Zhang Jian's recent paintings are of snowscapes. There is snowy scenery, and there are crowds of people in the snow. This batch of paintings is quite different from his previous monochromes of Chang'An Boulevard or his paintings of Lake Houhai. The changes in an artist's style always have their reasons, be it because of a change in expressive language or the simply vicissitudes of life. The earliest of Zhang Jian's paintings were impressionist. These paintings left a deep impression on people. The style at the time he was starting out reflected two important characteristics-his attention to expressive language and attention to life. Before Zhang Jian, few people were able to creatively use the techniques of impressionism. His paintings were simple and down to earth, very natural, as if his use of impressionism is not intentional, but rather just the way he naturally painted. His true intention was to paint sunlight, to paint color, to paint that sort of brightness. At that time, his yearning for life was bright, he had just finished school, and the demands and pursuits of the academy were still present. The methods and techniques of impressionism showed off his painting abilities, just like outstanding assignments in the classroom.

　　The attention that Zhang Jian's early work attracted was not without good reason. That he paints well is one aspect, and the other aspect is that what he paints is ordinary life. After the beginning of the 90s, everyday life as subject matter appeared in the work of young painters. This was a big change. Before this time, there was little attention paid to everyday life in mainstream Chinese painting. The revolutionary realism of political propaganda notwithstanding, even into the 80s, realism was primarily preoccupied with nativist subjects-something a half-agricultural society can hardly avoid. Film and literature reflected life's realities to a certain extent, but in dark, somber, heavy tones, and not in a way that showed hope and enthusiasm for life. And the everyday life of Chinese people of that generation truly had nothing extraordinary to speak of. The modern art movement of the 1980s, to a great extent, was dissatisfied with reality. In the attempt to catch up with modern art in the West was a yearning for a higher standard of living. At that time, a kind of modernization of life that one could envision but never quite reach, and so one can imagine the attendant anxiety.  Zhang Jian's paintings are both a kind of yearning and a kind of documentation, without critique or storyline, just life the way it really is. The so-called "everyday life" is not really arduous toil, but rather leisure. The essential nature of leisure has a metropolitan meaning, it is the opposite of work, the symbol of a different way of life. More importantly, leisure is individual activity and space, it affirms a knowledge of individual value, and the right to pursue all kinds of happiness. Zhang Jian paints based on his own feeling and his own way of life, but the 90's just happens to be an era of major social change for China, and therefore, his paintings are not simply individual discourse, but rather possess a deeper layer of social significance.

　　The literary writer Zola referred to impressionist paintings as realist paintings. His so-called "realism" authentically records reality. Looking at Zhang Jian's paintings along these lines, his impressionism contains documentary elements, and this kind of documentation is more important than the technical aspects of impressionism. And as it happens, Zhang Jian's later development continued in the direction of documentation, leaving impressionism behind. Zhang Jian's impressionism is a sign marking a specific period and attitude toward life. He demanded that his pictures increasingly improve, just like a student who has just left the schoolyard and is making his way out into the world. Leaving impressionism behind was the beginning of maturity in life, and the schoolyard disappeared into the distance, as reality grew heavy. At the beginning of the new century, Zhang Jian's paintings underwent a great transformation, leaving behind no traces of impressionism. Simple, na?ve photograph-like painting lead him along for several years, however, the primary substance of his work was still documentation, but this kind of documentation eliminated some of the vestiges of traditional painting technique, getting somewhat closer to a photographic appearance.  Documentation has both objective and subjective elements, like photography, the reality behind the surface is subjective choice and judgment. Zhang Jian's documentation is more psychological and spiritual. Compared to his impressionist works, the subjectivity is even more intense. The preceding paintings used traditional painting techniques to record and document real life. In contrast, his later paintings eliminated traditional painting technique to document spiritual truths. A Given Year, A Given Day (2003)

