张新权的画总让人追溯记忆中的影像。
甚至，也不是记忆中的影像，而是这些影像中储存的曾经的时光与曾经的生存痕迹。
艺术源于生活，但绝不是照搬生活。在当下的美术创作中，一些人往往把照搬生活理解为艺术对于生活的反映，致使许多作品难于突破日常的视觉经验，作品成为生活笨拙的形象复制。现实主义精神是伟大的，但现实主义也不等于不经过心灵荡涤、不表现精神诉求的生活模仿，不能呈现人的心灵与精神的作品，都只会停留于对生活表象的复制与再现。如果说艺术的本质还是在于对人类或个体精神情感的揭示，那么，艺术的表现方式就不会局限于实录与实写。而且，从生活实写跨越到心灵呈现，或许才是艺术家终生探求的最高境界。
表现精神诉求的方式是多样的，张新权选择的是具象表现主义。也即，他的作品总是和现实拉开一定的距离。无论描绘他生活过的《姑苏系列》，还是呈现他生活阅历的《上海外滩》《码头》和《海魂系列》，他都没有完全使用写实主义观念去告诉人们这里怎样，这里曾经发生了什么，而是选择某一场景或某一对象予以不受实写束缚的象征与表现。毫无疑问，他笔下的审美对象富有具象性的特征，甚至也可以说，这些具象本身就是他诉诸精神情感的出发点。但他在呈现这些具象时，又不满足于谨毛刻画，而是从一种遥远的距离予以审视，并从这种距离中进行想象性的抒写、率性的夸张和直觉式的宣泄。他的艺术创造性便在于选择什么样的对象、设置怎样的审视距离和进行何种程度的想象与表现。
苏州是他曾经生活的城市。中国文人笔下的太湖和油画家笔下的小桥流水，都各尽其妙，风情万种。而张新权则避开这些画路，既不表现纯粹的文人画境界，也不像吴冠中那样以黑白灰的形式节奏取胜。而是从陈旧的影像中获取创作的灵感与观照方式。不论《姑苏沧浪亭》《姑苏园林》《姑苏双塔》，还是《枫桥》《姑苏往事》和《姑苏西园》，都剃除了这些名胜的现场感，滤去了条件光色色彩变幻的丰富性，而置其于历史的时空中，让久远的时光洗尽尘世铅华。他画面的那些名园佳地，仿佛因岁月长河的流淌而沉去昔日的浮华与喧嚣，只淀出空寂与玄思。
如果说描绘苏州的那些作品是他对于自己生活世界的某种过滤，那么，《三江师范》和《金陵机器制造局》则完全是从历史的影像中获取的他对于时空变迁、人世俯仰的认知。作为曾经传输新潮文化与西洋文明的故址，这些建筑已不复存在。画面显得如此的简约与干净，仿佛一切都滤除了表象，只剩下黑与白的建筑物象。但画家却在这极其简约的对比中灌注了自己的情思——大面积近于无的天空已把建筑嵌入了历史，我们似乎可以在建筑中寻闻到那个刚刚接触西洋文明的时代人们焦虑与感奋的呼吸，耳畔似乎还回荡起“长亭外，古道边，芳草碧连天”的《送别》旋律。显然，这些引人回溯与追忆的并不是真实再现了旧时场景，而是画家对那些建筑群弥散出的昏黄岁月感的捕捉，是画家通过画笔再造的历史时空。画面固然有写实的成份，但更多的是通过想象与表现的再造，让人们去追怀和重温那样一种历史的遗存。
当江南无数条散漫的河流汇聚在一起的时候，便有了碧波荡漾、帆影绰约的太湖。而民国时代的川江似乎也被赋予了时代的色彩，无数条散漫的河流都汇入黄浦江而最终漂泊去了海洋。在张新权的创作经历中，寻着这种审美路向，他的笔触掠过了外滩的苏州河，在喧嚣而奢华的大上海驻了驻足便漂向大海。从《十里洋场》《有轨电车》到《苏州河》《码头》《信号台》和《风云十六铺》，他描绘了上个世纪东方乐园的繁华与嘈杂，但那近大半个世纪前的熙熙攘攘和今日新外滩的城际线判若两重世界，让人分明感到似曾相识的模糊印记。他的这些作品，具有实写的框架，却被岁月的笔触涂抹得漫漶不清了，那带着艺术家情思与个性的笔触几近灵动和洒脱，而灵动中掖着些许的忧郁、洒脱里醮着满笔的凝重。实写的是往昔的真容，漫漶的是今日的思绪。在具象与表现之间，他的那些画面交错着历史与现实的影像和幻觉。这或许是张新权从此种艺术语言与观念中表达的幽思与感叹。
江南散漫的河流也终究逝去了洋场十里的奢华，有轨电车和外滩的汽笛最终都消散在宽阔无比的大海。不知曾有过怎样的人生经验让张新权酷爱表现在海浪中翻腾的舰艇邮轮，但可以肯定的是，审美笔触的寻绎最终使他从小桥流水的苏州驶向了更富有个性、更富有激情的海洋，而遭受历史风雨的海轮或许更能凸显生命的张力与生存的搏击。从《致远舰》《食既》《巡逻艇》到《泊》《商船》《阿芙乐尔号》和《雪龙号》，他既以某些名舰指代历史进程的转变节点，也以大体量的海洋货轮展示某种视觉冲击。作为历史的巨轮，海浪翻腾中的《阿芙乐尔号》《致远舰》象征着一个新时代的到来；作为钢铁的庞然大物，远洋邮轮仍难敌海洋流体的摆弄与吞掠。前者象征了历史征程的艰难险阻，后者则隐喻了人类与自然的奋勇搏击。他的这些作品一再让人联想到海明威对于大海的描述，广阔无垠的大海与悠远苍茫的历史不断唤起人类的激情与想象，但在自然与历史面前人类却难逃生存与变灭的宿命。
