作者:彭德2011-10-11 15:09:02 来源:网络
自从进入西递村之后，25年来，应天齐再也没能离开。尽管他不断表示要走出，尽管他的新老朋友也鼓励他走出，然而他却如同水边蜻蜓，飞来飞去，总会返回原处。他从古老的西递走进了引领时尚的深圳，用解构的行为和解构的手法消解西递之恋。他以行为艺术《砸黑》，告别西递系列作品中常用的黑色。在这项行为中，他把玻璃涂黑，在黑夜的街边当众砸毁，用来砸画面之黑、传统之黑、社会之黑，不过他由此衍生的碎玻璃拓片，依然是黑色。他曾定点拍摄芜湖老城区的拆迁建筑，在拆毁一周年后将影片投射到废墟的墙面上，变成装置状影像作品，暗含着对现实喧闹的拒绝和对往日宁静的怀念。这一切都表明他没有走出西递情怀。如同高更至死没能离开塔希提一样，应天齐也离不开西递。西递是他思考的支点，是他创作的参照，是他始终萦怀的实象与心象。这是一种无法排遣的初恋情结。
在崇尚变革的中国当代艺术界，应天齐长时间地处在对西递弃或取的两难境地。作为西递村升格成世界遗产的功臣，应天齐注定会被这片古村落永久捆绑。这个境遇是福是累并不要紧，要紧的是他自己是否真的会放弃这段情感。当中国变得让我们觉得日益陌生的今天，西递日益令人眷念，如同一个反复出现的旧梦。没有这样的梦境让我们排遣喧嚣而又平庸的现实，生活在他乡一般的中国实在是精神上的折磨。应天齐比众多质疑现实的中国人更需要这个梦，它象征着精神的家园。应天齐的创作，从一个角度代表着无数中国人、特别是中国文人诉说着这个梦，用以找回记忆的寓所。对待西递，应天齐不论置身何处和做什么，始终在眷顾，只是不断地变换着顾盼的方式。在《西递系列》中，他以采风者的眼光观察和表现家乡风光：粉白黛黑的大宅，错落起伏的马头墙，斑驳的石板路。他的《走出西递系列》和近期带有版画味的油画作品，从整体到局部，仍旧采用西递系列的风格，以象征永久和理性的黑色刻画对象。黑色是经典版画的基本色，他把它们改造得横平直竖，造成恒定的效果。25年来，应天齐笔下的西递几乎都是冷寂不见人影。人的形态、发式、服饰会指示时代，他的题材却无需时代印记。他刻画的西递不只是民俗景观和历史的遗存，不只是传统的化身而更多的是向往永恒的心理需求。如果应天齐关注的仅仅是历史的遗存，是过往的传统，那么他会忠实地采用传统的手法加以刻画。熟练地运用这类手法，是他作为科班出身的艺术家的本事。值得注意的是，应天齐的绘画不同于中国的传统版画。传统版画使用的是线，它的发展脉络清晰可辨。无论人物、山水、花鸟、器物，传统版画都有一以贯之的作风，比如：线描作风，大面积的留白，没有中间调子，等等。与此不同的是，应天齐的作品具有现代绘画的特征。那些硬挺的边缘线，同中国古典趣味南辕北辙，它对应着科学支撑的西式哲理。那正是1980年代以后影响中国文艺界的哲学倾向，它们同富有弹性的中式哲理大不一样。明清时期流行的版画，源头是宋元书籍版画，其中的人物形象别名绣像。绣像在宋代以前是同佛教画像、特别是佛教刺绣形象联系在一起的。刺绣形态作为中国特产，文献记载可以追溯到大禹治水之前。绣像的轮廓，除了少数界画，统统都是曲线。
应天齐正在写一本书，声称古代版画不是版画艺术而是传播手段。这个判断肯定会在版画界掀起波澜，因为它无异于取消了古代版画成为独立画种的理由。的确，《山海经》中的版画形象，《三才图会》中的礼器图、山水图、花鸟图、人像图，统统都是传达知识的方式和文字的附庸。离开了文字，图像的信息会大幅度地丧失，艺术的传达会变成无的之矢。正因为带有这种超出定见的眼界，应天齐不中不西的技法，反而为他在中西方画坛赢得了广泛的声誉。需要指出的是，应天齐作品中的黑白构成效果，不在于抽象而在于意韵。中国意象形式不同于西方抽象形式，它带有言外之意。黑色和白色，在中国古代的象征意义特别复杂。五行色彩体系中的白色代表金、秋、西、义，黑色代表水、冬、北、智，两者都是肃杀之色。这种色彩观是民俗用色的依据，也是解释应天齐用色的源头。总之应天齐笔下那些宽窄不同的横直块面，不同于蒙德里安的构成观念。同样，他的肌理，画的不是质感而是时间，是历史的沧桑和磨难。比较而言，他的中期作品比近期油画显得直接。在近期的油画中，西递村的木雕部件常常被半遮半露地嵌进画面，用来体现历史的反复无常，甚至让人们从中窥见到西递村木雕艺术品在劫难中的故事：文革期间，为了防止木雕在“破四旧”的运动中被摧毁，当地民众用石灰涂平后写上革命标语，从而保全了上百年、几百年前的精美雕刻。这批带有典故的油画，对于讲究直观的造型艺术是削弱还是强化，取决作品被解释与推广的程度。
