ART CITIES:Beijing-Sol LeWitt & Zhang Xiaogang

The joint exhibition “Sol LeWitt and Zhang Xiaogang” brings the latest work, a series of 20 new paintings of Zhang Xiaogang in a dialogue transcending the time and space with sculptures and wall drawings by Sol LeWitt. The exhibition is also the first comprehensive presentation of Sol LeWitt’s representative works in China.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Pace Gallery Archive

Sol LeWitt’s pioneering ideas became the source of unlimited inspiration in artistic thinking and since ‘60s have been liberating artists from the constraints of technical skills. Zhang Xiaogang g regained his courage to paint under the influence of such liberation. In his new body of work, Zhang dramatically changes his visual direction in regard to the construction of the inner space. The implied text and imagery in his previous works are turned into concrete visual symbols. Objects re-appearing in his artworks, such as a door, a window, a mirror, a cabinet and a drawer, divide the rooms of memories into multiple layers, and formally become the archive of memories in Zhang’s new body of work. The ideas of Conceptual Art introduced by Sol LeWitt in the’60s sought to set art free from the shackles of formalism, and his radical practice had a profound and widespread influence on the artists of his generation and beyond. The visual language used by LeWitt was reduced to a fundamental basis, creating varying sequential structures with basic geometric shapes, thus radically eliminating the uncontrolled variable, namely his personal feelings, from the artistic practice. He further subverted the traditions of art practice by producing a series of wall drawings, which were in fact executed by his assistants following LeWitt’s detailed guidelines. By separating the process of creation from the actual production, the artist broke away from the constraints and limitations set by technical skills, therefore reaching a higher level of conceptualism. Each section of the Sol LeWitt and Zhang Xiaogang exhibition is constructed in such a way as to carry a different artistic orientation. However, be it an intellectually abstract construction or a metaphorical room in a spiritual sense, their significance is beyond amere physical existence. A translucent wall dividing the works of Zhang Xiaogang and LeWitt helps to blur the boundary between the exhibited pieces, generating a visual clash on one hand and a harmonious, conceptual co-existence on the other.

Info: Pace Gallery, 798 Art District, No. 2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, Duration: 28/9-19/11/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.pacegallery.com