Lorand Hegyi
雖然選擇從歷史的角度來重新建構曾梵志繪畫作品的語言肯定能引發出許許多多關於他的藝術發展情況，他在繪畫史反面所汲取的參照以及影響他的藝術流派等等的觀感和論述，我個人卻認為將欣賞的焦點放在他繪畫作品所呈現的實在的，獨特的視覺效果，收穫會比較大。我認為與其試圖去重新建構他在當代中國畫壇中所經歷的個人的藝術發展過程， 不如將注意力集中在他作品所展現的紮實，感性而富有視覺魅力的特質以及他在現今激進畫壇中創作所採用的文本參照這個問題。對我來説，投入曾梵志畫作的紮實又感性的畫面並對於這些作品最為直接，最為傑出的視覺效果加以描述是我最感到興趣的做法。曾梵志的畫非常吸引人，既靈動又充滿了力量。他的畫給觀賞者一種畫面不斷在進化和轉變的感覺，而這種變化又是極其奧妙無窮，難以捉摸的。這種多變的視覺氛圍令觀賞者感到振奮, 刺激觀賞者去想像那當中隱藏著的無限玄機；那個天地裏似乎蘊含著説不盡的故事，向四方八面延伸出去。就因為這樣，畫面就像一塊探險地域，導向的探險地圖引導觀者進入神秘的，未知的領域。我的所謂探險地，指的是在畫面構圖裏面揭示出的幽默，生動而自然的內蘊。 換句話説，畫家因那感性的構圖而顯示了豐沃的視覺成果，而這視覺成果又是蘊含在各種富有想像潛能的，個人情致的空間裏。曾先生那紮實的功力成功地將畫中所有的主體性的環節及創作背後各方面的參照推進，濃縮到前景中，讓我們明確地注意到他的畫必然成就的敘述特質。
從這個角度來看，曾梵志的畫首先給人的印像是：為我們提供了豐富多彩的內容。而這些內容又是與歷史，政治，個人的情感和記憶, 心理與幻想等等因素緊緊聯繫，並且因為還帶有點軼事的風格及 教誨的味道，畫家遂變成了一個説故事的人，一個評論者。然而妙就妙在，真正的故事並非曾梵志所採納的題材或所觀察到的物象。他要説的，最精彩的故事是他創作過程所達到的成果，這個成果告訴我們，只有他畫面中傳達的那種變幻無窮的境界才是唯一的，最密切，最富有戲劇性的成果，這種境界 也是我認為最為真切的境界。即是説，曾梵志作品最真實的特質是畫家本身集結了多方面的刺激與影響後而完成作品的獨特過程。
曾梵志繪畫中那多姿多彩的形象，豐富的構圖，既有立體感還能引發想像力的，深含內蘊且近乎虛幻的視覺效果，在複雜的光影輝映之下，令他的畫作栩栩如生，感情豐沛。某些作品甚至能營造神秘莫測，極為超然靈氣的的氛圍；因為這股靈氣，他的繪畫含有敘事史詩的超然氣質。這靈氣激發我們去思考他作為一個當代藝術探索者在畫布上所展開的論述。然而，曾梵志這新鮮的，經過深華的藝術內容與學術界所採用的解構主義美術評述方式，是有分歧的。曾作品特有的內蘊，有待我們將之融入當代激進的藝術背景來賞析。我認為曾梵志的繪畫巧妙的融合了解構主義方法與敘述性風格，因此畫面上的成果本身是真正值得我們欣賞的故事。
我們如果能採取這個角度去欣賞曾的畫，就能避免過分簡化，注重軼事，以虛假的歷史分析方法或更煩悶的心理分析方法來評論他的毛病。這一類常見的評論雖然挺全面，但其實是沒有用途的，基本上是從西方藝評家的角度來觀察中國藝術的做法。而這種評論方法，正好暴露了西方評論者對於各種領域與各種文化的學術，哲學和歷史背景，社會結構及政治文化因素等等缺乏了解的毛病。
我們需要以另一種心態去欣賞曾梵志的繪畫。要進入他的作品，我們要以直接的，開放的心靈去賞析他作品那獨有的史詩特質 --固然這種特質也是由歷史情境和個人的心智幻想鑄造而成。 對於我來説，畫家基予什麼原因，是在那種情況，心理或情感狀態下創作他的 “醫院系列”或“面具”系列，受過那位西方表現主義大師在技巧或形象模式的影響，那位古典現代大師曾啟發了他這一類的問題，遠不比他在不同時期創作卻持續表現在作品中那股強烈的震撼力來得吸引我。我正是以這樣的觀點來肯定他對於當代繪畫所作出的真摯，獨樹一幟的貢獻。也正是在這一個關鍵上，曾梵志留下了他的腳印----他的因為中國人獨特的背景及遭遇而更形特出的腳印。
換言之，對於我，在探討曾的繪畫藝術時，最重要的問題是他繪畫的史詩性。這種史詩性從一開始就對他的畫，他的形象創作過程産生了一定的影響，不管這些作品是不是源自東方傳統（一個可能被簡化的看法）或個人/政治的集體情感。無可否認，這種史詩性風格的演進及發展必定要放在一個特定的歷史，正值/文化背景來審視才行，而我們也要從他的心智和歷史背景來追溯他的藝術奮鬥過程。可是，他繪畫的史詩性是絕對不能單單從審視這些歷史條件來進行完整的解釋或詮釋。
曾的近作中佈滿了鮮活，堅實，靈動而豐沛有力的形象，這些形象既帶有模倣的特質卻又是不固定的，抽象的。這些原始的，粗豪的形象給人不斷幻化的感覺，你沒辦法確定或明顯地把它們定位—不管你試圖從創作方法或者敘事的角度來捕捉它們，你都不能為他們定型。因為曾梵志畫中的形象和結構這兩個元素處在變動的狀態，令人覺得他的創作策略的確是很像解構主義的策略。 但他的畫更令我心動的是畫面本身構成的故事性。這些故事，完美地體現了畫家藝術的創作性。值得注意的是，曾梵志所採用的同一個藝術手法， 在一幅作品中能營造空間感和深度，反映一個反覆的，近乎虛幻的空間，在另一幅作品中卻能展現迥然不同的情境，編織另一個新的故事。在他的作品中，觀賞者總是 能夠同時發掘多種精妙的表現內容，這些內容通過相互交織的技巧，達到多層次的視覺成果。
這一種短暫的，流動的，不定型的視覺狀態正是曾梵志繪畫藝術最為重要，最為特出的一個因素。他那瀟灑流暢的筆觸，時而聚，時而散；時而疏，時而密，在巧妙的光影配合之下， 永無休止地在畫面上創造新的形象組合，講述新的故事。不管眼前呈現的是一段風景或一個人體或肖像，畫家都能半虛半實的把他們變形。因此他的畫有一種不斷延伸的氣派，就像作家在展開，鋪陳一篇壯闊的史詩；我們在欣賞大主題之外， 還會發現旁邊有許多小小的故事同時在開展；許多副題融進主題中為已經壯美，宏闊的大圖景添加饒有趣味的新細節。
