内容提要
ZHOU YINGCHAO OR THE SPECTER OF VISUAL PLEASURE
BY ANTE GLIBOTA
周颖超-形形色色的视觉愉悦
安特•格利博达
ZHOU YINGCHAO OR THE SPECTER
OF VISUAL PLEASURE
It seems that the Chinese painter Zhou Yingchao, throughout his artistic career, as throughout his life, has pursued a well-structured passage through the themes that have concerned him and that he has not abandoned until all the many aspects of their specter have found a convincing and lucid expression in his art as well as in his life. He seeks clarification in the labyrinths of life that are stripped away as and when he reduces his images to a minimum of line and texture in a chromatic spectrum of telling irony. Yet he finds in art that density of life: it is his humanity, his simplicity, his joyfulness, even his modesty - without restraint - that allow him to realize the equilibristic, pure and dignified destiny of an artist in his own time. Zhou Yingchao can never be easily placed into a single category. As a pragmatist, he has sought to follow his inclinations that have tended towards a certain figuration. It is at times very expressive, at other times a surrealist form of garish fluidity or, from time to time, developing into abstract or indeed abstractive forms or extending into synthetic drawings or hyperrealist paintings in which forms are handled in masses and volumes that are then suspended in the vibrant tension of the creative space.
His early works, already full of figurative references, through their expressive formal conception, show a great sensitivity for the treatment of the subject and for the composition of the canvas; also there is a subtlety perceptible on the canvas that hints at a culture of an assertive brushstroke. These elements are particularly interesting to note in this context as it is not until much later that he received a formal art education. In fact, he had already created a number of significant works almost fifteen years prior to joining the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing from which he graduated in 1989. Thus Zhou Yingchao illustrates perfectly the words of Henri Matisse, who said that “a painter becomes whole in his early paintings.” 1
His objective, simplicity in the composition and use of pictorial spectrums denotes a certain artistic maturity. His primary goal is to follow a logical path of simplifying the means and of reducing his forms so intensively and convincingly that they maintain their full meaning throughout these gradual changes and as his creative venture becomes apparent.
In fact, his art reveals an evolutionary aspect in the form and sensitivity that through each of its creative cycles remains very solidly structured. The artist clearly rejects any linearity or the singular pursuit of an artistic or commercial success. Zhou Yingchao’s creative process is one of meditating on the form and on the subject, of composing in terms of successive steps, in terms of creative series, so as to attain a serene atmosphere in which the work, indeed the series as a whole, can have a tangible impact on the viewer. The artist actually reigns in his creative verve and thus opens the way for the transfiguration of the viewer’s sentiments and for his visual pleasure, refusing to accept the convenience or to align himself with and reinforcing fashionable trends or the “avant garde” of the moment. Zhou Yingchao is not one to follow the media, the popular art reviews or television news, the mere mention of which elicits an ambiguous smile that clearly shows just how passionately he despises.
His only concern is to create works that bring a new sensibility to the art of a country that has been cut off from the world of the arts and cast into a sort of position of self sufficiency and artistic mutism for many decades.
However, he emphatically asserts his membership in the Chinese millennial tradition which he has insorbed by studying its history, its art and architecture, its artifacts and applied arts, its literature and poetry. This consideration for his own civilization in the light of an interpretation of the past enables Zhuo Yingchao, through an audacious approach, to recognize the essence of our times and our contemporaneity with even greater percipience. Without abusing “historical consciousness”, without torturing his moral senses, without any incipient cautiousness Zhuo Yingchao undertakes the resurgence of his own creativity in such a cursive transition to modernity that only a very careful study will reveal the actual steps and sources of inspiration. He thus participates almost naturally in the genesis of a new approach and a new mode of expression that assumes importance without pretention and in utmost serenity. He thereby assures for himself a sense of participation in the evolution of history, of playing an active role that surpasses the duration and importance of his own life, since history is, at the same time, a form of our conscience and a means to develop it.
Surely, who better than an artist can aspire to such an awareness of the principles and axioms that govern social life, of the major currents of thought and reflection, and obviously of their many forms, all the while seeking to discover the link that binds together all these lives, all those existences in our cosmic expanse.
THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTIONARY YOUTH
The birth of Zhou Yingchao2 fell into the revolutionary period in his homeland, a year and a half after the formation of the People’s Republic of China3. In fact, his family of wealthy local notables was stripped of their material possessions early on. The artist’s father, a tax official for the city of Xuzhou was indicted by the new government and forced to flee in order to escape imprisonment.
The first years of the artist’s life were marked by the increasing material difficulties and by the poverty of a family of four children that was soon to grow when another two little girls were born after Zhou Yingchao. In light of the post-revolutionary unrest, the situation of the family was neither good nor prone to improve. Zhou Yingchao’s father, an tax officer of the former government, had also been a collector of works of art, of paintings, antique ceramics and antique furniture, calligraphy and illustrated manuscripts, all of which he had selected with very sure taste. The large family house with garden and pool, was completely filled with art objects that the family was forced to sell after 1949 in order to survive. Remains of the collection was then burned or broken under the famous order of Mao Tse Tung at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, that put forth the famous call for the destruction of the “Four Ancients”: the ancient costumes, the ancient culture, the ancient customs and the ancient ideas”. This constituted an instance of culturicide unprecedented in the history of mankind.4
Zhou Yingchao5 remembers well that he and his sisters were forced to burn, for a good half-day, these precious objects, paintings, ceramics and pieces of antique furniture that their father had collected with an infinite patience for forty years of his life.6
From birth, Zhou Yingchao had been surrounded by works of art and their physical presence has facilitated his journey towards the arts when the family atmosphere stimulated and solicited one’s attention to those artworks and when the simple act of opening one’s eyes could trigger that alchemy of the environ.
His choice to opt for an artistic vocation however played out at yet another time. It was on that fateful day when Zhuo Yingchao paid his first visit to primary school, on that first moment when he discovered the blackboard on the wall and the magic of the chalks in the delicate hands of his teacher. When the teacher took the chalks and began writing and drawing on the blackboard, she appeared enchanted and Zhuo Yingchao felt that radiant force, that opening power that he still remembers today. The child that he was, he was struck by that magical gesture that generated a whole proliferation of designs accompanied by pictograms, and that was then explained in the soft voice of the teacher whose beauty was revealed in a delicate body. That moment has forever left an indelible imprint on the young student who decided on the spot and at that very moment to become an artist.
Since Zhou Yingchao has mentioned this immutable recollection numerous times over the years, there is no room for doubt about the significance of this moment and the artist’s commitment to this decisive moment in his destiny as a painter.
