If Spring Comes, Can Winter Be Far Behind？

Hi Art, May Issue, 2011

Change of seasons is a rule of the nature, just like no matter you are great or small, you must eat and go to toilet and no one could bear to stop any of them. Shi Tao has ever pointed out his aesthetic thought “unity of heaven and man” in his Analectic of Words on Painting, through this, he expressed his recognition that everything of the nature is harmony, integral and united into one. It appears that one must obey the rule and understand well if he wants to draw well. A minion drawing oil painting would never surpass Giuseppe Castiglione however much effort he made and a fool drawing ink and wash painting can never do better than Tang Bohu.

The relationship between the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter of a year is that of accumulation and result, of with the purpose is to circle and circle again endlessly. At the best this is rehabilitation, on the negative side this is great weaves sweeping the sand.

An artist creating art is just like a crime in the police station, polices would try all means to ask your motive and they only want to know the relationship between what you are doing and what would be the result, in order to prove whether what you are doing is reasonable or not.

Artists today are all very clever. They almost stuffed all the holes. Some even read through the history of art and adds whatever is lacked in this history of China. This addition would never be useless and what has been done by these artists would quickly be written into the Chinese contemporary art history that is being published every 5 or at most 10 years. Or even once an artist put down his chopsticks, someone would be able to forecast the shape of this artist’s feces that would be shit later right away; such a speed is far quicker than Japanese people’s forecasting of seaquake after their earthquake. There are two kinds of views in Chinese contemporary art today: one is that the boosting of Chinese contemporary art is influencing the world. Another is that Chinese contemporary art is a mad and chaotic phenomenon. Actually, to say Chinese contemporary art is influencing the world, one is referring to the speculation of auction price which should owe to the fast uprising of Chinese economy; Yet today Chinese people spend even much more money on car, house and bag, the price is not really related with artistic achievement at all. And it’s not at all mad or chaotic, too. If one day European artists turn to learn from Shi Tao, Zhu Da, Qi Baishi, Tang Bohu, Fu Baoshi, Li Keran and cannot open their mouth without talking about whether ink and brushwork equals to zero, would you still think Chinese contemporary art is chaotic or mad?

Recently two exhibitions worth seeing; one is the “From the Collections of Uffizi Gallery” exhibition at the gallery of Central Academy of Art at Wangjing area, another is the “The Art of Enlightenment” at National Art Museum of China, on which we could see masterpieces from three national museums of Germany.

Masters from the 15th century to the 20th century are collectively shown on the “From the Collections of Uffizi Gallery” exhibition and after seeing this exhibition, you would feel that oil painting was born in Europe and in the blood of every European people. In oil painting figures could be depicted deeply, exquisitely and vividly; the 700 years history of oil painting is a process of scientific development and many points are worth learning for us. We should make great effort to catch up with them. This exhibition was held in a university which emphasizes modeling and achievements on technique, so it is a good chance for students to improve, of course, this is also a good exhibition for artisan-painters.

Comparing to the stated above one, the art exhibition that has been planned for ten years with arts from National Museum of Dresden of Germany, National Museum in Berlin as well as the Bavarian State Painting Collection of Munich has a much higher level and is what Chinese need most today. From mid-18th century onwards, the enlightenment of Europe has continued all along. The ultimate question of Enlightenment Movement is: How human be human. Nearly 600 pieces of works divided into 9 parts are displayed on this exhibition and all of which are answering the same question. Among which we could see the “A Portrait of Heinrich· Danker” by Fredrik Hick, which was created in 18?2 and was the first painting in which common people became the hero in an artwork. A television in the exhibition pavilion is looping Beuys’s conceptual work about his only one time trip to America: “I love America and America loves me”; in this work he elaborated his alertness for the fast progress of society. Because this exhibition is held in China, certainly many Chinese elements would be involved and among which the most eye-catching is the original edition of the copper etching work belongs to Qianlong Dynasty titled “”. This work was a memorial copper etching created by Giuseppe Castiglione and Wang Zhicheng under Emperor Qianlong’s order, who had just pacified Xinjiang; in which 16 sets were included and scenes like warfare, accept the surrender, triumphant return and others. When sketches were finished, they were sent to Paris of France for production and cost 11 years to be finished. When in 1900 the joint forces of the eight imperialist powers invaded Beijing, these works were grabbed off and now they are collected in Berlin National Museum, one of the organizers of this exhibition.

