在意大利 庞贝古城写生 2005年

　　深暗的木纹、灰涩的砖痕、斑痕累累的墙面，深深地流露出历史的苍桑。当我第一次在深圳大学应天齐工作室观看他近期创作的现代绘画系列作品《遗痕》时，就被他的绘画新作深深打动，并自然引发起我的沉思冥想与深深地感怀。思索沉重的历史与现代精神的翱翔。

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　　20世纪50年代西班牙现代抽象画家安东尼•塔皮埃斯(Antoni Tàpies)曾采用实体材料进行绘画。在形式上他兼容了自发状态、自然涂抹、破碎裂痕、重新图画等各种手法，运用幽暗的颜料、清漆、沙子和大理石粉混合堆结成大块面起伏不平的画面，使作品产生了固态的浮雕效果，以达到一种新的“实存”观念。

　　应天齐在这些新作中将这种“实存”的观念加以延伸。长年版画创作中对于材质的思考和娴熟的驾驭本领在这些新作中得到很大地发挥，在创作手法上应天齐同样运用了实物拼合、木版压印、色料手绘的综合媒材表现法，营造出一种独特的二维平面与三维空间共生的视觉效果。所不同的是，在画面的整体构图上，应天齐表现出现代绘画的构成主义的风格图式，以几种不同层次矩形色块的排列或并置，从而表现出不同时代与漫长岁月的历史遗痕。在《遗痕：木雕系列》中，巨大的画面中央被嵌入了一块不大的清代徽州原木雕饰，一下就将历史与当代的情境组合在一起，并给人以穿越时空的无限遐想。同时也在作品中注入了空间和历史维度。

　　在应天齐的现代绘作品中一个重要特征是对于黑色的运用，画面通过不同的构型，并置了富有深沉历史意味的竹帘、木纹、砖痕、石斑。如《竹帘》、《问道》等，但大多都有一块形状大小不等的深暗的黑色，或为空间或为陪衬。而在他上个世纪后期的《西递》版画作品中，许多画面大部分被巨大的黑色块面所占据，给人以沉重和压抑之感。因此，在应天齐的绘画中，黑色绝不只是一种随意的选择，而是具有特定的文化象征意义。

　　在中国传统文化中，黑色具有其特定的文化内涵。中国人有着黑色的头发与黑色的眼睛。道家的主张是“玄学”，即崇尚黑色。玄就是黑色，是幽冥之色，是超然生死的天界之色，黑色是高居于其他一切色彩之上的色彩。道家的太极图即黑白两极相互转换。并将黑色列为众色之首，选择黑色作为道的象征之色。

　　黑色给人以庄重、肃穆、儒雅的情怀，然而，在绘画中大块沉重的黑色也会给人的心情带来压抑与阴霾的感觉。同时也给人以历史深处的忧思。西方现代艺术家马列维奇(Kasimir Malevich)、莱因哈特(Ad Reinhardt)、马克•罗斯科(Mark Rothko)等人都曾画过巨大满幅的黑色画面。马列维奇的《黑方块》(1915年)与莱因哈特的《黑色画》(1962年)导致了西方绘画艺术走向终结。而马克•罗斯科的大色域《黑色系列》致使艺术家长期处于精神封闭和压抑之中，并最终导致了这位功成名就的伟大艺术家在焦虑和绝望中自杀身亡(1970年)。

　　我们如何走出封闭幽暗的历史，我们如何面对现实与当下?历史、今天与未来是不断地绵延，还是断裂与激变?1998年以来应天齐多次实施了砸碎黑色的观念行为。尤其是2001年1月1日在新世纪到来的零点时刻，应天齐在深圳大学校门口举办的砸碎黑色行为艺术，并将破碎的黑色玻璃图形印制成《碎裂的黑色》系列版画。在破碎的黑色块面裂痕中终于显现出白色的光感。正如艺术批评家王林先生所言，“对应天齐而言，裂缝是一丝亮光，也是一种解脱。”我认为，同时这也是一线对未来的希望之光，应天齐用艺术行为在实施一种自我救赎。

　　应天齐近期现代绘画中的黑色块面被大大缩减，画面的整体色调也渐趋明朗。其作品名称如《问道》、《天井》、《见光》、《出绿》、表现出对未来的展望与期待。这些(2006-2008年)的遗痕系列作品，如《腐木》、《夹缝》、《裂墙》、《失忆》中，则显现出作者对传统文化历史不断衰朽的深刻反思。

　　(常宁生，中国美术学院教授，著名批评家。原题：《历史遗痕与文化感怀——评应天齐的现代绘画艺术》)

木雕之二(油彩、乳胶、石膏、古木雕)110*155cm 2008年

在梅林一村画室作油画《世纪遗痕》 2010年

　　Historical traces and cultural recollection

　　Chang Ningsheng

　　Dark wooded texture, gray brick traces, walls full of scars-I was deeply touched when I first saw Ying Tianqi s recent new painting series Traces in his studio, in which embraces all these historical vicissitudes. His work aroused my meditation and recollection, wondering between the oppressive history and the modern spirits.

　　Mr.Ying was engaged in woodcut creation of the theme of an ancient village called Xidi in Anhui province in his early days. Those works show his desire to represent the current status of the profound Chinese traditional culture and his recollection of the history. The Magnum Opus Xidi Village Series laid the foundation of his importance in the Chinese print art group.