The anecdote also finds confirmation in the realization of a magnificent, exquisitely sensitive work titled “My Teacher”, that the artist created in 2006 in lasting memory of his teacher7. The picture, painted from memory fifty years later, seems like a tribute to the beautiful schoolteacher and her fascinating smile. Immersed in a swirling sky, her face is radiating from under a certain fogginess as she changes into a cloud and the intensity of the feelings of the artist, half a century later, still remain very much alive.
Then began Zhou Yingchao’s uninterrupted companionship with pen, ink, colors, paper and pencils with which he never has parted. The father also strongly encouraged the vocation of his son, who also proved to be a very good student, although his sense of discipline was somewhat lacking. Support also came from his teachers who, despite his lively and playful behavior, affirmed the artistic vocation of their student and provided him with the necessary encouragement.
These years of primary school occurred during a particularly difficult time. It was the period of the Great Leap Forward and of the Mass Steelmaking Movement8 so harmful to the environment, as trees were cut down in mass to feed the blast furnaces deployed in every Chinese village to double the steel production. Furniture, even entry doors were removed to keep the fires in the mills going. Zhou Yingchao remembers that he was forced to remove their water heater and various household utensils to have them melted down at the local mill in order to fulfill Mao’s plan. Starvation was another scourge that made life unbearable. Canteens were installed in the streets; long queues formed in search of food; death awaited many people. These dramatic moments of the revolutionary era remain deeply etched into the artist’s memory.
The transition from primary school to middle school happened at the famous Xuzhou School No. 1 where Zhou Yingchao received for the first time a consistent and coherent art education and systematic monitoring. His teacher, Mr. Yu Jian, was a renowned artist, educated at Nanjing Normal University, whose teaching methods were both exciting and well structured. He even gave homework during the summer that the young Yingchao happily accepted. Zhou Yingchao remembers that he was so happy to work with his teacher that “sometimes I forgot the hunger; while I was painting I forgot that I had not eaten.” At the end of his studies, he was awarded a price for his efforts and for his piece “Pear and Apple”. The reward was a book by the famous professor of the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, Mr. Wu Zuoren, “A Guide to Oil Painting”, a work that significantly expanded his interest in that discipline.
During the summer of 1966, Zhou Yingchao, along with his friends Li Guangcai and Zhang Jingyang, began copying in its entirety the famous book by Bridgman9 with over five hundred illustrations. The copying of this book gave him comfort and confidence and propelled him into a more personal realm, particularly since the young artist felt at ease with his creative means. This element did reflect his sense of commitment and let him put into practice the advice of his professors with whom he felt a profound communion of mind, as well as the freedom to express himself in creative independence.
But just at the time when Zhou Yingchao felt that first breath of artistic freedom the Great Cultural Revolution commenced on a course that would change substantially his life as a man and his life as an artist. The city of Xuzhou occupied a special place in all of China during the Cultural Revolution. Real battles with real weapons, between different factions of Red Guards were fought there, and in its streets events of great violence occurred. With schools closed, Zhou Yingchao decided to travel across China. He became a Red Guard, and since transport was free, he made his first trip to Shaoshan in Hunan province, the hometown of Chairman Mao, where “the red sun will rise.” Yet the young Red Guard remained an artist who engaged in sketching and drawing with great voracity. After Shaoshan he went on to Shanghai and finally got to meet Mao Tse Tung in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. He has said that he still remembers that experience today with such emotions: “I chanted like a madman ‘Long live Chairman Mao’ and he responded to us with a salute. He appeared to me like a giant next to Lin Biao, who was quite small.” 10
Returning to Xuzhou after crossing China, Zhou Yingchao finally put his artistic talent to use in designing revolutionary posters aiming at encouraging debate among the Red Guards “leading the battle against capitalism.” Upon becoming the editor of various
journals and newspapers, he was also put in charge of composing the huge banners and posters that inundated the city. Through their artistic and visual strength, these posters became so popular that he eventually was elevated to an even more important position when he was named publicity officer for the revolutionary committees of the city of Xuzhou. He now was a central figure and a very popular one among the hierarchy of the Red Guards, but he also became a prime target in the struggle between the various Red Guard camps and factions. An army battalion seized the city and many buildings came under attack. During the fighting, Zhou Yingchao was seriously injured and remained in a coma for several days. He then began a long convalescence while hidden in the countryside and was later evacuated to Nanjing.
During that time, he painted hundreds and hundreds of murals throughout the city that reflected his revolutionary spirit. But the revolutionary fervor was so intense in Xuzhou, that when the Red Guards seized the ammunition depot of Jiulishan, an order was issued in Beijing to teach them a “corrective lesson”. The young revolutionary was shipped off to a coal mine where he encountered other “capitalist” students and “bad individuals”. The hard work in the mine was accompanied by “free” time spent cleaning toilets and city streets. This regimen continued until the plane of Lin Biao crashes in Mongolia.11
THE FIRST PAINTINGS
Starting in 1971, Zhou Yingchao began working as a graphic designer for the Xuzhou Bureau of Commerce, where his creative work was so much appreciated that he was given a similar position in the Nanjing Bureau of Commerce. Apart from this creative design work he completed numerous gouaches and drawings and even some paintings, but few of the works from these complicated years have been saved. “Red Candle ”is an important painting of that period. In the center of the picture the artist has placed several historic political figures in China, Chen Duxiu, Xiang Jingyu, Qu Qiubai, Li Dazhao and Mao Tse Tung. The work shows a remarkable compositional confidence in its rhythm of colors where distant dark tones come together and in the way the painter handles light and space with such harmony and masterful ease. His concern for form and detail now became an ever-present creative element. “Red Candle” was created when the artist was barely twenty years old, but this same obsession with precision has continued through his most recent works carried out in 2011.
This first period in his formative years was marked by a strong imprint of sculptural metaphors with figurative reminiscences whose references are reduced from the outset to take into account inhabited space and the quality of the architectural environment.
One also notes that his early doubts did not paralyze him but instead were a way of externalizing his instincts, thereby concentrating his efforts and his solitude while faced with the emergence of a work, as in a fight and a dialogue between conscience and object, between conscience and the emerging work, an abstract notion of reality. One cannot ignore that, throughout his early works, the artist clearly demonstrated that the plentitude of his art was also the result of his experiences, his memories and of assimilations that were, however, related to his own imagination and evocation.
A series of gouaches from 1976 including “Study for Heroic Soul”, that are quite free in their expression, also reflect the comings and goings between form and space that create an ambient joyfulness in which the artwork exercises its visually engendered vibrations. An even greater maturity appears in works such as “Red Eggs” of 1977, a very classical still life in which the artist shows his youthful virtuosity, or in “Portrait of Wife” of 1981. Zhou Yingchao gets to the truth required by the rigor of a still life through an innate geometric shape that has the inexplicable substantiated and decrypted. The play of light, the rhythm of shadows, the delicacy of touch, the balance of color, everything is as it should be. Although Chinese art at that time seemed to be under the influence of the Russian Academy, this work demonstrates that Zhou Yingchao had set himself off from the model of ‘the big brother’. The individual freedom that comes from art was what Yingchao wanted to demonstrate at a time when Chinese art seemed beset by a certain ideological vacuum and confusion. With on the one hand the presence of an ossified academia and on the other hand the advent of various forms of expressionism, the authenticity of Zhou Yingchao’s work and its undeniable quality, proven over time in the consistency of his artistic journey and through his sense of creativity, demonstrated in this phase of his early artistic youth that he indeed could challenge the future and all that lied ahead.
