Hills Beyond A River

 
SCOPE, the initial issue, March 2014, special feature "The Art of Our Times" - "Zhu Wei talks about SCOPE"

By Zhu Wei

A few days ago a journalist of Hi Art sent message to me, asking whether I can take an interview in the next day to talk about Zhu Xinjian. I thought the message was sent to the wrong person, because I'm also surnamed Zhu, or Mr. Zhu for short. So I replied quickly: are you trying to find Zhu Xinjian? After that I went online and knew what had happened, I apologized to the journalist, for I might have frightened him.

Before these voices faded off, yesterday when I just arrived in America and hardly had time to set my feet, I received another message telling me that the famous historian of Chinese art James Cahill just passed away. This time I was frightened, because the place I was going to is the University of California, Berkeley, where he lived.

The Great Leader taught us that people always die, but some people's death may be weightier than Mount Tai, and some other people may die in vain as light as a feather. Of course the generation after 80s, 90s, or 00s may not know who the Great Leader is, since there are so many leaders in the various walks of life at present, especially the business leaders. Kids can remember the names of the top 100 in the rich list, just as when I was a child I could immediately say the names of all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, but might not answer immediately and accurately who my parents were. Until today I still cannot understand, why some people are weightier than Mount Tai when they are alive, even the Mount Tai has to stand behind him, and some people are in such a low position that his words carry little weight, with nobody care or listen to... how can this situation be attached to people even after they die? What the hell materialism it is?

I basically have collected all of James Cahill's books, Hills Beyond A River: Chinese Painting of the Yuan Dynasty, 1279-1368, Distant Mountain: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Dynasty, 1570-1644, The Compelling Image: Nature and Style in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Painting, The Painter's Practice: How Artists Lived and Worked in Traditional China, Garden Paintings in Old China, Lyric Journey: Poetic Painting in China and Japan. The books I put on my bookshelves in my studio is to let people see them but I never lend them, while for some other books I'm too afraid that people will borrow them, so I never put them on the bookshelves. Cahill's books belong to the latter. Cahill's works introduced Chinese painting to the history of world painting system which is more easily accepted by the westerners, and through his introduction, many outstanding ancient Chinese paintings entered into world famous museums. If our scholars write a book about how great Chinese art history or Chinese painting is, hoping to promote Chinese art, probably nobody will buy it. Actually the common principle is the same everywhere, but we happen to be the disappointing ones. When some foreigners say Andy Warhol or who else is very great, we immediately repeat their words without any hesitation, and even exaggerate it a little bit. I have read articles on me by Geremie R. Barmé, Alfreda Murck, Britta Erickson, and so on, realizing that the articles by these foreign scholars are very different from the domestic ones. First of all, the narrative method is not the same. Their style is independent, rigorous, and uncompromising, never trying to find fault in you or your works with pre-established intention, or picking up useful information to accomplish the intention. They always hope to find out some interesting things with artist. If there is a sentence or a noun which looks familiar, there must be an annotation or reference later, while the annotations and references is almost as long as the article itself. In addition to the precise and logical literature research, you can still read a lively story, such as The Painter's Practice which can be read as a TV drama.

I have told a story in the interviews with artron.net and the Southern Weekend, which was cited from The Painter's Practice: In the Song Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty (I forget the specific year), a collector in an ancient China's village wanted to purchase a painter's works. However, the painter was so ethical. As long as he could make a living, he refused to sell his paintings. So day after day, no matter it was windy or rainy, the collector kept to climb up the hill at the entrance of the village, or climb up a big tree, to check whether the painter's chimney was smoking. If for a few days there was no smoke coming out, he would quickly run to the painter's home with enough food and firewood, in order to trade the painter's painting.

隔江山色

《艺术客》二零一四年三月创刊号专题“我们时代的艺术客”之“朱伟谈艺术客”

文/朱伟

前几天《Hi艺术》的孩子们晚上来短信说关于朱新建老师可否第二天做个访问，我以为短信发错了，我也姓朱简称也叫朱老师，随即回了个你是否要找朱新建？后来上网一查才知道出事了，赶紧回信道歉，估计把孩子吓了一跳。

话音未落，昨出差刚到米国下飞机还没站稳，又收一短信美国著名中国艺术史学家高居翰去世，这回把我吓了一跳，我准备去的就是他老人家所在的加州大学伯克利分校。

伟大领袖教导我们说，人总是要死的，有的人死了却重于泰山，有的人死了白死轻于鸿毛。当然现在八零后九零后零零后不一定知道我说的伟大领袖指的是哪一个，现在而今眼目下各行各业的领袖多了去了，特别是商业领袖，财富排行榜靠前一百名的孩子们都能做到有印象，就像我小时候父母叫什么名字猛地一问不一定马上准确答得上，但政治局几个常委的名字能做到张嘴就来。我至今弄不明白，有的人活着就已经重于泰山甚至比泰山还重泰山排他后头，有的人微言轻当众说话还不如放个屁，既没人躲也没人听，怎么死了还都带着走，不他妈都唯物主义者吗。

高居翰的书我基本上齐了，《隔江山色：元代绘画（1297-1368）》、《山外山：晚明绘画（1570－1644）》、《气势撼人：十七世纪中国绘画中的自然与风格》、《画家生涯：传统中国画家的生活与工作》、《江岸送别：明代初期与中期绘画（1368－1580）》、《不朽的林泉：中国古代园林绘画》、《诗之旅：中国与日本的诗意绘画》。我工作室书架上摆着的书是为了让别人看见但不借，有的怕别人借不敢放在书架上，高的书属后者。高的著作使中国绘画进入了易于被西方人接受的世界绘画体系正典，通过他的介绍很多中国古代的优秀绘画作品进入世界各大著名博物馆。如果是我们一学者写了本中国艺术史或中国绘画有多么牛逼之类的书想介绍出去，未必人家会买账。其实这道理放哪都一样，碰巧咱们不争气，外国人说安迪沃霍或谁谁好，这边立马连个喯儿都不打，跟着就说好甚至还有发挥。我看过白杰明、姜斐德、林似竹等一些国外学者写我的文章，首先从叙述方法上就不一样，独立、严谨、不妥协，不先立好意然后对着你或你的作品找茬，拣有用的往里套。他们总希望能够和艺术家一起找到或发现有点意思的东西，如你看到有似曾相识的语句或名词后边指定有注解，文章后面的注释几乎和文章本身一样长，在严密准确的文献研究之后能描绘出绘声绘色的情景，比如《画家生涯》，都能当电视剧看。

《画家生涯》中有这么一段，我以前在雅昌网和《南方周末》关于中国绘画的访谈中都讲过：宋代还是清代具体哪个年代我忘了，说的是古代某村里一藏家想得到一个画家的作品，偏赶上画家倍儿有气节，只要日子还过得去就不肯出售作品，于是这藏家无论刮风下雨每天都跑到村口的山上或爬到树上观看画家房顶的烟囱冒烟了没有，如果连着几天都不见有烟冒出来，他便赶紧带着足够的粮食和油盐前去，以求能够得到画家的作品。