　　Ying Tianqi used the pure black color spectrum and the ancient architecture of southern Anhui residence: the modern abstracted figure and the classical specific image model simultaneously in his watermark printings- Xidi Village Series . It also embraces the counteraction of the tender emotion and the cold onus, the reminiscence of the rusticity and the condemnation of the village life. It is once suggested by an art theorist Mr.Liu Xiaochun: Ying s earnest yearning towards modernization and his attach to his accent hometown, to both of which he fully expose his endocentric and deep experiences, torture his soul constantly so that he had to accept the reality at the end. He eventually collapsed after eight years, saying that I ve had enough and was at the verge of collapsing with all kind of illnesses torturing my body so that I had to stop painting for more than two years. I was diagnosed with depression and had the feeling that I can not keep on like this anymore This eventually led to his farewell to the Xidi Village in 1944.

　　Farewell in this case means Exceeding instead of Termination . Mr.Ying has transformed himself from a sole painting artist to an ideologist who thinks about the problems facing the current evolving culture since the beginning of the new century. During the past decade, he has been engaged in device and performance art, producing works such as the Smashing Black and the Big Paper-cut and has reached every aspects of reality life with his cultural awareness Being famous as a contemporary Chinese print artist, Ying has been constantly reviewing the value and the function of the print art under the influence of photography and modern copy technology. In the most recent years of the new century, he has started his creation of the modern oil paintings and the painting with other comprehensive materials.

　　In 1950s, Spanish modern abstract artist Antoni T pies used to adopt the entity materials to his paintings. His synthesis of spontaneous status, natural painting procedures, broken cracks, various methods of repainting, the creation of bumpy texture using the gloomy colors, varnish, sand and marble powder have all given its work a sculptural effect. It also achieves a concept of real existence.

　　Mr. Ying extends the concept of such kind of real existence in his new works. Years of research on materials and adept skills acquired from his wooden print arts have been exerted into his new creation. With a combination of physical goods collage, broad press and handpainting color, he creates a unique effect that combines both two dimensional and three dimensional spaces. The difference in his works is that Ying expresses the painting style of a modern constructivism, with the use of blocks of matrices of different colors that are arranged or juxtaposed, to show the historical vicissitude of the relentless age. In his Traces: wooden sculpture series, small pieces of Huizhou wooden sculptures from Qing Dynasty are set in the center of the huge painting screens.They suddenly combine history with contemporary context, which aslo enable viewers to imagine beyond space and time. At the same time, the dimension of space and history is also injected into his works. The major distinctive feature in Ying Tianqi s modern works is the exertion of black color. Different combinations juxtapose bamboo curtains, wooden textures, brick traces and rock spots with heavy historical meanings accordingly. Most of his works contain various sizes of dark black color blocks, such as in the Bamboo Curtain and the Pursue of Taoism.Sometimes it is also used as a foil to the empty space. In contrast, in most of his Xidi Vilage series created at the end of last century, most of the area was occupied by the black color blocks, which gives viewers a heavy and inhibitive feeling. Therefore, these black color blocks in Ying s paintings were never used randomly but with a specific cultural significance.

　　In traditional Chinese culture, black color represents a particular cultural connotation. Chinese are born with black hair and eyes. Taoism claims metaphysic , which advocates black. Metaphysic is black, which is recognized as the color of ghost and the color beyond live and death. Black is also the color beyond any other colors. The Tai Chi diagram in Taoism shows the counteraction between the Black and the White, which honors black as the head of the two; therefore it is chosen as the symbol of Taoism.

　　Black color usually represents a solemn, elegance sentiment. However, black color, if used in big blocks in a painting, usually shows the feeling of inhibition and gloomy. At the same time, it may also soak the viewer into deep historical wondering. Kasimier Severinovich Malevich, Ad Reinhard, Mark Rothko and other modern Western artists have all drawn such paintings fill with black color blocks. Malevich s Black Box (1915) and Reinhardt s Black Painting (1962) led to the termination of western painting.Moreover, Mark Rothko s black Series led himself into a status of spirit closure and repression, which eventually lead to his suicide among anxiety and desperation in 1970.

　　How do we get out of this closed gloomy history? How do we face the reality and the present? Do history, today and the future evolve continuously or with fractures and sudden changes? Since 1998, Ying Tianqi has several times implemented the conceptual behavioral art of smashing the black . For example, he used to perform the behavioral art of smashing several black glass sheets in front of the entrance of the Shenzhen University at the beginning of the new century. He later composes his Fragmentation Black series with the broken glasses. Eventually, strips of white light appear from the traces of the black glass cracks. Just as art critic Mr. Wang Lin used to say: the white ight is rather a trace of relief than anything else for Mr.Ying. In my opinion though, the light also represent a trace of hope for the future. Mr.Ying has just performed a self-rescue with his own art.

　　The black color blocks in Ying s recent works have been greatly reduced. Moreover, the entire color tone of his works has become brighter. The titles of his series such as The Pursue of Taoism , Patio , exposure in light , Green-ier all show his prospect and expectation for the future. In contrast, paintings in the Traces series(2006-2008) such as Rotten Wood , Crack , Split Wall and Amnesia represent the continuous reflection of the decrepit traditional culture by the artist.

　　In retrospect to his art creation history started from the Xidi Village series almost two decades ago, Mr.Ying Tianqi, as a contemporary scholar-style artist, has been torturing himself on every step he had moved forward in art exploration, between history and present, era and cultural spirit.