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Contemporary Art March 2013 Article on Ink Painting
Zhu Wei: Keeping up with Reality
Interviewer/editor: Wang Zhen
Zhu Wei’s artworks are regarded as, with abundant metaphors and sarcasm of the reality, a “successful integration of traditional and contemporary elements”. When I first interviewed him not long ago, Mr. Zhu was busy in preparing for his new exhibition this year. A few months later, the exhibition has been held in the MOCA Contemporary Art Museum in Singapore. This is also an exhibition where Zhu Wei presents his latest thoughts and researches on ink paintings. “Reflecting social realities with ink painting” has always been his opinion of ink and wash, and the influence of this thought has been spreading gradually. In this interview, Mr. Zhu provided us with his personal ideas and experiences of contemporary ink paintings.
CONTEMPORARY ART: The contemporary ink painting was isolated from the traditional ink painting. During the process, is there any timeline?
Zhu Wei: Excuse me. I have to correct this saying frist. The so called contemporary ink painting was not isolated from the traditional ink painting; it is an inheritance and continuation of traditional ink painting, but not a development. Everything of the contemporary ink painting can be found in traditional ones; however, some traditional elements are lost. Our inheritance varies from people to people. That is to say, everyone do it on their own capability. Some combine the traditional spirits and techniques with the present social transformation and characteristics of the times, and if the combination works well, contemporary ink painting can be created. Some just inherit the traditional techniques, but cannot link them with social reality. They play ink games and paint flowers and grasses which our ancestors had been painting for thousands of years, so these people can be regarded as ancient people who live in today. They are the most common. And there is another type, who is the most confusing. Neither can they combine their works with the transforming society, nor can they master traditional ink techniques. There seems to be some modern features in their painting, but you cannot tell when it was painted because there is no characteristics of the times. When it comes to the techniques, they hide the head but show the tail with a lot of vague gestures, but no real skill can be verified. It's impossible for this sort of painting become an ink description of the contemporary society, or be in the realm of "discussion on painting techniques", because either of above needs art exploration. Thus, they are artisan ink paintings at most.
CONTEMPORARY ART: According to your experience, what kind of state should the contemporary ink painting or new ink be?
Zhu Wei: The history of Chinese painting is basically the history of ink painting. Oil painting has not been introduced into China until the recent 100 years, so it’s still in its infancy. That is to say, Chinese oil painting is still in the phase of imitating, absorbing and disseminating, and it has not settled down yet. It can often be ignored because in the history of oil painting, no technique, style or trend was initiated or developed in China.That's why it's important for us to look at the contemporary ink painting from a historical angle. It'll be better if there is no fault. Many Asian countries lost their traditional local painting as a result of being colonized. What's worse, they can't even find teachers to teach local painting in universities. It's fortunate that we still have the major or department of Chinese painting in fine arts academies, and they are given priority at least on surface.
The most important issue that the contemporary ink painting confronts is whether it can keep up with the development of the society in both form and content, and whether it can reflect the reality. If this issue cannot be solved, it cannot be called contemporary ink. The state I expect is that the Chinese contemporary ink painting can be like the Western contemporary oil painting: there are art trends such as Political Pop represented by Andy Warhol , Out of Focus represented by Richter, vivid depiction of real life with multi-materials represented David Hockney, bright abstract represented by Damien Hirst and so on. The ink painting would be so popular that years later, the western artists will have a burning ambition to learn Chinese painting skills as a swarm of bees. They will study hard on "three layers of alum and nine procedures of dyeing", as well as various types of shading skills including big-axe shading and small-axe shading. They will compete to each other who is doing the best and understanding the ink spirit the most deeply. And then, there will be some German Gu Kaizhi, Li Keran, Fu Baoshi, some British Fan Kuan, Zhang Zeduan, Tang Bohu, some American Gu Hongzhong, Shi Tao, Bada Shanren and so on. Just as Westerners never discuss the existential questions of oil painting, we will no longer talk about whether ink painting has come to its dead end by then.
《当代艺术》二零一三年三月号水墨专题文章
朱伟：跟进现实
采访/编辑：王珍
朱伟的作品中充满了对于现实的隐喻与调侃，被看作为“传统与当代的成功对接”。第一次采访朱伟他还在为今年的新展览忙碌着，时隔几个月，新展览已经顺利在新加坡MOCA当代美术馆开幕。这也是朱伟提供了他最新的思考、研究。“用水墨回应社会现实”一直是他对于当代水墨的观点，而这个观点已经在当代水墨的不同个案中逐渐蔓延。而在这次的采访中，朱伟也提供给了我们他对于当代水墨的个人意识与经验。
CONTEMPORARY ART：水墨从传统分离出当代，在这个过程中，是有一个什么样的线索？
朱伟：对不起，首先我得更正您这个提法。所谓当代水墨不是从传统水墨中分离出来的，它是对传统水墨的继承和延续，连发展都说不上。当代水墨有的传统里都有，传统有的现在反而没了。我们对传统的继承因人而异，也就是说凭本事凭能力。有的继承了传统的精神、创作方法、和笔墨技法，结合当下的社会变革、时代特征，还有的在笔墨技法上多多少少有了一些探索，结合得好就成了当代水墨画。再一种只继承了传统的笔墨技法，无法和当下现实社会结合，或者说结合不了，画些古人一直在画的花花草草，玩玩笔墨什么的，可以说是活在今天的古人，这种最常见。还有一种容易让人迷惑，就是既无法和当下社会变革时代演变结合，传统的笔墨技法功力又不够，画面似乎有现代感却说不清楚是什么年代，没有时代特征，技法又藏头缩尾，闪转腾挪，无法看出实际功力。这种画既无法进入水墨画对当代社会的描述，也不可能进入“笔墨探讨的争论”，无任何艺术探索可言，撑死了算水墨当代行画。
CONTEMPORARY ART：以您的个人经验来看，当代水墨或者是新水墨应该呈现出什么样的状态？
朱伟：中国水墨的绘画历史可以说就是中国的绘画史，油画进入中国是最近一百年来的事，还在起步阶段，也就是说油画在中国基本还是在模仿消化传播，还没能很好地落地生根，发展。在世界油画的历史上没有一种技法、流派、创作倾向是在中国诞生和发展起来的，所以可以忽略不计。那么当代水墨的发展从历史的角度来看就显得至为重要了。最好不要出现断层，很多亚洲国家由于当年被殖民，或者后来被文化殖民，多少年下来，现在本土绘画几乎绝迹，连大学里都找不到教本土绘画的老师，我们现在美术院校里还有国画系或国画专业，并且在面儿上看还一直被放在所有专业的首位，就是一件很值得庆幸的事。
当代水墨能否从形式内容上跟进社会的发展，能否反映现实，是当代水墨所面临的最重要的问题。这个问题解决不了，就不可以称之为当代水墨。我希望看到的状态是中国的当代水墨画像西方的当代油画一样，出现像安迪.沃霍尔那样的政治波普，像里希特那样的焦点不实，像大卫.霍克尼那样多材料的现实生活描写，像达明.赫斯特那样的明快的抽象绘画，等等等等，以至于多少年之后，西方的艺术家们一窝蜂地拼命学习中国绘画里的师造化，得心源，三矾九染，各种皴法，大斧劈小斧劈，比谁学得像，吃得透，因此而出现一些德国的“顾恺之”“李可染”“傅抱石”，英国的“范宽”“张择端”“唐伯虎”，美国的“顾闳中”“石涛”“八大”等等，到了那个时候，我们就会像西方人从不讨论油画的存亡问题一样，再也不讨论水墨画是否“穷途末路”了。 |
