The Impact of Bada Shanren, Late 17th Century Recluse Painter on the Paintings of Zhu Wei, Late 20th Century, ‘Post-89’ Contemporary Chinese Artist

Tan Hwee Koon

Abstract:

Bada Shanren [八大山人], one of the leading individualistic painters of the late Ming and early Ching dynasty has provided 20^th century Chinese painting with its most fundamental substance and direction. Together with Shitao [石涛] (1642-1707), he is the major inspiration for Chinese masters of our times, including early 20^th century master Wu Changsuo [吴昌硕] (1844-1927), Qi Baishi [齐白石] (1864-1957), and Zhang Daqian [张大千] (1899-1983). 

The 20^th century recalls the 17^th century, one of the few eras that can be more trying and uncertain for those who lived through them in many ways. Chinese painters, living in the troubled and dangerous twentieth century, as their country was experiencing war, revolution, and painful social upheavals, found parallels in Bada, a man who had experienced as much or more of disaster and change and who had left his complex and troubled responses in the traces of his brush. In the light of an interest in qualities of art as abstraction with a gradual opening to the West in the late 19^th century, when emotional meanings are conveyed in art through the distortion of traditional forms and qualities by the creation of new individual languages (by a disinterest in academic representation), the Chinese artists found abstraction and emotion in Bada. His powerful and deeply expressive art refreshed the wan, tired, and repetitious art that painting had become in the later Qing period, and modern artists found in it the capacity for renewal.

In this paper Bada’s influence on a late 20^th century, ‘Post-89’ contemporary Chinese artist, Zhu Wei, a product of China’s recent cultural and social upheavals (life under the Communist System, China’s opening-of-doors, Post-Tiananmen) is explored. With reference to published literature on the two artists, the similarities and differences in the life and art of Bada Shanren and Zhu Wei are examined. Based on the reading of two key Bada Shanren’s paintings from 1689 and ten Zhu Wei paintings from 1993-2000, an attempt is made to study how the late 20^th century contemporary artist is influenced by a recluse and eccentric monk painter a few hundred years earlier and how he reinterpret, create and enriched his own art in the language of his times.

Introduction

Bada Shanren, together with Shitao (1642-1707), is the major inspiration for Chinese masters of our times. Even two hundred years after his death in 1705, his full influence has provided 20^th century Chinese painting with its most fundamental substance and direction. The influence of Bada’s art on major twentieth-century masters including Wu Changsuo (1844-1927), Qi Baishi (1864-1957), and Zhang Daqian (1899-1973) have been clarified by modern studies. 

A deeply troubled man, Bada Shanren lived during one of the most tumultuous periods of Chinese history, the seventeenth century. Few eras have been more trying and uncertain for those who lived through them, although the 20^th century was similar in many aspects. Chinese painters, living in the troubled and dangerous 20^th century, as their country was experiencing war, revolution, and traumatic social upheavals, found parallels in Bada a man who had experienced as much or more of disaster an change and who had left his complex and troubled responses in the traces of his brush. 

Interesting qualities of art such as abstraction was also delayed until the late 19^th century with a gradual opening to the West. Emotional meanings are conveyed in art through the distortion of traditional forms and qualities, by a disinterest in academic representation, and by the creation of new individual languages designed idiosyncratically to convey personal expression. When Chinese artists began to learn of the "radical" and "revolutionary" artists of 19th and 20th century France, they not only found the meanings of their art eminently suitable for the needs of the new revolutionary China but also realized that they had their own radical and revolutionary artist, and foremost among them was Bada Shanren. They found both abstraction and emotion (long avoided by many traditional Chinese painters) in Bada. Modern artists found in Bada’s powerful and deeply expressive art in the face of the wan, tired and repetitious painting of the later Qing period, the capacity for renewal. The Bada’s style influences can be found in the paintings of these notable painters who have created an art of their own with Bada’s ideas and inspiration by following the lead of this great master.

Born in the sixties, Zhu Wei is the same age as the post-89 generation of painters and shares with them the traits of having a thorough academic education, and a subsequent confrontation with an ever more complex socio-cultural environment, together with a feeling of powerless and bleakness(2). These factors have contributed to the gradual espousal of self-irony, mockery and cynical irreverence towards the world, evident in their forms of expression. Traditional socialist icons such as heroism, idealism, self-sacrifice and sense of history, are nothing more than empty shells for them. Groundbreaking changes in social structure and common ideologies, together with the integration of traditional Chinese beliefs, have functioned as catalysts to their artistic reflections on past and present. Zhu Wei belonged to the broad creative movement cutting across art, literature, and film, that expended into the realm of private expression and challenging the cultural hegemony of the Party with criticism and indifference.

While analyzing of Zhu Wei’s art in terms of theories and trends, reference must be made to the New Art movement after 1989 with the Political Pop and Cynical Realism as the more relevant examples (3).  On Zhu Wei's techniques and style, one must refer to contemporary Chinese gongbi style or meticulous brushstrokes. Like his posl-89 cohorts, Zhu Wei is irreverent and cheeky, but there is a sweetness, a gentleness to his brush missing from the more dominant cynicism of Political Pop with its pox-on-both-your-houses attitude towards Marxist and materialist alike. Zhu Wei is a gentle deflator of pretension, a chronicler of the everyday who sidles up to the humor in daily life rather than hitting it head-on (4). Zhu Wei's works has been characterized by Jia Fangzhou as half solemn, half farcical, but not devoid of a spiritual content with idealistic aspirations to purity. As compared to his post-89 contemporaries, who have confined themselves almost exclusively to oil techniques, Zhu Wei excels technical]y and stylistically in his mastery of the traditional current gongbi techniques. However it is impossible to label or to categorize him; nor does he fit into any niche to which one would like to assign him. One can only characterize his gongbi style as a kind of "uncoordinated harmony''(5). If compared with the leading practitioners of gongbi, he is like a rebellious "black sheep", charging out at full speed from the slow-trotting herd. He is praised for bringing certain modernist qualities to gongbi and for seeking to harmonise its current with contemporary "spirit" which has been neglected by modern gongbi painters.

Life and Art

(i) Bada Shanren - Product of the 17^th Century

The first fifty-seven years of Bada Shanren’s life were lived against the background of one of the most turbulent periods f Chinese history, the seventeenth century. His identity throughout as a prince of the fallen Ming Dynasty lent a powerful and inescapable emotional involvement to everything surrounding the Manchu conquest and the resistance that followed.

Plate B1

Born into a family of scholars, poets, and calligraphers in 1626, into the Yiyang branch of the Ming imperial family, in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, the traditional residence of the Yiyang prince, Bada’s childhood was unexceptional and he had an idyllic youth. However his dream world was shattered by the Manchus during the period from 1644 to 1648. Bada was about eighteen years old when the Manchus took over Beijing, nineteen when Manchu forces occupy Nanchang in 1645. Three years later, in 1648, when Manchu forces were putting down continuing resistance efforts in Nanchang, Bada took sanctuary in the Buddhist Church. His family’s role in the resistance during this period was not known. Bada sought safety within the grounds of the church when his immediate family apparently died. Bada’s family was destroyed, since his extended family was the state itself, the ruler. He became a priest, and for thirty years lived as a teacher and abbot in remote areas of Jiangxi. It was during these years that the final story of the resistance and the tragic end of the Southern Ming was written. No psychological difficulties are known from the thirty-year period of sanctuary, only accomplishments. Bada the artist, in the winter of 1659-60 (in the Flower Studies album in the National Palace Museum, Taipei), sometimes seemed to be hiding himself in his art, but he is already an accomplished poet, painter, and calligrapher (1). 

