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No Art-Chinese Art News, 2009 December Issue, ‘Cover Story’
No Art invited 8 representative cotemporary artists, including Zhu Wei, Zhang Jian, Yang Qian, Zhan Wang, Yin Zhaoyang, Qiu Xiaofei, Li Wei and Xiang Jing, to talk about their viewpoints about realism with a title of Contemporary Collectivity Do Not Give in to Realism.
Zhu Wei: New Realism is but a Commercial Gimmick
It is laughable to talk about this subject, which is just like the Great Leap Forward happened in 1957, when all kinds of satellites could be launched and all kinds of tricks could be played. From the perspective of realism, this style has never disappeared, so how there comes a new one? After the recent economic crisis, there should be ups and downs in economy and produce great impact on relative enterprises and energy sectors, but should not had influenced art so much.
The inspiration provided by this economic crisis to the collectors is, they suddenly find that contemporary art is no longer their only target and investing direction. During the 60 years after the establishment of PRC, several movements, including the Anti-Rightist Struggle, Destroy the Four-Olds and the Cultural Revolution, destroyed almost all the left antiques and old ink and wash paintings preserved by old generations of collectors through all troubles and miseries of the old society; so actually those collectors only realized ‘collecting’ but not ‘preserving’. In the recent three decades after The Reform and Opening Up, new generations of collectors appeared along with the rapid development of economy, who started their collecting of art comparatively late and therefore they only pay attention to contemporary art which they are more familiar with. Objectively speaking, contemporary art has been making a lot of noises in recent years. Imagine such a scenario: if you held a piece of steaming hot pork in your hand, you could be rest assured that a kennel of hungry dogs of varying sizes would come gather around you, amongst which one would keep barking and leaping before you. It is but natural that it would stood out from the pack and catch your attention. Therefore these new collectors believe that there is only contemporary art in art market. After this economic crisis, they suddenly find that contemporary art would not definitely keep value as time passes by; meanwhile they also began to find other arts, like Chinese traditional art, classical oil painting, new realistic oil paintings and others.
I’m not saying that new realistic oil painting is particularly welcomed on the market, but it is a kind of proper choice, for instance, with only 4 thousand yuan, you could not go to fetch back a color TV value 8 thousand yuan from the market. New realistic oil painting has a feature that it looks fairly beautiful; although comparing with contemporary art, it lacks some conceptual quality, yet at least, people could enjoy such paintings hanging at home although it may not keep value. Compared with contemporary art , realistic painting is strong in picturesque nature，and the modeling capability of the realistic artists is far better than the people who are engaged in contemporary art creation. If we invite a model to sit before us and sketch together, I am sure that these contemporary artists would fail and be very angry. Of course, the capability of new realistic artists on realistic imitation is much better if you want to make a comparison. Contemporary art emphasize concepts and depend mainly on the eloquence. Any contemporary artist could make a long talk.
In one word, we cannot tell which is better; they are only different in the division of labor. These days I heard that a China Contemporary Art Academy was established in contemporary art circles, this is also laughable in my mind. No matter it is contemporary art or realistic art, they are no more than different stages of artistic creation in artists’ lifetime, which is similar to eating that it is impossible for anyone to only eat cucumber or never eat peanuts for the whole lifetime. Artistic creation shares the same logic; would it be too inhumane to force some peoples to do only contemporary art? Moreover, these so-called contemporary artists would be old guys who are about 70 years old after only ten years, if a so-called contemporary art institution persist in saying that they are contemporary with these old guys, could these young peoples agree? My suggestion to collectors is: just buy what you like, and never consider their school. The existence of schools and genres in art circles is only to distinguish artists, which is too difficult a problem for viewers to consider. For a collector without training and experiences, it is better not to put all his eggs in one basket, but try and view works of more artists and styles, to appreciate with his own heart rather than being misguided by others.
Zhang Jian: Realistic Art Could Also be Very Contemporary.
