Why I Paint

May 2010 Issue of Hi Art

There are only two ways to live your life. One is to live by instinct - going to school, finding a job, falling in love with somebody, getting married, reproducing, turning old and finally passing away. Most people choose this way. The other is to live with a dream of doing something significant and leaving something in the world without wasting your journey. For people who have chosen the latter, their life may be full of frustrations even misery; however, it is them who have made the world wonderful.

Takeshi Kitano said in his autobiography A kid from Asakusa, ‘I’m always doing my performance according to my real ability, no matter it is poor or excellent, being welcomed or disliked.’

In these days I am questioning myself. Why do I paint? Why did I choose paining as the lifetime pursuit and goal? What are the problems to be solved by painting? What are the principles to be shown in art? How have paintings around us changed during the past decades?

Such things often happen: some artists claimed that he was born for art, and when he was a baby all neighbors agreed that he was full of artistic talents and he was born to be an artist. Some major stars said he/she went to the entrance examination just for accompanying his/her friend, but finally it was him/her but not his/her friend was admitted into the School of Film Art, etc. It seems that I am not so lucky. I studied painting only because of my poor academic scores - from the first year in elementary school my scores of literature and math were seldom exceeded 70. And the reason why I chose painting ink and wash was because the rice paper was cheaper, and the ink pigments were economical - a bottle of ink mixed with water could survive more than a year. When I was a college student, I even painted pencil sketches on rice papers. I was criticized by my professor for it for many times, but nothing changed. Although I knew I should use sketch papers, they were still expensive, and I wasn't born in a rich family. For more than 20 years my career is like travelling on a roller coaster. I have rushed to the current location without thinking anything deeply in time. Now I am matured and sometimes I think seriously what I am living for. My conclusion is that I'm still far way from art. Occasionally it seemed that art was coming toward me, but suddenly I realized it was nothing but a dream, a great lie, or a big trap. I am 40 now, and if I want to be re-employed instead of becoming a painter, there are only two jobs left for me: being a night-watchman, or being a CEO who's always bossy in the daytime.

However, artists are born to be romantic and free. It's hard for them to obey any rule or regulation. So, if they take the above two kinds of jobs, they would definitely make very poor of either, and end up with being fired. In the past I could question myself, but now I can only face the reality and do what I am able to do. I have kept painting for dozens of years, I am a skilled worker, this is it. If someone says he is a genius, or art will be incomplete without him, with my courtesies, cultivation and the edification received from intellectuals, I will punch his face right away.

The purpose of art is to express thought and soul, while painting is just one of them. With its long history, painting has been the basis of all formative arts, to say nothing of its long-lived raw vitality worldwide and acting as advant-garde till today. The world is not always based on materials, money and mechanical principles. For example, if a young man falls in love with a young girl, he can stand under her window, playing his guitar and singing songs, or throwing flowers to her. If he forges iron under the window or throws dollars piece by piece upwards, he is likely to be disappointed. To a certain extent, we must make things abstract and allegorical; in other words, we should not tell a story too directly. Art need to express various desires of human being, which cannot be achieved by following formulas or explaining theories, nor by counting as well. It should be carried out in a haste, or carelessly, since even a tiny bit of crudeness may cause long-term displeasure and irritation. Painting is more objective than music, that's why I admire musicians - people can find beauty and realize the richness of life just by sitting there doing nothing with their eyes closed.

2010 is a round number again, which could be used for many purposes. Some take the opportunity to review the development of modern art over the past 30 years. However, I think 2008 is more appropriate. The dramatic change of Chinese society happened in 1978, so, all retrospections, no matter in literature or art or others, should take that year as a starting point. Otherwise it merely smells commercial, as though businessman sells sticky rice ball (which should be eaten in Feb) on the Dragon Boat Festival (in June), the only reason is the unsold inventory.

In the 30 years history of painting after the Reform and Opening-up, I have witnessed 21 of them. I appreciate paintings and art explorations before the ’85 New Trend Art Movements, especially during the Stars Art Society period. Some theoreticians define artistic works created during that period as a revolution only happened in art forms, but as a painter I have a different point of view. I think it was a revolution happened in content. Just like in the preface of Stars Art Exhibition it was written, "we can find countless subjects and deep revolutions in the real life, and we devote ourselves to it and its unpredictable and uncertain. It is undoubtedly the resource of our art. When we combine our liberated soul with art inspiration, art will make life dramatically exciting. We won't break with our ancestors, on the contrary, we inherited from them the ability to understand life, and the spirit to explore." Since then for decades I have never seen large-scale parades again like the great parade of defending Constitution held on the National Day in 1979. Numerous artists attended it. And since then among many art critics I could seldom find real intellectuals as brave as Li Xiaoshan and Li Xianting who dare to stand out boldly and fight against unreasonable conducts. During ’85 New Trend Art Movements, the purpose of art was still to liberate humanity nature and to emancipate the minds in a bold way. Objectively speaking, the first two artistic movements were launched by artists and theoreticians spontaneously, while the Post-1989 Art Movement in the 1990s was manipulated by galleries and capital. Therefore they were extremely different in art styles and forms, and even the behaviors of artists of those two periods were not the same. It's not necessarily a bad thing since the society has developed. Both artists and theoreticians are nothing but chess-pieces, like iron filings on a magnetic field moving involuntarily.

