水墨人物的另一种境域

尚辉

    笔触的写意性，不惟中国书画的笔墨，从印象派开始的许多欧洲油画都把笔触的写意性作为绘画本体语言传递艺术主体精神性的重要方面。如果莫奈的《日出•印象》没有写意性的笔触，画面中许多留白的画布便不会充满日出时的光色流动感，如果凡?高的《自画像》没有坚挺富有韧性的笔触，他作品中那种特有的清刚郁勃的气质便会散失殆尽，而如果巴塞莉兹倒立的人没有充满精神张力的笔触，那他的作品绝对不会产生如此强烈的表现力量，可见，写意性的笔触在油画现代性的探索中所起到的重要作用。

    但欧洲现代油画这些笔触的写意性，不完全等同于中国书画笔墨的写意性。中国画笔墨除了一般意义上的写意性之外，还重在强调这种写意的文化品质。所谓文人画，就是强调笔墨的文化意趣与人性陶冶，以画为寄、天真幽淡、萧散简远，都是文人画笔墨在达到人格修炼之后的最高写意境界。对文人画笔墨的崇尚，致使中国画笔墨的写意性摒弃了清刚峭拔真有强烈表现性一路笔墨的发展。文人画笔墨的写意性，逐渐成为中国画笔墨的清规戒律和审美程式。
 
    李南凤的水墨人物让我们反思了整个中国画的写意笔墨体系。因为他的水墨人物和我们看到的习以为常的写意中国人物画并不相同，他所使用的语言也不是那些文人画语言体系的笔意墨蕴。如果用文人画笔墨语言体系的审美判断，他的那些笔墨是粗、黑、野、乱，缺乏文化化的败笔。但撇开这些传统文人画的观念，我们在李南凤作品中发现的是写意笔墨的强烈表现性，而且这些表现形式如此深沉地表达了他对于当代社会的任性思考，以及他对与人类命运的深切关注。相对于文人画笔墨的灵秀、洒脱与淡逸，李南凤追求稚拙、粗野、浑朴，他把这些浓重粗黑的笔墨直接用于人体与人物形象的表现中，并试图将这些笔墨写意的表现性推向一种新的境域，以此冲撞人们的视感神经。但他完全摒弃文人笔墨的审美规范性，甚至于完全摒弃笔墨的技巧性时，他也便把自己苦涩的人生态度、悲悯的人文情怀和忧患的现实观照曝在众人的目光下。遮蔽在这些画面中的灵魂，也便赤裸裸地晾挂在那众人的目光里，多少显得腼腆、脆弱和焦虑不安。他的作品揭示的是我们这个高科技文明时代一种普遍的心理感受。

    看来，中国画的笔墨写意体系还缺乏另一种写意语言，另一种变现力量。这是我们从李南凤作品里获得的一种审美确信。也不可否认，李南凤对于西方某些现代主义绘画的借鉴，以及他自己对于非洲文化和原始主义神秘精神的吸收与融合。但这并不妨碍李南凤对于水墨人物画的当代性创造，而且这种创造也让我们深感借鉴和植入异质文化对于开拓中国画审美境域的必要。

2008年4月10日于《美术》杂志社
（尚辉：《美术》主编）

Another Realm of Ink Wash Portraits

Shang Hui

Freehand strokes are not only demonstrated in Chinese calligraphy and paintings. Many European oil paintings, from the era of impressionism, have taken freehand strokes as an important part of paining ontology language to deliver art creator’s spirits. If Monet’s Impression, Sunrise with no freehand strokes, the color white in the painting would not be rich in movement of color and light that appear in the sunrise. If van Gogh’s Self-portrait did not have firm and resilient strokes, the special strong and vital temperament in his works would disappear completely. And if Baselitz’s Person Standing on His Head did not have strokes full of spiritual tension, then his works would definitely not have such strong manifestations. As we can see, freehand strokes have played an important role in modern exploration of oil paintings.

However, these freehand strokes of European oil paintings are not exactly the same as those of pen and ink in Chinese calligraphy and paintings. Besides quality of freehand works in ordinary sense, pen and ink of Chinese calligraphy and paintings also emphasize cultural quality of freehand works. What southern school emphasizes are cultural interests and charm and refinement of human nature. Anchorage by painting and the quality of being innocent, faint, simple, and profound are the highest state of freehand strokes for pen and ink of southern school after character cultivation. Advocating of pen and ink of southern school leads freehand works of pen and ink of Chinese paintings to abandon graceful and simple development and turn to strongly expressive pen and ink development. Freehand strokes in pen and ink of southern school gradually became rules & prohibitions and aesthetic pattern in pen and ink of Chinese paintings.

Li Nanfeng’s ink wash portraits allow us to reflect on the entire freehand pen and ink system of Chinese paintings. His ink wash portraits are different from freehand Chinese portraits we are used to and always see. The language he uses is not meaning and content in pen and ink of the language system of southern school. If we judge from the aesthetic view of pen and ink language system of southern school, his pens and ink are thick, black, wild, and chaotic faulty strokes lack of culture. However, when we put aside the opinion of traditional southern school, we can find that Li Nanfeng’s works have strong nature of expressive freehand pen and ink, and these expressions deeply state his willful thoughts on modern society and his profound attention to human fate. Compared with delicately beautiful, free & easy, and peaceful & elegant pen and ink of southern school, Li Nanfeng pursues a clumsy & childish, rough, and simple & honest style. He directly uses these dense, thick, and black pen and ink in showing the images of human bodies and portraits; and tries to push the expression of these pens and ink freehand works to a new realm, so as to overwhelm people’s visual nerves. However, when he completely abandons aesthetic norms of southern school pen and ink and even pen and ink techniques completely, he, therefore, exposes his own bitter attitudes towards life, sad and pitiful humane feelings, and suffering realist views in the eyes of the public. The soul hidden in these paintings is barely hung in the eyes of the public; seeming to be timid, fragile, anxious and uneasy. His works reveal the popular psychological feelings in this era of hi-tech civilization.

It seems that freehand pen and ink system of Chinese painting still lacks another kind of freehand stroke language, another realization force, which is one kind of aesthetic conviction we obtain in Li Nanfeng’s works. It is undeniable that Li Nanfeng borrows from some western modernism paintings, and he absorbs and integrates African cultures and mysterious spirit of primitivism. But, this does not hinder Li Nanfeng’s modernity creation on ink wash portraits and this kind of creation allows us to deeply see the necessity of borrowing and implanting exotic cultures in exploiting aesthetic realm of Chinese paintings.

At Art periodical office on April 10, 2008

(Editor-in-chief of Art: Shang Hui)