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Oriental Art . Master, ‘Cover People’ Column of the First Semimonthly of August, 2010
Illustration of pictures:
Front cover, artist's portrait, photographed by Yu Jie, 2010.
p.50-51, artist's studio in Beijing, photographed by Yu Jie, 2008.
p.52, top, Chian Diary No.22, ink and color on paper, signed Zhu Wei, 51 x 64 cm, 1996.
p.52, bottom, Two Red Flags No.1, ink and color on paper, signed Zhu Wei, 160 x 200 cm, 2008.
p.53, The Story of Beijing No.3, ink and color on paper, signed Zhu Wei, 66 x 66 cm, 1993.
p.54, Vernal Equinox No.10, ink and color on paper, signed Zhu Wei, 122 x 160 cm, 2006.
p.55, Comrade Caption No.3, ink and color on paper, signed Zhu Wei, 186 x 162 cm, 1994.
p.56-57, Utopia No.46, ink and color on paper, signed Zhu Wei, 120 x 120 cm, 2004.
p.58-59, top left, The Heavenly Maiden No.12, ink and color on paper, signed Zhu Wei, 65 x 56 cm, 2003.
p.58-59, top right, Spring Herald No.3, ink and color on paper, signed Zhu Wei, 101 x 121 cm, 2003.
p.58-59, bottom left, Spring Herald No.2, ink and color on paper, signed Zhu Wei, 100 x 121 cm, 2003.
p.58-59, bottom right, Diary of the Sleepwalker No.25, ink and color on paper, signed Zhu Wei, 173 x 132 cm, 1998.
p.153-159, Zhu Wei's image diary.
‘Yaoshunyu Soup’ and ‘Bird & Fish Soup’----Viewing Ink and Wash Paintings of Zhu Wei
Authored by Hao Ke
Two often-talked-about nouns in the 1990s of the art circle can come to your minds when you try to appreciate Zhu Wei’s paintings, namely Cynical Realism and Political Pop. Under the shroud of two schools featuring unique era characteristics jointly forged by the curiosity of the occidental art circles and lofty aspirations of Chinese curators, there emerge some star-like top artists who are still under spotlights today, but a batch of frustrated literati who want to get favors of the occidental art system by dint of designation of modernity and vanguard got buried at the same time. Due to its ambiguous state, Zhu Wei’s works can not be precisely categorized into any of the two concepts. Images with a sense of banter mixed with personal cognition about the social life constitute the main keynote of Zhu Wei’s earlier works, among which quotes of political signs or characters are only humorous jokes without any clear political purposes, which is as natural as when Wei Xiaobao falsified Yaoshunyu Soup taught by Emperor Kangxi into Bird & Fish Soup. Moreover, the complex technical specialty of ink and wash paintings chosen by Zhu Wei indistinctly dispels the basic properties of inexpensiveness and fastness of Pop arts from the perspective of creation while builds a non-realistic characteristic different from occidental painting with its unique modeling and materials texture. But meanwhile, a tendency of signifying in Zhu Wei’s works shows vivid mentalities and characterization specific to the era.
During a specific historic duration covered by Wang Shuo’s Ruffian Literature and capital rock and roll music of post-Cui Jian era, horizontal social and cultural orientation naturally imposed profound impacts on the focus points of visual artists. Just as in those years words ‘Leave Me Along, I Am upset’ were imprinted in the cultural shirts, a provocative mind generated from annoying mope became the universal psychological characteristic of many non-official artists. Visual images represented by them through paintings under the instigation of this mentality took on similarity to a certain extent. So when we review the art tendency of that era from the perspective of literature, the signified big faces, lazy expressions and ‘psora’ pasted Cultural Revolution images become simplified and stereotyped text expression patterns while this trend would obliterate the original value of individuality shown by the initiators to a large extent in today’s vulgarized art industry. For Zhu Wei, he does not break away from the one-dimensional perspective bestowed by the era in choosing the painting themes, but his expression approach of combining subjects beating with the pulse of the era with material of ink and wash broke through the restrictions of single theme space, which enabled Zhu Wei’s works to get into the last expressway of Chinese Modern Arts while simultaneously, the conservative stubborn cognition of ink and wash existing in people’s internal minds make his works linger about the edge of being ‘pioneering’ and ‘avant-guard’.
Yi Ying once mentioned in an article that ‘the so-called history is a linguistic hint in relationship with contemporary life’. For Zhu Wei, to create artworks by adopting traditional ink and wash skill would make him confronted with more complicated historical linguistic hints than those who use oil painting as the main approach. It is the same way as a person trotting forwards with a burdensome mirror who can not escape the impacts of remote images reflected from the mirror, and the images in Zhu Wei’s mirror is not only originated from the signified images of real life, but also from the assembling and colliding of presentation and implication between different art genres from both the South and the West.
