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ART ABSOLUTE, the inaugural issue, August 2015
30 Years of Contemporary Art
By Zhu Wei
Being indulging in painting for a long time, I have become more and more conservative toward new things. Painting is a kind of craft. As the more meals you have eaten, the less you want to improvise each meal. I become more critical. Chinese value the feelings on the tongue, while Japanese value the good intention in delicious food. My friends who are familiar with me all know, that in this day and age, I still do not use blog or Wechat, and adhere to my seven-year-old Nokia. However, for a tasty battercake, I can run as far as a kilometer, to pick out accurately from a dozen battercake vendors, a battercake without parsley. A word: Elegant. A word to describe rich people nowadays: Capricious. To the extreme it's like a high standard that aristocrats left over from the late Qing Dynasty could reach: I would rather starve to death than cook.
In the thirty years of Chinese contemporary art, although I didn't catch the parade of defending constitution with the Star Arts Society, I have kept creating art for 27 years. It is full of snot and tears and stumbling. In recent years I made room for breathing and having fun, and then, I realize I cannot go back. Having been busy in painting and exhibitions but without thinking deeply is like squeezing in a long-distance bus over mountains and rivers day and night, and when I get off to urinate, suddenly I want to ask: where are we going now?
Almost everyone knows the Italian Renaissance, and the Three Giants of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. In fact the Three Giants of the Renaissance in Italy are not these three, but the three humanist thinkers 200 years ago: Dante, Petra Grams, and Boccaccio. It's the theory of the three thinkers and their "Divine Comedy", "The Decameron" and sonnets that guided the creation of later artists. Before the birth of contemporary art, the Western art was affected by famous philosopher and thinkers such as Hegel, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Feuerbach, Spencer, and John Dewey, and then by Russell, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Foucault, Jean Paul Sartre, and Derrida. Foucault died in 1984. The structuralism master Derrida went along with contemporary art till 2004. Idea goes before action, just like what people often say, theory guides practice. People decide what they want to eat at home, and then carry a basket to market, while few people go to market and purchase whatever they see. Frankly speaking, theories of these Western thinkers were for their own opera, drama, classical ballet, classical painting, poetry, literature, having nothing to do with Chinese. So, since Chinese contemporary art have been bustling for thirty years, have we produced our own ideological and theoretical system? If we do, what are they? If not, where did our Chinese contemporary art come from? In other words, does China have contemporary art?
It seems difficult to explain this situation, as if to explain the chicken-and-egg problem. If China does not have contemporary art, what are the massive contemporary artworks? Actually it's easy to divulge facts. About what has China been doing in thousands years of history, Teresa Teng sang it clearly in her song: "I can't forget you, but you have forgotten me. You even called me the wrong name. You said you would come to see me two days later, but I have waited for more than a year." Most of our energy has been spent in intriguing against each other, complaining, undermining our credit, without any creativity. If I'm not mistaken, in the Chinese modern art exhibition held in 1989, the curator stood on the door step of the National Art Museum of China, and announced loudly to the world: "Chinese artists spent only ten years, to accomplish the process which Western contemporary artists spent a hundred years on." So it obviously told us that Chinese contemporary art had taken a shortcut. It's an imitation.
Imitation is not a shame, but a bad imitation which leads to internecine is. The inspiration of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Marquez, the master of magical realism in Latin American, was derived from Juan Rulfo's "Pedro Páramo". Juan Rulfo used two generations to place a family into a lonely situation, while Marquez used seven generations. However, Marquez made the whole story more dynamic, more fascinating. Therefore, he was called "the most brilliant master of imitation in the world". Pop art was originated in the United States. When Andy Warhol put popular symbols and trademarks which people were familiar with into painting, it became the pop art. Pop art contained sarcasm towards consumer culture in capitalist society, resistance against the authority of art and easel art, and denial of modern art, but when pop art spread to the Soviet Union, it evolved into Political Pop and succeeded. The examples include Kosolapov's representative work "Lenin and Coca Cola" and Kabakov's installatoin "the Red Wagon". It also results in a famous Soviet contemporary art genre, Moscow Conceptualism. Even the Chinese revolution is not an exception. The salvoes of the October Revolution brought us marxism-leninism, which has been mentioned up to now. Before that, the gunshot of Opium War had brought two Misters to China: democracy and science.
Comparing to the various Western contemporary art schools, Chinese contemporary art couldn't be simpler. Basically they are still Easel paintings, in which the introspection on Cultural Revolution is used as coordinates, the distance from Cultural Revolution is taken as standards, and the symbols of Cultural Revolution is considered as artistic features. This is how the generation born after 50s, 60s and 70s in contemporary art, as well as the 85 Art Movement and Post 89, came out. Their art mixed with some installations, action art, multimedia art that are neither Chinese nor Western, neither corny nor fashionable, and could not be understood by many professional artists. I always think these artists who dare to make artworks that can only be accepted by audiences in post-industrial countries are real fighters. Cultural Revolution is not a result but a phenomenon. To criticize and satirize a phenomenon without any explanation turned the phenomenon into a result. It shows that the Chinese contemporary art is not matured, or lack of expert's advice.
