《向日葵》68㎝x68㎝
Sun Flower 68cmx68cm
（1）.入编《山东省美术全书》、《二十世纪书画家大辞典》、《全球水墨500强》、2021年《收藏年鉴》等书籍、出版有“大觉味象”赵志军作品选集。
（2）.个人介绍及作品发表介绍于《美术》、《美术报》、《大众日报》、《内蒙古日报》、《齐鲁晚报》、《大公报》、《青年文学家》、《艺术香港》、《美术纵横》、《中国艺术》等报刊杂志。
（3）.香港电台、香港卫视翡翠台、湖北卫视等电视媒体均有多个专题栏目报道。
（4）.作品被古元美术馆、广州市政协、深圳市政协、北京长江科技扶贫基金会、中国中共党史学会、巴州美术馆等众多机构和个人收藏家收藏。
(1) Compiled into "Shandong Province Fine Arts Encyclopedia", "Grand Dictionary of Calligraphers and Painters in Twentieth Century" and "Global 500 of Ink Painting" and etc.
(2)Invited to serve as the jury member of the Asian Ink and Wash Art Exhibition in 2019.
(3)Personal bio and works were published in "Arts", "Arts Newspaper", "Dazhong Daily", "Inner Mongolia Daily", "Qilu Evening News", "Ta Kung Pao", "Young Writers", "Hong Kong Art", "Art Review", "Chinese Art" and other newspapers and magazines.
(4)Multiple special in-depth coverage by RTHK,Jade channel of Hong Kong Satellite TV, HubeiSatellite TV and other TV media.
(5) Works have been collected by many institutions and individual collectors, such asGu Yuan Art Museum, CPPCC Guangzhou Committee, CPPCC Shenzhen Committee, Beijing Changjiang River Charity Foundation, Chinese Society of History of Communist Partyof China, Bazhou Art Museum and etc.
《幻影》68cmx68cm
"Phantom" 68cmx68cm
清韵静雅大觉味象
赵志军的当代绘画艺术之路
2006年因朋友引荐，我和赵志军（大郡）相识，当时，他还在中国国家画院进修，随着交往的加深，他对待的生活和艺术的态度恬淡平和，就犹如夏日荷塘里的荷花，有一种清韵雅静大觉味象的感觉。
Qingyun jingya da jue taste elephant
zhao zhijun's contemporary painting art road
In 2006, introduced by a friend, I got acquainted with zhao zhijun (dajun). At that time, he was still studying in the Chinese national academy of painting. With the deepening of communication, his attitude towards life and art was tranquil and peaceful, just like the lotus in the lotus pond in summer.
《晨曲》68cmx68cm
"Morning Song" 68cmx68cm
2007年我的推荐他到清华大学美术学院做访问学者，他的导师也是我的博士导师杜大恺先生。他是八十年代专业艺术院校毕业的，本身刻苦努力，具备扎实的传统绘画功底，1988年大学毕业后，就参加了许多重要的展览；之后又先后在中国国家画院以及清华大学学习，学习期间，他又对当代艺术和现代水墨创作做了深入细致的研究。尤其是师从杜大恺先生后，他在绘画艺术上开始了新的篇章。在清华美术学院读完访问学者之后，他逐渐摒弃了传统水墨画的成规陋习，把水墨画的媒介材质改造为自我表达的工具。
In 2007, I recommended him to be a visiting scholar at the academy of fine arts, tsinghua university. His supervisor is also my doctoral supervisor, Mr. Du dakai.
He graduated from a professional art college in the 1980s. He worked hard and had a solid foundation in traditional painting. After graduating from the university in 1988, he participated in many important exhibitions.
Later, he studied in China national academy of painting and tsinghua university, during which he made in-depth and detailed research on contemporary art and modern ink and wash creation.
Especially after studying under Mr. Du dakai, he began a new chapter in the art of painting.
After finishing his study as a visiting scholar at tsinghua academy of fine arts, he gradually abandoned the traditional conventions of ink painting and transformed the medium of ink painting into a tool for self-expression.
《雨后》68cmx138cm
"After the Rain" 68cmx138cm
2012年他定居香港，对中国传统文化和西方艺术的现代性有了新的感悟。因此，在山水、花鸟以及人物系列的现代水墨创作中，均不断创新和发展，我欣喜地看到了他在创作上的巨大突破。在他的城市风景系列以及荷花系列中，尤其是水墨荷花系列，他的荷花造型结构布局空灵，画中的虚实、浓淡、干湿的水墨与色彩关系，不仅体现出的是一种美学关系，同时，折射出他对社会和自然的一种关照；他将水墨艺术与现代生活隔汇相连，让我们透过荷花去关爱现实并反思生活；从某种意义上说，他的绘画作品，已经突破了艺术与生活的边界。中国美术核心杂志《美术》主编，尚辉先生在《香港回归二十年的文化寻根》一文中写到，“赵志军的荷花，既具有视觉审美的现代特征，也富于诗意的典雅和高贵。”
He settled in Hong Kong in 2012 and gained a new appreciation for the modernity of traditional Chinese culture and western art.
Therefore, in the landscape, flowers and birds and character series of modern ink and wash creation, are constantly innovative and development, I am pleased to see his great breakthrough in the creation.
In his urban landscape series and lotus series, especially the ink lotus series, his lotus shape structure layout is ethereal, in the painting of the true and false, thick and light, dry and wet ink and color relationship, not only reflects an aesthetic relationship, at the same time, reflects his attention to society and nature;
He connects ink painting with modern life, so that we can care about reality and reflect on life through lotus.
In a sense, his paintings have broken the boundary between art and life.
Mr. Shang hui, chief editor of the core magazine of Chinese fine arts, wrote in the article "the cultural roots of Hong Kong in the past 20 years of its return", "zhao zhijun's lotus flower has both the modern characteristics of visual aesthetics and poetic elegance and nobility.
