正像中国油画本土化是个渐进过程一样，中国油画对于欧洲油画传统的研究与学习也是一个反复追溯与回归的过程。这意味着，每一代油画家都会站在他们自己所处时代的文化命题的支点上，在进行新一轮的本土化探索中去重新寻找和认知欧洲油画的传统养分。郭润文、陈子君对于油画写实深度与意象表现的推进和探索，正体现了中国当代油画的审美创造。

　　与前辈油画家那种在印象主义与现实主义之间寻求写实再现的方法不同，郭润文是在欧洲新古典主义的油画传统里追寻写实的塑造感。如果说，在他之前的中国数代油画家以学习欧洲印象主义光色的写实系统为主，直接画法使得他们在凸显笔触之中完成造型与光色的再现;那么，郭润文则远溯法国新古典主义时期对于符合古典比例的造型研究。他的作品尽力将笔触隐藏到形象塑造的背后，色彩也尽力在褐色调子里减弱光色的变幻。像抽象主义绘画试图表现潜伏在形象背后的抽象关系一样，郭润文也试图探寻人物造型形象那种内在的结构，并力求把这种内在结构处理得符合理想美的数理关系。他画面人物造型的生动性、写实的深度感，无疑都得益于他对这种隐藏在表象背后的数理关系的发掘与凸显。其实，他的作品已和现实的表象相去甚远，在他发掘和凸显那些形象背后的数理关系时，他已把对简约、静穆和高贵的精神境界的追求融入其中。

　　富有意味的是，郭润文的这些具有新古典主义意味的写实油画大多都是通过写生完成的，甚至于也可以说，他的写生过程也是逐步完成创作的过程。这个过程暗藏着两个重要的艺术命题值得追问。一是在图像如此发达的今天，郭润文为何如此痴情于写生;二是他的写生过程如何完成了自己的创作。

　　对于前者的追问，实际探讨的是写生对于绘画的根本意义。不可否认，当代艺术创作已混淆了图像与绘画之间的区别。一方面，图像所具有的PS语言在瞬间完成了对于图像真实性的改造，使之具有绘画性的某些特征与效果;另一方面，则是绘画对于图像的依赖，几乎国内现在所有的写实性绘画创作，不仅把图像作为其基本的搜集与积累形象素材的手段，而且绘画形象大多抄袭和复制图像形象，甚至于将图像语言直接作为绘画语言。正是图像语言对于绘画语言的深度遮蔽，才产生图像可以替代绘画乃至终结绘画的错觉。毫无疑问，图像对于绘画的遮蔽，影响了当下人们对于绘画自身独立价值的认知，这种独立价值恰恰是人类自绘画产生以来所追求的那种体现了人性解放与人性创造的绘画性。不论图像的生成、再造与传播如何发达，都永远不可能替代心灵通过眼与手对于外在现实的现场感悟与直接表达，而写生既是产生绘画激情的起点，也是画家直觉感悟对象并在这种感悟过程中发现创造性表达的重要过程。也可以说，只有画家身临其境捕捉对象的活性气息时，才能形成对于对象的想象、并在平面上塑造形象、赋予笔触以其艺术主体的精神与品格。可见，写生是画家洞察、感悟对象所必不可少的途径，如果没有这一途径，画家的眼睛只能依赖图像提供的彼时彼地由光影制造的虚拟物象。

