青春，是张伟画面永恒的主题。他描绘的对象大都是他教过的学生，一直以来他都为这些单纯、真挚、充满生机的面孔所触动，不时唤起他内心里的童真记忆。青春，是多么激动人心的话题，但无疑地，对青春的表达有不同的面向，激情澎湃、朝气蓬勃、意气奋发是一面，颓废、失落、迷惘是另一面。同时对当下的青年，人们也有不同的看法，时而说他们自我、个性张扬、脆弱、缺乏社会责任感，时而又否定其中的某些界定。另外，都市，也是一个重要且迷人的话题，都市中错综复杂的现象与心理体验给了艺术创作难以穷尽的资源。都市与青春的结合，让人产生无限思索。不过在张伟的笔下，都市里的青春故事更多呈现的是灿烂和富有朝气的一面。
张伟的早期人物作品有一种凝固的气氛，人物沉静而若有所思，场景具有超现实的意味。其后他又创作了一些带有上世纪90年代初期新生代创作特点的表现都市人群的作品，与新生代“躲避崇高”，关注周围的生活，近观且冷静的艺术处理的基调相一致，他的画面时常采用不按寻常规矩构图的截景，散乱的人物组合，略显呆滞的表情，渗透着疏离无趣的感觉。这种取向间或还会出现在他后来的某些画面当中，比如《同学少年》里那三个青年错落站立，脸上泛着多少有些空洞的微笑的场景。
不过，他最为外界所熟悉的还是自上世纪90年代末以来创作的那批凸显健康、明快、率真的美学特征的都市青春系列，如《阳光下》、《好心情》、《自得其乐》、《青春档案》、《好好学习，天天向上》、《我们的未来不是梦》、《花样年华》等等。大面积的纯色铺陈，形式和色块都经过有意识的超越实景的设置，图式感很强，画面跃动着青春的活力和喜悦，但绝不是主旋律美术那种对青年积极形象的呆板描绘，而是带着都市青年文化的节奏、时尚和幽默品质，是在深明这个时代的青春质感和情绪下的一种抱有欣赏和美好期盼态度的表述。画面上时有出现的恐龙玩具、公仔、肯德基饮料杯等带有明显的道具式的时代符号特征，而有些青年捧书、托腮的模式化姿势又借助了部分旧宣传画的人物形态，以这种隐含红色年代印迹的强烈形式承载新时代的青春激情和意义，在一定程度上是富有感染力的。
但在最近的一批双人组合的青年系列中，我发现张伟的作品又有了新的变化。他摒弃了以往那种鲜明的图式感，手法上也少用平涂而较多显现出形体塑造的笔触感，更加着意的是自己在面对对象时的鲜活的写生体验，讲究眼手相应时的挥洒快意。画面色调依旧偏向他所喜好的明快，但逐渐恢复了对象的原色，淡化他原来那种强烈的介入感，让他和描绘对象之间进入一种平视的对等交流；画面场景不是生活原景的照搬，仍然保留了某种镜头设置感，但在“幕布”前的青年主角们衣着装扮本乎生活原貌，既不特意的卡通、新潮，也不故意回避时尚，他们放松地舒展自己的姿势、呈现自己的表情，无所拘束。作者将个人意图尽力隐退，希望在画面中传达出一种不可言传的、有些暧昧不清的气氛，而不是像以往那样的明确，让人一览无余。不过这样的创作过程又是即兴的、不可控制的。有时候他感觉到了什么，即时性地让对象做一些有意思的动作，但这些意念在笔迹运行中又会产生变化。他不是要依照设计好的程序将某个意图完全贯彻下去。随性、流动正是他现在创作的意趣之一。他享受着这样的一种创作。
我们知道，目前的当代艺术界符号图式极为流行，虽然屡有争议，但这种表达方式在艺术传播和市场领域仍旧行之有效。张伟则选择从图式的喧嚣中淡身出来，他没有迷恋于曾经构建的那片个人图式领地，而是重新回到写生这一古老而又总能够带来新的思想源泉的绘画方式，淡远了影像介质，返身在面对面的现场视觉中寻找灵感和乐趣。在当下的图像化世界中，我们的当代艺术，不少是关于现成图像的挪用以及哲学与社会观念表述的，艺术创作中那种最质朴的身体感受变得越来越渺远。我们可以满有理由地说，当代艺术的标准发生了很大变化，手工劳作的技术语言以及由此负载的情感已经显得不甚紧要。然而我们同样可以看到，当代艺术界依然有人坚持写生的绘画方式，坚持视网膜的洞察力量。新近我又了解到，有一些青年艺术家力图通过直接关乎艺术创作的身体的一部分——手的触感来透视出现今时代围绕身体、创作展开的复杂关系和意涵。那么，张伟的这种自然的心性回归是否正暗合了当下某些艺术家的共同取向？这种取向对当代艺术界又意味着什么呢？

