【摘要】油畫家張新權以其獨特的語言和挑戰性的視覺表現工業文明題材，其個性化的兼有具象、表現、甚至抽象的圖式語系形成的過程、以及他的發展和變化是本文所要闡述和分析的。

【關鍵詞】工業文明 張新權油畫 作品析

當我第一次面對張新權那些表現現代都市景觀的油畫作品時，眼睛不禁為之一亮，在中國當代畫家作品中，以獨特的語言和挑戰性的視覺表現工業文明題材，即使非絕無僅有，也是不為多見的。畫面中的船舶、港口、汽車、飛機等圖式語系帶給我的不僅僅是新鮮的審美體驗，更引發了我對中國踏入現代社會以來的文明變遷、藝術發展趨向、民族審美定式和藝術的時代精神等諸多問題的深深思考。

眾所週知，中國近代史不僅僅是中國人慘遭西方列強蹂躪的屈辱史，而且還是中國農耕文明面對西方工業文明的衝擊，在自覺與不自覺中不斷調整並做出改變的歷史。在古與今、舊與新、弱與強的矛盾鬥爭中，中國人步履艱難地邁向了現代社會，無論是政治體制還是思想文化，都發生了重要的轉變。但傳統並非一夕就可以改變，延續了幾千年的文化血脈依舊以它的慣性在發生作用。因此，面對巨大的社會變遷，審視舶來的、異質的工業文明，中國人還會表現出本能的抗拒，這種心理造成的結果就是：一方面，中國人可以充分享受工業文明帶來的便利，體味生活品質提高後的種種樂趣；另一方面卻總是有意或無意地對工業文明的負面效應不能釋懷，再加上先天缺乏科學理性主義精神與後天的無所用心、不求甚解，就使得中國人對工業文明的駕馭力從一開始就有所不逮，甚至有將工業文明的負面影響加倍放大之嫌。這樣的一種歷史現實也必然會對中國的現代藝術産生影響。雖然現代主義藝術與西方工業文明是互為因果、相輔相成的，但在中國，我們卻一度出現過對西方現代主義藝術激烈的排斥和抵制，究其根源，固然有不同文明和民族審美心理間的差異與隔膜，中國社會在現代轉型過程中遺留的種種問題也應當是值得關注的原因。這也就不難理解為什麼今天中國的藝術家雖大部分生活在城市當中，但他們中的相當一部分人依舊對小橋流水、世外桃源有著揮之不去的精神眷戀，在這些人看來，高樓林立的城市無非是存身立命的生活場所，難以成為寄望心靈的永恒家園。所以城市風光不再被看作重要的表現對象。不僅國畫家忘記了他們身處現代都市鋼筋水泥叢林的現實，樂此不疲地描繪意念中的山水以及高人逸士隱居的草廬茅舍，以寄託虛妄的林泉之志；就是油畫家也總喜歡到鄉間“采風”，以山水樹木等自然風景為創作主題，少有人想到將高聳入雲的摩天大樓、縱橫交錯的立交橋等都市景觀收入畫面。雖然許多藝術家也在高喊“筆墨當隨時代”，但他們對生命的關注從來都沒有脫離社會學的緯度，而對他們生活于其中的日新月異的城市風景視而不見。