　　对于后者的追问，实际研究的是郭润文如何在写生中进行了绘画性创作。应该说，郭润文的绘画，始终在努力去除图像对于当代人眼睛的遮蔽。写生不仅赋予他的绘画以创作的激情与灵感，而且再度唤醒了他对于写实油画形象塑造的主观性理解与创造。在某种意义上，写生是他融物我为一体的创作途径。譬如，他的写生在对于光色的反应方面是偏离现场的真实度的，因为按照现代光学与色彩的理论，他作品中的色彩关系应该呈现的是印象派式的冷暖光色对比与瞬间即变的光色时效，但郭润文的画面色调与色彩对比往往以法国新古典主义油画的褐色为基调，再在此基础上进行适度的冷暖调整，由此形成优雅经典的美感。这表明，画家在选择对象、设计场景以及落入画面的形象处理中，就开始了主体与客体合一的创作。写生对他而言，并不是一个被动接受对象的过程。再譬如，他画面的人物，尤其是女性，往往呈现出修长的身材比例、富有情态的手势以及画面人物衣着深色与浅色、皱褶与形体的完美化对比与节奏处理，这无疑都是画家在现场根据对于人物形象的真切感受而进行的想象化的修正与再造。如果没有写生现场的形象诱发与透视，画家很难在真实的对象上进行理想化的调整——人物头部的适度缩小，颈部、手臂和腰椎的适度拉长，甚至于那些被服装遮挡而隐藏起来的形体结构也只能根据画家对于人体的理解而进行现场性的强化、修正和弥补。很显然，写生对象也是认知对象的途径，没有现场的感受与逐渐深化的现场认知，也便很难激发出画家对于形象的想象与再造。还譬如，一个活生生的写生对象对于画家激情与灵感的触发是面对图像所无法替代的，这种激情与灵感不仅唤起画家极其强烈的表现欲，而且是画家试图在最短的时间内调动眼、手、脑的反应能力的最佳方式。写生作品的不可替代性，也便往往体现在写生过程中留下的那些现场记录这种反应与谐调的痕迹，从而将艺术主体的精神气息等活性因子永久地留存在这些笔性的痕迹中，这是任何图像所没有的绘画性品质。就郭润文油画的笔触痕迹而言，他的笔触是隐性的，也即他的画面并不以大笔触的洒脱与率性夺人眼目，但这些隐性笔触又绝非细描死抠，而是在严谨坚实之中追求灵巧与松动、在细腻委婉之内显现洒脱与放达。因而，在他的那些具有新古典主义图式与意蕴的构图、体态、神情和色调中，体现了笔触与笔性的厚薄、松紧、虚实、粗细、塑写等对立统一矛盾法则的机智和巧变，从而显现出他温文尔雅的新古典主义的笔性风采。

　　郭润文从写生而进行的油画创作，不仅去除了图像对于绘画性的遮蔽，显示了新古典主义绘画的艺术魅力;而且深深地影响了我们这一代人对于写实油画的认知。写实油画是不能被图像替代的一种艺术创作，写实油画不是画得细腻和一丝不苟，而是在笔触的灵巧与率意之中见形象的细微与真实;写实油画也不是一味地厚涂或反复覆盖，而是在薄敷与松动之中见坚实与厚重;写实油画更不是忠实眼见的表象或精确细微地再现，而是在写生过程中不断加深对于对象的认知，并通过这种认知的深化，从艺术家的主体之中修正、重置和再造自己对于造型的理解与意蕴的阐发。郭润文的写实油画是在当代图像遮蔽绘画的时代，对于绘画性的再度发现和重新认知;是在中国移植和研习欧洲写实主义油画的历史进程中，对于欧洲新古典主义传统的当代中国文化的创造。

　　和郭润文严谨而高贵的写实油画相比，陈子君的油画充满了幻觉与想象。她的作品丝毫没有女性的那种纤细与柔媚，恰恰相反，大幅面的虚空往往以果敢有力的线条和信手涂写的色块营构，由此显现出她内心不断冲决现实的想象和她沉静的外表下掩藏着的心性的狂野。或许，面对画布，她才最真实地揭示了自我的存在。陈子君的作品无疑具有表现性的成分，但这种表现性不仅以意象方法观照社会与人物，而且以扎实稳健的造型结构为意象表现的基底。她画面中的许多人物形象虽然被虚化、叠换和重构，但这些艺术语言无不体现了她对形象结构的深入理解与掌控，仿佛是从郭润文古典写实油画的底层而开始的灵异想象与直觉幻化。

　　陈子君作品的绘画性更难以被图像所替代，因为她对于现实的想象与重构都远离了人们的视觉所见。与郭润文那种严谨的构思、理性的描绘不同，陈子君的绘画无不充满了偶然性。她总是在白色的画布上任意铺展色彩，通过被稀释的色彩的相互碰撞、透叠和渗化形成意料之外的、富有意味的色调或色块。手绘的笔触、自然流淌的色层、粗颗粒颜料在画布上形成的肌理——这些属于色彩与画布物质媒介的形象载体被有效地转化为形象本身。在某种意义上，这种色彩与画布之间形成的关系，也成为陈子君探求现实意象与梦幻直觉的重要通道。显然，这种意象与直觉也是人性某种潜意识的流露与揭示。陈子君试图在这些色彩与画布构成的关系中披露那种潜意识幻象，她作品中的人物是不确定的，甚至于性别的模糊与隐晦、超验的错置与穿越;当然，她作品也有某种鲜明的符号体系，如半裸的下身对于私密空间的暗示，白马、兔子和狸猫等动物对于当代生存状态的隐喻，等等。在色彩与画布构置的意象中，她探寻着某种隐蔽的思绪与意识。这些作品具有绘画性的视觉审美因素，但又不流于表象的模拟，而更着眼于内在生命与人性的发掘和探索。

