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Interviewing Zhu Wei: Ink and Wash Should Keep Up With Times, Not With Market
By Luo Shuyin
Editor's note: Zhu Wei is a Beijinger and a humorous man, with his unique opinions. From 1980's he has kept painting Chinese paintings which are well related with our contemporary life. He changed his themes constantly to keep up with the times and to refuse labels. In addition to artistic creation Zhu Wei also wrote essays. He is a former magazine columnist. He has published a book, in which he criticized those odd things he witnessed then in our art world.
In the exhibition "Rendering The Future - Chinese Contemporary Ink Painting", which is held at Asian Art Center on June 21st, Zhu accepted an invitation of interview from Artron.net. He attacked the recent "New Ink Art" and "Ink Art Fever", and talked about his latest creations as well:
Artron.net: Mr. Zhu Wei, it has been more than half a year since your solo exhibition at Today Art Museum last year. Could you please introduce to us your latest creation and exhibitions?
Zhu Wei: I didn't paint much after the Today Art Museum exhibition. During this period a foreign foundation invited me to abroad for six months, and I turned down some exhibition invitations. This year I had two exhibitions held in Nanjing, including a meticulous painting exhibition at Jiangsu Art Museum, and "Reshaping Shuimo", an ink painting exhibition at Jinling Art Museum. Along with them there is "Rendering the Future - Chinese Contemporary Ink Painting" at Asian Art Center, and then in December, a solo exhibition curated by Li Xiaoshan at Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Art, in which all the works are new, and could be large.
Artron.net: Although there isn't any large-scale solo show, you have attended many group exhibitions this year. What do you think of the current market fever of ink painting?
Zhu Wei: The concept of ink painting, new ink art, and contemporary ink have upsurged since last year, but in this trend an important inclination is the commercial intention, which is stinking with money and not very good for the long-term development of ink painting. So I'm trying to do my December exhibition in a more exploratory and experimental way, to avoid the existing situation of new ink art.
I hold reservations about New Ink Art. "New Ink Art" is a very tricky and speculative name, for it is named only according to time - as if you steam a pot of steamed buns, when open the lid they look new, but its content is the same as other cold steamed buns. It sounds like the mass-produced paintings in Ming and Qing dynasty are suddenly brought back to life.
The concept of new ink art came from commercial manipulation, and basically it is a market concept. When the price of contemporary oil painting was too high to buy, or to speculate, the speculators found that though these ink painters are almost the same age as oil painters, ink paintings are much cheaper. To them ink paintings are not art, but commodities. However, artists can never regard their works as commodity. If they do so, they will go very far from their initial intention to become an artist. Artists will automatically bind their hands and feet if they follow the market. It will lower their creation standard, until at last nobody gets what they want. So I'm trying to steer my art toward exploration. Somebody's got to do that.
Since the concept of "new ink art" is kind of tricky, the more important is whether the ink and wash painting can enter into the contemporary art world. If somebody watches an ink painting today and says, this is a contemporary painting, what he says is usually true. When we talk about contemporary art, we actually are referring to oil painting. Oil painting has been modernized rapidly after it was imported into China more than one hundred years ago, which is a great success. On the other hand, with a history of more than three thousands of years, it's hard for our traditional Chinese painting to become contemporary. Most works of the so-called "new ink art" fever we have seen today are not contemporary art yet. Their art creation status is out of the rhythm of times.
Taking Ink and Wash Research Lectures as example, I have researched the Chinese traditional painting from ancient to today, and found that portrait painting, or figure painting, as an important genre had appeared in each dynasty in the history of China, but not in socialism period. Those figure paintings in 50's or 60's were fully controlled by the government, which could not be counted as creation. When artists have relative freedom to create, there is still no important portrait painting. I am trying to make up for this part.
Atron.net: So what happen next is that you will create new works, which are not so close to the nowadays ink painting fever?
Zhu Wei: I intent to keep a distance from the new ink fever by exploring more in academic study, not only staying in the current stage. The title of my new series does not come out yet, but its form of expression will be out of the old stylization.
Atron.net: Is it connected to your current Ink and Wash Research Lectures Series?
Zhu Wei: It is. The drafts I paint now are large, as the Ink and Wash Research Lectures Series.
From the late 1980 and the early 1990 I began to take part in all kinds of exhibitions together with contemporary Chinese art. In a form of ink and wash to express the contemporary theme, I have painted 16 series. Without any challenge, being viewed as steady as commodity, is not my intention. Until the concept of New Ink Art appears, I have been keeping trying to change continually.
Artron.net: You refused some invitations of exhibitions in the past. Why did you participate this exhibition?
Zhu Wei: The title "Rendering The Future" is attractive to me. Another reason is it features very good artists.
Artron.net: What do you think about other artists in the exhibition?
Zhu Wei: Artists are lovable for their extremely strong personality as well as very unique painting characteristics. As mentioned just now, I would rather see explorative and experimental ink art than the status quo of overwhelming mass-produced paintings. I do not accept such a status quo.
So if I were the curator of this exhibition, I would invite the artists who are contributive to ink and wash from historical perspective, who can combine his art to contemporary life, instead of artists who turn a blind eye to the real life. Ink and wash should keep up with times. It is easy to say, and the topic have been discussed many times in the recent decades, but no more was done. Ink and wash are not keeping up with times today, but with market, which is not so good.
