徐福厚

一

近几年来，我创作了以重新解读经典名著为母题的大型系列作品，比如《致歌德》、《百年孤独》、《三吏三别》等。我想说，这是我的解读，也是我的猜想。在名著那里，一万个解读会有一万个答案。我试图用绘画去展开一个个的雄浑博大，一个个的起承转合，一个个的结构和秩序：高潮与结局，悲怆与温柔，激愤与孤绝……所有所有，将是另一种模式的复调。

当然，还有一个系列《生于1954》，实质是我们这一代人的精神群像。

当然，还有一个系列名为《大视野》，以大头像的构图组成的系列作品。

还有风景，视觉世界的风景和当代人渴望回归的心理景观。

二

我真正进入创作风格的形成期是1987—1990年在武汉读研究生时期。风起云涌的现代主义风潮和年轻激荡的生命激情，在彼时冲撞相遇。那时的创作、阅读和思考，使我第一次体验到人的生命与悲剧命运搏斗中油然而生的豪迈之情。那时能照亮我心灵的两个源流，一是与崇高和永恒相关的古典精神，那种沐浴着“高贵的单纯，静穆的伟大”的精神情怀，那种被称为西方文化中“罪感文化”的悲剧特征；另一个就是来源于现代主义以来经典思想中与生命哲学和诗化哲学相关的思想成果。我想象着酒神精神与日神精神的相辅相成，想象着在苍天之下、大地之上仰望神圣的精神之旅，想象着与天地人神和谐相处的返乡之路，想象着向死而生的勇气和义无反顾。

与那个时期深刻而敏锐地揭示中国当代青年生存的惶恐与无奈的创作不同，我毅然超越此在返身而去。我相信人的精神世界里一定有永恒不变的东西。

那就是——“仰望”。

三

绘画语言建设在此后成为我很长一段时间的工作。汲取了世界经典的思想营养之后，我又果断地将目光转向了东方，转向了本土。在中国传统绘画中，最重要的是笔和墨，它们是人的肢体及其生命节律的延伸，更是东方思想的外化。这个延伸过程和外化结果，反复表达着中国人的生命哲学和生存智慧：用整体感悟的方式去理解和表现这个世界，用天人合一的思想在行动上顺应自然规律，并由此生发出独特的东方式的“乐感文化”。

想想高居翰关于中国画论系列著作的标题吧。《山外山》、《江岸送别》、《隔江山色》……我想用一个词汇来概括。

那就是——“远眺”。

四

“仰望”与“远眺”，可以认为是我工作的精神理由，但它绝不是枯燥的理论设定，而是实实在在地贯穿在绘画过程中，是通过一步步的实验与推演，从而形成作品的具体可见的实践过程。

第一步，把具象的形打散，大幅度地消解绘画的再现性目的，使出现在画面上的点、线、色、形各元素形成单纯的语言片断。继而，这些元素各自独立，自成一体，形成一个自己设定的抽象秩序。第三，这些抽象秩序的不同表情的排列组合，会形成形质各异的精神表达。重要的是我创造的这些抽象秩序是完全脱离并居于原来的具象秩序之上的又一层秩序，它们是完全独立的，是自设而开辟的另一层矛盾。有人在回答什么是好的绘画和书法作品时说过：一般的作品，设置一个矛盾能成功地解决。而高品位的作品应该是设置更多的矛盾而又能成功解决。我理解，这样的创作，才是创作的更高境界。我相信，有过类似追求的人能在我的画中理解并感受到这一点。

最终，通过这样的绘画语言的建设，我实现了自己精神追求中的那个心理图像，或丰富、深化了那个心理图像。创作过程中，顺着自己开辟的那个方向延伸、生发，画面及其精神逐渐出现各种新的可能，如次第花开。这正是创作的魅力所在。

五

由于我事先规定了我的风格不是抽象的，又吸收了大量中国绘画元素，所以我常被视为“意象”领域内的画家，或是具有表现主义倾向的画家。我清晰地知道表现主义和中国式的意象之间的区别。这个区别的核心表现在，双方都具备了精神性的绘画语言表达的特征，而中国式的意象更强调的是“生命感”。创作实践中呈现在画面上每一条线、每一个点，都是一个有生命的独立的形象。深入比较下去，它与西方表现主义的用笔是不一样的。还有一点，中国绘画中，每一笔与另一笔相互呼应之间，看似没有其实是有着微妙而强烈的气息的联系的。这两点，对于有过相关深入研究和追求的人来说，也能在我的画里读到。

