Charts in the Summer Night

September Issue of HI Art, 2009

When not painting, I would rather talk nonsense with tea and sunflower seeds than discuss affairs in art circles. Of course “art” includes various sectors, and here I just refer to visual art: I do not want to mention anything regarding to it at all. However, I have to make an exception when writing the column for HI Art, because this is a professional magazine and my articles should have something to do with art, or, as what the young editors have advised, have a little to do with art.

At the end of June, 2009, the Times in England released the greatest 200 artists in the 20th century. Picasso stands on the top, followed by Cezanne, Andy Warhol, Richter, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, and so on. In the list there were 4 Japanese artists: Takashi Myrakami, Yayoi Kusama, Sugimoto Hiroshi, and Isamu Noguchi. However, no Chinese artist was covered. Just a few days ago, a European art company carried out a survey, whose result showed that the Top 5 artists whose works had the most investment values were: Gerhard Richter, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Robert Gober, and Andreas Gursky, with Richter listed first. Among them I only know Richter and Jeff Koons. I know the former from someone’s talking: now a lot of Chinese artists are imitating him directly, and some of them have even succeeded in business and academy and obtained both money and fame. Then I came home and searched Richter on the internet, finding a lot of Chinese websites related with him. As to Jeff Koons, I saw his works in a foreign gallery long before: a dog made of twisted colorful “balloons”. Having observed it carefully without finding anything special, I was going to invective the creator when a waiter came to me. He suggested that I knock at the work, and only after that did I find the seemingly “balloons” were made of stainless steel. It was so vivid. How delicate foreign metal craft is! From then on I have remembered Jeff Koons.

Richter’s works can be classified into 3 categories: abstracts, out-of-focus paintings, and photos. Frankly, among them, only the out-of-focus oil paintings are with unique hints, and the other two are rather common. Some critiques say that those blurred pictures have contributed a lot to aesthetics, while that may not be absolutely true. The point is, with that method, Richter had depicted a Nazi Solider in his Uncle Rudy (1965); he had also created October 18th, 1977 (1988). Then the German Red Brigades, which was fairly famous in Europe, was suppressed by the government, and in the painting, several members fasted to death or hung themselves. It was rather dangerous to do these two things: depicting a Nazi soldier with a winner’s smile (in particular, Richter was also a German) and drawing the suppression over German Red Brigades composed of several anti-American youth, which was called the biggest terrorist organization then, by Germany government under the pressure from America. An artist’s mission and conscience just lie in his courage of facing the social reality and revealing its nature: this is why people respect and welcome some artists and what an artist should consider first during his creation.

Richter’s personal exhibitions named after October 18th, 1977 series have been held successively in Haus Esters Museum of Keller Field, Germany (1989), ICA, Institute of Contemporary Art of London (1989), Saint Louis Art Museum in America (1990), Gray Gallery in New York (1990), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Canada (1990), Lanna Foundation in Los Angeles (1990), Museum of Contemporary Art in Boston (1991), and Museum of Modern Art in New York (2000). The painting October 18th, 1977 is a masterpiece created in the 20th century and an accurate patch which can be used to analyze, study and recall that period of history.

Zhu Wei

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

夏夜的排行榜

《HI艺术》2009年9月号

画画之余闲得没事，即使是嗑瓜子喝茶闲扯蛋也不太想聊艺术圈的事儿。当然所谓艺术圈其实就是指美术圈，艺术包括的行业多了去了。每个月除了写《HI艺术》的专栏，因为是行业刊物，必须写和美术有关的，或者像这帮年轻的编辑小姑娘小哥们嘱咐的那样沾点边就行，其余时间绝口不想提这种事。

2009年6月底，英国《泰晤士报》公布了二十世纪最伟大的二百位艺术家，毕加索、塞尚排名第一第二，后边紧跟着有安迪·沃霍尔、里希特、杰夫·昆斯、达明·赫斯特等等，其中日本四位艺术家上榜，他们分别是村上隆、草间弥生、杉木博司、野口勇，中国艺术家无一人入选。前几天欧洲一家艺术公司做了一项调查，得出结果，当代艺术最具投资价值的五位艺术家是格哈德·里希特、杰夫·昆斯、辛迪·舍曼、罗伯特·戈伯、安德烈亚斯·古尔斯基，其中里希特排名第一。这五位艺术家里我只知道两位，一个是里希特，一个是杰夫·昆斯。里希特是因为有人跟我说过现在有很多的中国艺术家们在白不呲咧地模仿他，有的还成了，生意上和学术上都收成不错，财艺双馨，于是赶紧回家上网，果真有不少和里希特相关的中文网站。杰夫·昆斯是我很早以前在国外的一家画廊看到的，一组用彩色气球吹起来又拧成一小狗模样的作品，转圈看了半天，正想开骂，一服务员走过来示意我可以用手敲敲，这才发现原来是用不锈钢做的，还真逼真，国外的金属工艺做的还真是细，从此算是记住这位艺术家了。

里希特的作品有三种：抽象、焦点不实、和照片。说实在的，里希特的作品就焦点不实的油画有点出人意料，其它的也就那么回事。模糊的画面也不一定像批评家白话的那样在美学上审美上有什么重大贡献，关键是这哥们用这种方法创作了《鲁迪叔叔》（1965）纳粹军人的形象，另外有《1977年10月18日》（1988）当年声震欧洲的德国红色旅被政府镇压，几位成员在狱中绝食身亡和上吊自杀的瞬间画面。当时正面描绘面带胜利者微笑的纳粹军人，特别还是自家亲戚；描绘由几个反美的年轻人组成的被称为欧洲最大恐怖组织、德国政府迫于美国压力大肆镇压的德国红色旅，这两件事都是要冒极大风险的，艺术家的责任和良知就在于此，敢于面对社会现实揭露社会本质，这是艺术家受到人们尊重和认可的根本原因，这也是艺术家在艺术创作的时候首先要考虑的问题。

以《1977年10月18日》这组作品命名的格哈德·里希特个展先后于德国克勒菲尔德Haus Esters美术馆（1989）、伦敦ICA当代艺术中心（1989）、美国圣路易斯美术馆（1990）、纽约格雷画廊（1990）、加拿大蒙特利尔美术馆（1990）、洛杉矶兰纳基金会（1990）、波士顿当代艺术博物馆（1991）、纽约MoMA（2000）展出。《1977年10月18日》是二十世纪绘画史上的经典，是人们分析、研究、回忆那段历史的一个准确的补丁。

朱伟

2009年8月16日星期日