展覽海報

展覽名稱：以無厚入有間——莊聲濤先生個展

學術主持：林書傳

策展人：馮黎敏

展覽時間：2021.5.16-6.16

主辦單位：瀚陽藝術中心

視覺設計：田字格設計 tzgdesign

展覽地點：杭州西湖區曙光路120號，黃龍飯店西大堂

“山水” 色-墨-宣紙-47x78cm 2014 

以無厚入有間

莊聲濤先生的作品，大都筆勢赫奕、生氣淋漓，雖以傳統筆墨入畫，卻能煥然而出一股騰挪跌宕的不羈之力，雖有落拓恣意的逍遙風骨，卻無半點佯狂放浪的習氣，雖飽納江南氤氳鐘靈，卻斷無鄉願遺俗的曲逢。在東方與西方之間，在傳統與當代之間，在生活與創作之間，他以無厚入有間的篤定，形貌巋然，自成乾坤。

“荷塘 1” 墨-宣紙 96x180cm-2008

所謂“以無厚入有間”，語出莊子《庖丁解牛》，故事講的是廚師給梁惠王宰牛，梁惠王問他的技藝怎麼竟然高到這種程度，庖丁説：“以無厚入有間，恢恢乎其于遊刃必有餘地矣，是以十九年而刀刃若新發于硎”，意思是以薄薄的刀刃進入牛骨的間歇，我能夠遊刃有餘，因為十九年來，刀刃還象剛從磨刀石上磨出來的一樣。這一精妙的回答，一方面彰顯了其高超的技藝，另一方面形象地表達了“寶刀不老，愈見其利”的狀態。我之所以用“以無厚入有間”來涵括莊先生的作品，並作為展覽主題，是因為，無論是莊先生作為藝術家，他在作品中表現出的創作狀態，還是作為一個生命個體，他在延綿數十載的時間軸線上，幾次易地而居，每每在陌生之地所顯豁出的精神狀態，都極具“恢恢乎其于遊刃必有餘地矣”的特點。

“夜色-1”-墨-宣紙180x96cm-2006 

“情動於中”-墨-宣紙-100x50cm-2017

東方哲學講天人合一，西方哲學講主體客體，前者重感受和頓悟，後者重理性和思辨。莊先生的創作之路，選擇了統納兩者所長，融東方的筆墨意蘊和西方的抽象表現于一爐，更關鍵的是他在本來互不相容，硬若牛骨的東西方兩套截然有別的美學系統中，精準地找到了間隙，並遨遊其中。這其中有兩個方面的原因，為他提供了堅固的基礎，一個就是他自幼研習真草隸篆，深諳筆墨秉性，並進而轉化為繪畫中的書寫性，這是一個連貫有序、講求積累玩不得花樣的系統性建構。另一個就是他無論是在東南亞，還是在法蘭西、美利堅，無論身處何種語境，他都抱元守一，堅守東方傳統的筆墨的根性。雖然表面上這兩點有其相似性，即“書寫性”和“筆墨根性”，但在本質上卻截然有別。“書寫性”是技法表現層面的表述，而“筆墨根性”卻是形而上的表述，可以簡單理解為，前者是“術”，後者是“道”，雖然互相勾連暗通骨血，卻各有所指各有所重。

“重彩之大紅”-色-水彩紙- 39x54cm-2019 

“重彩之粉白” 墨 色 水彩紙 46x61cm 2019

“重彩之桃紅”-色-水彩紙-26x37cm-2019

莊聲濤先生，從7歲起，汲汲于筆墨之道七十余載，其繪畫的技藝、生命的狀態，以及從作品中透射出的精神氣象，都毋庸置疑地堪比莊子筆下“若新發于硎”的庖丁。“以無厚入有間”既貼切地表明瞭作為藝術家的莊聲濤，在東方傳統筆墨的根脈上，矢志彌堅，同時他化用西方抽象藝術的表現形式和構圖方法，從容駕馭畫面，每每在筆墨的間隙裏，都能赫然有光。隨著光在間隙中的遊走，一個根脈通暢、元氣淋漓、形神飽滿的藝術家面貌躍然筆墨之間。他無論是從潮州出發，從新加坡出發，抑或是從蘇州出發，歸根結蒂，都是從筆墨出發，因而，筆墨裏有他的故鄉，有他裏的潮州、新加坡，有他的蘇州，筆墨裏有他洞悉人間世後，“以無厚入有間”的智慧與從容。

——林書傳

2021-5-9

藝術家莊聲濤

莊聲濤簡歷

1944  出生於中國

1955  移居新加坡

1964  進入南洋美術專科學校研究班

向中國書畫名家施香沱先生學習書畫

1966  組建旨在推動和發展新加坡的水墨藝術的年輕團體“墨瀾社”

1969  任“新加坡開埠 l50年紀念美展”的工作委員及“東方美術組”評委

1972  獲南洋大學一等榮譽文學士 

1977  獲南洋大學文學碩士學位

1979  個人首次畫展，新加坡希爾頓飯店，新加坡

任新加坡訪華美術文物考察團秘書訪問中國

1980  “第一屆國際書法展”，香港

1981  遊學法國，為期一年

1982  “旅法畫展－莊聲濤個展”，藝術之家畫廊，新加坡

“新加坡藝術節美展”

