Essay

In Preface to Landscape Painting, the first treatise on landscape painting in the history of Chinese painting, Zong Bing, a native of the Southern Dynasty, wrote, "The husband and the sage follow the way of the gods, while the sage and the sage pass through; Landscape to form Mei road, and the benevolence of music. Isn't it almost?" The shape of mountains and rivers is regarded as the expression of "Tao". The Tao learned by the wise, understood by the wise and enjoyed by the virtuous are presented in a natural state among mountains and rivers. Even across thousands of years, this way is still passed down through the generations of art. However, how to let the viewer's mind wander in the landscape painting requires the artist to establish a spiritual relationship with the landscape, and to express the spiritual image of the landscape through his keen observation and skilled painting techniques. Looking at Zhang Li's works, we can easily be brought into the picture and enjoy the landscape created by the artist. Zhang Li 's landscape paintings are mostly created by ' Pingyuan ' perspective, using a painting method that is used as a ' hand scroll ' advocated by painters in the Tang and Song Dynasties, that is, close-up presentation. This painting method appears in Zhao Qian 's ' early snow on the river ' and Guo Xi 's ' autumn mountain and river '. However, on the basis of this painting method, Zhang Li once again narrowed the distance, quite a sense of local amplification, and this creative perspective is formed by chance in her creation process. In the use of brush and ink, she constructs "simplicity" with "complexity", and the rich brush and ink permeates her understanding and interpretation of the spirit of "simplicity" in Song paintings. In some of his works, Zhang Li uses a rhythm of "stopping" to deal with the transition between heavy and light ink. This combination of "real" and "virtual" in a work in an "opposite" way can also be regarded as the artist's experimental breakthrough in techniques under the framework of traditional painting. The use of "hard lines" similar to charcoal sketches in the works makes the line sense of ink painting different from the traditional ink painting. However, it needs to be emphasized that in the context of contemporary art, "admiration for ancient" is not "imitation of the old", but perhaps "knowledge of the new". "World Zen" Suzuki Dachu's teacher, Buddhism, once wrote a poem saying, "People have red and yellow and black and white, and there is no north, south, west and east. Don't believe look at the day last month, clear light thorough too empty." We should get rid of the stereotype brought by formalism and feel the way of landscape through Zhang Li's works.

About the artist

Zhang Li, Born in Wuhan, Hubei Province, Graduated from Hubei Institute of Fine Arts, Master of Arts in Chinese painting, Currently living and working in Wuhan
Her Recent exhibition since include: "Shi Zuo: Summer Exhibition,” Fine Arts Literature Art Center, Wuhan; “Tenderness in Fine brush: Women's claborate-style painting Exhibition,” Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen；“Chinese Ink Painting Exhibition: A Selected Collection of Chinese Ink Paintings from Fine Arts Literature magazine,” Wuhan Art Museum，Wuhan，etc.