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The Ink and Wash Paintings in My Eyes
Hi Art, September Issue, 2012 Compared with oil painting, ink and wash painting is taking fragmental and disordered paces along the road to be contemporary. It cannot even feel its way along inch by inch. Basically, it is only marking time with small steps without any advancement. Besides, failing to change itself among the disorder, it can do nothing but wait and see. So far the painting history of China has not seen great changes in painting ideas like Enlightenment Movement and Renaissance. What are frequently seen are only quarrels and attacks among the art circle under the monarch’s unified leadership of each dynasty or artists concentrating on their own life and emotion. Intoxicated with the adulation they gave to each other, such artists are becoming increasingly feminine and contemptible. Having not experienced the Enlightenment Movement, we, who are tend to think like flunkeys, are hard to understand those gun-free countries without strict policy for restricting the arms; having not experienced the Renaissance, we rarely treat and understand the legality of whorehouses in some countries from the respect that people have the rights to reigning their own bodies freely. We have not undergone the above two great movements, so it is difficult for us to comprehend the fact that human beings are entitled to express their thoughts independently through artistic forms such as literature, music, poetry, paintings and dance without any interruption. Let’s just talk about recent things. No artists dealing with ink and wash paintings could be found in the Painter Village near the Summer Palace or in Tongxian District during these 30 years. I was the single ink-and-wash painter then, but I lived in Wanquanzhuang neighboring the Summer Palace. Later many oil painters opened their restaurants; some of them have chains and some are even going to list on GEM. However, I have not seen the ink and wash painters who do even the smallest business. The greatest benefit the Reform and Opening-up has brought to us, I think, is allowing people to live in a more flexible way. For example, one can leave his hometown with wife and children and settle in a better place; he can buy whatever he likes with money instead of various compulsory coupons for food, cloth, bean products, bikes, sewing machines, and so on. What is more, one can travel freely without giving gifts and begging for a letter of introduction used to prove he is an innocent person busy with serious work. Although now we have to apply for various certificates for settling in a new place just like getting a visa for going abroad, it is far better than when one could not even leave the village where he was born. In the past, one had to get the permission of the local Artists Association, the Bureau of Culture, the labor union of the factory he worked in or the art team in the middle school he studies in before he could create paintings such as sketches and blackboard newspaper, while now it is more convenient: we can paint at anywhere with a stall and draw anything we dare to draw. Generally speaking, we are enjoying more freedom, more possibility and chances of painting and more spacious environment for creation. It seems that the rules for artistic creation have been met and consequently works will come out. The well-known “F4”, a group of oil painters, were all loafers or artists having resigned from office then, and now their identities have not changed. This might be the only real revolution brought by the reform and opening-up to the artistic environment; to put it bluntly, some painters who are excellent, famous, successful and influential both at home and abroad are no longer professional art workers belonging to the system of the state’s institutions. Basically speaking, ink and wash paintings have belonged to the Art Academy System for thousands of years, or sometimes the painters are officials who only treat painting as a compulsory job or hobby. Fed by the government, they can develop themselves in