I think that the charm of realistic painting lies in its technology. Any industrial product or any substance can reflect its value in its technical content or its texture, with such a language style, I think they are also advanced. From the market point of view, I think the previous auction price of the contemporary art has been so high that it should turn to the realistic painting to become visible on stage. Of course, as far as I am concerned, I prefer to watch contemporary art .However, in fact, there is no essential distinction between contemporary art and realistic art, because the person who paints realistic paintings can also do contemporary art. Although I prefer contemporary art, the contemporary art works including classic element are even better in my heart. In general, I think the realistic art isn’t out of date and many works which is flaunted as contemporary art may not necessarily represent the spirit of the times. The contemporary art is not the only thing which can represent the spirit of the times, so we shouldn’t define them so clearly. I also like some realistic artworks very much; for example, in my opinion, those paintings of Wang Yidong has a good sense of the times. Why? I think from the aesthetic point of view, the red color and the red cotton-padded clothes in his pictures, worn on village girls, are quite plain, and have very high purity; such kind of red has great contemporary aura. In my opinion, this kind of realistic works are contemporary.
Yang Qian: Realism Can No Longer Embody the Time Spirit
Since the establishment of PRC, the form of western oil painting was introduced into China and realistic painting hence launched great impact on Chinese art form. In particular, Russia socialism, namely the realism has also made great impact on Chinese art and artistic education. Especially, we who graduated from academy of fine arts have also been influenced a lot by these factors. Yet in my opinion, it has become a creation method and historical period ended in China in 1960s and 1970s. If we don’t break through it now, it will become a traditional, conservative realistic painting. As for auction market, it is also very natural that realism is sought after, because traditional art is easy to accept. For example, if I paint scenery or a very beautiful girl, they would be easily accepted. In addition, Chinese contemporary art market or collecting behavior are in their initial stage and many new collection conceptions and habits are to be formed in the process of constant expanding and growing up. At least，realistic artworks can still be accepted easily in the market at present. However, contemporary art, most of which are conceptual art, is full of variety and it is also sought after and appreciated by some other collectors. And in the long run, I think contemporary art should have more advantages in the market, because it is directly related with the current life and is much more internationalized. Moreover, its creation methods and expression form have also been seeking for breakthrough in constant innovation and self subversion，which is a reflection of vitality. Realism can't embody the spirit of the era and it can’t be a standard of the future arts development or arts value judgment as well. China has changed so much that both city life and metropolitan life are so colorful where there are countless things to search into and think about. But these realistic painters also draw a village, a kid and some peoples of minority that are not related to what is happening in current China. I can’t understand why they are hot in the market, and I can only say it may be a Chinese-style speculation.
Zhan Wang: Realism is a Ridiculous Discourse
New realistic art is popular in market because there was no realistic painting in ancient China, so common citizens like it. In ancient time, painting was mainly used to replace the function of photograph. Chinese people always love such painting which looks like photo, because it is easy to understand. In fact, there is no realistic or non-realistic problem in contemporary art. When you need realism, you can make your art realistic or photo-realistic as you need. It is all right to be non-realistic or abstract as long as you need. This is not a problem. The realistic and non-realistic problem was aroused after the emergence of western abstract art and only after that when people started to call the above mentioned as realism; while in China, it happened after 1980s, and people were creating realistic paintings before. I think it is relatively outdated now that people still distinguish art forms according to whether it is realism or not. It is too simplistic and dictatorial to distinguish the artists according to whether they stick to realism or not, which is just like deal with issues with ideological standards. As to me, I never paid attention to the problem of whether my art is realistic or not during so many years creation; rather, I attach more importance to the content and contemporary quality of works. I also create in a realistic way and would require my students to grasp realistic skill, which is not opposing contemporary art. Sometimes we adopt realistic form to express our ideas; for example, photo-realism is conceptual in itself. This concept is to represent things objectively, which is a kind of conceptual art. Therefore in my mind, the problem of to be realistic or not realistic in the literary and art circles of our country has long been misguiding peoples and many people even misunderstand realism as a school of art, which is really laughable. Actually there are some realistic factors exist in the artworks of the Top Four Contemporary Artists (Zhang Xiaogang, Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun and Wang Guangyi); Liu Xiaodong’s artworks are also realistic. However, the classical realism which is a kind of imitation of European classical art cannot represent the realism I’m talking here; it could only represent classical realism like the fine brushwork and heavy color style in Chinese traditional painting. Therefore when we talk about Chinese traditional paintings, we rarely distinguish them with fine brushwork or heavy color, because they are only formal concepts; we need to make classification according to ages. Fine brushwork and heavy color existed in all dynasties; they are used at present, in ancient times and would still be used in the future. Now classical realistic artworks sell well on the market because common citizens love them, yet they cannot represent any direction, future or exploration of art.
