Publisher's Synopsis
The post-socialist art boom in 1990s China mostly passed by the painter
Zhang Enli (b. Jilin Province, China, 1965; lives and works in Shanghai), but
in the past few years, his oeuvre has garnered international attention. Zhang's
more recent paintings show the beauty of nature in enlarged details: water
surfaces, trees, foliage in close-up views captured on canvas that cautiously
undo the division between interior and exterior spaces. Yet his pictures
do not show ideal landscapes; deeply convinced that nature, too, is capable
of feeling, he treats his motifs with the technique of traditional Chinese painting,
applying highly diluted ink in deliberate brushstrokes. The pencil underdrawings
remain visible beneath the transparent layers of color, leaving no
doubt that painting is an artifact, a likeness, and not an illusion. In his "Space
Paintings," Zhang Enli paints directly on the walls of a room to create a nostalgic
atmosphere balanced between abstract gesture and figural remaking.
With texts by Robin Marriner and Gregor Muir.