In his China China created in 1997, Zhu Wei used Deng Diaoping’s image as the original version, in which the artist integrated various language segments from different historical stages to conduct unique explanations for the typical era images of himself.
The primary origination of the picture composition of China China derives from the painting by Francesca in the earlier stage of Renaissance in Italy titled Portrait of the Duke of Urbino and His Wife. When Zhu Wei shifts the pure redness of the duke of Urbino, he skillfully grafts the rich imaginations of the Chinese nationals of this red color into his own works. The prototype of the picture’s background is also derived from the Italian port scenery drawn by Francesca, but you would find that sailing boats of the Western types are replaced by Chinese traditional three-mast ancient sailing vessels, the replacement of which integrates the original foreign landscape into the Chinese prospect of ‘the canoe has already passed thousands of mountains’ type while stones besides the figure in the picture which was painted with the skill of ‘cun’ strictly following the Chinese painting rules of ‘Stones Have Three Formats ’ further intensified characteristics of ink and wash in the painting itself.
In the modeling of characters imaging, Zhu Wei chooses the images with insufficient three-dimensional effect in earlier stages of the Renaissance which is exactly appropriate for the modeling habit of traditional Chinese paintings. Artists restrict the image in the picture on an abstinent level of being slightly prorupt by mottled texture and patient painting, and make the relationship between it and the background retain the space concept of cavalier perspectives in Chinese painting. We can see from the self-narration of the painter himself, the image of Deng Xiaoping is originated from a picture in the news report. There might be many people who explain its significance too much in the political layer. But just as what we mentioned earlier, I think that for Zhu Wei and many other artists of his age, they are not inclined to construct a grandiose and ideal political image through arts when they are positioned in the contradicted senses and vortexes at loose ends brought about by the huge vicissitudes in the stage of Chinese society from being close to being open, rather, they tend to melt the strong senses of social responsibilities of the former-generation artists into thoughts of occasional types for the selves with an explosive mentality in a self-mockery way. But melting is not deleting. In the bottom hearts of the artists of this generation, there still hide the innocent ideal for the social mechanism to be reformed. Different from artists of former generations, they would more tend to take over the medium resources of the second-hand reality to realize their acknowledgement and expectation of their status quos. This state has similarity in era background with the emergence of occidental Pop arts to some extent, which pushes forwards more cultural signals and concepts with more open knowledge resources and media information than before to visual fields of the artists. While social clues brought about by economical mechanism reform also enables artists to know more fresh things and to be equipped with diversified presentations featuring discrepancy, yet meanwhile, artists have to face the turmoil that makes their daily lives lose unified standards. -Andy Warhol once constantly duplicated in his works the image of Mao Zedong as a sign of popular culture in bright color, which was to respond to the seeking-novelty style report on oriental political leaders by the US press in the 1970s. In here, artists attach great interests to daily declarations of the leaders’ images, which have already covered the strong attempts of the press and politicians to reveal the multifold political implications hidden behind news pictures, Zhu Wei’s choice of Deng Xiaoping’s image has the same intention with Worhol, but under the born influences with nationality characteristics of bloodline clansman consciousness, visual quotes of the leaders used by Zhu Wei bring more family gossip chitchat feelings and a sense of intimacy, which is similar to aunts and uncles enjoying the cool sitting in the Hutong Entrance who are chatting about the grand political propositions after dinner and are integrating themselves into their daily cognition of common life affairs. A quasi grass-root mentality and traitorous psychology of non-official artists at that time injected a sense of self-mockery realistic metaphors in Zhu Wei’s works. ‘passing on what you witness with your heart and paint them with your brushwork’, Zhu Wei coordinated his multifold senses on social and life vicissitudes of himself into images of leaders that account for two thirds of the whole painting, while the extrusion and encroachment of natural landscapes in the background by this fixed signals from photography also become the now a bit helpless and then complacent jocular mockery or self-advertisement of the artist himself for his own marginalized situation. .
