Zhang Huan: In the Ashes of History

The State Hermitage Museum - St. Petersburg, Russia

By Taliesin Thomas

Over 20 years ago I lived in rural Hubei, China, not far from the artist Zhang Huan’s (b. 1965) hometown in Henan province. In my experience, the Chinese countryside is vast land full of living poetics. I have been a fan of Zhang Huan’s work for many years precisely for the kind of raw, provocative poesy that his art embodies. He is among the most powerful contemporary artists working in the world today and his recent show “Zhang Huan: In the Ashes of History” at The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia demonstrates the evolution and distinctiveness of his practice. The exhibition also celebrates Zhang Huan as the first contemporary Chinese artist to open a solo exhibition at the Hermitage Museum, one of the most prestigious museums on the planet.

Zhang Huan, My Winter Palace No. 8, 2019, mixed media on wood, 122” x 60.” Courtesy of The State Hermitage Museum, 2020.

Anyone familiar with Zhang Huan’s art knows about his early subversive performance pieces full of sadomasochistic tendencies. Those exploratory works involved extreme acts of self-torture, physical endurance, and explicit pain. Since those early days of experimentation, however, Zhang Huan’s art has transformed into expressions of spiritual recuperation, reverence, and odes to history and culture. His show at the Hermitage reflects the maturity of his journey as an artist and featured a mix of works incorporating a range of unconventional materials and themes. Installed in the grand Nicholas Hall at the Hermitage, the exhibit featured more than 30 pieces from several different series, including “Ash Paintings,” “Memory Doors,” and “Love/Reincarnation”-a new body of work created in response to the events of the coronavirus pandemic-plus a monstrous five-legged steel and copper Hermitage Buddha (2019) sculpture installed in the front of the museum.

Some pieces in this show echoed aspects of Zhang Huan’s protean career, such as several large red paintings-some abstract, some figurative-that appeared to be smeared with blood (many of his early performances involved gore). Other works referenced traditional Russian and Chinese history, such as Ivan the Terrible Killed His Son (2019), a ghastly painting aimed to haunt. Made of incense ash on linen, this particular work demonstrates the artist’s adept use of ash as a primary material. Zhang Huan re-discovered Buddhism as a full way of life when he moved back to Shanghai in 2006, after living in the US for eight years. Since then, the artist has been gathering ash from Buddhist temples around China. Influenced by Tibetan Buddhism in particular, subjects such as transmigration, fate, desire, and death have been adopted into his artworks. The ashes of burned incense carry the hope of spiritual devotees, pointing to the beyond.

“In the Ashes of History” was conceived for the Hermitage Museum and a considerable portion of the works were made especially for this show. One such work, My Winter Palace No. 8(2019), is a wood bas-relief that includes a mixed technique of silkscreen, cut photograph, carving and paint on an old Chinese door that references motifs from a Rembrandt painting from the Hermitage. Zhang Huan comments that China and the Soviet Union have been like brothers and that this exhibition reflects the long shared history between them. A forty-meter group portrait of the communist party of the People’s Republic of China titled June 15, 1964 fills almost the entire length of the Nicholas Hall and is one such example of the political bond between the two countries. Zhang Huan’s ability to reach across cultures and connect through the veritable ashes of history offers testimony to his strength and devotion as a modern artist-mystic.

(September 9 - November 8, 2020)

Taliesin Thomas is an artist-philosopher, writer, and lecturer based in Troy, NY (Hudson Valley). Since 2007 she is the simultaneously the founding director of AW Asia and collections manager of Art Issue Editions. Thomas has lectured widely on contemporary art and has published in Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (JCCA) and ArtAsiaPacific magazine in addition to regular reviews for ARTPULSE. She holds an M.A. from Columbia University and she is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Art Theory & Philosophy with IDSVA.

Filed Under: Reviews