The chronology at the end of the book outlines the various phases and creative interests that have emerged in Zhou Yingchao’s life between 1970 and 1986. Thus they need not be elaborated in greater detail here. Those elements that are identified with precision in the chronology attest to the complexity of this journey and the multitude of interests that Zhou Yingchao has pursued and lived as an artist and a researcher throughout his professional career. But it is obvious to us that his real focus is on painting. Although Zhou Yingchao has explored other artistic disciplines that would have allowed him to follow an easier path, his main venue indeed remains painting.
A series of earlier works as well as works created between 1984 and 1986, including “New Fourth Army Veteran Ye Qing Yao, ” “Moon”, his self-portrait “Portrait” of 1984 and “Old Man”, “Water Town” or “Girl by the Window”, clearly show that the artist was in full command of his creative means and expressed himself with real verve. He mastered his métier by protecting his work from any academic control, maintaining a fine balance between the urge for free form, a certain lyrical fancy and his inner desire to preserve the precision of form and the equilibrium of the canvas.
ACADEMY - WHAT FOR?
It was precisely at this moment, after the artist had already established himself, in fact with a high degree of freedom of expression manifested in an equally distinguished creative freedom, that, in 1986, he easily passed the examination and entered the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (CAFA)12. The Academy attracts the interest of tens of thousands of students who try every year to cross its threshold because the school offers such a high level of teaching and learning. When Zhou Yingchao decided to venture down this road, it was probably because he wished to gain greater technical knowledge for himself, more than anything else that he had already acquired before entering CAFA. The institution of CAFA still remained under the influence of the Russian academy model, an academism that can still be found today and that often stifles the creative spirit. Nevertheless, one must acknowledge that with a sound technical background a talent can more easily blossom. Even if the technique is not an essential component, and its excesses can be just as harmful, it is clear that many students today come from the Academy without knowing how to draw; nor do they possess the minimum of technical skills necessary for the realization of complex works.
The time of admission of Zhou Yingchao into CAFA corresponded with a very fruitful period of development and of new ideas in the Chinese art scene. New art movements, indeed a new avant garde appeared during the decade of 1980 to1990, which were also the years of China’s opening to the outside world. The emergence of various significant trends in a country of great culture and civilization in general also had a transforming effect on the global scene by propelling China into a leading position in terms of artistic creativity.
The results of his stay at CAFA can be seen very clearly in a series of works that include “Sitting Woman” (1987), “A Young Man” (1988), “Standing Woman”, “Nudity in Studio”, “Two Women” and “Women in Costume” (all from 1988), “Woman in Green Cloth” (1989) and reflect what one might consider to be the academic canons.
As soon as he left CAFA in 1990, a new freedom of tone and inventiveness became immediately discernable. The artist then began a series of works entitled “Liaozhai” that is very expressive, rich in material, and on which he worked until 1996. This series overlapped with another one entitled “Farewell My Concubine” whose surrealist inspiration brings forth the grand themes born out of a spiritual afflation based on his intellect and transformed into a unique artistic vision.
One becomes aware that Zhou Ying Chao employs a system of reflection prior to the gestation and creation in order to clarify the precise idea of conceiving the works before moving to their exact and careful realization with an absolute vicissitude of expression that is needed to create a work with intrinsic, true dignity. The painting that changes appearances unveils the mysteries of germination and turns them uniquely into a magnificence of light. The image has long been the only witness to human captivity, its reality, structure and appearances, when one goes beyond appearances. The preparatory drawings, sketches, models and scraps of paper are essential before embarking on a creative environmental test, for controlling the emotion, for not being mistaken for scale, for making the obvious. One gets the sense that Zhou Yingchao has settled in time, while analyzing the time in which movement and line open and close, while perpetuating the ongoing rhythms and seeking new directions and new ideas without excluding anything.
If the artist turns to surrealist expression and insists on creating magical objects without concern for formalism, but rather works that exist in the surreal, one cannot always identify them in their ambiguity that comes about as an element of spiritual freedom. This surrealist phase reminds us of certain works in the same genre by Max Ernst and of course Joan Miró that have a more “solid” countenance.
While Zhou Ying Chao had chosen to create his early works in small formats, it is obvious that as and when he turned to seemingly monumental canvases, at times extending over ten or eleven meters, they required of course an extended gestation, both in terms of preparation and realization. At times a series is simplified and structured thematically, so that it can also be considered a single unit. But for the artist the creative impulse by which he achieves the work and through which he inculcates intellectually remains the essential element. Sometimes, while reducing his means of expression, Zhou Yingchao also diversifies his vocabulary by infusing into his work a dramatization that leaves a strong visual impression, accentuating the inner rhythm by means of color. Here he takes into account the ways in which ordinary people are tempted by the assimilation of Chinese cultural and civilizatory elements to achieve a metamorphosis, and that to which they relate.
The rhythm and analogy, the quality of space, the perception and difference, the unity that is realized at the center, may well be the canons of his individual expression.
During this period, while under the strong influence of surrealist ideas, Zhou Yingchao insisted on the possibility of a narrative in his work, indeed on multifarious readings as evidenced in the painting “A Dream In The Summer” from 1997, where he takes us into a world permeated by deconstructionist ideas through composition and re-composition of virtualized images. He does capture something essential by creating a fluid and surreal composition, putting in scene a stratagem of ambivalent interpretation, the ascent or disappearance of an urban hybrid framework, through an imagery that becomes lodged in our memory and where poetry and irony are called for.
It is also important to note that for each new phase he does engage in serious research. His series “Farewell My Concubine” is the follow-up of the earlier sequence “Goddess of Flowers” of which most works have disappeared; so as a consequence, we have little to go on. However, they do reveal the spirit of the artist who has explored the four canons of feminine beauty in China during the Qin and Han dynasties. We know that Zhou Yingchao researched the story of Concubine Yu and Conqueror Xiang Yu and their relationships with horses; he did immerse himself in the novels, poems and historical essays and even went to the tomb of Concubine Yu in Anhui Province, in order to deepen his knowledge before embarking on the series of works he entitled “Farewell My Concubine”.
