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Oriental Art- Master, First Semimonthly of February, 2010, ‘Art History in the Eyes of Artists’ Column
He Created One Kind of Skill -- Zhu Wei Talks About Richter's Paintings
by Zhu Wei
When one artist views another artist, I am pretty sure none of them would regard the others to be eye-pleasing, no matter how old they are or whether they have good luck or bad luck. Well, they are in the same field, do the same things and suffer pretty much the same tortures, and no one is better than the others. Therefore, it largely depends on who starts first. To judge whether the art of an era is good or bad and whether the artists are a batch of excellent creators or a group of shitheads, you have to wait for dozens of years or even for decades and after numerous argumentations of the subsequent art appreciators, experts and theoreticians before things are proved. Artists are just like those sorcerers who would mainly focus on whether you have removed the bad fortune for others or not, whether the humpback and the toothache are cured or whether those in poverty have get rid of poverty, and whether those immoral ones are becoming moral once and for all. Only through years of reputations can you be acknowledged and remembered as an excellent sorcerer.
Contemporary art of China has been staggering all the way till today, when it has entered into its last stage from the original muddleheaded private painting sales to the stage of successively cooperating with oversea galleries pending its entrance into various biennales and expositions, resulting in the entrance into auction, the last stage prematurely, and this batch of artists and their works have basically completed a transmigration.
These artists including me are not taking an easy life, too. China took the road out-and-out of using rural areas to encircle the cities and buying a flat in urban areas. With art mania in recent years, artists are just like kebabs that are roasted on fire with various reasons. For example, more than one media have made auction ranking lists, authority ranking lists, public welfare ranking lists, fashion ranking lists, fortunes ranking lists, annual ranking lists and removal & rebuilding ranking lists etc, any of which can scare the artists to the full but they have nothing to vindicate themselves. Ranking lists are different from artistic creations, which can not stomach the defense of the artists themselves and the artists are embarrassed to do so thus they often allow themselves to be trampled upon.
There might be originators among artists, but for them, no matter how various and colorful their artworks are, they could ultimately be measured by the following three perspectives, namely firstly, innovation; secondly, skill and thirdly, material. That is what we usually address as what to paint, how to paint and what to be used to paint, a breakthrough of any of these three can enable a person to be a master-level artist. Reviewing contemporary art in China, anyone who has some academic common sense and conscience can trace the origin back to the West consciously or unconsciously. Two artists, who have made tremendous influence on Chinese contemporary art, are not Shi Tao or Badashanren, not Ma Yuan or Xia Gui, but Warhol and Richter who came to China from a long distance away, and among whom Richter has the greatest impacts.
Richter had two well-known sayings: ‘For art, the best thing that could possibly happen is to quit partnership from the official side’. ‘From Duchamp onward, all creative things are ‘ready-made products’, even if they are hand painted.’
Richter’s success lies in his breakthrough in painting skill; when photography emerged, the accompanied impact it brought to painting as well as the existence problem of paintings became a jointly tough nut to be solved and faced by artists from all over the world. Many artists have been making different attempts, including cubism of Picasso, abstractionism of Kandinsky, surrealism of Chirico as well as Dadaism of Ernst etc. I feel that cubism of Picasso and the blur soft-abstract painting of Richter can be regarded as successful explorations.
Richter began to adopt photo-painting （Richter used ‘Vermalung’ to refer to his paintings of this kind, which could be understood as un-painting. Note by translator） since 1962, and he would choose some pictures which he feels good to duplicate and magnify. Richter, his painting is not like the so called realism painting, but he parts abstract drawings into small abstractness, soft abstractness and big abstractness while the blur pictures duplicated in his pictures are categorized to be soft abstractness. In this way, his works can avoid facing the current social maladies directly, but rather, he created a grey blur zone in both reality and ideal. He thought that blur pictures are the most perfect pictures which are absolute and do not receive any changes, thus they have autonomy without restriction and style, all expressed ways and contents in the pictures are what in his mind, which are neither right or left. He tried to color his pictures with an abstract and speculative tone like philosophy.