Yin Zhaoyang: The Conservative Mindset in the Financial Crisis Resurrected the Realism Fever
The so called Chinese Realism School is another informal wording used in art circles which classified some peoples with one concept. Actually there are many artists, including Fang Lijun and Zhang Xiaogang using realistic method in painting, yet could you say they belong to Realism School? This is a small problem. These artists we are talking about has a common characteristic, namely they stick to aestheticism; if we really want to give them a title, maybe Aesthetic Figurative Artists would be more proper. As a group, they are actually worthy of great respect. I only have dealings with some of them who could all be regarded as my predecessors. They are highly qualified and are seriously to art; they love painting and do things cautiously; certainly you could regard their cautiousness as conservativeness, it’s up to you. We know it is only in recent several years that contemporary art began to be sought after by market; when everyone are gazing at the luminous source, there would inevitably be some other things neglected. In fact, if you keep an eye on the fact, you would find that realistic paintings have always been sold on very expensive price from the very beginning of this artistic market. Actually the only reason why you think realistic paintings are valued again is that people’s focus point turned back to these realistic artists again; yet in fact they have always been valued. Now the prosperity of realistic paintings on market could be understood as a kind of transformation in interests. Although this transformation in interests is not wrong, it is not perfect. Art should encourage innovation and stimulate creativity, however there is always appealing for treasureing classics. We should be careful that classics does not equal to realism. Nowadays, collectors’ recognition of realistic style arts may be more of a conservative mind-set under financial crisis. All realistic painters are very serious in painting and never finish a works with several casual brushstrokes; this may make people feel safe to buy them. People begin to have some suspicion towards contemporary art and slow down their steps in buying contemporary art, which may be good in my opinion. The most important point in choosing artwork is to see whether it is what you like, which is the first criterion in appraising art; and the second important point is to see whether you succeeded in your choice. If you follow to seek after some artistic form when it is popular in the market, then all should go back to academies of art to practice basic skill and create realistic works; yet it is definitely wrong to do this and I think it is what the artists should know. Realistic painting would exist forever as a class, which would always move in circles like fashion trend, like for example, the French court art would be pursued and admired again and again in certain stages. Realism is but a superficial phenomenon and what you are expressing with it is the key point; if you transmit a kind of sentiment and condition at the very present with realistic skill, then it is valuable. What’s the so called contemporary art? It represents the future. I think what collectors are collecting must be the future.
