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When the Interest of Scholars Is Turned into Contemporary Temperament
Zhang Zhaohui
In the first 8 years of the 21th century, new art in China is striding towards internalization. In other words, it is being admired and accepted by increasing audience as well as institutions both at home and abroad in an unprecedented scale, degree and scope. Modern artistic forms and materials, such as oil paintings, photography, sculptures, performance art, devices, videos and digital works, have predominated the so-called contemporary Chinese art, while the traditional media and methods such as ink and wash painting and calligraphy are usually ignored. Then people cannot help asking: cannot traditional media be applied to contemporary art? There is also a relevant question: among the artists dealing with traditional artistic media, are there anyone who are exploring the contemporary art? Of course the answer is “yes”. The exhibition has introduced more than 10 young artists who are researching and exploring the transformation of ink and wash painting from its traditional form to the contemporary shape. Having knocked down the barrier in the techniques and ideas of ink and wash painting with their works and inherited the oriental traditional aesthetic essence, they are developing contemporary art in different ways which have enriched the practice of contemporary Chinese art and provided it with diversity and academic depth. Such exploration rooting in its own oriental culture has offered successful cases to the development of contemporary Chinese visual culture. While showing its vitality, it may help with the creation of new contemporary works accepted and appreciated by artistic authority and audience both at home and abroad.
Part One
“Water/Color”, the title of the exhibition, has following meanings. At first, the image of “water” symbolizes key aspects of the traditional Chinese aesthetics. For example, we can find such proverbs such as “The highest good is like that of water” and “The virtuous love mountains while the wise like water” in Chinese classics. Besides, the symbolization of water is still influencing our thought and aesthetic tendency. Water symbolizes mobility, adaptability as well as containment. Places with water are full of vigor and vitality while where lack of water will become deserts and wastelands. “Water is glittering in sunny days, and the misty mountains appears fancy in the rain” - the personated description of “water” shows the traditional oriental aesthetic philosophy and sensory experience. Moreover, the key of ink and wash painting lies in how well the painter can handle water, and ink is merely used to add color. The saying “ink has multi-level colors” just emphasizes the trace, interest and aesthetic experience resulting from water. The western painters use oil to mix colors, while in the eastern painting the ink or paint is toned with water. Besides, the reason for adopting absorbent rice paper is to fully show the subtle sense and aesthetic interest brought by water trace, for which we have the saying “interest and taste are brought by the brush and ink”. To make the artistic narration contemporary is to master the sensibility of water and convey its spiritual meaning. Therefore, regarding to the use of medium materials, the core values of ink and wash paintings are different sensory experiences and the expression of aesthetic sensibility towards water. This can also explain why the skill of using ink is not the single and ultimate standard for ink and wash paintings. The character “se”, which means “color”, holds a wealth of meaning in Chinese, and it refers to “social reality” and “scenery” in this exhibition; of course here it also implies “sex” and “beauty” to some degree. Therefore, what the exhibition “Water/Color” emphasizes is to focus on the real life with traditional Chinese aesthetic angle of view towards water and discover the possibility of creating contemporary artistic visual scenery with traditional media and concepts.
Shapeless, colorless, tasteless and seamless, water can fully reflect the traditional aesthetic standard of “The most beautiful scenes do not have fixed forms, and the greatest music cannot be enjoyed with ears.” Such aesthetic sensibility towards water can be reflected in many exploring practices targeting at ink and wash art, regardless of the materials, methods and artistic ideas such practice and exploration is finished with. The traditional Chinese aesthetics rather values sensibility and intuition, and association, comparison, meaning transferring as well as metaphor are important rhetoric methods. The feeling towards “water” can lead to various associations. For example, water symbolizes “pureness” and so can be compared to friendship, such as that in the proverb “Two gentlemen appears indifferent to each other but their friendship is as pure as water”; it is also likened to the lingering and endless love as well as yearning between lovers, such as that in “Night after night I miss you, but what I see is only the water in the Yangtze River”; when used to describe kindness, it makes people feel its intenseness and deepness, such as that in “The water of Peach Blossom Pond is a thousand feet deep, but Wang Lun’s kindness is much deeper than that”. Besides, water can also be used to express one’s melancholy and disappointment, for example, “If you ask me how sad I am, just see the water in the river flowing east in spring.” Just like traditional literati paintings often use the plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum and pine to symbolize lofty characters such as faithfulness, elegance, modesty, nobleness and toughness, water in such painting tradition also has profound meaning which is broader and more common and can even rise to the level of aesthetics and world outlook. For example, in Yin-Yang and Five Elements (metal, wood, water, fire and earth) of Taosim, “water” is just in the middle. Water plays an important role in the traditional heritage of Chinese visual art, too: it has become significant object of artistic expression and experience. Paintings portraying natural environment and scenery are called “landscapes” in the west, while Chinese call them “Shan shui paintings” (mountain-and-river paintings). Having always been in the dominating position, such paintings have influenced the surrounding countries such as North Korea and Japan. It is widely believed by the artistic experts in China that the mountain-and-water painting is the kind of ink-and-wash painting that has attained the highest artistic achievement because it has reflected the character and interest of the ancient intellectuals. The literati’s interest has become more popular, commercialized, and sometimes even vulgar in the past century, while that growing out of ink and wash painting does not undergo great change.
The idea about materials and media is an important clue for the development and criticism of international contemporary art. For the materials and media, once their instrumental features are transformed into autonomy, they will acquire their own property of culture and value, by respecting which the artists can produce values and significances of contemporary art through selecting and using the materials in a given contemporary cultural context. Therefore the abstract and conceptual art are vitally and directly related with the artist’s understanding as well as perception towards materials and media, for which the narrative function of artistic works faded while the individual creativity of the artist is released on the international stage. In the contemporary Chinese art pedigree that is recognized by artistic authority at home and abroad, few Chinese artists have researched modern materials and media deeply and carefully. Rather, the artists’ energy and intellect have been distributed to symbols, schemas and stories -- the narrative and literary functions - about ancient China and the Cultural Revolution. Therefore the criticalness of contemporary Chinese art is always superior to its exploration and refinement towards cultural tradition. Insensitive to modern industrial and technical materials as well as media, the art mainly highlights the traditional oil or ink-and-wash painting skills and emotional catharsis. Of course, the sociopolitical tendency of contemporary Chinese art has its own realistic necessity, because among all social relations in the current society of China, the political power is always dominating. Battles and contradictions between different social classes and political forces have endowed the society with complex appearance, and it is understandable and acceptable that some artists are keen to describe such complexity. However, if the visual art in China is dominated by such works, then it will be disappointing and never go in line with the international art.
The universal principle that contemporary art should be diversified also requires the diversification of contemporary Chinese art. Although the current artistic practice cannot completely get rid of its narrative tendency, it has more room for exploring and transforming the media and materials. In such art, water, ink, rice paper as well as mineral paints remains the basic elements, and we still use the brushes and ink; however, the interest produced by “brush and ink” has been diluted and defused. Even the traditional ink-brushes are being replaced with western brushes, pencils, air brushes, oil pastels and food, and the ink has been substituted by acrylic and oil paints. Among all these elements, water, which possesses both the traditional meaning of aesthetic sensibility and contemporary universality, is hard to be replaced by other new materials and techniques. At the same time, few foreign artists use water in their works or have aesthetic experience towards it. Therefore, from the perspective of material concepts in contemporary artistic practice, contemporary Chinese artists have unique potential in the refining the aesthetic sensibility of water, and their practice may provide contemporary international art with fresh cases for criticism and study.
