Zhang Guilin’s art has a historical significance. It is historical in that he is not only the pioneer of silk screen printing in China, but also one of the founders of the first silk screen print studio in the country. The historical significance is also round in his explorations of the silk screen language,an experience that took him from the realm of necessity into the realm of freedom.

　　In Zhang Guilin’s art, history is an existing reality. If, by theme, there are three stages in his artistic production, the first two are invariably related to the past history. His prints in the 80’s are dominated by ancient Chinese architecture. Historical and traditional buildings ranging from the Forbidden city to the Great Wall, the Old House to residential quarters, were recreated in his works. This was a stage when the artist was trying to find a subject for his artistic language. Every artistic language is expressed by way of a proper subject matter and each artistic form has a theme more pertinent to it than to others, which can be defined as its historical and cultural delimitation. Zhang Guilin’s initial efforts on silk screen printing coincided with the emergence of the modern art movement in China. This meant greater freedom and opportunities for this new medium at the very beginning of its development. The freedom to experiment with different artistic forms has created a favourable context for silk screen printing to establish its due position in modern Chinese art .Without this freedom , the new language would very possibly have been deprived of its own characters and reduced to replicating reality to suit the needs of political propaganda.It is easily discernible from his works in the 1980’s that the artist made a deliberate attempt to integrate the language of silk screen with the modern artistic form. However, under the influence of the prevailing realistic tradition, his works could be described more as a renovation of realistic themes , an attempt to reproduce historical and cultural objects with a new formality. Modern artistic methods, though employed to some extent, were not predominant in his production. In his prints on ancient architecture, Zhang used large patches of pure colours and a balanced and symmetric layout. Under the special circumstances of the 80’s , his works reflected his efforts to search for a Chinese expression of modern artistic concepts by introducing elements of cubism in creating the visual impact special to Chinese culture.

　　It is inevitable that the self of the artist was concealed when he was still at the stage of seeking objects for his artistic language. In other words , the prints are more interesting in terms of the artistic language and forms the artist experimented with rather than carrying his own individual marking . In the mid-90’s Zhang Guilin began to explore his own individualistic language , a major shift away from the first stage of his production . He became freer and more at ease in employing the silk screen language. Language was no longer a barrier to expression, but rather a tool to be manipulated to describe more complicated and profound cultural themes. In fact, he continued the process of ever redefining his individualist forms of expression by establishing a richly creative relationship between the forms. Among all his works at this stage, the most outstanding ones were the Wall Series in the early 90’s and the Hutong Series of the mid -90’s Despite their difference in form , the two series were interrelated in that the former foreshadowed the latter and the latter was a further extension of the former . In the Wall Series, he set the realist Great Wall side by side with the traditional Chinese bucket-arch eave support structure, with the former depicted as a 3-dimensional vision and the latter in plane.As both are symbols of history and culture. he employed symbolism or a combination of multiple symbolic images. However, the symbolism is not important in itself , but it reflects the artist’s attempt to search for a more expressive form from national traditions. What is particularly worth noticing is the random scribble, a very individualist marking, between the two distinctive forms. Obviously the artist has realised the inherent conflict between silk screen printing as a modern mass image replication method and an artist’s self expression . The random scribbles mark the end of his search for subjects for his artistic language and the beginning of relative freedom with the language.

　　This is also a shift from searching for subjects to searching for his ego. The artist’s ego is his very way of existence in the society and a reflection of his own personal experiences, memories and character in the forms and themes of his works. In the mid-90’s although Hutong was again the theme of his new series. Zhang Guilin had begun to show his own special style. Instead of trying to conform to the formality of the silk screen language, he expressed his subjective impressions on the basis of a free expression of the language. The prints, permeated with personal emotions, are an integration of personal memories and thinking on culture. The reflections on tradition and culture are not longer expressed by way of objective comment and symbols, but in the form of personal memories and experience. In“The paper crane Flying in the Hutong“and”the Bleeding Chimney”, the buildings serve as a realistic background without any form of protrusion. The flying paper crane and paper plane in the fore seem like the trace of memories in real life. Both are symbolic of childhood remembrances and the houses in the background are signs of the past personal life. Whatever culture or tradition the old houses carry with them , they have to be embedded in the memories of the individual person before they could be recreated in a touching artistic form. What we see is no longer the formality. although there is contrast between the 3-dimensional buildings (old house) and the flat paper objects. Our thoughts are carried beyond the form to the narration of the artist himself-his concerns for civilisation and for the individual.

　　In “Grey”, on doomed wall, the dominating Chinese character “Chai”(meaning“demolish”) tells the message. The places we have been to and the life we have been through are stored in our memories in the form of signs, which could rekindle memories and remind us of the existence of life. When the signs disappear , so will the memories .Zhang Guilin’s works are significant in that they convey a personal experience in the visual language to the audience, who will not only feel the impact of the form, but also the very existence of life. The personal experience is turned into a common experience and a consensus on cultural reflections because of shared cultural background and a real-life environment common to all of us.

　　Zhang Guilin’s latest works, the “Roles” series marks the third stage of his production. Bidding farewell to the old houses, he has gained complete freedom in his works. It is, in the first place, a freedom of language, With this freedom comes a total rapport between the eye and the hand, the heart and the object, just like between the brush and Chinese ink or between oils and strokes in paintings .The visual images of the “fish” and the “net ” , more abstract than real, are more like a contrast between the plane and the lines .The harmony between this contrast and the colour combination could only have been achieved after years of hard work . Zhang Guilin deserves such a reward. The harmony does not stop at space and colours. There is also the harmony of movements, which differ from the static configurations of his earlier works. The dynamic movements symbolise the fluidity of thoughts .“Roles” hint at social relations, i . e. the interdependent and conflicting relationship between people , and between individuals and society. Instead of emphasising the conflict, he arranged his objects in an almost perfect visual pattern. This is ,to some extent, a reflection of the artist’s reluctance to make outright statements on the social reality and his philosophy of life. He would prefer to add a more subtle personal touch to the artistic language. He has consistently tried to impart to his work his artistic thinking and convey a message to us : the existence of the individual depends on the expression of the language and the language becomes perfected in the process of self-expression.

　　The artistic production of Zhang Guilin followed a formative process from objective observation to subjective expression, The wandering explorer of a new artistic language found his destination in the expression of his self. However, this does not mean that the artist has come to the end of his long journey of exploration, The freedom he has achieved by harmonising the conflicting language and ego also means the freedom in the interchangeability of language and the ego.It is always hard to tell the future, but there is one thing we can be sure of : Zhang Guilin will continue to leave the present behind him and go on new adventures of the spirit. His progress in the past was steady and persistent. Once he gains what he expects to gain , he will not hesitate to venture on new changes.