The still unclear events of the late 1670s to early 1680s explored by Wang Fangyu in his essay that madness or something resembling madness affected Bada (6). He was almost certainly also very angry; indeed, anger, disgust and frustration seem to be emotions particularly focused in his art of his period. In his essay, Wang Fangyu argues persuasively that Bada remarried at this time and that neither his marriage nor his new secular life initially gave him much pleasure. He was also clearly dissatisfied with his earlier art. In calligraphy and painting in the early 1680s he pushed away his old habits and explored new and daring reaches that he had avoided before. He grew and changed rapidly from 1681 to 1684, but he had not yet achieved artistic stability by the end of that time. 1684 is also the year when Bada took the name Bada Shanren by which he would be known for the reminding of his life (1). Most of the traumatic events that affected his life and his art were over. He lived in his birthplace, Nanchang, as a poet, painter, calligrapher and eccentric hermit. 

Another burst of exploration and growth of Bada’s works were shown from 1689 to 1692. He first painted communities of the small creatures that had come to represent his life in 1689, and composition in which a fully defined and complete setting was suggested in 1690. He started painting landscape consistently from 1693. According to Richard M. Barnhart, the significance in this development is that of the gradual creation of a new world to replace that which had been shattered in 1644 (1). It took Bada fifty years to recover, fifty years to approach slowly the idea of acceptance, resignation and what Lee Hui-shu has called his "serene lamentation" for his country and his lost world (7). When his relative serenity was finally attained in the 1690s, Bada Shanren could not convey anger or intense passion through landscape, and only when anger and passion subsided did he turn to that old and timeless subject to create on of the most beautiful series of landscape compositions any Chinese master had ever painted. His landscape paintings represent a personal and moral triumph. 

Bada Shanren seemed to have trembled in a kind of rage and his art (and sometimes his life) seemed to have rushed into extreme and almost irrational expression each time the actual power and presence of the Manchu emperor Kangxi, became insistent, demanding, and could not be ignored - that is, in 1679, 1684, and 1689. By the time of Kangxi’s third Southern Tour in 1699, Bada reacted differently by painting heroic eagles and hawks, deer, egrets, cranes, and wild geese as if they were symbols of his own private lost imperial realm, an almost vanished Ming counterpart to the colorful and dramatic imperial pageantry and symbolism of Kangxi and the Manchus (1). 

(ii) Zhu Wei - Product of the 20^th Century

The last half of the 20^th century in China witnessed changes that are not only fundamental shifts, they represented a turbulent period in a long and difficult passage through history. The painters of this generation have to deal with the seeds of change painted in such a bizarre and frustrating era and the influence of this era in the future. Surrounded by atrocities, many of them felt isolated and lonely. They have grown up in the company of human frailty and irrationality. Losses of paternal authority, barren souls, lack of the spiritual and ever growing materialism have contributed to a rite of youth that is unthinkable elsewhere. When mature enough to think independently, these youth began to question their world and they discovered absurdities, prejudices, greed, and compromise, in both individuals and society. They have since found a sharp, penetrating voice to chronicle this empty period of history (8). 

Zhu Wei’s life reflects China’s recent cultural and social upheavals. He was born in 1966, the first year of the disastrous Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

Plate Z9

He grew up in a climate of political hysteria amidst the infamous ‘struggle sessions’, ‘self-criticism sessions’, public tribunals, Mao’s ‘little red book’ and the Red Guards’ slogans (5). Zhu Wei’s childhood was actually a unique form of existence which may be categorized as "life under the Cultural Revolution". He did not have an idyllic country life, or a normal city life. When he was beginning to make sense of the world around him, it was in an unprecedented chaotic state. Deprived of things that any child ought to have, he soon acquired a sense of detachment from the world around him. As his parents wanted or had to, to serve the cause, he was largely neglected by them, and subsequently left in the care of his grandmother. Revolution robbed him of the opportunity to experience parental love (9). 

At he tender age of sixteen, he joined the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) - a Spartan training. In 1985, he was admitted into the PLA Art Academy for further professional training. This coincided with the emergence of new trends and ideas in Chinese art (5). A life without individualism became a large part of his youth. His role as a soldier actually strengthened his sense of self-awareness although strict military life was incompatible with his natural sense of freedom (9). Zhu Wei’s graduation in 1989 coincided again with another year in which intense sociological changes had distinct consequences for China’s new art. There idealism crushed, certain youth artists immersed themselves in popular culture, launching Political Pop Art in China; others reacted with an anguished romanticism; a third group opted for a quieter cynicism. In 1992 Zhu Wei left the army and established his own studio in Beijing. a virtual recluse, Zhu Wei links both his life and his art to the ancient masters of Chinese art (10). 

All these particular upheavals, personal and collective, forced Zhu Wei to allow his thought process to transgress the limits of individual experience and to focus his artistic view on the reality of the here and now (5). 

Parallelism and Differences

Bada’s lost status as royal descendent of the fallen Ming Dynasty during early adulthood and his emotional entanglement to events surrounding the Manchu conquest and the resistance that followed affected both his life and art (1). Each time the presence and power of the Manchu emperor Kangxi became persistent and could not be ignored (especially during Kangxi’s three Southern Tours), Bada responded with his paintings as a form of protest and in later years as a way of coming to terms with his crushed world. On the other hand, Zhu Wei is marked by his lost childhood and the post-effect of growing up in the face of isolation, loneliness, human frailty and irrationality a result of the Cultural Revolution; and the lack of spiritual and ever growing materialism in a society corrupted by absurdities, prejudices, greed and comprise during his adulthood. Zhu Wei responded with cynicism in his painting and voiced his concern about the existence of Chinese people, the meaning of life with his diarist-approached chronicles of life in modern China (11). 

People of Bada’s time found the eccentric hermit painter’s art "strange strange, weird weird!" and his language "impossible to understand", and many regarded him as mad (1). Zhu Wei, a loner who socialized little with his fellow painters, is a product of a distinct time and consciousness. A virtual recluse who links both his life and his art to the ancient masters of Chinese art, is regarded in the eyes of most people as peculiar as his eccentric and unusual paintings (10). Born more the three hundred years apart, Zhu Wei shared similar traits with Bada’s eccentric personality, expressed in both their paintings and their lives. 

Reading of Key Paintings

Based on the comparison of two key Bada Shanren’s paintings from 1689 and ten Zhu Wei paintings from 1993-2000, an attempt is made to study how the late 20^th century artist is influenced by a recluse and eccentric monk painter living in a time a few hundred years earlier and how he reinterpreted, created and enriched his own art in the language of his times. 

The paintings are grouped into the following broad categories to help facilitate the reading and interpretation: Fish Group Paintings (with subdivisions of two or more fishes) and Single Fish Paintings, with the themes - Aftermath & Survival in a Changed World and Self Image explored respectively. 

1. Fish Group Painting - Aftermath and Survival in a Changed World

A. Fish Group - Human Figure Group Paintings

Plate Z1

In possibly the only published documentation of Bada’s influence on Zhu Wei, ‘Excerpts from Carma Hinton’s Video Interview in 1997’, Zhu Wei talked about his most favorite artist, Bada Shanren and the influence of the composition and mood of Bada’s paintings in his works, including Bada’s method of painting the fish eye as a black dot within a big circle (12). On the other hand, other publications which are referred to discuss about element associated with Bada’s influence indirectly with no mention of the Master’s name. The only clue that one can read directly from Zhu Wei’s paintings is through the eyes of his figures. Many believe that the eyes are the spiritual windows for every living thing and the 3expression of one’s eyes represents his mental state. In Zhu Wei’s reinterpretation of Bada’s "white eyes" in his modern human figures, he would like to express the complexity of the minds and the somber expression when one is in deep thoughts in his paintings that depict beautiful state (12). Jefferey Hantover refers to the eyes of the subjects in Zhu Wei’s ‘The Story of Beijing’ painted in 1993 (Plate Z1): "Soldier and civilian alike view the new world with impassive wariness. Looking closely at the paintings; in almost none of them do figures looking directly at each other or at us, they are always glancing up, sideways... The real action takes place outside the frame, beyond the stage of their lives and Zhu Wei’s actors know it. The script for their lives is written by unseen others."(14). 