当然，本文提出的核心主张，完全是在以上一系列绘画语言建设、推演、运用中表现来的，是有独立的绘画语言魅力的，而不是超越绘画经验之上的一个空洞的先验观念的表达。

六

关于文学性的问题。

在我早期创作了《若木》与《陈述》之后，我便开启了关于绘画创作中过度依赖文学问题的警惕之维。实质上，这也构成了我绘画语言变革的原因之一。我很早便清醒地认识到，在小说创作中人们警惕的所谓“思想大于形象”的问题，翻译成美术创作理论用语，就是是否“观念大于了语言”？也就是说，是否是在“用绘画图解一个观念”？对这个问题的最初觉醒，以及我以后所做的种种努力，恰恰呼应了我一直以来所身体力行的绘画语言变革的整个过程。

而当我完成这一步时，我又想，反过来，借助文学的力量为什么不可以建设另一种相互依存、互相声援的“互文”关系呢？尤其，艺术进入当代以来，或者说后现代艺术“什么都可以”以来，架上艺术借助了装置、音乐、表演、数码媒体等等，那么为什么不可以借助文学呢？借助经典名著就是一种可能。有没有另一种可能，若有一个展场和出版物，将绘画（甚至手稿）和诗（或诗句）随机打散，重新并置，试试它将出现一个什么样局面？

七

关于当代性的问题。

本文一开始是在回应现代性的问题。而近年来我密切关注当代性问题，密切关注理论界对当代性规定的种种说法，更密切关注其在创作上的种种可能。我依然对它充满敬意。当然也不排除我对那些把当代性打造成一个勋章事先给自己挂在胸前的人的不屑。

既然在当年席卷全国的现代主义风潮中能毅然而坚定地选择了自己独立的立场，而在当今，在当代艺术这个大的背景之前，保持坦然和清醒依然是重要的。这其中，有些元素属于当代艺术的立场，有些则是独立的精神和语言追求。无论如何，我认为良知、发现和贡献是重要的。从当下出发，一定是正确的。而且，从当下出发，“仰望”是正确的，“远眺”也是正确的。唯创造之火是永恒的。

2019年6月

Looking Up and Looking into the Distance: My Work and Its Foundations

Xu Fuhou

I.

In recent years, I have created a large series of works that re-interpret classic books, including Homage to Goethe, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Three Officials and Three Partings. These works reflect my own interpretations and conjectures because, with these classics, ten thousand interpretations will generate ten thousand responses. I attempted to use painting to develop every vigorous movement, every narrative arc, and every structured sequence. Climaxes and endings, sorrow and tenderness, wrath and isolation all become another kind of polyphony. 

Of course, there is also my series Born in 1954, which is essentially a spiritual group portrait for our generation. 

Of course, there is also Grand View, a series comprised of large portraits. 

There are also landscapes—the landscapes of the visible world and the psychological contours of the contemporary longing for regression. 

II. 

My creative style truly began to take shape when I was a graduate student in Wuhan from 1987 to 1990. The rolling tide of modernism and the vital passions of youth collided and comingled. Painting, reading, and thinking allowed me to experience, for the first time, the spontaneous, heroic feelings of people’s living, tragic struggles. There were two things that illuminated my soul at that time. The first was a classical spirit that was related to the sublime and the eternal; it was an immersion in the spiritual feeling of “noble simplicity and quiet grandeur” and the tragic character of guilt culture in the West. My other source of illumination was the intellectual creations related to the classical philosophy of life and poetic philosophy that have emerged since the advent of modernism. I envisioned the complementing Dionysian and Apollonian spirits, I envisioned a spiritual journey in which I looked up at the sacred in the universe, I envisioned a road home in which heaven, earth, man, and god harmoniously coexisted, and I envisioned the courage and sense of duty in “being toward death.” 

In contrast to works that deeply and intensely revealed the existential fear and helplessness of Chinese youth at the time, I resolved to transcend this and move away from this way of painting. I believe that something eternal has always existed in our spiritual world. 

And that thing is “looking up.” 

III.

