21世纪的水墨与焦虑——著名画家张江舟的人文主义情怀

人类图像学研究-超象｜纸本水墨｜130cm x 130cm 2019

Two works deserve mention. Research on Human Imagery. Boundary 130 x 130 cm from 2019 seems to be an experimental work, but it is a disturbing image in black and white of a tightly clustered row of figures, heads all cast down with hands clasped around their heads, so that it is hard to know what is going on, but they appear to be subjugated. They appear isolated, but bound to each other, set against a blank space above and below, forming a line of human distress and suffering. Are they standing or sitting? They appear to be squatting or bent over. Large sets of fingers are drawn almost comically, somehow drawing out emotionality, as symbols of these figures’ humanity. It is almost abstract and conceptual but clearly figurative at the same time. This work feels universal as a picture of the human condition, portrayed as timeless and transcendent.

A second work, produced in 2021, is the large-scale Haze in Spring, 200 cm x 400 cm, that exemplifies this 2021 series. In a chaotic figurative narrative, the sections have clearly depicted figures, young female figures standing out in the dark, difficult environment. A young girl wearing a mask appearing to clutch a teddy bear, walking towards the viewer, a woman to the left, with bare arms and midriff, looking down on a blurred mass, perhaps a family member succumbing to the virus. A heavily clothed but barefoot woman wearing a hat, pushing a supermarket trolley glancing towards us, with a large trainer poised bizarrely in front, blocking our line of vision. Shots of green pick out details such as a woman’s top, the girl’s hair and boots, and what appears to be a cat, so that the domestic becomes visible in a sea of uncertainty, whereby everyday life has to continue, regardless. This work is interesting in its depiction of life, perhaps extracted from scenes Zhang has observed, taken and reinterpreted into a storyline, that is fragmented but compelling.

阙·申｜纸本水墨｜130cm x 130cm 2020

阙·酉｜纸本水墨｜130cm x 130cm 2020