He confronted a similar issue in Chairman Mao’s relationship with women. Zhou Yingchao has retained a great admiration for Chairman Mao. So before starting to paint Mao together with women, he read his memoirs and several history books so as to draw on reputable sources before entering the “soul” of Mao, who has been the subject of a number of portrait paintings from his early childhood until today. The artist also engaged in a serious investigation into the Chairman’s life by visiting his hometown to make sketches and to absorb the atmosphere of his environment. When wondering what Mao’s reaction would be if he saw today’s reality TV show “Super Girls”– would he approve of it? - Zhou Yingchao gleefully and confidently replied: “It is impossible that Mao would ever be angry with women; he was always good with women.”
His interest in the representation of women throughout the centuries in China also led him on an exploratory journey to Zhuxianzhen in Henan province, famous for its paintings from the Song Dynasty, then to Tijian in the province of Yangliuqing, known for its collections of paintings from the Ming dynasty, and finally to Mianzhu in Sichuan Province where he familiarized himself with historical hair styles, traditional clothing, decorative costumes, ceramics, etc.. In fact, the artist has reached into his creative depths to find the most representative form so as not to copy but to transpose it into a modern proposition and thereby preserving that Chinese spirit and what he likes to call “in peace and harmony”.
Zhou Yingchao, better than anyone, expresses his ideas and motivations through his choice of women as his main subject and by saying: “Whatever changes will take place in the world, women will always be the beautiful landscape. Chinese women are beautiful and elegant, serene and graceful, as Chinese traditions would have them, and yet they endure such humiliation and bear such a heavy burden. When I look at these women it is like seeing the sun rise in the East; it warms my heart and fills my life with vitality.”
In 2000, Zhou Yingchao returned to the portraiture of women who now became his favorite subject in all his creative cycles throughout the new Millennium. He admits that in his urge to paint feminine beauty, the masterpiece of mother nature. His only concern is the fear of not having sufficient means to express, through his act of painting, all the attractiveness and beauty of women. He is fearful of not being able in his renderings to do justice to that divine grace of nature, and not being able to faithfully reproduce what the gods have given to women.
Thus in the series “Beauty” Zhou Yingchao offers us delicate, sensitive, graceful works that have within them the trace of an ancient old diagram. The artist takes recourse to the use of traditional floral elements or calligraphic texts, while instilling in them a modern spirit, sometimes permeating his paintings with a Pop Art note that gives them an untarnished delicacy and vivacity. Among the works from this period, one can distinguish “Fish 1” and “Fish 2” from 2001, in which the refined delicacy of the clothing allows one to conceive the sensitivity of the nude through a transparency, expertly executed in what seems like two steps that the artist realizes with extraordinary mastery. Expressing the same power, “War 1937” is the portrait of a young woman who is marked with a white stain, looking forlorn and sad, and who represents one of the victims of the horrible Sino-Japanese war, whose crimes and ritual violence perpetrated by the Japanese army in the province of Jiangsu, as well as the infamous Nanjing massacre are still fresh in our memories, and quite naturally in that of Zhou Yingchao, a native of this region. In recalling these facts, emotions still overcome the artist who says philosophically: “Forgive, yes, but forget, never.” Indeed art can mitigate the misery that sometimes besets mankind.
Beginning in late 2006, the artist in a way reappeared, both in the scale of his works but also through new creative ideas that were to change the perception of his artistic work. Well-defined series emerged, sometimes performed in sequence and carrying a great visual appeal and a genuine creative force. His formats changed significantly and suddenly we find ourselves facing a different artist who, while retaining the sensitivity of expression of his earlier periods, takes a new departure and implements a new vision.
The reality in these new works is both materialistic and photographic, as the artist takes on quite easily a new flashy vision of Pop Art culture, renewing a sensitive approach to urbanity that springs from those aggressively lit urban landscapes and putting human desire on canvas. Yet his painting remains meditative, originating from serious reflection. Given the richness of the fabric and the profusion of colors, the artist transmits his emotions and engages in a dialogue with his subjects as well as with himself. His painting has all the energy of an accomplished and sensitive draftsman, The outlines of the figures are accented with variegated colors that underscore the ambiguity and seductive aspect of his painting. The approach is decidedly that of a modern painter, but one who has not forgotten the millennial Chinese traditional civilization whose visual models he explores in pursuit of a powerful Pop Art, bringing to the viewer, through this affiliation, a relevant visual impact and the message of his art.
The series of paintings “Beauty1” to “Beauty 8” confirm this attitude. Painted in a medium size (142 x 110cm), the images are modulated chromatically, transformed through color, representing a socio-psychological glance, but at the same time an exploration of the power and energy of color in our daily and aesthetic fields of vision. In this series, Zhou Yingchao proves that he is a modern artist par excellence, although his positions are sometimes misunderstood by both his critics as well as by some of his colleagues.
Another series of major importance, entitled “Gateway”, was produced in 2007-2008. Zhou Yingchao painted some twenty works featuring a famous portal that was already present in Chinese architecture during the feudal era. This construction of wood, stone or a combination of both materials, was erected in honor of individuals of total virtue such as generals of armies or virtuous widows walled up in solitude over the memory of their husbands who had died in battle. By superimposing young contemporary women over this imagery, the artist issues a clear and unambiguous message about the perception of women at that time. The Song (960-1279), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties were particularly attached to the rule of chastity and Zhou Ying Chao frees women from this burden through his visual gesture. Almost as a kind of revenge for this period he puts forth a jubilantly released vitality. Again, the artist shows great artistic and architectural refinement in his representation of one of the famous gates of the Anhui, Belhi or Zhuge Liang Provinces that reappears on his canvas as an essential element of a very contemporary artistic creativity.
The visual dynamics generated by these portals and alluring women clearly demonstrate that a work of art is not merely an animation of volume through inquiry. It is a resonance of the masses towards the environment that the artist integrates and condenses, thus allowing the viewer to retread the path of the visible and of the spiritual, offering a new vision and an encounter between the artist and his universe with an imagination unshackled.
From 2007 to 2009, the artist created a number of true masterpieces in his series “Peony Wealth” and the new, unusual series called “China’s Auspicious-Musician”, “China’s Auspicious Gold-Lock, “China’s Auspicious-3” and “China’s Auspicious-2”, all executed with extraordinary mastery and meditative profundity and revealing the richness of his art as the result of his research, his memories and his assimilations, that, while still retaining precision, establish a connection between his own imagination and the evocation of his works in a harmony of stupendous colors.