豐富的細節在這篇壯闊的史詩裏展開，一個母題在另一個角度重復地出現，生發出新的氣象，這幅畫就像是一條闊而深的大河，流過高山平地，流經家鄉和異鄉，陌生的風土與熟悉的人情，最後流入大海。曾梵志瀟灑的那麼一揮，畫筆下便有精彩的天地，令人驚喜的情景。這裡頭當然也包含了畫家自己的特質：他所描繪的並不是已經存在畫外的風景，他所描述的是畫面所能夠包羅的一切故事， 是從複雜的創作過程生發的故事。他的故事因此沒有界限；她那不斷變化的形象結構決定了他能自由發揮，不受拘束。
曾梵志作品所蘊含的不可改變的短暫性就是他的繪畫精華。這種短暫的狀態，協助我們解開心裏的謎團，引領我們進入那意想不到的奇景，那曲曲折折的鋪排。曾梵志擅長化實為虛，因他的功力，他通過形象營造一種豐美的情致，激發人們心中如詩歌般的情懷。
曾梵志的繪畫具有多變，奇異，開放而神秘的特點。他為作品所取的標題也是貼切合適的。 以“江山如此多嬌”為標題的系列畫作，在總體上給人的觀感是經由書法筆觸和抽象手法描繪的景致，其中有氣勢雄厚，生機勃發的風景，也有從歷史回憶中涌現的人物的臉孔 （喲，是毛澤東）。不管畫的是人或景，在他的畫作
形象的不停變化下，作品的構圖始終有一股強大的內在凝聚力。其實，這種含義的持續蛻變正好是曾梵志繪畫的存在形式。流暢的，難以抑制的形體蛻變是他的創作特點。這個特點反映他的作品的精神：此時此刻呈現在觀眾眼前的意境就是他創作最為深刻的內涵。
曾梵志似乎是有意識的去經營紮實的，畫面上的意義，然而他又似乎不想太深地陷入創作的問題或從道德的角度去確定形象的身份。他全心地投入繪畫，他在混亂糾雜的人事氛圍中審視問題，抒發他的看法；他的筆觸是那麼的鮮活，大膽而率真，他的作品傳達了一種扎紮實實，開朗潑辣而真切 的情感。
這種真切的情感貫徹在他每一個時期的作品；其中包括他早期的表現性強的
“ 醫院”系列，戲劇性的“肉”系列，怪異的肖像及富有自我探索意義的自畫像，包含社會意識的面具系列，直到最近創作的巨大，深入，多層次，多趣味又帶有神秘色彩的大型作品。 這些畫，畫面上都充滿了強大的動力，仿佛一發不可收拾，然而卻沒有矯飾或煽情的缺點。
這也説明瞭曾梵志繪畫中所表現的動力和氣勢並不是他有意識的採納哪一種畫派，刻意去經營的結果。畫家不受任何固定形象的束縛，他又悠遊自如的融合了各種美學，心理學，深化，語義學的刺激，通過畫筆去塑造他心中理想的境界。
曾梵志以那種穩健，自然而親切的繪畫`風格，靜靜地抗拒任何輕易想把他定位在某個學派，把他作品簡化的評析方法。
在此之前已有好多藝術評論家在評論曾梵志的繪畫風格時，愛強調他的風格與抽象或者表現主義畫派的關係，從西方藝術風格的分類來審視他。然而在我看來，他的作品富有一股浩大的氣勢和史詩般的魅力，不適合我們把他放在傳統西方的繪畫藝術，美學或美術史的框架上來賞析。 曾梵志的作品有自己的生命力，他的藝術光芒以其樸素真摯的情懷，照耀大地。
Beverley Blaschke, Vienna譯
吳明珠中譯
注：Dr.Lorand Hegyi 是法國聖艾迪安現代美術館（Musée d’Art Moderne De Saint-Étienne Métropole）館長 在使用這篇文章時，請著名作者。
THE VISUAL EPOS OF
ZENG FANZHI
Lóránd Hegyi
Although a historical reconstruction of the language of Zeng Fanzhi’s oeuvre would certainly provide occasion for numerous legitimate comments and observations on the development of his painting, his historical preferences in art and his chosen influences, it seems to me that a more fruitful approach will be to focus on the concrete, unique phenomenon of his painting and the question of the contextualisation of the visual references employed by Zeng Fanzhi in our radical here and now. This also means that rather than attempting to reconstruct his individual development as a painter within the Chinese culture of contemporary painting, it will be preferable to try to perceive the concrete, sensual, visual actuality of a Zeng Fanzhi’s painting and to describe its specific, immediate impact mechanism. Zeng Fanzhi’s paintings are evocative, powerful and dynamic; they invoke a sense of constant, unending evolution and transformation without foreseeable results. This makes them exhilarating and exciting, suggestive of hidden, complex stories that could be continued in all possible directions, so that the painting becomes an adventure, its surface a map for an expedition into terra incognita. By adventure I mean the