girl at the bottom of the painting is stringently rendered with distinct shadowing. When Zhang painted the girl on the upper corner, it is decidedly more relaxed. From the mouth to the neck, the contour line was executed with a single fluid stroke.
Following this logic, we can make the reasonable assumption that the entire triptych concludes with the self-portrait. The last two brushstrokes majestically follow the motion of the bald figure pointing his fingers at the viewers. His otherworldly composure cuts through the commotion of the entire painting and asserts his dominance as well as legitimacy.
Completed at the turn of the century, Intimacy shatters the deeply-rooted tradition of realism painting. For decades, how is space constructed in a group portrait according to academic training? Firstly, the artist makes en plein air sketches to use as studies. Secondly, the story of the scene establishes the relationships between the figures. Lastly, the setting communicates the spatial environment and conjures the atmosphere. These three criteria can be considered as the three pillars in a group portrait composition according to the realism painting tradition.
Yet, these three pillars are nowhere to be found in this work. Faced with a blank canvas, how did Zhang construct space while rejecting conventions?
First, he employed multiple perspectives—bird’s-eye view, eye level view, and worm’s-eye view. Imageries are manipulated inside and outside of the frame, pushed back, and pulled forward. Dancing and Kissing, two important series from the 1990s, have provided the artist with years of contemplative material. Imageries from the subconscious as well as tangible emotional experiences are combined to synthesise a new imagination. These three sources often supplement and correct each other, yet reject and contradict each other in other times. Nevertheless, they are all expressed on the canvases of this triptych.
Secondly, Zhang uses lines. His lines transcend the subject matter itself and become the soul of the painting. Not only are they varied in expressions such as solidity, speed, and abruptness, but they are also imbued with emotions, intentions, and purposes.
Specifically, the lines in this work has three types of expressions: 1. impreciseness—contour lines are deliberately misplaced on the forms; 2. Dynamism of actions and postures; 3. Irrational and intangible emotional lines that are directed by the subconscious. Abstract lines and distorted figures respond and clash with one another. As the lines flow and intertwine, they form a mesmerising allure which is central to the painting language of Intimacy.
Thirdly, each couple forms a cluster. Their gazes, actions, and postures all work in concert to form intimate relationships that are both complex and contradictory. Each intimate couple is an enigma. And in their individual narratives, they are the main characters. At the same time, they also serve as temporal and spatial background for one another.
9. “Leaky Roof Stains”
Zhang Enli was born in Baicheng city in the Jilin province, and he had rarely left his hometown before he went to University. When he was about twelve years old, he came across a booklet entitled On Chinese Painting by Shen Shuyang. He said from that booklet, three characters stuck with him—wu lou hen (leaky roof stains). Drip marks bestow the painting with evidence of the passage of time. They bring the painting language closer to the reality of the painting medium.
In Intimacy, drips can be found all over the painting surface. Dripping is one of many textural modelling techniques in traditional Chinese landscape ink painting. Yet, the way in which it is executed in the present world is drastically different.
Following gravity, wet paint is allowed to flow freely before it dries to form textural elements. There is nothing unique about this—many artists have attempted this technique. However, some use it naturally while others use it self-consciously; some use it awkwardly while others use it deftly.
Zhang Enli’s drips are essentially traces of movements. They are applied very thinly, consisting of two layers, three at most. And because of how thin they are, the execution is effortless and ethereal. These drips can be found in all the nooks and crannies in the painting: the spaces between the figures, their hands, faces, ears, and hair. The way that they can sprout anywhere is fascinating. For a period of time, Zhang was obsessed with this texture. So much so that it became an independent subject matter in itself. This feature can be found in works produced after 2007, such as the paintings that deal with the traces of spaces, his cardboard boxes paintings, as well as the installation paintings at the Galleria Borghese.
This is a small but significant detail in the work Intimacy.
You Yong / Art Historian and Independent Curator
This is undoubtedly one of the rarest and most exceptional works. Zhang Enli completed this monumental set of three works when he was 37 years old. Each panel measures 250cm in height and 200cm in width. The sheer number of characters in this work is truly breathtaking. It encompasses a total of 57 figures —— the animals can be considered as archetypal characters —— beasts may become humans, and humans can turn into beasts.
Some of the intimate relationships depicted in the painting are distorted and fragmented, so viewers need to reconstruct them in their minds. For instance, in Intimacy 1, the woman whose breast is being fondled has two faces—the left one is kissing while the right one is smoking. In Intimacy 2, a man can be seen kissing two left hands that are superimposed on each other, which might appears to be a hidden tribute to Duchamp.