　　如果说，郭润文的写实是对于人物从外在形象深入到内心世界的穿透，这种“相觑”是把审美造型作为透视的临界面;那么，陈子君的意象则是直呈人物的心灵隐曲，这种“侧隐”的窥视从表现的维度抒写了画家对于人物心灵的触摸。或许，在更深刻的学术层面上，“面觑”与“侧隐”所构成的创作类型的区别，也显现了中国当代油画两种不同的观照路径和对于绘画性的理解。

　　2012年5月11日于北京22院街艺术区

　　Encounter and Compassion, two different ways of

　　contemplation on Chinese contemporary oil-painting

　　Review of Guo Runwen and Chen Zijun

　　Shang Hui

　　As the gradual localization of Chinese oil-painting, the research and learning from European oil-painting tradition is a repeating and retrospective process. It means that painters of each generation would rediscover and re-acknowledge European painting in their experiment of localization according to specific cultural context.

　　Guo Runwen and Chen Zijun’s exploration into the realistic depth and image representation of oil-painting is a reflection of the aesthetic creation of contemporary Chinese painting.

　　Unlike older generation of oil painters who search for realist representation between impressionism and realism, Guo Runwen pursues a realistic sense of shaping in the tradition of classical painting. If previous generation of painters mainly learned from impressionism’s realist representation of light and color and concentrated on depicting with direct and obvious brushstrokes, then Guo traces back to the study of perfect proportion in classical paintings. He tries every effort to make his brushstrokes invisible, and limit the colors in brown tones so as to weaken the changing of light and color. Like abstract painters who try to represent the relation of abstraction behind the image, Guo attempts to explore the inner structure of human figure, and strives to achieve the conformation between the structure and the mathematical relation of ideal beauty. Undoubtedly, the vitality of figure and the depth of realistic depicting benefit from the artist’s discovery and research of the hidden mathematical relation behind the image. In fact, his paintings are more than representations of reality, but convey his aesthetic pursuit to simplicity, tranquility and nobility.

　　Significantly, most of Guo’s neo-classical styled paintings are completed through sketching. It plays such an important part in his creation that the process of sketching can even be considered the process of his art making. There are two questions worth asking here: first, why is Guo so obsessed with sketching in an era which is populated by images as today? And second, how does he complete his works by sketching?

　　The former question is actually about the fundamental meaning of sketching to painting. Undoubtedly, contemporary art has confused the distinction between images and paintings. On the one hand, with graphic software like Photoshop, one can easily creates life-like images with painterly feature and effects; on the other hand, painting nowadays relies too much on images. Nearly all the realist paintings in China are based on the collecting of image resources; they mere copy and reproduce images, or apply the image language directly. It is precisely the deep concealment of painting language by the image language that gives people a misconception that image can replace or even put an end to painting. Without a doubt, the overshadowing of painting by image has influenced the cognition to the independent value of painting, which is exactly what human beings have been chasing since the birth of drawing: the painting spirit that represents the liberation and creativity of humanity. Images can never displace the artistic creation by eyes and hands and expression from the soul, no matter to what extent will the production, reproduction and communication of images develop. While sketching, as the origin of artistic passion, is also the process of getting intuitive inspiration from the object and discovering creative expressions. That is to say, only when the artist captures the liveliness of the object personally, can he/her be able to form imaginations and visualize them, embodying every brushstroke with the artistic subject’s spirit and character. Thus, sketching is an essential means of observing and feeling objects, without which, painters’ eyes can only rely on virtual images manufactured at sometime and in somewhere else.