an all-round way. With guaranteed living sources, they would never lower themselves like the “post-1989” artists such as “F4”: embarrassed by life, the latter had sold Chinese cabbages at the gate of Peking University and clothes in Xidan Market. Up till now, few ink and wash works are vivid and substantial or accepted by both laymen and experts, which may be related with the ink-and-wash painters’ circumstances. No one would say uncle without a gun to his head, and one will not be extremely eager for food unless he is going to be starved: money and reputation, everyone wants both. Many years ago, I did feel anxious and shouted about the stagnating ink-and-wash paintings. However, except for some theorists, few ink-and-wash painters echoed me or had the courage to echo me. Ink and wash paintings are different from oil paintings in that they cannot be improved by introducing in foreign experts, and, further, there are no foreign experts we can turn to. Such paintings are somewhat like ping-pone: everyone knows that China is the best at ping-pone and no foreigners dare to teach it in China. However, the sport of ping-pone needs little room and easy to take, so everyone can try it; in the communities with places for the old to play chess and card or do exercises, we are sure to find people playing ping-pong. Ink and wash paintings, with a history 2000 years longer than oil paintings’, belonged to the Academy; besides, fed by the government, the ink-and-wash painters could only paint for the emperors, the empresses, the eunuchs and the lords. Sometimes the emperor, with strong interest, would paint by himself. What they followed was the rule of class but not that of art. Maybe this is one of the causes why for so many years most of ink and wash paintings have made people uncomfortable without clear reasons. If an artist is eager to be accepted by the system like a lady who is anxious to get married, he will find the sense of belonging but lose the independent living attitude and viewing angle. Affected by others’ styles, he put his interests and emotions under the control of others. Then after a few years he is probably to become an empiricist with little imagination. Such an artist, who always takes the part as the whole, is just like a dog whose imagination is no longer than its body. How can such a person create satisfying works? Zhu Wei Tuesday, August 21st, 2012
我看水墨画
《HI艺术》2012年九月刊 水墨画和油画比起来当代化的步子迈得既碎且乱，连摸着石头过河都谈不上。基本上是原地碎步倒脚却不往前迈腿；乱也没能在乱中求变，就剩下看了。 中国的绘画史至今从没出现过启蒙运动、文艺复兴这样在绘画思想观念上的巨变，有的只是在历代君王的统一领导下，南北叫板，东西夹攻，或者关在院子里玩小情小调，互相捧场，自我陶醉，越来越阴柔，越来越下作。 没经过启蒙运动，就让我们至今都很难不以一个奴才的心理去看待和理解有些国家枪支泛滥，政府却始终不出台政策严加管理；没经过文艺复兴，就让我们至今都很难用人有自由支配自己身体的权利去看待和理解有些国家妓院的合法存在这一现象。没有经过启蒙运动和文艺复兴，就让我们很难理解：人类可以通过文学、音乐、诗歌、绘画、舞蹈等等艺术形式独立地表达自己的思想，而且还可以不受到任何干涉。 远的不说，就眼前这三十年，当时圆明园里就没有画水墨的，就我一个画水墨的也只是住在附近的万泉庄里。通县画家村也是愣没有一个。后来有好几个画油画的都开了餐厅，有的还连锁，快要在创业板上市了都，画水墨的却连一个卖茶叶蛋的都没见着过。 改革开放，现在想想，最大的好处就是让人的生存方式灵活了一些。比如：可以带着老婆孩子，背井离乡，哪儿好去哪儿待着，不用再带着全国粮票、油票、布票、棉布票、豆制品票、自行车票、缝纫机票等等，见着喜欢的掏钱就买。更不用先在村里求爷爷告奶奶，送酒送烟地开介绍信，好一路上证明自己是个正经人，很可能还有正经事要做，确实挺忙的。现在虽然还是要像出国办签证一样，到一个新地方住下还要办各种证件，当时是连自己的村都出不了。现在是支个摊子就能画画，基本能做到有胆量画啥就画啥，比以前必须到当地美协、文化局、工厂的工会、或者中学的美术组联系，接上头，才能画些素描、速写、黑板报什么的强多了。总的来说自由了不少，从事绘画的可能性和概率大大提高了，创作的环境也敞亮了。大致看起来，基本上符合艺术创作规律了，接下来就出活了。眼下大家都知道的画油画的F4，当时都是无业游民或者辞去公职出来混的，至今他们还是。这也可以说是改革开放给艺术生态带来的唯一的真正的变革。说白了，就是一些优秀的画家，成名的画家，成功的画家，在国内外有影响的艺术家，不再是体制内的专业艺术工作者了。 水墨画几千年下来基本上是画院体制，或者是画家本人还是一官儿，画画实属无奈，有兴趣，上面给发着工资，属德智体全面发展，德艺双馨人才。画家一直都有饭吃，绝不为五斗米折腰，宁死不做饭，不像后八九F4这一拨，北大门口卖过白菜，西单市场卖过衣服，老是被生活撵得狼狈不堪状。 水墨画至今很少有能让大家看得过去、内行外行也都不讨厌、有血有肉的作品，大概和画水墨的这些艺术家的境遇有关。刀不架脖子上，谁愿意说怂话，不饿急眼了，谁会看啥都像烙饼。谁不想既要钱又要脸。 水墨画上不去，小山兄二十年多前曾经为之踏踏实实地着过急，也曾大声疾呼过。除了理论界，画水墨的基本没人呼应，也没人敢呼应。水墨画和油画不同，不是请几个洋教练就能解决问题。也请不来洋教练。水墨画有点像乒乓球，家喻户晓，谁敢来教中国人打乒乓球？乒乓球不占地，好开展，谁都能来几拍子。很多小区楼前楼后，有老头老太太下棋、玩牌、抻胳膊绷腿的地方，边上肯定就有打乒乓球的。水墨画的历史比油画长出两千多年，又都是院体派，艺术家是被豢养的，只给皇上画，给娘娘画，给太监画，给老爷画，有的时候惹急了，皇上还亲自画。只按等级游戏规则玩儿，不按艺术规律办。这大概也就是水墨画这么多年下来，总是让人看着不舒服，又说不出来哪儿不好的原因之一。 画家如果像大姑娘急于嫁人，归属感是有了，但从此就少了独立的生活态度和观察角度，基本上处在他人风格的影响之下，他人左右着自己的趣味，决定着自己的喜怒哀乐，几年熬下来，弄不好还会成为一个经验主义者，基本上没有自己的想象力，像狗一样看到多少就以为是全部，想象力最多不超过身体的长度，这样的人提笔画画，能看吗？！ 朱伟 2012年8月21日星期二 |
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