Qiu Xiaofei: I Have no Interest in Realism since My Childhood
I know little about realistic painting in the past two years. It was a long time ago when I was in high school and at college that I got to hear such a school called Realism and I also browsed some of those works. I didn’t have any strong feeling on such kind of artworks from the very beginning when I saw them because the painters’ perspective and thought were too realistic; in another word, nothing else but that the technique of imitation from the subjects mattered in their paintings. Therefore, I never had any interest in such kind of works from the very beginning. The collectors I have met or my friends in art gallery circles are not interested in Realism schools, either. We seldom discuss over it. My first teacher of realistic painting is Mr. Yang Feiyun who once gave me one or two lectures when I studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. As a student, I was not quite good at realistic painting with my poor basic skill. So I became uninterested in technique. At that time many of my classmates were used to classical realistic oil paintings. However once they began to talk about Renaissance or New Classical art, I would leave in no time. Realistic school and contemporary school are exactly distinct in the consideration of the fact that realistic school focuses on aspects of technique and visual effect while conceptual art discusses the function of art from another perspective. Hence, they have no comparability. Even though they are both called art, just like classical music and pop music are both music yet they don’t belong to the same business.
Li Wei: Contemporary Art is the Real Marginal Art.
I know that many painters in realistic painting school are very key figures in previous China oil painting circle. When I saw that they organized such a painting school, I am a little bit surprised. The reason is that usually only the disadvantaged people will organize some schools to strengthen their power. On the other hand, personally I extremely disapprove of the behavior of involving myself into a circle or a group, because art is to make us free and it needs constant breakthrough and subversion. In fact, works exist for showing yourself. I don’t know what the purpose of China realistic painting is, but from a realistic point of view, the establishment of schools might be a better promotion of themselves. It is obviously absurd to measure the aesthetic orientation of the market by realistic works. Realistic painting has been selling well all along，so aesthetic problems never exist in it. In fact, the key problem is not whether it is realistic. In addition, there are problems of what do we refer to when we talk about ‘aesthetics’? Is it external beauty? As far as I know, most external beauty is realized on the premise of sacrificing inner spirit. The works with beautiful appearance are just like the emissary from Khwarezmia, who are afraid of being thrown into the cage to feed the tiger and only report good news. But is it means that the bad news does not exist when it is not reported? The concepts of realistic and contemporary can’t be compared on the same level. In recent years, Chinese contemporary art seems to be very popular, but in fact, the contemporary art is the real marginal art in the vast masses of Chinese people. Instead, realistic painting is more mainstream and has much wider mass foundation. Moreover, can art be measured by realistic and contemporary? Isn’t there realism in contemporary art? I don’t know the establishment of Contemporary Art Academy of China, but it is certainly good if the institute can contribute to the contemporary art of China. I am not included in system, and won’t profit from it. When people are free, they could feel more happiness. What I mean is the real happiness in heart, rather than the happiness came from comparing with others.
Xiang Jing: Realism is an Infatuation towards Skill
I think realistic art is a kind of representation form, which is fairly distinctive especially in China. Realistic art has been the most important part in academic education in a long period and dominated Chinese artistic education during the last few decades with a large number of artists with realistic skill been produced. Yet from the perspective of artistic quality, Realism school might be more traditional and closer to Genre Painting. Although realistic art is popular in the market, yet those who are collecting realistic art are not many; therefore, it is hard to say that Realism represents a kind of public aesthetic taste, but rather, some taste of some collector group. People who love realism should be different from those who love contemporary art, although there might be some of them love these two kinds of art both; yet collectors who really love Realism school might have little interest in contemporary art. Actually, many people who love realistic art has an infatuation towards skill; I have talked with many collectors who believe that art should definitely has some technical content; while many contemporary arts have concepts of anti-art or anti-technique, which made collectors feel that these arts, without technical content look not high qualified and are low leveled. There is no need for contemporary art refuse realism; contemporary is an open concept which is not distinguished with the criterion of being figurative or not. You could regard my sculptures to be very realistic, yet I definitely don’t belong to Realism school; I think my work belongs to contemporary art. The establishment of CAAC is merely a phenomenon which cannot prove that contemporary art is also involved into the system like realistic art, but maybe in the long run it would show some significance and reveal some problems. However at present, the survival capability of this institute should still be tested by time and how to construct its system is also waiting for examination. Yet, it also showed the fact that people’s acceptance of contemporary art concept is better now. The information that even NAMOC would establish a contemporary art museum also showed that contemporary art is no longer underground. This is good, it represents the progress of this times.
