李昕的画平静而朴实，几乎都是水平构图，肌理、笔触、线条、色彩在眼前缓缓流动。一种缄默、厚重的力量似乎在生成之中，它让你专注于画面，又不得不产生联想。
　　李昕的童年是在陕北度过的，他家就在黄河边黄土高原上，无论是鸟瞰河流的平远，还是分辨水成岩基的层级，无论是水土切割的万载痕迹，还是汉唐墓园的千年石雕，都给他留下了不可磨灭的印象。如果我们在他的画中能够感觉到高原的宏伟和黄土的细腻，是不足为奇的。李昕画画时象是用手在抚摸着大地的粉末与尘埃，那种触觉感几乎能够让你直接接触到那一片土地的质地。
　　画家对质材是十分敏感的，无论是油画，还是水墨，李昕总能在平扫过去的笔触中，对颜料在画底上的细微摩擦作出随机应变的反应。他的绘画才能不是表现在图形的构思上，而是贯穿在整个绘制过程中。那些画布上不知怎么抓出来的肌理，在不同光面的映照中熠熠闪烁，十分微妙又十分生动。而那些浸渍纸上非常饱和的不同色彩，在长长的笔触中同时绘出，特别平实匀称并能见出分层的效果，具有一种与众不同的吸引力。不管是水迹边缘的细线，还是色块构造的体积，李昕的画总是把表现性和想象力，控制在无须说出的精神界域里。那是一种修为的境界、一种正在发生却又转瞬即逝的过程。抽象艺术在本质上是发生学的：它既不是对象世界的心理描绘，尽管生活经验不可忽视；也不是物质材料的审美体验，尽管质材价值必须发掘；更不是主体精神的自我呈现，尽管个体意识非常重要—抽象艺术不是这些东西借助于形式的直接表达，而是对象、物质、精神偶然遭遇，相互作用和重新发生。是精神的发现，物质的更新和对象的再生，是一个人通过艺术在智慧层面上的醒悟与澄明。
　　李昕留居法国，显然受过抽象表现主义的影响。作为现代主义最后的辉煌，抽象表现主义对当代艺术而言，一是在德国新表现绘画中得到历史回应，二是在西方文化的地域扩散中引发多元延伸。其基本倾向乃是从纯粹精英化的本体宏观走向不避现实微观的历史性和个体性。在这里，把自己假设为超凡脱俗的古代文人是荒唐的。李昕作品之所以能够让今天的观者感动，正是画中保留着稀微的记忆、初始的联想和隐约萌动的情绪。作为一个活生生的、具体个别的人，你是不能为虚幻、宏大的所谓艺术本体而牺牲的。—我只相信艺术和生命一样，不过是一个正在发生、不断发生的过程。不知李昕以为如何？

2008年8月31日
四川美院桃花山侧

　　A quietness and simplicity pervades Li Xin's paintings. Their structure, in most cases is generated within a horizontal composition, with textures, touches, lines and colours flowing gracefully within the work. While viewing these works a profound sense of the power of silence grows, fixing your attention, while inspiring your imagination in the realm of infinity.
　　Li Xin spent his childhood in North Shaanxi. A native of the Loess Plateau by the Yellow River, he was deeply impressed by the traces of time and endurance in his home region. Tens of thousands of years of water erosion, tombstone carvings enduring millenniums of history since Han and Tang Dynasties, bird eye views of roaring rivers and keen observation of sedimentary rocks honed his sense of time and place. It is therefore natural for the majesty of the plateau and the fineness of the soil to emerge so vividly in his paintings. In a sense, Li is caressing the dust and dirt of the land as his brush dances. Intimacy with the painting can bring you so close to the texture of the land that you can almost feel it.
　　Artists have a peculiar sensitivity for materials. Be it oil or ink paintings, Li Xin is always capable of skillfully responding to the tiniest friction between the medium and the surface in his sweeping brush strokes. His artistic talent is not restrained within shapes or patterns, but streams through the whole process of painting. The mystical textures on the canvas shine in differing lights, as if enshrined in a subtle liveliness. While a myriad of rich colors saturate the paper emerging within long stokes of simplicity, balance and depth through layering; all glowing with unique appeal. Be it fine lines on the verge of water traces or the volume of color masses, Li Xin¡¯s paintings always feature expression and imagination in spiritual realms where language fades. It is an intrinsic cultivation of spirituality, ever in progress yet vanishing in a wink. Abstract art is essentially genetic. It is neither a philosophical depiction of the objective world, though life experience is far from negligible; nor an aesthetic experience of materials, though the value of materials is to be explored; nor self-exhibition of the subjective spirit, though individual awareness is critical. Abstract art is not a communication of these elements through any form, but the accidental encounter, mutual effect and recurrence of objects, materials and spirits culminating in the awakening and lucidity of wisdom through art.
　　Living in France, Li Xin appears to be influenced by abstract expressionism. As the last gleam of splendor of modernism, abstract expressionism in modern art is historically echoed by German neo-expressionist paintings, while inspiring further developments in the geographical expansion of the Occidental culture. Its basic tendency is a journey from pure elite macro-subject towards micro historical significance and individuality. Here any self-supposition of the unworldly man of literature in ancient times would be utterly ridiculous. The touching power of Li Xin¡¯s works lie in the vague memories, initial association and hazily budding emotions. As an individual brimming with life, you cannot sacrifice yourself for the grandeur and vanity of so-called art ontology---I believe that art, like life, is but a process in ceaseless progression. How would Li Xin respond to my view? I wonder.

August 31, 2008
Composed by the Peach Blossom Mountain
Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts