出生于1962年的张新权，就像大多数出生于60年代的艺术家一样，既有热情却又渴望温情，充满理想却又忌讳浮夸，内心持重却又积极变化，他们的艺术和人生同样都带有明显的“乌托邦之后”的文化烙印。
所谓“乌托邦之后”的一个显著标记就是“历史感”，而情感风貌的这种变化无疑也延伸至张新权的艺术创作。张新权的很多创作都与中国近代史有着某种显见的关联：一些作品是对当时图像的直接移用，如2008年创作的《中山舰》；还有一些作品虽然图像来源相对复杂，但是画家所表达的仍是场景的历史性，如2003年创作的《十里洋场》、2004年创作的《有轨电车》、2006年创作的《苏州河》等等。从表面上来看，“老照片”是这些作品的图像资源，但是张新权的创作意图并非仅仅是对那些恢弘多变的时代场景或者跌宕沉浮的时代人物等作出的如实叙述，却是重在以“悄无声息”的方式在更安静、更理智的语境氛围中与前者相毗连。在张新权看来，所谓的“历史感”必须是承认距离的，也就是说艺术家通过创作要到达的不是针对历史的如实再现，而是借助于新的阐释就此生成新的认识。
在具体的做法上，张新权力图在具象写实和表现主义之间求得某种动态平衡。以《中山舰》为例，写实性的手法运用于历史人物或者历史场景的有力塑造，用以区别各自的特征以及情节性叙事的展开，而表现主义的手法却是在努力消减这些具体的叙事，用以确定画面的结构以及营造画面的情绪张力。事实上，张新权的更多创作并不像《中山舰》这样是与具体历史事件对应挂钩而是指向那些场景的历史性。2003年创作的《十里洋场》、2004年创作的《有轨电车》、2006年创作的《苏州河》等都是“老上海”的经典场景，让人联系到“外滩”、“苏州河”两岸等这些浮华生活的昔日标记，而与现实生活中的现状样貌产生了显见的反差。张新权刻意地制造了这种距离，其目的一方面是所谓“历史感”的需要，一方面则是通过这一“历史感”的呈现而反映了艺术家自我的“历史观念”。
张新权始终认为回顾过去并不意味着裹足不前，因为对过去的回顾会使自己在观照历史的同时，寻找出更符合我们时代特征的精神和境界。也就是说张新权开始通过创作去体现作为艺术家个体对于过去、现在和未来的思考，同时正如T.S艾略特在关于诗学中历史意识和现实意识联系的阐述，“‘历史意识’也使一个作家最敏锐地意识到自己在时间中的地位，以及自己和当代的关系”。于是，当张新权的创作从稍早的“历史感”呈现逐渐过渡为“历史观念”阐述的时候，其作品的创作空间也得到了更大地拓展。
从2007年左右开始，张新权创作了“船”的作品系列。“船”的作品系列，与之前的《中山舰》和有关“上海”的创作有着前后的关联性，只是在之前的创作中“船”只是作品的场景或者场景的一部份而已。张新权对“船”的题材选择，从表面上来看似乎仍是出自艺术家对历史的持久兴趣，他搜集了各种历史明信片以及旧报纸杂志上的影像数据，用以架构历史中的“船”的形象。然而除了2009年创作的《致远舰》之外，张新权的大部份作品虽然是以晚清民国时期的“舰船”为题，却并没有刻意去强调具体的历史意义和历史价值，只是在作品标题上称之为“巡逻艇”、“游船”或“商船”，或者以“泊”等字眼加以命名，最后又逐渐被统括为“‘船’系列”或者“‘海魂’系列”之中。也就是说张新权有意识回避的是历史形象的所谓再现，譬如在2007年创作的《巡逻舰》等作品中“船”的形象相对完整，周围的环境如海面、海浪、地平线等都具有一定的现实性，而在稍晚的“海魂系列”中如2011年创作的《海魂系列之十一》、《海魂系列之十二》，“船”的形象往往突出的是局部，海景等环境的表达也变得不那么具体甚至是抽象性的，因此无论是“‘船’系列”或者“‘海魂’系列”，张新权总是想通过概括提纯的做法转而强调自我创作中的“历史观念”，同时是以具有表现性的艺术形式去提示更多的可能性而不是为具体的叙事或视觉的表达所局限。
如果说张新权创作“船”系列的意图是在探讨历史的“过去性”的话，那么他最近的“风景”系列则更多的是在思考历史的“现在性”。具体而言，张新权的“船”系列探求的是历史进程中的那些隐秘时刻，是具有象征而转折意义的叙述而不是事件性的记录，而2009年之后创作的系列“风景”是以人和时代的当下互动来体现历史的变迁，是与当下的文化立场以及社会的整体环境相关系的。
2009年创作的《海景房》、《三江师范》、《金陵机器制造局》，虽然与稍早的关于“上海”题材的创作有着一定的前后承接，尤其是在对建筑的关注度上表现得尤为明显，然而张新权近期的创作似乎不再纯以历史照片为凭借，却是大量采用了“写生”的手法。
