Essay – Contemporary Wanderings

As if transported by a powerful machine, modern life sweeps along the various components of that life at an accelerating pace.  Whether through the pursuit of never-ending profit and the associated complexities of business, or amidst the proliferation of the various elements that constitute society and social obligations, people find themselves increasingly caught up in ceaseless preoccupations and restless activity.  Even their social lives are defined by the latest trends in fashionable lifestyle.  This is happening on a global scale.

At the same time, in a cause-and-effect relationship, the demand for leisure, for re-creation, and for time out from the throng and bustle, is also developing apace as a necessity for letting off steam, for drawing breath and for achieving a sense of balance.  Individuals may have personal preferences for golf, spa visits, computer games, fine dining, watching movies, meeting friends in pubs, shopping…  The list of possible recreational activities is a long and growing one and, nowadays, for many people, includes going to galleries and looking at paintings.

As if adapting to these prevailing social demands, contemporary art has been absorbed, to a certain extent, into the global tide of leisure culture and has, increasingly, shown a tendency towards the ‘leisurely’.  Generally speaking, this sort of art is characterized by a strong affirmation of the individual qualities and individual interests of the artist, with an emphasis on self-expression and personality, and on the striving for an independent stance and style.  This art has freed itself from the yoke of realism, casting off the constraints of excessive social pressure and restriction and yielding to an unfettered aestheticism.  In a world of tension and stress, contemporary art has assumed the function of social regulator; free-spirited expression acts as a safety valve for people, conveying an air of freshness, lightness and ease to provide relief from the strain of everyday life.

Part of the value of contemporary artists like Li Jin, Wu Yi and Nan Qi is in their ‘leisurely’ character; because of this, their ink art has a wider social relevance in the current climate.  Of course, there is no question that they each rely on their own interests and use their own methods of artistic expression and each, in his own way, therefore creates his own standard.

People describe Li Jin as possessing a ‘cultured coarseness’.  Because I have never met him personally, I cannot tell if this description fits, but his paintings certainly do carry a taste for the cultured a well as the mundane.  On the surface, his paintings depict the common, intimate aspects of Li Jin’s own life, such as food and drink and those things that occur between a man and a woman.  He presents these everyday activities in a direct, unrestrained manner, with no attempt at euphemism.  However, his painting style and structure are the clear manifestations of a refined and scholarly sensibility.  The fine, soft and vigorous outlines and the wet and light washes truly reveal a deeply cultivated devotion to the brush, as well as a warm disposition.  This brilliant contrast of the crude and the scholarly allows us to confront and experience both the reality of life and a deep appreciation of beauty, altogether a wonderful artistic stance.  The artist approaches art without any high airs or pretences, thinking only of the natural emotions associated with daily activities and personal family life, and of inner reflections.  In his subject matter, Li Jin makes no petty value judgments, nor does he idealise or embellish.  He applies the ink with what appears to be a casual artistic technique, but to experience the quality of those fully controlled and erudite ink marks is like feeling a peacefulness and familial affection that go beyond distant, academic aesthetics.

Wu Yi says that he enjoys a private life and simple country ways, and that he likes to understand the people around him on their terms in order to grasp the real meaning of painting.  In an age dominated by the bright and fashionable, the fine and foppish, he chooses a simplicity that is often mistaken for unskilled content.  We can associate Wu Yi’s art with the sculpture of Giacometti, with the difference being that it does not have that Western sense of sorrow and is not as aloof, escapist or directly provocative.  The artist’s aesthetic outlook is very Chinese and relates to a natural, fundamental lifestyle that is invisible in the city.  His ink art does not shy away from social reality but instead makes that reality the focus of attention, enabling the viewer to understand the roots of society.  His art grasps the essence of everyday life, and Wu Yi immerses himself in the joys of that simple atmosphere.  From his aesthetic standpoint, the people he portrays have the relaxed liveliness of children’s play and of a pure romanticism, showing contentment with life and a carefree nature.  His works are not painted with frivolous details or complicated backgrounds; instead he uses the simplicity and authenticity of traditional Chinese painting and its most straightforward and graceful technique, outline, to paint with a directness that is neither flashy nor ornate, sincerely expressing his experience of the rural self.