Reference can be made to ‘Leaf a, Fish’ of Bada’s ‘Fish, Lotus, Globefish, and Bamboo, 1689’ (Plate B1) in the Rosshandler Collection. Four fish are depicted swimming together, each with a single visible eye staring upward, fading in tonality as if being seen in water and moving steadily forward. According to Richard M. Barnhart, they are the first group or community of living things that Bada had ever painted and the poem in the painting speaks of an aftermath and of survival in a changed world (13). The two leaves in the present partial album (now mounted as hand scroll) are nearly identical to portions of the Shanghai

   Plate B2

Museum hand scroll, ‘Fish and Ducks’ (Plate B2), Section (i) Group of Fish (Side View) that was painted on the Chongyang Festival day, the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, in the same year. Some of the subjects he had depicted earlier in the same year - the school of fish and the globefish in the Rosshandler Collection (Plate B1, Leaf a and c) and the sleeping duck in the Guangdong Provincial Museum - now become part of the entire community (6). In other words, Bada was painting both the Shanghai hand scroll and these album leaves with poems during the same period, from the sixth through the tenth months of 1689 - in the context of Kangxi emperor’s second Southern Tour a few months earlier - a symbolic event that affected Bada Shanren’s thought during this period. Bada could sometimes achieve perfect integration of his poems and his paintings with a new ease and sureness now. the interaction and balance between the pale fish above and the vigorous calligraphy below can be observed in the leaf depicting a school of fish in Plate B1. Read together, the leaves tell about Bada’s life and thoughts as he lived on in the aftermath of disaster, danger and fear (13). 

In Zhu Wei’s ‘The Story of Beijing’ in 1993, a theme in the context of the cultural conflict of this period when people are forced to make a painful choice between modern Western versus traditional Chinese culture. The hutong and its low-walled yard or the steel-and-glass skyscraper; Peking Opera or Beijing Rock’n Roll, Imperial Cuisine in the Forbidden City or fast-food at MacDonald’s - the paradoxes contributing to the rapidly emerging urban lifestyle and society (5). The impassive wariness revealed by the eyes of the subjects in Zhu Wei’s paintings is an unsetting element in a common description of characters seen in an other wise normal setting - the Tiananmen Square backdrop and falling Autumn leaves in ‘The Beijing Story No.8’ (Plate Z1); or the MacDonald’s, a relative new-comer since the Opening of Doors of China, with an intrusive presence, standing side-by-side, next to the signs of a traditional noodle shop and a boiled mutton shop in ‘The Story of Beijing No.9’ in Plate Z2. Zhu Wei is implying a social attitude and cultural characteristic - a mixture of traditional aspects and modern consciousness in his setting where ancient and modern China allegorically appeared sharing the same space. The eyes of the soldier and civilian in Zhu Wei’s painting are portrayed in the similar manner to the fishes, viewing their rapidly changing world and facing the unfamiliar and the unknown, in the same direction, united together in the same helplessness. 

B. Two Fishes - Two Human Figure Composition

One’s understanding of Festival is questioned in Zhu Wei’s ‘Festival Series’ in 1998 (No.9, Plate Z3). In his view whether a person who is successful or a failure determines how one defines the meaning of Festival.

Plate Z3

At close examination of ‘Festival No.9’ with two workers positioned side-by-side, one in front of the other, looking in the same directions, leftwards. Take away the round clouds in the sky, in perfect harmony with the light silhouette puffed sleeves of the worker’s uniform; this composition is similar to that of Bada’s two swimming fishes from his ‘Fish and Ducks, 1689’ (Plate B2, Section ii). ‘Fish and Ducks’, the earliest of many fish and bird paintings from the 1690s illustrated Bada Shanren’s growing interest in the Daoist concepts of transformation and metamorphosis (6). According to the Oxford Dictionary of Current English, ‘transformation’ refers to a thorough or dramatic change in the appearance, character, for example; and ‘metamorphosis’ can be interpreted as a change of form from a pupa to an insect.

In this case, physically expressed in Bada’s painting as a change from fish to duck; or it could be referring to the psychological change of character that was happening to Bada Shanren during this crucial period. 

Under Zhu Wei’s Festival theme, the vacant expression on the worker’s eyes reveals their helplessness, being thrown into the turmoil as the result of the opening of China’s economy. Workers who have suddenly been told they have no jobs, and given ‘holidays’ instead, are at a loss, shuddering to think of what the future held in store for them (14). In this case bewildered Mainland Chinese people caught in precisely that irony is depicted in the Festival Series. 

In Zhu Wei’s series commemorating the 50^th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) painted in 2000 - entitled ‘Sunflowers’ (Plate Z4), we can see his cynicism at play. The blind adulation of power or authority is likened to the movement of sunflowers in response to the Sun. the composition of the figures is similar to that workers in ‘Festival No.9’ (Plate Z3) painted earlier in 1998, similar to Bada’s ‘Fish and Duck, 1689’ (Plate B1, Section ii). Subtle difference can be observed, for example, the left figure is slightly in front of the right figure. However the striking difference here as compared to Zhu Wei’s earlier paintings is the empty or clean background. The removal of the blaring images from different eras, in different languages, characteristics of Zhu Wei’s style can be likened to the removal of jamming signals found around the artist, and also signifies the coming of age of the young artist. In taking the dramatic step of simplifying and unifying his painting language into a purer and more distilled form, we see a more confident and bold Zhu Wei in the making. 

In another series painted in the same year, 2000 - the ‘South Sees’ Series, we can observe the pair of figures in the two similar composition seen earlier, transforming into a pair of fishes (Plate Z5, South Seas, No.2) swimming towards the same direction, left. Compared with the leaner and sharper form of Bada’s fish in ink, Zhu Wei’s fishes in blue green tones are fuller and rounder. 

Zhu Wei’s preference for full and round forms that are also evident in his human figures could be the standard of taste originating from folk art, and/or the historical cultivated aesthetic that regarded roundness as beauty in low-productivity agricultural societies (for instance in Tang dynasty figures) (15). His characteristic grids are also included in the coloured background where the fish pair are placed higher position as compared to Bada’s original set, and are in perfect balanced with the space below.

Plate B2 Section (ii)

2. Single Fish Paintings - Self Image

Zhu Wei’s first fish image appeared in the ‘Diary of the Sleepwalker, No 24' (Plate Z6). In the 'Diary of the Sleepwalker' Series, painted in 1998, Zhu Wei's interest in psychology prompted him to explore the dream state in which, minus the constraints and pressures when one is awake, one's true self and thought are revealed (14). The source of Zhu Wei's figures' white eyes are made known pictorially for the first time in his reinterpretation of the Single Flat Fish (in opposite direction to the group) from Section (iv) of the Shanghai Museum Fish and Duck hand scroll (Plate B2). In the ‘Diary of the Sleepwalker, No. 24', modern colour and composition are adopted and the focus is 'zoom in' onto the fish as a subject. Zhu Wei has also given his 'address' seal a contemporary touch with the website address of Plum Blossoms Gallery in this painting. 

Painted in the same year, 1998, a school of Bada influenced fishes can be observed swimming leftwards in the background while a contemporary figure is seen looking the opposite direction (right. upwards) in Zhu Wei's 'Sweet life, No21' (Plate Z7). There are a few elements at play here in which Zhu Wei has included in his story. Composition-wise, we can trace the influence back once again to the single flat fish in foreground swimming away from the fish group in background in Section (vi) of Bada's 'Fish and Ducks' painted in 1689 (Plate B2). We can look back to Section (v) of the same hand scroll, depicting a single fish swimming left for the form of the fish. In 'South Seas No.1' (Plate Z8), a similar fish form is transformed in another composition as the dominating fish with a small fish in the background. In general, Zhu Wei's recent 'South Seas' Series, seemed to play the role of unraveling the riddles which he has woven in his story in his earlier years. 