张新权的作品总是跳出再现现实而站在一个遥远的距离中审视事物的流变。过去式，是他观照事物的一个基本审美方法。过去式，既让他从现实中剥离而出，也使他从容地在“过去”之中寻求他的“自我”。因而，“过去式”也便成为他“表现性”的重要创作基点，正是从这种“过去式”中他找到了自己的艺术语言和诉求途径。过去式，使他的作品都成了老照片和旧影像，而作品的魅力正在于对于这种影像不动声色的叙述与追溯。
如果说，当代艺术的许多作品都不遗余力地追求绘画的图像性，那么张新权则努力把这种图像和人们记忆中的影像与表现主义的潜意识结合在一起，从而增添了架上油画当代视觉文化的审美经验。
——中国美协理事、中国美协理论委员会委员、《美术》杂志执行主编/ 尚 辉
2011年6月29日于北京22院街艺术区
Depiction and Tracing of Images
Zhang Xinquan’s paintings always remind us of images in our memory.
Or maybe, not images in our memory, but images that store the past time and existing traces.
Art originates from life, but never imitates it. In the current production of paintings, some artists often mistake art that imitates life for art that reflects life, which leads to the fact that many works can’t go beyond the daily visual experience. Works merely become awkward imitation of images in life. Realism is great, but it doesn’t necessarily mean imitating life images without any cleansing of souls or without any spiritual appeal. Works that can’t present human souls and spirits are merely copying and reproducing images in life. Since the essence of art is to reveal the spirits or emotions of human being as a whole or as individuals, the representation of art will not be confined to loyal recording and imitating. What artists should pursue as a lifetime goal is probably to span from imitating life images to presenting human souls.
Ways to present spiritual appeal could vary, and Zhang chooses concrete expressionism. That is, his works always draw away from reality. He never tells people what it was like or what happened here with realistic style, no matter in “Gusu” series or in “The Bund in Shanghai”, “The Wharf” or “Sea Soul” series. Instead, he breaks through restraint to depict and characterize a scene or an object. What he depicts is undoubtedly characterized by representationalism, from which his spiritual appeals stem. When he depicts, he is not confined to portray details, but to survey it in the distance, wherefrom he depicts imaginarily, exaggerates willfully and works off his emotions freely. His artistic creativity lies in his choices of objects, the distance to survey, and the extent of imagination and expression.