《窗外》68cmx138cm
"Outside the Window" 68cmx138cm
他成功并充分地运用了水墨这种传统的笔墨工具和语言，实现了一个现代艺术家对现实的认识和觉悟的表达，从而完成了他个人的水墨语言与形式的现代转换。他对东西方不同艺术的表现形式的贯通与融合，使他成为当代“中国表现型水墨”的代表人物之一，特别是在中西文明相融合的香港艺术界尤为凸显。
He successfully and fully used the traditional tool and language of ink painting to realize the expression of a modern artist's understanding and consciousness of reality, thus completing the modern transformation of his personal ink painting language and form.
His mastery and integration of different forms of eastern and western art makes him one of the representative figures of contemporary "Chinese ink painting", especially in the art circle of Hong Kong where Chinese and western civilizations are integrated.
《巍巍昆仑》96cmx180cm
"Towering Kunlun" 96cmx180cm
赵志军是一位艺术造诣非常全面的艺术家，他不仅是一个勤于实践的绘画创作者，同时，也是一个善于思考和总结的学者，他主张“创作要有理论支撑，要有生活中的感受和体会，要有创作激情，在深入研究传统艺术的前提下，推陈出新，不复制古人、不重复自己，要有现实感和形式美。”在对待传统的态度上，他始终秉持，在理解传统的精神的基础上，去选择自我的表达。他在传统思维与当代的思维的交叉和融合里，以一个在当代人宽广并独特的视角，来进行艺术的表达。
Mr. Shang hui, chief editor of the core magazine of Chinese fine arts, wrote in the article "the cultural roots of Hong Kong in the past 20 years of its return", "zhao zhijun's lotus flower has both the modern characteristics of visual aesthetics and poetic elegance and nobility.
He successfully and fully used the traditional tool and language of ink painting to realize the expression of a modern artist's understanding and consciousness of reality, thus completing the modern transformation of his personal ink painting language and form.
His mastery and integration of different forms of eastern and western art makes him one of the representative figures of contemporary "Chinese ink painting", especially in the art circle of Hong Kong where Chinese and western civilizations are integrated.
《手可摘星辰》34cmx68cm
"Hands Can Pick the Stars" 34cmx68cm
因此，赵志军的作品不仅具有深厚的传统功力和修养，同时，在艺术的表现形式上又具有鲜明的当代艺术气质和视觉感受，他的创作给出了一种中国当代水墨创作的新方向。 这对于中国美术建构“当代形态”的学术大道具有特别突出的意义。特别难能可贵的是，作为中国当代绘画探索领域中的一位顶尖人物。 即使在一个有些浮躁和急功近利的社会环境中，能够把他依然能从容不迫地把握他的创作节奏和心理状态，不急不燥地坚定成长以获得艺术上更大的自由。
李佳（清华美术学院博士、北京航空航天大学新媒体艺术与设计学院 绘画系系主任）
2020年3月20日
Mr. Zhao is a very comprehensive artistic attainments artist, he is not only a painting creators, diligently practice at the same time, is also a good at thinking and summarized a scholar, he advocated "writing for theoretical support, to have the life feeling and experience, to have a creative passion, on the premise of further study of traditional arts, new, don't copy the ancients, don't repeat yourself, to have reality and formal beauty."
In terms of his attitude towards tradition, he always adheres to the principle of self-expression on the basis of understanding the spirit of tradition.
In the intersection and fusion of traditional thinking and contemporary thinking, he expressed art from a broad and unique perspective of contemporary people.
Therefore, zhao zhijun's works not only have profound traditional skills and accomplishment, but also have distinct contemporary artistic temperament and visual feeling in the form of artistic expression.
This is of special significance to the construction of the academic avenue of "contemporary form" in Chinese art.
What is particularly commendable is that he is a leading figure in the field of Chinese contemporary painting exploration.
Even in a somewhat impetuous and eager social environment, he can still leisurely grasp his pace of creation and psychological state, not impatient and not impatient firm growth in order to achieve greater artistic freedom.
Li jia (doctor of tsinghua academy of fine arts, dean of painting department, school of new media art and design, Beijing university of aeronautics and astronautics)
March 20, 2020
《百合桃花图》96cmx180cm
"Lily and Peach Blossom" 96cmx180cm
《辉煌畤代》96cmx180cm
"Brilliant Dynasty" 96cmx180cm
以我观物·静定不燥
香港绘画的艺术风貌早期受到岭南画派的影响和西洋画派的冲击，兼具中西结合的特点。香港回归以来，文化归属意识日益强烈，香港艺术家更多地容纳和继承中国传统，来自北京的画家赵志军等一批受过正规美术院校教育的艺术家移居香港，为香港画坛补充了新生力量，他们在探索香港水墨当代性的同时，更鲜明地体现了中国艺术精神回归与重建的愿望。
与赵志军初识在港，在几次大型展览中我作序言，赵志军做学术主持，因艺术观点认同而惺惺相惜。后有机会向他学画，亦师亦友。赵志军（大郡）毕业于内蒙古师范大学美术系、清华大学美术学院访问学者。专业的美术训练使他对中国画的创作有扎实的基本功和独到的见解。在对笔墨的运用，对画面的装饰性和构成感方面，他都进行了积极的探索。在长达40年的艺术生涯中，画家赵志军对艺术的不断追求显示出一个艺术家的执着与坚毅。他的作品很自然地传达出一种安静、祥和的气息，去他的画室“和合堂”次数多了，渐而感受到，他的静，来自于对笔墨把控的适度和艺术修养的内敛。
I see things as static
In the early period, the artistic style of Hong Kong painting was influenced by both the Lingnan school and the western school, resulting a combination of Chinese characteristics with western counterparts. Since the return of Hong Kong, with the cultural consciousness increasingly awakening, Hong Kong artists have then accepted and inherited more of the Chinese traditions. Such trend has been strengthened by a batch of formally educated artists moving into Hong Kong, including painter Mr. Zhao Zhijun from Beijing, who have contributed new blood into the local painter community. In the effort to modernize Hong Kong ink art, they have vividly expressed the desire to return to and reconstruct the Chinese art spirit.
