刘鸣国际艺术官方网站/国际艺术工作室国际服务号 7099

　　上世纪九十年代以来，向中国古代水墨艺术传统的回归，改变了中国画领域的格局，也导致人们对中国传统艺术给予重新认识。从某种意义上说，二十世纪以来，回归传统一直没有中断过，只是这次回归传统的指向是独特的，它表现为对九十年代以前崇尚北方画派的崇高审美趣味的反动和对元以后的文人画，特别是被董其昌视为文人画之正统的南宗绘画艺术的推崇。这一回归传统的指向，使一些艺术家崇尚萧条淡泊、冷僻孤寂的笔墨风格和审美趣味。这一遍及大江南北的回归倾向，影响了众多的水墨艺术家，特别是水墨山水画家。我们这里将要讨论的刘鸣的水墨艺术，也是在这一文化背景的影响下从事他的艺术探索的。

　　刘鸣水墨艺术的意义在于他把建构水墨山水艺术的境界放在首位，让笔墨为其服务。我以为，这一艺术取向的重要性在于只有艺术境界才能在这一向文人画传统回归的潮流中显现出独特性。这是因为在回归文人画传统的趋势中，实际上有两种不同的方法和态度，一种是纯粹以古代中国文人的笔墨和审美趣味为唯一衡量的标准和依据，这样，在一些艺术家的作品中，古意甚浓，笔墨精妙，但却几乎看不出现代社会对他们艺术创作的影响；另一种方法和态度是站在现代社会的立场，重新体悟文人画的文化意味。在我看来，刘鸣属于后者，即以文人画的眼光透视现代生活，以现代人的生存感受体悟文人画的艺术精神。正是在这传统与现代的视界交融中，刘鸣形成了自己的艺术面貌和风格。

从艺术境界上说，刘鸣的水墨艺术具有强烈的理想化色彩。这种理想化，从表面上看是因为在他的作品中，没有描绘中国传统山水画所推崇的那种可居可游的自然世界，而是艺术家想象中的山水形象的重新组合。但从深层的心理欲求看，刘鸣构筑的这种理想化的山水境界，可以被视为是拟人化的，因为刘鸣作品中的一切自然，如天地、山水，树木、房间，都具有阴柔的质感，表达的是刘鸣回归母体的愿望，复归婴儿的心理欲求。

当然，我把刘鸣的水墨艺术解读为一种回归母体的愿望，复归婴儿的心理欲求的含义，与刘鸣建构的艺术境界，所运用的笔墨语言，感兴趣的审美趣味和形态特征都有关系。首先刘鸣的作品都倾向满幅的构图布局，并以环抱式方法，使画面的四周处于相对封闭的状态，让笔墨和形象向画面中心幅射，这样，画面中心---有时是多中心---也就成为视觉的中心。这种构图，很显然在传统文人画中是看不到的，因为对于实际的身体来说，传统文人画创造的山水世界是可居可游，直接可以进入的世界；而刘鸣建构的这种境界，因其中山、水、房屋等物体比例关系的任意性，意味着它不仅不是可居可游的无人之境，而且拒绝实际的成人身体的进入，但我认为，这种拒绝，从其环抱式的布局角度看，又是对另一种身体-----婴儿的身体------的接纳和包容。

其次，自然作为母体的隐喻，其身体是温柔的，也许是由于这一原因，刘鸣在笔墨的运用上也具有非常重要的特点，即在笔墨上减少了各种笔法，如各种皴法的使用，而在传统文人画之外，加大了对墨的试验和探索，如没骨的大量运用，以及笔势的准确把握，使他的笔墨与母体的温柔极其相匹配。当然，上世纪九十年代以来，中国画领域的一些艺术家突出了没骨的技法在人物画、山水画中的运用，但在刘鸣的作品中，没骨法的运用是为艺术境界服务的，表达的是回归母体欲望。所以，与传统文人画比较起来，刘鸣作品中笔法的丰富性减少了，但是运用这种笔法构成的境界，则具有了他的独特性。