How the contemporariness of “water” is shown in the artists’ creation? Obviously, natural water has composed an important component of the physical world. However, water in contemporary industrial-and-commercial society is not merely the “water” in the natural world but the processed or used material as well as hierarchical product such as purified water, mineral water, distilled water, sanitary sewage and industrial sewage. In real life, the worsening water pollution has badly affected people’s living quality, and the shortage of water has resulted in anxiety and conflict. Therefore, the water today is no longer that in a perfect Arcadia, or what surrounds the green mountains and can bring romantic moods, but the source material used for industrial development and living consumption. The young artists who immersed themselves in ink and wash art has a complex feeling towards water: on the one hand, they can enjoy the delicate use and meaningful expression of water in traditional art; on the other hand, they, in their lives, are facing various problems and conflicts concerning water. Therefore, a lot of young artists unwilling to be tied to traditional forms of ink and wash paintings are rebelling the complacency and conservativeness of traditional art while attempting to understand and digest the essence of such art in terms of aesthetics and techniques, because only such rebelling is powerful and constructive. Indeed, the practice of extracting “water” from ink and wash paintings and making it independent from the ink can somehow help us rectify this kind of art radically and be associated with the material concept of contemporary art. It is not necessary for the contemporary value of the works to be attached to the traditional concept and aesthetic taste of ink and wash painting; on the contrary, it needs revision and refinement. Thus the ink and wash art can gain liberation and more freedom in the realm of contemporary culture.
Part Two
In the existing artistic field of ink and wash painting, both the academic authority and traditional concept have overemphasized the literati ink-and-wash paintings with drawing techniques as its core, while the meticulous heavy color paintings, which are more popular and easier to resonate with common audience, have been ignored. The latter stick to strict technical process and requirement, which is despised by the literati paintings that hold “Painting carelessly and not seeking similarity in the appearance” as their principle. However, it is the grand court meticulous paintings as well as bright and colorful folk meticulous paintings that have composed the foundation of traditional Chinese art. Since modern and contemporary artistic theorists, who are dismissive of the “artificial features” of works, have strong aesthetic interest as traditional literati, the spiritual heritage of meticulous paintings has always lacked systematic collation and in-depth academic research. There are many preceding artists who create with meticulous painting skills, but few of them, except for Li Shaowen, He Jiaying and several others, have been widely recognized. Fortunately, a group of young artists taking artistic exploration by painting with meticulous delineation and heavy colors are budding in the field of contemporary art during recent over 10 years, such as Zhu Wei, Lv Peng, Xu Xianglin, He Jian and Xu Hualing. With distinct personality and maturity, their artistic practice has been gradually recognized; all of them have shown their unique talent for art.
After many years of artistic practice and theoretical conflict between tradition and modern, the west and the east, as well as the national and the international, young artists have realized their cultural dilemma and opportunity soberly. Inspecting the cultural tradition of their nation from contemporary cultural perspective, they are still diligently exploring the possibility of depicting modern life with traditional meticulous figure painting and religious painting languages. After a long period of artistic practice and consideration, they have found their personal artistic sensibility and created their own realm with the artistic language of meticulous paintings. We can say that Zhu Wei, who have made outstanding achievement in the fields of ink and wash paintings, woodcuts and sculptures, is the first artist to introduce meticulous painting techniques into contemporary Chinese art. Especially, when numerous Chinese emerging artists were creating “political pop” and “satire-realistic” works with oil painting techniques 15 years ago, he began to explore the possibility of expressing the political life in contemporary China with traditional meticulous paintings and finished his representative works “The Utopia Series”. As an artist born and growing up in a military family in Beijing in the 1960s, he showed his reflection on the humanity of people in the political torrent. Al though his works have been greatly distant from traditional meticulous ink-and-wash paintings, the techniques he used, such as color selection, outlining and blending, have remained their basic features. The contrast between the traditional language of his works and the view of contemporary political life has endowed the paintings with irresistible attraction.
Lv Peng has long experience in ink and wash paintings, so he can utilize the techniques of freehand painting and meticulous ink-and-wash painting easily to shift between them or combine them freely. His works have integrated the fragments of Chinese culture in ancient times and real life with various symbols of “revolution” and “desire”. The pictures produced in this way seem complex and bulky, but they have shown the essence of the corrupted contemporary Chinese culture and people’s spiritual dilemma. Full of mobility and uncertainty, Lv’s paintings show a kind of confusing sub-consciousness that can extend freely, which is closely associated with the philosophical meaning of “water” upheld by traditional Chinese culture.
Xu Xianglin has practiced performance art and conceptual art. Later he created such works as “Taihu Rock” and “False Need” that shows the naked relation among desire, power and money with vivid images and direct artistic language by condensing his living and artistic experience on rice paper. Xu’s new works are made with multiple materials, including clipart, sketch, hard-pen drawing and line drawing, and composed of fragmental feelings towards the real life or the visual memory about time progress: all are about feeling blank and lost. He Jian is keen on ancient wall paintings in China, because the succinct design, accurate and recapitulative lines, variegated color as well as the coarse texture appear so distant and meaningful. However, he has selected contemporary urban life, such as the family, lovers, parties and boating, as the theme of his works that seem to have compressed the vivid real life into an ancient flat world. Lines, the modeling factor, play an important role and appear dignified, firm and expressive in his works. The visual experience brought by the dynamic curves and mottled pictures is far different from that produced by delicate and refined meticulous paintings. Oppositely, Xu Hualing’s works done on silks mainly depict young women in an exquisite and delicate way. The figures’ skin, faces, facial features as well as limbs are all personalized, wonderfully depicting the girls who are as gentle and pure as water. Aesthetic as the works appear, they can still reflect the artist’s personal experience towards life and time. She has achieved the ideal visual effect by blending water and colors repeatedly, so the lines are almost invisible in her paintings.
Room for artists to innovate is limited because of technical requirements of traditional meticulous painting and the texture of the materials to be used. However, the precision of meticulous paintings can make up the shortage of freehand ink-and-wash paintings. Seeking out subjects they interested in according to the features of the materials, the artists have created their own artistic languages and techniques after a great deal of research and practices, proving that it is possible for such an old painting technique as meticulous painting to be made contemporary. Traditional Chinese ink and wash paintings as well as their aesthetic connotation are a rich and profound treasure of art. Hundreds of years of development and exploration by masters of art in different period of the past century have provided contemporary artists with important reference for their mission today. In the field of contemporary ink and wash painting, a lot of artists are striving for the development and renovation of traditional Chinese paintings and ink and wash paintings, leaving rich heritage in the history of contemporary Chinese art with their achievement and talent. The contemporary figure paintings by Liu Qinghe, Li Jin and Li Xiaoxuan has not only inherited the essence of traditional freehand figure paintings but also expressed their subtle and rich experience as well as realistic concern towards the modern society.
Li Huasheng, the only artist senior in age attending the exhibition, was a literati painter of high attainments in freehand landscapes. The travel to America 20 years ago made him realize how the ink and wash art, which he was proud of and good at, was incompatible with modern society, and after that the trajectory of his artistic has changed. He began to explore ink and wash paintings with contemporary features. During recent over 10 years, he has almost given up the styles and images he adopted before entirely, and what are left are only lines drawn with the middle part of the brush as well as continuous or fitful mesh lines. In this way his works have been transformed into abstract paintings. Li Huasheng has endowed his works with international, oriental and personal artistic characteristics through integrating water, ink and lines to get rid of the traditional form and established ideas of ink and wash painting from the aesthetic perspective. With masterful skills and high capacity, he has created a brand-new artistic style and become a significant artist worth in-depth research. In the early 1990s, Jerome Silbergeld wrote an academic monograph on this painter -- Contradictions: Artistic Life, the Socialist State, and the Chinese Painter Li Huasheng. What Li has accomplished during these over 10 years deserves another research work composed by serious scholars.