　　The latter question involves how Guo creates paintings out of sketches. Guo’s paintings are always trying to remove the mask of image over the contemporaries’ eyes. Sketching has not only given him creative passion and inspiration, but also has re-awakened his subjective understanding and creation of constructing figures in realist painting. In some sense, sketching is his way of integrating himself with the object. For example, his representation of light and color is deviated from reality. Because according to the modern optical theory, the color relation in his works should demonstrate the impressionist contrast of warm and cold colors, as well as the instantaneity of light. But the tones and color-contrast on Guo’s canvas are often based on the neo-classical brown, modified appropriately and forming an elegant and classic beauty. From this we can see that during the procedure of object selecting, scene plotting and image processing, the artist has already begun his creation of integrating subject and object. To Guo, sketching is not a passive accepting of object. For instance, the characters in his paintings, especially the females, are often shown in a slender body proportion, with emotional gestures; the contrast of the bright and dark of the dressing, and that of the drapery and the body figure are arranged in perfect rhythm. All these are the artist’s imaginative modifications and recreations according to his true sentiment of the model in situ. Without the live stimulation and perspective in sketching, the artist could hardly make ideal adjustment on the real object: such as shrinking the size of the head, lengthening the neck, arm and waist, and even the representation of the body construction covered by clothes can only be modified by the artist’s knowledge of human body. Obviously, sketching is a way of perceiving the object, which is an indispensible part in artistic imagination and creation. Furthermore, the stimulation and inspiration given by a real model or scene can never be substituted by images. In sketching, not only the desire of expression is provoked, but also the coordination of eyes, hands and brain is activated in the shortest period of time. The irreplaceability of sketching is reflected in the brushstrokes that have recorded the artist’s creative traces, thus preserving eternally the artistic subject’s spirit, which is lacked in any other kind of images. In the case of Guo’s painting, his brushstrokes are recessive: not those large and eye-catching, nor those obsessed in details; but flexible while solid, expressive while delicate. Thus in his neo-classical composition, tonality, body figure and emotion, the unity of opposites such as the thick and thin, tide and loose, void and solid, large and small, sketch and color are reflected in his ingenious brushstrokes, which represent his decency and intelligence.

　　Guo’s oil works has not only removed the mask of image to painting, revealing the fascination of neo-classical art, but also has deeply influenced our cognition to realist oil-painting. It does not mean delicacy or meticulousness on canvas, but the truth and subtleness of image through the sprezzatura of brushstrokes; nor does it mean impasto or repeated coverage, but the solidness and volume established through the thin and loose deposited paints. Realist oil-painting is more than a faithful imitation of what eyes see, but the re-creation of the artist himself and of his understanding and aspiration of beauty.

　　Compared with the rigor and nobility in Guo’s realist paintings, Chen Zijun’s works are full of illusion and imagination. Instead of feminine delicacy and softness, Chen’s canvases are constructed by bold, strong lines and Graffiti-like color blocks, which express her crushing to reality and her wildness hidden beneath her courteous appearance. Perhaps it is only in the face of the canvas that she reveals her true self. Without question, there’s a sense of expressionism in Chen’s works. It is established not only on her imagery generalization of society and people, but also on her mastership of structure-building. The images on the canvas have been blurred, overlapped, replaced and re-constructed; they nonetheless manifest her thorough understanding and mastery of image-structure. Her paintings are like the supernatural imagination and intuitive metamorphosis of Guo’s realist paintings from the bottom layer.

　　The artistic characters in Chen’s painting are even more impossible to be replaced by images, since her imaginations and reconstruction of reality are more distanced from what we see. Unlike the prudency and sense of reason in Guo’s composition, Chen’s works are full of contingency. She always spread colors spontaneously on white canvas, forming unexpected and significant tones and patches through the collision, permeation and diffusion of colors. Freehand brushstrokes, fluid stratums of colors and coarse pigments together make up the texture on the canvas: these media are effectively transformed to figures themselves. In a sense, the relation between color and canvas has become an important channel of Chen’s exploration of real imago and illusionistic instinct. Evidently, the imago and instinct are some kind of revelation of the human sub-consciousness, which Chen wants to expose. The persons in her paintings are indefinite, confused in gender, space and time. There also exists a distinct symbolic system in them, such as the naked lower part of the body meaning private space, animals like white horse, rabbit and civet referring to today’s living condition. She tries to convey some hidden emotion and consciousness through the construction of image. Her works represents unique visual aesthetics, which focus on internal life and humanity more than imitating the appearances of objects.

　　Guo Runwen’s realism is a penetration through the figure’s appearance into its soul, the encounter of artist and artwork takes place on the borderline of aesthetic creation. While Chen Zijun’s imagery is a direct presentation of the person’s contorted psychology, realized through a compassionate peep to the spirit. Thus encounter and compassion shows two different ways of contemplation and representation of Chinese contemporary oil-painting.

　　22 International Art Plaza, Beijing, 2012/5/11

　　Essay by Shang Hui, director of Chinese Artists Association, China oil painting society and managing editor of Fine Art