Plate Z7

Zhu Wei has also successfully composed an integrated harmonious composition of elements from different eras to depict the confused world in which he lived - Bada's fishes swimming (Qing Dynasty) in the water element (absent in Bada's original works) extracted from the Northern Song (北宋) painter Wang Xi Meng (王希孟)'s landscape 'Qian Shan Wan Li Tu Juan' (千山万里图卷), now in the Palace Museum of Beijing (北京故宫博物院藏), with Zhu Wei's modem figure with their round and full silhouette as discussed earlier in the foreground (16). 

A similar composition can be observed in Zhu Wei's 'The Square, No. 9' (Plate ZI0) painted in 1995, a series of ocean paintings with reference to Tiananmen Square. Like the ocean, Tiananmen is vast and imposing. The historical events that occurred here are like a turbulent ocean, chaotic, influential. Like water, they permeate everyone's life, you cannot escape. You just try to save yourself within it. Zhu Wet has also put images of Stalin and Marx, something of historical significance alongside with the confronting and possibly autobiographic image of a common soldier in deep thoughts bobbing in the ocean (10). Instead of a poem, Zhu Wet has included the Lyrics of a Song by Cut Jian, the well-known Beijing rock singer and composer: 

Heaps of problems lay before me,

Let's solve you first.

You can say there isn't a bigger problem.

The idea just flashed across my mind.

To resolve you first.

Heaps of problems lay before me,

But now there is only one.

I pretend to be serious with you.

But you see through me.

You extend your arms with seeming indifference,

Accepting all my sham and trouble.

Plate Z10

Zhu Wet has connected traditional Chinese painting which he feels is out of touch with modem society with pop culture that is more relevant to the present. Cut Jian's bold lyrics written in bamboo strip-like space is balanced by the generous application of his Zhu Wei Yin Xin seals used in an unorthodox way. With the combination of the soldier and the background in tones of blue and green, the painting is transformed into a yet another haunting self-image.

Interpretation and Conclusion

The playful body or collection of graphic art that Bada Shanren created from the winter of 1659-60 consistently until his death in 1705 is a result of his unique circumstances where he is alone. In the context of this paper, in particular, fish seeking the forgetful freedom of deep waters; glaring eyes, the "white eyes" of anger, staring out from fish, birds, and animals; fish transforming into birds; trees stunted and broken, like men's lives (1). These can also be read in Zhu Wei's collage of images from the past and present through his modem interpretation of Bada's art. From the "White eyes" staring from his figures of civilians and soldiers; the transformation of his human figures into fishes; the posture of his figures as an analogy of their lives. 

The reading and interpretation of Bada and Zhu Wei's paintings is approached from the angle of the published account from Carina Hinton's Video Interview in 1997 - the influence of Bada's composition, mood and method of painting the fish eye on Zhu Wei (12). 

The essence of Bada's fish paintings, the eyes can be differentiated into ‘无可奈何’; ‘无名怒火’; ‘无头无脑’; ‘无精打采’ or translated briefly as 'helpless'; 'inexplicable anger'; 'aimlessly' and 'listless', as discussed by Abraham P N. Ho in "The Impact of Pa-ta on the painting of the Twentieth Century"(17). Zhu Wet has successfully adopted Bada's "While Eyes" in the depiction of his subjects caught in the dramatic change of tides, in an otherwise picture perfect setting. Bada's group of fish community that speaks of aftermath and survival is used to express the isolation and loneliness, human frailty, irrationality, lack of the spiritual and the ever-growing materialism - the dilemmas of living in modem day China in a bizarre and frustrating era. Caught in the dramatic change of tides, having no alternative or no way out of their situation in which they are in, and without a clue or an idea of the future that lies ahead, Zhu Wei's subjects are involuntary participants in the drama of life shaped by the political and social changes sweeping across the country. ‘Helpless’, ‘aimlessly’ and 'listless' are the underlying tones of Zhu Wei’s fish-eyed human figures. However, Bada's 'inexplicable anger' is absent in Zhu Wei's diary. 

Based on the fish composition of two key paintings painted in the same year 1689 - 'Fish and Ducks', Shanghai Museum (Plate B2) and 'Fish, Lotus. Globefish, and Bamboo', 1689, L. and C. Rosshandler

Plate B1

Collection (Plate B1), Bada's influence is traced and Zhu Wei’s development of his own unique composition is followed in the ten paintings painted from 1993 to 2000. From the paintings, we can observe how Zhu Wei adopts Bada's fish composition into his story about living in modern China. The usage of self-image-like figures in his painting is similar to Bada's repeated use of the icons such as the river pig as an extended self-image. Zhu Wei has also successfully included Chinese Rock and Roll lyrics in his paintings as a contemporary expression compared to Bada's balance of poems that hints at the underlying meaning of his seemingly harmless paintings of fish. These features, collectively as a whole has become the unique voice of Zhu Wei's art which, strictly speaking, does not fit into any categories of the contemporary art movement of his time or any traditional school. 

In the tradition of the recluse executing beautiful images and actually expressing dissatisfaction with the society from which he deliberately withdraws, Zhu Wei has not taken to any mountains, for the city and city life it contains is the source of all his characters (18). The exaggerated forms in Zhu Wei's paintings, the caricatures, the expressions and the incompatible combinations of forms, eras and appearances are bizarre but are also common sights associated with Beijing. 

Zhu Wei is a self confessed person "with fear of danger and angst when confronted with an unknown reality" and also someone "with a strong craving for sacred purity and love of a good time" and a reluctant iconoclast (5). He focuses on the search for pure, free and brilliant way out with his "uncoordinated gongbi style" - with inspiration from past masters, a strong sense of the present and a sacred aspiration to build a new, idealistic world.

Bihlioglaphy

1.       Fu Xinian, The Complete Works of Chinese Art, Painting Compilation No. 3, Northern and Southern Song Dynasty Painting Volume 1, Beijing, 傅熹年,’中国美术全集 绘画编3 两宋绘画 上’, 文物出版社, 北京, 1998.

2.       Hilary Binks, An Original: Zhu Wei - PLA grad was discovered in a sea of kiosks, Window Magazine, 1996.

3.       K.K Goh, Zhai Shi Ye Shi Tu Jai De Gong Ren or translated Unemployment Workers on Holiday, Lian He Zao Bao, Oct 1998.

4.       Lee Hui-shu, The Two Fish Leaves of the Aswan Album and Bada Shanren's Serene Lamentation, to be published in Ars Orientalis.

5.       Li Xianting, China Avant-Garde: Counter Currents in Art and Culture, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1993.

6.       McGuinness, Stephen (ed.). Zhu Wei Diary, Plum Blossoms (International) Ltd., Hong Kong and Singapore, 2000.

7.       Plum Blossoms Art Gallery, Zhu Wei: The Story of Beijing, Plum Blossoms (International) Ltd.. Hong Kong and Singapore, 1994.

8.       Plum Blossoms Art Gallery, Zhu Wei: China Diary, Plum Blossoms (International) Ltd., Hong Kong and Singapore, 1996.

9.       Plum Blossoms Art Gallery, Zhu Wei: The Diary of the Sleepwalker, Plum Blossoms {International} Ltd., Hong Kong and Singapore, 1998.

10.   Taiwan National Museum of History, The Paintings and Calligraphy of Pa-Ta and Shih-Tao, National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China, ‘八大石涛书画集’, 中国民国 国立历史博物馆, 1984.

11.   Sullivan, Michael, Art and Artists of Twentieth-century China, University of California Press, Berkely, 1996.

12.   Sullivan, Michael, Chinese and Japanese Art, Franklin Watts Inc., New York, 1965.

13.   Wang Fang Yu and Barnhart, Richard M. and Smith, Judith G., Master of the Lotus Garden: Life and Art of Bada Shanren (1626-1705), 1990, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.