Peng Wei, who was born in a traditional ink and wash painter’s family, has profound and unique understanding as well as feeling towards ink and wash paintings. At the same time, observing and experiencing the fad of modern commercial society in her personal way, she prefers contemporary artistic language very much. Moved from a flat world to a three-dimension space, she is exploring her own artistic realm among ink and wash paintings, sculptures, colored drawings and female fashion. The “Models” series, her new work, has reflected her spirit of exploration. The life-size models made of paper pulp are similar to traditional western sculptures such as busts, trunks and lower limbs, and the patterns such as butterflies, bees and flies drew in a realistic way on the sexy parts like breast, thigh, buttock and back show female consciousness and feeling with a sense of touching ambiguously and euphemistically. We can say that they are female arts that have subtly integrated commercial culture, traditional literati paintings, western classical sculptures and contemporary erotic culture. It is rather rare that an artist in her age can achieve so high traditional cultivation and feel and master ink and wash paintings so exactly. However, not complacent with her present achievement, she continues to explore new depicting methods and materials to express the social and mental content she interested in with contemporary artistic language, and the features and aesthetic experience of ink and wash paintings are still reserved. Compared with other artists’ works displayed in the exhibition, Lei Ziren’s paintings seem relatively traditional and conservative. The main reason for that is he has retained some features of traditional literati paintings, such as large white space, poems, Chinese seals and calligraphy in his works. We can say that Lei Ziren is a typical contemporary literati painter, because his paintings have precisely expressed his understanding about the tradition of literati paintings and true feelings towards modern life with unique artistic techniques. The pictures have fully reflected the living ideal and aesthetic taste of traditional literati which widely exist with more naked appearance in real social life. Water is well depicted in his works: the exquisite lines as well as the scene of fishing by a lake or bathing in room are all full of water-like lasting appeal. When enjoying his paintings, we can feel the profound meaning implied by literati paintings and the throbs of modern people’s inner world.
Among other exhibited works, Wei Qingji’s paintings are full of ideality that results from both his transformation of traditional ink and wash painting techniques as well as the integration of minimalism and cartoon images. Symbols, which generally appear humorous in his works, are occasionally used for indication rather than narration. In most cases the painter only utilizes water and ink, and colors are rarely adopted. Ink and water are distinctly separated on the pictures: the former is dense while the latter is mild. Geometric figures painted with thick ink set a sedate tone for the painting, while the light and identifiable visual elements are full of vigor and vitality; they have brought musicality to his works.
During the past over 20 years, Zhang Yu has always been devoted to the research, experiment and promotion of experimental ink and wash paintings and organized many times of exhibitions and publications on experimental ink and wash paintings. Besides, as an active practitioner of the art, he has dealt with new literati paintings, experimental ink and wash paintings as well as multiple-material art successively. His works always reflect strong idea of reason and mental implication. This time he displayed his “Finger-ink Series”. “Finger-ink”, i.e. drawing with fingers instead of brush, is an ancient ink and wash painting technique. As a kind of ink and wash painting for amusement, it is technically demanding but with low artistic quality. However, Zhang Yu has simplified and conceptualized such paintings: the only things left in the paintings are his numerous fingerprints that compose some limitless and simple pictures without any idea.
As a prolific artist, Hu Youben has attempted to deconstruct the form of traditional ink and wash paintings in various ways, including many extreme methods such as making huge sculpture with crumpled-up rice paper and creating traditional landscapes on wavy paperboards. Although the traditional materials such as rice paper, ink, paint and water are still used, he has deliberately dismantled and recombined them. Such method is somewhat metaphorical in contemporary China, and when facing his huge comprehensive works, audience and critics are hard to view them from any traditional angle. Hu is both destroying and challenging the traditional ink and wash paintings.
Li Tingting is a young artist who depicts the items closely related with human bodies, such as shirts, shoes, skirts, fruits and other foods, with ink and wash paintings. All these articles for daily use appear graceful and dignified in the paintings because of the materials selected by her. The proper representation of the industrial design products in the works shows her pursuit for design aesthetics. The combination of such pursuit and the traditional aesthetic experience brought by water composes a unique artistic style. It is estimable of the young painter to find her artistic feeling between ink and wash paintings and fashion design, and the practice has carved out a way for the development of her artistic career. She still has a long way to go.
Some young artists are not satisfied with adopting traditional rice paper, ink brush, literati ink and wash painting technique and calligraphy, so they graft performance art, devices, pictures, sculptures, videos and computer edit with ink and wash language as well as its aesthetic quality. Xu Bing, Gu Wenda, Wang Tiande, Zhang Jianjun, Dai Guangyu and others have explored the subject actively and effectively. Besides Peng Wei’s ink and wash devices mentioned above, Li Geye’s devices and Lu Jun’s photography works have also been displayed at the exhibition. Li Geye’s representative works mainly depict men and/or women in water or rain with her unique ink and wash technique. Moreover, she has gradually developed the subject into devices and video works. By making use of modern image technology to produce innovative visual effect, she also combines paintings and videos in some of her works. Li tries to accomplish her artistic exploration through renewing and refining traditional artistic techniques and materials from which the new aesthetic quality is released step by step.
Lu Jun has always been a photographer, but he is fairly interested in traditional ink and wash painting. However, he is not contented with its form that always follows the set routines. In his artistic practice he has discovered the fantastic way in which ink disperses in water: it spreads slowly, forming an illusory image that changes erratically and at last fades away gradually. He found that this is the wonderful vein of water. Lu photographs various shapes of ink dispersing in water and processes the photos with the computer to create landscapes with vivid imagery. Such pictures are different from traditional ink and wash paintings in their texture: they have formed a dreamy metallic world created with digital technology.
Calligraphy is a kind of art sharing the common origin with traditional Chinese paintings, and its history has lasted for about 4,000 years, during which it has become a treasure of art. In the artistic exploration during the over 30 years, a lot of artists have tried to make traditional calligraphy contemporary in terms of artistic techniques and aesthetics. These artists, including Wang Xuezhong, Wang Naizhuang, Gu Gan, Wei Baorong, Wei Ligang and Zhang Dawo, have formed “Modern Calligraphy” School. Referencing the aesthetic experience about calligraphy, they attempt to refresh people’s prejudice against this kind of art. While learning from the methodology of western modern abstract art, they are creating the contemporary abstract art belonging to China.
Wei Ligang, the backbone of these artists, has dealt with traditional calligraphy, modern calligraphy and modern art successively. With a profound understanding about the cultural essence of traditional Chinese calligraphy, he attempts to carve out a way through the rich soil of calligraphy art. After his educational travel to New York in 2005, he has got personal understanding towards the relation between contemporary art and the development of contemporary Chinese art, and consequently his works has undergone deep change. By combining the structure and aesthetic philosophy of calligraphy organically and interacting with western abstract art constructively, he is creating visual images, which are full of sensibility to contemporary time, of ink-and-wash paintings and calligraphy. Wei’s works have completely abandoned characters in traditional calligraphy works. Instead, he borrows expressive lines and strokes from the structure and vivid presentation of handwritings, recombines them and finally produces a brand-new artistic form. The works of above artists are outstanding achievements made by the modern Chinese calligraphy circle for national as well as international contemporary art.