I first met Zhao Zhijun in Hong Kong. After participating several large-scale exhibitions, for which I wrote the prefaces and Zhao Zhijun acted as an academic host, we started to appreciate each other’s artistic view. Later I had a chance to learn painting from him, and he became my friend as well as teacher. Zhao Zhijun (Da Jun) graduated from Art department of Inner Mongolia Normal University and later went to Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University as a visiting scholar. Professional training equipped him with solid techniques and unique insights in creating Chinese paintings, enabling him to actively explore the application of brush and ink, as well as the decoration and composition of images. In his forty-year long art career, Zhao Zhijun’s consistent pursuit of art has demonstrated an artist’s persistence and determination. His works extend a peaceful and harmonious atmosphere naturally. After paying more and more visits to his studio “He He Tang”, I gradually felt the stillness expressed through his control of brush and ink and his inner artistic attainments.
《东方明珠》48㎝x180㎝
"Oriental Pearl" 48㎝x180㎝
静定
清郑绩在《梦幻居画学简明》中有云，“意笔如草书，其流走雄壮，不难于有力，而难于静定。定则不漂，静则不躁。”这段话很适宜描述赵志军的创作心态和作品。赵志军在写意画的用笔中，疾如草书，意笔草草，行云流水，恰如郑绩所言，不难于有力，而难于静定。所谓的静定，是对笔墨的把控力度，也是对画面整体气韵与意境的把握。过快则浮，过慢则缓，定则不漂，静则不躁。赵志军的作品画面呈现出的静定感，正是笔墨把握恰到好处的体现。
Stillness
Zheng Ji of Qing Dynasty once said in his “Brief Illustration on Painting from Meng Huan Ju” that, “Move brush like writing cursive script, flowing magnificently. It is not difficult to be powerful, but it is difficult to be still. Stillness brings steady and calm.” The word is very suitable to describe Zhao Zhijun’s attitude and works. In the process of creating ink arts, he moves the brush swiftly like writing cursive script, as if the brush barely touches the paper, floating like clouds and flowing like water. Just as Zheng Ji said, the difficult part is not in expressing the power, but in expressing the stillness. The so-called stillness is essentially the control of brush and ink, and the overall tone and artistic conception of the work. Too fast means frivolous and too slow means dull, while stillness brings steady and calm. The works of Zhao Zhijun carry the feeling of stillness, thanks to his excellent control of brush and ink.
《香江之夜》48㎝x180㎝
"Night of the Fragrant River" 48㎝x180㎝
笔墨的把控方面，赵志军在许多具体地方保留了中国画的法则，但大大减弱了传统文化的随意性，强调了笔墨的可控性。他强调中锋运笔，又不会刻意地追求笔墨速度，只是徐缓相间，让笔墨自然而然地表达情怀。在赵志军的画中是用静来凸显意境的，意境是中国传统美学的一个重要范畴。他的《团扇小品》草原马的系列作品，都以静态的马为主题，透过静止的马，我们感受到了草原的静谧和草原所孕育的勃勃生机，这是非常让人感动的。在中国画中，这样的以静写动很难表达，笔宜简，气足神闲，一笔转处具有数笔之意。同时还要注重画面的整体感，以简写繁，以静寓动，使得画面静中有动，充满生机。
他作品中的基调仍以淡墨为主，体现了明显的中国风格和东方情调。清邵梅臣云，“解浓之法曰淡。淡之一字，真绘素家一粒金丹。”然所谓淡者，为层层烘染，由一道至二道，由二道至三至四，淡中仍有浓，有阴阳，有向背，有精神，有趣味。这就是古人对于淡墨和渲染的理解，淡中不乏味，淡中有乾坤。在团扇这样的小幅作品中，赵志军用淡淡的墨韵，表达出了无边草原的浩荡乾坤，这是他的用墨之妙所在。
中国画的用墨最是讲究，用墨浓淡有火候，火候到者，墨为我用，火候不到，我为墨用。赵志军在用墨方面也做得很好，国家画院理论部梅墨生评价他，“墨气好、很温润，说明其心境很平和淡静;志军品性很好，不然是画不出如此墨气的。”所谓的“诗言志”、“我手写我心”，也正是如此，作品是画家心性的表现。
In the use of brush and ink, Zhao Zhijun retains the Chinese painting techniques in many places, but reduces greatly the randomness embedded in traditional custom through stressing control. He emphasizes on using the middle part of a brush, while not pursuing speed on purpose, but letting the brush and ink express themselves naturally, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, as the situation requires. In Zhao Zhijun’s works, the stillness, a major tone carried in many Chinese traditional arts, forms the artistic conception. His circular fan sketch series on grassland horses focus on horses in stillness, from which we feel the peacefulness of the grassland as well as the mighty vitality embedded in it, touching us deeply. In Chinese paintings, such vitality expressed through stillness is hard to describe in language, and such creation requires simplicity in moving brush and peacefulness in mind so that a simple move can carry lots of meanings. In the meantime, you still have to take good care of the composition of the whole picture, expressing details through sketches and movement through stillness so as to embed the movement in the stillness, full of vitality.
The basic hue of his works is based on light ink, conveying explicitly the Chinese style and eastern characteristics. Shao Meichen of Qing Dynasty once said, “The method to neutralize a strong color is to make it light. Being able to achieve light is an essential technique of a true painter.” However, the so-called light is in fact achieved through layers of drawing, from one layer to two, and from two to three and four, thickness inside lightness, Yin inside Yang, brightness inside shadowiness, and spirit inside delight. This is ancient Chinese people’s understanding of light ink and layering, light but not drab, colorful instead. In small works like the circular fan, Zhao Zhijun used light ink to express the vastness of the grassland, a perfect example of his mastery in using ink.