最后我想说的是，刘鸣建构的山水境界，作为母体的替代和隐喻，除了前面谈到的环抱式的满幅构图，没骨笔法的阴柔表达等因素与其匹配之外，刘鸣在水墨艺术作品中对空白的使用，也为这一理想境界的构造发挥了重要的作用。我们知道，在中国传统山水画中，空白除了在艺术形式上起着分割画面的功能之外，也具有云、雾、水和天的形象特征，而在刘鸣的山水画中，空白则多了一种用途，那就是光；同时，它们也构成了画面的视觉中心，并成为母体深处的隐喻。事实上，二十世纪以来，把空白作为光来使用有两种方法，一种是李可染式的把空白作为光，特别是逆光来使用，以表达物象的形与色。而在刘鸣的作品中，空白作为光，并非来自现实中的自然光，而是完全依据画面的需要来考虑光的来源，这使他的作品充满一种远离现实的神秘感。同时，作为光来使用的空白也不仅仅是为了形式构成的需要，而是与画面营造的境界息息相关。正是由于这一点，在刘鸣的作品中，作为表达光的空白，具有一种独特的感人力量。

如果说我把刘鸣的水墨艺术，特别是描绘天地山水的水墨形象作为母体来解读，并认为它表达了艺术家回归母体，或者说回归母体子宫和复归婴儿的欲望是有道理的话，那么我们要进一步追问的问题是它的艺术意义何在？在我看来它的意义就在于表达了艺术家对待生命的独特态度，这种态度，从根本上说是老庄式的。因为刘鸣用水墨和山水建构的自我封闭、萧瑟孤寂、自律完美的境界和隐喻母体的形象，不仅是为了远离世俗世界的骚扰，而且从哲学的立场看，则是达为了达到老庄所推崇的一种至高无上的人生境界：婴儿般的无为、无知和无欲。

Since the 1990s, there’s a return to the Chinese archaic ink painting traditions, which has changed the field pattern of Chinese painting and has aroused people’s new understanding and appreciation on Chinese traditional art. In a sense, since the 20th century, the return traditions have never been interrupted, only that the direction of this retune is a unique one, featuring counteraction to the grand aesthetic interest of the North School before the 1990s and the appraise on literator paintings after Yuan Dynasty, especially on the Nanzong painting art which is canonized by Dong qichang as the legitimacy of literator paintings. The direction of this return tradition makes some artists to advocate the paining style and aesthetic interest of depression, desolation and solitude. This return trend, which has crossed the country from north to south, influences many ink painting artist, especially artists of landscape painting. Here we will discuss the ink painting art of Liuming, who undertakes his artistic exploration under the influence of this cultural background.

The meaning of Liuming’s ink painting art is based on his priority of the construction of realm of ink painting landscape. He takes advantage of pen and ink for his services. I think, the significance of this artistic tropism lies in that only artistic realm can distinct his works from others at the tide of this return to literator paintings traditions. That’s because, there are two different methods and attitudes during the trend: one method employs the pen and ink as well as the aesthetic interest of Chinese literator as the only standards and basis for evaluation. In this way, some works of artists, though full of ancient sentiment and of delicate strokes, reflect no influence of modern society put upon their artistic creation; the other method and attitude takes the modern society into consideration, and appreciate the cultural sentiment of literator paintings from a new perspective. In my view, Liuming belongs to the latter category, namely penetrating the modern life through literator paintings, while appreciating the artistic spirit of literator painting from the living experience modern people. It is in the integration of traditional vision angle and the modern one, that Liming has developed its own artistic style and outlook.

From the perspective of artistic realm, the ink painting of Liuming enjoys a strong sense of idealism. This idealization, from a superficial angle, is resulted because there’s no natural world, which is canonized in Chinese traditional landscape paintings in this works. There’s only an imagined recombination of landscape by the artist. However, from the deep psychological desire, the idealized landscape of this state created by Liuming, can be seen as the personification, because the natural things in Liuming works, such as sky and earth, landscapes, trees, and rooms are all endowed with the quality of softness and gentleness, representing Liming’s desirability of retuning to the matrix and his psychological desire of being the baby again.

