“远方除了遥远一无所有”

 关于张立国先生的艺术
 王明贤
“Nothing But Remoteness in the Distance”
On Zhang Liguo’s Art
 Wang Mingxian

张立国是一位具有独立思想的学者型艺术家，儒雅的外表下“潜伏”着叛逆的现代意识。他在特殊的年代里研究现代主义绘画，经多年探索寻找到自身的美学叙事逻辑和发展脉络，是1980年以来中国现代艺术发展史上不容忽视的重要画家。
Zhang Liguo is a scholarly artist with independent thoughts, with rebellious modern ideas hiding behind the elegant appearance. He studied modernism painting in the special historical period, and he found his own aesthetic descriptive logic and development principles with years of exploration, and he is a very important artist in the history of modern art development in China since 1980.
时隔三十年再来追溯中国现代艺术的历史，表面上看会觉得中国的新潮美术像西方现代艺术流派纷呈。但在实际上，中国现代美术运动的发展更为复杂——现代文化背景下展开的艺术运动，与文化的联系更为密切。很多青年艺术家想要解决的是哲学与文化问题，比如有的青年艺术群体就宣称“我们的绘画并不是‘艺术’！它仅仅是传达我们思想的一种手段. . . . .”（注释1）他们认为判断一组绘画有无价值看它是否显现了人类理智的力量以及崇高的理想。而在当时，中年艺术家更想解决的是艺术问题，1986年中国美术馆展出的《当代油画展》是80年代中年艺术家油画创作的大检阅，也是一个例证。《中国当代美术史：1985——1986》一书对《当代油画展》作品语言上多方面的追求和探索作了分析，并就作品语言风格的主要倾向划分了以下类别：1．古风绘画；2．抒情绘画；3．浪漫绘画；4．象征性写实绘画；5．追求光色效果的表现性绘画；6．浪漫抽象绘画；7．田园意味的绘画。（注释2）张立国《天长地久》油画是此次展览的重要作品，被归纳到“象征性写实绘画”中。象征性写实绘画作品所寄寓的是较理智的、客观的、冷静的看法或沉思，其代表画家是韦其美、曹达立、张立国、邓平祥、尚扬、王怀庆、张祖英等人。该书专门介绍了《天长地久》这幅作品：画中面对面跪坐的男女用几近剪影的效果描绘出来，图中天地间由显然是一条河的亮色带隔开，红绿两色组成的“阴阳”图案呈S形由远而近的分布在用大面积平涂画法绘成的天空上，男女两人以静观对忘的呆板姿势对称地端坐于画面的前景上，整个色调倾向于暗淡的青灰色。所有这些因素似乎都试图揭示“天长地久”这一标题的寓意。（注释3）当然，经过20多年我们再来看80年代的“象征性写实绘画”，会觉得张立国和其他画家不完全一样，正如高名潞在2005年谈到：精神意趣上，张立国先生追求一种理想、肃穆的“天长地久”的气氛。在他那辈画家中，他是少数能超出风格形式之外在题材立意方面追求某种“形而上”哲学意味的画家。
Tracing the history of modern art in China after three decades, it appears that just like the western modern art; fine art modish in China has many schools. As a matter of fact, the development of modern art in China is more complicated—artistic movement in modern cultural background in more closely linked with culture. Many young artists want to deal with philosophic and cultural issues, for example, some young artistic groups declare: “Our painting is not ‘art’! It is a means to express our thoughts…” (1) They think that the standard to judge the value of paintings lies in whether they reflect the power and the grand ideal of human wisdom. But the middle-aged artists at the time wanted to deal with artistic issue, Contemporary Painting Exhibition in the National Art Gallery in 1986 was the review of the paintings of the middle-aged artists in 1980s, and it was also an example. In Contemporary Art History of China: 1985—1986, the works in the Contemporary Painting Exhibition are analyzed in terms of the pursuit for and exploration of the language of the works, and the language style of the works are classified: 1. ancient style; 2. expressive style’ 3. Romantic style; 4. Symbolic and realistic style; 5. Expressive style for light and color effect; 6. Romantic and abstract style; 7. Pastoral style. (2) Eternity by Zhang Liguo was one of the important works of the exhibition and was classified as the “symbolic and realistic style”. What the works of symbolic and realistic style express is the reasonable, objective, and calm idea or thought, and the representative artists of the style are Wei Qimei, Cao Lida, Zhang Liguo, Deng Pingxiang, Shang Yang, Wang Huaiqing, Zhang Zuying and so on. Eternity was introduced in the book: the man and woman kneeling down face to face in the painting were painted with silhouette-like effect, and the ground and sky in the painting was separated by the bright color band of an obvious river; the S-shaped Yin-yang pattern in red and green color is scattered on the sky painted with large area of flat painting; the man and woman sit in the front part of the painting in the stiff gesture of looking at each other in the face; the color tone tends to be grey. All of the factors are trying to reflect the meaning of the title “Eternity.” (3) Looking at the symbolic and realistic paintings of the 1980s after more than twenty years, it can be seen that Zhang Liguo is not same as the other artists, just like what Gao Minglu said in 2005: in terms of spirit and artistic concept, Zhang Liguo is seeking for an ideal and solemn atmosphere of eternity. Among the generation of artists, he is one of the few artists who can go beyond the form of style and seek for the metaphysical meaning in the seeking for the subject.