Chinese paintings focus on using ink, which has different level of skills. At higher levels, ink is used by the artists, while at lower levels, artists are used by ink. Zhao Zhijun is good at using ink. Mei Mosheng from the Theoretical Department of China National Academy of Painting once commented that “His use of ink is good and warm, meaning he has a peaceful mind. Zhijun has very good characters, otherwise his works won’t have such taste.” The so-called “ideal in poems” and “my hand writes my heart” convey the same message that works are in fact the expression of a painter’s mind.
《灯火阑珊》38㎝x46㎝
"Bright Lights" 38㎝x46㎝
赵志军利用中国宣纸吸水性强、渗透力强和洇化多变的特点，画面的色调往往通过反复渲染完成。这就使他的作品呈现出浑厚的基调。作品《红叶》就是一层层反复渲染而成的，笔者有幸目睹了作品的创作过程，赵志军在一层渲染之后，等待墨干，再次上色，七八遍渲染之后，背景层层积垫，然后再将秋叶描绘上去，渲染出秋天的厚实感，碧云天、黄叶地、秋色连波的景象和春华秋实的象征意味都随之跃然纸上，伴随着不同位置、不同角度秋叶的飘零，一束光线从画面顶端照射而来，光影浮动中浓淡干湿的对比，色彩明暗的对比，还会让人生出韶华易逝、岁月无常的感慨以及珍惜当下的思量。
从艺术传统与流派来讲，赵志军比较推崇董其昌、八大山人的笔墨情怀。董其昌的个人绘画风格上的拿来主义，对他影响至深。董其昌有云：“凡诸家皴法，自唐及宋，皆有门庭，如禅灯五家宗派，使人闻片语单辞，可定何派儿孙。”在重构南宗风格传统的过程中，董其昌早期以无末南宗大家黄公望圆转并行、状若散麻的披麻皴作为主要的技法标志。1596年，董其昌获藏黄公望巨著《富春山居图》，一改其圆润如绳的“披麻皴”抽象迂回画法，将披麻皴简化为一种“以直皴填凹凸之形”的图式。他还将南方董、巨式的土山圆润与北方荆、关式的山石嶙峋相结合，将巨然、米芾等人不同的土、石主题并置，以此来再现北宋时期不同的典范风格。董其昌突出的成就，莫过于他从古人的技法中，对南北风格的“集其大成、自出机杼”。董其昌在画作题跋中写道：
锡山无锡是无兵，怪得云林不再生。但有烟云填骨髓，须知我法本同卿。
董其昌的集大成者和融会贯通，对赵志军影响深远。赵志军没有设定局限和边界，凡是喜欢的他都刻苦学习，广取博闻，如饥似渴地吸收，也正是在这样的理念指导下，他扎扎实实地学习了古人的传统，尽其所能地揉碎再造，在传统精神上体现人个风貌。这就是为何他的画中透出浓浓的文人气息和来自生活的深入思考。
Zhao Zhijun’s works are usually finished via repeatedly layering by taking advantage of the water absorption ability, permeability and diffusion ability of Chinese Xuan paper, granting them a tone of richness. “Red Leaves” is so finished too, and I’m lucky enough to witness the whole process. After finishing the first layer, Zhao Zhijun waited for ink to dry and then applied color once more. After repeating the process for seven to eight times to form the background, he then drew the autumn leaves above it to display the richness of fall, as if the blue sky, the earth under the yellow leaves and the autumn harvest scenery are all ready to jump out of the paper. Leaves are falling from different locations and angles, and a light penetrates in above the picture, the thickness and lightness, and the brightness and shadowiness, setting off each other in the flowing light, making people wonder the fly of time and the impermanence of life, and cherish the exact moment.
In terms of inheritance and style, Zhao Zhijun admires most Dong Qichang and Badashanren’s works. The All-takenism in Dong Qichang’s panting style has great influence on him. Dong Qichang once complained, “Since Tang and Song Dynasty, every technique is bounded within its own school. Like different schools of Zen, a painter can easily be judged which school he belongs through a simple conversation.” In the process of reconstructing Southern Song tradition, Dong Qichang in early period focused on recreating the signature technique of wrinkling belonged to master Huang Gongwang in Southern Song. In year 1596, after collecting Huang Gongwang’s masterpiece “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains”, Dong Qichang further simplified the round and smooth wrinkling technique into “a straight line to form the concave and convex”. He further combined the round mountains in southern painters’ style, such as those seen in Dong and Ju’s, with the rugged mountains in northern painters’ , such as those seen Ji and Guan’s, and fused different earth and stones drawn by Ju Ran and Mi Fu and others in one painting, as a way to show people typical styles belonged to different periods of Northern Song. The biggest achievement of Dong Qichang is that he combined southern and northern style from early people’s techniques to realize his own uniqueness, and such achievement is explained best by his inscription on one of his paintings, “The Tin Mountain has no more tin, just as the painter Yunlin cannot be reborn. However, as long as there are still clouds and fogs filling the concave, my method is exactly like yours.”
Dong Qichang’s understanding and fusion of various styles has resonated in Zhao Zhijun, who does not have boundaries either. He devotes himself in learning from various styles, so long as the style is interesting to him. Under such principle, he acquired ancient Chinese traditions solidly, and has dedicated to break boundaries in order to reconstruct, and to reflect his own style rooted from traditions. That’s why his works can emanate deep intellectual flavor and reflect deep thoughts derived from daily life.
