1988-1992

Around the late-eighties, Chinese ink painting witnessed a modern renaissance. Initially, the incentive for this shift came from a group of traditionally trained ink painters who were experiencing the rapid changes happening in China at the time. They had come to realize that their feelings and surroundings had become drastically different from those of their predecessors. Traditions and values from the past no longer applied harmoniously to the contemporary world. Thus, Chinese painting required diverse developments to respond to the radical changes that were occurring within society. In 1988, Zhu Wei was a student at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Arts Academy. Today, he still owns many of his paintings from that period. Although most of those works were copies of other paintings, they already began to show the style Zhu Wei would employ in his future important works, such as The Story of Beijing. If the development of Zhu Wei’s works from then on has shown signs of inheriting this signature subtle Zen-like parody, then The Story of Beijing from 1991 has undoubtedly defined the artist’s artistic direction. “Foreign Exchange Certificate”, “Stock Exchange” and “Express” were all trendy terms at the beginning of China’s open policy. At the same time, Zhu’s incorporation of classical visual vocabularies into his paintings, have allowed him to successfully achieve his goal of reflecting reality.

1988-1992年

从20世纪80年代后期开始，中国水墨画开始了现代变革的潮流，最初的诱因在于饱受古典传统影响的水墨画家面对迅速变化的中国社会，他们的内心情感和现实境遇都已不同于古典大师，传统久远已与现代不谐，中国画自身需要更多样性的拓展来回应社会的巨变。1988年朱伟仍是解放军艺术学院的一名在校学生，画家自己收藏的多幅创作于这个阶段的作品，虽以“仿八大”命名，但已经初显此后作品风格的端倪，酝酿着此后重要代表作品《北京故事》的雏形。如果说朱伟此后的作品具有并非直截了当的讽刺的禅学趣味的话，1991年创作的《北京故事》彩色稿便已经明确表露了艺术家未来创作的方向。“外汇券、证券、特快”都是改革开放前沿最时髦的词汇，同时对古典语言的成功借用，使得这部分作品恰当的达到了映射现实的目的。