Zhang Xudong

In the contemporary art field, expressive painting has become one of the forms through which artists continually explore and innovate, using its unique artistic language and expressive techniques. Artists observe life through the lens of art, discovering beauty in the ordinary, extracting meaningful materials, and attempting to enhance the expressive power of their creations through lines, colors, shapes, textures, brushstrokes, materials, and media. This process results in works that are both universally appealing and exhibit the individual identity of the artist.

As one of the early artists influenced by Western Neo-Expressionist painting, Zhang Xudong has maintained a close relationship with "Neo-Expressionism" since the 1990s. In 1995, he held a solo exhibition of Neo-Expressionist paintings at the National Art Museum of China. Therefore, "Neo-Expressionist painting" is also a distinct marker of Zhang Xudong's artistic practice over the years. Particularly, while his artistic style and language have been influenced by Western "Expressionism," "Neo-Expressionism," and the "New Painting Movement," he has consciously avoided mere imitation of Western painting styles and forms.

In his early works, Zhang Xudong primarily focused on portraiture, keenly engaging with the local cultural context and artistic spirit. His aim was to ground his work in the essence of painting itself, blending and juxtaposing real-life landscapes and the cultural identity and spiritual essence of his subjects. Through this, he explores the multiple facets of desire and the essence of human nature. In Zhang Xudong’s portrait paintings, the use of lines, textures, and brushstrokes plays a vital role. In his compositions, the human form often occupies the central space, and through the depiction of human movement and expression, he presents his unique understanding and pursuit of beauty.

Over the years, Zhang Xudong has continually drawn inspiration from contemporary art thinking and creative concepts. Using different lines, brushstrokes, and texture effects, he has created rich and diverse human forms. With Neo-Expressionist techniques, he has pushed the visual tension of his compositions to their limits during live figure drawing sessions at different stages of his career. For example, his recent series of works painted on his hometown island recreate the sensory experience of live painting. With passionate brushstrokes and vibrant color textures, he vividly conveys the beauty of the curves and desires of women from various ethnicities. His works reflect the artist's sensitivity and authenticity in capturing the texture of the human figure, the changes in light and shadow, and the emotional expression of the subjects. His lines are bold and powerful, akin to the melody of music—sometimes calm like water, other times intense like waves. These lines leap and roam across the canvas, bringing a strong sense of movement to the composition. Through variations in the thickness, length, and direction of the lines, he portrays the undulations and dynamics of the human body, allowing the viewer to almost feel the emotions and vitality of the figures. This enhances the expressive power of the artwork and gives it a deeper humanistic meaning.

Color is a visible emotion, containing a latent "attitude" and inner ripples, as well as an interpretation of the spirit within. Zhang Xudong transforms this inner state into different colors and, in his pursuit of light and color changes, expresses the overall feeling and atmosphere of his subjects. In the contrast, change, and reconciliation between cool and warm colors, he not only creates different emotional perceptions such as temperature, weight, and humidity, but also engages in a transformation of the spirit into the material realm. It's also worth noting that Zhang Xudong's paintings, beyond depicting reality, also track another "reality." His depictions of island landscapes, human figures, and floral arrangements are constructed through lines, colors, blocks, and shapes. Color and lines complement each other, as he mixes various colors to create compositions that are both starkly contrasting and harmoniously balanced. His colors are not mere applications of paint but serve as a unique expression of the emotions and atmosphere surrounding the figures and their environment. In Zhang Xudong's works, the perfect fusion of color and line offers a visual feast to the viewer, elevating expressive painting as an important form in contemporary art with vast development potential and limitless possibilities.

In conclusion, Zhang Xudong's figure painting, in my view, highlights a passionate and life-affirming attitude towards life and emotional states. His creative language is filled with a sense of the future, with the figurative and abstract, expression and representation, all organized through exaggerated colors, emphasized brushstrokes, and a focus on formal beauty. These subjective elements help align the colors and emotions of the work. The forms of figures and landscapes change according to the artist's mood and interests, becoming more abstract, flattened, and brushstroke-driven. Consequently, the overall feel of the works evolves in line with the pursuit of new artistic expressions, highlighting the potential and diversity of the language of painting.