《稻花飘香》
Aroma of the Rice Paddy
作品《稻花飘香》由近及远，画面依次展现稻花、村庄和山脉，画面富于层次感，既运用中国传统绘画的“平远”意象展现出绵延纵深的山峦全景，又有稻花、家舍等由近及远的当代农村生活元素，画面的墨色变化运用得很好，意境悠远绵长，是其作品中体现中国绘画传统精神的代表。如同他的其他作品一样，画面传递出的静谧气息，将人带入安静的世外桃园，远离世界的喧嚣。每一个艺术家心中都有一个理想的乌托邦，那里阳光明媚，那里春暖花开，那里稻花十里，那里蛙声一片。将这乌托邦用画笔描绘出来，带着读者走进来，感受那份恬静，感受那份自然的惬意，是艺术家的幸福，也是读者的幸运。
在赵志军的作品中，常见三远法的取景，此类“高远”、“深远”、和“平远”的取景总能吸引观者的参与。正如刘道醇在《圣朝名画评》中对北宋初年两大山水画巨匠李成和范宽的杰出造诣所做的概括：“李成之笔，近视如千里之远；范宽之笔，远望不离坐外。”而赵志军在传统视觉论的“三远”图式中，吸收借鉴，融入现代技法与元素，使作品于静定之中传达出浓厚的现代生活气息。同时，赵志军在画作中展现出一种对静谧山川的抒情能力，溪流山石、点点枝头，庙宇村舍掩映在纵深的层峦叠嶂间，岸畔崖间的棕色点染，表明秋已末，冬将至。
The work of “Aroma of the Rice Paddy” presents in turn, from nearest to furthest, the rice paddy, village and mountains. The picture carries layers of information, including not only the Chinese traditional “flat distance” conception to reflect the full scale of wandering mountains, but also the elements of modern village life, from near to distance the rice paddy, the village homes and so on. The variation of ink color is smooth, extending the scene to far away, which technique proves his inheritance of Chinese tradition in paintings. Like his other works, it carries an air of stillness too, bringing people into utopia, away from the noisy actual world. Every artist has his own utopia, where the sun shines, spring blossoms, rice paddy aroma spreads, and frogs chant. Using a brush to describe the utopia and bringing the viewers in it to feel the peace and relaxation, such is happiness for an artist, and luck for the viewers.
In Zhao Zhijun’s works, it is common to use “three distance” composition to capture the scene. The adoption of “high distance”, “deep distance” and “flat distance” can always attract viewers to participate. As Liu Daochun summarized on two landscape painting masters in early Northern Song Dynasty, Li Cheng and Fan Kuan, in his “the Dynasty’s Famous Paintings”, that “Taking a close look at Li Cheng’s works, you may feel view them from thousands miles away; looking at Fan Kuan’s works from distance, you may feel view them from nearby.” What’s more, Zhao Zhijun assimilated modern techniques and elements into the traditional “three distance”, enabling his works to extend a deep modern vitality inside their stillness. As such, Zhao Zhijun proved his ability to project his feelings on still landscape, including streams and stones, the tips of branches, temples and villages hidden in wandering mountains, as well as brown dots on the cliffs announcing the end of fall and beginning of winter.
《香江之春》
Spring of Xiang River
在作品《香江之春》中，三远法的构图也运用得很好。平远构图将画面分成远、中、近三个部分，近景、中景与远景各占画面三分之一的空间，观者的视角由此从近景经中景直到远景，实现了三步飞跃。近山清晰挺拔，远山影绰秀丽，间中孤帆点点。对古人的临摹亦步亦趋，也有自由发挥。画中多用董其昌的“仿北苑笔”“斧劈皴”，通过大小各异的墨色皴染，为山体赋形，营造出一种劲爽湿润的山石质感。将香江的无限浩渺转变为一种更趋真实的特写视角。在画面中山水起承开合中形成一种流动的气韵，贯通画面，流水的蜿蜒盘旋将山石萦绕其间，富于音乐的节奏感。在静谧中，带给观者亲近自然的不一样的香江。
In his work “Spring of Xiang River”, the “three distance” composition is well applied. “Flat distance” composition divides the picture into three parts, with the near, the middle and the distance each accounting for one third, so as to guide viewers’ sights to experience three jumps along the same route. The near mountains are clear and high, the distant mountains are dim and pretty, and in the middle the sails appear now and then. His mimic of ancient techniques is petty precise, but not without adding his own flavor. He used a lot of Dong Qichang’s axe-chopping wrinkling method seen in the “Mimic of Northern Landscape Paintings”, granting mountains their shapes through layers of ink colors of different size and making them appear solid but soft. He captured the vastness of Xiang River in a close-up closer to reality. In the picture, the mountains and waters from different origins joint together to form a flow of air, and such air diffuses onto the whole picture, together with water flows around the mountain, as if music playing. In a stillness, viewers can feel a different Xiang River which is closer to its true nature.
《山花烂漫》35㎝x48cm
"Blossoming Mountain Flowers" 35㎝x48cm
思变
千百年来，中国画家关于艺术变革的探索从未停止。石涛提出“一画论”，不求步履古人后尘，而是重塑再造古代风格，宣示“自我”之境；齐白石衰年变法，确定了他从石涛、八大、扬州八怪到吴昌硕的老路上，变化里有他的面目。二十世纪初岭南画派创始人之一高剑父受到日本大和画风的影响，与自己的中国画技法结合起来，形成岭南画派的早期风格。从这以后，我们看到不同时期，产生的不同阶段的代表人物。高剑父、徐悲鸿、林风眠，代表了中国艺术家在本世纪初以来，企图改良中国传统绘画现代化的不断努力。
Change
Chinese painters have explored the innovation of arts for thousands of years. Shi Tao put forward the “One Painting Theory”, which encourages painters to reconstruct the ancient style to proclaim “self-understanding”, rather than copy the techniques exactly; Qi Baishi’s innovation in his late years carved his own image onto the road paved by Shi Tao, Badashanren and Wu Changshuo. Gao Jianfu, one of the Lingnan School founders in early Twentieth Century, was influenced by Japanese Yamato style, and combined it with his Chinese painting techniques to form the early Lingnan School style. Since then, we have seen different representative artists rising from different periods. Gao Jianfu, Xu Beihong and Lin Fengmian represented Chinese artists’ attempts to innovate traditional paintings since the start of last century.
