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Beijing Business Today February 21 2013
Zhu Wei: A Distant Keeper
Reporter: Zhou Xiao
Many people think Zhu Wei is a special guy who never compromises when he earned fame in his early years abroad and in the western context dominated contemporary art creating environment.
Zhu Wei has been sticking to ink painting for almost three decades behind all those rebellious behaviors. For him, traditional ink painting isn’t necessarily a contrast to contemporary art. It just requires more time and patience. Every culture has its own way of transmission and affecting the world. From a long-term perspective, contemporary ink painting is far more superior to contemporary oil painting, since it has its own carrier, long standing and well established culture.
■Zhu Wei’s CV
Born in Beijing in 1966, Zhu Wei studied at Art College of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Beijing Film Academy and Chinese National Academy of Arts successively. Since 1993, he began to participate in international exhibitions and has held over 20 solo exhibitions; what’s more, he also published individual painting albums and retro respecting albums of eight versions. His works are widely collected by over 20 art museums and museums at home and abroad.
■ Exhibitions
“Zhu Wei’s Work Exhibition” (Tokyo, Japan)
Group exhibition “Instincts and Instances” (Brussels, Belgium)
“BIENNALE ITALIA-CINA” (Milan, Italy)
“Contemporary Gong-bi Paintings of Five Masters” (Beijing)
“Biennial Exhibition in Xinjiang” (Xinjiang) Group exhibition “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings over the Past Three Decades” (Beijing)
“International Art Exhibition in Hong Kong” (Hong Kong)
“Zhu Wei’s Work Exhibition” in 2011 (Seoul, South Korea)
Solo exhibition “Zhu Wei” (Tokyo, Japan)
Group exhibition “Seeking the Nature—Contemporary Expression of Chinese Gong-bi Paintings” (Beijing)
Art exhibition “Face to Face” (Tel Aviv, Israel)
“Meanings Goes Before Brushes—Contemporary Chinese Ink On Paper” (New York, America)
“Making Ink Painting an Understandable Story”
Beijing Business Today: Did you ever face the choice of choosing one art form before you devoted yourself to ink painting?
Zhu Wei: I learned to paint ink painting at an early age, but it was in the mid 1980s that I decided to focus on that. I chose ink painting because my family was poor, and can’t afford to buy expensive oil painting materials. Back then, people were found of Sartre, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Superman as well as western philosophy such as existentialism but western contemporary art thoughts didn’t come to spread in China. Political Pop and Performance Art were also in their infancy, not ready to export with uncertainties.
Beijing Business Today: There are many personal preferences in your works, for example, the stage effects made by the curtains, figures like pottery figurines, exaggerated limb ratio and grids as backgrounds. It seems that you try to foster a serial cartoon effects and corresponding sense of narration.
Zhu Wei: Style varies from person to person. Take cooking for example, some prefer salty dishes while others prefer spicy ones. In my perspective, styles may base on ability, hobbies and even physiological natures. I myself feel uneasy in my stomach whenever I see some pointy or thorny things. Meanwhile, I didn’t stress the sense of narration and it’s hard to say whether some works can became serial ones, especially those paintings of my early stage.
Beijing Business Today: besides ink painting, you also create prints and sculptures. How did you corporate your ink painting creation ideas into prints and sculptures and integrate their own qualities in your exploration of various art forms?
Zhu Wei: I’m good at ink painting, and other forms are just extension of ink paintings, but not all ink paintings can be transformed into prints and sculptures. For example, the serial work “Pictures of the Strikingly Bizarre” would be the new version of clay work “Rent Collection Courtyard” if to be made sculptures.
Beijing Business Today: Inheritance and innovation are frequently mentioned topics in discussing ink painting. Many painters think it’s hard to “get out” once “getting into” ink painting, unable to surpass the ancient masters and even harder to innovate. What do you think of it?
Zhu Wei: Only Chinese people have concerns like that. No one in Europe or America have questions like that. For oil painting, they inherit and make amendments, integrating tradition and contemporary characteristics. Their innovation is really in the contemporary art forms such as installation, video art and performance art.
I don’t think it’s “hard to get out once getting into” and unable to outperform our ancestors. We lack confidence for our own traditional culture so it’s hard to really “get into” because we can be too impatient. Outperform our ancestors is another thing. Before innovating we need to fully grasp the essence of tradition. Our ancestors stressed “to learn from nature and cultivate one’s own sense of art appreciation”. “To learn from nature” means to integrate nature and the whole society into paintings. Many people already get stuck at this point, finally “getting into” but can’t “get out”.