“What” is the most difficult thing because it is the essence; ‘how’ is relatively easy and those starting with ‘how’ are frivolous but legal, thus striving to find measures of ‘how to paint’ and thus using skill becomes a necessary condition which need possibilities of mastering materials and physics. The purpose is: nothing to create, no idea, no composition, no theme and no form, but accept all existing things: composition, theme, form, idea and image. Even when I was young, kind of innocently, I arranged ‘subjects’ (landscape painting, self-portrait) for my artworks before I soon realized that there was no such a problem as having no theme. Of course, I try to adopt themes and express them, but they are, to a large extent, emotional instead of being that true themes, which are intensified, long been used and artificial. The question of ‘what to paint’ showed my helplessness and I often envied and still envy those commonest painters who only focus on themselves and paint tenaciously and ordinarily in their own way,. (Yet I normally despise them for this). In 1962, I set up my first safety hatch: to paint according to photograph pictures which helped me escape from selection and establishment of themes. Of course, I have to choose photos. However, I can avoid any promise for themes by using images of anachronism. I impropriate pictures, not change them or transfer them into replica strategies of modern images (what Warhol and other artists are doing), which symbolizes an avoidance of themes with principles. Except for few exceptions (such as doors, windows, shadows and all other things that I don’t like), this principle is used till today.
Due to blur painting techniques innovated by Richter, he can accomplish tasks with ease and high proficiency when expressing the innovative subjects in order not to result in theme intensification nor being used by right wing or left wing etc. He created representative works including Uncle Rudy in 1965, Eight Students Nurses in 1966 and October, 18th, 1977 series in 1988 by using this technique. He tried to get closer on innovation of paintings to realities which would challenge some stereotyped concepts possessed by people to some extent. Richter and his family fled to West Germany from East Germany after the Second World War, so we can say that he has dual identity, which can enable him to think in a more objective and overall view towards the society. Richter’s father is an amiable member of the former national Social Party and a Nazi, which imposed a heavy burden for Richter and his families, be it in the then socialism camp or in the capitalism camp. It is also because of this that he painted Nazi soldiers in a style that is more true to life instead of castigating and criticizing them superficially. For a long time after the Second World War was ended, both the western camp with representative countries like UK and USA and socialism camp with the Soviet Union as the leading country proceeded with ruthless sanctions on Nazi Germany, and the Literature and art works at that time were no less drastic than that in the overthrowing of Gang of Four when the Cultural Revolution ended, when there also emerged large quantities of literature and art works featuring stylization and lacking of individuality.
Uncle Ruby of Richter appeared in the form of a blurred historical photo, which gives people refreshing new sense and makes people set eyes on descriptions of properly objective personalities that literature and art works should have, this photo caused a sensation at that time. In 2002 when Richter was 70 years old, New York Modern Art Museum ceremoniously introduced paintings of the same type with theme October, 18th, 1977 which attracted interests from peoples all around the world. October, 18th, 1977 series contained 15 paintings which included four groups of images and an independent group with 5 pieces of oil paintings, depicted some moments that members of the biggest terrorism organization namely the German Red Brigade were seized and died after going on a hunger strike. The theme Richter wanted to show is the living and death of four Germany social activity staffs who became terrorists and were disputable and these four peoples are Andres Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Holger Meins and Ulrike Meinhof. The full name of the painting is October, 18th, 1977, which is used to commemorate the day when bodies of Baader and Ensslin were found in the cell of Stadelheim Prison, meanwhile, there comrade-in-arms, the dying Jean Carl Rasp and the wounded Ilmkarde Mohler were also found at the same time. Stadelheim Prison is near Stuttgart, which was used to lock them who were sentenced to be murders and other political criminals. About three years earlier, on October, 2nd, 1974, the jailed radicals appealed and protested conditions of the jail by going on a hunger strike, during the process of which Meins died because of hunger. Not long after Meinhof was sentenced the life-long imprisonment, she hanged herself in her ward in Stadelheim Prison (May, 9th, 1976), and her death was judged as suicide, meanwhile, in the following year, on October, 18th, 1977, deaths of Baader, Ensslin and Rasp were also judged as suicides, though people universally doubted that they four were murdered.