《吉祥明珠》68㎝x138㎝
"Auspicious Pearl" 68㎝x138㎝
那么，中国画的变革根源归根结底在于什么？早在北宋时期，用心灵之眼观察自然之法的创立就已革新了北宋早期的山水画。沈括曾言：“若同真山之支，以下望上，只合见一重山，岂可重重悉见。”新儒学思想家邵雍同样也认为：“观物应以心和以物观物，而非以目观物也，因为惟有心方能见物之真。他还述及：“以物观物，性也；以我观物，情也。”可见，中国山水画的形似总是与捕捉万物之真相关联的，真始于观者之心，而中国画的变革皆始于“心”，这就诠释了中国画家苦苦探索变革的源头。
一切变化皆由心而生，以心和真性情去观察事物，以我观物，才能在继承前人的基础上，融合自我的心性，创造出不同于古人，不同于师长，不同于同辈的具备自己主观性和风格性的作品来。赵志军正是意识到了这一点，在时刻历练心性的同时，不断在前人的基础上，探索新的体现自我的表达方式。因而我们才会看到，赵志军的作品，一度张张不同，互相之间毫不关联，仿佛不是出自同一人之手。
赵志军比较注重平面性和装饰性，很重视构图和造型方面的装饰风格，在形式上追求一种美的感觉。这是西方几何抽象艺术的风格与山水画法结合的实践。几何抽象是蒙德里安的新造型主义审美观念的主要原则，重平面化，体积感、空间感和环境因素。跟欧洲的几何抽象在1960年平行发展的，是美国流行的极简主义，它与硬边艺术的相似之处，在于力图将造型语言精炼化，纯粹化，将抽象表现主义中依然存在的图式、形象或空间，减少到最小的基本的几何图形，以及采用最精纯无比的原色。赵志军的作品非常注重色调，有的强调主观，有的将主客观色调对立起来，或者将色块统一起来，无论对立或统一，都是为了追求画面的协调感，这一点表现出赵志军在西方色彩方面的修养。
What is the root of Chinses painting innovation? As early as Northern Song Dynasty, the creation of using heart to observe nature had innovated the early Northern Song Dynasty landscape painting. Shen Kuo once pointed out that “if you stand on the foot of a real mountain and look up, you can only see one mountain, impossible to see all the mountains behind it.” The New Confucian School thinker Shao Yong also believed “you should use heart and objects but not eyes to observe objects, because only heart can see clear the true nature of objects.” He further commented that “using objects to observe objects is natural, while using heart to observe objects is sentimental.” Therefore, the shapes in Chinese paintings are always trying to capture the true nature of the world, and truth starts with the observer’s heart. The innovation of Chinese paintings also starts with “heart” and such is the root of Chinses painters’ persistent exploration.
All changes start from hearts. Only by using heart and true feeling to observe, using “me” to observe, one then can apply his own heart on the base of inheritance, to create works with his own feeling and character, different from ancients, different from teachers and different from peers. This is the point that Zhao Zhijun realized and he always uses his heart to explore new ways of expressing himself based on foundations laid by predecessors. We can see Zhao Zhijun’s works are different from each other and have no connections, as if drawn by different people.
Zhao Zhijun also places a lot of importance on composition and decoration, for he pursuing beauty in his works. This is evidenced by his practice in combining Western Geometric Abstract Art with landscape painting. Geometric Abstract is the major principle of aesthetic appreciation in Mondrian neoplasticism, focusing on flatness, volume sense, sense of space and environmental elements. The Minimalism, popular in America, paralleled with Geometric Abstract in 1960’s. Its similarity with hard edge art is in its endeavor to refine and purify composition language, reducing the existing figures, shapes and spaces in Abstract Art to fundamental geometric shapes, and adopting the purest prime colors. Zhao Zhijun’s works emphasize very much on color, some color from subjective, some setting off subjective color with objective, and others forming unified color blocks. Anyhow, setting off or unified, the purpose is to pursue harmony, another proof of Zhao Zhijun’s knowledge on western color application.
《阳光下的记忆》 125×125cm
"Memory in the Sun" 125×125cm
作品《阳光下的记忆》视角很独特，作者选景的角度既可看到宫殿，又可看到外面的建筑，作品用色块来表达思想。夕阳西照，万籁俱静，朱红色的宫墙与灰色色块形成强烈对比，这些对比以几何形状的色块来表现。暗色调的石狮立于画面的前端，明与暗的对比，鲜艳与灰色调的对比，将传统与现代的反差，古典与现在的距离，在阳光下进行了对比，以这种对比与反差来唤醒人们关于时代的记忆，以此关照历史和未来。宫墙代表历史，停车牌象征当下，历史和当下相映成辉，可以体现出作者关于过去与未来的思考。
Memory under the Sun
The angle of “Memory under the Sun” is unique. Through the angel selected by the painter, viewers can see both the palace and the buildings outside. Color blocks are used to reflect the painter’s thought. The sun is about to set, and all is quiet. Red palace wall contrasts strongly with grey color block, and geometric shapes were used to signify the comparison. The dark hue of stone lion standing in the front of the picture, and the contrast between bright and dark, and grey and colorful, represent under the sunlight, the difference between tradition and modern, the distance between ancient and present, and the connection between history and future. The palace wall represents history and the traffic sign represents present, history and present glowing in the same picture, reflecting the painter’s thought regarding past and future.