《No Art 中国艺术新闻》 2009年12月刊 “封面故事”
《No Art》邀请朱伟、章剑、杨千、展望、尹朝阳、仇晓飞、黎薇和向京八位代表性当代艺术家阐述他们对写实主义的看法，标题为《当代集体不服写实》。
朱伟:新写实也只是一个商业噱头
我觉得这事儿说起来有点可笑，就像五七年的大跃进一样，什么样的卫星都能放出来，什么样的名堂、花活都能给你扔出来。从写实主义来讲，写实主义这种风格一直没有断过，没有断过，怎么会出来一个新的呢?经过这一轮的经济危机，按理说应该是经济上的一个起伏，对能源、产业和产业链的相关环节影响比较大，对艺术不应该有这么大的影响。
经济危机给收藏家的启示是，他们忽然发现当代艺术不是唯一的目标和投资方向了。新中国成立六十年来，反右、破四旧、文化大革命，几场运动下来，一些从旧社会熬过来的老派藏家手里的坛子、罐子、水墨画轴等等基本上毁坏殆尽，收藏其实只完成了一个“收”字。改革开放三十年来，随着经济的快速发展，出现一些新派的藏家。新派藏家对艺术收藏下手比较晚，所以一开始只盯准了自己熟悉的当代艺术这一块。客观上说，当代艺术这两年嚷嚷的也特别厉害。就像你手里拎着一个冒着热气的肘子，马上会有一群大大小小的狗围上来，其中有一只特别爱叫的狗上窜下跳在你眼前晃，它当然会引起你的注意。所以这些新派的藏家以为艺术市场只有当代艺术。经过这场经济危机，他们忽然发现当代艺术并不一定保值，同时他们开始注意到了还有其它，比如中国书画、古典油画、新写实油画等等。
新写实油画不是说它现在特别受市场欢迎，而是量力而行的选择，就像你手里只有四千块钱，你不可能去商场抱回一个八千块钱的彩电一样。新写实油画有一个特点，观赏性特别强，跟所谓当代艺术比，虽然观念性差点，但起码挂在家里不保值还能饱个眼福。写实主义和当代艺术相比，绘画性强，艺术家的造型能力远胜于从事当代艺术创作的人。找一个模特坐那大家一起画，我敢保证当代艺术的这帮人肯定都得背过气去。比写实能力的话当然新写实要好一些。当代艺术观念性比较强，主要靠白话，你随便拉出来一个都能白话一阵子。总之，没有谁高谁低，只是分工不同。前两天听说当代艺术也成立了一个当代艺术院，我觉得这事儿同样也比较可笑。写实主义也好，当代艺术也好，只是艺术家在一生的艺术创作中的不同阶段，就像吃饭一样，只吃拍黄瓜，一辈子不碰花生豆，那是不可能的。艺术创作道理跟这一样。让一帮人坐在那儿必须搞当代艺术，是不是有点太不人道了?再说，这些所谓的当代艺术家，别往远了说，十年之后就六七十岁了，如果一个所谓的搞当代艺术的机构，一掀门帘，出来的都是老头老太太，还楞说自己是搞当代艺术的，孩子们能买账么?
