Past | 展覽回顧
 
Fu Yang Slope - YAN Chao Solo Exhibition

滏陽坡 - 嚴超個展

 
Date | 展期 2015. 8. 8 - 9 . 20
 
Opening | 酒會 2015. 8. 8 at 15:00
 
About YAN Chao | 關於藝術家
 
English vision
 
Works | 作品欣賞
 

錦灰如花:嚴超新繪畫的幽邃之境

夏可君 (現任中國人民大學文學院教授)

  現代藝術發現了一類獨特的存在物,即灰燼一般的剩餘物,現代藝術不再以完整的事物為物件,而是在碎片中經驗世界,因為世界不再有最終的根據,如何讓這些雜亂無章的碎片還有著美感就成為對現代藝術的挑戰。即便是廢墟也還有著拯救的啟迪,就如同本雅明在克利的新天使上看到廢墟升起時,也感受到了那從天堂而來在背後吹動天使翅膀也上升的風。當然,對於中國藝術家,不可能有如此的天使之翅與天堂之風,但我們也曾經有過燦爛的文明與精微的藝術,有著花枝上與月色中閃耀幽微詩意的花朵。只是在現代性的災變之中,在現代人虛無與憂鬱的目光中,這些遺產也僅僅是殘骸與碎屑,花果已經飄零,曾經美好的事物都已灰飛煙滅,帶著這種情愫,傳統才可能在現代性的破壞之後,需要一個藝術家以自己內在的心力來重建它,但不可能完整復原,他必須在類似"錦灰堆"那樣的雜碎中尋找可能的精華,保留事物不可摧毀的內在沉靜與孤寂幽邃,這是事物本身的幽寂,但不可能直接被看到,需要藝術家以幽寂的目光去發現它們,中國藝術如果再次發現物的自身性,發現自然的永恆性,就在於發現這不可摧毀的「幽寂」。
  藝術家嚴超就是從錦灰堆似的廢墟出發,把繪畫藝術帶入了那不可見的深度幽暗之中。
  嚴超本來學習的是繪畫,但他後來大學所學專業卻是文化遺產,這反而讓他更好地面對了那些被大多數藝術家所忽視的傳統要素,那些傳統的圖像與材質,當然就是被現代人忽視乃至於拋棄的遺產,比如大漆等等,而且面對遺產,正好是面對文化歷史的剩餘物,即"錦灰堆"般的存在物。錦灰堆又名八破圖,是集破、集珍、打翻字紙簍等,以畫殘破的文物片段堆疊構成畫面,因此,新繪畫要保留事物的殘破與殘骸狀態,哪怕是一副古代花鳥畫,也不可能再完整呈現了,只能以錦灰堆的殘破殘留在記憶中,甚至就是它的餘燼狀態,但藝術必須在如此破敗之物的堆積中生髮出一種絕美與璀璨出來,這就需要化腐朽為神奇,但嚴超的繪畫做到了。
  嚴超的繪畫混合使用了不同的材質,以厚重的油畫顏料傳達出那些垃圾破敗與殘骸之物的無意義堆積,以黑色的大漆暗示事物的幽暗,還以稀薄丙烯的流淌暗示事物些微的生機,以看似隨意的筆觸來顯現事物的殘餘狀態,但如何在看似偶發隨機之中發現感覺的必然性?現代繪畫並非隨意偶發性的發揮,而是讓偶發具有觸感的準確性與唯一性,即在細微的筆觸中有著形態的暗示,重要的是啟動顏料本身的表現力,因此嚴超結合使用油畫與丙烯,油畫的厚度與丙烯的薄透可以在筆觸之間與平面本身上展開更多含蓄的細節,甚至這還不夠,他還加入了被現代人忽視的大漆,以大漆來作畫,在顏料的質感上,尤其在深沉幽邃上,大漆的漆黑可以觸發平面的深度與厚重的體量感,最後,抽象表現的手法還可以讓畫面僅僅呈現一種微弱的圖像,或者"餘象",即僅僅是事物及其圖像的剩餘態,但又含蓄內在的光芒與深沉。