在作品《荷韵》中，硬边艺术的探索痕迹较为明显，作品中，荷叶的边呈现出与中国体统绘画中的荷叶边的圆润柔美不同之处，而是力求简练，将荷叶改圆为方，呈现出一块块的几何形状。难能可贵的是，作品中的荷花依旧保留了传统的画法，典雅高贵，富于诗意美，叶子融进了西方的处理方法，用稍变形的硬边缘来表现，依然是中国画的题材，使用了不同的表现方法。叶片墨色浓淡相宜，变化多端。光的处理也很微妙，点点光斑照进来，使画面产生浮光掠影的动感。这一作品古意新创，在传统的中国画题材上嫁接出新的元素，使人耳目一新。
赵志军的作品题材广泛，山水、花鸟、人物均有涉猎。他比较注重现代水墨的探索研究，以现代笔墨，舒山水、村庄、城市的现代意趣，“意在笔端，趣在笔传”。赵志军的小品有很强的趣味性，如他的动物小品中，笔墨灵动，意趣盎然。简单几笔，勾出的鸳鸯、鸬鹚、喜鹊、狗、猫都颇有生活气味。江南山水系列借鉴水彩画法，用淡墨渲染出流水，用白描的线勾出房屋，用淡淡的笔墨将小桥流水人家的闲适展现在尺幅之内，小小的画面传递出的，是满满的生活趣味和淡淡的悠闲心境。
笔坚墨妙，境界幽深，气韵浑厚，意味洒脱，赵志军在画中诠释了理想的生活意味。赵志军是个重感情，爱生活和努力创作的勤奋人，他热爱艺术，有无数的话要向世界表达，他不断寻找最适宜的表达方式，因而，他的求变求新执着而坚定。
石涛有一句最禆益后世的话，笔墨当随时代的。我们不能不承认赵志军的中国画是令人耳目一新的时代笔墨。在他的作品中，处处可见现代生活元素，或是故宫宫墙外那一块不起眼的停车牌，或是稻花香里炊烟袅袅的人家，或是香江之畔那一艘小渔船，又或者，是草原上那根拴马的麻绳与木桩，个个小物件，都透着生活烟火，时代气息，画的是寻常生活，抒的是自然胸臆。用自然之笔，艺术之眼，小中见大，平中见奇，无处不在地展示着时代之美。
赵志军出生在山西、学习于内蒙，工作在山东，进修在北京，移居于香港。生活与工作的经历使他仿佛始终被艺术这条无形的线牵着，最终回归于艺术。海德格尔说过：“所有的文学都是归乡。”绘画同文学一样，都属于艺术的范畴，所谓的归乡，可理解为回归故乡，也可引申为回归艺术，回归传统。在艺术的无形指引下，画家赵志军将自己与艺术融为一体，使之成为生命的一部分。在这条广阔的道路上，上下求索，乐不思蜀。
In “Lotus Charm”, the exploration of hard edge art is more obvious. In the picture, the edges of lotus leaves look different from the roundness and gentleness of those common in traditional Chinese paintings. The edges here are more concise, with the roundness changed into squareness, showing geometric shapes. It is commendable that the lotus flowers are still painted with traditional techniques, elegant and noble, like a poem, while leaves are painted with western style, using slight deformational hard edge to illustrate. The work is a Chinese subject but used different methods to accomplish. The ink color of the leaves varies a lot but smoothly. The handle of light is delicate as well, threads of light penetrating in, making the picture float vividly. The work is an innovation upon ancient subject, and applied new technique upon traditional Chinese paintings, how refreshing.
Zhao Zhijun’s works cover lots of subjects, including landscape, flower and bird, figure and so on. He emphasizes on exploring modern ink art, using modern brush and ink to illustrate modern atmosphere of landscape, villages and cities, “with heart at the brush tip, expressing interest through brush”. Zhao Zhijun’s sketches have strong flavors, such as those on animals, as if the brush and ink being alive, radiating vigor. A few simple strokes, mandarin ducks, cormorants and magpies become alive. The series on Regions South of Yangtze River borrowed watercolor techniques, using light ink to highlight the flowing water, simple lines to outline the buildings, and faint brush and ink to represent the peacefulness of rural life. The picture, although small, carries the full flavor of life and a peaceful mind.
Zhao Zhijun expresses his ideal life through paintings, his brush firm, his ink delicate, his knowledge deep and his mind free. He works diligently, with lots of affection toward life and other people. He loves arts, having many thoughts to communicate to the world, and constantly looking for suitable ways to express. Therefore, his innovation is persistent and focused.
One of Shi Tao’s sayings most beneficial to the later generations is that “brushes and inks shall follow the time.” We cannot deny that Zhao Zhijun’s Chinese paintings are innovated modern ink art. In his works, modern elements are everywhere, a traffic sign outside the wall of forbidden city, a home in the rice paddy aroma with smoke curling up its chimney, a small fishing boat near the bank of Xiang River, or the rope and wood stake used to hitch a horse in grassland. Every piece of small objects is radiating the smell of life and the spirit of times. What he drew is normal life, but what he expressed is his mind. Using brushes of nature and eyes of arts, he expresses the beauty of times everywhere, big or small, normal or significant.
Zhao Zhijun was born in Shanxi, studied in Inner Mongolia, worked in Shandong, further educated in Beijing and settled in Hong Kong. The invisible line of art has always guided him through his life and work and led him back to art at last. Heidegger once said, “all literature is like returning hometown.” Painting is like literature, both being arts, and the so-called returning hometown can be construed as going back to home, or be inferred as returning to arts and tradition. Under the invisible guidance of arts, the painter Zhao Zhijun has fused himself with and become an integral part of arts. He searches up and down on this wide road, too happy to divert.
《文明与和平》96cmx180cm
求进
明娄坚尝言:“字画小技耳。然而为精研则心与法不相入，何由通微？不积习则手与心不相应，何由造妙？师法须高，骨力须重，已识其源，虽师心而暗和。”娄坚在这里提出书画艺术想要达到通微造妙的境界，须要付出诸多努力，包括识其源和师心。
书画艺术是一种有意味的形式。如何使这种形式富于意味？又如何在有意味中创造新的形式，如何在变化中提高自己的艺术修养和素质，真正做到变而愈进，这是赵志军常常思考的课题。
Pursue
Lou Jian of Ming Dynasty once said, “painting and calligraphy are small skills. However, if you practice too hard to think, how can you achieve delicate? But if you don’t practice enough, how can you master the techniques? The techniques you need to practice must be high, and you must practice hard. Once you master the techniques, even you focus on thinking when painting, you still can create a masterpiece.” What Lou Jian stated is that if you want to achieve a higher status in painting and calligraphy, you need to work hard and think a lot as well.
