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M+, Hong Kong, © Zhao Gang
Zhao Gang 趙剛
Untitled 無題
1979
This oil painting depicts a nude figure against an arid landscape of brown and orange tones with two barren trees in the distance. The figure, lying on the ground below a faint semi-circle, has female breasts and male genitalia. The left arm is folded over the forehead and a knee is slightly raised, making the earth-coloured figure appear like part of the landscape. The white peaks in the background give the impression of floating mountains or clouds. The composition’s uncanny and dreamlike imagery suggests the influence of surrealism. Zhao Gang created this work early in his career, before he left China in 1983 for Europe and the United States. It was painted during a period when the Chinese government clamped down on modernist art, in an effort to eradicate liberal Western ideas. Zhao was part of the Stars Group of artists, who experimented with modernist art in China in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
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