Nobody can take advantage of art, including artists themselves.

Zhu Wei

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

为什么画画

《HI艺术》2010年5月号

人的一生只有两种活法：一是上学、就业、恋爱、结婚生子、养老送终，本能地活着，大部分人都是如此。另外一种是想做点事，不想白来一趟，想留点什么。他们的生活可能不那么如意，有的可能很惨，但这个世界的精彩是由他们创造出来的。

北野武在自传《浅草小子》里写道：我的表演不论蹩脚还是高明，受欢迎还是不受欢迎，我都会把它当作自己的真实水平来看待。

最近一段时间，我一直都在询问自己：为什么要画画，为什么要选择这么一件事作为自己一生的追求和目标？画画要解决什么问题？艺术又要揭示什么原理？我们身边的绘画这几十年来又发生了什么变化？

经常能看到某某艺术家自称是为艺术而生，刚一出生，街坊邻居就都说这孩子有艺术细胞，天生就是搞艺术的料。还有的明星大腕说是陪同学去考试，结果自己被录取了，等等等等。这些机会我似乎都没赶上。我当时学画画是因为学习成绩一直不好，语文、数学很少有超过七十分的，即使在小学一年级也是这水平。画水墨画是因为宣纸便宜，颜料耐用，而且大部分都是墨，买一瓶兑上水，一年都使不完。当年上大学的时候，连画素描、人体，都用宣纸，老师说归说，从来没改过。我的心思是，换好纸我还不知道，谁出钱，就我家那穷样。二十多年混下来，就像是坐上过山车，一路跟头把式冲下来，啥都来不及想。这两年岁数大了，有时也认真琢磨琢磨，这一辈子究竟是为什么，思前想后，觉得艺术对我来说还是那么遥远，有的时候觉得靠得很近，但忽然觉得原来是个梦，是个大谎言，一大圈套。四十多岁，再出去应聘，只能接两种活，一是晚上看门守夜的，二是白天颐指气使的总经理。

艺术家天生浪漫、随意、缺少章法与规矩，这两种活肯定都干不好，被开除辞退是早晚的事。如果以前还要追问自己，现在只能面对现实，拣力所能及的事来干。画画这活干了几十年，成了熟练工，只能如此，如果有人在我面前还愣说自己是天才，艺术缺了他会少点什么，凭我这么多年的积淀、修养和文化人的熏陶，肯定一大嘴巴就抽上去了。

艺术是要表达人的思想和灵魂，绘画只是其中一种，虽然古老，但是一切造型艺术的基础。何况在世界范围上看，它的生命力旺盛而持久，还是艺术的前沿。世界上很多事情，光靠物质、金钱、或者机械原理是不行的，比如一小伙子爱上一姑娘，就会在晚上弹着心爱的吉他，在姑娘窗下唱歌，或是往上扔鲜花；要是小伙子在楼下打铁，或者一张一张地往姑娘住的楼上扔钞票，那这事恐怕要黄。有些事情，到了一定程度必须把它抽象化、寓意化，也就是我们常说的不能白不呲咧的。艺术要体现的原理就是人性的需求和各种欲望。这种事情不能靠公式，也不能只解释原理，更不能拨拉算盘，三下五除二，或者四舍五入，哪一细节稍有粗暴，都会引起人长时间不悦和烦躁。和音乐相比，绘画显得具体多了，我更敬佩音乐家，他能让人们坐在那翻着白眼就领略到了人生的美好和丰富。

眼下又到了一个整数的年头，2010年有很多机会让有心人拿它做文章。有人以它为准回顾三十年的当代艺术发展，我更觉得2008年是个最好的时机，因为对全体中国人来说，1978年是整个中国社会发生重大变革的年代，所有的回顾包括文化艺术，也都应当以它为基础，不然的话有点像端午节卖元宵说明家里有存货，商业目的太强。

改革开放三十年的绘画，我经历了二十一年。我更欣赏85思潮以前的绘画和探索，特别是“星星画会”时期。有的理论家把“星星画会”时期的艺术定位为形式革命，我不敢苟同，以一个画家的角度，我更认为那是一次内容的革命，正如星星画展的前言中写道：“现实生活有无尽的题材，一场场深刻的革命，把我们投入其中，变幻而迷朦，这无疑是我们的艺术主题，当我们把解放的灵魂同创作灵感结合起来时，艺术给予生活以极大的刺激，我们决不会同自己的先辈决裂，正如我们从先辈那里继承下来的，我们有辨认生活的能力，及勇于探索的精神。”之后的几十年来，我再也没看到过类似于1979年国庆节当天由众多艺术家参与的维护宪法大游行。在众多理论家中也很少再看到李小山、栗宪庭这样挺身而出横眉冷对的真正知识分子了。85时期的艺术还是继续在探索人性的解放，大胆解放思想，客观上说这三十年的艺术运动或流派的出现，前两次是由艺术家和理论家自发组织起来的，而九十年代“后八九”则是由画廊和资本操作出来的，所以在他们的艺术样式和面貌上有很大的不同，甚至艺术家的行为举止也有一定的差别。这不一定是坏事，它和社会的发展有关。艺术家或理论家只不过是一个个棋子，就像磁场上的铁屑，不在这头就肯定被吸到那头。

艺术不会被任何人利用，包括艺术家在内。

朱伟

2010年4月11日星期日