“三江师范”、“金陵机器制造局”等是晚清时期革新图变的象征地标，如今既在历史的语境中与我们渐行渐远，又在现实的生活中为我们漠然视之，张新权以“写生”的方式去创作《三江师范》、《金陵机器制造局》等，直面的就是历史的变迁，揭示的就是历史变迁给予人类自身的巨大变化。“写生”对于现场的介入和情感的投射在《海景房》的创作中得到了更好的反映，画家选择了海边的一些西式古建，并依靠强烈的透视和海平线来组织画面，其画法带有明显的写生性，同时还通过刻意保留绘画痕迹的手法来强调写生过程中的生动活泼。写生，还引申为某种显见的介入方式。在《海景房》中，张新权并不充当着“旁观者”的角色，他还倾心介入其中，成为了历史变迁的见证者和警醒者，表达了对当代文化的一种深刻的怀疑态度。
鲍勃•迪伦说过，“世上没有比变化更稳定的东西了”，张新权无疑是同意这样的说法的。所以张新权并不是那些“过去”的维护者，他要探究的也不是这些变迁的表象答案。在张新权近期创作的系列风景中，艺术家开始强调历史的变迁并不是任何个人有意选择的结果，而是情感变动的深刻反映。古城苏州成为了张新权的研究个案，因为它既是中国历史变迁的缩影，也是艺术家创作的现实基地。那些历古弥新的苏州园林，那些风光迤逦的姑苏郊野，在张新权眼中都是历史长河中的“一瞥”、“一段”、“一瞬”。张新权承认历史变迁的无穷无尽，因此他不再追求所谓的纯真永恒，而是以放松的心态去体味心手相应的自由，去享受恣肆畅快的淋漓尽致。从这一点而言，张新权的创作却是离表象愈远而离真相愈近，离现实愈远离心灵愈近。
——赵力（中央美术学院教授）
Historical Perspective
Born in 1962, Zhang Xinquan is just one of those born-in-the-60s artists, enthusiastic while yearning for tenderness, ambitious but abstaining from extravagance, prudent but active in innovation. Thus, their art and life are deeply imprinted with visible “post-Utopia” culture.
The so-called “post-Utopia” is marked with historical sense, and that sense has undoubtedly extended to Zhang Xinquan’s works, most of which are obviously related to the modern history of China: some are the direct transplant of images at that time, such as “Zhongshan Vessel” painted in 2008; some others may have a more complex source, but what is expressed is still the historical sense of the scene, such as “The Metropolis Old Shanghai” in 2003, “The Tram” in 2004, and “The Suzhou River” in 2006 and so on. Outwardly, old photographs are the source of the paintings. But more than the accurate narration of the volatile social background and the ups and downs of those influential figures, Zhang intends to relate them with a more peaceful and rational atmosphere. In his eyes, distance breeds the historical sense, that is, what artists should do is not to reproduce history through works, but to form a new image with their own interpretation.