It’s the proper time for “The Art of Enlightenment” to come to China when today Chinese are in urgent need of artistic and ideological enlightenment. Art of enlightenment originated from the enlightenment of art. We never have any lack of painters and craftsman, but masters come from crowds that have been enlightened. The rule in the development of art is the same with season changes of the nature; there is causation in it.

Zhu Wei

Sunday, April 17, 2011

春天来了 冬天还会远吗？

《HI艺术》2011年五月刊

四季的变化是自然界的规律，就像是先吃饭还是先去厕所，没高低贵贱之分，都是必须的，把哪个停了人都受不了。石涛在《画语录》中曾指出他的美学思想即天人合一，以此表达自己对自然万物合而为一和谐统一的认识。看来要想画好画儿，也得遵循规律，悟性也得跟上，一画油画的奴才撑死了也不会超过郎世宁，一画水墨的面瓜到死也超越不了唐伯虎。

春夏秋冬一年四季是一个积累和结果的关系，它的目的就是造成循环，周而复始，往好了说休养生息，往惨了说大浪淘沙。

艺术家创作或罪犯进了派出所，警察都会想尽其一切办法不厌其烦地盘问你动机是什么，就是想知道你的行为和结果的关系，以此来证明你这是干了件有理的事还是没理的事。

现在的艺术家个个都是人精，基本上把窟窿都给堵上了，甚至有的直接拿着美术史，中国没啥就给补上啥。这一补绝对不会白忙活，马上就会载入五年最长十年出版一次的中国当代艺术史。甚者，艺术家刚一放下筷子，有人就已经把艺术家呆会去厕所拉干的还是稀的预测出来了，其速度超过日本人预测地震海啸。中国当代艺术现在有两种说法：一曰中国当代艺术火爆，影响世界。二曰，中国当代艺术是个乱象。其实说中国当代艺术火爆影响世界，是指炒作拍卖价格，那是托中国经济快速崛起的福，现在中国人买车买房买包比这狠多了，和艺术成就没什么关系；中国当代艺术也一点都不乱，如果有朝一日，欧美艺术家都学石涛、八大、齐白石、唐伯虎、傅抱石、李可染，张嘴就写意工笔，闭嘴就笔墨等不等于零，你会觉得乱吗？

最近有两个展览值得一看，一个是意大利乌扉齐美术馆的精品陈列展，在望京中央美术学院美术馆展出。另一个是国家博物馆《启蒙的艺术》，来自德国三大国立博物馆的精品展。

乌扉齐美术馆的展览巨匠云集，从十五世纪一直到二十世纪，看完展览你会觉得油画诞生在欧洲，在每一个欧洲人的血液里。油画对人物的刻画深入细腻，惟妙惟肖，七百年的油画史是一个科学发展的进程，有我们可学的地方太多了，要迎头赶上，奋起直追。这个展览因为是在一个大学里办的，着重强调造型和技法的成就，是学生们难得的学习借鉴的好机会，当然也是匠人们喜欢的一个好展览。

酝酿十年之久，来自于德国德累斯顿国家博物馆、柏林国家博物馆、慕尼黑巴伐利亚国家绘画收藏馆的艺术展，相比之下高级很多，也是中国人当下最需要的。自十八世纪中期始，欧洲启蒙运动方兴未艾。启蒙运动的终极问题就是：人何以为人。展览的近六百件展品，分九个部分，全部围绕这一追问展开。其中有戈特利希·希克的《海因瑞克·丹纳克肖像》。作品诞生于一八?二年，这幅画让普通老百姓第一次成为作品的主角。展厅内的一台电视，循环播放着博伊斯唯一一次美国之行的观念作品：“我爱美国，美国爱我”，阐述了他对社会的快速进步所怀有的警觉。因为这个展览在中国举办，当然少不了中国元素的介入，其中最显眼的当属乾隆时代的《平定准部回部得胜图》铜版原版。这件作品是乾隆平定新疆之后，让传教士郎世宁、王致诚制作的纪念版铜版画，共十六套，包括作战、受降、凯旋等场面，稿子完成之后送往法国巴黎制作，历时十一年。一九??年八国联军侵入北京，该作品被抢走，现藏于主办此次展览之一的柏林国家博物馆。

《启蒙的艺术》来到中国恰逢其时，中国当下急需要艺术的启蒙，思想的启蒙。启蒙的艺术来源于艺术的启蒙，画家、匠人什么时候都不缺，而大师来自于被启蒙了的人群当中，艺术的发展规律和自然界的四季变化一样，有因果关系。

朱伟

2011年4月17日星期日