Date of Award
Spring 2026
Author's Department
Graduate School of Art
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Art
Degree Type
Thesis
Abstract
This thesis examines how contemporary portrait painting extends beyond the representation of physical appearance toward the construction of collective memory, history, cultural identity, and mechanisms of seeing. Using staged, photo-based portraits as a point of departure, my work engages both Eastern and Western traditions to produce new autoethnographic narratives. Rethinking the significance of portraiture today, this paper considers what persists and what has shifted over time. It argues that portrait painting is no longer merely a representation of an individual; rather, like a literary text, it functions as a signifier shaped by both the moment of its production and the conditions of its reception. Accordingly, the meaning of portrait images is not fixed but continually reinterpreted across time.
Through dialogue with artists such as Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Lucian Freud, Gerhard Richter, and Liu Xiaodong, I examine how chiaroscuro, photographic influences, and staged theatrical framing inform my work. This thesis also examines how autoethnography combines with magical realism, transforming personal memory and family archives into images with historical depth and symbolic tension. Drawing on Zen philosophy and the concept of emptiness, my approach expands portraiture beyond the human figure to include animals, land, and sky. It further explores how monochromatic imagery enhances the documentary and memorial qualities of the image. Ultimately, my thesis argues that contemporary portrait painting lies not in reproducing objective truth but in reconfiguring its meaning, bridging private experience and collective imagination.
Language
English
Program Chair
Tiffany Calvert
Thesis Text Advisor
Patricia Olynyk
Thesis Text Advisor
Meghan Kirkwood
Faculty Mentor
Patricia Olynyk
Committee Member
Tiffany Calvert
Committee Member
Heather Bennett
Committee Member
Lisa Bulawsky
Committee Member
Patricia
Recommended Citation
Zhang, Yixiao, "If life were only as our first encounter" (2026). MFA in Visual Art. 39.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/mfa_visual_art/39
Included in
Art and Design Commons, Art Practice Commons, Fine Arts Commons
Artist's Statement
As an artist primarily engaged in portrait painting, my focus lies not in the mere representation of physical likeness and appearance, but in how images carry memory and lived experience. I regard portraiture as an unstable form of existence, where the figure is perpetually shaped by time, context, and the way of viewing. My practice integrates Eastern and Western artistic traditions to construct a unique narrative context. Merging autoethnographic storytelling with magical realism, I transform personal memories and family archives into imagery endowed with historical depth and symbolic resonance. Drawing on Zen philosophy and the concept of emptiness, I expand the boundaries of portraiture beyond the depiction of individual human figures. Family photographs, personal recollections, and cross-cultural, transregional life experiences together form the source material of my portrait paintings. Rather than being a self-contained narrative, the "individual portrait" serves as a gateway into broader cultural and historical landscapes. In this process, the figures in my paintings gradually transcend individual identity to become vessels of collective memory. I regard staged photography as a deliberate restructuring of existing visual materials. Elements ranging from old photographs and real-life experiences to fragments of imagination are reorganized into meticulously composed scenes, which I then translate into painting. In this constant process of reconstruction, images continuously generate new meanings. Portraiture is no longer merely the replication of appearances, but a carrier open to repeated reinterpretation and the generation of new significance across diverse cultural contexts and historical backgrounds.