In comparison with the two other artists, Nan Qi’s painting are the most urban, and it is a ‘cruel’ urbanity.  People often like to use the expression ‘modern approach’ to describe this type of urban aesthetic.  In Nan Qi’s case, it is of course related to the artist’s long experience of living in Hong Kong as well as his choice of subject matter.  However, these are not the causes at the root of his art.  After due consideration, the urbanity of Nan Qi’s ink painting can be seen to have a deeper origin.  It derives from the painting itself, arising from the fundamental and formal implications of the brushwork.  Nan Qi’s technique is unique.  In gradually contracting and expanding replicated forms, he continuously stacks and cultivates accumulations of ‘dots’.  As in the computer-generated form of a matrix, he constructs and at the same time sculpts a meaningful ‘dot formation’.  This ‘dot’ structure that imitates the traditional painting techniques of outline and wash is actually an expression of the strength of the numeric structures that permeate the world.  It also emulates the fragmented and interrupted ‘pixellated’ existence of urban life.  In this respect, Nan Qi’s accumulation of ‘dots’ as the compositional unit does not carry the burden of a history nor does it entertain reality; it is a kind of pure form, and is one of the cleverest sort.

Like other artists, Li Jin, Wu Yu and Nan Qi all live among the ‘busy streets’ of modern life.  They unavoidably absorb the influence of that frantically whirling social environment.  This is the irrefutable reality of life.  But art, after all, is one of the means by which people maintain a distance from the reality of life.  It infuses life with the unencumbered meanings of aesthetics, constructing a vital creative energy for spiritual rest.  Li Jin, Wu Yi and Nan Qi use the lofty pursuit of ink painting to express their artistic spirit and, by so doing, also realise the functional purpose of contemporary art.  Their paintings embody the sociological themes of the current Chinese situation, using the aesthetics of the brush to explain the mixed-up melee and emotions of life and to represent and construct individually composed areas of respite.  Their type of art invites people to pause amongst the hurly burly and to engage in a ‘leisurely wandering’, thereby allowing their senses to go beyond the realities of existence.

Lü Pintian

Curator, The Institute of Fine Arts,

Graduate School of China Art Academy

闲心散游

致“中国情 — 李津、武艺、南溪”展

在现代化潮流激荡下，社会生活如同开足马力的机器高速运转，无止境的利益追求和物质扩张使人们卷入到无尽的繁忙和躁动之中。与此同时，作为社会生态的宏观调节，功在舒展紧张情绪、消解心理郁积的休闲文化，也在全球范围蓬勃发展。

适应普遍的社会需要，当代艺术大幅度地汇入世界性的休闲文化潮，日益鲜明地显示出“休闲”倾向。一般地来说，这种倾向的艺术更多地肯定个体价值和个人意趣，强调更加充分的个性表现和自我发挥，力求以自由自在、无拘无束的审美方式超越现实，摆脱来自社会方面的过度压力和超额限制。如今，努力以超然姿态和静观形式为忙碌的世人创造从容品味、畅神抒怀的机会，已成为当代艺术参与社会生态调节的一种功能承担。李津、武艺、南溪三位艺术家的价值取向是“休闲”性质的，他们的水墨艺术也因为这种价值取向而体现了休闲文化潮的一般社会学意义。当然，毫无疑问的是，他们都在依自己的兴趣、用自己的方式来把握艺术的“休闲性”，并因此在艺术表现方面自成一格。

