Press Conference Transcripts of Zhu Wei Solo Exhibition at Today Art Museum (TAM)

11/03/2013

Gao Peng (director of TAM): Actually the exhibition has undergone three directors' terms of office. As early as when our former director Zhang Zikang was in office, the plan was discussed and briefly settled. However, because of the span of time, I become the luckiest one. When we were preparing the exhibition, I've read an article written by curator Zhu Zhu about Zhu Wei. The article is excellent. Zhu Zhu said, Zhu Wei represents a very typical type of Beijinger. They have seen the world, and their conversation is always spiced with humor. Through Zhu Wei's exhibition you can find that he has the unique thought of his own. He had been cooperating with an international gallery until 2005. He has experienced many important exhibitions globally. He has seen the world. So you can see from this exhibition the standard of details, including labels, media interviews, requirement of lighting. He's very clear what he wants. You can find that the works being shown here are small both in quantity and size, that's why it created an atmosphere of restraint, while with a spirit of ink. I personally agree to such opinion - the characteristics of oriental sentiment and Asian style are different. It's restraint, modest, and warm. Under the surface of materials, this kind of morphology transmits to us a different feeling. In the exhibition, including the whole preparing process and the final presentation, everything reflects the artist's personality. I like it very much. Hope you can enjoy it too.

Zhu Zhu (the curator of the exhibition): First of all, it's my honor to curate Zhu Wei's solo exhibition. And it's my honor to cooperate with Today Art Museum. In this exhibition the artist himself paid more effort than ever I did. What you can see here is mostly completed by Zhu Wei and his team. So, about Zhu Wei's creating courses, Director Gao Peng has just talked about it, actually in the 90's I had already noticed a very explicit characteristic in Zhu Wei - he said ink should be with the times. When many artists were still struggling to comply with the traditional formula, he had found a way to express the contemporary life. Much of it should be ascribed to his life experience, his understanding of art, and his living conditions at that time. In the preface I have written: for the Chinese contemporary art, Zhu Wei is a witness, as well as a stander-by. He has an insightful knowledge of the process of Chinese contemporary art, and in the meantime his understanding of tradition, or a perspective of understanding, is his own. Within this perspective he developed a distant tone which usually belongs to outsiders. On the other hand, his opinion about ink or art is to say there is no need to create a new form of ink language, and using the predecessor's ink language for contemporary expression is enough. It sounds easy, but in fact it's very difficult to do so. We can see from the entire current situation of Chinese ink painting today that such kind of breaking through the barrier between the ancient and the present is very rare. And the exhibition today shows us the comprehensive history of Zhu Wei's creation in a documentary way. So let's share the achievements Zhu Wei created here. Thank you.

Li Xiaoshan (famous art critic): ......just now Director Gao Peng highly valued Zhu Wei's art. He emphasized on a word -- history. Many artists today, especially the ink artists, don't have a history. They haven't started the journal yet, certainly they don't realize that time lies in their life, their creation, and their hearts - that's why they don't have a history. They are not worth our respect or attention. According to this point of view, Zhu Wei's creating history proves his exuberant artistic vitality. I just watched the exhibition, and I believe it re-proves my opinion. Today the ink painting is a hot spot and has been noticed by commercial speculators, but personally I think there are only few really good ink painters. Ink painting has a long standing and well established history, so, any tiny improvement will be extremely difficult. I have been following Zhu Wei's creation history for years, and I'm familiar with his works of each phase. I discussed with him about the possibility of ink, or the future development of it. To understand Zhu Wei's art, works being shown today provide us a very good interpretation. Thank you.

Lu Hong (Famous art critic, historian and curator): Hello, everyone. As you know, the so-called gongbi painting or imperial court painting has a long history in China. It achieved a peak in Song dynasty, and then came the rise of literati painting in Yuan dynasty, while the gongbi painting or imperial court ink clung to the edge. I think Zhu Wei's brilliance lies in his bringing the traditional techniques into the authentic expression of contemporary themes. By doing so, he developed his unique symbols of modeling, his unique subject and composition, as well as a set of methods of coloring. From 90's till today, there has been a logical process of his works. Zhu Wei used to be a soldier in his early years. From the experience of his military life and contemporary society, he created some images like the bold-headed soldiers, combining with the reality in China, both of which was well presented in his The Story of Beijing series. I think he is different from some gongbi painters who simply use the gongbi (fine brush) as a tool, to fumble the Western sketch mode. However, Zhu Wei's paintings follow the principle of traditional gongbi painting, which is flattening and decorative, while what he expresses is what he feels in his life. But he never simply put subjects in real life directly on paintings. He'll filter the subjects in his mind, and after that, express them by using the most authentic traditional formula. In Zheng Banqiao's words, he has transferred the "bamboo in his eyes" into "bamboo in his mind", and then the "bamboo in his mind" into "bamboo in his hand". I think Zhu Wei's contemporary gongbi paintings definitely cannot be ignored by the people who like ink. In last January I had the pleasure to curate a solo exhibition for Zhu Wei at Singapore Museum of Contemporary Arts. That exhibition made me feel gongbi painting should get more attention. Teacher Xiaoshan just talked about this: the paintings are excellent. Nonetheless, for various reasons of market......so my understanding is we should not follow the market, we should set up our own academic standards. At the end of this year I will curate a contemporary gongbi painting exhibition of six masters at Shenzhen Art Museum - in fact the idea of this exhibition was derived from Zhu Wei's works. There are six exhibiting halls in our museum, for six contemporary gongbi painters, including Zhu Wei, Xu Lei, and so on. I'd like to welcome you all to the exhibition as well. We should study Zhu Wei's art attentively, because he expresses a contemporary feeling; secondly, his works are not simply derived from Western paintings. Many artists nowadays just copy Western realistic techniques, while Zhu Wei uses the most authentic modes of Chinese gongbi painting. I think this worth our serious study and research.