在張新權近十年的作品中，我們可以明顯地看到，他經歷了一個從傳統到現代、從積累到釋放、從漸變到突變的思想昇華和實踐演變過程。這個過程，是以他對畫面形式語言與結構圖示的深刻理解，對所關注的資訊具備的異常的敏銳度、對制衡劇烈地理性與感性的複雜矛盾衝突的能力等諸多因素所支撐的，它既反映了作者的思想智慧和天賦才華，也折射了其對於油畫語言以及材料性能獨特的感受和不羈的膽識。作為一個風景畫家，張新權最初也曾迷戀于自然風光和鄉村題材，但是在他的鄉村寫生作品中，已經隱約顯露出他對工業化的敏感和關注，摩托車、氧氣瓶、油桶等等資訊不斷出現于他的寫生畫面 ，隨後，他的視覺開始明確地觸及到有關漁船碼頭、工廠大門、農業機械如拖拉機等圖示元素的場景中。這個時期，可以説是張新權油畫題材和語言探究的一個自然和不可或缺的初始軌跡。 然而，張新權繪畫探索的真正突變緣于2002年，一幅題為《十里洋場》、以上海外灘建築群為表現主體的油畫宣告完成。雖然這只是一次偶然的機緣，但結果對張新權來説卻是一種必然的選擇，從他自上世紀80年代初的一批反映上海萬國建築群的系列鋼筆速寫中，已經顯露出他對都市景觀特有的敏感和沉醉， 所以，他對都市及工業題材的表現慾望和情結非心血來潮，而是由來已久。2003年10月，當張新權第二版《十里洋場》在中國美術館“第三屆中國油畫展精選作品展”展出時所引起的關注和獲得的評價超越了他的想像，這種意外的驚喜似乎促使他迅速地找到了表現都市景觀的藝術語言，並油然産生了表達上得心應手的快感。不過，當時的張新權除了被一種全新的創作體驗所陶醉之外，還並未完全意識到這件作品對於他個人藝術史的真正意義。2004年，他的另一幅描繪舊上海城市風景的油畫作品《信號臺》獲“第十屆全國美術作品展”銅獎並被中國美術館收藏。個人的發現得到了社會的認同，偶然的表達契合了時代的精神。直到這時，張新權才似乎恍然意識到他已經打開了一個全新的藝術世界。因此，完全可以説，自《十里洋場》的開始，張新權創作語言開始告別先前的某種困惑而隨即納入一種明確的全新的思維與創作軌跡，進而轉向對城市景觀、人文風景的塑造，並逐漸有意識地將“為工業文明造像”作為自己的藝術創作方向。正如他所説：“對我而言，《十里洋場》的出現或許是一個里程碑 ，它分割了我的過去和未來，修正了我的探尋和格局，對城市景觀，尤其是工業化對人的生活和情感帶來的變化我更感興趣。” 接下來的2005、2006年，張新權又連續創作了包括《河道》、《海灘》、《風雲十六鋪》、《碼頭》、《有軌電車》、《十字街頭》和《黃浦江畔》等一系列上海都市景觀作品，從而將自己的畫風推到一個十分成熟和穩固的境地。