After this moment, building a style of painting became a long-term project for me. After drawing intellectual nourishment from the world’s classics, I resolutely shifted my gaze east, toward my own context. The most important things in Chinese traditional painting were the brush and ink, and they were extensions of people’s limbs and the rhythms of their lives, but they were also externalizations of Eastern thought. Time and again, this process of extension and the result of this externalization presented the Chinese people’s philosophy of life and existential wisdom. They used a wholistic perceptual method to understand and depict this world; they used the idea of the unity of man and nature to follow natural rules in their actions, which produced a uniquely Eastern pleasure culture. 

The titles of James Cahill’s series of books on Chinese painting came to mind: The Distant Mountains, Parting at the Shore, and Hills Beyond a River… I wanted to use a term to encompass these ideas. 

And that phrase is “looking into the distance.” 

IV. 

Looking up and looking into the distance could be considered the spiritual foundations for my work, but they are certainly not dry theoretical ideas. They truly permeate my painting practice, and through gradual experimentation, I developed a specific and visible process for creating my work.

The first step was to break up representational forms. Fundamentally dismantling the representational goal of painting required excising the pure language of points, lines, colors, and forms. Second, when all of these elements had become independent, they could stand on their own to create an abstract order. Third, the arrangement of the different elements in these abstract orders can be combined into a wide range of spiritual expressions. What was important was that the abstract orders that I created were entirely separated from—yet occupying an order above—the original figurative order. They were entirely independent, setting up and creating another level of contradiction. When describing what makes a good work of painting or calligraphy, some people have said that average works set up one contradiction and then successfully resolve it. The best works of art should set up multiple contradictions and be able to successfully resolve them. I know that this is the highest realm of creation, and I believe that people with similar pursuits will understand and appreciate this in my paintings. 

Finally, by building this painting style, I uncovered a mental image for my spiritual pursuits, or I enriched and deepened that mental image. In the creative process, I extended myself and grew in the direction I had originally set; new possibilities have gradually emerged from the image and its spirit, like flowers opening in a row. This is the true wonder of creativity. 

V.

I originally stipulated that my style was not abstract, and I also absorbed many elements of Chinese painting, so I often see myself as an artist working in “imagery” (yixiang), or an artist with expressionist tendencies. However, I clearly know the differences between Expressionism and Chinese-style imagery. The key distinction is the spiritual character of the painting style; Chinese-style imagery more often emphasizes a “sense of life.” In my creative practice, every line and every point in the painting are independent elements with vitality. On a deeper level, this is different from Western Expressionist brushwork. In addition, in Chinese painting, when every stroke echoes every other stroke, they may seem disconnected but actually have a subtle yet intense link. For people who have done in-depth research or have deep interest, these two things can be seen in my paintings. 

Of course, the core purpose is completely expressed in building, developing, and utilizing the style of this previous series. This is the charm of an independent painting style; it is not the expression of an empty pre-existing idea that transcends the experience of painting. 

VI. On the literary 

After my early works Ruomu and Told, I started to guard against an excessive reliance on literary issues in my painting. Essentially, this was one of the reasons for the change that took place in my painting style. I realized very clearly and very early that, in writing novels, authors had to ensure that the idea was not greater than the form. When translated into the terminology of art theory: Is the concept greater than the style? Or does the painting simply illustrate a concept? My first awakening to this issue and my later efforts echoed the entire evolution of my painting style. 

When I had finished this step, I thought, actually, why can’t I use the power of literature to build another interdependent and mutually supportive contextual relationship? Specifically, since the world of art entered into the contemporary moment, or since the “anything goes” approach of post-modern art came to the fore, art has drawn on installation, music, performance, and digital media, so why can’t it draw on literature? Borrowing from the literary classics is one possibility. Is there another? Could an exhibition and publication randomly scatter paintings (or even drawings) and poems (or verses) and juxtapose them in new ways in an attempt to create a new kind of atmosphere?

VII. On the contemporary 

At the beginning of this essay, I responded to issues of modernity. In recent years, I have closely followed the issues of contemporary art, the various ways that the world of theory has defined the contemporary, and its various possibilities in my work. I still have great respect for it, but this does not dispel my disdain for people who turn being “contemporary” into a medal that they award themselves.

Back then, I was able to firmly choose an independent stance in the face of a modernist tide sweeping the nation, so in the larger context of contemporary art today, remaining calm and clear-eyed is important. Here, some elements have a contemporary sensibility, and others reflect my independent spirit and stylistic pursuits. Regardless, I think that conscience, discovery, and contribution are important. It is only proper to begin with the present. Furthermore, when beginning with the present, looking up is appropriate, as is looking into the distance. Only the creative fire is eternal.

June 2019