No matter how we choose to explain contemporary art in today's reality, it is easy to see that it has suffered crisis. This crisis manifests itself in the disparity found between the language of traditional painting and the habits of over-indulgence that are nourished by today's popular culture. Our sense of visual reality (that is, our set of sensory organs) is controlled more and more by the form an object takes, and not by the object itself. Because of china's separation century, the tremendous reforms and opening that China went through in the beginning of the 1990s caused Chinese contemporary painting to bring sudden and widespread international prestige to Chinese contemporary art. However, because of ideological differences and the existence of a closed system of local art language in Chinese contemporary art in a time of globalization and the rapid spread of art information, the vitality of Chinese contemporary painting almost burned itself out during its rapid entrance into international markets, exhibitions, and galleries. Younger artists were able to prolong the vitality of their art by working in unmarketable mediums such as installation or performance art. For Zhang Jian, however, who experienced Chinese contemporary art at the height of its glory in the early 1990s, and who came into being sa an artist through the excellent education in painting that he received in school, it is as if painting has become a part of his blood, and is now his only medium or language of expression. In order to better understand the art of Zhang Jian, it is important to first understand the implications that this "awkward crux"[or dilemma] creates in his heart.

　　In the early 1990s, Chinese contemporary painting held the spotlight as the "exotic"in the international contemporary art world，and this was a very glorious time for Chinese art. During this time, through the guidance of Cynical Realism and Political Pop Art, which could be distinguished by their de-emphasizing of artistic technique and subject matter, Chinese painting lost its "tradition of social realism."

　　However, these kinds of spontaneous styles were quickly commercialized, and did not really transform the local circles of art dialogue. The successes of artists who worked in Cynical Realism and Political Pop created the possibility of a new lifestyle for many artists, one which was comfortable and well paid for. This sort of lifestyle, in turn, encouraged a sort of cynicism and also encouraged, by way of"tyranny of the absurd over politics，"the creation of the exotic slogans of the so-called"gaudy"art and "performance"art. Zhang Jian studied in the Central Academy of Fine Art, and though he was somewhat sealed off in the school, he still witnessed all of the "dramas" and "farces" as they occurred. According to the customs of contemporary art, the "academy" is perhaps a complicated issue for Zhang Jian-one that he is reluctant to discuss. From a bystander's point of view though, the academy endowed Zhang Jian with two things. The first is the experience of the "New Generation" of realism that was fashionable in the 1990s. The New Generation realists moved to rectify the way in which Chinese contemporary art had become excessively superficical in the 1980s, and, also, to push educational institutions to their limit in encouraging them to accept contemporary art. At the same time, the New Generation also inspired Chinese artists outside the institution, giving rise especially to cynical styles. The style of the New Generation, as found inside the institution, was an intriguing combination of Impressionism and New Expressionism. After the 1990"New Generation Exhibition,"even though this style had not yet been systematically accepted by the professors in academic institutions, it was already a resource being consciously assimilated by the students. Zhang Jian was one of these students. In addition to all of this, the second thing that the academy gave to Zhang Jian was a sense of self-respect as an artist and a quality of dignity in his character. Zhang Jian was born in Beijing, received an excellent education, and was able to smoothly enter the Central Academy of Fine Art; he received many advantages compared to other artists his age. Because of these advantages, he has seemingly no reason for complaint, protest oranger. No matter how you look at it, Zhang Jian can really not be seen as a social"outsider."In this day and age, if one is not an outsider, then one seems to lose all reason for engaging in contemporary art. Furthermore, the artistic dignity that the academy instills in its students, more often than not, results in a sort of"self-isolation"and a feeling that "contemporary art"is not worth pursuing. In contrast, the academic training that Zhang Jian received has resulted not in self-isolation, but rather in a kind of individual, "personal" painting style.

　　After graduation, Zhang Jian chose to pursue a career as a professional artist. Compared to other, less worthy artists who noved to the opportunity filled and opportunistic city, Zhang Jian did not have too difficult of a time. This is because he was born and raised in Beijing. This background manifests itself in his work-he is clearly still carrying on the style of the New Generation. These works, in the words of the critic Yi Ying, exhibit"an aesthetic sense of beauty in form that goes so far as to surpass the original feeling found in life."As for artistic skill and technique, Zhang Jian's works from this time period display an appreciation of the beautiful as found in Impressionism, Lucid and lively colors, and a certain quickness of the brush. On the surface, these works do not seem to "rebel" against anything one would expect of someone his age. The works are gentle in emotion, quiet in atmosphere, and healthy in their reflection of life. These paintings can be easily compared to the typical paintings of those working within the New Generation style, as seen in the grasping and presentation of the insignificant moment. However, in the grasping and presentation of this moment, there is still a subtle thing that should not be ignored: that is that in the composition of these works, there is a subtle sense of "incompleteness." It is like the concept of a candid snapshot in photography-in Zhang Jian's paintings it manifest as an incompleteness in the composition and a feeling of freedom in the picture. This feeling of freedom causes the picture and the subject matter to lose any hierarchical relationship, and also cuts any sense of narrative out of the painting. In cutting out the sense of narrative, Zhang Jian is crossing the limit out of the New Generation style. In breaking the line between intention and accident in his paintings, Zhang Jian makes a leap into what becomes his later style in his works.

