NIGHT NO. 4

Suffering in life comes from the two sides of being — physical and mental. Mental suffering has always been hard to grasp. It is difficult to explain what is helplessness, disappointment, anger, mournful, ennui, hopelessness or such psychological states. Christianity was one of the ways to seek solace in Western culture. However, Nietzsche declared that “God is dead” to suggest that Christianity could no longer offer the ultimate spiritual comfort. After Zhang Xiaogang graduated from the university in the 1980s, he fell on hard times. While he was recovering from an illness in the hospital, he had the opportunity to contemplate the profound questions in life. Subsequently, he painted numerous oil on paper works dealing with the subject of religion later in his career. Based on the artist’s personal worldview, these works attempt to create an image of a deity that will heal the soul. By the late 1980s, he had discarded all notions on religion and shifted his focus on professing his loneliness — Night No. 4 (Lot 128) is one of the exceptional works from this period.

Night No. 4 depicts two heads coexisting in an ambiguous space, as if they have grown listless being confined in the room. The modelling of these characters possesses the iconic exaggerated and irrational depiction of Zhang Xiaogang’s expressionistic period. The eyes on the yellow head lose focus and gaze upward, as if they are expecting the arrival of something that is long overdue. Zhang Xiaogang uses a rough and pastiche treatment to construct the negative space around the figures. Not only is it a visually powerful expression, it also prompts the viewers to associate this work with the ideas of imperfection and reconstruction. This sense of poignancy heightens the lyricism in the work.