After 1949, state advances while the private sector retreats. With several revolutions and movements, almost all industries have been nationalized, and even Qi Baishi, who had a vendor of seal engraving near Qianmen, was accepted into painting academy by the people's government. I think it was a pity. The shrimp, crab, Chinese cabbage, radish, and bean curd, no matter whether these ingredients of spicy hot pot painted by Qi Baishi are majestic enough to represent the momentum of a booming country and a flourishing nation, the most suitable soil for Qi was still the mass and people. It's like the TV program of super girl competition. Those girls are capable of singing, talking, refreshing, distracting attention, so we offer them certificate of merit, encourage them with words, and if it doesn't work, we pay them money. Then they can make a living by themselves. If each girl were awarded a title of People's Artist, how these kids find their ways in the future? During the Reform and Opening Up, the biggest change that the emergence of contemporary art brought to Chinese art is the change of living environment. This change is revolutionary, epoch-making, and landmark. Artists have done this for almost 20 years. First of all, they used the strategy of encircling the cities from the countryside, and then, they bought a flat in the city. I'm unacquainted with other cities, but the several suburbs around Beijing, Tongxian, Yanjiao, Daxing, Shunyi, Miyun, Huairou, Shijingshan, Yanqing, Sunhe, Songzhuang, Cuigezhuang, Hegezhuang, Tiejiangying, Feijiacun, Suojiacun, Caochangdi, Heiqiao, even Zhoukoudian, the Peking-Man-rich region in Fangshan district, has built a large art park. Secondly, they launched the people's war. They persuaded, educated, and warned the village cadres and ordinary farmers of consequences, changing them from incomprehension at beginning to uniting as one at last, until these locals and artists become a harmonious whole, and everyone is pleasing to each other's eye. Thirdly, they played a war of attrition. Their houses have been dismantled and rebuilt, rebuilt and dismantled. No prairie fire can destroy the grass, while it shoots up again with the spring.
When people enjoy artworks, they always hope to see something other than the artwork itself. The requirement is quite modest. Some artworks went too far to leave nothing behind. Thirty years of Chinese contemporary art is not long, but quite short. The European oil painting has a history of 700 years, and more than 170 years since it has been imported in China. The exploration of their modern and contemporary art has gone through a journey of more than a hundred years. Chinese ink and wash painting has a history of 3000 years. Should our exploration of contemporary art go further? If nothing goes wrong, let's make it an even hundred, shall we?!