雅昌艺术网二零一四年六月二十三日专稿
专访朱伟：笔墨应随时代 不应随商业
文 / 罗书银
导言：朱伟，北京人，说话逗贫，对许多事情都有自己独特的看法。从80年代开始，他就一直在尝试用中国画的方式与我们当代的生活发生关系，而且他一直不断地变换着题材，紧贴时代，就是希望不要给自己打上某种标签。除了艺术创作，朱伟自己还喜欢写一些文章小品，曾经的杂志专栏作家便是他艺术家之外另一个身份，还为此出过一本书，在里面，少不了对当时的某些艺术圈热点和怪现象发表评论，进行抨击。
在6月21日亚洲艺术中心举办的“释放未来”中国当代水墨邀请展上，他接受了雅昌艺术网的采访，对当下的“新水墨”与“水墨热”进行了抨击。也谈到了他最新的创作情况：
雅昌艺术网：朱伟老师，继去年在今日美术馆的个展之后，这半年多来的创作及展览活动请为我们介绍一下吧?
朱伟：今日美术馆个展之后半年多没怎么画画，推掉了一些展览，国外有一个基金会请我过去交流呆了六个月。今年展览南京有两个，江苏美术馆鲁虹策划的一个工笔画的展览;还有金陵美术馆的一个“改造水墨”，加上这次在亚洲艺术中心“释放未来”-中国当代水墨邀请展，9月份还有在湖北美术馆鲁虹策划的一个中国当代艺术巡回展，12月份在南京南艺美术馆李小山帮我策一个我自己的个展，这个个展我准备用全是新的作品，可能尺寸稍微大一点。
雅昌艺术网：虽然没有大型个展，但是您参加的群展还是挺多的，对当前水墨市场热有怎样的看法?
朱伟：从去年开始到现在水墨画、新水墨、当代水墨相对来说比较热，但是这里边有一个很重要的倾向是商业色彩太浓，有一股铜臭味，这不利于水墨画持续的发展，所以12月份的展览我想多做一些探索性的，实验性比较强的路子，尽量摆脱现在新水墨的状态。
对新水墨我一直持保留意见，在我看来新水墨是一个很取巧、很投机的命名，它是从时间这条线上叫新水墨。就像你蒸一锅馒头，刚揭锅这馒头就是新的，但是里边的内容一点都不新，有点明清行画诈尸的意思，我是强调这个。
因为新水墨这个概念我一直觉得是由商业操作来的，基本上是一个市场需求，当代油画价位高，大家觉得买不动了，炒不动了，回头一看这些画水墨的人岁数差不多，价格很低。在这些炒家眼里，水墨不是作品，它是商品，可是艺术家不能自己把自己的作品当商品来看，艺术家要这么做跟当初选择做艺术创作的初衷差得很远，跟随市场艺术家会自动束缚手脚，降低创作标准，最终双方都得不到自己想要的。所以要努力把它往探索的方向引导，总得有人去这么做。
新水墨比较取巧，我更热衷于水墨画能不能进入当代，如果人家看完画说这才是当代水墨那就对了。因为咱们老说当代艺术其实指的是当代油画，油画舶来到中国一百多年历史的东西能够迅速当代化，这是一个了不起的成功。中国的传统绘画有的说是三千年历史，有的是四千年历史，到现在很难当代，都当代不下去，咱们所看到现在所谓叫新水墨热也好，这些东西里边有很多不是当代作品，到现在还没有能迅速进入当代，跟时代节拍合拍的一个艺术创作状态。
比如我画《水墨研究课徒》系列中的人物，是因为我研究从古至今中国传统绘画里边，唯独缺少社会主义时期的人物肖像和以人为主的绘画。过去每个朝代都有，进入社会主义时期基本没有。50、60年代的那些人物画都是政府号召，那个不叫创作，等进入相对自由创作的时候基本上没有，我想要弥补这个层面的作品缺失状态。
雅昌艺术网：接下来会出一批与时下水墨热拉开距离的新作品?
朱伟：我想有意拉开跟新水墨的距离，更多地往学术方面进行探索，不要停留在现在这个样子上面。现在名字还没想好，因为这个题材是我刚开始创作的，在表现形式上不会做得那么程式化。
雅昌艺术网：跟现在的《水墨研究课徒》作品还是有关联的
朱伟：肯定是有关联的，因为尺寸都很大，我现在打的稿子尺寸都很大。
一直来说，我的风格从八十年代末到九十年代初和中国当代艺术一块开始参加各种乱七八糟的展览，到现在为止我的作品一直以水墨的形式，当代的题材面貌出现，所以到现在我一直在延续，我一共画了16个系列，就怕别人把我的系列稳在那儿当成商品去看，很没有挑战性。我觉得新水墨到现在，我自己一直努力在改变。
雅昌艺术网：您为什么参加这个展览，因为您也拒绝一些展览?
朱伟：这个展览的题目“释放未来”起得比较吸引我，再一个就是这个展览的艺术家都是很好的艺术家。
雅昌艺术网：对于这个展览的其他参展艺术家您怎么看?
朱伟：我觉得艺术家的可爱之处就是他有极强的个性，有非常强的自己的绘画特征，我刚才跟您说的就是我更希望看到探索性的，带有实验性的水墨，我不愿意看到铺天盖地像行画一样的新水墨的现状，我不接受现在这么一个现状。
所以如果这次是我做策展人，我要请的艺术家应该是对水墨画从历史的角度看有贡献的，跟现在的生活结合得非常好的，而不是对现实生活视而不见的。我一直强调水墨要随时代，这句话说起来很容易，最近这几十年就折腾讨论过好几回，但是仅仅就讨论，到现在笔墨也没有随时代，反倒随了商业了这个不太好。
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