对于藏家，我的建议是：喜欢什么，就收藏什么，不要考虑它是哪个流派。在艺术界这个流派那个流派，这个画种那个画种，只是为了把从业者区分开来，对于欣赏者而言没必要趟这个浑水。对一个未经训练的藏家，最好别上来就盯准某一个，多尝尝，少听忽悠。用心去欣赏。
章剑：写实也可以很当代
我觉得写实绘画的魅力是在于他的技术上。任何一个工业产品，或者是一种物质，能在他技术含量上或者是在他的质感上体现价值的，如有具备这样的语言方式，我觉得也是很高级的。从市场的角度来说，我觉得当代艺术在之前已经拍到非常高的价钱了，也该轮到人家写实的在舞台上显山露水了。当然就我本人来说，还是更喜欢看当代艺术。但是，当代艺术和写实艺术其实并没有什么本质区别，因为画写实的也可以画得很当代。虽然我比较喜欢当代艺术，但是我更喜欢在当代艺术里面有古典元素的作品。总而言之，我觉得写实也没有落伍，被标榜为当代艺术的许多作品也未必能代表这个时代的精神。当代也不是唯一代表时代精神的东西，所以我们不要给他分得那么清楚。一些被称之为写实派的东西我也会很喜欢，比如王沂东老师的那些画在我看来就挺有时代感的。为什么这么说呢?我觉得从美学上来说，他的那种红色，以及他画的村姑身上的红颜色棉袄，那种红很有当代性的韵味在里头，是颇朴实的而又纯度极高的那种红，这类所谓写实派的东西在我看来是有一点当代性质的。
杨千：写实已经不能体现时代精神
写实绘画在新中国成立以后，西方的油画方式传入中国，对中国的艺术形式产生了很大的影响，特别是俄罗斯的社会主义或者称写实主义，对中国的艺术和艺术教育都产生了极大的影响。尤其像我们从美院出来的人，都是受到很多这方面的影响。但是但这在我看来已经是上个世纪六七十年代，在中国已经结束了的一个创作方法和历史阶段。现在如果还不加以突破，那它就成为一种传统的、保守的现实绘画。至于拍卖市场，写实受到追捧，也很自然。传统的容易被接受，我画一个风景，画一个很美的女孩，这个很容易接受，而且中国当代艺术市场或者收藏行为也刚刚开始，在不断的扩大、成长的过程中，很多新的收藏观念和习惯还都有待形成。至少在现阶段，这种写实的东西在市面上还是容易被接受。而以观念为主的当代艺术，更有富于变化，也会受到另外一批收藏家的追捧和欣赏。而且从长远来看的话，我觉得当代艺术在市场上应该更有优势，因为它更与国际接轨的，是跟当下生活直接相关的东西，而且它的创作方法和表现形式也一直在不断创新和自我颠覆中寻求突破，这是生命力的一种体现。写实已经不能体现时代精神了，也不可能是未来艺术发展或者艺术价值评判的一个标准。中国发生了这么大变化，城市生活、大都市生活如此丰富，有那么多可以挖掘和思考的东西，而这些写实的画家还画一个农村，画一个小孩，画一些少数民族，这跟当下的中国正在发生的事情并无关联。它们在市场的火爆我不能理解，我只能说这可能是一种中国式的投机。
展望：写实派这个说法很荒谬
新写实的东西有市场是因为中国古代没有写实绘画，所以老百姓喜欢吧。在古代绘画主要是来替代照相的功能。中国老百姓一直喜欢这种像照片似的这种画，因为容易看懂。其实在当代艺术里面并没有写实和不写实的问题，当你需要写实就可以写实，你需要照相写实也可以照相写实，你需要非写实你需要抽象都可以，这不是一个问题。写实和不写实的问题的出现主要是在西方出现抽象主义出现之后，大家才说之前的这些叫写实;而在中国是上世纪80 年代以后的事情，之前大家都在写实。我觉得现在还用是不是写实来区分美术形态，这本身就比较过时。以写实和非写实对艺术家进行区分，就跟以意识形态标准来看问题一样，过于简单而且专制。