Of course, my interpretation of Liuming’s ink painting art as the desirability of retuning to the matrix and his psychological desire of being the baby again has some connections with his constructed artistic realm, the utilized pen and ink language, the interested aesthetic gout and morphological characteristics. First, Liming’s works tend to achieve an overall design layout, and adopt the encircling methods to make the surrounding of the painting in a relatively closed state, while letting the ink and figures radiate to the center of the painting. In this way, the center of the painting-sometimes there are many more centers-becomes the focus of vision. This composition of a picture evidently can not be realized in the traditional literator paintings, because the landscape world created in the literator paintings is like a real habitat which can be directly appreciated and enjoyed; while the realm constructed by Liuming indicates that it is not a habitat, and rejects the actual physical access of adults due to the arbitrariness of the proportion relationships among hills, water, houses and other objects. But I think, this kind of rejection, from the perspective of its encircling layout, is also a kind of acceptation and inclusion-----to another body----baby’s body.

Secondly, the nature, as the metaphor of mother, enjoys a gentle body. Maybe because of this, Liu Ming’s utilization of pen and ink is of very essential characteristics, namely a reduction in the use of various vigor of painting, for example the use of wrinkled method, while an addition of research and exploration on ink besides the traditional literator painting, for example, the large amount of use of no-born, as well as the correct control of handwriting, enabling his pen and ink to wonderfully match with the feminity of matrix. Of course, since the 1990s, some artists in the Chinese painting field have given prominence to the use of no-born technique in the portrait and landscape paintings. But in Liuming’s works, the use of no-born serves for the artistic realm, expressing the desire of retuning to the matrix. So, compared with the traditional literator paintings, the richness of strokes is reduced in Liuming’s works. But the realm constructed by taking advantages of this vigor of painting results in the uniqueness of his works.

Finally, I would like to say that the landscape realm constructed by Liuming, as the supplement and metaphor of matrix, is matched with the embracing layout, the softness expression of no-born and other factors I’ve said above. Besides that, the use of blank in Liuming’s ink painting works also plays an important role in creating such and ideological realm. We know, in traditional Chinese landscape paintings, the blank, besides taking a role of dividing the pictures in an artistic form, also serves as the symbols of clouds, fog, water and sky. While in Liuming’s landscape paintings, the blank has an additional purpose, namely light; meanwhile, the blanks also form the visual center of the picture as well as the metaphor of the deepness of the matrix. In fact, since the 20^th century, there’re two methods of taking use of blank as light: one is adopted by Li Keran, using blank as light, especially as backlighting to express the figure and color of images. In Liuming’s works, the blank does not serve as the natural light in reality, but light of various sources as per the requirements of the picture. This embodies his works with a sense of mystery far from the reality. At the same time, the blank used as light not only just meets the requirements of format construction, but is also involved in the creation of artistic realm. Because of this, the blank in Liuming’s paintings, as an expression of light, beholds a unique moving force.

If my interpretation of Liuming’s ink paintings, especially the ink-image picturing the sky and earth as well as landscape, as the matrix, and my presumption that they represent the artist’s desire of retuning to the matrix, or back to the womb of the mother or being the baby again, are of some sense, then we should ask for its artistic significance? It seems to me that the significance of it lies in the expression of the artist's unique attitude towards life, which is, fundamentally speaking, of Laozhuang style. The self-enclosed, chilling, lone, self-perfect realm and the matrix image of metaphor created by Liuming by means of ink and landscape is not only for escaping from the harassment of secular world, but also for, from the philological point of view, achieving a highly-commended supreme realm of life canonized by Laozhuang: infant-like inaction, ignorance and desires.

	水墨艺术名家刘鸣	黄金艺栈
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