透過張新權的作品，我們看到的上海，是街上行駛的有軌電車、港口停泊的蒸汽輪船、空氣中瀰漫著留聲機神秘而冶魅聲音的舊上海。這些特定的工業革命時期的歷史背景，在其畫面中的平衡秩序、蒼辣深邃、線形的穿梭舞動所構成的圖式語系以及隨心所欲的揮灑透出理性與激情碰撞的智慧和光芒， 從另一角度分析，他的圖式、色彩與偏好以及對都市形式語言的理解和表現方式，符合了都市的滄桑感和縱身感，也符合了人們對都市歷史和工業文明緣起的探究和感喟心理。“不爭之爭、無為之為”運用於個人藝術探尋之路，是保持自身的主體性和獨立性的基本保證。 對於今天的世人，上世紀初處在工業化萌芽階段的上海仿佛是夢境，是另一個時空中的故事。而在張新權的心裏，，這樣的上海帶給人的除了歷史的記憶，如：水泥叢林、港口都市、大千紛繁外還有浪漫的想像。因此，在藝術語言上，張新權一改他早期風景繪畫多取近景描繪細膩、構圖嚴謹、色彩明艷的特點，開始採用俯視角度、貫以全景式構圖，色彩的選擇則以深暗為主，黑白灰成為他塑造景物的主要色調，營造出如史詩般具備震撼力的畫面效果，而用筆的出奇精煉和淋漓盡致的表達，契合了現代人對這種暗畫面和滄桑感的心理需要，並從中得到了近乎于傷痕藝術的悲情快感。張新權的風景繪畫屬具象範疇，學院氣很盛，同時又具有明顯的表現主義情愫，但又非囿于學院派價值理念。在完成了一系列都市風景作品之後，張新權並未就此抱守所謂已形成的語言。 2007、2008年張新權先後創作了《巡邏艇》、《船系列》、《愛瑪仕系列》、《海魂系列》等作品。在這些作品中，前期的滿畫面構圖樣式和暗畫面不復存在，取而代之的是單純而大膽的蘭，綠、玫紅等原色的平面化運用以及大面積的空白，更加強化了畫面的構成圖式、語言特徵也更加鮮明， 這在其2008年的作品《巡邏艇》顯示出的色彩和圖式的巨大變化中可以得到印證，這裡，張新權放棄了原有的黑白灰樣式，而採用藍白黑三色用於畫面。他將白色與藍色進行規則的黃金分佈，同時利用黑色濃煙的不規則形態來調節制衡畫面，在簡潔中求豐富，在節奏上拉大舒緩與激越的反差與跨度，使作品的視覺衝擊得到有效凸顯。《巡邏艇》在2008年舉辦的“拓展與融合——中國現代油畫研究展”中被懸挂在了中國美術館圓廳的正中央，可以認定是國內學術界對他的探索給於的又一次實在的肯定。縱觀張新權的系列作品和其近些年的創作歷程，他始終是在不斷地探索和變化之中，他每次在中國美術館展出的作品都能給人以新穎異樣的視覺感應，畫面的背後蘊含著理性與智慧，畫面的語言又散射著誠懇的激情和震撼力， 但他卻告訴我們：“我不屬於多産畫家，雖然很多作品都給人一氣呵成之感覺，其實每件大作品都要持續一到兩個月時間，否則很難過自己這一關。”