humorous, vivid, spontaneous unfolding of unforeseen events within the composition of the painting, in other words, the fertile evolution of its implicit potential, which is embodied in various imaginative contexts, in various emotional and associational environments, by the sensual structuring of the painting on the canvas. This concretisation of the primary acts of visual and plastic composition in painting puts the different thematic links and the various references in the foreground and draws attention to the narrative which thus evolves.
In this light, it is understandable that Zeng Fanzhi’s painting – first and foremost, at least – offers us content that is rich and exciting, linked with history, politics, emotions and memories, psychology and fantasy, and somewhat anecdotal and didactic, so that the painter becomes a storyteller, a commentator. But the true narrative is to be found behind the storyteller’s tales, behind the commentator’s observations: it is the narrative of the painting’s creation, which makes it plain that the unceasing transfiguration of the visual figure is the only true condition, the only immediate reality, the true dramatic and, for us, relevant event. The process of becoming is the actual narrative here, manifested in the various connotative contexts of the embodiment of the act of painting.
The dynamics of Zeng Fanzhi’s manifold pictorial events, the rich structuring of his sometimes gigantic canvases with their hidden, yet extremely significant, multifaceted, fictively three-dimensional, imaginative, almost illusionistic spatial dimensions, the complexity of the light effects which not only animate and emotionalise his paintings but also, in another, one might almost say quasi-mythical, sublime context, give them the transcendental character of epic narratives, exhort us to contemplate his works in the context of a painting discourse that is contemporary per se. Paradoxically, it is precisely this apparent divergence between the newly found sublime context and the intellectual strategies of deconstruction in visual language, with their connotations and methods, that characterises the discourse of contemporary painting practice, with the new narrative clearly seeking to be integrated, albeit cautiously and somewhat covertly, into the radical contemporary context. Remarkably, Zeng Fanzhi’s paintings manifest an idiosyncratic combination of deconstructivist methods and picturesque painted stories, so that the creation of the painting, as such, becomes the actual narrative.