Tan Hwee Koon

July, 2001

First published in Zhu Wei, p.40-51, published by Hebei Education Press, China, 2006

十七世纪晚期的隐士画家八大山人对二十世纪晚期的中国当代艺术家朱伟作品的影响

陈慧君

引言：

    八大山人，明末清初最伟大的画家之一，给中国20世纪艺术家提供了许多基本元素和方向。和石涛(1642-1707)一样，他是我们这个时代的中国艺术大师的一个主要的灵感来源，这些受到影响的人包括20世纪的大师吴昌硕(1844—1927)，齐白石(1864-1957)，和张大千(1899-1983)。

    20世纪让人回想起17世纪，在某些年代20世纪对于生活于其中的人而言更为艰难和无法预测。中国的艺术家们生活居住在—个艰难和充满危险的二十世纪中，他们的国家经历了战争、革命、和充满痛苦的社会变更，八大山人也曾经经历过类似或更严峻的社会混乱与社会变革，并且把他复杂和苦痛的经验用画笔表现出来。当19世纪晚期西风东渐，人们逐渐发现了西方艺术的奥妙时，当个人感情可以通过经过改变的传统的形式和手法，用创新的个人语言描绘出来时(伴随着对学院派表达方式的厌倦)，中国的艺术家重新又发现了八大山人。他的强有力的、富有深厚感染力的艺术给晚清时期逐渐衰退、疲倦、重复的艺术带来了一抹亮色，现代的艺术家们也在他的艺术中发现了创新的可能性。

    在这篇论文里，将结合中国近期文化和社会的变革，来探讨八大山人对二十世纪末的中国当代艺术家朱伟的影响，同时文章中参考已出版的关于八大山人和朱伟的文章，来讨论这两位艺术家在生活以及艺术上的相同与不同之处。建立在对八大山人1689年以后的两个作品系列和朱伟于1993至2000年间创作的十幅作品的解读上，本文研究了朱伟，这位20世纪末的当代艺术家，是如何被几百年以前的那位归隐独居的古怪和尚画家所影响的，以及他如何用他自己时代的语言来诠释、创造、丰富他自己的作品的。

简史：

八大山人，和石涛(1642—1707)一样，是中国近代最重要的大师之一。甚至在于1705年他逝世之后两百年后的今天，他依然给中国20世纪艺术作品提供了重要的基本元素和方向。八大对20世纪几位重要的艺术大师包括吴昌硕(1844—1927)，齐白石(1864—1957)，和张大干(1899-1983)的影响已经被当代艺术研究所证实。

作为一个身陷苦痛中的人，八大山人生活的十七世纪是中国历史上最兵荒马乱的时期之一。对于生活在二十世纪的人们而言，现在这个时代在许多方面更为艰难和无法预测。中国的画家们生活在一个困顿和充满危险的二十世纪中，他们的国家经历了战争、革命、和充满痛苦的社会变更，因此他们发现了自己和八大山人经验之间的相似性，八大他也曾经经历过类似或更严峻的战乱与社会变迁，同时他用画笔来描绘他复杂和苦痛的经验。

中国对像抽象派这样的西方艺术的兴趣也是直到19世纪晚期西风东渐时才逐渐兴起。人们发现个人的情绪可以通过经过革新传统的形式和手法来表达，同时也伴随着对学院派表达方式的厌倦，人们用自己设计的全新的富有个性的表达方式来表现个人的感情。当中国艺术家开始学习十九、二十世纪法国的“激进”和“革命”的艺术家时，他们不仅发现这种表达方式相当适合革命中新中国的需要，而且也意识到他们也有自己的激进的、革命的艺术家，其中最杰出的就是八大山人。在八大的作品中，他们既发现了抽象主义，也发现了激情的表达（这些都是许多传统画家避之不及的）。在清末衰退、颓废、重复的画作中，人们发现了富有冲击力和深厚感染力的八大的作品，发现了创新的能力。八大的影响可以在如上所述这些著名画家的作品当中被发现，他，他们追随八大，在大师的理念和灵感之上创造了他们自己的艺术作品。

朱伟（1966—），和后‘89新崛起的一批画家大体相同，并且有着同样的生活烙印——同样经历过全面的学院式教育，面临日益复杂的社会文化环境，也有着同样的无力感和孤独感(2)。这些因素把他们的艺术引向一种玩世不恭的自嘲、讽刺、愤世嫉俗的态度，这从他们的表现方式上可以找到线索。传统的社会观念，比如英雄主义、理想主义、忧患意识和历史意识，在这一代中一扫而空。社会的转型，艺术形态的变更，以及精神信仰的分崩离析，对他们反映过去和现在的艺术创造起了催化剂的作用。朱伟的兴趣涉猎美术、文学、电影领域，但他用中国水墨画作为自己的表达方式。

在用理论和趋势来分析朱伟的作品之前，首先要对中国1989年以后的政治波普和玩世现实主义的新艺术运动有所了解(3)。在研究朱伟的技术和风格的时候，也必须要了解中国当代工笔技法或者是精细的毛笔技法。像后89的艺术家们一样，朱伟也是不恭敬和无礼的，但是与更为愤世嫉俗的政治波普艺术不同，他的笔触有一种甜蜜和温柔，这种贬低性的态度和他对毛泽东主义与唯物主义的态度相似。朱伟有一种收敛的自负，在面对日常生活时，他更多是用幽默而不是仅仅迎头一击的方式来对待(4)。贾方舟形容朱伟的作品是一半庄严，一半滑稽，并且没有失去对一种纯洁性的理想主义的追求。相对那些几乎毫无例外选择油画来作为表达方式的后89艺术家们而言，朱伟用传统的工笔技法来作画无论从技术上还是风格上都是一种超越。要把朱伟打上标签或是归类仍然是不可能的，要把他归类到任何一个部分里都不适合。人们只能把他的工笔风格作为一种“不协调音”(5)。假如要与其他工笔画家作比较的话，他就像一匹背叛的“黑马”，在一群缓慢移动的羊群中飞速前进。他因为把现代性元素带入工笔画而受到赞扬，而其他工笔画家往往忽视自己作品的当代性。

生活与艺术

八大山人——十七世纪作品

八大山人生命中的前十七年是在中国历史上最动荡的时期之一十七世纪度过的。他是没落的明朝宗室后裔，因此他后来不可避免地用一种强烈的抵抗情绪来观察他周围这个在满族统治下的社会。

1626年八大山人出生在江西省南昌市的一个书香门第，他的家族属于明朝皇室弋阳王的一支，江西在是弋阳王的管辖下，所以，他的童年和青少年时期能在无忧无虑中度过。然而好景不长，随着1644年到1648年满族的入侵，他的梦幻世界破灭了。满族人接管北京的时候，八大山人十八岁，1645年满族军队攻打南昌时，八大山人十九岁。三年以后，1648年，满族军队终于击败顽强抵抗的南昌居民的时候，八大山人剃度出家。在这三年抵抗中他的家庭角色始终无人知晓。八大在他的家人亡故以后，于寺庙里寻求安全庇护。既然他的家族是江西省的统治者，城池被攻破后，他的家族也就毁灭了。接下来的三十年里，他成为了一个僧人，在江西偏远地区当私塾老师和寺庙住持。也正是在这三十年里，南明最后的抵抗故事和悲剧性的结局被著书成文。三十年的避难，八大没有象人们所说的患了癫狂症，反而达到了艺术创作的高峰状态。八大山人在1659-60年的冬天(花果册，国家博物馆，台北)似乎要把他自己隐藏在他的艺术里，但其时他已经是一个成功的诗人、画家和书法家(1)。

