Zhang Huan (b. 1965)
Berlin Buddha (Preparatory Drawing) 7
signed and dated 'Zhang Huan 2007.' (lower right)
ink on paper
32½ x 40⅛in. (82.5 x 102cm.)
Executed in 2007

PROVENANCE

Haunch of Venison, London.

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SPECIALIST NOTES

Born in 1965 in Anyang, Henan Province, Zhang Huan is recognised as one of China’s most provocative and influential artists. Zhang Huan became known for his innovative performances in the 1990s in Beijing East Village, through which the artist immersed himself in the tradition of endurance art with the likes of Chris Burden, Tehching Hsieh and Marina Abramovic by testing the physical limits of his body. In 1998 the artist moved to New York and for eight years he performed around the world travelling between North America, Asia and Europe. In 2005 he renounced performance art and moved to his native China where he took up more traditional mediums such as painting and sculpture.

The figure of the religious idol Buddha has appeared as a central subject matter in the artist’s œuvre since 2002. Executed in 2007, in the immediate aftermath of the artist’s conversion to Buddhism, the series of preparatory works for Berlin Buddha -- two monumental four-metre high sculptures exhibited in Berlin -- reflects Zhang Huan’s philosophy of life: ‘Buddhism has had an influence on my inner being, my life, and my art. The teachings of Buddhism bring me peace, and tranquillity, and help me to better understand impermanence and casualty’ (Z. Huan, quoted in E. Geuna, Zhang Huan, Milan 2010, p. 17). The aluminium mould was placed opposite its cast of compacted dry ash, which slowly disintegrated, at once becoming the raw material of the artist’s practice and the nothingness which accords with the artist's religious beliefs. From the flourishes of ink emerges the very blueprints for this ambitious project, which comes alive under the immediacy of the artist’s application.

The work of Zhang Huan is represented in many private and public collections including Musée national d'art moderne Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, among others.

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