歌德曾説過：“內容人人得見，涵義只給有心人得知，形式對於大多數人而言是一個秘密。”作為一個視野開闊、具備學養的藝術家，他創作作品的過程實際上也是面對自己心靈和思想的過程。難能可貴的是，張新權不僅對中國文明的變遷有著清醒的認識，而且對當代世界藝術的動態也有著敏銳的把握。看他的繪畫，不但有強烈的當代性，而且不乏鮮明的國際性。他的繪畫風格與激蕩世界當代畫壇的新表現主義浪潮息息相關、一脈相承。他之所以能夠一路高歌猛進，是與他能夠恰當地把握當代架上繪畫的審美取向，是與他的靜觀、默查和善於發現密切關聯的，這是難能可貴的。 應該説，張新權都市風景和工業文明題材的繪畫是中國工業化、城市化和全球化時代特有的視覺藝術産物。

——王端廷 中國藝術研究院外國美術研究室主任、研究員，教授、碩士生導師

Creating Images for Industrial Civilization -- On Zhang Xinquan’s Works

【Abstract】Zhang Xinquan uses his unique artistic language and challenging visual images to present industrial civilization. The article is going to elaborate and analyze the establishment and development of his individual combination of representationalism, expressionism and abstraction art.

 【Keywords】industrial civilization, oil paintings of Zhang Xinquan

My eyes brightened up when I first came across Zhang Xinquan’s oil paintings of modern cityscape. In contemporary Chinese oil painting, it is rare, if not never ever, to find paintings representing modern industrial civilization with unique artistic language and challenging visual images. In addition to the new aesthetic experience it brought me, the schematism of vessels, ports, automobiles, and airplanes made me ponder over the civilization changes, the development tendency of art, the aesthetic formulary of the nation and the time spirit of art after China stepped into the modern world. It is known to all that the contemporary Chinese history is a period of humiliation when the Chinese were ravaged by western powers, and also a period for the agricultural civilization, after being shocked by the western industrial civilization, to unconsciously adapt to the change. In the conflict between modern and ancient, new and old, weak and strong, Chinese people trudged towards modern society. Significant changes took place both in the political system, ideology and culture. But it’s impossible to change the long-lasting tradition overnight, whose inertia would never stop working. Therefore, facing the tremendous social change, Chinese people instinctively resisted the foreign and idiosyncratic industrial civilization, the result of which turned to be: on the one hand, Chinese people enjoyed the convenience brought by the industrial civilization and the pleasure of better life quality; on the other hand, intentionally or unconsciously, they couldn’t ignore the side effects of industrial civilization. Moreover, Chinese people couldn’t have a free rein on industrial civilization, or even magnified its side effects, for their congenital lack of scientific rational spirit and postnatal superficial understanding of things. The historical reality definitely had an influence on contemporary Chinese art. Although contemporary art and western industrial civilization are reciprocal causation and supplementary to each other, in China, we once furiously excluded and resisted western contemporary art, the roots of which might be in the problems left by the crossover of Chinese society, apart from the diversity and estrangement in aesthetics between civilizations and nations. Therefore, it’s understandable that although most Chinese artists live in the cities, many of them still show a great attachment to Xanadu and tranquil bridges and streams. In their eyes, the built-up city is nothing but a place to live in, rather than an eternal home to rest their souls. As a result, the cityscape is no longer their main subject. Not only traditional Chinese painters, who forget about the reality that they are living in the jungle of armored concrete in modern cities, project their fallacious reclusive ideal in enjoying depicting landscapes and cottages and huts for anchorites to stay in, oil painters also prefer to collect materials with hills, rivers and trees in rural area. Few artists choose to paint high rising skyscrapers and crisscross overpasses. Although many artists also claim that “paintings should reflect the change of the times”, their concerns are still confined to sociology and they simply ignore the fast changing cityscape. From the works of Zhang Xinquan in the recent ten years, we can obviously see his evolving process of spiritual sublimation and practice from tradition to modern, from accumulation to release, from a gradual change to saltation. This process is upheld by various factors such as his profound understanding of formal language and structural schema, his extreme acuity of the concerned information and the ability to balance the complicated conflicts between the perceptual and the rational. It reflects the wisdom and talent of the artist, as well as his unique perception of the artistic language and his unruly courage.