按理说张立国是根红苗壮的学院派：1960年毕业于中央美术学院附中，1965年毕业于中央美术学院油画系；俄罗斯契斯恰可夫体系的熏陶，石膏像和人体长期作业的训练，红色主题性绘画的影响，这些都使他们这一代学生身上流淌着央美系的殷红血液。但张在学生时代即保持对政治的疏离，沉浸在纯粹的艺术探索和美的追求中。张毕业后一年，史无前例的文化大革命爆发，他并没有卷进疯狂的政治旋涡里，而是继续自己的艺术探索。但他这一阶段的作品，既没有反映出深厚的学院写实功底，又没有鲜明的现代艺术形式感，多少显得有些幼稚。然而仔细分析，却能看到他的作品中正在出现不同于现实主义风格学院绘画的因素。文革中，绘画创作受到意识形态的严重困扰，艺术成为政治的附庸，装饰风格和浪漫情调被视为异端。而张立国作于1972年的油画《彼岸》，却带有浓厚的装饰性和抒情性，构图让人联想到库因吉的《夜间牧马》，只是镜头拉近，水面成为主体，牧马从画面的左边挪到右边，远处一弯新月变为圆月。如此创作在当年是需要胆量和眼光的。
Zhang Liguo belongs to the pure academic school by rights: he graduated from the affiliated middle school of the Central Academy of Art in 1960, and then graduated from department of painting of the Central Academy of Art in 1965; under the influence of Cheschekov system of Russia, the training of plaster figure and human body, and the revolutionary thematic paintings, the students of his generation share the same tradition of the department of paintings of the Central Academy of Art. But in his school days, Zhang kept himself away from politics and was immersed in the pure exploration into art and the pursuit for beauty. One year after his graduation, the Cultural Revolution started, he continued his artistic exploration instead of being involved in the frantic political movements. But his works created in the period did not reflect the realistic style of the academic school or bore obvious form of modern art, and they appeared to to simple to some extent. But with careful analysis, it can be found that the factors different from the realistic academic style began to appear in his works. In the Cultural Revolution, painting was seriously influenced by ideological factors, art became the vassal of politics, and decorative style and romantic emotions were thought to be heterodoxy. The painting The Other Side created by Zhang Liguo in 1972 bore strong decorative and expressive factors, and the composition could be associated with Horse Herding at Night by Kuinji; but when it was watched nearer, water became the major part and the horse moved to the right part from the left and crescent in the distance became full moon. It takes courage and vision to create in this way at the time.
十年文革结束后，中国开启了改革开放的历史新时期，新艺术思潮也开始萌芽。张立国从1979年起任教中央工艺美术学院（现为清华大学美术学院）。中央工艺美术学院是80年代初中国现代艺术的重镇之一（另一重镇是浙江美术学院），这样的学术环境让张立国如鱼得水。他创作了《日月星辰》（油画，1983 年）、《升起-安静的曙光》（油画，1984）等一批现代主义风格的作品。然而1985年——1992年才是张立国艺术的成熟期，他的艺术经历了一次飞跃。《白线上的形态》（ 1985 ）、《湖蓝色的神话》（1985）、《彼岸2 》（1986 ）、《在海滩上》（1987）、《绿水一样流动》（1990）、《 一个开放的空间》（1990 ）、《幻想家的直觉》（1992）这批作品不同于当时画坛流行的“乡土绘画”和温馨的情调，也不同于其他中年画家纯形式的唯美追求，他从多方面深入探索现代绘画，专注于抽象与简化及平面化的处理，作品很理性，表现内在的精神性追求，形成了鲜明的绘画语言。而画面中经常出现的身影或剪影，代表着凝固的时间和景色中的灵魂，铭刻下永不磨灭的记忆，给人留下极深的印象。此后，他又创作了《他们留下身影》（1997）、《伴侣》（1997）、《这个世界很真实》（1998）、《云的拜者》（1998）、《非常之路》（1999）等作品，更是将人影描绘得出神入化。这些神圣大地上的身影，以现代眼光去言说存在，探讨生命本真的诗意。张立国的作品让人想到海子的诗句“远方除了遥远一无所有”，远方是遥不可及的苦苦追寻 ，是虚无的彼岸，但也是精神的家园。
When the decade-long Cultural Revolution ended, the historical reform and opening up started in China and new artistic trend appeared. Zhang Liguo started to teach in the Central Academy of Art and Design (Art Academy of Tsinghua University) from 1979. Central Academy of Art and Design was one of the important bases of modern art in China in the 1980s (the other is Zhejiang Art Academy), the academic environment was pleasant for Zhang Liguo. He created The Hosts of Heaven (painting, 1983), Rising—Quiet Twilight (painting, 1984) and a series