周国桢的古风时期（1981——1988）

古风时期（1981——1988）

进入二十世纪八十年代后，周国桢立足本土意识，然后又把自己的艺术视野扩展到遥远的西部文化，一次又一次从大西北的“黄色文明”中寻求生命重新焕起的力量，从而产生了他的古风时期的系列作品。把从原始艺术中体味到“雅拙”，从汉代雕刻中感受到的“力度”，从唐代艺术中领悟到“博大”和自己的感性生命意识融合一体，塑造出一个充满人性的动物世界。周国桢从无意的残缺肌理的出现到有意的残缺肌理的追求，结果便出现了各种各样残缺肌理效果，这朴素美、残缺美，符合当今世界所追求的返朴归真、回归大自然的审美需求。如珍珠的《波斯猫》、气泡的《黑叶猴》、缩釉的《金蟾》等。

　　他崇尚我们民族的意向化朴素、自然天成的艺术，大胆的单独使用或混合使用匣钵土、大缸泥、紫砂泥等。因而，1985年后又出现了古朴粗矿、手感泥味的大写意作品，从而彻底地从民间艺术向纯艺术迈进了一大步，如作品《落叶归根》、《任重道远》、《牛脾气》、《山魈》、《金丝猴》等，为此将这时期称为“古风时期。”

The third phase: archaic phase (from 1981-1988)

During the 1980s, Zhou Guozhen, based on the local consciousness, began to seek, time and time again, a life-evoking power from the “Yellow civilization” by shifting his artistic vision to the Northwest culture so as to evoke his "Archaic Phase" series. Those works, by integrating the “graceful awkwardness” in primary arts, “dynamics” in Han sculpture, “profoundness” in Tang arts and his own emotion, recreated an animal world full of humanity. From the occasional appearance of deformity to the pursuit of deformity, his works began to show all kinds of deformity effect. Such beauty of simplicity and deformity agrees with people's artistic taste of returning to the nature. Works of this period are represented by "The Persian Cat", "Black Monkey" and Golden Toad. 

　　He admires the purposeful simplicity and natural art of our nation and bravely uses saggar clay, urn clay and zisha mud. Therefore, after 1985 he produced free-hand works which feature being simple, bold and having the feeling of mud. That is a big step from folk art to pure art. The works of this period are represented by "Falling Leaves Return to Their Roots", "Bully Temper"," The MANDRILL" and "The Snow Leopard". Therefore, this phase is called the "archaic phase".