Thus we can avoid the danger of an oversimplified, pseudo-historical, anecdotal approach and an even less interesting psychological analysis, those frequent, comprehensible but ultimately useless attendant phenomena of discussions of Chinese contemporary art by Western art critics, which, however, do draw attention to exactly what is lacking in the Western context, namely sound knowledge of the intellectual, philosophical and historical background, social structures, politico-cultural constellations and development perspectives of various disciplines and cultural fields.
Zeng Fanzhi’s oeuvre provokes a different answer; it demands another form of perception based on a direct aesthetic examination of the quiddities of his painting, which of course have been developed and moulded by real historical situations and specific mental constellations. For me, the questions of why and under what circumstances, under what psychological or emotional and moral constraints, under what influence he painted his hospital paintings, or his “Mask” series, and which European masters of expressionism provided him with formal influences, concrete models and certain methodological guidelines, or which classical modern masters had an impact on him, are less interesting than the fundamental question of the creative energy that is constantly manifest in his various artistic periods, the highly concentrated intensity of the dynamic force of his painting. This is where I see his authentic, specific contribution to contemporary painting; this is where he sets his special mark, all the more distinctive due to the path he has followed, his Chinese background and orientation.
In other words, for me the important questions pertain to the quiddities of his painting as such, which have characterised his work more or less from the beginning and have affected the process of form creation, irrespective of whether they have to do with an oriental – unavoidably generalised and probably simplified – tradition or a psychological/personal or political/collective perception strategy. Of course the development and the methodological evolution of these quiddities must be seen against the backdrop of specific historical, politico-cultural situations with their concomitant Weltanschauung, and of course his artistic path can only be interpreted in this intellectual and historical context, but the quiddities of his painting, as such, can no more be fully explained by or deduced from these historical conditions than they can be forgotten or ignored in presenting an overall view of his oeuvre.
Constantly changing, fluid formations filled with movement, vigour and power, evincing partly mimetic characteristics and partly écriture-like, gestural, motoric improvisations or physical, tangible structuring, fill the dynamic canvases of Zeng Fanzhi today. The elementary, unbridled intensity of this robust, unceasing movement gives none of the presented constellations the chance to become truly consolidated; this painting is essentially unconsolidated, and thus it is not localisable or identifiable, either methodologically, formally, or at the narrative level. This narrative changes and evolves as a matter of course, as does the methodology of the structuring on the canvas. In this specific eclectic methodology, Zeng Fanzhi’s style of painting resembles the strategies of deconstruction, but nevertheless his paintings present provocative stories that communicate the narrative of the painting’s creation. Painting techniques which in one painting create space and depth, a complex, fictive, almost illusionistic spatial stage, in another painting create totally different effects, a different narrative, letting the painting tell a different story, although the directions taken in their interpretation are not altogether mutually preclusive. There always remains free space in which to follow different courses concurrently, and there is always an intensive interweaving, a confusing reciprocal exchange of effects to be observed.
In this state of ephemerality, of fluidity, of unconcludedness, lies, perhaps, one of the most important and most specific elements of his art. Just as the swirling brushstrokes, through their division and separation, concentration and diffusion, accompanied by dramatic-emotional, connotative-narrative light and shadow effects, freely, inexorably and unceasingly bring new formations into being, introduce new stories and create landscape visions, human bodies or portraits out of the paint he puts on the canvas, only to melt them down and transform them again, so, too, do Zeng Fanzhi’s pictorial situations evolve, as if a large-scale visual epos with many parallel strands were unfolding, continually weaving new subplots into the central storyline and incorporating new particulars and new details into an opulent, all-encompassing whole.
This gigantic visual epos, unfolding in numerous picturesque details, repeating certain main motifs as leitmotifs and continually creating different pictorial situations, flows like a huge, broad, deep river that passes through flat and hilly landscapes, familiar and unknown countries, exotic cultures and well-known, familiar communities before it reaches the sea. Zeng Fanzhi’s paintings tell stories, reveal unexpected situations and report unforeseen events, all of which were brought into being by the artist’s act of painting on canvas. In this lies the unique quality of this artist’s painting: his art does not illustrate stories that already exist outside of the painting, but rather shows the creation of all the possible stories contained in the painting, as a painting event, as the capacity to create something narrative out of complex painting processes. For this reason, his stories have no intrinsic boundaries; the structure of the painting, with its changing contexts, specifies no particular directions in which possible connotations must unfold.