　　The elevated standing of academically trained artists and their stubborn bias in the use of language, combined with the explosion of the middle class in China, rocketed many Chinese artists to stardom Many artists of Zhang Jian's generation became this kind of art superstar. From looking at Zhang Jian's style in his early works, it seems that he also had the qualifications to become this kind of art superstar. However, Zhang Jian did not pursue this course of life. Perhaps, just as art cannot be sold to the materialism found in commercial society, it can also not be sold to the opportunism found in contemporary art. Because of this, Zhang Jian's paintings, in the context of contemporary art, come up in an "awkward" situation, since he is forever roving between the three sectors of the academy, commerce, and vanguard in art.

　　This awkward condition can be most clearly seen in his"Swimming"series of works.Once, wheninterviewed, Zhang Jian said,"A person swimming has no trunk, he is only a part; and in looking at these parts, both have a sort of human/nonhuman sort of feeling, a sort of doubt in reality. This concept is related to my feeling about our times. One aspect of modern society is that the amount of information out there is huge; when people go out into this kind of world in which there is this information explosion, it is very convenient to obtain information, but it is also very easy to be controlled by it. Also, the reliability of different kinds information is not the same, what kinds of things can be trusted?"When an artist does not close himself off in a self-isolated over-indulgent self-admiration, he comes to feel this sort of "awkwardness," as Zhang Jian feels. In reality, from the time that Zhang Jian first became a professional artist onwards, there was a great calmness and gentleness present in his works. He never received any form of approval or rejection regarding his work, even though the sense of calmness and gentleness foud in his works was the best to be found in the art world. On the one hand is the flourishing of art, and on the other, a surprising reticence. The feeling of a young artist is that of cruising alone out on open water, without a soul in sight. Confusion in art and the anxiety that artists say they feel about the information explosion actually come out of the same thing.

　　Because of all of this, we see a break-through transformation happening in Zhang Jian's newest works. Throughout these paintings, we see a resistance of "obstruction" or "covering" taking place on the surface of the canvas. The image has been obscured by the painter, and the resulting blur provokes the viewer into an effort at grasping at some sort of  "distinctness" in the painting. This kind of transformation in style, in the context that Zhang Jian has created, develops along two axis. First of all, there is the axis of his early style, with the indistinct"snapshot"style composition. The appearance of this sort of"snapshot"composition has its origins in the use of photos in the process of the making of art.

　　However, this is certainly not such a simple change. The use of photos makes Zhang Jian's creative work of that period consist of two parts: the handing of the real-life scene, and the handing of the ready-made image (the photo). As his work progressed over time, his attention to the handing of the photo surpassed his attention to the real-life scene. This proportionate change as to what part of the work his attention was focused on led directly to the birth of his later style. This brings us to say that Zhang Jian's newest works are not aimed at presenting a real-life scene, but rather, are aimed at presenting an image. If one considers that the emergence of real-life scenes in his early work comes from a youthful intuitiveness, then the handing of images in his later work comes out of a concept. This concept is the above-mentioned"information"(actually, it is the "rules of the game"for contemporary art) doubt. In these new works, the obscured images in the pictures have already been detached from the images as they appeared in reality, and have all become an ultimate symbolic force . They represent the artist's past, his memories and his personal experiences. They also symbolize the cultural viewpoint of our times. Therefore, the change from presenting real-life scenes to presenting concepts can be seen as the second axis in the development of Zhang Jian's new style.

　　In the process of Zhang Jian's break-through transformation in style, both axis of change originated from the artist's self-control of language and concept, the transformation therefore occurred spontaneously as the artist's instinctual reaction to the outside world. It is only when we place the artist in this sort of context that we are able to discover that we can sense a characteristic noble persistence in Zhang Jian's works. This kind of noble persistence enables the artist to break away from what is seen as contemporary art's farcical imitation of real life, and also to escape the mire created by the academic/commercial side of art with all its adornments. Furthermore, with the transformation from the presentation of real-life scenes to the presentation of concepts, Zhang Jian's newest works attain a sort of "universal" significance and "modernism," creating, perhaps, a turning point in the ongoing dialogue between modern culture and art. On this level, the significance of Zhang Jian's art rests in the example he sets in the development and offering up of a valuable way of expression during these times-these times of impulsive art. From this, we can see how Chinese artists, with open minds and under the leadership of sensitive intuition, can reject the opportunism of contemporary art and set free new meanings in the creation of images. Only after we have this, will be able to step out of the fatalistic notions of the "crisis in painting."

作者：Pi Li