Plate B2

王方育(Wang Fangyu)在他的文章中提到，癫狂或是类似癫狂的病症是否在十七世纪七十年代末八十年代初袭击了八大仍是一件尚未确定的事(6)。他常常是愤怒的，实际上，悲愤、厌倦、挫折感是他这一段时期艺术的主题。王方育在他的文章中还说到，八大在这段时间又一次组建家庭，但是无论他的新家庭还是这段世俗生活都没有给他带来欢乐。十七世纪八十年代早期八大开始用以前他未尝试过的一种画风进行绘画。1681年到1684年他的画风改变得相当厉害，并且直到这段时期后期也没有形成—种稳定的画风。也就是在1684年，他开始采用八大山人这个笔名，作为他一生的缩影(1)。其时，影响他一生的重大事件已经都结束，他仍然居住在他出生的地方，成为一个诗人、画家、书法家和遁于世外的隐士。

1689年至1692年是八大山人艺术成长和突破的另一个重要时期。1689年他开始描绘一些小动物群，来代表他当时的生活状态，1690年这种构图趋向完善。而1693年以后，八大开始持续地画些山水画。根据Richard M．Barnhart的说法，八大的这种转变表明他已经从1644年国破家亡的悲痛中渐渐恢复(1)。五十年，八大山人花了五十年的时间才从这种悲痛中恢复，他的态度逐渐变为忍受、听之任之，或是李惠淑(Lee Huishu)所说的“为他失去的世界和国家的‘宁静的悲哀’”(7)。当这种宁静最终在十七世纪九十年代到来的时候，八大山人已经不再将自己的愤怒和巨大的悲怆通过绘画来传达；当这种愤怒和悲怆消退的时候，八大山人转向了传统但永不过时的绘画表现方式——山水画，并创造出一系列可以与任何中国传统画家相媲美的优美的风景画。他的山水画代表了他人生和道德的新境界。

每当清朝的满族皇帝康熙扩张权力，或权力欲望变得明显的时候，也就是说在1679年，1684年和1689年，八大山人就会尤其愤慨，他的艺术作品(有时候甚至是他的生活)也会进入到一种极其极端甚至是失去理性的状态。在康熙1699年第三次南巡时，八大山人绘制了许多勇猛的鹰、隼、鹿、鹭鸶、鹤和野天鹅，这些动物就象是象征着他失去的帝国，一种几乎消失的与康熙和满族统治针锋相对的明朝的帝国庆典和象征主义(1)。

朱伟——二十世纪晚期作品

二十世纪后半个世纪中国经历了巨人的变革，不仅仅是一次社会基础的小震动，而是历史长河中的一段冗长并且艰难的骚乱时期。这一代的画家不得不面对这段混乱并挫折的时代恶果，并且这种影响还会持续到将来。被恶毒的情绪所包围着，他们中的许多人感到被孤立而且孤独。他们成长在人类群体的脆弱和无理性状态当中。传统权威的失落、灵魂的一文不值、精神力量的缺乏和不断壮大的唯物主义造就了一代青年，这群青年是不可能在别处出现的。在能够独立思考的时候，这群青年开始质疑他们周围的世界，他们发现，在他们自己和这个社会身上，充满了荒谬、偏见、贪婪和怯懦。从此他们开始用一种尖锐、富有穿透力的声音来描绘这个历史的空白时期(8)。

朱伟的经历折射了中国近代文化和社会的变革。他出生于1966年，也正是中国伟大的无产阶级文化人革命的头一年。他成长在政治狂热中，这儿充斥着“斗争”、  “自我批评”、公共审判、毛泽东的“小红书”和红卫兵的格言(5)。朱伟的童年是一种独一无二的“文化大革命下的生活”。他的童年没有无忧无虑的乡村生活，或是正常的城市生活。当他开始对周围的世界有所感知的时候，这个周围的世界正经历着史无前例的混乱。由于被剥夺了任何一个孩子所应有的一切，他很快对周围的世界产生了疏离感。而他的父母当时却正积极地或不得不积极地参与到政治运动中，忽视了他的存在，最后干脆把他留给他的祖母照看。革命也剥夺了他本来有可能得到的父母之爱(9)。

在十六岁这个敏感的年龄，朱伟参加了中国人民解放军——开始经历铁的纪律的考验，后考上中国人民解放军艺术学院，开始他的专业深造。这给他带来了新思潮和中国艺术思维的融合(5)。一种没有个人主义的生活占据了他青年时代的大部分时间。尽管他热爱自由的天性和严格的军队生活格格不入，但作为一个军人的生涯却加深了他对自我意识的认同(9)。这也恰巧是中国另一次巨大社会变动的那一年，正是这年的事件激发了中国新艺术的发展。理想主义蔓延着，一些青年艺术家融合流行文化元素，参与了中国的政治波普艺术；另—些艺术家以痛苦的浪漫主义相应对；第三部分人则接受了更为温和的玩世现实主义。1992年朱伟离开了军队，建立他在北京的个人工作室。一种事实上的遁世，将朱伟的生活和艺术创作与中国古代的大师们联系起来(10)。

所有这些不同寻常的变革，无论是个人的还是群体的，都使朱伟不得不将自己的思路调整到个人的生活经验之外，使他不得不将自己的艺术视角对准当下现实(5)。

相似与差异

八大山人青年时期作为没落的明朝的皇室宗亲这种特殊地位的丧失，使他后来的一生都在关注满族的侵略和统治，这种排斥的情绪贯穿他—生的生活和创作(1)。每当满族的统治变得更为强硬、更为显著、无法忽视的时候(尤其是康熙三次南巡期间)，八大山人都用他的画笔来进行抗争，这些作品后来成为了他垮掉的世界的象征。而类似的，朱伟也受到文化大革命的影响，承受着失落的童年时期，被孤立、孤独、脆弱、无理性的世界所包围的青年时期，面对被荒谬、偏见、贪婪、和怯懦充斥着的、只有唯物主义却缺乏精神力量的世界的成年时期。面对这个世界，朱伟予以反击，用他的画笔对中国当代现状以日记记录的方式，关注中国人现在的生存状态，关注生命的含义(11)。

与八大山人同时代的人们认为这个遁世的隐士画家的艺术“奇异、奇异、怪诞、怪诞”，认为他的绘画语言“不可理喻”，许多人把他称作“疯子”(1)。朱伟，一个极少与其他画家联系的独行者，是个独特时代和意识形态的产物。一种把朱伟与中国古代的艺术大师联系起来实际上的遁世，在许多人眼里就如同他古怪、不同寻常的作品一样独特(10)。尽管其间有三百年的时光，朱伟仍然与八大山人一样拥有古怪的性格特征，也同样在他的艺术作品和生活中有所体现(11)。

主要作品解读

建立在对八大山人1689年以后的两个主要作品系列和朱伟于1993~2000年间创作的十幅作品的解读和对比上，这里将研究这位20世纪末的当代艺术家是如何被几百年以前的那位归隐独居的古怪和尚画家所影响，以及他如何用当今时代的语言来诠释、创造、丰富他自己的作品的。

这些作品被分为以下几个大类以便于分析和理解：鱼群绘画(两条或更多的鱼作为绘画对象)；一条鱼的绘画，以及其主题——在变化的世界中苟且生存，和对自我的剖析。

A．作品鱼群——在变化的世界中苟且生存

a. 鱼群——人群绘画

第一眼看上去朱伟受到八大山人的影响似乎并不明显，尤其是朱伟早期的绘画，那时他的作品往往有着社会性或政治性的主题，还有其他一些受到电影或是音乐影响而来的元素。但是，一旦仔细观察，就会发现朱伟的绘画和八大山人的绘画整体感觉上是相当相象的，只是除了八大山人选择的描绘对象是山水、鱼、鸟，而朱伟选择的描绘对象是人。