Radical and irrevocable ephemerality is the state in which it exists: this is its essence and this is the key to understanding the surprising questions it poses, its unforeseen connotations, its unexpected turns and transmutations, which can suddenly let the gestural composition suggest illusionistic spaces, or transform expressive, emotional improvisations into mimetic associations. This gives rise to a rich, complex, unlimited aura of fantasy and remembrance, of poetry and emotion, which offers all possible associations with various experiences and unlimited expansion of the scope of the painted picture.
Ephemerality, mutability, flow, irregularity, openness and mysteriousness characterise Zeng Fanzhi’s paintings. In this context, the titles of his works are apposite and relevant. “This Land So Rich In Beauty” is the title of a series of paintings which evince an almost abstract expressionist, calligraphic gesticulation, then again an almost touching, dynamic, explosive, monumental landscape portrayal, here again a human figure – and Mao, at that, arisen out of memory – and in all this, the dynamics of the painting and the unceasing transmutation of the connotations of the massive gestural composition reveal an inner coherence. The continuous metamorphosis of connotations is the existential form of the painting’s vital structures. Fluid, irrepressible, unchannelable transmutation is the quasi-biological, spontaneous, intuitive content, and at the same time describes the quintessence of Zeng Fanzhi’s painting: it is the legitimation of the painting hic et nunc.
Zeng Fanzhi seems to cultivate and radicalise the hic et nunc character of painting, and yet is it probably not his intention to deal with the entire question of creation in painting and identification strategies in great depth or from an ethical perspective. He lives in his work, he articulates in the midst of a chaotic, anarchic examination of positions and questions, and in spite of his vigorous, fresh, adventurous innocence, he imparts an existential sensibility, a courageous openness, a dramatic emotionality.
This emotionality accompanies his entire oeuvre, from the early, expressive hospital paintings to the dramatic “Meat” series, from the psychologically oriented portraits and the self-portraits in search of self to the socially critical “Mask” series, and in the last monumental, almost automatic, gestural paintings, which open up in various connotative directions, it takes on a quasi-mystic dimension. These paintings are dominated by a gigantic, fundamental, universal turbulence that never comes to rest, never bridles its extreme intensity, and yet never imposes upon us any kind of dramatic, pathetic or spectacular theatricality.
This means, for example, that the unceasing, vigorous, dynamic movement in his paintings is not necessarily or directly associated with clearly calculated aesthetic or ethical objectives, nor is it exclusively bound up with specifically planned effects or stylised effect mechanisms, and even less is it interlaced with formal patterns and logos, but instead manifests a capacity for unending transmutation, a constant state of fluidity and flexibility, its substance being the inexorable transformation of materials and their association with various aesthetic, psychological, allegoric, semantic systems, which at the same time are, themselves, emotionalised and relativised. It is not these semantic systems that interest Zeng Fanzhi, but rather the possibilities for enabling pictures to emerge, even though the various semantic systems play a part in intensifying the poetic diversity of the narrative.
Zeng Fanzhi’s paintings offer a permanent, pathos-less, natural, unassuming, fundamental resistance – not loudly declared, but quietly asserted in the daily practice of his art – against simplistic, reductive, one-sided, easily found classifications, above all against formal rules of style and conventional forms of communication, against historically formed, traditional sign systems that are irrelevant outside of their own context and which characterise certain artistic elements and methodological processes. His ephemeral, fluid, flexible referentiality is the fabric of his work.
Even though a significant number of critical commentaries on Zeng Fanzhi’s work place his relation to abstraction or expressionism in the foreground, that is, explain his work solely on the basis of Western categories, the imposing, massive outpouring of his paintings seems to communicate a different artistic quiddity that lies, perhaps, outside the conventional aesthetic categories and historical contexts of Western modernism: namely, the constant, irrepressible creation of ever-new constellations of images, which at the same time diffuse and reabsorb their referentiality, simultaneously expand and relativise the scope of the painting. Thus, this dramatic, coherent, massive oeuvre lives within an unending, unlimited, fluid, unconsolidated process of becoming, which, unfolding behind the picturesque exoticism of the painting on the canvas, is the actual, underlying, essential and relevant narrative.
Translation: Beverley Blaschke, Vienna