Part Three
The artists selected to attend the exhibition share a common feature: they have all accepted the concept but not form of contemporary western art effectively and selectively. Having studied their traditional artistic language as well as aesthetic philosophy deeply and carefully for many years, they have formed unique and proper understanding towards the ethos of traditional Chinese art and gradually found their own methods during artistic practice and exploration. Their creations have shown their ability to communicate with international community to some degree, which is considered as an important quality for contemporary art. Meanwhile, they are all keenly concentrating on and sensitive to modern society and bearing on shoulders the mission of passing on and developing Chinese culture and art.
Recently, some promoters of new ink and wash paintings relate cities with this kind of art. It seems that they have found the last way to interpret and describe ink and wash paintings. Undoubtedly, associating the massive urbanization China is undergoing with ink and wash painting is a positive endeavor to release creativity of such paintings. However, we should also see that urbanization is not only the real background for artistic creation but also the spiritual home of western modernist art. The so-called ink and paintings in terms of “mental imagery of cities” are based on traditional realistic stance, and their depiction of urban people’s mentality usually mirrors the aesthetic quality of expressionism and symbolism. Such understanding is helpful for transforming traditional Chinese paintings into contemporary ink and wash paintings, but useless for ink and washes paintings to enter the aesthetic domain of contemporary international art. In the early years of the last century, two schools of artists grew out from those returning home from their study of art in the West: one was led by Xu Beihong and the other was represented by Lin Fengmian. The former reformed ink and wash paintings with western classical realism and formed the basic pattern of “Chinese paintings” now; this kind of method was closely related with political demands, so it established the foundation for the ideological national art. While the latter integrated traditional Chinese paintings with contemporary western art elements such as brutalism, cubism and expressionism, by which the old oriental art had been well cultivated with the most advanced achievements of the western culture.
It seems that such artistic practices are more inclusive and pure. Wu Guanzhong, one of Lin Fengmian’s students, has gone even further based on the aesthetic exploration of his teacher and become an unbeatable artist among his contemporaries. Of course, Li Fengmian was ahead of his time with respect to the condition of Chinese art then, for which his art was an “ivory tower” that had not been widely accepted. The main reasons for that are two: on the one hand, he had undergone a lot of political disasters; on the other hand, modern urban culture in China was still in the embryonic stage then. Today, if we merely take urban life as the background and object of ink and wash depiction, then the significance of Lin Fengmian’s artistic exploration will be ignored. Obviously, it is an up-to-date endeavor to examine urban ink and wash paintings against the background of urbanization, but the practice has carelessly fallen into the trap of western modernist art rather than integrating with modern culture, which is seemingly following Xu Beihong’s suit.
Contemporary Chinese art has been dominated by the taste and interpretation of western art institutions and authority, which is unlike to change for quite a long time. The tradition of Chinese visual culture they are not familiar with has been ignored intentionally or unintentionally, and their preference for Chinese stories, symbols, patterns and collective experience has brought some negative effects to contemporary Chinese art which are multiplied in the foam of art market. Moreover, the lack of works rich in cultural implication has always been a serious problem for contemporary Chinese art. As the world comes to know better about China, the value and significance of contemporary Chinese art rooting in the deep foundation of traditional culture is being recognized and accepted by more and more experts as well as elite collectors.
When I was studying art in my childhood, I, who had no condition or opportunity to contact with art, showed special interest in traditional ink and wash paintings and calligraphy (thanks to the peculiar environment I also met some masters of traditional art such as Qi Gong and Zhao Puchu). Later I began to study modern and contemporary western art as most of young artists, but the experience of learning traditional ink and wash paintings, as an aesthetic quality, has greatly influenced my judgment towards aesthetic value. When I studied in New York, I became an intern in Asia Society Museum and participated in a project titled “Inside/Out: New Chinese Art”, an exhibition with Gao Minglu as the guest curator. During the curation, Gao planned to display the works of some avant-garde ink and wash painters such as Wang Tiande, Zhang Yu and Yan Binghui. Then the co-curator, a westerner who was uncertain about contemporary Chinese ink and wash painting, asked for my opinion about it. I discussed with her the potential and possibility of ink and wash painting to participate in contemporary artistic practice, and she thought that my idea made sense but the real status of this kind of art was not persuasive enough. However, at last they admitted the works of above painters, including Wang Tiande’s “Ink-and wash Menu” and Zhang Yu’s “Miraculous Brightness”, into the exhibition. Since my return home over 10 years ago, I have seen more and more talented ink and wash painters showing themselves on the stage of Chinese art, having led to the attention as well as theoretical discussion of the art circle. To a considerable degree, a lot of artists’ practices have met my expectation for the transformation of traditional ink and wash art to contemporary art. We can say the exhibition is an achievement made by the curator after long-term observation, analysis as well as tracking study towards the artists.
Having seen symbols of the Culture Revolution, Socialist patterns and the narrative illustration of modern desire, contemporary Chinese art is calling for the contemporary artistic practice representing the profound Chinese culture, which reflects that this kind of art is entering a new stage. In recent one or two years, contemporary ink and wash art has appeared on the stage of Chinese art in different exhibiting forms, but such panoramic exhibitions are usually short for aesthetic standards as well as value judgment and held for artistic colleagues, or are even small art fairs with works of mixed quality and without in-depth academic study or analysis towards individual cases. Trying to study some valuable ink and wash works from the aspects of the communicability of contemporary art and the thinking mode as well as the innovation in artistic expression of traditional ink and art painting, this exhibition can be considered as an experiment. The entrance of ink and wash art into modern visual art cannot be accomplished instantaneously -- it is only the start of a long journey that is without predetermined destination or existing shortcut and does not need immutable ideas and methods. Just like the water of Yangtze River would be accepted and integrated by the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, ink and wash paintings will become a new kind of art that need our understanding for a wider angle of view after entering the contemporary art realm.
2009
The article was firstly published in the picture album Contemporary Chinese Ink and Wash Exhibition: Water/Color, Page 1, Today Art Museum, 2009.
Zhang Zhaohui was born in Hebei in 1965 and grew up in Beijing. He got Bachelor’s degree in Nankai University of Tianjin in 1988 and Master’s degree in Fine Art from Chinese National Academy of Arts, Beijing in 1995 with Shui Tianzhong as his tutor. In 1998, he received his Master’s degree in Artistic Curation from Bard College in New York. From 1998 to 2002, he was devoted to art theory studies in National Art Museum of China in Beijing, and between 1999 and 2000, he served as Director of Curation Department of He Xiangning Art Musuem in Shenzhen. In 2002 he founded the Xray Art Center in Beijing and became its first Chief Director. Now Zhang is studying for his Doctor’s degree under the guidance of Professor Pan Gongkai, Head of Central Academy of Fine Art. He is also a researcher of Asia Art Archive Center, Hong Kong. The exhibitions he has curated include: “Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Xu Bing & Cai Guo-qiang” (1998, New York), “Setting off from China” (1999, Beijing), “Art Feast” (2000, Beijing), “Gravity Garden” (2000, Shenzhen), “○℃ Plan” (2001, Beijing), “Mask and Face”(2002,Beijing), “New Urbanism” (2002, Guangzhou), “The Produced Happiness”(2003, Beijing), “Life in the Electronic City ”(2003, Toronto), “Contemporary Asian Art”(2003, Seoul), “Bare Androgyny” (2003, Beijing), “Lively Color Brings forth Fragrance: New Life in the Metropolis”(opening ceremony for the Jianwai SOHO District in CBD of Beijing, 2003). Among them, “New Urbanism” was elected the most popular exhibition in 2002 by QianLong.com and Cl2000.com. Besides, he has also published a lot of articles on art in important Chinese art journals, such as Jiangsu Art Monthly, Art China, Modern Art, Avant-garde Today, Reading and National Art Museum, and English-language magazines such as Art Asia Pacific and Asia Art News. His publications include Duchamp, Rauschenberg, Western Art and Sexual Culture, Culture and Morality, Technical Art and New Ideas in Present Times.