Being contemporary means the artist's works tie closely up with contemporary life. The contemporariness is not reading a somehow hot-selling book, and then according to a concept in it, to make something tactically to fill the gap (of art history). Zhu Wei draws from his life, including his life in military. He didn't carry his life onto paper directly, but transformed it into another form. We can see it......this feeling is totally different from when we are watching a movie and following the protagonist's consciousness. I think it's very difficult to present contemporariness while keeping a distance from Western expressions. While we are pursuing Chinese contemporariness and comparing with the west, Zhu Wei turns our feelings into a specific art language. In addition, this exhibition itself is excellent too. The high ceiling of the front hall should have been a problem for the size of his works, but the designer painted the walls into back and focused the light on paintings, so our minds can concentrate on paintings without dispersal. It's not that easy. Many artists who have held an exhibition under a high ceiling failed, because the space took away a lot of tension of their paintings. But the exhibition today resolves it well, and moreover, it creates an oriental atmosphere. From a curator's perspective this exhibition is remarkable. There are only a few paintings, but we can get to know the artist through them. Thank you.

今日美术馆朱伟个展新闻发布会记录

11/03/2013

今日美术馆馆长高鹏：这个展览其实前后经历了三个馆长。最早在张子康馆长的时候就已经开始在谈这个展览的计划了，而且当时基本上也落实了要在今日美术馆举办这个展览的一个目标和想法。但是因为时间的跨度，我觉得我是最幸运的，刚好是我接在了我这个任期之内。所以时间上是跨了三任馆长。在整个布展的过程当中，我读过一篇朱朱老师写的朱伟的文章，我觉得他写得非常好。他说朱伟老师可以代表一种非常典型的北京人，就是什么世面都见过，但是说话又逗人，又噎人。你通过他的展览就发现，他有自己非常独特的想法。他一直与同一家国际画廊合作着，一直到05年，他都非常地坚持。基本上国际上重要的展览他都见过，是见过的，所以你看他布展的所有细节，包括标签，包括媒体的采访，布展的灯光的要求，他都标得非常地清楚，这个在很多我们现在做的展览里是做不到的。在这个展览中，整个布展的画的尺幅，以及它的量，是非常小的，你会发现说并没有说展示很多（作品）。这就是它为什么是很内敛的，而且很具有水墨精神。我个人比较赞成一种观点，东方的情感是具有独立特点的亚洲式形态，它是内部、谦和、和温润的。这种形态在整个物质（表象）之下传达给人的是一种不一样的感觉。朱伟本身是既逗人，又噎人，又见过世面，然后又可以说得很清楚。所以这次展览，包括布展和作品的整个呈现方式，都体现了艺术家的性格。我是非常喜欢，希望大家也能喜欢。

策展人朱朱：首先，很荣幸作为朱伟这个个展的策展人，也很高兴和今日美术馆的这次合作。那么这个展览其实艺术家本人，就是朱伟，付出了比我要多得多的精力，所以这样一个现场在很大程度上也是由他的一些团队来完成的。那么，对于朱伟的一个创作历程，刚才高鹏馆长也有所介绍，实际上在九十年代的时候，我觉得就是朱伟他有一个非常明确的特征，就是说他认为笔墨当随时代。在很多当时的水墨艺术家还拘泥于笔墨程式的时候，他已经找到了一种表达当代生活的一种办法。这在很大程度上和他的生活经验、和他对艺术的理解，以及他当时的生活状态都有关系。那么其实在前言中我也已经写到，朱伟他既是中国当代艺术的一个亲历者，同时他也是一个旁观者。就是他既非常深入地了解到中国当代艺术的进程，同时他自身对传统有一个理解，或者说理解的视角。这个视角当中他又形成了一个有距离的旁观的角度和语调。在另外一个方面，他对于水墨或者艺术本身的看法是说无需创新的笔墨语言，只是借用了借鉴了前人的笔墨语言，用于当代的表达，就可以了。这话其实说起来简单，但实际上是一个非常艰难的事情。我们可以从整个中国水墨的格局和现状当中可以看出来，就是这样一个打通古代和今天的一种隔阂或者说障碍的这种表达，实际上是非常难非常罕见的。而且这次展览是以一个文献性的方式，几乎是全面地展现了朱伟的一个创作历程。接下来让我们好好地分享朱伟的创作成果。谢谢大家。