Beijing Business Today: Currently, ink painting is relatively received less attention than the popular contemporary Chinese art though “experiment ink painting” and “contemporary ink painting” also showed frequent appearance. In history, ink painting went through several reforms, but witnessed no ideal results. In your opinion, how could ink painting represent contemporary features in form or content? Or it would be better left as a traditional national art?
Zhu Wei: Those reforms only appeared after the late Qing Dynasty. Ink paintings have always been about little romance such as flowers or grass with little engagement in social transformation and growth, neither reflecting real life nor enjoying contemporary spirits.
Meanwhile, I think it’s normal to see ink painting receive less attention because people nowadays are more attracted to foreign things. For example, young people like Mac Donald and KFC for their nice atmosphere. I remember some people choose to get married at Mac Donald when it first opened in mainland. People will prefer to eat at Mac Donald, KFC or Maksim than to eat Chinese hamburger or steamed bun stuffed with pork and Chinese chives at roadside if the price is the same. This is a process. People are still curious about the new things.
From my perspective, contemporary innovation in ink painting is somehow similar to dining. For example, I must have a bowl of cold noodle or instant noodle with some tuber mustard to “calm down” after someone inviting me to a western dinner that goes for hours. The former boss of the gallery I cooperated with is an American, every time he comes to China, I would order roasted duck, dumplings, instant-boiled mutton, but he has to eat steak, salad, salmon or even foods from Mac Donald and KFC every few days.
Beijing Business Today: You are one of the artists first signed with foreign galleries and you were known by drawing ink paintings. From then on, the west seems increasingly prefer works with “internationalized” art languages. Local arts face many hurdles in interpreting their meaning since the west holds the discourse power. Do you think this problem is a permanent one or not?
Zhu Wei: I think it’s a matter of time. What lies behind art is culture and it’s value that lies behind culture. The so called “internationalized” art language and even demonstration of general values are in fact stories understandable to everyone, not restricted to one country or region. Everyone loves Hollywood films because they can grasp the meaning of their stories.