应天齐是十分自我而又执着的艺术家。他的画面色块的边缘线，自始至终挺直、单纯、不拐弯，显示出他不求圆通的性格。应天齐一度患有抑郁症，以致至今在社交中仍然不擅逢场作戏，少有世俗的应酬表情。他的作品致力于刻画无人之境，显示出对人的回避。他不动声色的画面，使得历史的遗存显得冷峻。画面中黑色块面的含义，除了永恒，也隐藏着历史的晦暗、封建文化的刻板和体制的僵硬。对于思路单一而又试图寻找微言大义的观察家，他的艺术犹如一份含而不露的难题。
(彭德，西安美术学院教授、著名批评家。原题：《走不出的精神家园——应天齐的艺术轨迹》)
Clinging to the Home of spirits The Trajectory of Ying Tianqi,s Artistic Career
Peng De
Since he entered Xidi village 25 years ago, Ying Tianqi has never taken leave of it. Even though he has repeatedly stated his wish of going out of it and his friends also encouraged him to leave, he always returns to Xidi after each departure from it, like a dragonfly flitting to and fro yet still lingering by the water. From the ancient Xidi to the fashionable Shenzhen, he dispels his love of Xidi through deconstructive actions and approaches. He parted from the color of black frequently used in his works of Xidi Series through the behavioral art Smash the Blackness, in which he blackened the glass and smashed it in public in the night street in order to smash the darkness of the pictures, the tradition and the society. However, the derivative rubbings of the broken pieces remain black. He also took serial photographs of the buildings for demolition in the old city of Wuhu, which he.turned into device-aid visual works by projecting the photographs on the walls of the ruins on the one-year anniversary of the demolition, with the implication of his rejection of the present bustle and cherishment of the past peace. All this indicates that he has not got out of his Xidi complex. Just as Gauguin failed to leave Tahiti within his lifetime, so Ying cannot bid farewell to Xidi either. Xidi is the fulcrum of his thinking, the frame of reference for his creation, the real and spiritual imagery haunting his mind. It amounts to a first love complex that can by no means be dispelled.