One finds the same inspiration in that great composition “512 Earthquake” of 2008, where the artist devoted himself to the drama of the earthquake in Sichuan Province. Zhou Ying Chao depicted the tragedy after extensive probing and achieved a work of exceptionally expressive symbolism. One can read the emotions in the five separate images that are at the same time perfectly unified - images of the dignity and solidarity that is shared by all of civil society and all social classes as they face tragedy, which is unfortunately quite common in centuries of Chinese history with the occurrence of major floods, earthquakes or even the Sars disease. The Chinese artist is thus also called upon to offer, within all this pain, a fantasy because, according to Hegel, “beauty is the essence achieved; the act conforms with its purpose, and identified with it is the force that unfolds harmoniously under our eyes, within our existences, and that erases itself the contradictions of its nature: happy, free, full of serenity in the midst of suffering and pain ... The good is the harmony sought, beauty is the harmony achieved.”
In another series on Polo, he carried out a large replica of a famous work by Han Gan from the period of the Tang Dynasty; the original is at the Museum of Taipei, and was formerly in the collection of the Forbidden City in Beijing. Here again Zhou Yingchao clearly confirms that we are dealing with an artist endowed with great creative powers and riches, who has the creative capacity and broad knowledge to join together the sentiments for art and beauty with an innate sense for the links that bind the times. In the series “Polo”, the artist expresses the dizzying speed of motion through delicate drawing, sometimes juxtaposed with color fields on the edges or sides and accentuating the effect of the colors through a delicate transparency and at times stylized symmetries, thus creating a vibrant and unexpected ensemble in which the speed of motion in sport resurfaces. The artist renders the competitive tension omnipresent among the horses whose excitement energizes the canvas. An exceptional painting, and certainly one to remember, is also “Run Into The Madam Of Guo Kingdom” after a work by Zhang Xuan of the Tang Dynasty. It is a recomposed replica based on a work by that artist, that Zhou Yingchao has transposed in an amazing fashion to the polo field.
The spirit of sports brings us to golf through a recent media event. Zhou Yingchao, in effect, staged the Last Supper scene with Tiger Woods as the main protagonist in a cathartic drawing that lets the imagination run free and somehow exorcises the past. This imagery is the projection of a compressed environment of symbols that carry with them sudden sequences of sex, violence, desire and fear but at the same time lack neither detachment nor humor. Also in this series devoted to golf, Zhou Yingchao recomposes literary poems from the poetry of the monk Hongrent that glorifies the beauty of life. Zhou Yingchao scatters the poems over different parts of the painting, restoring the chromatic relationship with a delicate transparency and, at times, through stylized geometrized symmetries and geometric forms, resulting in a vibrating assemblage.
In 2010 and 2011, the artist created a remarkable series of portraits of Gong Li, icon and favorite actress of director Zhang Yimou. Zhou Yingchao has chosen to draw on a scene from his film “Curse of the Golden Flower ”, together with another actress Ruan Lingyu, who was a leading figure in the Shanghai film scene and immortalized by the famous film“ Love and Duty”.
Finally, another exceptional portrait in 2010 was devoted to Ivica Todorić. The delicacy of the treatment and compositional architecture of the canvas, executed in sketching, drawing and gouache, predispose the complexity of the preparatory process necessary to achieve the realization of a work of such intricacy and magic. A keen sense of observation and the power of the message generate a resonance that emanates from these essential works in all aspects of creativity.
During the most recent period, between 2010 and 2011, Zhou Yingchao also began a series of calligraphic works by turning to the remarkable wealth of China’s artistic heritage. These works, marked by the originality of the approach and the refined method, were undertaken with extreme caution. In this last series, Zhou Yingchao adopted a spontaneous variation of biomorphism that in itself constitutes an eruptive energy endowed with a new language full of promise. As if in a summer dream, the artist has created works of remarkable splendor and vigor of which “Chinese Spirit 2”, “Chinese Spirit 3” and “Chinese Spirit 4” with their golden background and vigorous graphics superimpose two worlds in search of union, one vast, abstract and voluptuous, the other more concrete, determined by graphic elements, but nevertheless transparent and spirited. The calligraphic curves follow each other, accented by a succession of straight lines that overlap through repetition, and launch an imagination of matter propelled into fathomable space, as a shared object, evoking the subjectivity and objectivity of a work of art to define what emerges from an idea.
Rhythmic saturation causes a movement of fusion, favoring spatial articulation. Impenetrable masses, floating, emit a hint of presence, despite the strength of the tension on the canvas, due to the dynamic articulation and the vitality of the gestural essence. The gestural rhythm is related to the verticality, the monochromy of the surface of the canvas, expressing also a metaphysical anguish that rises to the heavens, ordained in a musical rhythm and bearing a new myth. This series of works with its vibrant spaces and inner energy speaks to the eye through the rhythmic subtle sequences in the monochrome base of the surface in its shades of gilded bronze, radiating a sensual power stemming from a growing spiritual perfection.
TO CONCLUDE: AN OPEN DOOR TO THE FUTURE
Fifty years in pursuit of art and sixty years of a life constitute a long journey, especially long if, in order to live, or simply to breathe, as Cioran14 says, we need to make the foolish effort to believe that the world or our concepts hold a grain of truth. It is precisely on that grain of truth that Zhou Yingchao has inscribed his own path, through abundance in scarcity, by plotting his own course, or better, drawing it on the pages of this book through his pictorial work, be it in graphics or design, illustration, ceramics or drawing, in the entire mesmerizing whole. It seems that the future will hold other revelations about this vibrant work, which might earn him another place, another look, another appreciation and esteem, in terms of his contribution to the wealth of creative ideas of his time and his plethora of inspired creativity.
Finally, we cannot ignore ZhuoYingchao’s imaginative potential, creative energy and artistry, which reached a degree of freedom that allowed for metamorphosis while maintaining a capacity for analytical criticism and a vital aesthetic dimension. The artist has a profound social sensitivity. In his youth he engaged with great emotion in revolutions and movements as an idealist whose positions and pronouncements then may, in hindsight, appear naïve. But even today, Zhou Yingchao assumes responsibility for the choices of his youth with great intellectual honesty, whatever criticisms may have been leveled and allegations raised over time in various texts.
Zhou Yingchao has never concealed his past, just as he takes on his present. Today, during difficult times, he is actively involved in charitable work, painting with the same force the distress of some and the exuberant dreams of others. The artist remains in symbiosis with the artistic traditions of the ancient culture of China, attempting to reconnect, through his act of painting, with its history and glorious past, and to build and renew, allowing a new interpretation of art, creating in the spirit of his time and extending further an enlightened page in the history of humanity.
Finally, it must be said that Zhou Yingchao has throughout his artistic life proven to possess great creative resourcefulness and enormous energy that have resulted in a large body of work, including paintings, prints, drawings, etc. It seems that even with time, his enthusiasm and energy have been exploring further every day, as evidenced by ever more new achievements.
In the essence of his work, Zhou Yingchao transmits to us that state of grace, that revelation of oneself, through the vital fluid carrying the creative energy that lives in his pictorial scripture and in his graphic vocabulary; that these symptoms are visible or invisible and providing remedies for the maintenance of the balance of the internal energy of being in its entirety. As outlined in The Book of Mutations: “There is a mixture in the influences generated by heaven and earth and the transformation of all things that occur in abundance.”