Actually in many earlier works of Zhu Wei, this implicit and witty mockery was obviously represented. Take ‘sweet life No.27’ painting which was finished in 1998 as an example, this painting had an old-dull-yellow tone and a stain-like texture all over the picture, which exerts a strong illusion for the viewers at the first sight, who would mistakenly believe that it is an antique painting. The vertical axis arrangement plus a careful linear definition and an economical way of using colors, which strictly adhere to the principle that ‘no mix with colors and lines, line first, color after’, also featuring a similar mark of academic flower and bird painting styles back in Song dynasty. When the viewers look beyond the structure of trees, they would be taken aback to find a white statue of Mao Zedong amid the interlacing branches. This saint-like statue with a waving right arm, a typical leader image commonly seen all over China, ushers a new contradiction into the work. The absurdity and humor caused by the dislocation of different historical images shock the concept of precise time in view of history. They force the viewers to survey their knowledge of history (ancient or modern) fixed in their minds from a contemporary perspective, inspiring people to ponder upon the meaning of current life in reality. Yet based on the above, Zhu Wei makes advantage of the diary-style vernacular language inscription and a seal of the website in English carved in a traditional Chinese seal style to guide the viewers to know the actual creation time of this work.
Till now, three different historic stages jointly connect the ambiguous time clues in the works while under the intertwining of this chaos clue, the political implication of Mao Zedong is also replaced by a jokingly personal mindset for pursuing novel presentation and enjoyment. In such works as One Red Flag NO.1 and Two Red Flags No.1 created by Zhu Wei in 2008, his mockery transformation of the political implications of images was quietly resigning and red flag with original significance as revolutionary symbol in these works of Zhu Wei represented an abstract significance similar to Barnett Newman, American abstract expressionist painter, while those cloth marks indistinctly emerge in the red base also make viewers more easily to consider his works from the perspectives of pure form. It might be because of the boredom for inertial thinking model and little significant space expressed by politicized images, Zhu Wei represented more explosive interest in combining traditional ink and wash forms with daily characters images in his works during this period. For example, in his Vernal Equinox series created in 2008, the images of characters have cast off their obvious political cover and the previous oft-seen colored backdrops were also replaced by large areas of white space while images of different flowers, falling leaves and rockery designs seem to add a layer of poetic flavor featuring sentiments of traditional literati paintings. These works seem to augur that Zhu Wei is coming back once more to the re-cognition of profound traditions of ‘Yaoshunyu Soup’ from the ‘Bird & Fish Soup’ styled mockery status.
Absurd Utopia-Zhu Wei and His Ink and Wash Art
By Yang Juan
Is contemporary ink and wash or the modernity of ink and wash a reasonable assertion? When all are designed in accordance with the occidental standards, local ink and wash has been constantly doubted, nitpicked and criticized and this ‘self-examination’ capability has also been intensified with the forceful slogan when people inside it are sailing against the current. In the mindset of binary oppositions, there naturally emerge two groups of contradictions, namely China vs. ink and wash and the West vs. Oil painting. Against this backdrop, there surely will be such a debate as over how to modernize and domesticate ink and wash painting. The developments of all things follow their own natural regulations. Take ink and wash paintings for example, when different technologies and arts types such as photograph, video, installation etc appear, ink and wash, this ancient art, also faces the same challenges, but it is not annexed or ditched. On the contrary, it shows its new vigor in each historic link such as primitivism, cubism, surrealism and super realism pending Richter, Luc Tuymans. In this way, oil painting does not repel oriental features or other art types, which finishes its every step of surpassing in a fixed system and thread. Its starting point is not to deny the rationality of oil painting art itself or its possibility of extension. I think this is just where the bottleneck lies, and therefore, if we are to say modern ink and wash is a proposition to be discussed, then firstly, how to perceive ink and wash?
Zhu Wei is neither humble nor pushy in his mindsets towards traditions. Ink and wash painting in itself is technically difficult, just as what Zhu Wei mentioned, it requires efforts even in the mastering of brush work. Or, this timeliness and sedimentary deposits of ink and wash forges his stable mentality and calm temperament. In his studio, Zhan Ziqian’s Spring Travel Painting printed by Nigensha (erxuanshe) is pasted on the wall, and there are some figure paintings of Ming and Qing Dynasties that he was leafing through. Zhu Wei said, traditional paintings served as an enjoyment for the eyes. We can see clearly the influence of Zhu Da (Bada shanren), for example, in his earlier work series titled The Story of Beijing in the brushwork style of Zhu Da ‘s landscape while those people turning up the whites of their eyes in his latter works are also similar to those fish and birds under Zhu Da’s paint brush. Concerning distortion, it is not to trace back to Picasso or Cubism, rather, in my view, the distortion of human figure of Zhu Wei is closer to that of Chen Laolian. Zhu Wei has solid molding ability and he sticks to the straight and narrow path of the traditional ink and wash principles of Chinese painting. Yet as a contemporary person with broad visions, he is both open and tolerant. Be them traditional Chinese paintings or occidental oil paintings, Zhu Wei would always place, deploy and reshape them following his own minds. He plays between Chinese painting and Western painting but he is not particularly obsessed with either of them. His domination as the main part has for all along gripped a clear orientation. Therefore, everything could be picked up easily to constitute the absurd sceneries.