When Richter depicted big conflicts and collisions in real society, he is basically standing from the perspective of an onlooker and can objectively retell this event. In order to manifest his own standpoint, he has been emerging as an independent artist featuring a little bit sense of academism sometimes.
When October, 18th, 1977 was exhibited in Ronan Foundation and the Grey Art Gallery in 1999, the hosting side took out a space especially for these pictures and files to be exhibited and narrated the history of German Red Brigade. The art gallery is defined that paintings are not just pure documentations, and information is essential, so if people want to fully understand paintings, they have to turn to the documentation. With the passing of time and with the growing up of generations upon generations, you can not expect that they would all know things in the past in detail, nor can you expect that people who witnessed the turbulence of that era to memorize them vividly. Richter agreed to arrange some separate spaces to display materials and notes, but he once sighed with emotions in his diary: the only place that is not good lies in that people would spend more time in reading than they do in appreciating the paintings.
Objectively speaking, Richter is not innovative in using of painting materials, and he basically followed all the materials used by oil painters for the last hundreds of years and did not have any undulations and breakthroughs compared with Warhol in terms of creative mentality. Why Richter succeeded lies in the fact he created a brand new approach in painting, which is an important breakthrough in oil painting skill, and thus brought a brand new esthetic approach to people. This can fully prove Richter as an incontrovertible master-level person who is worthy of this name in the contemporary history of art all around the world.