当文人趣味转化为当代气质
张朝晖
在21世纪初的八年中，中国新艺术正朝向国际化的方向大步迈进，也就是说被越来越多的国内和国际观众与机构所欣赏和接纳，其面积之大，程度之深和范围之广，都是前所未有的。而所谓的中国当代艺术主要以油画、摄影、雕塑、行为艺术、装置、视频和数码等形式和材料为主，中国的传统艺术媒介和手法，例如水墨宣纸/书法等，则往往被忽略。人们不禁要问，难道传统媒介就不能做当代艺术吗? 相关的问题是，从事传统艺术媒介为手段的艺术家中有没有进行当代艺术探索的呢？当然，答案是肯定的。这个展览介绍了十多位从事水墨艺术从传统形态向当代形态转化的研究与探索的年轻艺术家。他们以各自的艺术成果，突破了前人关于水墨画在技术与观念上的藩篱，在继承东方传统审美精髓的基础之上，正在发展出各自不同的当代艺术图景，从而丰富和充实了中国当代艺术实践的多样性与学术深度。这种拥有各自东方文化根性的当代艺术探索为中国当代视觉文化的发展提供了有成效的案例，也正在呈现出富有生机的当代艺术景观， 并有可能演变出为国内外当代艺术权威与观众所接纳和欣赏的新的当代艺术品类。
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这个展览定名为《水/色》具有如下几层含义，首先，关于“水”的视觉意象体现着中国传统审美观的重要方面，例如传统经典中有“上善若水”，“仁者乐山，智者乐水”的说法，并仍然影响着我们的思维与审美倾向，水体现出流动性、适应性和包容性；有水的地方就有生命，就有生机与活力，没有水或缺少水的地方，便成为沙漠与荒原。“水光潋滟晴方好，山色空蒙雨亦奇”，中国古典词章中对“水”的拟人化审美描述表现了东方传统的审美观和感觉体验；其次，水墨画的关键是艺术家对“水”的体验和把握，墨只是当作色彩而使用，所谓“墨分五彩”，其效果更多的是突出水的痕迹、趣味和审美体验。正如西方绘画是使用油来调色，而东方绘画是使用水来调和墨，或者颜色；而对吸水性强的宣纸的使用也是为了充分展现水迹的微妙感与审美趣味，所以形成了“笔情墨趣”一说。转化为当代艺术叙事即为对水的敏感性的把握与精神意味的传达。因此，从媒介材料上的使用上讲，水墨画的核心价值是对水的不同感觉体验以及审美敏感性的表达。这也能解释为什么 “笔墨”不是水墨画的唯一而终极的标准。在传统艺术语境中的“笔墨”与国画的关系不在本展览的理论叙事的讨论范围之内。“色”在中文中有丰富的含义，但在本展览中是指“现实社会”和“景观”的意思，当然也包含着“性”与“美色”的意味。因此“水?色”展览关注的焦点是用中国传统的水性审美来关注现实生活，挖掘用传统媒介和观念来创造当代艺术视觉景观的可能性。
“水”的无形、无色、无味、无痕的特点体现出“大相无形，大音稀声”的传统审美观，而这种对于“水的审美敏感性可以体现在许多水墨艺术的探索中，无论这样的艺术实践与探索是以什么样的材料和手法完成，或是在什么样的艺术观念支配下所完成。中国传统审美观念中比较关注感性和直觉，在艺术修辞中注重联想、比兴、转义和隐喻，而对“水”的感觉可以引申出许多联想，比如水来比喻友谊，有纯洁的意味，例如“君子之交淡如水”；用水来比附男女思念之情，则有情谊缠绵而悠长的意味，例如“夜夜思君不见君，唯见长江水”；用水表示恩情，可以给人凝重渊深的意味，例如“桃花潭水深千尺，不及汪伦送我情”，水也可以表示惆怅和失意，例如“问君能有几多愁，恰似一江春水向东流”。正如文人画传统中将梅，兰、竹、菊、松等代表坚贞、优雅、谦虚、高洁和坚韧等人格一样，水在文人画传统中也有寓意性，但更为宽泛和普遍，甚至上升到审美与世界观的层面，例如道家阴阳五行中，“水”位于“金”、“木”与“火”、“土”的中央位置。在中国视觉艺术的传统遗产中，水也起着至关重要的作用，成为重要的艺术表达和感觉对象。描绘自然环境与山川容貌的作品在西方叫风景（LANDSCAPE），而中国则叫“山水画”。而山水画一直在中国美术史上占据着主流的地位，并影响到朝鲜和日本等周边国家。而中国的艺术权威们普遍认为，山水画是中国文人水墨画中取得最高艺术成就的门类，而山水画中的成就主要集中在体现了古代文人的秉性和趣味。只是在过去的一个世纪中，这个趣味变得更加普及化和市场化，有的甚至变得庸俗化，而这个在把玩中获得的“笔墨趣味”则一直没有太大的改变。
材料与媒介的观念是国际现当代艺术的发展与评论的一个重要线索，即由材料的工具性特征转化为自主性，材料与媒介自身便具有自己的文化与价值的属性，艺术家在尊重这种固有属性的前提下，来选择和使用材料，并置换到既定的当代文化语境中，从而产生当代艺术的价值和意义。所以抽象艺术与观念艺术和艺术家对材料与媒介的理解和感悟有重要而直接的关系。因此，在国际艺术舞台，艺术作品的叙事性功能减退，而艺术家个人的创造性被释放出来。在目前国内国际艺术权威所认可的中国当代艺术谱系中，少有中国艺术家对现代材料与媒介进行过深入而细致的研究，艺术家的精力与聪明才智被调动到有关中国古代与文化革命时期的符号、图式和故事等叙事性与文学性功能方面，所以我们看到的中国当代艺术的社会批判性往往大于对文化传统的深入开掘与艺术提炼，更缺少对于现代工业与技术材料和媒介的敏感，突出的多是对传统油画或者水墨技巧技术的把玩和情绪的宣泄。当然，中国当代艺术的社会政治学倾向有现实的必然性，因为在中国目前的所有社会关系中，政治的力量往往是决定性因素。不同社会阶层与政治势力之间的较量与矛盾冲突使社会出现了复杂的景观，部分艺术家热衷于对这个景观的表达是可以理解和接受的。但如果中国视觉艺术领域只有这样的艺术或者占据主导地位，那么无疑也是令人失望的，并无法真正与国际艺术接轨。
当代艺术的多样性的普遍性原则也要求中国当代艺术的多元化，与水墨艺术相关的中国当代艺术实践虽然不能完全摆脱叙事性的倾向，但却可以在媒介与材料的探索与转换上有着更多的拓展空间。在这样的艺术中，水、墨、宣纸、矿物质颜料仍然是基本的元素，笔与墨虽然保留着，但“笔墨”的趣味早已经被稀释和化解；甚至各种各样的传统毛笔正在被刷子、铅笔、喷笔、油画棒和食物所替换，墨的效果也在一定程度上被丙烯和油彩所替代。在这些元素中，水则兼具有审美敏感的传统意味与当代普遍性，是很难被其他的新材料与技法所替换；同时，作为材料，对“水”的艺术创作中的运用和审美体验为其他国家艺术家所缺少。因此，从当代艺术实践中的材料观念来看，中国当代艺术家在对“水”审美感觉的提炼方面，具有独特的发掘潜力，有可能为国际当代艺术舞台提供新鲜的批评与研讨案例。