In normal classification, due to the political signs in his picture and Wang Guangyi’s Great Critiques, Zhu Wei was categorized into Political Pop while his approaches of expression are close to the Cynical Realism of Fang Lijun. When interpreting paintings of Zhu Wei, many critics normally lay particular stress on interpretations of his political signs, which is surely the obvious factor of Zhu Wei’s drawings. Red Star, Tiananmen and green uniforms are constantly seen in Zhu Wei’s paintings. But Zhu Wei is not the only one who shows preferences for political signs, rather, others also do from the popular Mao Zedong image of Political Pop to the Rock and roll of new long march, Eggs under the red flag of Cui Jian; the red theme which was once used as the main rhythm has been re-constructed by contemporary people.
There are many approaches for artists to step into the reality which are in direct relationship with the temperaments of the artists. As a solider, Zhu Wei created his own patterns through accumulative experiences namely those indifferent and idiotic human figures. In terms of art itself of Zhu Wei, many theoreticians and critics interpreted from picture symbols, character modeling and political codes since the 1990s. I do not concern things related to these specific images, but I’d rather regarding them as angles of stepping into reality of Zhu Wei. What I am interested in is how Zhu Wei steps into reality by dint of such language as ink and wash painting so as to reflect the attention, reflection, criticism and yelling for the reality of an artist. The sensitivity of the artists for both themselves and reality is congenital, the universal existence of which stimulates the creation of literature and art from different perspectives. Rousseau picked up operation knives to dissect his own body and soul in precision just as a surgeon does. While Proust overlapped the past, the present and the future while recalled the fleeting past years in his writing work featuring natural smoothness. The grandeur and dignity of Hugo, the toughness of Hemingway, the soul-stirring of Kafka and the sagacity, humor and incisiveness of Kundera all find their own angles to step into reality with their own characteristics. The more direct this step-into-the-reality approach is, the stronger their dynamics are when colliding with the reality. I think this is one of the aspects why the Political Pop at that time can cause repercussion, just as what Zhu Wei said, if you want to speak, you should surely choose the most succinct and forceful language.
Contemporary art serves precisely as this pattern of sound making, which is displayed as a riddle on a number of occasions. They can express their emotions in here when they confronted confusion, absurdity and boredom in reality. Chinese contemporary art inclusive of Zhu Wei also has one more characteristic, that is, it is for all along associated closely with text, which is a reflection between reality and text or is even originated directly from text for many times. Philosophy mania in the 1980s along with Nietzsche, Sartre and Camus engendered problems like existence became issues reflected by artists and thus absurd feelings about reality came into being. Absurdity almost becomes a collective emotion for this whole generation. In his book Memory and Amnesia (jiyi yu shiyi), Zhang Xiaogang wrote that we might be indebted to the changeable and complicated realities that we are in, and it is just these multifold changes of reality that lead us to be gradually awakened from the romantic feelings and vacuous idealism and we are to confront reality in an artistic way and to face those crying souls in the silent dark long nights. For a long while, Utopia becomes the only inner sustenance of those peoples in experiencing realistic absurdity. But if Utopia is also absurd, then everything would be shrouded by a sense of disillusionment. They belong to an awakening generation and have already acquiesced in the resignation and inability of the reality and their arts also reflect this emotion; therefore, a typical and universal image is always preferred and innovated.
Obviously, human figures painted by Zhu Wei are strongly typified: huge silly heads, blinking eyes, thick lips, poker face or strange grimace. Be they in The Story of Beijing series, Utopia Series or a single character image, this personal submission and personality obliteration may possibly be his sense of the reality. Thinking about the crowd created by Zhu Wei, it is just likened to a phalanx walking through in front of Tiananmen Square when you are not obsessed with one particular person in it, but are attracted by an overall atmosphere and feeling. This is the approach Zhu Wei uses to step into the reality. He perceives this reality with a nitpicky vision as a diagnostician and abstracts sections of life in bridle-wise and delicate approaches before magnifying, observing and diagnosing them under the microscope. Though the image of him has no hoarse intensity, Zhu Wei’s paintings are by no means the easy narratives. Though he adopts techniques of realistic paintings and chooses some daily scenes, what is hidden in this daily affairs or normality are revealing a sense of absurdity. His original purpose is not on these scenes, and all his themes are the routes for him to observe the reality while there is for all along hidden behind the paintings a self with cold eyes in the depths of the picture who sometimes sneers unbeknown laughs now and then.