《东方艺术.大家》2010年2月上半月号“艺术家眼中的美术史”栏目
他创造了一种技法——朱伟谈里希特的绘画
文/朱伟
让一个艺术家看另外一个艺术家，保证没一个顺眼的，不管岁数大还是岁数小，运气好还是运气坏，都是同行，手里的活都一样，受的罪也差不多，谁也不比谁强多少，就看谁先下的手了。一个时代的艺术好还是坏，艺术家是一群优秀的创作者还是一帮地地道道的傻逼，那要经过几十年上百年的沉淀，再经过后来的艺术欣赏者、专家、理论家的无数次论证才得以确认。艺术家就像是跳大神的，不论怎么跳，跳得好还是坏，最后要看你是不是给人家消灾灭了祸，腰弯的直起来了，牙疼的不疼了，缺钱的不缺钱了，缺德的不缺德了，而且以后也不再犯了。如此多少年传下来，才能让人们承认和记住，你是一优秀的大神。
中国当代艺术跟头把式地到了现在，已经走到了最后一步，从早期的懵懵懂懂私下卖画开始，到陆续和国外的画廊合作，进入各种双年展博览会，以至于过早地又进入了最后的拍卖阶段，这拨当代艺术和艺术家们的作品，已经基本上完成了一个轮回。
包括我在内的这拨当代艺术家也不容易，在中国走的是地地道道的以农村包围城市、最后在城里买房的路子。这几年随着当代艺术热，艺术家们就像是羊肉串，有各种理由被架起来用火烤。比如：不止一家的媒体策划的拍卖排行榜、权力排行榜、公益排行榜、时尚排行榜、财富排行榜、年度排行榜、拆迁排行榜，等等等等，随便哪一个排行榜拿出来都让艺术家提心吊胆有口难辩。而且排行榜不像是艺术创作，容不得艺术家本人出来辩解，艺术家本人也不好意思，所以基本上是任人宰割。
艺术家里面有可能出创作者，对于创作者来说，不论作品怎么千变万化，怎样花样百出，是好是坏归根结底都要从这三个方面来衡量：一创意、二技法、三材料，也就是我们常说的画什么、怎么画、拿什么画。这三个方面哪一个有所突破，都可以算作是一个大师级的人物。回顾中国当代艺术，无论是谁，只要稍有一点学术常识和良知，都会自觉不自觉地把渊源追溯到欧美。有两位艺术家对中国当代艺术的影响极其巨大，这两位艺术家既不是石涛也不是八大，既不是马远也不是夏圭，而是不远万里来到中国的沃霍尔和里希特，其中里希特影响最大。
里希特曾经有两句名言：“对艺术而言，能发生的最好的事情是与官方分道扬镳。”“自杜尚以来，一切创作的东西都是‘现成品’，即使是手绘的东西。”
里希特的成功在于他绘画技法上的突破，当年摄影的出现，摄影作品带给绘画的冲击，以及绘画的生存问题，成为全世界艺术家面临的一个共同的棘手的问题。很多艺术家都做出不同的尝试，这其中包括毕加索的立体主义、康定斯基的抽象主义、以及契里科的超现实主义和恩思特的达达派等等……我觉得毕加索的立体主义绘画和里希特的模糊的软抽象绘画算是一次成功的探索。
里希特从一九六二年开始采用照片绘画，他每次都从近千张照片中挑选一些认为满意的来复制放大。里希特认为，他的绘画不像人们所说的是一种现实主义绘画，他把抽象画分为小抽象、软抽象和大抽象，而自己所画的这些复制照片的模糊画面被他归类于软抽象。这样，他使自己的作品不那么直接针对时弊，在现实和理想当中创造了一个灰色的模糊地带。他认为，模糊的照片是最完美的画面，它没有任何改变，是绝对的，因此有自主性，没有限制，也没有风格，照片传达的方式和内容都是所想的，不左不右。他力图使自己的绘画像哲学那样带有抽象和思辨的色彩。
里希特在他的笔记上曾经写到：
“什么”是最艰难的事情，因为它是本质。“怎样”相对来说是容易的。以“怎样”开始是妄动的却是合法的。努力于“怎样画”，并因此为了达到目的而使用技术的必要条件，掌握物质和物理的可能性。意图是：什么也不创造－没有思想，没有构成，没有主题，没有形式－接受每一件事情：构成，主题，形式，思想和图像。甚至在我年轻的时候，我有点儿天真地为我的作品安排“题目”（风景画，自画像），我很快就意识到没有主题这一问题。当然，我采用主题并表现它们，但这在很大程度上是带有感情而不是那种真正的主题，是强加的，翻旧了的，人为的那种。“我要画什么”的问题显示出我自己的无助，我经常忌妒（仍然嫉妒）那些只关注自己的最普通的画家，他们是这样的顽强而平庸地绘画。（我基本上因为这而轻视他们）。一九六二年，我建立了我的第一个安全舱口：根据照片绘画，我从对主题的选择和创立的需要中解脱出来。当然，我不得不选择照片。但是，在某种程度上我确实能通过使用有时代错误的图形避免对主题的任何许诺。我对照片的挪用，我没有更改，没有将他们转化为现代形式（正像沃霍尔和其他艺术家所做的）拷贝策略，象征着有原则性地对主题的避免。除了少数例外（门，窗，阴影和所有我不喜欢的东西），这一原则被维持到今天。