我从事艺术这么多年，就从来不关注写实还是不写实的问题，而是以作品的内容和它的当代性来看。我也会使用写实的方式来创作，而且要求学生都要学会写实，这和当代艺术不是一个对立的东西。有的时候我们会用一个写实的方式来表达观念，比如照相写实主义本身就是观念的。他的观念就在于纯客观地去表现事物，这本身就是观念的一种。所以我觉得我们国家在文艺上一直在写实还是不写实这个问题上产生很多误导，甚至很多人还把写实作为一个画派，我觉得就更可笑。四大天王的东西，其实都算有一些写实的因素在里面，刘小东的油画也是写实的。而古典的、临摹学习欧美的那种古典写实，并不能代表写实，它只代表古典的写实，就跟中国画里的工笔、重彩是一个意思。所以我们一般谈中国画，不会用工笔、重彩来加以区别，因为它只是一个形式上的东西，我们还是按时代来分。哪个时代都有工笔、重彩，现在有，过去古代也有，以后还会有。现在古典写实的东西在市场上好卖，那也只能代表大众喜欢，反正不代表艺术的一种方向、未来和一个探索的东西。
尹朝阳：金融危机下的保守心态复活写实热
所谓中国写实画派，这又是一个艺术圈里比较偷懒的说法，把一些人划到一个区域里。其实中国的很多艺术家都在用写实，方力钧、张晓刚这些人也在写实，但你能称他们写实主义吗?这算是一个小问题。而我们现在谈论的这批画家，普遍一个特征就是相对唯美，我觉得要叫的话可以称之为唯美派具像画家。其实就这个群体而言，是值得尊重的。我只跟其中个别打过交道，都是老师辈的人。这些人素质很高，对艺术很认真，热爱绘画，做派都比较严谨，当然这个严谨要看你怎么理解了，有时也可以视为保守。我们知道当代艺术受到市场追捧是这两年的事，当大家的目光都朝着光源的时候，另外一些东西难免被忽略。实际上如果你仔细留意的话，你会发现写实绘画一直都很贵，自打这个艺术市场开始就是如此。只不过现在把聚光灯又重新打在了这些人身上，让你觉得写实绘画重新被受到重视，其实他们一直都受到重视。现在市场上写实绘画的火爆可以理解为一种趣味的转化。这种趣味的转化，虽然没什么错，但有些美中不足。艺术应该是鼓励创新的，激发活力的，但现在却经常打出旗号就说要重视经典。千万注意，经典不等于写实。目前收藏群体对写实风格东西的认可，更多的是金融危机下的一种保守心态。写实派画家无一例外的都很认真，不是那草草几笔就完了，可能让人更有安全感。对当代艺术大家开始有一点怀疑，有一点停滞，当然这种回调我想可能是件好事。看作品就是看你的作品是不是对应了你的心，这是我自己评价艺术这样的第一标准，其次是看你做得是否成功。如果是说在市场追捧某种艺术形式的时候，你也奔那而去，好了，大家全部去画写实，重新到美院去练基本功，再画这样的一个东西，这肯定不对。我觉得艺术家要有这样一个基本心态。写实绘画作为一个门类的话会一直存在，就跟流行趋势一样总会循环往复，就像法国的宫廷艺术到某一阶段，又会被追捧上去一样。写实只是一个表面的现象，还是要看你传递的是什么，如果用写实的手段传递的是一种非常当下的一种情绪和状态的话，他依然是非常有价值的。而所谓当代艺术是什么呢?他代表未来。我觉得收藏家收藏的一定是未来。
仇晓飞：我从小就对写实不来电