As a landscape painter, Zhang used to be infatuated with natural sceneries and rural subjects, but in his sketches of rural life, his acuity and concern of industrialization has already been revealed. Motorbikes, oxygen cylinders and jerricans constantly appeared in his paintings, and later he definitely painted the scenes with fishing wharves, the gate of a factory, and agricultural machines like tractors. This period could be considered the natural and indispensable original trace of his investigation on oil painting subjects and artistic language. However, his true saltation in painting started since 2002, with a painting named “The Metropolis Old Shanghai”, which depicted the building complex in the Bund of Shanghai. It seemed to be a haphazard chance, but actually it was an inevitable choice for him. His pen sketches about the building complex in Shanghai in the early 80s last century have already revealed his unique acuity and inebriation of the cityscapes. Therefore, his desire and complex to portray industrial subjects is long standing, rather than being prompted by a sudden impulse. In October, 2003, the concern and evaluation he received from the exhibition of the second version of “The Metropolis Old Shanghai” in the 3rd Selected Oil Paintings Exhibition held in National Art Museum of China was much out of his expectation, which spurred him rapidly settled on the artistic language to depict cityscapes and brought him spontaneous delight to paint with great facility. At that time, however, he was just inebriated by a new producing experience, without noticing the true significance of the work in his art course. In 2004, another painting of him about Shanghai cityscape named “The Signal Tower” was awarded the Bronze Prize in the 10th National Exhibition of Artworks and then collected by National Art Museum of China. His personal discovery received social recognition and a haphazard subject corresponded to time spirit. Zhang suddenly realized that he had already opened a new world of art until then. Therefore, we could just say, starting from “The Metropolis Old Shanghai”, Zhang has turned to an explicit new way, instead of the previous ambiguous one, to think and create. He turned to create cityscape and humane landscape, and intentionally chose to “create images for industrial civilization”. As he himself once stated, “The Metropolis Old Shanghai might be a milestone in my art course, which divided my past and future, to revise my exploration course and pattern. I’m more appealed to cityscape, especially the changes brought to people’s life and emotions by industrialization.” In the following years of 2005 and 2006, he continuously produced works about the cityscape of Shanghai, including “The Watercourse”, “The Beach”, “The Shiliupu Wharf”, “The Wharf”, “The Tram”, “The Crossroad” and “Beside the Huangpu River”, to place himself in a mature and steady situation. Shanghai we picked up through his works is an old one with trams in the streets, steamships anchoring at the port, and the mysterious and coquettish sound of gramophones pervading in the air. The images with the specific historical background in the industrial period embodied his wisdom to maintain the order, form schematism with shuttling lines and create the collision between reason and passion. Seen from another angle, his schemas, preference of colors, understanding and expression of cityscape correspond to the much experienced people, as well as people’s delving into and exclaiming over the city history and the origin of industrial civilization. “To strive without conflict, and to work with inaction”, it’s the basis to maintain one’s subjectivity and independence when it is applied to the art course. For current people, Shanghai in the embryonic stage of industrialization in early last century seems to be a fantasy, one in another time and space. But in Zhang’s mind, such Shanghai brought him romantic imagination, apart from the historical memories as cement jungles and a seaport. Consequently, instead of his previous style with close shots, careful depiction, rigorous composition and bright color, he used an overlook angle, a panoramic composition, and darks colors as black, gray and white, to build the epically overwhelming atmosphere. The extraordinary and precise use of strokes, together with the thorough expression, agrees with the demand of dark tableau and experienced sense of modernists, and brings them pathos pleasure similar to the “scar” art. The landscapes of Zhang belong to academic representationalism, but are also interwoven with expressionist feelings and never confined to academic value. After he finished a series of works about cityscapes, he didn’t stop with the formed artistic language. In 2007 and 2008, Zhang successively produced “The Patrol Vessel”, “Vessel” series, “Hermes” series, and “Sea Soul” series. In those works, the previous style of complete composition and dark images no longer stayed, but the pure and bold use of primitive colors like blue, green and crimson and large parts of blankness appeared, where the constitutive form and language characteristics become more vivid. This is best verified in the change of colors and schemas in “The Patrol Vessel” produced in 2008. Here, Zhang abandoned the mode of black, gray, and white, but adopted blue, white and black. He divided white and blue into regular golden section, and balanced the painting with the irregular black smoke. Richness comes together with concision, and the contrast between leisure and intensity is expanded, which manifests visual strikes effectively. “The Patrol Vessel” was hanged in the middle of the exhibition hall of the National Art Museum of China, in “Expansion and Fusion – Contemporary Chinese Oil Paintings Exhibition” held in 2008. That was the affirmation given to his exploration by the domestic academic circles. We could quote from Goethe, “The content is seen by everyone, but the connotation is merely observed by the concerned, and the form is a secret to most.” As an artist with a broadened horizon and accomplishments, he is surveying his soul and thought in the process of producing works. What is more valuable is that, besides his knowledge of the changes in Chinese civilization, he has an acute perception of the international contemporary art. His paintings are both contemporary and international. His style is closely linked to the neo-expressionism in international contemporary art. The magic code of his success lies in his right perception of aesthetic tropism on easel painting, and his personality of silent observation, survey and careful inspection. It’s all right to say that the landscapes and industrial civilization related themes of Zhang Xinquan are the visual art outcomes of Chinese industrialization, urbanization and globalization.

Wang Daunting (1961- ), male, was born in Jichun of Hubei province. He is director, professor and an advisor of master of the Foreign Art Research Center in China Arts Research Academy. His research area is western art history.

By Wang Duanting