“水”在艺术家的创作中又如何体现了当代性呢？显然，自然界的水构成了物质世界一个关键的组成部分，但现/当代工商社会的水已经不是纯粹自然意义上的水，而是经过加工或者被使用的水，是被等级化的商业产品。它可以是纯净水、矿泉水、蒸馏水、生活污水和工业废水等。在现实生活中，日益严重的水污染极大地影响了人们的生活质量，水的短缺给人们带来焦虑和争端。因此，今天的水已经不是过去理想的世外桃源之水，也不是产生浪漫情怀的青山绿水，而是供工业发展和生活消费的原材料。曾经沉浸在传统水墨艺术中的年轻艺术家对水的感觉充满了复杂性，一方面感受到传统艺术中对水的使用与表现的细腻和深厚，另一方面他们又面对生活中的各种与水有关的问题和矛盾。因此，许多不愿意被束缚在传统水墨画格式里的年轻艺术家一方面反叛传统艺术的故步自封的惰性，另一方面，又试图在审美和技术的层面理解和消化传统艺术中的精髓，因为只有这样反叛才拥有力量的，并且富有建设性。将水墨中的“水”提炼出来，摆脱对墨的依附关系，其实具有某种正本清源的作用，同时，也与当代艺术中的材料观念进行了有效衔接。这样，作品的当代性价值也就不必依附于传统的水墨观念与审美趣味，相反，需要修正和提炼它。当代水墨艺术从而在当代文化领域获得了更大的自由与解放。
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在现有的水墨画艺术领域，学术权威和传统观念都过多地关注了以“笔墨”为核心的文人水墨画，而忽略了另外一类更为普通观众欣赏更容易产生共鸣的工笔重彩画。这种绘画语言的严格的工艺程序、技术要求让看重“逸笔草草，不求形似”的文人画趣味所轻视和不屑一顾，但富丽堂皇的宫廷工笔画和鲜艳亮丽的民间工笔绘画却构成了中国传统艺术的基本面貌。由于视“匠气”如粪土的近/现代和当代的美术/艺术史论者的传统文人的审美趣味浓重，工笔画的精神遗产一直缺少必要的系统整理和深入的学术化研究。前辈艺术家中以工笔画技术技法从事艺术创作的人不少，但除了李少文、何家英等人之外，获得广泛认可的不多。令人欣慰的是，在最近十多年的当代艺术领域，逐步出现了一批以工笔重彩为基本手法而从事艺术探索的年青艺术家，他们个人面貌清晰而成熟的艺术实践逐步被认可，例如朱伟、吕鹏、徐香林、何剑、徐华翎等。他们都展现出各自独树一帜的艺术天赋。
在经过多年的传统与现代、西方与东方、民族与国际等理论纷争和艺术实践之后，年轻一代的艺术家比较清醒地看到了自己的文化困境与机遇。他们以当代的文化观点来审视民族文化传统，仍然孜孜探索着工笔传统人物绘画和宗教绘画语言来表现当代生活的可能性，经过长期的艺术实践与思考，他们各自找到了自己的艺术感觉，并参照工笔的艺术语言打开了属于自己的艺术天地。可以说，朱伟是第一位将工笔画手法引进中国当代艺术领域的艺术家。他在水墨、版画、雕塑等领域都有不俗的表现。尤其是在十五年前，当大量的中国新锐艺术家用油画来做“政治波普”和“讽刺现实主义”作品时，他便开始探索传统的工笔画来表现当代中国的政治生活的可能性，完成了有代表性的作品《乌托邦系列》。他的作品反映了他作为六十年代出生于北京的军人家庭背景下成长起来的艺术家对政治激流中的人性的思考。他的作品已经与传统的工笔水墨画产生了巨大的差距，但在设色、勾勒、晕染等技术层面保持了基本的特征。他作品的传统语言与当代政治生活图景之间的反差使作品获得了难以抗拒的吸引力。
艺术家吕鹏对水墨有着长期的实践经验，这使他能轻松自如地驾驭写意水墨和工笔水墨的技术，并在两者之间自由转化或者相互结合。吕鹏的作品整合了各种古代与现实生活中的中国文化的碎片，用“革命”和“欲望”的各种符号为线索将这些碎片编织起来，看上去纷繁复杂的，充满堆积感的画面，却准确表达了当代中国文化的堕落和腐朽的本质，以及人们精神生活的困境。吕鹏的画面上充满了流动与不确定的状态，一种可以任意伸张而又扑朔迷离的潜在意识，而这与中国传统文化所崇尚的水的哲学意味密切相关。
徐香林曾经从事行为和观念艺术实践，他后来将自己的生活感受和艺术体验浓缩到宣纸上，形成了《太湖石》、《虚假需求》等作品。这些作品用鲜明的形象和直接艺术语言展现了欲望、权势与金钱之间的赤裸关系。徐的新作品则转化为综合材料性质的作品，包括剪贴、素描、硬笔、线描等；而内容则是现实生活的感觉碎片，或者说是时间流程的视觉记忆，总是与茫然和失落的情绪相关。何剑对中国古老的壁画语言十分着迷，那简洁的造型、准确而富有概括性的线条、斑驳的色彩以及粗砺的肌理都显现出悠远的意味。但在内容与题材上，何剑选择了当代的市井生活，例如家庭、情侣、欢宴、泛舟等，作品似乎将活鲜的现实生活压缩到平面型的古老时空。在何剑的作品中，线的造型因素很关键，显得十分厚重、结实而富有表现力。这种富有力度的弧线与斑驳的画面处理所造成的视觉感受，远远不同于传统工笔画的纤柔和细腻。与何剑相反，徐华翎的绢上作品多描绘年轻女性，手法细腻而精致，她们的肌肤、面容、五官、肢体都得到了艺术家个人化的呈现，并恰到好处地表现出女儿家水一样的质感。虽然看上去有唯美的色彩，但也传达出艺术家独立的生命与时间的体验。在徐华翎的作品中，线几乎消失了，因为她充分发挥了水与色在绢上反复渲染所能达到的理想视觉效果。
因为传统工笔画的技术性要求和材料本身的质地，艺术家没有特别大的发挥空间，但工笔画的谨严特征可以弥补写意水墨的不足。艺术家根据材料自身的特点来找到自己感兴趣的内容，并经过大量的研究和实践，发展出自己的艺术语言和手法。这些艺术家的实践证明工笔画这样古老的绘画技术仍然有转变为当代艺术实践的可能性。 中国传统水墨画和自身的审美内涵是一个丰富而深厚的艺术宝藏，几百年的艺术发展历程和近一个世纪以来中国各个历史时期的艺术大师们的探索为今天的艺术家的当代艺术探索提供了重要参照。在现代水墨领域，很多艺术家都为国画和水墨画的更新发展做出了各自的努力，以各自的成就和才华在中国现代美术史上留下丰厚的遗产。在当代水墨画领域，刘庆和、李津、李孝萱的当代人物画不仅继承了传统写意人物绘画的精髓，而且表达了对当代社会的细腻而丰富的人生感受和现实关切。
