几十年来，张立国先生一直在试图寻找属于自己的绘画语言。他一直在形式主义的轨道中跋涉。从大学的时候开始，他就试图用形式来降伏和平息当时主导性的政治诉求――尽管这种绘画的政治性诉求不可能从根本上清除。此后，他的绘画尽量不让历史过于醒目地干扰画面。他的画面似乎要摆脱历史，要把社会情景压制住，从而让形式和语言的探索变得深邃，变得无穷无尽。因此，人们很少在这里看到历史痕迹的出没。相反，张立国创造的是一个繁复的绘画世界，这个绘画世界力图将画画本身凸显出来，将画画的复杂感受凸显出来。绘画不是要画出什么历史，而是要画出绘画的诸种语言。张立国持续了数十年的绘画形式主义探索，是一个激进的然而也是一个寂静的形式革命――看上去，在一个绘画变得纷纷历史化的潮流中，这种形式的革命探索似乎处于一个不合时宜的状态――但是，什么是当代？或许我们可以说，当代就是不合时宜。

　　张立国的这个绘画世界是什么样的？它是光影、色彩和构图的世界。这些色彩，构图，笔触和光影，是一个完全形式主义的世界。而绘画的巨大快乐，就沉浸在这诸种绘画要素的组合中，沉浸在绘画的笔触中，沉浸在一个虚构的世界中。不仅如此，张立国的绘画，没有题材，只有形式，他画各种各样的风景，但是，这种风景总是抽象为色块，线条，笔触，以及它们之间的奇妙而丰富的组合。张立国把人画成影子，把身体画成线条，把水和河流画成色块，把建筑画成轮廓，因此，与其说这是一个物质的世界，不如说这是一个线条，色彩和光影的世界，是一个形式主义的世界，也可以说，张立国的风景，不是自然的风景，不是外界的风景，而是绘画本身的风景，是一个有关绘画内在性的风景。他的绘画，不是用色彩和线条来画出世界，而是通过世界来画出色彩和线条，也就是说，他真正的意图，不是将外界风景作为对象，而是将外界风景作为素材，作为绘画形式的素材，是让外界风景将笔触，将色块，将线条和材料表现出来。因此，这是绘画在自我绘画，绘画在画线条，画色彩，画笔触，也就是说，不是借助绘画来画出风景的可能性，而是将风景作为素材来表达绘画的可能性。

超越语言的静默（1）160x200cm布面丙烯2010

　　事实上，张立国总是一种逆反式的画画，总是同写实主义的画法完全相反。对于写实主义而言，绘画的形式，材料，笔触和颜料总是要掩盖起来，它们完全臣服于对对象的表达，它们要逼真地画出对象，反过来，被画的理想对象应该压抑住绘画的过程本身，压抑住绘画的形式和材料。写实绘画的理想是，人们在绘画的对象上，忘记了绘画，忘记了绘画过程，忘记了绘画的材料，技术和笔触。而在这里，一切都相反，张立国就是要突出绘画的过程本身，突出绘画的材料和技术本身，突出绘画的形式本身。他不是让被画的对象压制住绘画的材料，而是将绘画的对象分解成绘画技术和要素。就此，我们在张立国的作品中，看到的是各种各样的色块，线条，构图以及它们的丰富多样的组合。就线条而言，它们或粗或细，或重或轻，或黑或白，或长或短，或弯曲或直接，或流畅或断裂，或凌乱或整齐，或分叉或平行，或交错或重叠。这是绘画之线的热烈演出。色块同样如此，它们也呈现出丰富性、多样性和多层次性，这些色彩有时杂乱，有时单一；它们有时相互侵蚀，有时截然分明；有时有一种隐约的模样，有时完全是任意的泼洒；有时遵循某种构图规律，有时毫无规律。正是这些独出心裁的色块和线条，以及它们之间的丰富组合，正是这些色块和线条之间的碰撞，延伸，交谈和抵牾，使得张立国的绘画富于动感，充满节奏。画面像是在跳跃，在运动，在自言自语――即便画面是静止的形象，即便画面上的那些“对象”好像完全不动。张立国喜欢画水，或许正是因为水能表达运动感；他画的人，也是将人进行折叠，让人处在一个运动状态，让人和他的倒影对话。

家是一座花园2 布面油画 190x220cm 2012

这个世界很真实2011 布面丙烯 80x100cm 2013

　　但是，这些活泼的充满动感的绘画，并不表现为剧烈的动荡，也不是某个立场的艰苦决断，不是一种备受折磨的左右摇摆，相反，这些动感，折叠，流淌和波澜，正是生活的畅快，欢悦的歌唱和轻盈的舞蹈。运动的绘画，是形式主义的旋律，它不是强烈的内心撕裂，而是一种美的愉快品尝。这不是一种绝望而恐惧的颤抖，而是形式主义的欢快实验。张立国的绘画，将生活的黑暗一面挡在外面，这是一个形式主义者的乐观证词。从他几十年的绘画历程，就可以发现，他的绘画语言，越来越抽象，越来越简洁，越来越诗意――甚至越来越有一种童话和梦幻般的感觉。在这个绘画历史中，我们似乎能看到，生活越残酷，他的绘画就越活泼；生活越来越具体和务实，他的绘画就越来越抽象；生活越来越复杂，他的绘画就越来越纯粹；生活越来越喧哗，他的绘画就越来越安静；生活越晦暗，他的绘画就越来越色彩斑斓。绘画是抵制平庸和琐碎生活世界的一个有效闸门，好像要把这个并不如意的生活世界阻挡在外。我们甚至可以说，绘画的世界就是张立国的世界，张立国的世界就是绘画的世界。他沉浸在这个世界中，沉浸在他所创造的这个动态、欢欣和喜悦的世界中，并且感受这种欢欣和喜悦。就此，绘画不是对生活的表现，而就是全部的生活本身。