由于里希特创造出的模糊绘画技法，这样他在表现创作题材的时候得心应手游刃有余，不至于主题激化，也不至于被或左或者右等等派别所利用。他用这种技法在一九六五年创作了《鲁迪叔叔》，一九六六年创作了《八个学生护士》，以及一九八八年创作的《1977年10月18日》系列代表作品。他在绘画创意上努力接近现实，多少挑战了人们的一些固有观念，里希特是二战结束后举家从东德叛逃到西德的，可以说他具有双重身份，这样就使得他对社会的看法更加客观和全面。里希特的父亲是一个和蔼可亲的前国家社会党成员，也是一个纳粹份子，里希特和他的家庭因此无论是在当时的社会主义阵营和资本主义阵营都背上一个沉重的包袱。也因为这样，他对纳粹军人的描写就变的更加有血有肉，而不是从表面上鞭挞和批判。二战结束后的很长时间里，在全世界，无论是英美德为首的西方阵营，还是以苏联为首的社会主义阵营，都对纳粹德国进行了无情的制裁。当时的文艺作品也不亚于我们当年文革结束后打倒四人帮时的劲头，也出现过大量的程式化、脸谱化的文学艺术作品。
里希特的《鲁迪叔叔》以模糊的历史照片的面目出现，使大家觉得耳目一新，同时，也让人们看到了文艺作品应有的客观的人性化的描绘，这张照片在当时引起了轰动。二??二年里希特七十岁，纽约现代艺术博物馆以《1977年10月18日》为专题隆重地向世人介绍了同类题材的绘画，引起了世人的兴趣。《1977年10月18日》系列作品是以十五幅绘画作品，包括了四组图像和独立成一组的五幅油画组成，描绘的是当时横扫欧洲的最大的恐怖组织德国红色旅成员被抓绝食身亡几个瞬间，里希特的主题是四个德国社会运动人士的生与死，他们后来变成了恐怖分子，充满了争议，这四个人是：安得里斯·巴德，古德隆·恩斯林，霍尔戈尔·梅斯和乌尔里克·梅恩霍夫。作品的整个名字叫《1977年10月18日》，纪念巴德和恩斯林的尸体在斯塔姆海姆监狱严密牢房里被发现的那一天，同时被发现的还有他们的战友、垂死的冉－卡尔·拉斯普和受伤的伊尔姆加德·莫勒。斯塔姆海姆监狱靠近斯图加特，他们被判谋杀罪和其他政治煽动罪期间与之后都一直关在这所监狱里。差不多是三年以前（一九七四年十月二日），被关押的激进分子呼吁抗议监狱的条件，举行绝食活动，梅斯就在绝食中饿死的。梅恩霍夫和其他人被判终身监禁后不久，她就在她的斯塔姆海姆牢房里上吊了（一九七六年五月九日）。她的死被裁定为自杀，同样，第二年（一九七七年十月十八日）巴德、恩斯林和拉斯普的死也被裁定为自杀，尽管人们普遍怀疑他们四个人是被谋杀的。
里希特在描绘现实社会的重大冲突和矛盾的时候，也基本上是一个旁观者的角度，客观地复述事件。为了表明自己的立场，多年来他总是以一个独立艺术家的面貌出现，有的时候稍稍带一点学院派。
当《1977年10月18日》一九九九年在拉南基金会和格雷美术馆展出的时候，主办方单独拿出一个空间用于展出照片和文件，并叙述分析了红色旅的历史。美术馆的意思是，绘画作品不是单纯的文献，信息很有必要，如果人们要完全理解绘画作品，必须要有文献辅助。随着时间的推移，一代一代的人长大，但不能指望他们都详细了解过去发生的事情，也不能指望见证了那个时期动荡的人会生动地记住。里希特同意安排几个单独的空间，把素材和笔记陈列出来，但是他在日记中曾感慨地写到：“唯一不好的地方就是人们花在阅读上的时间比花在看画上的时间要多。”
客观地说，里希特在绘画材料的使用上没有创新，基本是沿用了几百年来油画家们所用的所有材料，他在创作思路上与沃霍尔比起来也没有什么大的起伏和突破。里希特的成功是因为他创造了一种崭新的绘画技法，也是油画技法上的一次重大突破，带给了人们一种全新的审美方式。这足以使里希特在世界当代绘画史上成为一个名副其实、无可争议的大师级人物。 |