著名艺术批评家李小山：……刚才高鹏馆长做了高度评价，着重说了两个字——历程。一个人有历程，是应该被高度评价的。我们很多的艺术家，特别是水墨艺术家，是没有历程的。他们没开始，当然不知道时间在他们的生命中、创作中、心灵中，所以他们没有历程，是不值得大家尊重或者关注的。所以按照这一点说法，朱伟的历程证明了朱伟的艺术创作生命力非常的旺盛。刚才我看了一下，我相信（这次展览）再次验证了这一点。水墨画是当今的一个热点，也是一个在商业炒作上（被）关注的一个方面，但是呢，就我个人而言，好的水墨画确实很少。这是因为源远流长的画法当中，要想再取得一点点进步，难上加难。很多年来我一直在关注朱伟的创作，他每个阶段的作品我都比较熟悉，我也和他一起探讨过，关于水墨画问题的一些方方面面的可能性，或者说它的未来的发展。我觉得对朱伟作品的诠释，在今天这样一个展览中，他的作品给了我们一个非常好的解读。谢谢大家。

著名艺术批评家、史学家、策展人鲁虹： 大家好。大家知道所谓工笔画，也就是院体画，在中国有悠久的历史。那么在它的高峰时代宋代，到了元代文人画兴起以后，这种工笔画，也就是院体画，它处在一种边缘的地位。我觉得朱伟老师的过人之处是他把传统工具引进到很地道的对当代题材的表现中，在这样做之中，他找到了自己独特的造型符号、独特的题材、画面的构成方式、和一套渲染方式。他的作品从九十年代到现在，基本上是有一个逻辑过程的。他早年是当兵，他根据自己当兵和当代生活的感受，他创造了一些像那个光头啊，就是光头兵，这是他九十年代《北京故事》中画得非常好的。包括他还结合了中国的一些现实。我觉得他和现在有些工笔画家简单地用工笔的器材去摸索西方写生绘画的模式是不一样的。他的画遵循了中国传统工笔画平面化、装饰化的原则，那么他表现的这些题材是他生活中感受的，但他并不是简单地把生活中的东西搬到画面上去，而是经过内心过滤后，然后用最地道的一种程式表现出来。用郑板桥的话说就是，他把“眼中之竹”转化为“胸中之竹”，然后把“胸中之竹”转化为“手中之竹”。我觉得朱伟在当代工笔画中肯定对我们喜欢工笔画的人是不可忽略的。去年一月我有幸给朱伟老师在新加坡当代艺术馆做了一个个展，今年年底……我就是做这个展览才感觉到，工笔画没有受到应有的重视。那么，刚才跟小山老师谈，小山也是觉得，画得这么好，但是呢，因为市场它可能由于各种原因，所以我们理解是不能看市场，我们应该有自己的学术标准。今年年底我在深圳美术馆做了一个当代工笔六人展，其实这个想法是从朱伟老师的作品开始的，我们美术馆有六个厅，一人一个厅，朱伟、徐累，还有几位，六位当代工笔画家，大家也可以继续关注。我觉得对朱伟，应该去很好地研究，因为他是对当代感受的表达，第二个他不是简单地把西方的绘画汲取。很多人现在直接把西方绘画的写实技巧直接拿过来，他是最地道的中国工笔表现技法，转换到对当代题材的表现。这一点我觉得是很值得我们大家去认真学习和研究的。

我觉得当代性就是艺术家的作品和当代现实生活有一个紧密联系。这个当代性不是来自于一个大热的什么书，然后根据这个概念照着堵下去。这完全是他自己的一个生活感受，包括他当年当兵的生活。他不是写实地编故事的方法来画的，他把他当兵的生活递变，大家可以看……他的感受和我们看电影主人公意识形态的电影画面的宣传情况是绝对不一样的。我觉得这个很难的。既有当代性，和西方的（绘画）在表现上又有很大的距离，这是非常好的。在和西方的比较过程中，在追求中国的当代性方面，他把我们的感受变成了一种具体的艺术语言。另外一个我觉得这个展览做得太好了，因为这个前厅，空间非常高，对于他这个尺寸（的作品）比较会是一个问题。但是朱伟的设计师刷的黑色的墙，把光线集中在画面上，让我们的思路集中在画面上，思维不散掉。这一点是很难的。以前很多艺术家的作品展览，展厅太高了，很多画放进去就被吃掉了。但是这个展览解决得很好，而且整个很有东方的感觉。这个布展非常好，这个属于从策展人的角度来看，用不多的画（使人）对艺术家有个大概的了解。谢谢大家。