  比如我們在2013年《月滿今塵》這個作品上,看到了月影投射在佈滿塵埃但又有著橘黃和青色的花朵上,好的繪畫當然是反視覺的,因為月影不可能如此強烈映照這些花朵,尤其在如此暗色的背景中,但明亮的色光讓我們看到了花朵的綽約閃耀,而黑色與紫色伸展了夜色的枝椏,隱含尖銳的痛感,但又消隱在朦朧的夜色之中,在一切將要成塵之際,繪畫很好地傳達了花朵凝聚月色又飽滿盛開的詩意,但還是隱含著萎落的陰影。
  嚴超繪畫的張力與魅力就在於:一方面要徹底進入錯亂與雜亂,甚至敗絮一般參雜與摻雜的事物狀態,但又要有著對這些不確定之物的細節描繪,因為越是混亂還越是有著細節,對於有著抽象風格的繪畫更加是一種挑戰,嚴超基本上繼承的是抽象表現的手法,但又必須對物象還有著暗示的呈現,這就需要筆觸的細微處理;另一方面,還得有著對筆觸的細微控制,傳達出朦朧的詩意,甚至是中國古典的詩意,就要進入事物的幽暗之處,那百花的深處,讓廢墟之物發出神秘的幽光,讓殘破之物獲得榮耀,即抵達"和光同塵"的形而上境界,讓殘破之物有著內美的尊嚴,在看似敗絮之中卻有著繁花錦簇,要畫出事物逆轉時刻的那種停頓,那種躊躇,那種痛惜的美。
  接續抽象表現主義,但如何畫得更為幽微,更為富有詩意?嚴超繪畫的主題動機主要是傳統的花卉,既要畫出花團錦簇的盛開,又要畫出內在的腐蝕剝落,時間的斑駁節奏被凝固在畫面上,讓永恆與短暫同時俱在,讓美麗與凋落同時顯現,繪畫的張力由此而萌生。更為重要的是,嚴超試圖對繪畫的本體語言有所探索,他所思考的問題是:繪畫是否還有著新的可能性?如何在繪畫中激發新的觸感?抽象繪畫來自於對顏料本身的直接觸感,充分發揮顏料本身的質地及其偶發性,但如何還有著內在的厚度?這個厚度需要個體生命感知的實現,嚴超把油畫與丙烯結合起來,油畫的粘滯性與厚度,丙烯的虛薄與流淌,在巧妙過渡與銜接之中,在顏色與形體上被處理得異常微妙。此外,他還加入了大漆這種材質,以增加一種沉厚與重量感,尤其是黑漆漆的沉著感,讓顏料發出詩意的優美以及精神的能量,在斑駁陸離中尋找形象的生成,在廢墟中尋找事物掙扎的痕跡,或者就是借助於隨意的筆觸來摸索出事物的跡象,比如睡眠中的物象,從材質的材質感與肌理感出發,但並不走向抽象,而是一種暗示性的餘象,一種味道,即這個餘象並非事物的原型,而是通過顏料在流動之中形成的痕跡,擬似一種可能的狀態,也許水墨的餘味啟發了藝術家,那些餘象似乎還帶著夢的餘溫,在夜色中呢喃,讓我們深深著迷。
  嚴超的繪畫以錦灰堆的中國樣態,喚醒了一種當代的新碎片美學,錦灰也可以燦爛如花,敗落也能夠再度萌發,藝術的奧秘是讓感覺發生逆轉,讓廢物一般的顏料在灰燼一般的內在燃燒中複生出新鮮,自然所隱含的拯救密碼被嚴超找到了。如同傳統隱含時間感的"綠苔"獲得了新的詩意(並不一定是綠色,而是一種綠意),那花影下的綠痕,那綠苔遍地讓青春突然衰老的感傷,那秋風辭下的吟哦,通過呼吸性的筆觸淋漓盡致又含蓄雋永地表現出來,花朵婉轉的深情在豐富的色感中久久徘徊與糾結,繪畫深入傳達了綠秀與綠鏽並存的悖論色感,還有"花枝"蟠曲中的柔婉,疏隱橫斜上花朵們的色暈,都是蹉跎歲月的幽謐記錄。在閃爍流動的筆觸中,在氣息與色暈的準確捕獲中,滄桑的古舊與生長的明麗達到了合一,這是現代性的新逸品。
  嚴超的繪畫讓看似零落的筆觸獲得了內在氣息的凝聚,這凝聚來自於藝術家對那些薄碎之物的摯愛與呵護,繪畫乃是對美好之物短暫性的最後守護,傾聽花朵們在夜色中的呼吸,在黑夜中孤獨守候她們,並等待黎明,抵達物我合一的幽邃之境,嚴超的繪畫正是對此脆弱之物內在幽邃的隱秘見證。