He used to live in Suzhou, a city that is affectionately portrayed by Chinese literators and painters about its Taihu Lake and picturesque bridges and streams, but Zhang tried to evade painting these. Literati painting is not his style, nor does he paint in rapid rhythm with blacks, grays and whites like Mr. Wu Guanzhong. Where he gets inspiration is those timeworn images. Either in “Canglang Pavilion in Gusu”, “Classical Gardens in Gusu”, “Two Pagodas in Gusu”, or in “Fengqiao Bridge”, “Moments in Gusu”, “West Garden in Gusu”, he removed the presence of these monuments, deprived them of the baffling richness of colors, just to place them in the historical sense. Vanity and uproariousness were washed away from those gardens and monuments, and only solitude and meditation were left in the paintings.
While those paintings about Suzhou is a leach of his life, “Sanjiang Normal College” and “Jinling Machine Factory” reflect his recognition of the changes of time and space and the ups and downs of life. As the sites to spread new culture and western civilization, they’ve already disappeared in history. The whole painting seems to be concise and neat, simply with black and white buildings themselves, without any presentation. But there the artist devoted all his emotions – the architecture is integrated to history by the endless sky. We could even sense the anxious and indignant breath of those people who barely exposed to western civilization. We could even hear the rhythm of “A Valediction”: Beyond the distant pavilion, beside the ancient road, fragrant green grass stretches far into the sky…… Apparently, what evokes retrospection is not the emersion of the original scenes, but the artist’s observation of the architectural complex through times, or the historical time and space created by the artist. Realism could be found in the painting, but more is the recreation with imagination and expression. It’s just for people to review the existing history.
When the rambling streams and rivers gather in the regions south of the Yangtze River, there forms the rippling Taihu Lake. Rivers of the Republic of China period seemed to be endowed with characteristics of the times, to witness that all the rivers converged to the Huangpu River and finally to the ocean. Along the aesthetic orientation, his paintings touched the Suzhou River in the Bund, and reached the ocean after a halt in the metropolis Shanghai. Either in “The Metropolis Old Shanghai”, “The Tram” or “The Suzhou River”, “The Wharf”, “The Signal Tower” and “The Shiliupu Wharf”, he depicts the prosperity and pandemonium of the eastern paradise in the last century. But the hustle and bustle in that century, compared with the totally different new Bund, left people just a vague impression. His works, with some realistic sense, are covered by historical marks. His strokes, full of passion and personality, are quite refreshing and free, integrated with melancholy and dignity. Wandering between representationalism and expressionism, his works are interwoven with images and illusions in history and reality. Maybe that is the meditation and exclamation of Zhang Xinquan in his artistic language and concept.
The rambling rivers eventually washed away the vanity of the metropolis, and the siren of the trams and vessels in the Bund finally vanished into the vast ocean. We have no idea what kind of experience aroused Zhang’s affection for the vessels that ride the wind and waves, but definitely, his aesthetic pursuit drives him to a more passionate and individual ocean from the picturesque streams and bridges in Suzhou. The weathered sea crafts might as well manifest the tension of life and struggle to survive. In “Zhiyuan Vessel”, “Second Contact”, “The Patrol Vessel”, “Lying at Anchor”, “The Merchant Ship”, “The Aphrodite” and “Xuelong Vessel”, he depicts the turning point of history with those distinguished vessels and demonstrates visual shocks with gigantic cargo vessels. As historic vessels, “The Aphrodite” and “Zhiyuan Vessel” withering in the waves stand for the arrival of a new era, but as gigantic steel ships, they will still be turned and swallowed by the ocean. The former symbolizes the hardships of history and the latter metaphors human’s struggle with nature. His works repeatedly remind people of Hemingway’s description of the ocean that the boundless ocean constantly arouses human’s ambition and imagination, but in face with history and nature, humans doom to survive and then vanish.
Zhang’s works always draw back from the reality to investigate the changes of things in the distance. The preterit is his aesthetic basis to reflect things. The preterit deprives him of the reality and drives him to pursue his ego. Therefore, the preterit, where he finds his artistic language and appeal, is the basis of his expressive painting. The preterit turns his paintings into old photos and images, where lies the spell of narration and retrospect.
Many contemporary works spare no effort to pursue the images of paintings, and Zhang strives to combine these images with expressionistic subconciousness, to add more aesthetic experience to the visual culture of the paintings.
-- By Shang Hui, Director in China Artists Association A Commissioner in the Theoretical Council of China Artists Association Executive editor-in-chief of Art magazine
June 29, 2011 In Beijing 22 International Art Plaza