Painting and calligraphy are a form of taste. How to make the form more tasteful? And how to create new form out of original taste, to increase one’s knowledge and wisdom and achieve progress through innovation? These are the questions that Zhao Zhijun thinks a lot.
“夫理绝于中古之上，意求于千载之下，旨微言于言象之外者，可心取于书策之内”在小小的方寸之间徘徊与前进，意境接驳千载，心中承载古今，循古求变，变而新变而进，对艺术家而言，着实不是一件容易的事。
清华大学博士生导师杜大恺说过，赵志军一直敏于思考，勤于创作，有很多收获。“他对造型有很好的理解，观察细微，有把握整体的能力，人体作品充分显示了他在这方面的长处。不同类型的作品均画的平实、朴素，人物强调平面性，风景则重在不同肌理的处理，都是有选择、有目标的。”
移居香港以后，赵志军和香港本地的艺术家广泛交流，多次参与大型艺术展览和学术交流活动，在学习与交流中深入思考，笔耕不辍，以期寻求新的突破。作为香港画界的水墨新军，赵志军和同样来自内陆高等美术学府受到的传统中国画教育的画家们一起，承担起对香港水墨画寻根的历史责任。从这层意义来说，关于创作风格的探索已经超过了个人层面而具有社会意义并且显得任重道远。赵志军也担任了诸多艺术和社会职务。
“Theories that are disappeared since ancient times can be derived through hard thinking a thousand years later. Although the ancient people’s theories are difficult and can’t be seen from daily life, we still can understand them through study of books.” Pacing and progressing in the small area of paper, with atheistic conception connected through thousands of years, and with the past and present all stored in heart, pursuing changes while following the tradition, progressing through changes, these are all difficulties that an artist needs to be aware.
Du Dakai, a Doctoral supervisor in Tsinghua University, once commented that Zhao Zhijun had always been good at thinking and diligent at working therefore achieved a lot. “He has good understanding of shapes and acute observation, and the ability to control the whole picture. His figure paintings showed his ability in this space extensively. His different styles of works all carry an honest and simple tone. In figure painting he emphasizes on flatness, and in landscape painting he emphasizes on layering, all with purpose and objective.”
After moving to Hong Kong, Zhao Zhijun engaged in extensive interaction with local artists, and participated in many large-scale art exhibition and academic exchanges. He thought deeply and work hard during these learning and exchange opportunities, hoping to find a new breakthrough. As a newcomer in ink art area of Hong Kong painting community, Zhao Zhijun, together with other painters who were also educated in Chinese paintings in mainland universities, bears the responsibility to seek the historical roots of Hong Kong ink art. From this point of view, his exploration in art style has reached beyond his personal agenda and been entrusted with social experiments. Zhao Zhijun also assumed many art related social posts.
除了笔墨探索，对现实的人文关怀构成赵志军创作的一个特点，因而，香港的花草树木、海河山川也成了赵志军画面中的选材。构成当下“港水港墨”艺术求索的重要审美特征。
恽寿平曾对王翚的领悟力赞叹不已：“余见石谷画凡数变，每变益奇……变而至于登峰。”这也是我所期待能够在赵志军画中见到的。虽然他酣畅灵动的天性在细节中有所泄露，然而作品的整体构图看来有些规整拘谨，当中蕴含着当今的祥和盛世所带来的自豪与快意。
当然，赵志军的作品不是十全十美的，他做人画画严谨认真，这是其优势，也恰是其不足。傅抱石说过，做人要老实，画画不能老实。赵志军有很好的传统功底，若笔墨再率性随意一些，创作更大胆豪放一些，在东西方色块与色彩的揉和上可更加洒脱一些，在创作中更敢于用解衣磅礴的淋漓，不惧古人与来者，酣畅自如挥洒心中所想，掌握最适宜的法度，这样他的艺术面貌将会更加浑厚洒脱，作品之艺术精神会更加自由奔放，以“我”之心去观照世界，如此，他的创作将更具风格。希望赵志军继续努力，吸收新的理论自信，来充实古老的中国画，找到二者之间真正的融合。
作者：常雨啨（人民艺术家联合会副主席）
Besides exploration in painting, caring of humanity in real world is also one of Zhao Zhijun’s characters, and as such, the flowers, trees, sea and mountains of Hong Kong have also become subjects in his works. His effort has constituted an important part of atheistic appreciation in the current trend of exploration in “Hong Kong water and Hong Kong ink”.
Yun Shouping once highly appraised Wang Hui that “I have witnessed he changed his style several times and his techniques improved with each change…till reaching apex.” This is also what I expect to see in Zhao Zhijun’s works. However, although his innovation nature is revealed through details, the overall composition of his works is still somehow overcautious, maybe limited by the current time’s stigma.
Of course, Zhao Zhijun’s works are not perfect. He is a serious person, both in life and in painting. This is his advantage as well as disadvantage. Fu Baoshi once said that you need to serious in life, but not in painting. Zhao Zhijun has excellent foundation in tradition, but he could use brush and ink more freely, be more brave in creation, and be less restrained in combining eastern and western style of color application, not fearing any boundaries and the ancient and future generations, so as to express himself freely, using the most appropriate methods, and to make his works simpler and more vigorous, and his spirit carried by those works freer. Using “my” heart to observe the world, he will make his work more stylish. I hope Zhao Zhijun can continue the effort to absorb new theories to enrich ancient Chinses paintings and find the true fusion between east and west.
Chang yuqing "Vice chairman of people's artists association"
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