"Anti-Vice Raid Campaign Series No. 27", (2008) is a large and dramatic oil painting by famed Contemporary Chinese artist Zhang Haiying. Monumental in scale, the photo-realist painting belongs Zhang's famed "Anti-Vice Campaign" series, which was recently on view at the Saatchi Collection, London. Here the artist paints a single figure, a young Chinese woman, whose porcelain skin nearly glows in contrast to the velvet-maroon colored space she occupies at the center of the canvas. She is depicted in mid-motion to hide her identity, quickly bending her head down and curling-up with one hand pressing her long hair to cover her face, another clutching her ankles pressed to her legs. Although this woman is trying to hide her sexuality and figure from view, she unknowingly becomes an anonymous, highly seductive figure in this pose.
The mastery of Zhang as a figural painter is remarkable and he is attentive to rendering the minor details of this woman, such as painting her long nails in the same deep maroon of the background. The artist's iconic manner of painting is stunning here, rendering the woman's long hair and her movements in broad, confident brush-strokes, that balance the delicate treatment of her figure. Despite the fact that this painting depicts a Chinese police raid of a brothel, she possess an air of grace and beauty that references Degas' ballerinas, or John Singer-Sargent's "Madame X". The element of reveal/conceal both literally as well as metaphorically anchor this work in a dark narrative and, make it one of the most abstract yet impactful paintings from Zhang's "Anti-Vice Raid " series.
The Series directly addresses the Chinese government's agenda to eradicate prostitution throughout all major cities in China. The series aims to be non-judgmental, and instead simply works to capture a moment in time, yet there is an undeniable pathos and empathy by Zhang for the young women he paints.
Zhang Haiying (B. 1972) is a Contemporary Chinese artist who explores the use of artistic devices as propaganda for non-political means. He graduated in 1997 from the Fine Arts Department of Shang Dong Academy of Fine Arts. The artist has exhibited at numerous locations internationally including The Saatchi Gallery "The Revolution Continues-New Chinese Art", (London, UK), Willem Kerseboom Gallery (Amsterdam, NL), and Sovereign Asia Art Foundation (Hong-Kong), amongst numerous others.