1. Developmental Context
Stage One: 1990 to 1997. The heavy use of black in the background expresses a sense of ruggedness and violence. Representative works from this period are largely concluded in three series: The Butcher, The Smoker, and The Bar.
Stage Two: 1997 to 2000. At the turn of the century, the artist created large scale monumental works that investigated new subject matters. Three main groups of works: Dancing, Kissing, and Eating, gave rise to masterpieces such as the Banquet, Intimacy, and other polyptychs. The developmental lineage of these works can be traced from subsequent series such as Big Tree, Water, Pipes and Hoses, and Mosaic, to the artist’s current abstract paintings. The myriad forms of Zhang’s paintings are all connected by these hidden yet intimate relationships. Such lineage can also be found in the present monumental work.
During the seven years from 1995 to 2002, the Dancing and Kissing series were developed into Intimacy, the set of three paintings with epic proportion.
2. Dancing
In Intimacy, the left panel is composed of the Dancing theme and the right panel is composed of the Kissing theme. The Dancing series took place between 1995 and 2000 with 13 published pieces, but the actual total should exceed this number. There must have been other exceptional works that are left out of the catalogue raisonné—especially the early works.
In the 1990s, Ballroom dancing was a craze in the cities in China. As the night falls, restaurants, churches, air raid shelters, skating rinks, and classrooms could all be turned into impromptu dance halls. At 35 years old, Zhang Enli held his first solo exhibition entitled “Dancing”. It took place at the old ShanghART Gallery located in front of the Fuxing Park. The exhibition hall space comprised two small houses, which were less than thirty square metres combined.
The Dancing series shows a certain social reality in Chinese cities in the 1990s. Dejected and helpless, ordinary citizens and poor intellectuals felt many uncertainties in their futures. Amidst the lingering gloom, they took solace in dancing. We cannot simply consider these phenomena as mere social realism depictions, because their misery is the same misery that is experienced by all of humankind, and their condition is a universal human condition.
Intimacy is the culmination of the artistic achievements from the Dancing and Kissing series. Cryptic yet thought-provoking, the 28 couples depicted in this work epitomise the complicated yet intimate emotional relationships in our society.
3. Kissing
The Kissing series is another developmental lineage that leads to the birth of Intimacy. A total of six works were published, and they were all produced during the last two years of the 20th century. Kissing 1 was completed in 1999, measuring the same size (100 x 80 cm) as the first work from the Dancing series that was completed in 1995.
Despite its namesake Kissing, one can argue that it is more apt to call this group of paintings "Gnawing". In these works, two people wrestle and gnaw at each other breathlessly. As they twist and constrict with all their might, their faces grimace and distort. Their actions are brutal and barbaric, and their skin turn blood red as their bodies ignite. They are like animals stuck together and ready to mate, neither feeling timid nor feeling ashamed.
All emotions can be sealed with a kiss. In paintings, photography, movies, and popular culture, there are countless instances of kissing, and many of them are earth-shattering kisses that left lasting impressions on the audience. If we narrow our search to the last few decades in Chinese painting, one would discover that there is a dire shortage of kissing expressions. The impoverishment in this category is especially apparent when we examine the mountains of formulaic kissing scenes in kitschy commercial paintings. These cliched ways of kissing desensitise us the same way that other scenes of lewd encounters leave us numb. Although there is nothing wrong with these depictions, we know that they do not reflect reality.
Discussing kissing is like discussing love. One can define atoms and planets, yet can never define love. Its abundance of contradictions is simply a fact of life that we all know too well. Yet, it is apparent that many are confused by this in art. Compared to our ancestors, the world we live in is much more complicated, and the changes come too rapidly. Fortunately, artists are more attuned to these changes than the regular crowd. As the world ushered in a new century, Zhang Enli forecasted these seismic shifts by expressing a sense of agitation in this series of works. These incisive predictions ready us for the new cadence of the next era.
4. Hair
Hair is a crucial element in Zhang Enli’s early works. It began as a physiological phenomenon, but it was subsequently developed into an artistic device. Zhang started losing his hair when he was in his 20s. By his 30s, his hair had almost completely thinned out, and his anxieties intensified accordingly. This group of works was completed in 2002,the same year the artist turned 37 years old. His crown was balding, and the receding showed no signs of slowing down. It was apparent that in a few years, the remaining areas would follow suit.
This realisation filled Zhang with anguish, anxieties, and sorrow. He was not worried about his appearance. What troubled him was the fear of aging and death. And the way to overcome fear is to express it. Since 2000, he painted a series of works entitled Hair. This internal monologue is a crucial thread in Zhang’s artistic output.