It would be pointless to note that it is not the technicality of his original approach that is the prevailing element in his artistic adventure, but the use of the unspoken that predominates, his careful consideration of where silence emerges, an unknown universe.
Ante Glibota, 2011.
1. Pierre Schneider, Matisse, Flammarion, Paris,1984, p. 27.
2. Born on February 20, 1951 in Xuzhou.
3. October 1, 1949.
4. See Chihua Wen,The Red Mirror, Children of China’s Cultural Revolution, Westview Press,Boulder,Co., 1995 .
5. Conversation of Zhou Yingchao with Ante Glibota, Hotel Beijing, Beijing, February 2, 2010.
6. The possession of such objects could lead to harassment, imprisonment, torture and even death.
7. « My Teacher», 2006, 140x110 cm, oil on canvas, private collection, see page 155.
8. Decision of the Politburo in August 1958, by which President Mao decreed that the production of steel and grain were the mainstays of economic development. However, when the project showed negative results it was quickly abandoned in 1959.
9. George Brant Bridgman, Constructive Anatomy, Dover Publication
10. Conversation of Zhou Yingchao with Ante Glibota, Hotel Beijing, Beijing, February 2, 2010.
11. September 13, 1971.
12. Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing.
13. G.W. Hegel, Esthétigue, First Edition, Librairie Germer • Bailléoe, Pairs, 1875, p.30.
14. Emil Cioran(1911-1995) Romanian Philosopher and essayist.
周颖超-形形色色的视觉愉悦
无论是在他的艺术道路中，还是在他的生活中，周颖超似乎都实现了有序的穿越。他执着地抓住各种题材，直到让各个方面都发出令人信服的反响。在艺术上和生活上都是如此。他在生活的迷宫中找寻光明，并一步步缩减画面，把线条和结构都削减到最低程度。而在展现这一切时所用的颜色，也表现出一种耐人寻味的反讽。同时，他在艺术当中也找到了生活的密度。他的人性，他的简洁，欢乐的闪光，以至于并不拘谨的谦虚，都帮助这位当代艺术家成就了他平衡、朴素而充满自尊的道路。
作为艺术家，周颖超从未满足于走一条平直的大路。他是一个实际的人，并在创作中利用自己对造型的自然爱好。有时他也走表现主义的路，使用那种带着“呼啸的粘稠”的超现实形状，甚至偶尔也会使用抽象的、乃至抽象性的画面。偶尔也会使用单线条的，或者极端现实主义的图形。他调动这些形体，让它们带着悸动的张力浮动在自己的创作空间中。
他青年时期的作品，已经带上了明显的造型特点，也表现出其对题材处理和构图极大地敏感，以及观众在画面上很容易领略到的敏锐。这一切说明他的技巧已经相当成熟。这些情况很值得一提，因为周颖超是很晚以后才受到正式的艺术教育的。从他创作第一批像样的作品到他进到中央美术学院，这期间经过了漫长的十五年。而他从中央美院毕业，已经是1989年的事。他的经历，完全证实了亨利•马蒂斯的话：“在一个画家的第一批作品中，我们已经可以看到他的全貌了”1。
他的创作倾向，构图的简洁，所用的色彩，充分表现出他在艺术上的成熟。从他的早期作品以后，无论是在手法还是形体上，他都逻辑地遵循了一条日趋简洁的路。他作品的色调日渐柔和，而他的独创性也日益突出了。
他的作品的确是不断前进的。在造型和感性上，他都表现出极其有序的创作周期。他不愿走一条直线，也不愿因为一个艺术上或商业上的成功就穷追不舍。他的创作中，不断对形式和题材进行思考，一步步地构造，一个系列一个系列的创新，使作品得到某种尊严，在整体上对观众造成视觉的冲击。在表现自己的创造力的同时，艺术家能够改变观众的情感和视觉愉悦，而不投机取巧，不追求时髦，搞什么前卫。他尤其对媒体敬而远之，不谋求在时髦艺术杂志和电视新闻里出头露面。甚至只要提起这些话题，他都会做出意味深长的一个微笑，表现出他对这一切的不屑。
他唯一的追求，是创作出新的作品，给中国的美术界带来新的艺术感受。因为过去的几十年中，与世界隔绝的中国，艺术一直自给自足，一片死气沉沉。
但是，对新形式的追求，并不排斥对过去的几千年传统的继承。周颖超通过对中国历史、美术、建筑、工艺、文学和诗歌的学习，深深汲取了古代文化的营养。对自身文明的认识和反思，使大胆思想的周颖超更清楚地认识我们所处的的当今世界的本质。一个不受“历史意识”限制，不被道德意识禁锢，不受原罪意识折磨的中国艺术家，他走的是和缓过渡的创作道路。他属于现代派，只有仔细研读，我们才能辨析其灵感的源泉和走过的路。周颖超也是这样。他当然也是推动现代思维和新的表现方式的问世的一群人当中的一个。如今，这些新思维和新方式的地位已经水到渠成地变得不可小觑。
