【Exhibition Background】Zhang Xinquan's Solo Exhibition: Retrace·Presentation will be held at National Art Museum of China on October 26, 2011. Many famous art professors and critics in China  posted some highly comments about this solo exhibiton.

Author: Jia Fangzhou

Landscape is the theme favored by many artists, and some of them are even noted for that. It’s the natural harmony between human and nature that accelerates the development of Chinese landscape. The western landscape was distinguished from portrait a bit late, but impressionism has undoubtedly dominated the art history.

Landscape can represent the charms of nature, the dimensions of space, the richness of colors, and people’s affection and plaint for nature, but its limitation lies in inability to illustrate the profundity of history and life, which is determined by the subject of natural scenery itself. Things are different, however, when it turns to another vanished “landscape” that is society and history related. That has already been proved by Zhang’s artistic practice. He was neglected in the art circles before 2002 when he handled the landscape in an ordinary way. But when he turned to history and the vanished cityscapes, with “The Metropolis Old Shanghai” as the representative, his unique perspective of landscape showed up. The retrospect of the bygone scenes remind audiences of the uproarious and buzzing old Shanghai with heavy traffic, as well as an complicated emotions more than nostalgia. Memories of the rising city in the Far East revive in the painting. The paradise city for adventurers, once extremely prosperous, rose again after half a century’s stagnation. How can a landscape take on such a rich connotation of social history? Zhang’s “The Metropolis Old Shanghai” reveals the depth of a landscape.

In the following years of 2003 to 2006, Zhang produced “The Signal Tower”, “The Tram”, “The Suzhou River”, “The Wharf”, “The Watercourse” and “The Shiliupu Wharf” continuously, all of which are characterized by the historical connotation and the sense of contemporaneity. The cityscape of Shanghai in the late 30s left a deep impression on audiences. As the largest metropolis in the Far East of that age, Shanghai was a symbol of the country’s transformation to an industrialized country from an agricultural one. Life in this metropolis, totally different from a rural style, seems to be an opened history book, recording the pursuit and disillusion, glory and fantasies of generations. In this populous and prosperous city, numerous cultural elites attended the economic, social, and cultural activities, communicated information with others frequently, and indulged themselves in the extravagant life. As Engels commented on Paris, “European civilization peaked in the city, where the nerve fibers of the whole Europe assembled and the electric shock shaking the whole world was dispatched regularly.” So was Shanghai in Asia in that period. Zhang’s works are based on that profound social historical background. Despite a taste of the cityscape, the artist skillfully guided his audiences to the specific atmosphere of that era with his representative works.

There from, Zhang crossed the meridian and parallel of history, to search for the lost cityscapes that might be revived. That’s the turning point of his art. Starting from the “The Metropolis Old Shanghai”, he opened a window for the nostalgia of history, through which we could sense the missing world. The revival of the world could still affect our emotions and touch our nerves. Zhang senses that those lost cityscapes could lead to the souls of the audiences, as well as the history, as things related to existence may survive and haunt everyone’s mind no matter what takes place in the world. In time, they develop into nostalgia and penchant, and eventually echo with Zhang’s paintings. What he portrays is history instead of reality, the “past tense” rather than the “present tense”. The existence of the urbanites at that time is depicted without the existence of figures and the “history” in reality is fading. Through his works, audiences seem to open a dust-laden notebook, and walk into …

Zhang used to represent a specific historical circumstance in a profound and dignified style in his works to touch his audiences, but in the last two years, instead of heightening the historical atmosphere, he chooses some symbols with time characteristics to recall the memory of that era. When he is producing vessels, including “The Merchant Ship”, “The Yacht”, “The Patrol Vessel” and “Lying at Anchor”, he has escaped from the magnificent historical atmosphere, portraying these “bygone” vehicles in a featured and easy tone. When he is producing “Sea Soul” series, which are lucid and lively in style, he endeavors to escape from the unbearable heaviness of the history that appeared in his previous works. Therefore, he uses some pure and bright colors to depict these historical symbols, so as to remove the heavy burden of nostalgia. Hence, when audiences meet the aesthetic symbols, they can appreciate, rather than meditating, the historical sense in the painting from the distance. His new series “Hermes” also illustrates his transformation in style. Those sketch style images (such as mail cart, carriage, and long distance bus), inform us of the contemporary perspective, and the attitude we should hold toward history. Moreover, his impressionistic techniques derived from relaxing works should be noted especially. He paints in a more relaxed and refreshing way gradually. He dilutes the oil paints to meet the aesthetic criteria of the oriental, and the calligraphic characteristics of local Chinese art.

Zhang is a gifted painter for realistic painting, as well as for the ability of perception and comprehension. He hasn’t experienced the era himself, but recreates the historical atmosphere and demonstrates the depth of history merely on the basis of his comprehension of the era after his investigation of the images and documents. Therefore, much is expected in his historical connotation.