Green Wall - Room with Flashlight

Autobiography and memory have played a central role in Zhang Xiaogang’s work since the late 1980s. This painting depicts an interior typical of his childhood during the Cultural Revolution in China. In that context, the green wall color was common to find in private homes, as well as public places like hospitals, schools, and government offices. All the objects depicted in the painting seem to be preserved in time. On the bed, a flashlight casts yellow light, almost like a stain, or a retouched area on a photograph, representing Zhang’s concern for the boundary between history and memory, subjectivity and perception, reality and fiction. Two Chinese characters qingchun 青春 (youth) in regular script on the pillowcase underline both an intimacy and a distance between nostalgia and truth.