他这样向我们说明的是，他有着参加历史前进的感觉，认为自己在其中所起的积极作用，要超过自己的一生，比自己的生命还要重要，因为历史是我们意识的一种形式，也是发展意识的一种手段。当然，谁能比一个艺术家更希望认识社会生活的这些规律和规则，主要的思想潮流呢。当然还包括形状。他们当然还希望发现，在我们的宇宙平原上，是什么把所有生命粘合在一起。
革命青年的时代
周颖超出生那一年2，正是中华人民共和国刚刚成立的时候3，他的故乡开始了轰轰烈烈的土地革命。
他们富庶的家庭很快受到了冲击，财产被没收。他的父亲在旧社会是个税务官员，因此也被新政权打倒，并且为了不坐牢，匆忙逃走他乡。
周颖超儿时的几年，家境日益艰难，尤其是已经有了四个孩子，而且在他以后很快又添了两个姑娘。因为世道不稳，窘困的家境让全家感到前景茫然。
周颖超的父亲是一个旧社会的税务官，也是一位收藏家，收藏古玩字画和古家具等等，品味极高。家里带有池塘花园的大庭院，装满了不少的古董。可是到了49年以后，家里不得不把这些东西变卖以维持生计。仅存的一部分也在66年文化大革命时砸的砸、烧的烧了。这都是为了响应****破“四旧”的口号：旧思想、旧文化、旧风俗、旧习惯。这是人类历史上前所未有的文化劫难4。
周颖超5至今仍清楚地记得他和姐妹们一起烧古董的情景。那些由父亲前半生四十年苦心积攒下来的书画、瓷器和家具6，在院子里足足烧了半天。
所以说，周颖超从小就是在艺术品当中长大的。家里浓郁的艺术氛围，对他走上艺术道路无疑提供了很大帮助。这种潜移默化的影响是非常重要的。
然而令他最终走上艺术之路的则是另外的一个时刻。这决定性的一天是周颖超入小学后的第一天。他发现了黑板，发现了老师灵巧的手拿着粉笔在上面创造的奇迹。当女老师拿着粉笔开始写画的时候，她似乎受着一种魔力的驱使。而周颖超也好像受到了这种魔力的感染，如醉如痴。当时的情景，周颖超至日仍然记忆犹新。他的眼前是那飞舞的笔下迸出的字、图、画，耳畔响着瘦弱的女教师用她那温柔的语音进行的讲解。这一场面永远地印在了小学生周颖超的心里。他当时就下定决心长大要当一名画家。
这一看似不起眼的时刻的在周颖超心目中的地位，我们从他2006年创作的一幅作品里也可以得到证明。这幅名为《我的老师》的油画，作为对他的女教师的永久回忆，充满感情，优美绝伦。这幅时隔五十年后凭记忆绘出的肖像，是对他那带着迷人微笑的美丽女教师的敬意7。那出现在回旋的彩云中的面孔，光彩迷人，人物虚化成云彩。由此可以看出，半个世纪以后，作者的感情还像当初一样强烈。
由此开始了周颖超和画笔，墨水、颜料、纸张，铅笔等陪伴下开始的漫长的艺术之旅。面对儿子的选择，父亲也积极鼓励。周颖超是一个好学生，虽然纪律上有些不尽人意。可是尽管他顽皮，仍然得到了他的老师们的支持和及时的鼓励。
他上小学时，中国正处在一个艰难时期。这是全国正在搞“大跃进”。大炼钢铁8，对环境造成了严重的破坏。因为大批树木被砍伐当了燃料。为了让钢产量翻番，全国的村子都架起小高炉。家具、门窗也都拆下来当柴烧。周颖超还记得他拆了家里的锅，拿了其他的铁件，一起送到村里的情景，以便完成毛主席布置的任务。村里开设了公共食堂，排起了等着打饭的长队。接踵而来的饥荒更让生活举日维艰。死亡开始威胁许多人的生命。革命时代这些悲惨时刻都深深地印在了周颖超的记忆里。
离开小学，周颖超上了初中，来到了徐州一中。他在这里第一次受到了系统的美术教育。他的老师虞健毕业于南京师范大学，当时已经是一位颇有名气的艺术家。这位老师手把手教他们，不但教学方法得力，而且引人入胜。他甚至给他们暑假留绘画作业，这很让青年的周颖超兴奋。他还记得他十分乐意和老师学画，有时候“甚至忘记了饿。画画高兴得连饭都忘了吃”。毕业那年，他的作品《梨和苹果》获了奖，奖品是中央美术学院的著名教授吴作人的《怎样画油画》这本书极大地开拓了他的视野，使他对美术的兴趣猛增。
1966年暑假，周颖超和朋友李广才和张景阳一起，把伯里曼那本著名的著作9整本临摹了一遍。通过摹写这本书，周颖超找到了一条更符合自己的道路，尤其是他发现了自己的创作才能。这是因为他态度认真，而且悉心听取老师们的建议。他和几位老师之间可以说是心有灵犀，同时也可以畅所欲言，维护自己的创作自由。
但是，周颖超刚刚感受到这自由的风吹起，文化大革命开始了，并把他作为普通人和艺术家的生活完全打乱了。在整个文革期间，徐州都始终扮演着一个非常特殊的角色。那里不同派系的红卫兵之间，在徐州的大街小巷，真刀真枪地进行惨烈的战斗。学校停课，学生到全国各地串联。周颖超自己也加入了红卫兵。既然坐火车免费，他于是去了湖南韶山，毛主席的故乡，“红太阳升起的地方”。但是，我们的红卫兵小将没有丢掉他的艺术。他画了大量的速写。离开韶山，他又去了上海，最后到了北京，到天安门广场见到了毛主席。直到如今，回忆起这段经历，他仍然满怀激情：“我象发了疯一样，高喊‘毛主席万岁！毛主席万岁！’毛主席向我们招手。个子不高的林彪和他站在一起。在林彪身边，毛主席简直像一个巨人10。”
走了大半个中国以后，周颖超带着满脑子的见闻回到徐州，把他的全部艺术才能都用到了革命运动上。他画宣传画，组织红卫兵大辩论，“和资本主义斗争”。他编辑报刊，把标语口号和各种宣传画贴到大街小巷。因为标语和画做得出色，所以影响很大，他当上了徐州造反司令部的宣传委员。这样他成了一个重要的人物，在红卫兵队伍里很受欢迎，但是也因此在派系斗争中成了要拿下的目标。在一次战斗中，他受了重伤，一连昏迷几天几夜。他躲到乡下开始了长期的修养，然后住进了南京的一家医院。
这一个时期，他在徐州城里的墙上画了几百幅革命宣传画。可是，徐州的革命热情也许高得过了头。当红卫兵们攻下了九里山的军火库以后，上面来了整改的命令。红卫兵小将们被送到煤窑，和走资派、大学生和坏分子一起劳动。劳动之“余”，他们清扫厕所，打扫街道。这样 一直到了林彪的飞机坠毁在蒙古的温都尔汗11。
第一批油画作品
从1971年开始，周颖超开始给徐州商业局作设计工作。因为工作得到赏识，他在南京工商局得到了一个职位。除了设计工作以外，他也画了不少铅笔画和水彩画，还有几幅油画。可是那个动荡时期的作品，基本没有保留下来。
《红烛颂》是本时期的一幅重要作品。作者描绘了中国共产党早期的几个重要人物：陈独秀；向警予，瞿秋白，李大钊和****。作品构图大胆，色彩富有韵律，深浅色调错落有致。在光线和空间的处理上，作者显得非常娴熟。在他的创作中，对形象和细节的关注从此以后就再也没有松懈过。作者创作《红烛颂》时，年纪只有二十岁，可是对精确的执着已经开始，并一直延续到2011年的最新作品中。
