Painter Zhang Xiaogang’s fame has typified the world’s interest in things Chinese over the past decade-plus, as well as the commercial boom that overtook the art market. One painting, “Eternal Love,” sold for $10.2 million at auction in 2011, an auction record for contemporary Chinese art at the time. His best-known works combine dreamlike memories of childhood with the alienation of having lived through Mao’s radical political movements and the post-Mao economic transformation.

Recent works by Mr. Zhang, who turns 58 this...