To be more specific, Zhang Xinquan strives to balance dynamically between realism and expressionism. Take “Zhongshan Vessel” as an example. Realism is to shape historical figures and create historical scenes, while expressionism is to form the structure and emotional tension of the painting. Actually, most of his works relate more to the historical sense rather than the historical event itself. The classic scenes of “old Shanghai” in “The Metropolis Old Shanghai”, “The Tram”, and “The Suzhou River”, remind audience of the Bund and the Suzhou River, which symbolize the splendid past of Shanghai, but have a visibly different situation today. With the deliberately created distance, Zhang Xinquan aims to have the historical sense, as well as to reflect the artist’s own historical concept.
Zhang Xinquan insists that reviewing the past doesn’t necessarily prevent you from moving forward, for you may come across with the characteristics of the times in your review. In other words, he is reflecting on the past, the present and the future as an individual artist, just as T.S Elliott puts it in poetics, the historical sense “is at the same time what makes a writer most acutely conscious of his place in time, of his contemporaneity.” Thus, Zhang expands his territory of works by the transition from historical sense to historical perspective.
Since 2007, Zhang Xinquan has been working on the “Vessel” series, which is connected to the earlier produced “Zhongshan Vessel” and old Shanghai-related paintings, where vessels just worked as scenes or part of the scenes. His choice of the vessels appears to be out of his persistent interest in history, as he collected numerous images from newspapers and magazines and postcards from that time, so as to reshape those vessels. Virtually, apart from the painting “Zhiyuan Vessel” produced in 2009, most of his works, which were later classified into “Vessel” series or “Sea Soul” series, given the name of “The Patrol Vessel”, “The Yacht”, “The Merchant Ship” or “Lying at Anchor”, don’t stress on some specific historical value or meaning, despite the fact that they are all about the vessels in late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. He was trying to evade portraying the vessels themselves. For instance, in “The Patrol Vessel” produced in 2007, the ship was relatively complete, surrounded by the realistically painted sea surface, surf and skyline, while in “Sea Soul No 11” and “Sea Soul No 12” in 2011, parts of the ship are prominent, with abstractly painted surroundings. Through his “Vessels” series or “Sea Soul” series, Zhang is extracting images to express his own historical perspective. What he aims at is to suggest more possibilities with expressive art forms, breaking down the boundaries of a certain narration or visual expression.
On contrary to his discussion of the past in his “Vessel” series, his latest “Landscape” series focuses more on the present. To be more concrete, the “Vessel” series probes into those covert moments in history, which are of symbolic and transitional importance rather than a mere record of the history, whereas his “Landscape” series painted after 2009, which reflects historical changes through the interaction of people and the time, is closely related to the current cultural position and social environment as a whole.
“The Sea View House”, “Sanjiang Normal College” and “Jinling Machine Factory” painted in 2009, which obviously lay special emphasis on architecture style, are slightly related to the previous series of old Shanghai. But his latest works come out in a sketch style rather than imitating old photos.
“Sanjiang Normal College” and “Jinling Machine Factory”, the symbols of the Qing government’s effort to innovate and make social changes, are often ignored in our life. They have already faded away from our sight in the historical process. In those sketch style works, Zhang Xinquan mirrors the changes of history, as well as the changes they bring to human being. “The Sea View House” demonstrates how the sketch style can create a sense of presence and cast emotions on the work. The western style old buildings by the shore, together with the sea line, are sketched with skilled perspective in the painting, where the liveliness of the style can be seen from the traces of strokes.
“There is nothing so stable as change,” as Bob Dylan puts it. Definitely, it’s also Zhang Xinquan’s style. Zhang is no advocate of what has already gone. What he is probing into is not the artificial aspect of history. In his latest “Landscape” series, he emphasizes that history is not intentioned to be determined by any individual, but is a reflection of the deep social emotions. The old town of Suzhou became the target of his investigation all because it’s the epitome of the whole China, as well as a base for artists to produce their works. In Zhang’s eyes, those classical gardens and picturesque outskirts are just a glimpse, a section or a flash in history. He recognizes the endlessness of history, so instead of pursuing the alleged purity and eternity, he thoroughly appreciates the freedom of producing skillfully. On that point, Zhang’s works are approaching truth rather than illusion, soul instead of reality.
-- By Zhao Li, a Professor in China Central Academy of Fine Arts