「黃金檔-上檔」當代水墨藝術(shù)家聯(lián)展 前言

文：魏祥奇

新工筆和新水墨的概念生成和發(fā)展十多年來，展現(xiàn)出蓬勃的活力，今天已然成為青年水墨藝術(shù)家不得不面對的創(chuàng)作語境。當然，籠統(tǒng)地用新工筆和新水墨來概括這些新創(chuàng)作也顯得過于簡單，并不能描述出他們在創(chuàng)作意識和創(chuàng)作觀念上的新作為。耐人尋味的是，新工筆和新水墨為什么會被廣為接受？以至于啟發(fā)、塑造，同時也遮蔽著今天青年一代創(chuàng)作者的思想形態(tài)。從這個意義上來說，新工筆和新水墨并不完全是一個既定的學(xué)理性的概念，還仍然是一個正在建構(gòu)中、鮮活的創(chuàng)作方向。

顯而易見的是，新工筆和新水墨是新世紀中國畫創(chuàng)作的新表現(xiàn)，相對于20世紀中國畫變革秉持寫實主義語言和現(xiàn)實主義觀念，相較于改革開放新時期主張表現(xiàn)性和觀念性的現(xiàn)代水墨和實驗水墨，其更為關(guān)注圖像的隱喻性和象征性。新工筆和新水墨創(chuàng)作者在創(chuàng)作意識上有一種強烈的去歷史性、去宏大敘事的特征，他們更多描繪一種晦澀的、莫可名狀的視覺經(jīng)驗，這也使他們在創(chuàng)作上趨于文學(xué)化的意味。

縱覽性的看，盡管我們還是很容易就能發(fā)現(xiàn)展覽中的作品，有新工筆和新水墨創(chuàng)作業(yè)已形成的層壘式的圖式，但這并不妨礙他們在創(chuàng)作上有新見地。藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作是一個持續(xù)性的過程，每位創(chuàng)作者的秉性不同，他們在創(chuàng)作主題和母題上的差異也較為鮮明，在更長的一個時間維度上看，彼此之間必然相去甚遠。但他們就像大樹的枝椏，向著不同的方向伸展，開枝散葉，都在尋找自己的生長空間，但又相互照應(yīng)，相映成輝。

金秋九月，是收獲希望的時節(jié)。春華秋實，青年水墨藝術(shù)家們今天播下的是理想的種子，待明日，他們會翻開中國水墨藝術(shù)發(fā)展史的新篇，收獲金燦燦的未來。茍日新，日日新，又日新，未來可期！

The foreword of the「Prime Time Show - First Half 」

by Wei Xiangqi

The concepts of new elaborate painting and new ink painting have been created and developed for more than ten years and demonstrated thriving vitality, which builds a cementing context for newly-bud artists’ practice. Nevertheless, such vague and simple terms can not fully reflect some of their ground-breaking attempts regarding ideology and creative concepts. And the most intriguing question is why the concepts are widely accepted to inspire, form and also shield the thought patterns of today’s young artists. In that sense, the new elaborate painting and new ink painting are still forming extremely vibrant creative alternatives instead of entirely determined theoretical concepts.

Notably, new elaborate paintings and new ink paintings are original representations of traditional Chinese painting. Compared with the adherence to realistic language and concept during the transformation of traditional Chinese painting in the 20th century and the emphasis on expressiveness and concept of the modern and experimental ink painting during the reform and opening-up, they are more inclined to focus on the metaphor and symbolism of the image. These artists strongly intend to disassociate from historical significance and grand narratives; they preferably depict an obscure and subtle visual experience that gives their works a rare literal appeal.

Generally, although the typical layered narration cemented by new elaborate painting and new ink painting still can be easily spotted, it won’t obstruct their exploration for new expressions. The creative practice is a consistent process; judging from artists’ different talents, the subjects they chose vary distinctively, hence in a longer perspective, they shall develop quite the opposite style. However, like twigs and branches of a tree, they grow and stretch in different directions to take up their own spaces, while echoing and resonating with each other.

The golden September is a season for harvest and hope. As the spring flowers yield fruits in autumn, today the younger generation of ink artists sowing the seeds of their ideals will open a new chapter in the history of Chinese ink art and reap a golden future. If you can improve yourself in a day, do so each day, forever building on improvement, and the future is promising!