第三屆東盟美術巡迴展”

1983  “新加坡畫家三人展”，墨爾本，澳大利亞

1985  “莊聲濤書法近作－ 莊聲濤個展”，新加坡國家博物院，新加坡

1986  “我的道路－莊聲濤個展”，亞化畫廊，新加坡

1987  “新方向，八十年代新加坡的現代藝術”，新加坡國家博物院，新加坡

“國家博物院百年紀念展”，新加坡國家博物院，新加坡

1987.8  前往美國加利福尼亞州

1988.4  北上華盛頓州，入科尼斯藝術學院學習，製作版畫，完成“山的系列”套色木板

1988.9  入華盛頓大學藝術院繪畫研究所主修西洋現代藝術，並著手製作系列油、膠彩和拼貼作品

1991  藝術研究生作品聯展，華盛頓大學亨利畫廊，美國

1993  “水墨之旅”，國家博物院畫廊，新加坡

“第二屆東盟藝術研討會和作品展”，馬尼拉，菲律賓

1994  “秋思－莊聲濤個展”，生畫廊，新加坡

1996.10 前往杭州 

1997.8  前往蘇州，並客居至今

1999  “Power and Poetry”三人展，新加坡美術館，新加坡

2006  “第五屆深圳國際水墨雙年展”，關山月美術館，中國深圳

2007  “水墨在途——2007上海新水墨大展”，朱屺瞻美術館，中國上海

2009  蘇州本色美術館“入駐”藝術家

2016  “Variation in Ink”莊聲濤回顧展，私人藏家，新加坡

2017  “莊聲濤水墨展”，誰先覺畫廊iPreciation,新加坡

2020  “濃墨重彩－莊聲濤獨家線上個展”，誰先覺畫廊iPreciation，新加坡

2021  “楮墨之外——在蘇州”莊聲濤個展, 誰先覺畫廊 iPreciation,新加坡

“朱墨-3” 墨-色-宣紙-100x100cm-2016 

I rely on Heaven's structuring

The works of Zhuang Shengtao are grand and vivid. Though traditional strokes have been part of his paintings, a bohemian allure emanates from the image that is free and unfettered, without any pretentious wildness. Shaped by the lofty aura exclusive to the regions south of the Yangtze River, these works aren’t done as part of the tacky homesickness. Instead, they drift between the East and the West, transcend modernity and the contemporary, and connect life with creations. In a word, Zhuang is trying to fit for spaces with a calm, uncompromising and heavenly mindset.

According to Zhuangzi’s Dismember an Ox as Skillfully as a Butcher, a butcher named Ding once explained to King Hui of Liang about his high skills of dismembering an ox. Ding said, “The key is to fit my thin blade for the spaces between ox bones, where I can move the blade as I wish because my blade has been in a perfect shape over the past 19 years, just like it’s being recently ground on a stone”. This is a spectacular response that highlights his mastery of sublime skills and demonstrates the fact that “an effective blade never ages but gets ever sharper”. Therefore, I quote from the ancient record and use “Fitting For Spaces” as the catchphrase for Mr. Zhuang’s works and the exhibition. As an artist, Zhuang has been seen as an individual life in his creations, and he has relocated multiple times over decades, no matter where he went, his spiritual status in an unknown place has been reminiscent of “moving a blade as he wishes”.

The philosophical insights in the East put humans as an integral part of nature, but the Western philosophers came up with subjects and objects. Therefore, feelings and sudden enlightenments are highlighted in the East, but rationality and critical thinking in the West. Zhuang, however, has borne both the East and the West in mind for his creations that juxtapose the oriental connotations of strokes with the abstract genre of the West. More importantly, he has been so accurate in locating a comfortable space from the two incompatible and starkly contrasting aesthetic systems. I think two reasons laid a solid foundation for his style. First, he has been studying Chinese calligraphy since childhood and his deep understanding of ink strokes facilitated the transformation of writing quality in painting, which is a coherent, sequential, accumulative, regular and systematic construction. Meanwhile, he has been adamant about the oriental nature of strokes no matter when he was in Southeast Asia, France, America, or other places. Though there is a similarity between “the writing quality” and “the oriental nature of strokes”, the difference is still inevitable because “the writing quality” describes techniques, but “the oriental nature of strokes” represents a metaphysical description. To put it simplistically, you talk about the quality as a “skill”, and you must associate the nature with a “philosophy” - though the two are latently intertwined with allusions and emphases of their own.

Zhuang Shengtao has been painting since 7, and after more than 70 years, the painting art of his works has done a mental journey of reflecting what he has been through in life. Never should there be any doubts when he is compared to the butcher written by Zhuangzi. Zhuang Shengtao’s status as an artist is cemented with the philosophy of “Fitting For Spaces”, the persistence in sustaining the traditional strokes of the East is touching, and when it comes to images, one can see a shining light between the strokes performed with the manifestation and composition of the western abstract art. It is a shining light leading to the spiritual charms of an artist who is steadfast, sanguine, and optimistic. No matter he embarked on the journey from Chaozhou, Singapore, or Suzhou, his strokes have been with him. The sight of his strokes naturally brings up his hometown, alongside whatever places he has been to. These are the strokes imbued with his insights of the world as well as the wisdom and ease found in “Fitting For Spaces”.

Lin Shuchuan

2021-5-9