《东方艺术.大家》2010年8月上半月刊“封面人物”栏目
图片说明：
封面 朱伟肖像 摄于2010年 摄影：于捷
50-51页 朱伟北京工作室 摄于 2008年 摄影：于捷
52页 上图 《朱伟日记二十二号》，水墨设色纸本，朱伟落款，51 x 64厘米，1996年
52页 下图 《两面红旗一号》，水墨设色纸本，朱伟落款，160 x 200厘米，2008年
53页 《北京故事三号》，水墨设色纸本，朱伟落款，66 x 66 厘米，1993年
54页 《开春图十号》，水墨设色纸本，朱伟落款，122 x 160 厘米，2006年
55页 《上尉同志三号》，水墨设色纸本，朱伟落款，186 x 162 厘米，1994年
56-57页 《乌托邦四十六号》，水墨设色纸本，朱伟落款，120 x 120厘米，2004年
58-59页 上左图 《天女散花十二号》，水墨设色纸本，朱伟落款，65 x 56厘米，2003年
58-59页 上右图 《报春图三号》，水墨设色纸本，朱伟落款，101 x 121厘米，2003年
58-59页 下左图 《报春图二号》，水墨设色纸本，朱伟落款，100 x 121厘米，2003年
58-59页 下右图 《梦游手记二十五号》，水墨设色纸本，朱伟落款，173 x 132厘米，1998年
153-159页 朱伟影像志
“尧舜禹汤”和“鸟生鱼汤”——观看朱伟的水墨绘画
文/ 郝科
看朱伟的作品很容易让人想到在上世纪90年代艺术圈内炙手可热的两个名词，就是“玩世写实主义”和“政治波普”。在这两个被西方艺术界的好奇眼光和中国策展人的雄心壮志共同锻造出的具有时代特色的流派概念的笼罩下，出现了几位至今依旧是镁光灯追逐焦点的明星大腕，也埋葬了一大批意图借助现代与前卫之名而得到西方艺术体制垂青的失意文人。而朱伟作品中所呈现出的含混状态却使其无法被确切归入到两个概念之中的任何一个，将带有戏谑感的形象和对于社会生活的个人化认知糅杂在一起构成了朱伟早期作品的主要基调，其中对于政治符号或人物的引用似乎只是一种并没有明确政治意图的诙谐玩笑，就像是《鹿鼎记》中的韦小宝将康熙教诲的“尧舜禹汤”兀自篡改成“鸟生鱼汤”一样自然。另外，朱伟所选择的水墨材质本身复杂的技术特性又从制作的角度隐约消解了波普艺术廉价与快速的基本属性，并用其独特的造型方式和材料质感而构建起了一种不同于西画的“非写实”特性。但同时朱伟的作品所表现出的符号化的倾向还是连带出了一种属于特定时代的鲜明的心态与表征。
在一个被王朔的“痞子文学”和后崔健时代的首都摇滚乐所覆盖的特定的历史时间段落里，横向的社会文化倾向自然对视觉艺术家的关注焦点产生了深刻的影响。就像当年印着“别理我，烦着呢”等调侃话语的文化衫一样，一种由令人烦闷的百无聊赖感所引发的挑衅心理成为了当时许多非官方艺术家共通的心理特征，在相似心态的怂恿之下他们通过绘画所表述出的视觉形象也具有了某种程度上的相似性。所以当我们从文字的角度回顾那个时代的绘画潮流时，符号化的大脸、慵懒的表情、被贴上“牛皮癣”的文革形象等便成为了一种模式化的、简单的文本表述方式，而这种潮流在今日艺术行业内的烂俗化倾向也在很大程度上抹杀了始作俑者们最初的个性价值。具体到朱伟而言，他对于绘画主题的选择并未脱离开时代所赋予他的单向度视角，但将切中时代脉搏的主题与水墨材质相结合的表现方式却突破了传统中国绘画中单一主题空间的限制，这也令朱伟的作品搭上了“中国现代艺术”高速行驶的列车，但同时留存在人们内心里对于水墨材料保守性的固执认知又让他的作品始终徘徊在“先锋性”与“前卫性”的边缘。
易英在一篇文章里曾提到“所谓的历史，就是与当代生活发生关系的语言提示。”对于朱伟来说，采用传统的水墨技艺来创作使他比那些以油画作为主要创作手段的艺术家要面对着更加复杂的历史语言的提示。就像一个怀抱着沉重的镜子向前行走的人，一边前行一边又不可避免地受到从镜中反射出的遥远图景的影响，而出现在朱伟镜中的镜像除了来自于现实生活中的符号化表象之外，还有来自东西方不同艺术门类间表象和意蕴的贴合与碰撞。