In September, 2014, Zhang Enli held a solo exhibition entitled “Hair” at Shanghai Nights—a commercial karaoke club. This landmark exhibition signaled a final judgement on his internal struggles. On the issue of hair, he had completely triumphed over his fears.
In this triptych, the artist’s self-portrait is enigmatically hinted at places. How can we identify Zhang amongst 57 figures? The secret is to spot the artist’s hairstyle during this period. Prime examples of this can be found in Intimacy 2: bald figures can be spotted at the top as well as on the right side of the panel kissing in an embrace. In Intimacy 3, we may also find the artist wearing a suit in a frontal portrait surveilling, kissing, and scolding.
5. Self Portrait
On multiple occasions, the artist inserted his self-portraits in the paintings, each sporting different characteristics.
The first appearance can be found at the top of the painting in Intimacy 2. A figure with a prominent bald head is kissing a chubby little hand. Around the head, spaces are left mostly blank except a few wispy improvisational brushstrokes. This rendering makes the bald head appear to float in midair. In this instance, the artist assumes the form of the observer.
The second appearance is in the middle section along the right side of Intimacy 2. The bald figure is kissing a girl in an embrace. Even though not much hair remains on his head, each strand is frantically standing. This couple differs from the other 23 pairs: they represent a pure spring in a cesspool of desire. The bald man is deeply devoted, and the girl is innocently enamoured. This couple is precisely the artist and his lover. This time, Zhang assumes the form of the kisser.
The third appearance is at the bottom left of Intimacy 3. A bald man in a suit and a cigarette between his fingers is furiously admonishing those around him. Frothing at the mouth, he vehemently criticises the current state of affairs in the society. Here, the artist assumes the form of the scolder.
Not only do the self-portraits of the artist serve as focal areas, they also function as central hubs for a complex network of chaotic visual elements. These self-portraits intervene the painting via three different dimensions—observation, action, and language. This also changes the composition of the painting. Firstly, Zhang is the artist. Secondly, he is the subject in the painting. Lastly, he is a viewer who observes the characters in the painting.
As we the viewers view the subject, the subject is also looking at us. As we critique the painting, the subject is also criticising us. Life is painted in the painting, and the painting is living in our lives. The self-referential loop of interchanging identities forms a dynamic structure that enables the work to open dialogues with viewers from different eras.
6. Blackness
During the entire decade of the 1990s, Zhang Enli was immersed in the bleakness of dark hues. He painted black figures surrounded by raging black flames against black backgrounds. Amidst this dense cloud of blackness, white and red contour lines were used to bring forth the figure. Initially, these lines serve to delineate the subject. However, they were later used as fuses to detonate hormonal explosives.
From violence to revelry, when did the artist emerge from the darkness? This group of works mark the end of the 90s and the beginning of a new century.
Evidently, black backgrounds have now transformed into black contour lines. The clothes, torsos, and faces of the figures now have large area of blank spaces. The marked change in brightness introduces a sense of dynamism in the picture, and the expressive power of individual lines is also amplified.
The weapons and strategies that Zhang had acquired during his “Black Period” have gradually turned into a distinctive language, and his fluency is thoroughly demonstrated in this work. After the completion of Intimacy, the roads opened up, and he confidently marched forward. Using this idiosyncratic language, Zhang engages the world again, forming new narratives on old subject matters, objects, and spaces.
7. Colours
Compared to his other large-scale works, Zhang Enli exercised restraint and simplicity in terms of use of colours in Intimacy. Other than charcoal black, he barely used more than three hues—crimson, dark brown, and ochre.
These three colours, especially dark brown, are frequently used in classical academic oil painting as the base layer. Various degrees of brightness are then modelled on top, with translucent washes to be further layered if necessary. This is the paradigm in realistic oil painting; however, Zhang Enli did not attend the art academy, and rules as well as conventions are made to be broken. Even the slightest breakthrough can hugely expand the boundaries of the painting discipline.
The breaking of paradigm infuses his painting language with a new sense of liveliness, authenticity, and rusticity. As the picture is being rendered, the process is also revealed. Not only did the artist depict the form of the subject, but he also painted a spiritual truth from the deepest part of his psyche.
8. Composition
Compositions are never merely collections of formalistic qualities in Zhang Enli’s paintings. The composition is the content itself.