在这学习的第一个时期，周颖超的作品中带着强烈的视觉隐喻的印记，偶尔可见对造型的追求。但是从一开始，他就表现出对使用的空间和建筑环境质量的注意。我们还发现，初期的困惑并没有令他束手无策，而是让他的本能得以外化。周颖超独自一人，把自己的全部努力，都用于作品的创作，好像在进行一场战斗，或者意识和物体、意识和即将诞生的作品、抽象概念和现实之间的一场对话。我们要注意到，作者的早期作品证明，他的艺术的充分表达，也是他的交往、他的回忆、他的学习的结果。这些和他的想象和表现都密切相关。
包括《英雄魂》在内的1976年的一系列水粉画，手法随意，形象和空间紧密、有机地结合在一起，使作品产生一种视觉的震颤。
在1977年问世的一系列作品，如《红鸡蛋》，更显出作者的技艺愈加成熟了。这是一幅非常传统的景物，然而却表现出青年作者手法的娴熟。1981年的《妻子像》也是一样。作者参透了静物画的严格要求，通过几何形状，使不可言状的东西得到表达。那光线的运用，暗调的韵律，笔触的细腻，色彩的平衡，都非常到位。虽然这一时期的艺术整体上深受苏联学院派的影响，这些作品却显示，周颖超已经脱离了“老大哥”的模式。作者身上表现出了一定的艺术自由，虽然在这一时期，中国的艺术创作中存在着一定的意识形态空缺和混乱。一方面是病态的学院派，另一方面是即将问世的各种形式的表现主义。在这种环境下，周颖超凭借着他一贯的艺术实践，牢牢地占据了一席之地。他靠的是他的创新精神和他不容置疑的素质。在他的早期艺术实践中，他已经有他的巨大潜力。
读者从本书后面的年表已经可以充分了解周颖超从1970年到1986年间的发展脚步和兴趣，我们就无需在这里系统地介绍了。年表中详细的记载了周颖超的创造历程的复杂和他兴趣的多样。作为艺术家，作为探索者，他都不会浅尝则止，而是永不间断的发掘。但是显然他的真正的兴趣所在还是油画。即使他探索了众多其他的艺术途径，其中有些本可能成为捷径，但是他都没有偏离自己的选择。
一系列作品，包括1984年创作的如《新四军老战士叶耀卿像》，《桂林月》，《头像》，以及1986年创作的《老人像》，《水乡》和《窗前的姑娘》等，都表现出作者娴熟的手法和丰富的灵感。他已经完全脱离了学院派的禁锢。一方面是准备放弃形象，追求抒情的飞升，一方面是希望保持形象的准确和画面的平衡。他在这二者之间找到了完美的平衡。
学院的用处
1986年，周颖超已经成为成熟的艺术家，表达手法高度自由，同时具有极大地创新意识。但就在这时，他顺利地考取了中央美术学院12。每年来这里应考的学生多达几千人，因为这座学府的教学水平极高。周颖超之所以也想走这条路，无疑是因为他希望在技术上更上一层楼，因为在其他方面他已经过关了。中央美院仍受着俄国学院派的影响，即使到今天还没有除尽，扼杀了不少灵感。可是，无可否认的是，掌握
了过关的技术以后，一个艺术家的才能也比较容易表现。即使技术不是第一性的，过分强调技术也可能适得其反，可是也必须看到，如今的许多学生走出校门的时候，连创作复杂作品的最起码的技术都还没有掌握。
周颖超进入中央美院的时候，适逢中国美术界新思潮大行其道的时候。80、90年代，也就是中国开始对外开放的时代，出现了众多的艺术流派，包括初露头角的前卫派。众多重要思潮出现在中国这样一个文化和文明大一统的国度，不可避免地影响到全世界的艺术舞台，把中国推向了艺术创造的前沿。
周颖超在中央美院的经历，清晰地表现在这些年创作的一系列作品里，包括1987年的《坐着的女人》，和1988年的《前倾的男青年肖像》，《站着的女人》，《画室里的女人体》，《双女人体》和《古装女人》等等。这些都可以视作典型的学院派作品。可是当他一旦离开中央美院（1990年），他的自由的调子和创新意识就立刻浮现出来。他的名为《聊斋》的系列，是一套表现主义的作品，内容丰富，创作过程一直延续到1996年。和这一系列交叉进行的还有《霸王别姬》系列。其超现实主义的灵感表现了众多重要的题材，自由的思路化成独特的造型。可以看出，周颖超在开始创作以前，总是进行系统的思考，在脑子里形成准确而清晰的思路，然后才开始有条不紊地细心勾画，一丝不苟，使作品无懈可击。作品中的形变揭示着萌芽的秘密，再用独一无二的形式还原给灿烂的光线。在相当长一段时间里，图像是人类活动，人类现实，结构和表象以及表象以外的一切的唯一见证。预备阶段的草图，素描，模型，纸片等等，是在正式开始创作以前的准备过程中必不可少的。这些可以有效地控制情感，保证正确的比例，不致出现大的偏差。我们完全可以感到周颖超已经找到了自己的长远道路，他在运动和线条的开合中分析时间的持续，继续着连续的旋律，寻找着新的路径和新的思路，绝不排除任何可能。他转向超现实的表现手法，完全不顾形式主义而创造出神奇的物体，那是因为这些作品生活在超现实中。有时我们难以辨别它们的模棱两可，因为它们是思维自由的因子。这个超现实主义的阶段让我们想起恩斯特（Max Ernst） 和米罗（Joan Miró）的某些作品，尽管后者的姿态更“结实”一些。
周颖超的早期作品尺寸都比较小，可是后来却越来越大，有的甚至达到了十米、十一米的长度。这样大的画幅，需要长时间的酝酿，具体创作也不能一蹴而就。有时他的一个系列包括简洁的，不同题材的画，也可以看做是相对独立的部分。可是对于艺术家来说，关键在于他要注入到作品里的，完成作品时的创作意义。有时，通过减少表现手法，周颖超使他的词汇多元化，给他的作品造成戏剧化的效果，形成强烈的视觉印记，通过色调外表加强内在的韵律。
要达到这一效果，他就要注意所应用的手段。他以中国古代文化为参照，喜欢吸取其成分，在其基础上进行形变。
节奏和类比，空间的质量，感知和差别，中心的统一，这些都可以是个人表现的标准。
在这个时期，尽管周颖超的作品具有强烈的超现实主义色彩，可是作者却强调作品的可读性。他希望一幅作品可以有多种解读方式。例如在1997年创作的《夏日的梦》中，通过虚幻化的画面的结构和重构，作者把观众带入了一个充满解构意识的世界。他创造的流动而超现实的构图， 表现了作者捕捉到的一些本质的东西。他调动了一种模棱两可的解读策略，或隐或现的城市背景，交叉着诗意和讽刺，给我们造成深深的印象。我们还要强调他在每个创作阶段中都表现出的对真实的追求。《花神》系列创作于《霸王别姬》系列之前。可是因为其中的大部分作品已经不在，所以我们不能多讲。可是即便如此，它们留给观者的印象却依然很深。他在这些作品中表现了中国古代的四大美女。此后，他探索了西楚霸王项羽和虞姬的主题，他们和马之间的关系。为此，周颖超阅读了大量的小说，诗歌，历史书籍，后来还去参观了安徽省的虞姬墓，希望在开始创作这个系列之前，对这个题材背景有尽可能完整的了解。在处理****和女人的
|
