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Oriental Art·Master, November 2013
Zhu Wei: Use Traditional Ink To Tell A Modern Story
By Li Xueyi
As a native Beijnger, Zhu Wei, a 60's generation, just like Cui Jian and Wang Shuo, is the "balls under the red flag", who are destined to go through ups and downs, along with China's Marketization, under the huge influence of tradition. Zhu Wei, a witness of the 30 years development of contemporary art, born in the 60s of last century, belongs to the very first group of distinguished contemporary Chinese ink artists, who are recognized by the western art galleries and auction houses in the nineties of the 20th century. His early works include The Story of Beijing, Comrade Captain, Sweet Life, and so on. Contemporary Chinese ink and wash painting flourished in the early 1990s with two directions appearing: one was from the Western context, by using pure western art language to interpret art works; the other was to stick to the Chinese context, by using Chinese traditional language especially literati landscape painting language. After entering into the 21st century, when the boundary of contemporary art was continuously broken and adjusted, what is "contemporary" has been reinterpreted again. How does the "traditional" and "contemporary" convert from each other? Oriental Art · Master interviewed the contemporary ink and wash practitioner Zhu Wei to discuss the relationship between the traditional and contemporary ink and wash, as well as other questions drawn from this.
Oriental Art · Master: Today when everyone are chasing for the "New Ink Art", do you think whether this definition is a misreading of "traditional"?
Zhu Wei: Contemporary ink and western contemporary art share the same standard and definition, while only the material is not the same. Contemporary ink and wash can be a continuation of tradition in material and painting method, however, its concept and ideas must be consistent with the western contemporary oil painting, modern and contemporary art, including installation, conceptual art, behavior art, and so on. There must be contemporary consciousness, and based on which it is so called contemporary ink and wash. Otherwise, the contemporary ink and wash will become a dead corpse suddenly standing up from its coffin, which is wrong.
Oriental Art · Master: How do you understand the word "contemporary"?
Zhu Wei: What is happening today is grasped in time and accurately described by living artists, which is contemporary art. If a living artist paints a story happened in Song Dynasty, although this artist is a 80's generation or 90's generation, his artwork should not be seen as contemporary art.
Oriental Art · Master: If everything in the past can be called traditional, how could we define contemporary art?
Zhu Wei: Today is tomorrow's yesterday, but if the contemporary in today is not accepted by the history in the future, then there is no contemporary. The so-called contemporary depends on whether it can be accepted many years later. If you paint a thing without any feature of the time or characteristics of the era, it is not contemporary. For example, the painting "Han Xizai Evening Banquet" told a story only happened at that time. Even what we consider as traditional or classical things was very contemporary in its time. "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", "Han Xizai Evening Banquet", and "Ladies with Head-pinned Flowers", were all reflecting the reality of their era, and were all very contemporary in their days.
Ink painting has a history of several thousand years, while oil painting has been imported into China only for more than 100 years. The oil painting itself is more than 700 years old, while modestly speaking, ink painting is more than 2700 years...if not so modestly, four thousand years. Ink and wash painting always faces the problem of traditional and contemporary, because by using brush and ink inherited from tradition to paint contemporary things, the creation process itself is a conflict.
Oriental Art · Master: You took ink and wash as creation medium at the very first, so, did you consider breaking through these boundaries at that time?
Zhu Wei: In the beginning, people painted to show their emotions after they satiated, and then, painting was subdivided into oil painting, ink painting, etc. When social reality changed, there were so many subjects emerging, and artists had not time to think it over. Regardless oil or ink, the fact is the eagerness to express, not to think too much. It was taking risks to paint some subjects reflecting reality, thus if you think too much about results, it's likely you dare not to paint.
Oriental Art · Master: In different stages of your creation, did your understanding of tradition have ever changed?
Zhu Wei: I respect, even worship the tradition! Except for limitation of a person's ability, the traditional painting techniques are quite enough for expressing. Only the observation of things and manner of judgments inherited from our tradition and traditional ink and wash can express the contemporary accurately, since the traditional manifestation mode is more in accord with Chinese way of thinking, creation and observation. By returning to the traditional standard, every piece of my contemporary ink painting is using the traditional ink and wash to tell a modern story. This standard is the inheritance of tradition.
Oriental Art · Master: Other than various visual manifestation modes of various mediums, what do you think is the support matter behind the all kinds of creations at present?
Zhu Wei: In the mid-1980s, the development of art was pushed by artists spontaneously. For instance, to see what the West has...basically it was imitation. Later, the in the early 1990s, foreign capital starts to promote art, then we began to understand art fairs and biennials...; and later than that, in the mid twentieth century, the capital involvement started to revalue the artworks. In the beginning an artist might sell a painting for one hundred Yuan, while at that time the same painting could worth a million. And now, the contemporary art is driven by capital completely. The artists have become a vassal and lost their voice, and the capital is speaking. During the gold rush in America, more than a decade seldom people became rich, and there were tombstones of gold-diggers everywhere, but what the gold rush accomplished is Levi's who sells Jeans.
Oriental Art · Master: About the collectors you know, do you think whether the foreign collector and domestic collector share the same cultural cognition?
Zhu Wei: I have a very strong feeling about it. In the early 1990s when I had an exhibition abroad, two collectors found me and told me that they like my painting very much, but they need three years to pay for it by installments. And three years later, they did pay off my painting. These two collectors had rental housing, but they love paintings, and for a painting they would rather spread the payment over three years. However in China, people take loans for apartments or cars, but few people buy paintings in installments. Thus different art education brings up different cultural cognition.
