“I have always been good to spot parts of a whole and to recognize them. Details have always been stuck in my consciousness in a very particular way. Very early on my mentor has already affirmed to me that I see things which other people tend to overlook or ignore. The little things, the ordinary, the atypical, the curious.” Exactly that what doesn’t conform to the established accepted standard, namely ideology. That is what interests him, what speaks to him and what attracts him.

Like a zoom, a photographic eye, Zhang probes scurrilities in the faces of the people which he encounters. Age and gender seems to be no issue. The features he chooses are perplexing and always a bit enigmatic. Very often they are characterized by physiognomic irregularity, may it be squinting eyes, a big curved nose or bizarrely colored pupils. Or only partly incoming beams of light or glasses hold from a distance alienate the features and a vexing expression appears. The tendency to estrange the facial expression is further emphasized through the cutout, the perspective and the composition.

On his small sized works these segments become unusual portraits. By presenting cutouts and by the nearly 10% enlargement they come across as close-up images. Natural and also unreal at the same time, they bewilder, fascinate and cause disconcertment. Due to the visual closeness of the subject the viewer could almost feel like being present at a lineup, the intensity of the eyes is mesmerizing. Every now and then one is tempted to complete the given extract of the face in one’s own imagination. One can’t help to peer twice, to make sure what about this face is so abstruse. Almost automatically one asked oneself, what is the true nature which is disguised behind.

All portraits recall in a peculiar way portrayals in painting of the Renaissance and the Baroque even though they are fully contemporary. Not only from the coloristic composition – the luminosity of the color of the flesh thus skin speaks for itself – but rather the way how the facial expressions shaped by inner ups and downs have an inspirited countenance. Hence they appear strongly transcendent.

Further the paintings captivate through their eye-catching even and shiny surface which seems almost glazed. An effect that reminds us on photos or on the pictures in glossy magazines of the fashion or automobile industry. Zhang achieves this characteristic enamel effect by painting on wood instead of canvas which complies with his painting technique, as an even and smooth surface is an advantage. The visual effect of the polished surface creates an ambivalence with the photorealistic depicted faces exposing all their details on the skin texture which in turn causes tension for the beholder, something between awkwardness and voyeuristic curiosity.

Astonishingly enough Zhang Shujian calls this series self portrait.

“All these images have something to do with me. In all of them I have found myself, they are a part of me and my fantasy, they have found an echo in me, that’s the reason why I have called them self portrait. They are portraits of my soul.”

Sabine Wang, 2010