参加这个展览的唯一的年长艺术家是李华生。他曾经是对写意山水画非常有造诣的水墨文人画家。二十年前的美国之行完全改变了他的艺术轨迹，使他意识到自己曾经非常自豪而高深的水墨画艺术在当代社会环境中是多么格格不入，他开始摸索具有当代感觉的水墨画。最近十多年来，他几乎完全放弃了原来的水墨画，而只保留了中锋用笔的勾线，形象也完全消失，只剩下格子状的连续或者断断续续的网状线条，从而蜕变成完全的抽象绘画。李华生的艺术则通过对水/墨/线条/的整合探索了兼有国际性，东方性和个人性的艺术面貌，从而在审美的层面脱离了水墨画的传统格式与固有观念，他以深厚的水墨画功底和素养，发展出崭新的艺术面貌，从而成为一个可以进行深入研究的重要艺术家。九十年代初，美国学者谢伯轲（JEROME SILBERGELD）曾经撰写了研究李华生的学术专著《矛盾：中国画家李华生的艺术生活与社会主义国家》（CONTRADICTIONS：ARTISTIC LIFE， THE SOCIALIST STATE，AND THE CHINESE PAINTER LI HUASHENG），而李华生最近十多年的新探索值得学者们再完成一部严肃的研究著作。
出生于传统水墨画世家的彭薇对水墨艺术有自己深厚而独到的理解与感受，同时，她对当代艺术语言也情有独钟，并对当代商业社会的流行风尚有个人化的观察和体验。她的作品逐步从平面走向三维空间，在水墨，雕塑，彩绘与女性时尚之间，探索着自己的艺术视阈。她的《模特儿》系列是最近的新作品，体现了她的探索精神。她用纸浆做成真人大小的商业模特儿，但如同西方的传统雕塑的格式，例如胸像、半身像、躯干、下肢等，在胸部、大腿、臀部、后背等体现女人性感的部位画上写实风格的蝴蝶、蜜蜂、苍蝇等，体现出暧昧而委婉的女性意识和有触摸意味的心理感受，可以说是巧妙地结合商业文化、传统文人画、西方经典雕塑和当代情色文化的女性艺术品。彭薇的传统修养和对水墨画的感觉与把握是同龄人中少有的，但她不满足于现状，积极探索新的表现方式和材料体验，将自己对感兴趣的社会与心理内容通过当代艺术语言表现出来，同时，还带有水墨画的感觉和审美体验。 在所有参加展览的艺术家中，雷子人的作品在外观上看起来显得传统和保守一些。这主要是因为他的作品仍然保留着传统文人画的一些特征，如大面积的留白、题诗、印章、书法等一应俱全地出现在他的画面上。可以说，雷子人是位比较典型的当代的文人画家，因为他的作品准确地表达了自己对文人画传统的理解，而且用他独特的艺术手法表现了他对当代生活的真实感受。画面上也洋溢着传统文人的生活理想与审美品位，而这样的理想与品位在现实社会生活中是大面积地存在的，并且表现得更加赤裸。在他的作品中，对水的表现十分的充分，无论是线条的灵妙使用，还是对湖面垂钓，室内洗浴的场景的描绘，都洋溢着水一样的韵味。欣赏他的艺术不仅可以感受到文人画的隽永意味也可以感受到当代人心灵世界的悸动。
在参加展览的艺术家中，魏青吉的作品很富有观念性。他的作品的观念性一方面来源于他对传统水墨手法的改造，另一方面来自对极简主义态度和卡通造型的整合。偶尔出现的符号往往是标示性而不是叙事性意义，而且一般具有一定的幽默的成分。魏青吉的作品一般只用水和墨，很少使用颜色。墨与水在他的画面上分成两个截然不同的部分，前者浓重而后者清淡。浓重的几何形墨色奠定了画面上沉稳的基调，而轻松的可以识别的视觉因素则充满活力与生机。两种因素在他的画面上构成了音乐感。
张羽在过去的二十多年中一直致力于实验水墨的研究、实验和推广，曾经持续不懈地组织过大量的试验水墨展览和出版物。他自己也是实验水墨的积极实践者，他经历过新文人画，实验水墨和综合材料这三个主要阶段。张羽的作品一直体现了强烈的理性观念和心理意味。这个展览展出了他的《指墨系列》作品。“指墨”其实原来是古老的水墨手法，以手指来模仿墨笔作画，技术性要求很高，但艺术品质不高，是水墨画杂耍化的表现。张羽则将指墨手法单纯化和概念化。他只是在画面上留下自己的手印，反反复复的指纹印迹使画面成为无始无终的界面，一个排除了任何理念的纯粹画面。
胡又笨是一位多产的艺术工作者，对于传统水墨，胡又笨尝试了各种各样的方法来解构原来的水墨画格式，其中包括很多极端的手法，例如将宣纸揉烂，做成巨大的纸雕塑，将传统题材山水画画在起伏不定的手工纸板上等等。虽然仍旧使用宣纸、墨、颜色、水等，但他刻意将原来的材料拆解，然后重新组合。这样的方法在当代中国具有某种隐喻的色彩，而面对他的巨大的综合性作品，观众和评论家很难再使用任何传统的眼光来看他的作品。胡又笨是传统水墨画的破坏者和挑战者。
李婷婷是一位年轻的艺术家。她用水墨来描绘与人身体的关系十分密切的用品，如衬衣、鞋子、裙子、食物瓜果等。因为材料的关系，这些贴身的生活什物在她的画面体现出飘逸而凝重的意味。作品中对工业设计产品的恰当表现体现了她对设计美学的追求，这样的追求与传统的水的审美感觉的结合构成一个独特的艺术面貌。对年轻的李婷婷而言，在水墨与时尚设计之间找到自己的艺术感觉是难能可贵的，这打开了她艺术发展的门径，在以后，她还有漫长的路要走。
一些年轻的艺术家并不满足于传统的宣纸与毛笔，以及文人水墨和书法，而是将行为艺术、装置、图片、雕塑、视频、电脑编辑等与水墨语言及其审美品质进行嫁接，徐冰、谷文达、王天德、张健军、戴光郁等人在这些方面都进行过积极而有效的探索。在这个展览上，除了上面提到彭薇的水墨装置作品外，还展出了李戈晔的装置和陆军的摄影作品。李戈晔的代表作品是用自己的水墨手法描绘水中和雨中游泳的男人或/和女人。而且她逐步将这个母题发展成装置和视频作品，或者绘画与视频的结合，利用当代影像技术来传达新鲜的视觉效果。她试图通过更新和提炼传统艺术手法与材料，来完成自己的艺术探索。新的审美品质也逐步从新材料与手法中释放出来。
陆军一直是位摄影工作者，却对传统水墨画十分感兴趣，但他不满足于陈陈相因的传统水墨画形式。陆军在艺术实践中发现，墨在水中散开的状态十分的奇妙，慢慢的，像虚无缥缈的意象，又在飘忽不定中不断变化，最后徐徐地消失。他发现这是一种水的纹理，有一种奇妙的感觉。他将这些在水中漫漶的种种墨迹拍摄下来，然后在电脑上重新做图片处理，从而形成意象的山水画。但这样的画面不同于传统水墨的质感，而是有一种金属感觉的，如梦幻一样的由数字营造的世界。