朱伟在1997年创作的《中国 中国》是以邓小平的形象作为蓝本的，在这幅作品中艺术家融合了多种来自不同历史时期的语言片段来完成自我对于典型时代形象的独特阐释。
《中国 中国》画面结构的原始母本来源于意大利文艺复兴早期大师弗朗切斯卡著名的绘画作品《乌尔比诺大公夫妇肖像》。朱伟在这里移取了乌尔比诺大公服装上纯正红色的同时，又将国人对于红色多重含义的丰富联想力巧妙地嫁接到自己的作品之中。而画面背景的原型虽然同样来源于弗朗切斯卡笔下的意大利港口风景，但仔细观察却发现原先漂浮在水面上的西式帆船样式都被中国传统的三桅古帆船的形象取代了，这种置换将原始风光的异域特性融化进了“轻舟已过万重山”式的中国意境当中，同时严格按照“石分三面”的国画法则皴染出的紧靠在人物形象边缘的石头则进一步强化了作品本身的水墨特性。
在对于人物形象的塑造上，朱伟选择的文艺复兴早期稍欠立体感的形象范本恰好适合于传统中国绘画的造型习惯。借助斑驳的肌理和耐心的涂染，艺术家将画面上人物形象的感觉限定在轻微隆起的节制层面上，并使其与背景之间的关系依旧保持了中国绘画散点透视的空间概念。而通过画家的自述可以看到，作品中邓小平的形象来源于一张新闻照片，或许有很多人都在政治层面上对其意义进行过太多的阐释。但如前所述，我认为对于朱伟及其同代的许多艺术家来说，身处中国社会从封闭走向开放的巨大变迁所带来的矛盾感与无所适从的漩涡中，他们本身并无意通过艺术建构起一种宏伟的、理想化的政治图景，更多的却是用自嘲式的探问心理将前代艺术家沉重的社会责任感消融在自我对于现实的偶得式断想之中。然而“消融”并不等于“删除”，在这代艺术家内心深处依旧隐藏着个人对于社会机制改良的天真理想，只是与前代艺术家不同，他们更多地借用了“二手现实”的媒介资源来完成自我对于生活现状的认知与展望。这种状态与西方波普艺术生发的时代背景有着一定程度上的相似性，——相比之前更加开放的知识来源与媒体信息将更多的文化符号和概念表述方式推入到了艺术家的视野之内，而经济体制改革所带来的商品化社会的端倪也让艺术家们在现实生活中见识到了更多的新鲜事物和具有差异感的繁杂表象，但同时他们又不得不面对着自己的日常生活失去了统一标准的动荡状态。——安迪·沃霍尔曾经用明艳的色彩将毛泽东的形象作为一种流行文化的符号不断地复制到自己的作品中，并以此来回应上世纪70年代的美国媒体对于东方政治领袖的猎奇式报道。在此艺术家对于领袖形象日常化表态的浓厚兴趣，已经覆盖了媒体和政客们意图解析隐含在新闻图片背后多重政治含义的强烈企图。而朱伟对于邓小平形象的选择与沃霍尔的本意如出一辙，但在一种与生俱来的、连带着血脉宗族意识的民族性格的作用下，朱伟对于本国领袖形象的引用又带有了更多家长里短式的闲谈气息和亲切感，这一如那些坐在胡同口纳凉的大爷大妈们，在茶余饭后的闲聊中时常会将报纸上宏大的政治命题融入到自己对于生活琐事的日常化认知中一样，只是在当时非官方艺术家们相似的草根心态和叛逆心理又为朱伟的作品注入了一种充满了自我调侃意味的现实隐喻。——“心传目击之妙，一写于毫端间”，朱伟将自己对于社会生活变迁的多重感受统筹进了占据着画面三分之二面积的领袖形象之中，而这种来自于照片的固态符号对于背景中自然景观的挤压与侵占，也变成了艺术家对于自我边缘状态的一种时而略显无奈时而又沾沾自喜的诙谐自嘲或自我标榜。