Painting as a Way of Life--About Zhang Liguo's Works

　　Mr. Zhang Liguo has been trying to look for his own painting language for decades. And he has been wading along the track of formalism. When he was in college, he started trying to tame and appease the prevailing political appeal of the time with form, although the political appeal of painting could not be cleared fundamentally. Then, he tried not to interfere the picture with history in his paintings. It seems that his pictures got rid of history, and suppressed the social scene, so that the exploration of form and language became profound and endless. So, the traces of history could be hardly found here. On the contrary, what Zhang Liguo created was a complicated world of painting, which tried to highlight the painting itself, and the complicated feelings of painting. Paintings are not meant to draw history but the languages of painting. The decades long formalism exploration in painting of Zhang Liguo is a radical but also a silent form revolution; it seems that in historicized stream of paintings, the revolutionary exploration of the form is unpopular, but, what is contemporary? Maybe we can say that"contemporary"itself is unpopular.

　　What is Zhang Liguo's world of painting is like? It is a world of shadow, color, and composition. The colors, compositions, strokes, and shadows are a pure world of formalism. And the great pleasure of painting lies in the combination of the elements of painting, in the strokes of painting and the imaginary world. Besides, the paintings of Zhang Liguo have no subjects, there are only forms; he painted all kinds of scenes, but the scene is always abstract, and it is the abstract color lumps, lines, strokes and the marvelous and rich combination of them. Zhang Liguo painted people in the form of shadow, and body in the form of lines, water, and rivers in the form of color lumps and buildings in the form of outlines; so it is a world of lines, colors and shadows and the world of formalism, rather than the world of subjects. So, Zhang Liguo's scene is not the natural scene or the scene of the outside world, it is the scene of the painting itself and the scene about the internality of the painting. In his paintings, the world is not painted with colors or lines, instead, colors and lines are painted with world. That is to say, his true intention is not to take the scenes as targets, the scenes are taken as the subjects, as the subjects of painting, and the scenes are to show the strokes, lines, and materials. So, the painting paints itself, it paints the lines, colors, and the strokes, that is to say, the possibility of paintings is not painted by painting, and the scenes are treated as subjects to show the possibility of painting.

　　In fact, Zhang Liguo paints in a reversed way, which is opposite to the realism way of painting. For realism, the form, materials, strokes, and paints should be covered, and they are completely subject to the expression of the targets. They should paint the targets vividly; on the contrary, the ideal painted targets should suppress the process of painting, and the form and materials of painting. The ideal of realism painting is that, in terms of the targets of painting, painting, the process of painting, the materialism techniques and the strokes of painting are forgotten. But it is the opposite here, what Zhang Liguo wants to stress is the process of painting the materials and techniques and the form of painting. He does not suppress the materials of painting with the targets, on the contrary, he dissembles the targets into the techniques and the elements of painting. So, what we see in Zhang Liguo's works are various kinds of color lumps, lines, the compositions of picture and the various kinds of combinations of them. In terms of lines, they are thin or thick, heavy or light, black or white, long or short, bent or straight, smooth or broken, messy or neat, crotched or parallel, crossed or overlapping. It is the hot performance of the lines of painting. And so are the color lumps, they are also rich, of various kinds and multi-layers, the color are messy or single; they invade into each other at a time and they are distinct from each other sometimes; there is a vague shape sometimes and it is the arbitrary splash of colors; there is some certain rule of composition sometimes and there is no rule at a time. The original color lumps and lines, the rich combination of them, and the collision, extension, conversation and contradiction between them make the paintings of Zhang Liguo dynamic, full of rhythm. It seems that the pictures are jumping and in motion, and talking to themselves—even if the pictures are the static images, even if the"targets" in the pictures are motionless. Zhang Loguo likes to paint water, maybe it is because water can show the sense of motion; the people he draws are folded in a state of motion, making them talk with their reflections in the water.

　　But the brisk and dynamic paintings do not show themselves in the form of violent turmoil or the hard choice of stance, or the torment swing; on the contrary, the motion, folding, flowing and waves are the free and happy singing and the graceful dancing of life. It is not the horrible thrilling out of desperation; it is the happy experimentation of formalism. Zhang Liguo's paintings block the dark side of life outside, and it is an optimistic testimony of an optimistic person. It can be seen from his decades'experiences of painting that, his language of painting is more and more abstract, simpler and simpler, and more and more poetic—and there is even a sense of fairy tale and fantasy. In the history of painting, it seems that what we can see is that, his paintings are more lively when life becomes cruller; his paintings are more abstract when life is more concrete and practical; his paintings become purer when life is more complicated; his paintings become more silent when life is more noisy; and his paintings are more colorful when life becomes darker. Painting is an effective sluice to prevent mediocre and trivial world of life, and Zhang Liguo's world is the world of painting. He is immersed in the world, the dynamic, rejoicing and the happy world he creates, and he is experiencing rejoice and happiness. So, painting is not the expression of life, it is the whole life itself.