of modernist works. The period from 1985 to 1992 was the mature period of the art of Zhang Liguo, when he experienced artistic leap. Form on the White Line (1985), Lake Blue Myth (1985), The Other Side 2 (1986), On the Beach (1987), Flowing Like Green Water (1990), An Open Space (1990), Instinct of Illusionist (1992), all these works are different from the prevailing countryside and warm emotions of the period, and the pure seek for beauty of other middle-aged artists; he explores modern painting from many aspects and focuses on abstractness, simplifying and the processing of flatness, the works are rational to reflect the inner spiritual pursuit and form distinct painting language. The shadow and silhouette appear frequently in the paintings represent still time and the soul in the picture, engraving indelible and impressive memory. After that, he created The Silhouette They Left (1997), Companion (1997), The World Is Real (1998), The Worshipper of Cloud (1998), Unusual Road (199) and other works, and drew silhouette in a more incredibly vivid way. The silhouette on the sacred ground tells existence with modern perspective and discusses the poetic meaning of life. Zhang Liguo’s works can be associated with the poem of Haizi “nothing but remoteness in the distance,” remoteness is the pursuit hard to reach, the imagined other side, and also the spiritual land.
张立国比他同时代的画家更好读书，特别是读社会科学和现代艺术理论著作。他的作品所呈现的现代艺术精神和理性思考，与此有很大关系。上世纪七十年代末80年代初，中国知识分子和大学生对西方现代哲学十分狂热，存在主义成为显学，克尔恺郭尔、海德格尔、雅斯贝尔斯、萨特是影响最大的哲学家； “存在先于本质”、 “世界是荒谬的，人生是痛苦的”、 “自由选择”，注重精神的存在，对焦虑、绝望的恐惧，对于人是如何存在，是人们当时思考的主要问题，非理性成为主潮。西方20世纪哲学与西方传统哲学之转换的一个标识是"语言学转向"，索绪尔的语言学著作引伸出来的一些结构原则，成为结构主义方法论的基础，结构主义也成为中国新一代知识分子新的资源。除了这些书外，张立国读康德、爱因斯坦、维特根斯坦，也读老庄、易经。一方面他接受传统文化;另一方面他又感受到现代的文化冲击，从而开阔了艺术视野。从80年代到今天，张立国始终站在探索的前沿，创作了大量具有学术价值的作品，成为现代主义学院派的杰出代表人物。
Zhang Liguo likes reading much more than other artists of his time, especially the masterpieces of social science and modern art theories. The modern art spirit and rational thinking in his works have much to do with this. In the end of the 1970s and the beginning of 1980s, the intellects and college students in China was crazy for the western modern philosophy, and existentialism became a famous school, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Jaspers and Sartre are the influential philosophers; the main issue people of the time thought were “existence before essence”, “world is ridiculous and life is painful”, “free choice”, the emphasis of spiritual existence, the fear for anxiety and desperation, the way of people’s existence; and irrationality became the trend. One symbol of the turn of western 20th century philosophy and western traditional philosophy was the “linguistic turn”; the structure principles originating from the linguistic masterpiece of Saussure became the basis of structuralism, which became the new source of the new generation of intellects in China. Apart from the books, Zhang Liguo also read Kant, Einstein, Wittgenstein, Chuang-Tzu, and Book of Changes. He accepts traditional culture on the one hand; on the other hand, he felt the shock of modern culture and broadened his artistic vision. From 1980s till now, Zhang Liguo is in the leading place of exploration and created many works with academic value, and becomes the outstanding representative of modernist academic school.
