Alchemy-Xiaogang Zhang Essay

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Alchemy - An artist’s exploration to time and life. Alchemy is an ancient tradition, a medieval chemical philosophy having as its asserted aims the transmutation of base metals into gold, the discovery of the panacea, and the preparation of the elixir of longevity. (alchemywebsite, 2011)Alchemists spend their lives looking for mixtures of the elements and liquidity and the propensity to stain or evaporate or sublimate and this is what exactly does artist do. (JPC year 12 VisualArt tasksheet, 2011) Artists spend all the time to find a way to express and communicate their views and values of an individual quality, their cultural influences, and historical importance, their focus is the relationship between people’s attitude to life and social transformation and the difference between reality, expectation and the past memories. XiaoGang Zhang in his artwork is trying to explore the espect of transformation. XiaoGang Zhang is one the most representative artists in China, his painting reflected Chinese cultural and social ideological revolution as well as the ideological transformation of people’s value to new things. In this essay, XiaoGang Zhang and his Paintings will be introduced, analysed, interpreted and evaluated in response to the topic- alchemy. 51 years ago in the spring, Xiaogang Zhang was born in the ancient city of Kunming, parents are government officials. When he was five, XiaoGang Zhang moved with his family to Chengdu where he spent his childhood and youth. In 1970s Zhang moved with his family to Yunnan where he met his first art teacher, Mr Lin who was a famous Watercolour artist. Not too long after that, Zhang was admitted to the Oil painting department of Sichuan Academy of fine art. However, his art journey wasn’t smooth sailing, his ideas were totally different to his peers and even teachers, after Zhang graduated university,

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