I surmise that the artist began the painting with the four couples located at the bottom half of Intimacy 1. This theory can be substantiated by two points:
First, this area is a stylistic continuation of the artist’s iconic gloomy palette from the 1990s. It is an extension of the Kissing series. In terms of “blackness” and heaviness, this portion is the darkest. It is possible that the artist intended to set the tone of the entire painting based on the somber mood of these four couples. However, after he finished the bottom half of Intimacy 1 and stood on the ladder to work on the upper half, his vantage point changed. His view expanded, and so did his mind. The painting opened up and became much lighter.
Second, Intimacy 1 depicted ten couples, and the execution of these figures become much freer and relaxed as they progress upwards in the painting. This is evident when we compare two female figures with the same posture. Both of them are kissing with their neck extended and head thrown back in a state of ecstasy. The girl at the bottom of the painting is stringently rendered with distinct shadowing. When Zhang painted the girl on the upper corner, it is decidedly more relaxed. From the mouth to the neck, the contour line was executed with a single fluid stroke.
Following this logic, we can make the reasonable assumption that the entire triptych concludes with the self-portrait. The last two brushstrokes majestically follow the motion of the bald figure pointing his fingers at the viewers. His otherworldly composure cuts through the commotion of the entire painting and asserts his dominance as well as legitimacy.
Completed at the turn of the century, Intimacy shatters the deeply-rooted tradition of realism painting. For decades, how is space constructed in a group portrait according to academic training? Firstly, the artist makes en plein air sketches to use as studies. Secondly, the story of the scene establishes the relationships between the figures. Lastly, the setting communicates the spatial environment and conjures the atmosphere. These three criteria can be considered as the three pillars in a group portrait composition according to the realism painting tradition.
Yet, these three pillars are nowhere to be found in this work. Faced with a blank canvas, how did Zhang construct space while rejecting conventions?
First, he employed multiple perspectives—bird’s-eye view, eye level view, and worm’s-eye view. Imageries are manipulated inside and outside of the frame, pushed back, and pulled forward. Dancing and Kissing, two important series from the 1990s, have provided the artist with years of contemplative material. Imageries from the subconscious as well as tangible emotional experiences are combined to synthesise a new imagination. These three sources often supplement and correct each other, yet reject and contradict each other in other times. Nevertheless, they are all expressed on the canvases of this triptych.
Secondly, Zhang uses lines. His lines transcend the subject matter itself and become the soul of the painting. Not only are they varied in expressions such as solidity, speed, and abruptness, but they are also imbued with emotions, intentions, and purposes.
Specifically, the lines in this work has three types of expressions: 1. impreciseness—contour lines are deliberately misplaced on the forms; 2. Dynamism of actions and postures; 3. Irrational and intangible emotional lines that are directed by the subconscious. Abstract lines and distorted figures respond and clash with one another. As the lines flow and intertwine, they form a mesmerising allure which is central to the painting language of Intimacy.
Thirdly, each couple forms a cluster. Their gazes, actions, and postures all work in concert to form intimate relationships that are both complex and contradictory. Each intimate couple is an enigma. And in their individual narratives, they are the main characters. At the same time, they also serve as temporal and spatial background for one another.
9. “Leaky Roof Stains”
Zhang Enli was born in Baicheng city in the Jilin province, and he had rarely left his hometown before he went to University. When he was about twelve years old, he came across a booklet entitled On Chinese Painting by Shen Shuyang. He said from that booklet, three characters stuck with him—wu lou hen (leaky roof stains). Drip marks bestow the painting with evidence of the passage of time. They bring the painting language closer to the reality of the painting medium.
In Intimacy, drips can be found all over the painting surface. Dripping is one of many textural modelling techniques in traditional Chinese landscape ink painting. Yet, the way in which it is executed in the present world is drastically different.
Following gravity, wet paint is allowed to flow freely before it dries to form textural elements. There is nothing unique about this—many artists have attempted this technique. However, some use it naturally while others use it self-consciously; some use it awkwardly while others use it deftly.
Zhang Enli’s drips are essentially traces of movements. They are applied very thinly, consisting of two layers, three at most. And because of how thin they are, the execution is effortless and ethereal. These drips can be found in all the nooks and crannies in the painting: the spaces between the figures, their hands, faces, ears, and hair. The way that they can sprout anywhere is fascinating. For a period of time, Zhang was obsessed with this texture. So much so that it became an independent subject matter in itself. This feature can be found in works produced after 2007, such as the paintings that deal with the traces of spaces, his cardboard boxes paintings, as well as the installation paintings at the Galleria Borghese.
This is a small but significant detail in the work Intimacy.