Flowery Valued Ashes:A Deeply Profound Realm of Creative Painting - Yan Chao

by Xia Ke-Jun (Professor of RENMIN UNIVERSITY of CHINA)

  There is a unique discovery revealed in Modern Art, which is an existence, or to say it's waste, like ashes. Modern Art has no longer always been complete things as objects, but to experience the world with debris. The ultimate rule has no longer existed, and how to make those chaotic debris into beautiful works is being a challenge for it. There might have healing inspiration uncovered even under ruins, as while Benjamin saw the ruins arising by the new angel of Klee, he sensed a breeze coming from heaven on his back swinging the wings of the angel. Indeed there is no such imaginary of angel wings or heaven breeze for Chinese artists, but we had been embraced by our splendid civilization and fine arts, those slight and poetic flowers blooming above the branches and showering under the moonlight. However, these heritages are merely relics and debris in the inane and melancholy sight of modern citizens among the latter-day tragedy. The pretty flowers and fruits had withered, and they are old good memories which had turned into ashes and gone with the wind. The tradition, has been destroyed by modernization, only can be reconstructed by sincere efforts through one's inner power of artists. However, it will never be a complete piece. The artist must search the essential element which are sort of "valued ashes", from debris for inheriting the indestructible, silent, and deeply profound essences. The object itself holds profound silence that couldn't be discovered directly, and it needs artists who owns the same quality to reveal it. If Chinese art finds out the own identities of itself of somethings, and the eternity of nature again, this indestructible "profound silence" must be the key.
  How can the "deep profoundness" of beauty be rediscovered again among the modern diversely fragments? If it is possible to be recruited in painting, the invisible deepness will be showed in different method. As the western abstract painting discovered the dark and unfathomable "invisibility", Chinese art must rediscover a new invisibility and face the ruined objects again.
  The artist, Yan Chao, who gets started from the dusty ruins, leads painting into an invisible profound abyss.
  Yan Chao used to study painting, but he majored in cultural heritage in the university, and instead of being one of major artists who overlook those traditional elements, he has better position to look into them. Those traditional images and materials such as lacquer and so forth are definitely the heritage which has been neglected or even abandoned by our modern people. Facing the heritage happens to be facing the remainder of cultural history, as the existence of "valued ashes", which is known as eight-broken image, a gathering of broken pieces, valued objects, poured wastepaper basket, and so on, then to draw broken fragments of historical relics, stack and compose all into graphics. Thus a new painting wants to keep the original broken and dilapidated status, no matter it is an ancient bird-and-flower painting, is no longer an intact presence, and it can only be as wrecked valued ashes remaining in the memory, or worse status as left embers. However, art must sublimate an unrivaled beauty and brilliant astonishment from a pile of debris, make the foul and rotten into masterpiece, and there the painting of Yan Chao did it.
  His paintings are mixed with some different materials; with heavy oil painting pigments to show the meaningless piles on one another of those broken waste and debris; with black lacquer to imply the darkness of objects; with thin and flowing propylene to hint a slight vitality; with seemingly random brushworks to present the residual status. And yet, how can the inevitability of sense be revealed within the seemingly occasional random? Contemporary paintings are not merely some casually occasional display, it let the occasion equip with accuracy and uniqueness of texture. There are forms of hints within subtle details, and the expression that motivate pigments itself is the key. Therefore, he combined oil paint with propylene, so the thick oil paint and the thin propylene are able to develop more subtle details between the drawing and canvas. Moreover, the lacquer which has been neglected by modern people is also being applied. To paint with lacquer, its pitch-dark color activate the depth and the thick heaviness from the painting upon the texture, especially make it deeply profound. At last, the approach of abstract arts allow the painting merely to present a sort of faint image, or "afterimage", which is a residual status of objects and images, but the shining and profound inherence is remained implicitly.
Taking the piece "Dusty Full Moon" in 2013 as an example that the moonlight shadow cast in a orange and blue flower covered with dust. Definitely a great painting is contrary to vision, cause the moonlight shadow will never be so much shining upon flowers, especially in such a dark background. However, the bright light leads our attention to the graceful shiny flower, and the black and purple branches stretch to the night with the painfully sharp figure and hiding into the obscurity of the night. While everything is on the occasion to dust, the painting properly express the poetic image of bloomy flowers in the spotlight of moonlight, and still the blur withering shadow covered with it.
