評論&訪談正文

nbsp;         廖上飛

      在人們熱議傳統(tǒng)的時候談論傳統(tǒng)難免被人指摘為“湊熱鬧”。但嚴肅思考傳統(tǒng)問題的藝術家與投機分子有本質的不同。今天我們的藝術家面對的傳統(tǒng)不止中國傳統(tǒng)，還包括其它國家或地域的傳統(tǒng)，今天的藝術家面對的不光有古代傳統(tǒng)，還有現(xiàn)當代藝術的傳統(tǒng)。當然，無論是繼承、學習，還是批判、改造，都是個人選擇的事情。關于傳統(tǒng)的各種論調中，沒有比“回歸傳統(tǒng)”的論調更不著調的了。程毅和楊光偉的藝術實踐及作品根植于不同的傳統(tǒng)之上。換句話說，他們各自有各自的傳統(tǒng)。但有一點是一致的，他們與傳統(tǒng)的關系絕非表面的。

      程毅的藝術實踐及作品本質上是一種文化思考，我稱他的藝術實踐為“形而上運作”。他近十年自覺地從中國傳統(tǒng)哲學、西方心理學及東方神秘主義中汲取營養(yǎng)，形成了獨特的藝術創(chuàng)作面貌。在我看來，他的作品的面貌不光在中國具有獨特性，放在國際當代藝術中也具有獨特性。他創(chuàng)造的超現(xiàn)實的線的世界在我看來是一個全新的意域世界，這個新意域世界一方面是現(xiàn)實（人生、生活、社會、時代等）的返照，一方面也是對現(xiàn)實的超脫。楊光偉的藝術實踐及作品雖然與傳統(tǒng)密切關聯(lián)，但并非中國傳統(tǒng)繪畫的簡單注解。他的畫風是中西融合的畫風。在我看來，他的一系列作品是藝術家試圖溝通傳統(tǒng)與現(xiàn)代、東方與西方的產(chǎn)物。不管“石頭”、“山水”還是現(xiàn)在的“佛像”，其對于楊光偉而言都不只是“符號”，較之于當下大為流行的所謂“溪山清遠式”的用公共的藝術語言方式照抄、復制傳統(tǒng)中國繪畫的圖像垃圾，楊光偉的作品具有別樣的宏闊廣博的氣象。

      我更看重程毅和楊光偉對媒介的持續(xù)試驗和對藝術語言的持續(xù)探索。我一直在強調，藝術家首先面對的是語言問題，而非觀念問題。出色的藝術家皆有充分的語言自覺。與其說藝術家在用媒介或自己獨特的藝術語言表達自己獨特的觀念（思想），還不如說語言就是觀念，語言之外無觀念，觀念并不外在于語言。

2015年11月2日

      PREFACE

      Liao Shangfei

      When people discussed the tradition intensely, talking about tradition is inevitably accused of “join in the fun”. However, the artists who have serious thinking about traditional problem are essentially different with speculators. Nowadays, the traditions that our artists faced are not only Chinese tradition, but also including the tradition of other countries or regions. Today's artists are not only facing the ancient tradition, as well as the tradition of modern and contemporary art. Of course, whether it is inherited, studied, or criticized, reformed, is a personal choice. On a variety of traditional argument, there is no more insane than the argument of “return to the tradition”. Cheng Yi’s and Yang Guangwei’s art practices and works rooted in different tradition. In other words, they have their own respective tradition. But one thing is consistent, their relationship with the tradition is not on the surface.

      Cheng Yi’s art practices and works are essentially a kind of cultural thinking. I called his art practices as “metaphysical functioning”. In last ten years, he consciously absorbed nutrients from the Chinese traditional philosophy, western psychology and eastern mysticism, and formed a unique artistic appearance. In my opinion, the appearance of his works is not only unique in China, in the international contemporary art also has uniqueness. He created a surreal world of lines, in my opinion, which is an entirely new world of mental image. This new world of mental image, on the one hand is the flashback of reality (life, livelihood, social, age, etc.) , on the other hand is also the transcendence of reality. Yang Guangwei’s art practices and works are closely associated with the traditional works, but they are not simple annotations of Chinese traditional painting. His painting style is a fusion of Chinese and western painting. In my opinion, a series of his works are the products of artist’s attempt to communicate between tradition and modern, east and west. Regardless of “stone”, “l(fā)andscape” or present “Buddha”, they are not just symbol for Yang Guangwei. Compared with the present greatly popular image garbage, which is so-called “xishanqingyuan type” by way of copying traditional Chinese painting with public artistic language, Yang Guangwei’s works have a different kind of broad and extensive scene.

      I pay more attention to their ongoing trials of medium and continued exploration of artistic language. I've been stressed that the problem the artists first faced was the language, rather than the concept. Outstanding artists all have fully consciousness of language. Instead of saying artists expressed unique concept (ideology) by medium or their own artistic language, it is better to say that language is concept, there is no concept without language, and the concept is not external of language.

      On November 2, 2015