我这两年对写实的东西我了解甚少。只是在上高中上大学的时候知道有这么一个写实画派，那时也看他们的画，但已经是很早以前的事儿了。我一开始看到这种东西，就没有什么特别强烈的感觉，因为他们的视角和观念还是太过于现实，换句话说，就是没有什么其他的东西，只是靠画得比较像来拼技术，因此我一开始就对这种东西不来电。而我所接触的收藏家或是画廊界的朋友，也都离写实画派比较远，我们基本上也不谈论这些东西。跟这些人的交往也谈不上，就是在央美的时候，杨飞云曾经教过我一两堂课吧，也就是一些老师辈的人。我上学的时候，写实画一直就画得不好，写实的那些基本功也不好，所以我对技术也就不太感兴趣。那个时候我的很多同学习惯画古典的写实的油画，当他们一开始说什么文艺复兴，什么新古典，一听到他们讲这个，我起来就走。写实派和当代派，这完全就是两码事。因为写实是从技术层面和视觉层面而言的，而观念艺术是从另外一个角度来去探讨艺术的功能，所以说他们不具备可比性。虽然都叫艺术，但就像古典音乐和流行乐一样，这不是一个行业。
黎薇：当代艺术才是真正的边缘
我知道写实画派里面好多画家都是以前中国油画界很重要的人物，看到他们组织了这么一个画派，我有点意外，因为通常只有比较弱势的人才会组织一些派别，以壮大力量。从另一方面来讲，我个人极其不赞同给自己画圈和组团儿的行为，因为艺术本身就是要让自己真正自由的，它需要不断的突破和颠覆。作品实际上就是为了体现你这个人而存在的。我不知道中国写实画派的宗旨是什么，但从一个比较现实的角度来说，成立派别可能会更好的推广自己。用写实的作品来衡量市场的审美取向显然是可笑的，写实的画一直都卖得很好啊，这里已经不存在审美问题了。其实问题的关键不在写实与否，还有，“审美”是指审的什么美?外在的美?据我所知。凡是外在的美大多都是以牺牲精神内在为前提的。外表漂亮的作品就像花剌子模的使者一样，怕被丢进笼子喂老虎所以只报好消息。可是难道坏消息不报就代表它不存在吗?写实和当代这两个概念根本无法类比。这几年，中国当代艺术貌似很火，但实际上，在庞大的中国人民群众中，当代艺术才是真正的边缘。相反，写实绘画才有更主流更广泛的群众基础。而且，艺术怎么能用写实和当代来衡量呢?当代艺术里就没有写实的了吗?我不知道中国当代艺术研究院的成立，不过这个研究院要是真能为中国当代艺术做点贡献，那当然好了。我不是体制内的，当然也不打算占这个便宜。人还是自由的时候体会到的幸福多一些，我说的是真正的源自内心的幸福，而不是和其他人对比出来的幸福。
向京：写实画派是对技术的一种迷恋
我觉得写实艺术是一种表现的方式，尤其是在中国，是很有特色的一种方式。写实是长期以来学院教育最主流的一部分，几十年统治中国的教育界，培养出一大批具有写实技能的艺术家，但从艺术性来讲，写实画派可能更传统一点，更风情画一点。现在虽然写实的市场很好，但收藏写实的群体只是一小部分，所以也很难说写实代表了大众的一种审美趣味，只能是某一个收藏群体的某一种口味吧。喜欢写实和喜欢当代的应该是两拨人，可能会有交集，但真正喜欢写实画派的藏家应该对当代的兴趣不会特别大。很多人喜欢写实画派是对技术的一种迷恋，我跟很多藏家聊过，他们认为艺术一定要有技术含量，而很多当代艺术有反艺术，或者是反技术的概念，这就让藏家觉得门槛太低了，没有技术含量，显得不高级。当代艺术没有必要排斥写实派，当代是一个比较开放的概念，不是以具象或不具象为标准去区分什么是当代艺术。你也可以认为我的雕塑是很写实的啊，但我肯定不属于写实画派，我认为我还是属于当代这一块的。中国当代艺术研究院的成立并不能说明当代和写实一样都属于体制内了，这只是一个现象，也许时间长了会说明一些问题，会显现出什么意义，但目前来说，这个机构的生存能力有待时间的检验，它的制度怎么去建构也需要被检验。但这也说明人们对当代艺术概念的接受度变高了，包括中国美术馆也要建一个当代美术馆，这些消息都说明当代艺术已经不是地下的一个概念了，这是个好事，是时代的进步。 |