《绝对艺术》创刊号二零一五年八月
当代艺术三十年
文/朱伟
因为长期画画的原因，我对新生事物的态度变得越来越保守。画画是一手艺活儿，就像吃饭吃的时间越长反而每顿都不想凑合，反而越来越讲究。中国人讲舌尖上的感受，日本人讲究从美味中感受到心意。熟悉我的哥们儿都知道，现在都啥时代了，我还保持一没微博二没微信，坚持用七年前的诺基亚手机学生款。但是为了吃到口纯正的煎饼却能跑出一里多地，从十几个煎饼摊儿中准确的挑出哪个是没放香菜的。一个字儿：讲究。说句眼下形容有钱人的话：任性。再往绝了说更像当年清末贵族遗老遗少，饿死不做饭。
中国当代艺术三十年，虽然没赶上和星星画会一起参与维护宪法大游行，但也鼻涕眼泪跟头把式的画了二十七年的创作。最近几年倒出空儿来喘口气玩了一阵子，发现回不去了。以前忙着画画，赶展览，没来得及细想，就像挤在长途车里翻山越岭日夜兼程，中间停车下来解个手，忽然想问问咱这是要去哪儿？
几乎每个人都知道意大利文艺复兴，而且都知道文艺复兴三杰，达芬奇，米开朗琪罗，拉斐尔。其实意大利文艺复兴三杰并非指的是这三位，而是在此前两百多年的三位人文主义思想家但丁，皮特拉克，薄伽丘。是这三位思想家的理论和他们的《神曲》，《十日谈》，十四行诗指引着后来艺术家们的创作。西方当代艺术诞生之前有黑格尔，尼采，叔本华，费尔巴哈，斯宾塞，杜威等著名哲学家思想家的影响，之后有罗素，维特根斯坦 ，海德格尔，福柯，萨特，德里达，其中福柯去世于一九八四年，结构主义大师德里达更是伴随当代艺术到了二零零四年。任何事情都是先有主意后有动作，也就是人们常说的理论指导实践。都是先在家想好吃啥，然后再拎着菜篮子奔菜市场，很少有菜市场买上啥吃啥的。这些西方思想家们的理论说句不客气的话，针对的是人家自己的歌剧，话剧，古典芭蕾，古典绘画，诗歌文学，这些理论的诞生真没中国人什么事。那么，中国当代艺术热热闹闹的嚷嚷了三十年，我们有没有产生自己当代艺术的思想和理论体系，有的话在哪儿，如果没有，中国哪儿来的当代艺术。换句话说，中国有当代艺术吗？
解释这事儿似乎很费脑子，仿佛解释先有鸡还是先有蛋这样一个永远说不清楚的问题。如果说中国没当代艺术，那这么多铺天盖地的当代艺术作品是咋回事儿。其实说破这事儿容易，中国几千年下来的历史都在忙乎些什么，邓丽君在歌里唱得再清楚不过了：我没忘记你，你忘记了我，连名字你都说错。你说过两天来看我，一等就是一年多。说白了大部分心思用在计较抱怨外加不靠谱上，创造力几乎为零。如果我没记错的话，一九八九年中国现代艺术大展，策展人站在中国美术馆的台阶上大声向世人宣布：中国的艺术家们用了十年的时间，就走完了西方当代艺术家们一百年才走完的路。这话再清楚不过的告诉大家，中国的当代艺术实际上是抄了个近儿，模仿。
模仿不丢人，丢人的是没模仿好造成两败俱伤。拉丁美洲魔幻现实主义大师马尔克斯的《百年孤独》灵感就是来源于胡安•鲁尔福的《佩德罗•巴拉莫》。鲁尔福用了两代人将一个家族置于孤独绝境，马尔克斯却足足用了七代人，然而他将整个故事变得更富有活力，更引人入胜，因此，曾经有人把马尔克斯称为“世界上最漂亮的模仿大师”。波普艺术发源于美国，安迪•沃霍尔将耳熟能详的流行符号、商标放入艺术绘画中，成为了后来的波普艺术。波普艺术本来含有讽刺资本主义社会消费文化、反抗权威艺术和架上艺术、有否定现代主义艺术的成分，可当波普艺术当年到了苏联时，却演变成了政治波普并获得了成功，比如科索拉波夫的代表作《列宁与可口可乐》，卡巴科夫的装置作品《红色火车厢》等，还因此出现了一个著名的苏联当代艺术流派，莫斯科观念主义。中国革命也不例外，十月革命的一声炮响为我们送来了马克思列宁主义，一直用到现在，其实还能往前推，鸦片战争的一声枪响还给中国带来俩先生：德先生和赛先生。
相对于西方种种当代艺术流派，中国的当代艺术简单的不能再简单，基本上全部停留在架上绘画上，以对文革的反思做为坐标，以距离文革的远近为断代标准，以挪用文革符号多少为艺术特征，由五六七组成的当代艺术队伍，八五美术运动和后八九就这么出现了。中间间或夹杂着少许至今连很多艺术家也看不明白的不中不西不土不洋的装置行为影像作品。我一直觉得在中国搞这些后工业国家对作品多少才能理解的艺术家们才是真正的战士。文革不是结果而是现象，对一个现象不由分说劈头盖脸的一顿批判和嘲讽使现像变成了结果，这说明了中国当代艺术的不高级或缺乏高人指点。
四九年以后，国进民退，几次革命外加运动，各行各业基本都被政府成功收编，就连一直在前门外支摊儿刻章的齐白石也被人民政府接收放到画院养了起来。我一直觉得这是一遗憾。齐白石的蝦，蟹，白菜，萝卜，豆腐，这些专门配麻辣香锅用的小行画，大不大气能不能代表一个欣欣向荣的国家或者蒸蒸日上的民族的气势单聊，其实他老人家最适合生存的土壤是在有群众基础的民间。就像现在的超女选秀等等节目，唱的好，能白话，能解乏，能分散人民群众的注意力，发个奖状鼓励几句，实在不行多给点钱，让她们自己出去混就行了，要是一人发一人民艺术家的称号带着，让孩子们后边怎么混。改革开放，当代艺术的出现给中国艺术带来的最大变革是艺术生态发生了变化，这一变革是革命性的，划时代的，里程碑式的。小二十年来艺术家们其实就是这么做的。首先，以农村包围城市最后再到城里买房。别的地方我不知道，可着北京周围的几个郊区县：通县，燕郊，大兴，顺义，密云，怀柔，石景山，延庆，孙河，宋庄，崔各庄，何各庄，铁匠营，费家村，索家村，草场地，黑桥，就连盛产北京猿人的房山周口店都有一很大的艺术园区。二，发动人民战争。说服教育外加晓以利害，从一开始的不理解到最后的万众一心，从村干部到普通农民再到普通艺术家打成一片，最后谁看谁都顺眼。再次，打消耗战。拆了盖盖了拆，野火烧不尽，春风吹又活。
人们在欣赏完艺术作品的时候，总希望能透过作品看到些什么，这种要求其实并不过分。过分的是有些作品看完就看完了，丝毫留不下什么。中国当代艺术三十年，说长不长说短倒是真短 ，欧洲油画诞生至今七百多年了，传到中国也有一百七十多年，他们的现当代艺术探索已经走过了一百多年的路程，中国的水墨画诞生至今有三千多年的历史， 我们的当代艺术探索之路是不是应该走的更远一点呢，如果不出啥乱子，凑一整数，一百年，行不？！ |