作为“书画同源”的中国书法艺术拥有四千年的历史，在这个历史过程中，书法演变成一个艺术的宝库，门类和流派众多的古代书法艺术成为今天的重要艺术遗产。过去的三十多年的艺术探索中，一批批艺术家试图从传统书法艺术的技术与审美层面进行现代和当代化转型，这些艺术家被称为“现代书法”群体，他们包括王学仲、王乃壮、古干、魏宝荣、魏立刚、张大我等人。参照书法的审美经验，这类艺术家试图更新人们对书法艺术的固有成见，在借鉴西方现代抽象艺术的方法论的同时，正创造出属于当代中国的抽象艺术。
魏立刚是这批艺术家中的中坚力量。他的艺术历程经过传统书法、现代书法和当代艺术几个阶段。他深深理解中国传统书法艺术的文化精髓，力图从书法艺术的深厚土壤中走出一条有东方气质的抽象艺术的道路。2005年游学美国纽约之后，他对当代艺术和中国当代艺术发展的关系有了个人化的理解，作品也随之产生了深刻变化。他的作品有机地结合了书法艺术的结构与审美理念，并同西方抽象艺术进行有建设性意义的对话，从而创造着有当代敏感性的水墨与书法的视觉意象。魏立刚的作品完全抛弃了传统书法的文字性，而是从书法的结构与书写的气韵中体现出富有表现力的线条、笔触等，并将它们重新组合起来，从而建构起崭新的艺术形式。他们的作品是80年代的现代书法之后，中国现代书法领域贡献给中国和世界当代艺术突出成果。
三
这个展览选择的艺术家都有一个共同特点，即有效和选择性地接纳了西方当代艺术的观念而非图式，并对自己的传统艺术语言和审美进行了多年的深入而细致的研究，对中国传统艺术中的精神气质有自己独到而端正的理解，在自己的艺术实践与探索中逐步找到自己的方法，在一定程度上，他们的艺术创作体现了与国际社会公众的可沟通性这样一个当代艺术品质。同时他们都对当代社会有深切的关注与敏感并承担着中国文化艺术传薪继火的使命感。
最近一个时期，一些新水墨的推广者将都市与水墨画联系起来，似乎抓住了阐释和描述水墨画的救命稻草。的确，将中国目前进行的大规模的都市化背景与水墨联系起来无疑是一个释放水墨创造力的积极的努力；然而还应该看到，都市化不仅是一个艺术创作的现实生活，也是西方现代主义艺术的精神家园，但以描绘都市生活场景的所谓“都市心象”的水墨画创作还是基于传统的现实主义立场，对都市人格的心理描绘也往往体现出表现主义与象征主义的审美品格，这样的理解有助于传统国画向现代水墨的转型，但无助于水墨进入国际当代艺术的审美领域。正如上世纪初期，从西方学习艺术回来的艺术家中产生了两类人，一类如徐悲鸿，一类以林凤眠为代表。前者以西方古典的写实技法来改造水墨画，从而形成了目前的“中国画”的基本格局，因为这种方式与政治要求的紧密结合，从而成为意识形态化的国家美术的基本版本。后者以西方现代艺术中的野兽派、立体派以及表现主义的手法来融合传统国画，从而以当时西方文明最先进的成果来关照古老的东方艺术。
这样的艺术实践显得更加包容和纯粹。林凤眠的学生吴冠中则在老师的美学探索的基础上走得更远，成为他同辈人中无法超越的杰出艺术家。当然，相对于当时的中国的艺术现状，林凤眠的探索是十分超前的，所以他的艺术是并没有被广泛接纳的“象牙之塔”。这一方面是由于他面临的政治灾难很多，另一个原因是中国的现代城市文化还处在萌芽状态。时光流转到今天，如果仅仅将城市生活作为水墨描绘的背景与对象，那么，林凤眠的艺术探索的意义就又被忽略了。很显然，都市水墨将水墨纳入城市化的背景来考察，显然是一个与时俱进的努力，但不小心却落入了西方现代主义艺术的窠臼，而没有进入当代文化层面，似乎又重复了徐悲鸿的思路。
中国当代艺术曾经一直被西方艺术机制和权威的欣赏和解读所主导（应该承认，从现在到今后相当长的一段时间内，这种现象还很难改变）。但他们所不熟悉的中国视觉文化传统被有意无意间忽略，而关于中国故事、符号和图式以及集体经验的偏好则导致了中国当代艺术的一些负面作用和影响，这在艺术市场的泡沫中被成倍地放大。而且，缺少有文化底蕴的作品一直是中国当代艺术的一个很大问题。今天，随着世界对中国文化和当代社会的进一步了解，有着深厚传统文化根基的中国当代艺术的价值和意义正在被越来越多的专业和收藏界的精英所认识和接纳。
在少儿时代学习美术时，我曾经对传统的水墨书画情有独钟（因为特殊的环境也接触到一批包括启功和赵朴初等一代传统艺术宗师），也与当时没有条件和机会接触到西方艺术有关。虽然后来象大多数艺术青年一样，走上了学习西方现当代艺术道路，但儿时学习传统水墨书画艺术的经历作为一个审美素养积淀在自己的审美价值判断中。1996年，我在纽约留学时在亚洲协会美术馆做实习生，参与的项目是由高名潞客座策展的“INSIDE/OUT：NEW CHINESE ART”。在策展过程中，高名潞要将王天德、张羽、阎秉会等几位前卫水墨艺术家纳入展览。当时西方的合作策展人对中国的现代水墨感到不确定，问我对中国水墨的看法，我向她谈了水墨作为艺术资源与遗产参与到当代艺术实践中的潜力与可能性，她认为我说的理论有道理，但目前的艺术实践还欠说服力。但最终她们还是在展览中接纳了这些艺术家的水墨作品，包括王天德的〈水墨采单〉，张羽的〈灵光〉等作品。回国十多年来，中国艺术舞台上有越来越多的水墨艺术家脱颖而出，引起艺术界的关注和理论上的探讨，很多艺术家的实践在相当的程度上符合了我对传统水墨艺术向当代艺术转变的种种期待。这个展览可以说是策展人经过长时间地观察、分析、跟踪研究艺术家的结果。
中国当代艺术在经过文革符号、社会主义图式和当代欲望的叙事性图解之后，正在呼唤一种体现着深厚中国文化底蕴的当代艺术实践浮出水面。这显示了中国当代艺术正在进入一个崭新的阶段。最近一两年，中国当代水墨以各种各样的展览形式出现在中国艺术舞台，但这种大全景式的当代水墨展览往往是一个缺少审美标准与价值判断的同仁展览，甚至是小型艺术博览会。作品选择良莠不齐，也缺少深入的学术研究和对个案的深入分析。这个展览试图从当代艺术的可沟通性和传统水墨的思维方式、艺术表达的创新两个方面来研究一批有价值的当代水墨实验。 与水墨有关的艺术创作进入当代视觉艺术不是一个瞬间的华丽转身，而是一个漫长旅程的开始，这个旅程没有预定的终点，也没有现成的捷径，更不需要一成不变的思路和方法。正如滚滚长江水汇入东海和太平洋便会被吸纳与包容一样，水墨艺术进入当代艺术领域之后，它也就不是原来的水墨画，而可能成就一种新鲜的当代艺术探索。我们则需要从更宽广的视角来认识这种新的艺术。
2009
本文首次刊载于今日美术馆2009年出版画册《中国当代水墨展－水色》，p.1
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