www.artron.net, January 5 2019, Feature Story

Zhu Wei: Paying Attention to the Social Reality, Survival Challenges Faced by Extra-official Artists

Luo Shuyin

Summary: Artist Zhu Wei is invited to participate exhibition “New Ink Art In China 1978-2018”, opened in Beijing Minsheng Art Museum on December 18, 2018. Since the beginning of this year, with the opportunity of “40 anniversary of reform and opening up”, many ink and wash exhibitions have been held across the country. As the pioneer and representative artist of contemporary Chinese ink painting, Zhu Wei has been invited by many of them. Just for the short period at the end of 2018, Zhu Wei has participated the following…

Artist Zhu Wei is invited to participate exhibition “New Ink Art In China 1978-2018”, opened in Beijing Minsheng Art Museum on December 18, 2018. Since the beginning of this year, with the opportunity of “40 anniversary of reform and opening up”, many ink and wash exhibitions have been held across the country. As the pioneer and representative artist of contemporary Chinese ink painting, Zhu Wei has been invited by many of them. Just for the short period at the end of 2018, Zhu Wei has participated the following: “Ink Mutation” Invitational Exhibition of Experimental Ink Art, "Spearhead: New Image of Ink Painting – Invitation Exhibition of Chinese Ink Wash", and solo exhibition “Zhu Wei: Ink and Wash Research Lectures” held in Being 3 Gallery.

Zhu Wei has created several large-scale new works for these exhibitions this year. Among them there are his representative "China Diary" series. Over the years, Zhu Wei and his works have become a mirror of Chinese contemporary art. The reason why he can lead the way in the field of Chinese contemporary art is that he has always adhered to his artistic ideals. Although his personality is humble and restrained, he is like a fighter in the art.

Zhu Wei's creation is included in the category of Chinese contemporary art, however, it is also far from the creation of many other Chinese contemporary artists. He mainly uses the form borrowed from the great traditional courtyard paintings, anyhow, unlike his many peers, he did not directly use the medium of Gongbi painting to imitate the form of Western modern painting, but work on how to contemporized and globalized ink painting from the very beginning. His acting in an opposite way is firstly related to his education background, and then to his artistic ideals, which is, being completely different from the West, to re-create a contemporary expression based on tradition. Zhu Wei once said: "I have been creating ink art for 30 years. The materials and techniques I use are all from tradition. I have never left the tradition, but I am depicting the people and things that exist now, when they are going on. It is the contemporary theme that people often say. So, I have never felt that tradition and contemporary are isolated. Making the past serve the present is the concept and creative context of my ink painting."

At the same time, Zhu Wei is also an artist with the sense of social responsibility. When looking back in 2018, he said: “It is not so important that whether an individual artist is good now. The key is to make no big changes in the art ecology in the next few years. It is more important for those unofficial artists to continue to survive. For example, Qi Baishi and Zhang Daqian were naturally growing outside the governmental system, and Qi Baishi was only recruited at the age of seventy or eighty. The extra-governmental artists are truly artistic creators.”

His representative series created in 2018, "Ink and Wash Research Lectures", is exactly what he feels about the current environment. In the image a sheep hides its head, with only a pair of eyes looking out from the gloom, and the rest is hidden in the red curtain. It caught the public imagination.

Zhu Wei has been working on ink painting for nearly 30 years. When we talk about the development of Chinese contemporary ink painting, it is unavoidable to talk about him.

In the mid-1980s, because his family was poor and the materials of oil painting were expensive, Zhu Wei chose ink painting as the media. His first creation was “derivative from Bada’s landscape brush style”, which is a pure landscape without a single figure. It structurized Bada’s landscape with mountains, water, text, and features of decorative painting. Later he also used the technique of splash-ink, but failed, leaving only this one. And then, he began to paint figures. In the late 1980s and the entire 1990s, his ink paintings were basically depicting daily life, a bit like the novels with illustrated fine-lined portraits in Ming and Qing Dynasties. For example, his “The Story of Beijing” series basically included all the human stories in the world, even so he still felt that a lot of stories were missing. “It is not because as a new creator who I just left university I wanted to paint everything, but because the atmosphere at that time was pushing an artist to paint. The motivation was there, and everybody around you had the same tinge, so I must keep a record, so as not to forget it in the future.” Zhu Wei said.

Zhu Wei is also one of the Chinese contemporary artists who has worked with galleries very early. In 1993, he began to cooperate with a foreign gallery, and from then on, he only authorized the gallery he cooperated with. Even he often rode bicycle to the Yuanmingyuan, an active art district at that period, he would never promote himself there. He also set a rule with the gallery that he would not participate in any joint exhibition, but only solo exhibition. He thought ink painting would be weaker if hanging next to oil painting. Although most of his paintings were more than 3 meters at the time, he still felt embarrassing, as if he was to take a sketch to compare with others.

