ZHOU TIEHAI

In an old warehouse beside Suzhou Creek a 36-year-old artist, originally from Jilin, works in a lofty studio whose great beamed ceiling dwarfs the two and a half meter canvasses propped against the wall. Zhang Enli, a graduate of the Arts and Design Institute of Wuxi University and currently lecturing in the Art and Design Institute of Shanghai Donghua University, has exhibited his work over the last decade in exhibitions in China, Japan, Sweden and the Netherlands and last year had solo exhibition, 'Dancing,' at the ShanghArt Gallery.

"Art is not a factory", he says. It is the result of a thought process; if you stop at any one stage you will be in trouble. Successful artists worldwide have a broad vision of life and art; they don't become stranded in a narrow range of expression. He works from memory and imagination and feels that, for an artist, the subject must change at different stages. Some artists' works is almost like a 'logo'-their work is instantly recognizable. "It's more about the angle you're looking for. I have been constantly changing my angle." To be a 'logo' artist is to stop developing, the 'logo' becomes acceptable to the market and stifles development.

He considers that 'isms' have, to some extent, strangled artistic expression here. Critics and gallery owners like to have a label such as realism or expressionism to promote as a package and too often artists oblige.

Good artist look ahead of their own time and don't merely reflect what is fashionable. Much contemporary art, he feels, is market-driven and influenced by commercial concerns. The price a painting fetches has become a replacement for the true value of art. Whoever makes the most money is perceived to be the most successful artist.

He admits that he's not likely to starve to death but sees no reason to ever make commercial compromises in his art. 'Stick to what you know' is a phrase that sums up his approach. In the 90's many good artist all of a sudden gave up painting and experimented with other media but, he considers, didn't deepen their original thinking or develop their own style.

He prefers to use one constant medium, oils, and sees no reason why a classical medium can't express modern thoughts. The pictures I saw feature strong, powerful figures smoking, eating, drinking, dancing, kissing.

He has considered trying sculpture. His voluptuous, powerful, strongly-delineated figures have a very sculptural quality, but he prefers to stick to what he does best. When trying to express something you feel deeply about or are very familiar with through an unfamiliar medium, there is bound to be a gap between vision and execution. Excursions into new media are not necessarily liberating if all you continue to do is make the same point.

Of course, it is important not to put any limit to the types of media used for artistic expression, it all exists. It just, in his opinion, depends on the skill of the individual.

Anxious to avoid the kind of popular cultural questions like East versus West or post-colonialism he looks for the common threads of humanity. Trying to figure out what is 'east' and what is 'west' can just get in the way of an artist's vision. He compares some artistic approaches to fashion: one year a certain style is trendy, the next year it's something else. He wants to get rid of the clothes and paint naked human nature.

Would he ever do anything else? "If I had to choose another life I'd probably study architecture." In the early 90's he designed a couple of small projects for finds an outlet for this interest now in teaching interior and environmental design.

"The reason I choose to paint is because I am in control. The architect of a big project needs to co-operate with others and compromise is inevitable. Choosing to be an artist is choosing to live a simple life."

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电话 Tel: (86-21) 6359 3923 e-mail: shangart@uninet.com.cn 传真 Fax: (86-21) 6359 4570

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ShanghART at Park 97, 2A Gaolan Rd. 上海皋兰路2号甲 200020 Shanghai, P.R. China

电话 Tel: (86-21) 6359 3923 E-mail: shanghart@shanghart.com 传真 Fax: (86-21) 6359 4570