我曾经说过，如果把20世纪80年代中国文化热和思想解放运动和五四新文化运动和相比较，可以发现很多相似之处，都是中华民族社会由传统向现代转型现代复兴的转折。但是，五四时期，虽然各种新思想新思潮冲击中国，真正留下遗产的是新文学的成果。1915年，《青年杂志》（后改名为《新青年》）创刊，陈独秀所写的发刊词《敬告青年》指出“人权说”“生物进化论”、“社会主义”是近代文明的特征，要实现社会改革，在中国高举起科学与民主两面大旗。民主被称为“德先生”，即“Democracy”，科学被称为“赛先生”，即“Science”。新文化运动时期的白话文运动始自胡适的《文学改良刍议》（在《新青年》第2卷第5号发表），随后又有陈独秀的《文学革命论》，语言工具的改革变成了文学革命。蔡元培、胡适、陈独秀和鲁迅是那个时代的代表。在新诗发展史上．胡适是最早尝试新诗创作的人，他的《尝试集》是中国现代文学史上第一部白话诗集，尝试表现一种新思想和新精神。鲁迅的小说与杂文，是改良社会的呐喊  ，成为那个时代精神的高峰。然而，在哲学与艺术领域，似无真正的代表作。20世纪80年代，一样是文化复兴的时代，可这个时期的文学，除了70年代末的《班主任》、《伤痕》这些带着幼稚印记的文学史名作，以及《今天》诗歌的回答，80年代的文学也许乏善可陈；而在文史研究方面，除了美学的热火朝天以及“老三论”（系统论、控制论和信息论）、“新三论”（耗散结构论、协同论、突变论）的鼓噪，留下的更多的是大而无当的空疏理论。然而，西方现代哲学的巨大影响却对当代中国的发展产生了决定性的作用，从尼采、维特根斯坦、弗洛伊德、萨特、海德格尔，到福柯、波普尔、罗兰.巴特等人的著作，成为中国新一代知识分子的必读书。在艺术方面，’85美术运动狂飙突起，几乎各省都有艺术群体，数千人介入前卫艺术，形成新的艺术热潮，现代艺术作品成为真正代表中国20世纪80年代的视觉文化遗产。而张立国当年的作品是80年代视觉文化遗产的一个组成部分，应予专门收藏并充分研究。
I once said that, comparing the cultural heat and ideal revolution movement in the 1980s in China with the New Cultural Movement of May 4th 1919, there are many similarities, they are both the turning point of the Chinese society from a traditional one to a modern revival. But during the movement of May 4th, with the shock of the many new ideas and trends, what were left were the fruits in new literature. In 1925, Youth Magazine was(later renamed as New Youth) firstly published the foreword written by Chen Duxiu, To the Youth, pointed out that the theories of human rights, biological evolution, socialism were the features of contemporary civilization, the flags of science and democracy were to be raised to realize social reform in China. Vernacular Movement in the New Cultural Movement started from Opinions on Literary Improvement written by Hu Shi (published in No. 5 of the 2nd volume of New Youth), then there was On Literary Revolution by Chen Duxiu, the reform of language tool became literary revolution. Cai Yuanpei, Hu Shi, Chen Duxiu and Lu Xun were the representatives of the period. In the development of new poems, Hu Shi was the first one trying to write new poem, his Collection of trying is the first free verse collection in modern literary history of China, trying to express new ideas and spirit. The novels and essays of Lu Xun were the calls for social improvement and the spiritual peak of the time. In the fields of philosophy and art, it seems that there was no representative works. In 1980s, the period of cultural renaissance, the literature of the time, apart from Head Teacher, Scar and the simple masterpieces of literary history, and the answer in the poem Today, there were no outstanding works in the 80s; in the field of literary history research, apart from the heated discussion of aesthetics and the clamors of “old three theories” (systematic theory, controlling theory and information theory) and the “new three theories” (dissipative structure theory, cooperation theory and mutation theory), there is only empty theory. But western modern philosophy has decisive influence on the development of modern China, from Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Freud, Sartre, and Heidegger to Foucault, Popper, and Ronald Barthes, their works are the required books of the new generation of intellects in China. In the field of art, 1985 Art Movement flourished, and there were artistic groups in nearly every province, thousands of people were involved in the avant-garde art to form the new artistic trend; modern art works became the visual cultural heritage representing the 1980s of China. Zhang Liguo’s works are the componential part of the visual cultural heritage of the 80s and deserve specialized collection and research.

注释1   舒群，《“北方艺术群体”的精神》，《中国美术报》， 1985年11月23日第18期
注释2   高名潞等，《中国当代美术史：1985——1986》，上海人民出版社，1991年，548页
注释3   同上，563页
Shu Qun. The Spirit of “Northern Art Groups, Fine Arts in China, November 23rd, 1985
Gao Minglu and others. P548, Contemporary Art History in China:1985—1986, Shanghai People Publishing House, 1991
Gao Minglu and others. P563, Contemporary Art History in China:1985—1986, Shanghai People Publishing House, 1991