Wildfire Will Not Extinguish It, The Spring Breeze Will Not Revive It

Hi Art, May, 2008

I vow not to make anymore ink paintings every time I visit Liulichang. No matter how level-headed or determined a person is, the visual overload of scrolls, fans, jade, and paintings of over-ripened grapes rendered in a combination of Chinese and Western painting style, makes one want to faint on the spot. You wish someone would throw ice water on you or that you could down an ice cream bar to calm the nerves.

Some vendors pull at foreigners clothing and drag them into their shops at these discount art markets. Their behavior is so rude; it is a disgrace to Chinese culture. During my travels abroad, I realized that foreign vendors are similar to the Chinese. Painters line up on the streets in front of reputable art museums sketching.  Some are talented while others are not.  Regardless of skill, they all have freedom to do this and appear to be focused on painting, rather than gawking at people on the streets. They are quite suave: squeezing paint onto the palette and wiping their brushes cleverly, as though they’ve been doing it all their lives. The quality of the work is not outstanding, but the setup is picture perfect. Their income is probably good, or at least better than those who shamelessly cheat customers at Liulichang in the name of art. Only in this regard should the Liulichang salesmen learn from the west.

The future of the ink market is quite shaky. A few years ago, the market went sour due to controversies over authenticity. Additionally large numbers of traditional ink paintings flooded the market, which caused skepticism at international auctions. Unlike contemporary art where many of the artists are still living, most of the traditional ink painters have passed away making authentication a difficult task.  Some people bend the truth when it comes to classical ink painting to entice dealers and make buyers feel confident during a purchase. Whether such confidence will withstand the test of time for generations to come remains to be seen and depends on thorough provenance research.

I believe ink painting took a turn for the worst during the May Fourth Movement. Historically, landlords, literati and officials collected authentic ink paintings.  They often commissioned artwork revering the chosen artist as a noble guest who received special treatment. The artists did not live like most average people who worked in the fields and slept together on one crowded bed. The arrival of the New Culture Movement brought many changes to the ink painting tradition.  For the first time western plays and oil paintings gained popularity while ink painting and traditional dramas were ignored by the young generation. Confucianism was being denounced and ink paintings were burned.  After liberation a large number of artists who had traveled abroad during the Republican Era returned home with the intent of reinventing the Chinese ink painting tradition through the appropriation of Western painting techniques. Ink painting became known as “color ink painting” and symbolized the transformation. Art training introduced western techniques such as perspective, sketching the human form, and bold use of color while content started to hint at political pop.  From the 1950s throughout the Cultural Revolution, the titles of modern ink paintings were extremely significant and expressed an underlying statement: Receiving a Cow from Land Reform; An Old Man of Eighty-eight Years Knows the Army and Its People Are One Family; Changing Flood Disaster To Irrigation; The Radiance of the Red Sun Will Warm Ten Thousand Generations; Order the Planet to Offer Oil; Directing Steel Production; Let Us Judge The Crime and Success of The Past. . The ink painting tradition follows the principle: learn techniques from the old masters in order to enlighten one’s mind.

Western Contemporary art revolutionized the stylistic language of traditional ink painting through the guise of formalism. Through the influence of western contemporary art, the concepts and intrinsic qualities of ink paintings changed. We don’t know why these changes occurred.  The ink painting tradition spans thousands of years while the oil painting tradition spans hundreds of years; each tradition has developed differently with unique characteristics.  Ink painting became neutral during the May Fourth Movement.  I do not think we should be grateful to the “returnee artists” who were devoted to reforming the ink painting tradition. I wish they had never returned.  If only they had built the courage to reform western oil painting and transform it by painting with discrete perspective and render the meaning within the atmosphere. Although, Picasso and Matisse might have kicked them out of the country

During the past few decades, ink painting has been reduced to an idle practice.  The notion that China needs approval from the West to become an advanced civilization has been proven false.  Ink painting is not even considered part of the contemporary art canon. A few days ago, I received an invitation to an academic exhibition about Cultural Revolution art titled Red, Luminous and Bright. Ink painting was heavily criticized during the Cultural Revolution along with Chinese Opera.  I was the only ink painter invited to this exhibition.

Throughout the 20th century, ink painting has endured scrutiny and experienced high and low periods. During the Reform era, ink painting nearly disappeared. This had nothing to do with pressure from the West but there was a local mission to reform the tradition. It is unfair to blame political movements and cultural phenomenon like the Cultural Revolution for the changes.  The pretentious scholars of ink painting should be held accountable for this.

Painting is a meticulous job requiring technical skill. Only insiders can make a difference in the field while outsiders just cause confusion.   There are two possibilities why these idiots would try to disrupt a tradition with a history of more than a thousand years.  An inferiority complex; they criticize because they recognize their inability to reach the highest artistic level. An act of desperation; they are overpowered by being slaves to the idea of cultural inferiority.