　　Later, simple landscapes, the blue sky, the setting sun, sunset cloudbanks, overcast, faraway horizons, the tableau a little melancholy, although not quite yet reaching the boundless emotional excitement of the setting sun, but eliciting the state of mind of someone contemplating the scenery. Behind the superficial appearance of any surface lies subjective judgment, and behind A Given Year, A Given Day is the lonely reflection. At the time, Zhang Jian lived at Houhai. He often saw people swimming there, and thought this was very interesting, so he painted what he saw. In actuality, what he painted was the lake, just like the clouds in the sky, and indeed there are several paintings that are of nothing but the water itself, but even more compelling are the images of people swimming in the water. On such a large canvas, covered with a few patches of color that occupy the entire surface of the pictures, the faraway images of faintly discernible forms of swimmers, light ripples give the surface of the painting a liveliness. The painting uses the techniques of photography, but is not really a photograph, because there is not any sense of being at the scene. At the beginning of the new century, Gerhard Richter's paintings have been popular and influential among young painters. It is unclear how much of an influence Richter has had on Zhang Jian. Nevertheless, as described above, the documentary nature of photographs, as far as Zhang Jian's is concerned, lies in the use of the "semblance" of the real to express psychological truths. In "Lake Houhai," the painter possesses a dual identity, that of the swimmer and of the viewer. The viewer is the painter himself, and the swimmer is the painter's projection. The viewer of Lake Houhai and the viewer of the clouds is but the same person with the same state of mind. The swimmer possesses a symbolism-the viewer projects an association with life onto the swimmer in the water, merging the objective showing of the actual and subjectively interpretation of it into one whole. The conceptual nature of contemporary painting lies in the transmission of the idea, and not in the application of traditional measures to evaluate whether or not a painting is well painted. There is no sunlight in the "Lake Houhai" series. All is enshrouded in the hazy, dim light of falling night, which dejectedly wavers on each of life's turning points, always uncertain of what to do, lonely to no end, boundless as the lake in the painting.

　　In reality, Houhai is not a lonesome place, its original tranquility long since replaced by the flourishing petite bourgeoisie. The life of Houhai is still in Zhang Jian's line of sight, but the difference is that he has completely placed himself in the viewer's position. In this new batch of his recent work, the bright feeling of his early work has almost completely returned. Beijng is no longer a city of great snowfalls, but his paintings are all enveloped in a fog of snow. Several paintings use the word "dream" in the title. Snowflakes makes the surface of the painting into an expanse of resplendent mist, just like a colorful dreamscape. The "Lake Houhai" series and the "Snow" series are connected by a psychological linkage, in spite of the variation between the two in terms of form. First, in terms of form, both the traditional techniques of impressionist painting and those of photography are no longer present, but rather there is a kind of application similar to that of expressionism, regardless of whether painting a human figure or landscape, collocations of blocks of color, blurred at the edges by the haze of snowflakes covering the painting, leave behind an expanse of resplendence. For someone with a personality as mild-mannered as Zhang Jian to produce as work of this nature is quite unexpected. But there is still a kind of connection between this haziness and the "Lake Houhai" series. Even though there is variation between the forms, the blurry feeling is the same. Unlike Zhang Jian's early pieces, which explicitly expressed a certain attitude towards life, these pieces situate possible realities within aesthetic illusions. Life is like that as well. The things you strive for are shrouded in the halo of light. And when you can see them but cannot grasp them, you feel helpless, just like the swimmer in "Lake Houhai." And once you've reached your goal, everything is once again just like this. As far as Zhang Jian is concerned, regardless of whether it is artistic approval, or moderate prosperity, and not the final resting place of the spirit, the revelry of Lake Houhai nights, are all as fleeting as passing clouds. When the artist pursues the display of form, it always takes place under specific conditions. His life ideals unselfconsciously follow his subject matter into form, and the form then also possesses the meaning of the subject matter. This is just how Zhang Jian is.

作者：Yi Ying