人说李津“貌鲁心文”。因没有过直接的接触，我不知这评价于他是否贴切，但其画作确乎透着亦野亦文的气质。画面上，李津就自己生活中的那些非常世俗的饮食男女之事，不加掩饰地径直写来，显得有些恣肆放浪。然而，及于画风画骨，透出的却是文静雅逸的清隽。那细劲绵长的勾勒以及散淡和润的渲染，十足地表露了一种陶养颇深的蕴藉笔致和温良性情。这亦野亦文的鲜明反差，让我们既感受到生活的真实又感受到审美的真切，实在是一种奇妙的艺术状态。画家没有装腔作势地对待艺术，只是怀着一方平常心，像絮叨家常那样平实地叙述着自己的切身经历或内心想法。对于那一切入画的东西，画家未作刻意的价值判断，也未作雕琢的理想化的提升，他把看似不经意的艺术功夫都下在了笔墨上。品读那些涵养充沛以至颇为文气的笔道墨迹，倒是感受到一份世俗情态的亲和，能够嚼出某种超凡脱俗的审美远意来。

武艺说他喜欢不张扬的生活，喜欢淳朴的民风，喜欢“向下”去把握画画的意义。在时尚奢华、机巧和矫饰之际，他选择了单纯，选择了难免让人以为很少技艺含量的简单。武艺的艺术取向让我联想到贾克梅蒂的雕塑，但不同的是，它没有那种西方式的悲怆，不是那种孤傲的逃遁或决绝的对抗。画家的审美姿态非常中国化，颇有一种“隐于市”的豁达与随和。因此，他的水墨艺术没有回避社会现实，而是把关注点下放到社会基层，努力在乡民百姓的俗事俗情中把握生活的朴素意义，并让自己也沉浸到那明朗的快乐气氛中。以武艺的审美立场来看，乡俗情态有如童戏一般轻松快活、天真浪漫，透着一种自得其乐、随遇而安的达观。他的画面，没有琐碎的细节描绘，也没有复杂的背景交代；他用国画最本质也最笃实的手法——勾勒，不加技术炫耀和修饰地秉笔直书，所绘落落大方、爽直率性，予乡土情态以明畅的揭示。

比较起来，三位艺术家中，南溪的画是最有城市味的，而且是一种非常“酷”的城市味。人们通常爱用“现代感”来表述的这种城市审美气息，固然与画家长期的香港生活经历以及以城市时尚为题材的绘画形象有关，但这些缘由都还不够根本。思寻起来，南溪水墨画的城市味道有着更深切的起源，它发散于描绘本身，是一种由笔法的根底里生发出来的形式意味。南溪的笔法无疑是特别的。它以渐收渐放、同形复制、不断堆叠而成的积痕式的“点”，借助隐匿的计算机式的“矩阵”构成同样具有造型功能的“点的集合”。这种虚拟传统勾勒和渲染的“点法”其实是“拟像”，是对介入世界构成的数字化力量的一种艺术揭示，也是对虚拟现实的“比特之点” 和城市生活“数字化生存”状态的一种精神模拟。在南溪这里，作为构形单位的积痕之“点”没有历史负荷也没有现实担待，只是一种当下的纯粹形式，空灵得很。

像其他艺术家一样，李津、武艺和南溪都生活在现代化的“闹市”之中，他们不免会受到繁忙躁动的社会生活环境的影响，这是谁也无法抗拒的生活的真实。但艺术终究是人们用来和生活的现实状态保持距离的东西，是为现实生活灌注审美远意、搭建心灵歇处的精神创造活动。李津、武艺和南溪以水墨绘画“闹中取静”的超然追求，显示了他们对艺术精神的领悟，也体现了当代艺术参与社会生态调节的功能承担。他们缘生活现象描绘切入“中国情”这个社会学色彩强烈的主题，用诉诸笔端的审美阐释过滤激扬于生活空间的纷乱和嘈杂，藉类型化的生活情态表现构建自成一格的“休闲空间”。他们的一番艺术作为，宛如邀人闲心散游，切合现代人超越生存现实的精神需要。

吕品田

中国艺术研究院美术研究所 研究员