In the reform-oriented art world of modern China, Ying has long been in the dilemma of whether clinging to or taking leave of Xidi. As the person who facilitated the World Heritage designation of Xidi, Ying is bound to be tied to this ancient village for the time to come. What matters is not whether the situation is beneficial or harmful, but whether he himself is willing to give up this affection. While China is getting increasingly unfamiliar today, Xidi has come to frequent us like a recurring old dream. Without such a dream for us to dispel the noisy and banal reality, life in the alienated China equals to a mental torture. This dream is dearer to Ying than to other Chinese people who also question the reality, as it symbolizes his spiritual homeland. Ying s works in a way create a space where numerous Chinese people, especially the Chinese literati relive this dream and recapture their memories of the good old days. No matter where he is and what he is doing, Xidi is never absent in Ying s mind,only in different ways. In his Xidi Series, he observed and expressed the scenery of his hometown through the mansions with white walls and black tiles, horse head walls and mottled stone slab paths in the perspective of a visitor. The series of Out of Xidi and the recent oil paintings oozing print flavors, from sections to the whole work, carry on the style of Xidi series by still giving prominence to the color black that is the symbol of permanence and reason. Black, the essential color of classic printmaking, is transformed into straight lines to achieve an effect of immobility by Ying. Over 25 years, Ying s brand of Xidi has been quiet and lone without a figure shown in the works. A person s posture, hairstyle and costumes can tell the time. But his works do not need the mark of times. Xidi portrayed in his works stands more for the mental need of eternity than for the folk landscape, the historical heritage and the embodiment of tradition. If he only focuses on the historical heritage and the past tradition, he will paint it in a traditional way, which is just an essential skill for an artist with professional training. What should be noted is that his paintings are different from Chinese traditional printmaking in which lines are often adopted and have clear developmental vein. Traditional printmaking, including character, landscape, utensils, flowers and birds, is consistent in style, such as line drawing, large areas of blank and no middle-valued color. As a contrast, Ying s works have the features of modern painting. The starched edge lines are poles apart from Chinese classicism and correspond to the science-based western philosophy which has influenced the Chinese literary and art world since 1980s and highly different from the flexible Chinese philosophy. The origin of the printmaking prevailing in Ming and Qing Dynasty is the book printmaking in Song and Yuan Dynasty, in which the images of characters are called embroidered portraits. Before Song Dynasty, embroidered portraits were connected with buddhistic pictures and especially buddhistic embroidery. As a specialty in China, embroidery can trace its literature record back to the time before Yu the Great tamed the flood. The contours of the embroidery, except a few boundary drawings, were all curves.
Ying Tianqi is writing a book, in which he claims that the ancient printmaking is not the work of print art but a way of communication. This opinion will definitely lift billows in the printmaking circle because it equals to deny ancient printmaking its status as an independent painting type. The printmaking in Shanhai Jing (Book of Mountains and Seas) and the pictures of sacrificial vessels, landscape, characters, flowers and birds in Sancai Tuhui are indeed the means of conveying knowledge and a supplement to the written language. Without written language, much of the information conveyed in the pictures will be lost, and the artistic transmission will become aimless. Just because of his extraordinary perspective, Ying s Chinese and Western integrative skills won him a wide range of reputation in both Chinese and Western painting circle. It should be pointed out that the effects of the black and white in his works lie in not the abstraction but in the implication. Chinese imagist style is different.from western abstract style in that its bears implication. The symbolic meanings of black and white are particularly complicated in ancient China. In the color system of five-element theory, white stands for gold, autumn, west and righteousness; black stands for water, winter, north and wisdom. Both of them are the color of dreariness. This view of color is the basis of the color convention in folklore and the root of Ying s color selection. The lines and planes with distinct sizes in his paintings are different from the constructivism of Mondrian. Similarly, the texture of his paintings presents not physical feelings but time, the vicissitudes and hardship of history. Comparatively, his mid-term works are more straightforward than his recent paintings, in which the wood-carving parts of the mansions in Xidi are often partly hidden in the pictures to reflect the impermanence of.history, and even avail people of a glimpse of the story of the wood-sculpture art works suffering from the disasters. During the Cultural Revolution, for fear that the wood sculptures might be destroyed in the movement of Removing Four Olds , the local people daubed them with lime and painted revolutionary slogans on them. Thereby, the exquisite wood sculptures with the history of hundreds of years have been preserved. Whether these oil paintings with allusions weaken or strengthen the visualized plastic arts depends on how they are interpreted and promoted.
Ying Tianqi is an artist of self-awareness and persistence. The rim lines of the color blocks throughout his paintings are straight, simple and without turning, revealing his personality of not seeking tact and flexibility. He once suffered from depression and even today he is still not good at greasy dissimulation in the whirl of society. His works are devoted to depiction of sceneries void of person, telling his avoidance of people. The seemingly indifferent pictures render the historical heritage sober and grave. Apart from eternity, the black blocks in the pictures also embody implicitly the darkness of history, the rigidity of feudal culture and the stiffness of the system. To the one-track-minded observers who tend to seek profound messages, his art is like a challenging Sphinx riddle.
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