Zhu Wei

April 16, 2008

野火烧不尽 春风吹不活

《HI艺术》2008年5月号

每次去琉璃厂都发誓以后再也不画水墨画了。就算是你脾气再好，定力再够，看着这铺天盖地的画轴，扇面，几千个奔腾的瘦马，一万多个不中不西的全因素透视感极强的熟得发紫的葡萄，你一定能当场瘫在地上，恨不得立马有人拿冰水喷你，或者赶紧吃一雪糕压压。 

扎堆廉价出售水墨画，有的还带拽老外衣服，生拉硬扯让人看的，我觉得实在不雅，有点糟蹋中国文化。后来有机会去国外看看，发现更惨。好点的美术馆、博物馆门口街面上一字排开都是当场画油画、画素描的，有会画的，有不会画的，看着姿势都对。不过人家玩儿的高，一门心思画画，绝不看边上的人，倍儿有气节，挤颜料，擦笔，动作娴熟，跟画了一辈子似的，除了画稍次点，没啥毛病。不耽误挣钱，一天下来肯定比琉璃厂连脸都不要、白不呲咧奔钱去的挣得多，还弄了个搞艺术的，冲这点，就得赶紧跟国际接轨。 

水墨画其实也不容易，前几年因为真假难辨，数量众多，曾遭到海外拍卖行的停拍。那些画的作者本人已经死了好几回了，很难坐起来帮着鉴别真假。不像当代艺术，艺术家都活好好的，吃麻麻香，有的还能帮炒家说瞎话，最起码让买主当时觉得踏实，到了买主孙子的时候踏实不踏实那要看发展，不要盲目悲观。 

水墨画地位上不来，我琢磨着是从五四新文化运动时期开始的。以前不这样，地主老财大款秀才员外家家都有名家真迹，有的还养着会画画的人，奉为上宾，饭都单吃，既不跟长工下地干活，也不会和下人睡一炕上。新文化运动开始，文明戏、西方油画开始盛行，水墨画和传统戏班子一样遭到年轻人的唾弃，打倒孔家店的时候水墨画也没少被烧。解放后大批民国期间“海归”的艺术家更是从根本上希望通过借鉴西方艺术的长处来改造中国水墨画，甚至把水墨画改名为彩墨画，从形式上改变水墨画。水墨画专业开设素描、人体解剖、色彩和透视，在内容上逼近政治波普。从五十年代、文革直到今天大家记住的熟悉的现当代水墨画作品，你一听名字就知道怎么回事了，比如《土改分得大黄牛》、《老汉今年八十八，始知军民是一家》、《化水灾为水利》、《红太阳光辉暖万代》、《喝令地球献石油》、《夺钢前哨》、《千秋功罪我们评说》等等。 

水墨画几千年来的传统，讲求“师造化，得心源”，讲究意在笔先。上面几个画的名字听着就能吓一跳，让你感觉非得把宣纸搁油锅里炸了才能在上面画。 

西方当代艺术的不断革命，在形式后面是风格语言的革命，但在形式革命的潮流下，更还是隐含着意识与观念的变化、生活态度和人生价值的变化。这些变化因何而起，怎样演变我们不知道，只是看到了现在的结果拿来就用，不管顺不顺手。几千年的水墨画和几百年的油画，在发端发展上是极为不同的，各有自己的一套。水墨画只是在五四运动以后，才变得非驴非马，不像个人样。我不知道该不该感谢那些“海归”回来口口声声要改变水墨画的那些哥们，我甚至祷告他们当年别回来，有种的就他妈去改变西方的油画，把散点透视和意境带给他们，把油画改成油彩画，另外再细分为工笔油彩和写意油彩；风景画里面引入大斧劈和小斧劈。艺术是属于全人类的，别回家里横。我想这帮丫的不敢，照毕加索、马蒂斯的脾气早把他们大嘴巴抽回来了，连这帮艺术家也知道糊弄中国人容易，糊弄老外门都没有，人家个个有血性。 

几十年来水墨画被改造成如今这个不死不活的样子，似乎就先进了，文明了，就会得到西方的认可，其实不然。在当代艺术盛行的今天，水墨画连我们自己都未把它纳入当代艺术的范畴，指望别人点头就更别提了。前两天接一展览邀请，是对文革时期艺术形式反思的大型学术性展览《红、光、亮》，水墨画这块也就我一人。文革时期遭到严重摧残的其实是水墨画，红、光、亮当年最彻底的是水墨画和京剧。 

中国水墨画的前途问题几乎贯穿了整个二十世纪，几起几落，备受质疑，一次又一次完整的改造水墨画运动差点让水墨画作为一个画种消失在这个世界上。这事西方人没逼我们，全是我们自己干的。功劳归那些对水墨画似懂非懂的改良派，完全推给意识形态或文革等等政治运动有失公允。 

画画是一技术活，行内的人不自己来回瞎折腾外人想插手也插不上。这帮丫的为什么要折腾几千年来老祖宗传下来的水墨画呢？原因有二：一，他自己的功力永远也达不到，绝望而致；二，强烈的文化自卑感所造成的奴才心理作祟。

朱伟

2008年4月16日星期三

manuscript