其实在朱伟早期的许多作品中这种含蓄且智慧的调侃心态都有着较为明显的表现。例如创作于1998年的《甜蜜的生活二十七号》，作品整体古旧的昏黄色调和遍布画面的污渍般的肌理，都让观者在初次观看时极易产生一种面对着古代绘画的错觉；而纵轴式的画面布局、严格遵循着“落墨为格，杂彩副之，迹与色不相隐映”准则的细致勾线与节制的施色方式，也让作品呈现出了近似宋代院体花鸟画的风格特征。但当观众的目光随着树木的结构向后移动的时候，却会发现在交错的枝干间竟隐藏着一座白色的毛泽东雕像，这个在中国各地都很常见的领袖抬起右臂挥手的神话式雕像也将一种新的矛盾引入到了作品之中，——不同历史形象的错位布局所带来的荒诞的幽默感打破了认知历史所必须的确切的时间概念，它强迫观者只能以当下的视角来审视自己头脑中那些固有的关乎历史（古代的或近代）的知识储备，并由此引发出人们对于眼前真实生活的意义联想。——而朱伟在此基础上又用日记式的白话题字和按传统篆刻样式制作的网站英文印章来诱导观众进一步走向作品创作的确切时间。至此三个不同的历史段落共同串联起了作品中暧昧不清的时间线索，而在这条混乱线索的缠绕之下，毛泽东形象的政治含义也已经被一种对于新奇表象趣味性的追求和玩笑式的个人态度所取代了。在朱伟创作于2008年的《一面红旗一号》和《两面红旗一号》等作品中，对于形象政治含义的戏谑式转换正在悄然地隐退，原本象征着革命意义的红旗在朱伟的这些作品中呈现出一种类似于美国抽象表现主义画家巴尼特·纽曼（Barnett Newman）的抽象意味，那些隐约浮现在红色基底上的布纹褶皱也促使观者更容易从纯粹形式的角度来对其作品进行考量。或许是对于政治化形象所表现出的惯性思维模式和狭窄意义空间的厌倦，朱伟在这一时期的作品中更多地表现出了一种对于传统水墨形式与日常人物形象相结合的探索兴趣。例如在他创作于2008年的《开春图》系列作品中，人物的形象已经褪去了明显的政治化表皮，先前作品中常见的有色背景也被大面积的留白所取代了，而贯穿在不同画面中的花朵、残叶和假山石的形象又为其作品笼罩上了一层类似于传统文人画中略显伤感的诗意气质。这些作品似乎也预示着朱伟正在从“鸟生鱼汤”式的调侃形态重新走回到对于“尧舜禹汤”式的厚重传统的再次认知之中。
荒诞的乌托邦 ——朱伟与他的水墨艺术
文／杨涓
当代水墨，或者说水墨的当代性是不是一个合理的命题？当一切被冠以西方标准的时候，中国本土的水墨艺术就不断被怀疑、挑剔、审判，这种“自我检讨”的力度也随着种种铿锵有力的口号不断加强，身处其中的人始终在逆水行舟。在一种二元对立的思维中，很自然地出现了两组对立：中国与水墨，西方与油画。在此思维之下也必然会有如何让水墨世界化，以及油画中国化的论争。任何事物的发展都会符合其自然规律，拿油画来讲，当摄影、影像、装置这些不同的技术、艺术门类出现的时候，油画这一古老的艺术同样面临着挑战，但她并没有被吞并或抛弃。相反，在每一个历史节点总会出现新的活力：原始主义、立体主义、超现实主义、超级写实主义，一直到里希特、吕克·图伊曼斯。沿着这条线索下来，油画对于东方异域，以及其他艺术样式并不排斥，她始终在固有的体系和线索内完成每一步超越，其出发点并不是否定油画艺术本身的合理性或者延展的可能性。我认为这恰恰是问题的症结。因此，如果说当代水墨是一个可以被讨论的命题，那么首先：我们如何看待水墨？
朱伟对待传统的态度显得不卑不亢。水墨本身是有技术难度的，就像朱伟说的，光是对于毛笔笔性的掌握也需要功夫的锤炼。或许水墨艺术本身的这种时间性和积淀感锤炼了朱伟的平稳心态和冷静气质。在朱伟的画室中贴着二玄社印制展子虔的《游春图》，画案上有他正在翻看的明清人物画。朱伟说，传统绘画对他来说是用来养眼的。从朱伟的绘画中很明显可以看出八大的影响，比如早期的“用八大山水笔法绘北京故事人物”系列。朱伟后来那些如同翻着白眼的人物也同八大笔下的鸟、鱼有异曲同工之处。说到变形，并不是一定去追溯毕加索和立体派。在我看来朱伟的人物变形更接近于陈老莲。朱伟有着扎实的造型基础，他也始终中规中矩地固守中国画固有的笔墨程式。只是作为一个眼界宽广的当代人，他是开放和宽容的。不管是传统中国画，还是西方油画，朱伟将他们按照自己的思路游刃有余地安插、配置、改造。他在中西艺术中游走，却并不执着于其中某一方，他作为主体的掌控力始终把控着明确的方向性。于是，一切都可以信手拈来，最终构成了一组荒诞的景观。