Plate Z2

 在那个有可能是唯一提到过八大对朱伟的影响的出版文件“卡玛．辛顿(Carma ．Hinton)访问摘录，1997”里，朱伟谈到了他最喜欢的艺术家，八大山人，在构图上和感情上对他的影响，包括八大那在大白圈中点一个小黑点的描绘鱼眼的方式(12)。此外，还有—些出版物谈到了八大的间接影响，但并没有提到这位大师的名字。能够最直接地从朱伟的作品里看到的线索是作品人物的眼睛。很多人相信，眼睛是所有生物灵魂的窗口，一个人的眼睛会透露出一个人的想法。当人们欣赏朱伟的绘画时会发现，在优美的图画里，那双八大山人的“白眼”在现代人身上的再现，这恰恰反映了他想表达的人物的复杂思想和阴沉表情(12)。Jefferey Hantover在关于朱伟的作品“北京故事”，1993的文章里提到这双眼睛时说：“军队和老百姓都以平常心来看待这个新世界。仔细查看画面上的人物，几乎没有人相互注视着对方或往外看着我们，他们总是不经意地看着一边，或向上看，或向眼角外看……然而只有外面的人知道这个答案：他们的生命剧本是由未知的人所写成的(14)。

这里可以参考由Rosshandler所收藏的八大的“鱼，莲，圆鱼，和竹，1689”作品中的“卷a，鱼”。画中四条鱼在鱼池里，每条鱼可见的那只眼睛都无一例外地向上瞪视，颜色有韵律的逐渐变淡，仿佛池水平静而鱼群缓慢向前游动。根据Richard M．Barnhart的研究，这是八大首次绘制的动物群体，而画中提的诗则描绘了在动荡世界中的生存(13)。这幅画与目前收藏于上海博物馆的画册选集里的画(裱为手卷轴)“鱼鸭图卷”之一的鱼群，相当相似，并且都被认为是在同一年的九月九重阳节期间绘制的。还有一些他同年早期绘制的作品--Rosshandler的收藏品，鱼群和圆鱼，以及广东省博物馆收藏的睡鸭——现在经过研究被认为是一整幅作品的不同部分(6)。也就是说，八大山人在同一时期绘制了上海博物馆的手卷轴和这些画册选集，这是在]689年六月至十月期间——也是康熙皇帝第一次南巡之前仅数月——绘制的。这—象征性的事件极大影响了八大山人的思想。这段时间八大山人能够轻易地书画合一，相得益彰。画上半部分的苍白的鱼和画面下半部分强有力的书法之间存在微妙的相互影响和内在作用力。可以看到，八大山人把他在这次充满灾难、危险和恐惧的变故后的生活和思想统统绘制在他的作品中(13)。

在朱伟的作品“北京故事”里，一个重要的主题就是人们在面对西方流行文化与中国古老的传统文化的碰撞中进行痛苦的选择。匍匐的四合院与高耸的摩天楼，京剧与摇滚，紫禁城的宫廷大菜与麦当劳的快餐——矛盾时时出现在快速发展的城市生活和现代社会面前(5)。这种社会剧变在朱伟眼里是一个不稳定因素，他的画作中常常以看似平常的事物来表达这种情绪——“北京故事，8号”里的天安门广场和秋天的落叶；或是在“北京故事，9号”里，麦当劳这个在中国改革开放以后就进入了中国的新面孔，以侵入者的姿态，紧紧挨着面馆和烤羊肉串的店铺开张。朱伟暗示丁一种社会态度和文化特质——在这个传统中国和现代中国共存的地方，意识形态也是—种传统与现代的混合物。朱伟绘画中军人和市民的眼睛透露出他们和八大的鱼相同的处境，同样在一个剧烈变化的世界中面对未知的将来，也同样无可奈何。

b.两条鱼——两个人的构成

在面对朱伟1998年创作的“节日系列”时，—个人过去对节日这个概念的理解受到了质疑。在他的眼里，一个人如何定义节日取决于这个人在社会上是成功还是失败。

Plate B1

在朱伟的节日系列里，工人眼中空洞的表情显示了在中国经济社会发生剧变时他们的无助感，不敢想象他们将要面临的未来(14)。在“节日”系列里表现出来的，是左右为难的中国大陆人在转型中的困惑。

在朱伟2000年绘制的表现建国50周年大庆的绘画——题目是“向日葵”——里，我们又一次看到他的玩世不恭主义发挥了作用。向日葵永远是追随着太阳运动。这幅画的构图类似于1998年绘制的“节日，9号”中的构图，也像是八大的”鱼鸭图卷，1689”。我们可以看到些微小的差别，例如左边的人是在右边的人的前面。但是，相对于朱伟以前的作品，其中最显著的差异是这幅画中空白的背景。这种把图画中各种背景移走的方式似乎象征着这位画家身边各种拥挤的符号的消退，也象征着这位年轻画家渐渐开始成熟。这戏剧性的一步净化了他的绘画语言，进入一种更为纯净和升华的状态，这里我们看到一个更为自信和大胆的朱伟。

在同样于2000年创作的作品“南海”系列里面，我们又看到这种相似两个个体的结构，这次是两条鱼，向着同一个方向游动，也是左边。相对于倾斜和消瘦的八大的水墨鱼，朱伟的两条绿色色调的鱼更为丰满和圆润。

朱伟在描绘人的形体的时候也喜欢丰满和圆润的形象，这或许是从民间艺术的审美标准中得到的启发，一般在产品产出率较低的农业社会，历史文化审美观都会认为肥胖和丰满是美的(例如唐朝绘画中的人物)(15)。他个性化的方格背景同样出现在这幅画里，与八大的鱼相比，这对鱼的位置较高，但下方的空白充分平衡了这幅画。朱伟从两个人到两条鱼这种绘画对象的转变，似乎正解释了八大在1689年绘制的“鱼鸭图卷”中所传达的转型和蜕变的观念，并很有可能是激发这幅画的灵感源泉。通过八大对旋律和自然运动的感知，我们可以感受到鱼儿在广阔的水域里自由自在地游来游去的那种统一感和协调感，而透过朱伟的画，我们也有同样的感觉。

B．一条鱼的绘画——自画像

朱伟的首条鱼的形象出现在“梦游手记，24号”里。在1998年绘制的“梦游手记”系列中，朱伟对心理学的兴趣促使他探索人的梦境，在梦里，人在清醒时承受的强制和压抑大大缓解，人开始释放自我，真正的思想也得以显现(14)。朱伟描绘的这个白眼形象的绘画灵感源泉，在上海博物馆收藏的手卷轴“鱼鸭图卷”之四里里首次出场，一条大平鱼向与其它鱼相反的方向游去。而在“梦游手记，24号”里，则采用了现代的色彩和构图，同时，放大了这条鱼使之成为整幅画的主题。在这幅画中，朱伟还用纽约Plum Blossoms画廊的网址做了个相当前卫的印章。

另一幅画同样是绘制于1999年，画中一群受明显八大画风影响的鱼正向画的一边游去，画中只有现代形象的人却望着另一个方向(画的右上角)，这是朱伟的“甜蜜的生活，21号”，其中有一些朱伟曾经用过的元素。这里我们可以看到八大山人1689年绘制的“鱼鸭图卷”之四中的大平鱼在背景中游动，与画面融合得相当好。这些鱼与“鱼鸭图卷”之五中的鱼也有些相像。作品“南海，1号”中，另一条类似的鱼以另一种形式出现，而另一条很小的鱼在背景中作为陪衬出现。一般而言，朱伟近期的“南海”系列作品就象是在把以前在他作品中编织的谜语慢慢地在我们面前揭开谜底。

朱伟也很成功地将过去不同时代的一些元素统一和谐地结合在他自己的作品中来描绘他周围的世界——八大山人的鱼(清朝)游在水里(这是八大绘画所没有的)，这些水的元素则取材于故宫博物馆馆藏的北宋画家王希孟的山水画“千里江山图卷”，同时以前面我们已经讨论过的朱伟特有的一种圆润丰满的现代形展现出来(16)。