《东方艺术·大家》二零一三年十一月刊人物访谈
朱伟：用传统的水墨说现在的事
撰文/李雪艺
作为一个土生土长的北京人，朱伟这位60后和崔健、王朔一样都是“红旗下的蛋”也命中注定要伴随着中国市场化历程在传统的强力影响中起起伏伏。朱伟，一位当代艺术30年发展的亲历者，出生于上世纪60年代，属于90年代最早一拨儿在海外产生影响并被西方商业画廊和拍卖市场接纳的中国当代水墨艺术家，早期作品有《北京故事》、《上尉同志》、《甜蜜的生活》等。中国当代水墨兴盛于上世纪90年代初，当时产生了两种方向，一种是借鉴西方语境，用纯粹的西方艺术语言来阐释艺术作品;另一种则是固守中国语境，用中国传统的，尤其是文人的山水画语言来表达。进入21世纪以后当代艺术的边界不断打破和调整，什么是“当代”?再次被重新阐释，而“传统”和“当代”又是如何转换的?《东方艺术·大家》特别采访当代水墨的实践者朱伟，一起探讨传统与当代水墨的关系以及由此呈现出来的问题。
东方艺术·大家：现在，当大家都在对“新水墨”趋之若鹜的时候，您觉得以这种水墨的形式来界定传统的画，是不是对“传统”的一种误读呢?
朱伟：当代水墨和西方当代艺术的衡量标准、界定标准完全一样，只不过是材料不一样。当代水墨从材料上、绘画方式上可以是传统的延续，但是，当代水墨的观念和创作思路跟西方当代油画、现当代艺术，包括装置、观念、行为等等所有的东西必须是一致的，即当代意识，这样才叫当代水墨。否则，当代水墨就像传统的诈尸，这样是不对的。
东方艺术·大家：您怎么理解“当代”这个词?
朱伟：当代的艺术就是现在发生的事情被现在活着的艺术家及时把握、准确地描写出来就是当代的。如果现在活着的艺术家画出来的是宋代的故事，虽然艺术家是八零后或者九零后，但是他的艺术品也不是当代艺术品。
东方艺术·大家：如果说所有过去的东西都可以称其为传统的话，那当代艺术该怎样界定呢?
朱伟：今天是当代的，明天就变成传统的了。但是今天是当代的，明天不被历史、未来所接受，那么就没有当代性了。所谓当代性就是多年以后看完还接受。如果你画一个东西，没有任何时间特征，没有年代的特色，这张画就没有所谓的当代性了。比如《韩熙载夜宴图》，就是当时发生的事。即便现在我们认为是传统的、古典的、经典的东西，在当时是极为当代的。比如《清明上河图》、《韩熙载夜宴图》、《簪花仕女图》，在当时是反映当时的现实是非常当代的。
水墨画有几千年的历史，油画到中国只有一百来年，油画的整个历史才七百多年。水墨画谦虚地说也有二千七百多年，再远些得有四千多年。水墨画总是面临传统与当代的问题，因为拿的是传统传承下来的笔墨纸砚，要画的是当代的东西，而创作过程本身就是个冲突。
东方艺术·大家：您最早就是利用水墨媒介来创作，那么在创作最初就考虑要打破这些东西是吗?
朱伟：绘画一开始就是人们吃饱喝足以后要表现人们情绪的，后来细分为油画、水墨画等等。当社会发生变化，很多题材素材需要表现的时候，艺术家来不及更多的思考，无论油画还是水墨，实际要上都是要急于表达，来不及想太多，有些反映现实的题材是要冒风险的，当时要是考虑结果很可能就不敢画了。
东方艺术·大家：随着您创作的不同阶段，您对传统的认识会发生一些变化吗?
朱伟：我对传统非常尊敬、崇拜!传统的笔墨到现在，除了个人能力有限，传统的笔墨、所有的技法完全够用。因为传统的表现方式比较符合我们中国人的思路、思维方式、创作方式还有对事物的观察方式。只有从传统水墨，从传统传过来的这些观察、判断的方式表现当代事物才能准确地表达。我画的每一张当代水墨画，都是用传统的水墨来说现在的事，并回归到传统的标准上去。这个标准就是对传统的继承。
东方艺术·大家：除去各种视觉、媒介的表现形式，您觉得支持当下各类创作背后的东西是什么?
朱伟：八十年代中期，艺术家自发地来推动艺术发展，比如西方有什么，基本就是模仿;后来，九十年代初，国外的资本开始推动，接着大家开始了解博览会、双年展……;再后来，二十世纪中期，资本介入了，艺术品开始出价钱了，当时可能艺术家一百元卖一张画，现在可能值一千万;到现在，完全是资本推动当代艺术，艺术家成了附庸，失去话语权，资本在说话。当年美洲大陆出现淘金热，十几年下来见着钱的没几个，随处可见的是淘金者的墓碑，成全的是卖牛仔裤的施特劳斯·李维斯。
东方艺术·大家：您接触的藏家中，您觉得国外和国内藏家的文化认知一样吗?
朱伟：我觉得有个一特别明显的感觉就是，九十年代初我在国外办了一个展览，当时有两个藏家找到我和我说，我非常喜欢你的画，但是需要三年分期付款，后来他们三年还清了我的画款。看得出他们是租房住，但是他们喜欢画，为了一张画，他们会三年分期付款买画。而在中国，都会贷款买房买车，很难有人分期付款买画，可见艺术教育的不同、文化认知的不同。 |