  The power and attraction of his paintings lie in: it completely draws you into a confused, cluttered, or even more like into old cotton wool, miscellaneous status, and describes details of this uncertain objects in the meantime. The more chaos, the more details hiding in it. It is definitely a challenge for abstract style paintings. Basically his technique is extended from abstract art, but it has to present a hint image at the same time, that requires very subtle treatment of brushwork. On the other hand, it also requires having a fine control of brushwork to express misty, and even in order to show the classical Chinese poetry, it must enter the dark side, where the depths of flowers are, and the objects lying in the ruins glow mysterious twilight and shine the broken things glorious, then the metaphysical realm of " with light as dust" is reached, that the broken things are within inherent dignity, inside the cotton waste, there are flowers blossoming, and paint the beauty of reversed moment when it paused, it hesitated, and it deplored.
  Extension from abstract expressionism, how does it be more slightly profound and poetic? His main theme is Chinese traditional flowers, and to express both the blossom covered with flowers and corrosive and exfoliated effect all together. The mottled rhythm of time is sticked on the painting, makes the opposite eternity and short existing all at once, beauty and withering concurrent, and the influence of painting thus glows. More importantly, he attempts to discover its own language of painting. The problems he is pondering are: Is there any new possibility for painting? How do I stimulate new a technique for painting? The key for abstract painting comes from the direct impression of pigment itself, and gives it full play to the texture and sporadic surprise. So, how does it express the inherent profoundness. The profoundness needs to be stimulated by a perceivable individual, and it is Yao Chao, who combined oil painting with propylene. The sticky and thick oil painting and thin and flowing propylene are converged masterly and processed color and texture extremely subtle. Meanwhile, he also add another material, lacquer, in order to increase a heavy and thick texture. Especially the heavy dark lacquer makes black color reek of poetic elegance and spiritual energy. Within the variegated scraps, looking for a certain image be generated, and searching for imprinted marks of objects from ruins. Or to indicate where the signs are by means of random brushwork, as the sleeping objects head toward to the sense of texture and material rather than abstraction, and it is an suggestive afterimage, a scent, or so to speak that the afterimage is not the prototype of origin, and it is tracks that formed while the pigments are flowing, quite a similar possibility. Perhaps the aftertaste of ink inspired the artist, and it seems the afterimage still keeps the warmth of the dream, whispering in the darkness, and very fascinated.
  The Chinese style of valued ashes paintings of Yan Chao awaken a new contemporary debris aesthetic. The ashes can be as magnificent as flowers, and withering can also be germinated. The secret of art is to make our sense reversed, and to make the dumped pigments be renascent freshly by internal combustion into as ashes. The saving passwords hiding in the nature has found by him. Like the "green moss", traditionally it implied to the time, acquired a new poetic sense. (Here the green does not necessarily to be green, but should be a sense of lush green.) The green marks that under the shadows of flowers; the green moss growing everywhere that inspires youth to be sentimental of sudden aging; the singing under the autumn breeze is demonstrated vividly and subtly by a lifelike brushwork, and the gentle affectionate flowers wander and tangle in the abundant colors for a while. Painting deeply conveys a parallel paradox of green color and green rust, the branches of flowers gracefully and crosswise convoluted shadowed sparsely on to the flowers, and they are all silent records of wasting years. By the sparkling flowing brush, and by catching the exactly atmosphere and halo, old vicissitudes and bright growth meet a unity, and bring out a new modern outstanding artwork.。
  The paintings of Yan Chao seems has an ability to gather the internal power from the artist's love and care of debris on scattered brushwork. Painting is the last transient guardian for beauty, which listen to the breath of flowers, guard them during the night, and await until the dawn to reach a deeply profound realm of uniting things and I harmoniously as one. indeed his paintings are the hidden evidence of those deeply profound fragile objects.


 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
     
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