Plate Z6

 八大山人1689年绘制的“鱼鸭图卷之三”中一条深色的圆鱼也可以在朱伟的作品“南海系列，8号”中被发现，并以一种更圆润、更现代的手法来诠释。这种圆鱼，或者说是河豚，据说拥有致命的剧毒，如果在烹调前不被反复清洗的话，就会使人丧命，这是八大山人自我意识的写照——假如不被善待的话，它就会伤人。这种自我意识更是在“鱼、莲、和竹”的卷c中被大胆地重复在画面的诗中，八大的皇室身份也在这首自传式的诗中有所暗示。其时恰是在康熙第二次南巡的时候，也就是农历1月到3月期间，八大的这种对自己身份的探索和认同也许可以被视为一种藐视性的非暴力抗争(3)。

在朱伟的“广场，9号”里，类似的构图也有迹可寻，这些画绘制于1995年，关于天安门广场的海洋式的绘画。就象海洋一样，天安门也是广阔而壮丽的。在这里发生过的历史事件也象海洋一样不可计量、喧嚣而富有激情。它们渗透到每个人的生命里，你无法逃避。你能做到的仅仅是在里面尽力生存下来。这幅在海洋浪花里深思的一名普通军人，既是朱伟他自传性的写照，也融合了具有历史含义的斯大林和马克思的形象(13)。但朱伟不是用诗，而是用北京著名的摇滚乐手崔健的歌词书写在画面上。

眼前的问题很多   无法解决

可总是没什么机会   是更大的问题

明天的问题很多  可现在只有一个

我装作和你谈正经的   可被你看破

你好象无谓的笑着   还伸出了手

在这里，朱伟将他认为已经与现实社会脱离关系的中国传统绘画方式和与现实社会联系紧密的流行文化结合起来。崔健大胆的歌词被以竹简式的书写方式填写于画面中，同时用反传统的印章“朱伟印信”所平衡。用军人的形象和蓝绿色调的背景相结合，这幅画是另一种自我形象的反映。

解释和结论

八大山人这些从1659-1660年的冬天直到他1705年去世一直坚持创造的顽皮形象或图象艺术是他孤独生活在其中的独一无二的环境的写照。在这些绘画里，尤其是鱼儿在深水中寻找被遗忘的自由；瞪视着的眼睛，鱼的、鸟的、和动物的愤怒的“白眼”；从鱼转变为鸟；树木扭曲、破裂，就象人的生命(1)。这从朱伟过去或现在抽象拼贴式的形象中，透过他对八大山人艺术的现代性的诠释中也可以寻找到。透过他瞪视的“白眼”；透过从他的人类形象转变为鱼的形象；他的形象们也经历类似的生命。

对八大山人和朱伟艺术的解读和解释在“卡玛．辛顿(Carma．Hinton)访问摘录，1997”里有所展示——八大的构图、情感、描绘鱼眼的方式对朱伟都有所影响(12)。

在Abraham P．N．Ho的关于八大山人的文章“八大山人对二十世纪绘画的影响”里谈到鱼眼时，可以找到以下的形容方式，“无可奈何”，“无名怒火”，“无头无脑”，“无精打采”；或是被翻译为HELPLESS，INEXPLCABLE ANGER，AIMLESSLY，和LISTLESS(17)。朱伟在描绘时代变迁的主题时，用另一种完美的绘画方式很好地运用了八大山人的“白眼”。八大那些诉说着劫后余生的鱼群被运用于表达孤立和孤独、人类群体的脆弱、无理性状态、灵魂的一文不值、精神力量的缺乏和不断壮大的唯物主义——在面对怪异、挫折时代中的中国现代日常生活的左右为难。在时代剧变的发展趋势中，没有另一个选择，也没有办法逃脱他们现在的生活状态，对即将来到的未来毫无头绪，朱伟描绘的主题就是这种人们在不知不觉中被卷入到一场席卷全国的政治和社会的变革中时的生命状态。“无可奈何”，“无头无脑”，“无精打采”就是对朱伟的鱼眼人形的诠释。但是，八大山人的“无名怒火”在朱伟的日记中还是缺席的。

建立在八大山人1689年以后的两个主要作品系列——“鱼鸭图卷”，上海博物馆收藏和“鱼，莲，圆鱼，和竹”，1689年，Rosshandler收藏的研究和对朱伟1993至2000年间创作的十幅作品的研究上，我们追寻到八大是如何对朱伟的创作产生影响的，我们也可以看到朱伟是如何运用八大的鱼眼造型来塑造他对中国现代生活的创作。在他的绘画中，自画像式的形象和八大重复使用的—些形象（如河豚）来形容自己很有相似之处。和八大用来平衡那些看似无害的鱼的题诗相比，朱伟成功运用了中国摇滚乐歌词作为画的内容则是更为前卫的表达方式。这些特征结合起来，就形成了朱伟独一无二的艺术风格。

在中国传统中，人们对归隐有美丽的想象，而朱伟的生活方式实际上是对现实生活的不满和有意的排斥，他并没有真正生活在大山中，城市和在城市中的生活是他绘画灵感的源泉(18)。朱伟绘画中夸张的形式，讽刺画，各种表情，对不同形态、时代、面貌的不协调的融合看似古怪，但却是在北京随处可见的景象。

朱伟对自己很坦诚，他“面对危险时会感到惊恐，而面对未知事物时会感到焦虑”，同时他还是个“追求近乎圣洁的纯粹和享受美好时光”的人，是个情非得以的惊世骇俗者(5)。朱伟以“不妥协的工笔风格”寻求纯粹、自由与辉煌——满怀从昔日大师身上获得的灵感，对现实的强烈关注，和构建一个理想主义新世界的庄严渴望。

参考书籍：

1.      傅熹年，《中国美术全集 绘画编3 两宋绘画 上》，文物出版社，北京，1998。

2.       Hilary Binks，“别出心裁：朱伟——在亭台楼阁海洋中的前解放军人”，杂志《窗户》，1996。

3.       K.K. Goh“放假的失业工人Unemployment Workers on Holiday”，《联合早报》1998年10月。

4.       李惠淑Lee Hui-shu的文章“两条鱼册页与八大山人平静的哀伤”。收录于即将出版的《东方艺术》（该杂志为密歇根大学历史艺术学院和史密森学会的Freer艺术画廊联合赞助出版的学术年刊——译注）。

5.       栗宪庭，《中国先锋：艺术和文化中的逆流》，牛津大学出版社1993年出版，牛津，纽约。

6.       McGuinness, Stephen，《朱伟日记》，万玉堂（国际）有限公司，香港与新加坡，2000。

7.       万玉堂画廊，《朱伟：北京故事》，万玉堂（国际）有限公司，香港与新加坡，1994。

8.       万玉堂画廊，《朱伟：中国日记》，万玉堂（国际）有限公司，香港与新加坡，1996。

9.       万玉堂画廊，《朱伟：梦游手记》，万玉堂（国际）有限公司，香港与新加坡，1998。

10.   台湾国家历史博物馆，《八大与石涛的绘画和书法》，国家历史博物馆，台北，台湾，中华民国，1984。

11.   Sullivan, Michael，《二十世纪的中国艺术和艺术家》，加利福尼亚大学，伯克里，1996。

12.   Sullivan, Michael，《中国艺术与日本艺术》，Franklin Watts公司，纽约，1965。

13.   王方育、Barnhart, Richard M.和Smith, Judith G.，《莲花园的大师：八大山人的生命和艺术(1626-1705)》，耶鲁大学画廊，1990，纽海文。 

陈慧君

2001年7月

首次刊发于河北教育出版社2006年出版画册《朱伟》，第40-51页