General values don’t have patents. Everyone has access to them. If we don’t master them, westerners will. Art transcends national borders, since they convey the same cultural values only with different carriers. In this way, from a long-term perspective, contemporary ink painting is far more superior to contemporary oil painting, since it has its own carrier and long standing and well established culture.
《北京商报》二零一三年二月二十一日文章
朱伟：疏离的坚守者
记者：周晓
很多人认为朱伟是一个特立独行的人，从早期的海外成名，到在目前西方语境掌控的当代艺术环境下的创作，他不做丝毫妥协。
在这种种的叛逆和疏离背后，是朱伟坚持了近30年的水墨之路。对朱伟来说，传统水墨文化并不构成与当代艺术的对立，只是要求更多的时间和耐心，每种文化都有自己输出和影响世界的方式，从长远的角度来看当代水墨画要远胜于当代油画，因为它具有不同的载体和源远流长的文化。
■ 个人简历 朱伟 先后就读于解放军艺术学院、北京电影学院、中国艺术研究院。自1993年起开始以中国水墨画在国际大型展览露面，在世界各地举办多次个人展览。先后出版八种不同版本的个人绘画专集、回顾专集。作品被国内外20余家美术馆、博物馆收藏。
■ 展览 2012年 “朱伟作品展”（日本东京） “本能与瞬间”群展（比利时布鲁塞尔） “意中艺术双年展”（意大利米兰） “当代工笔五人联展”（北京） “新疆双年展”（新疆） “现当代中国水墨回望三十年”群展（北京） “香港国际艺术展”（香港） 2011年 “朱伟作品展”（韩国首尔） “朱伟”个展（日本东京） “格物致知——中国工笔画的当代表述”群展（北京） “面对面”艺术展（以色列特拉维夫） “意在笔先-中国当代水墨画展 ”（美国纽约）
”让水墨成为易懂的故事“
商报：您从事水墨画创作多年，此前是否面临过在多种艺术形式间做出选择的时候？
朱伟：我接触水墨画的时间很早，但决定专门学习水墨画创作是在上世纪80年代中期。当时选择学水墨画是因为家里穷，油画材料贵，而且西方的当代艺术思潮还没来得及传到中国，全民热衷于萨特、尼采、叔本华、超人及存在主义等西方哲学。其实，当时可选择的还是国画、油画、版画、雕塑这几种创作形式，西方当代艺术形式还没大举进入，此时波普、行为艺术在西方也才刚刚开始，还处在摸索阶段，没有完全定性，还不能输出。
商报：在您的作品中有很多个人化的偏好和处理，如经常出现的帷幕所造成的舞台效果，陶俑般的人形和被夸张了的肢体比例，以及画面背景的栅格图案，您似乎有意通过这些特征使作品呈现出一种连环漫画的效果和相应的叙事感。
朱伟：作品的风格因人而异，如同厨子做饭炒菜，有的偏咸，有的爱辣。我认为，风格的形成有的是能力，有的是癖好，有的是生理本能。比如我，只要一看带尖、带刺的东西在画面里，胃就不舒服。同时，在作品中，我并没有刻意强调叙事感，只是有些作品能否成为系列作品很难说清楚，特别是早期那批画。
商报：以水墨画为主线，您还进行了版画和雕塑的创作。在不同艺术门类的尝试上，您如何将水墨画中的创作理念贯穿到版画和雕塑中，并与其自身的属性相结合的？
朱伟：我擅长水墨画创作，其他艺术形式的作品只不过是水墨画的延伸，但并不是所有水墨画的创意都能改编成版画、雕塑。例如“二刻拍案惊奇”系列作品，要改成雕塑基本就是新版泥塑作品《收租院》。
商报：在关于水墨画的讨论中，传承与创新一直是被反复强调的。许多画家认为“走进”水墨就很难“走出来”，无法超越古人，创新就更难了，对此您是如何看待的？
朱伟：这一提法仅限中国，在西方欧美各国从没有人这样提过。他们对油画是继承和修正，没有让传统和当代对立起来。他们的创新是真真正正地在当代艺术形式上的创新，比如装置、录像艺术、行为艺术等。
我认为，水墨画不是“进去就很难出来”无法超越前人，而是我们的艺术家对自己的传统文化缺乏自信，很难让自己真正的“走进去”，总认为水墨画的成功会很慢。而至于超越古人则是另外一回事，创新需要对传统吃透、领会，古人讲究“师造化，得心源”。“师造化”是指自然万物、社会百态，要能融进画面中去。在这点上，已经将很多人卡住了，也就是好不容易“进去”却走不“出来”。
商报：目前，尽管“实验水墨”、“当代水墨”也频频出现在人们的视野里，但面对近些年中国当代艺术的火爆，水墨画相比就冷清了很多。在历史中，水墨画经历过几次改良运动，但效果并不理想，您认为目前的水墨画应当如何体现出当下的时代性？从形式或内容题材，还是干脆就让它成为传统国粹会更清静？
朱伟：水墨画的几次改良运动，也只限于清末以后，在之前几千年的水墨画历史上还从未出现过。一直以来，水墨画过于沉浸于小情小调、花花草草，很少参与到社会的变革与发展的浪潮中去，不反映现实生活，没当代气息。
同时，水墨画相对来说被冷落我认为很正常，因为眼下大家都对外来的东西感兴趣。例如年轻人喜欢麦当劳、肯德基，因为环境好，记得当年麦当劳刚刚进入内地时还有年轻人在那里结婚。相比之下要是价钱一样，人们肯定会选择麦当劳、肯德基、马克西姆什么的，而不会站在马路边就着土吃肉夹馍或猪肉韭菜馅包子。这需要一个过程，眼下新鲜劲还没过。
此外，我认为，水墨画的当代创新与吃饭有些相似。例如，我有一毛病，如果有人请我吃了一顿几个小时的正经西式大餐，吃完出门必须再来一份凉皮“压压惊”，或者回家泡袋方面便再开包榨菜。我原来合作多年的一画廊老板是美国人，他每次来中国我都安排他吃烤鸭、饺子、涮羊肉，但是他隔几天必须吃顿牛排、沙拉、三文鱼，如果没有，哪怕麦当劳、肯德基也行。
商报：您是中国最早被国外画廊签约的艺术家之一，而当时您便是以水墨创作为国际所认知。而此后越来越多运用“国际化”艺术语言作品的出现显然更受到掌握着话语权的西方所青睐，真正本土化的艺术似乎在解读时总有许多隔阂和障碍，您认为这是否是一个时间的问题，还是一个永远的问题？
朱伟：我认为是时间问题。艺术作品背后隐藏着文化问题，而文化问题背后是价值观。所谓“国际化”艺术语言，乃普世价值观的体现，也就是作品叙述了一个人人都懂的故事，而不只是局限于某一国家或地区。好莱坞电影大家都爱看，就是因为它讲了一个全世界人人都能懂的故事。
普世价值没有注册专利，谁都可以用，我们不掌握西方人就会掌握，艺术没有国界，它传达的文化价值观是相同的，只不过载体有所不同。传达相同的价值观从长远的角度来看当代水墨画要远胜于当代油画，因为它同时具有不同的载体和源远流长的文化。 |