2008年11月17日

 　　Youth is the eternal theme in Zhang Wei' s works. Most of the figures in his works are his students. They are simple-minded, sincere and energetic, which makes him moved all the time and evokes the memories of his childhood every now and then. Youth, what a breathtaking topic! Yet it could be expressed in different ways without doubt. One is passionate, youthful and cheerful while the counterpart is depraved, lost and confused. Apart from that, the public take different views of the youth nowadays. In their opinion, young people are self-centered but vulnerable; they show strengths of character but are unconscious of shouldering social responsibilities; they repudiate some definitions at times, though. City is also an important and amazing topic. Intricate social phenomenon and psychological experience in it provide endless resources for art creation. People are deep in thought with the combination of both the youth and the city. Fortunately, most of Zhang Wei' s works show the brilliant and vigorous aspects of the youth in their stories which happened in the city.
The early figures of Zhang Wei' s works are immersed in an icy atmosphere. These figures are quite and seem to be preoccupied, implicating a kind of surrealism. Afterwards, he created some works with the characteristics of the Cenozoic Era in the early 1990s to depict the urban citizens. In accordance with the keynote in Cenozoic Era that includes "avoiding glory", close attention to the daily life and artistic treatment with a closer look and calm attitude, he always cut the scenery by unusual rules to compose a draft. Therefore, the figures are scattered in his works with slightly dull expression, leading to the alienation and the boredom. This style occasionally appears in his certain works. Take Those Student Days for example, three young people stand dispersedly and wear the somewhat hollow smile.
Nevertheless, the most familiar works to the outside world are Youth Series in the City, which were created in the late 1990s and highlighted the positive, vivid and sincere aesthetic characteristics. These works include In Sun, In Good Mood, Self-enjoying, Files of Youth, Study Hard and Make Progress Everyday, Our Future is not Dream, In the Mood for Love, and so on. They are drafted with a large area of solid color, and designated to be the ones beyond real images by specific styles and chosen colors. It reveals a sharp sense of schema, presenting youthful vigor and pleasure. Totally different from the mechanical depiction of the positive young people of the leading fine arts, the works with the theme, the fashion and the humor sense of the youth in the city voice an appreciation of youth stories and a wish for future life under the conditions of an insight into the youth value in this era. The properties with obvious symbol characteristics of the times make their appearance in the paintings from time to time, for instance, dinosaur toys, plush toys and KFC drinks. Borrowing the figure shapes from some old posters, he asked some models to take the standardized postures of holding a book and resting their heads on the hands. This is a mode of drawing with a strongly implicit mark of "Red Age" , which bears the youthful passion and special significance of the new times. To a certain extent, the works appear eye-catching.
In youth series of two figures released recently, I find new changes in his works. He abandoned the previous sharp sense of schema and adopted the technique of brush strokes that can shape the bodies instead of smearing. Besides, he is more particular about the fresh sketch experience when faced with the models, the freedom and the pleasure when the hands coordinate with the eyes. He still prefers to make use of vivid colors but attempts to restore the original colors of the models gradually in order to trivialize the former strong involvement of his existence and conduct an equal communication between him and the models. The scenes in the works do not simply copy the actual life but retains a strong shot of some kind. But the leading youth models in front of the screen are in ordinary clothes, neither of intentional cartoon and fashion, nor of avoiding fashion. They stretch themselves out relaxed with free facial expressions. The painter tries to hide his individual intention and play up an inexpressible and somewhat ambitious environment in the works without a specific theme so as to give readers the thinking space. This production process is improvisational but uncontrollable. When some ideas occurred to him on occasion, he would immediately ask the models to perform some interesting postures. He would change the idea when he paints because he doesn't want to totally carry out a certain idea according to a designated procedure. Casualness and mobility are what he is interested in for art creation now. He is enjoying such a kind of creation process.
As we know, current symbol schema in the art circles has a great vogue. Although it is a controversial topic, this mode of expression is still effective in art communication and market segment. However, Zhang Wei withdraws himself from the turbulence of the schema and doesn' t indulge himself in his former private schema any longer. What' s more, he removes from the image, picks up the old painting method that can always bring about new source of ideas, and searches for the inspiration and some fun from the face-to-face spot sketch. In the modern world stuffed with images, many contemporary art works are the copies of the ready-shot images and expressed by philosophical and social concept. The most direct physical experience and the plainest spiritual experience from art creation disappear far away. It is rather reasonable to suppose the standards of contemporary art have been changing a lot. The technique of paintings made by hand and the emotional effects do not matter now. However, we can also see from the world that some artists in the circle carry on with the sketch all the same and stick to the perspicacity through naked eyes. Recently I got to know that some young artists try to see through the complicated connections and meanings between the body shape and the art creation in modern times by touch of hand that is the body part concerning art creation directly. If so, whether Zhang Wei' s return to the nature of mind implies the common trend of some artists at present? What does this trend mean to the contemporary art?

November 17th, 2008

作者：胡斌