Before his painting "Comrade Captain" in 1993, Zhu Wei did not seem have depicted a person’s inner world, but after that, he has paid more attention to the individual. In order to emphasize the sense of the times, he painted a lot of Mao Zedong at that time, since public figures will be recognized by more people. On the other hand, echoing the trend of reflection, he started to paint people’s inner world when he was relatively mature in grasping characters, and created a new way of contemporary Gongbi painting. Before that, for a time he felt ink painting was weak, and if he did not paint it into a narrative image or a story, he felt the painting could not be established. So he always relied on human figures and landscapes to describe a thing or a scene. In fact, the traditional oil painting also faced the same problem, which is called the scene of multi-person conversation. By the time of this painting, Zhu Wei had known how to paint the contemporary ink figures. As of today, there is no one can paint an ink portrait of three to five meters big, except him. He painted more than a dozen such paintings.

He admits that in the past three decades, his creation can be divided into two parts. In the first ten years he was telling stories like illustrated novels. In the last decade he focused on concepts. In the middle ten years, he was busy making money and completing the task of the gallery.

In the decades of creation, the "Utopia" series is successful. The artist is satisfied with the simple scene and the ancient elements added to the paintings. He said: "One of the questions that I have been thinking about in these years of painting is how ink paintings keeps an eye on China's tradition of more than two thousand years. It won’t be ink painting any more if it just keeps walking forward. The “Utopia” series seems dull from the picture itself. From a realistic point of view, people turn a blind eye to this scene. “Utopia” series actually expresses how the modern Chinese, who are atheistic and extremely realistic dialectical materialists, sit there and concentrate on wasting time collectively.

There is a total of 19 series of Zhu Wei's paintings now, and each series changes greatly before and after. The artist doesn't like the kind of symbol that is caught and manipulated by business and market. Many people have told him that they don't want him to change, but he feels it’s happy to paint step by step, without unnecessary burdens. However, due to the frequent exhibitions, he only evolved a little each time – before there was a real change, the next exhibition was coming again. The real change was the series of "Ink and Wash Research Apprentices" in 2012, in which the artist entered the conceptual painting after five years of pause.

The "Ink and Wash Research Lectures" series is not the final result, so he called it "research." It is not the ink painting that he ultimately wants. He always thinks that ink painting is a subject. For him this subject is like: "an artist should not avoid politics issues and bloodline problems. He should not be afraid of doing for the occasion." It is said by Gerhard Richter, and Zhu Wei agree with it. Therefore, he often questioned the contemporary art, and thought that artists should ponder over the current problems.

There is still a problem to be solved in the series of "Ink and Wash Research Lectures". From ancient times to the present, each dynasty has its own portraits in Chinese ink painting, but not the period of socialism. They are missing. "The figure paintings in the 1950s and 1960s were all governmental propagandas. That cannot be called a creation, not stand up the test of time. When we entered into a relatively free creative environment, everyone is busy making money, so it is necessary to fill the gap. Of course it may be a failure, but anyway someone has tried it." Zhu Wei said.

雅昌艺术网二零一九年一月五日专稿

【雅昌专稿】朱伟：关注社会现实 在野个体艺术家面临的生存挑战

编辑：罗书银

摘要：艺术家朱伟2018年12月18日，“中国新水墨作品展1978-2018”于北京民生现代美术馆开幕，艺术家朱伟受邀参展。今年以来，以“改革开放40年”为契机，全国各地举办了多场水墨群展，作为中国当代水墨的先行者和代表人物，朱伟受邀参加了其中的多场。仅在2018年年底，朱伟就参加了包括：“墨变”实验水墨…

2018年12月18日，“中国新水墨作品展1978-2018”于北京民生现代美术馆开幕，艺术家朱伟受邀参展。今年以来，以“改革开放40年”为契机，全国各地举办了多场水墨群展，作为中国当代水墨的先行者和代表人物，朱伟受邀参加了其中的多场。仅在2018年年底，朱伟就参加了包括：“墨变”实验水墨艺术作品邀请展，“锋向：水墨新意象——2018当代水墨邀请展”以及于在3画廊举办的个展“朱伟个展：水墨研究课图”。

借展览的契机，朱伟今年创作了几幅大尺幅的新作。其中，包括其具有代表性的“中国日记”系列。多年来，朱伟和他的作品已经成为中国当代艺术的一面镜子。之所以能够在中国当代艺术领域里独领风骚，因其一直坚持个人的艺术理想。尽管他的个性是含蓄而内敛的，但在艺术上却像一个冲锋陷阵的斗士。

朱伟的创作应该被纳入中国当代艺术范畴，但又与许多中国当代艺术家的创作拉开了距离。其所借鉴的主要形式来源于伟大的传统院体工笔画，但与同时代许多艺术家不同的是：他没有直接用工笔画的媒材去摹仿西方现代绘画的形式，而是从一开始就思考怎样把水墨画变得当代与全球化。朱伟之所以反其道行之，首先与他的学习背景有关；其次则与他的艺术理想有关：即立足于传统进行再创造，以追求一种完全不同于西方的当代表达。朱伟曾说：“我画水墨快三十年，使用的材料、技法全部从传统来，和传统有密切的联系。我一直没有脱离开传统，但我描绘的是当下发生的人和事，是正在进行时，也就是人们常说的当代题材。所以我一直没觉得传统和当代是隔离的，古为今用是我画水墨画的理念和创作脉络。”