一般归类中，朱伟因为画面中的政治符号和王广义的大批判等归入政治波普，而表现手法又和方力钧的玩世现实主义相近。很多评论家在解读朱伟的绘画的时候，都偏重对其“政治符号”的解读。这的确成为朱伟绘画的显性因素。红五星、天安门、绿军装反复在他的画中出现。但朱伟的对政治符号的偏爱并不是唯一的，从老毛形象盛行的政治波普到崔健的《新长征路上的摇滚》、《红旗下的蛋》。曾经作为主旋律的红色主题被当代人重构。
艺术家介入现实的方式有很多，这与艺术家的气质有直接的关系。作为军人的朱伟通过自己的经验创造了他的图式：那些冷漠、呆头呆脑的人物形象。关于朱伟的艺术本身，从90年代开始就有很多的理论家、批评家从画面符号、人物造型、政治密码进行了阐释。在此我不去关注这些具体有关画面的东西，而将其看作是朱伟切入现实的角度。我感兴趣的是，朱伟怎样借助水墨这种语言去切入现实，反映一个艺术家对于现实的关注、反思、批判、呐喊。
艺术家对于自身和现实的敏感是天生的，这个普遍的存在从不同层面刺激着文学艺术创作。卢梭拿起手术刀，如同外科医生那样精准地剖析着自己的躯体和灵魂。但是普鲁斯特却用行云流水般的笔调交叠着过去、现在和未来，追忆着似水的年华。雨果的宏大与厚重，海明威的坚韧，卡夫卡的惊心动魄，昆德拉的睿智幽默与犀利。他们都借助于自己的人物找到了切入现实的角度。而且这种切入的方式越是直接，和现实碰撞的力度就越强大。我想，这也是为什么当时政治波普能够引起反响的一个方面，正如朱伟所说，当你想要说话的时候，肯定要选择最简洁和有力的语言。
当代艺术恰恰充当了发声的方式，很多时候又表现为一种智力游戏，当他们在现实中遭遇了困惑、荒诞、无聊的时候，他们在这里得到抒解。包括朱伟在内的中国当代艺术还有一个特点，它始终与文本有着密切的联系，是现实与文本交集之下的反应，或者说很多时候甚至直接从文本中生发出来。80年代经历的哲学热，尼采、萨特、加缪、关于存在成为艺术家去思考的问题，并由此产生出对于现实的荒诞感受。荒诞这个词几乎成为这一代人的集体感受，张晓刚在《记忆与失忆》中的信里这样写道：“我们也许真该感谢我们所身处复杂多变的‘现实’，正是那许许多多的‘现实’使我们逐步地从浪漫的情怀和空虚的理想主义中觉醒过来，以艺术的方式去面对我们的现实，面对那些在寂静的深夜里哀嚎的灵魂。”长久以来，乌托邦成为经历现实荒诞的人们唯一的寄托。但是如果连乌托邦也成为荒诞，那一切将带将被幻灭感所笼罩。他们是醒来的一代人，并且已经默认了对现实的无奈和无力感。他们的艺术也是这种情绪的投射，因而，典型又带有普遍性的形象总是被选择和创造。
明显，朱伟的人物带有强烈的类型化：硕大愚蠢的脑袋、眯眯眼、厚嘴唇，面无表情或者奇怪的鬼脸。不管是在《北京故事》、《乌托邦系列》，还是单个的人物造型，或许这种个人的服从和个性的抹杀或许是他本人对于现实的感受。如果回想朱伟创造的人群，就如同天安门前走过的方阵，你不是被其中的每一个人所吸引，恰恰只留下一种整体的氛围和感觉。这就是朱伟切入现实的方法。他用一种诊断者的挑剔目光透视现实，用训练有素的精研手法提取了生活的切片，从而在他的显微镜下放大、观察、诊断。尽管画面不是声嘶力竭般的激烈，朱伟的绘画却也不是一个轻松的叙事。尽管他采用的是写实的技法，选取的也都是一些日常的场景，但是隐藏于“日常”或者“正常之下”的这种场景却透出荒诞的意味。他本意不在于图解场景，所有的题材都成为他观照现实的路径，而在画面深处始终隐匿着那个冷眼旁观的自我， 并且不时发出几声不为人察觉的冷笑。 |