与此同时，朱伟也是一个具有社会责任感的艺术家，在对2018年进行回顾时，他谈到：“现在个体艺术家好坏变得不那么重要，关键是未来几年艺术生态不要发生大的改变，野生的这些艺术家能继续生存显得更为重要，比如齐白石，张大千都是自然生长，齐白石七、八十岁才被‘招安’，这些体制外的艺术家他们的作品是真正的艺术创作。”

2018年最新创作的另外一个代表系列《水墨研究课徒》，正是朱伟对于当下环境的有感而发。画面中，一只羊藏起了头，只能依稀辨认出两只眼睛，隐藏在红色的幕帘中，引发观众诸多的遐想。

朱伟接触水墨画创作至今已有近三十年，在中国当代水墨创作历程中，是一位不可回避的人物。

上世纪80年代中期，因为家里穷，油画材料贵，所以他选择了水墨创作。他画的第一张创作是1987年的《八大的山水》，那是一幅纯山水作品，一个人物都没有，把八大的山水给结构化了，有山、有水、有文字，很装饰画，后来也画点儿泼墨，但很多都失败了，只留下了一张，再后来就开始画人物，80年代末和整个90年代，他的水墨画基本都是在嗑瓜子，唠家常，有点像明清绣像章回小说。比如《北京故事》系列，基本上快把人间万象全包括进去了，就这样当时他还觉得有好些事还拉下了。“啰哩啰嗦的并不是因为当时刚出校门，才开始创作啥都想画，而是当时的气场很容易让你提笔就来。因为动机有了，身边的每个人都有和你相同的气息，抓紧记录下来，免得以后忘了。”朱伟谈到。

朱伟也是很早就与画廊合作的中国当代艺术家。1993年他开始和国外的画廊合作，从此只认和他合作的画廊，骑车去边上的圆明园也不跟任何人交流。还给画廊立了个规矩，不参加任何联展，要做就做个展，觉得水墨画和油画放在一起，气场会弱。他当时的画大都3米多，但还是觉得在拿一个粉本跟人家比，不好意思。

从93年的《上尉同志》开始，他更关注个体，在这之前的画似乎都没有去画一个人的内心世界。那段时间画了不少毛泽东，为的是把时代感强调出来了，画别人或者他家亲戚，大家都不认识，所以画公众人物。一方面为了跟当时反思的潮流呼应，一方面也是开创出一条当代工笔画的路子，画内心是对人物的把握相对成熟了。在此之前或许是能力达不到，他总觉得水墨画很弱，如果不画成叙事情境或小说，画总站不住，所以总是靠人、山水去描述一件事情、一个场景，其实传统油画也面临同样的问题，叫多人物情景会话。到这张画的时候，朱伟在造型上基本把握到了当代水墨人物应该如何去画。到今天为止，水墨画古今中外纯粹的人物头像画到三五米的，除他之外，没有第二个，这样的画他当年画了十几张。

他坦言，近三十年来的创作来看，可以分为两部分。前十年是在讲故事像是章回绣像小说。后十年注重观念。中间十年忙着挣钱，完成画廊的任务。

在几十年的创作中，其《乌托邦》系列可以说是成功的，场景简洁，将古代绘画中的元素加入到绘画中，这是他比较满意的。他谈到：“这些年画画，一直在想的一个问题是水墨画怎么照顾中国两年多年来的传统，只是一个劲儿的往前走就不是水墨了。《乌托邦》系列从画面本身来说平淡无奇，从现实的角度来看，人们对此熟视无睹，《乌托邦》其实表达的就是辩证唯物主义的无神的现实无比的现代中国人，大家坐在那里聚精会神集体认真浪费时间的场面。”

朱伟的画到现在一共有19个系列，而且每个系列前后变化都很大。因为他不太喜欢被商业和市场抓到炒作的那种符号。很多人都跟他说不要变的让人不认识了，但他觉得就是一步步的往前这么画，不背包袱轻装前进，才高兴。但由于展览频繁也只能一点点变化，还没有来得及变展览又来了，后来真正变化是停顿了五年之后，2012年进入观念绘画的《水墨研究课徒》系列。

《水墨研究课徒》系列并不是最终的效果，所以他叫做“研究”。不是最终想要的水墨画，他一直觉得水墨画是一个课题，这个课题对他来说是这样的：“艺术家不应回避政治、回避血统问题，不能怕别人说你应景。”这话是里希特说的，朱伟很有同感。所以他经常质疑当代艺术，觉得当下的艺术家应该琢磨这样的问题了。

《水墨研究课徒》系列还有一个要解决的问题，从古至今中国的水墨画里边唯独缺少社会主义时期的人物肖像和以当下人物为主的绘画。过去每个朝代都有，进入社会主义时期反而没了。“50、60年代的那些人物画都是政府命题，那个不叫创作随着时间会看出来的，等进入相对自由的创作环境时大家忙着挣钱没空儿，所以要弥补这个阶段必要作品缺失，当然，也许是失败的，但他总归试了试。”朱伟谈到。