改革开放的城市化浪潮，彻底改变了中国广大乡村的面貌，不论城市中的外来务工人员还是乡村土地的留守者，都无不吸引了当代美术家的关切目光，成为他们深入生活、贴近民众的创作焦点。本期刊登的李节平的乡野考察报告以及30位当代中青年美术家“深扎”主题创作实践活动，让人们感受到艺术家挖掘一口生活的深井对其艺术创作的重要性。的确，不论你拥有多么精致的艺术技巧，并不意味着你能轻易解决由技巧创新而发展岀来的新的艺术风格问题；只有让那些积累丰厚的技艺回到鲜活的视觉审美感知中，才能促生崭新的画卷，创造鲜明的个性。本期封底刊登的李节平《大寒·回家》，正是作者从乡野考察中触摸的现实生活图景，它让人们联想到的是作者曾塑造的那对筑巢的“小夫妻”在年节前夕终于满怀渴望与喜悦地回家情形，这一瞬间或许也是美术作品对农民生活在这40年间发生历史性巨变的意义深远的浓缩。

Selected Paragraphs from the Preface in the 12th Issue of ART Magazine in 2018

Shang Hui

　　The wave of urbanization in reform and opening up has completely changed the face of China's vast rural areas. Whether it is migrant workers in the urban areas or residents in the countryside, they have all attracted the attention of contemporary artists and become the focus of their creation to go deep into life and be close to the people. In this issue, Li Jieping's Rural Investigation Project and the theme creation of 30 contemporary young and middle-aged artists make us feel the importance of the artist's excavation of a deep life to his/her artistic creation. Indeed, no matter how sophisticated your artistic skills are, it does not mean that you can easily cope with the new artistic style developed by skill innovation. Only by letting those accumulated skills return to the vivid visual aesthetic and perception can we create new pictures and the distinct styles. Li Jieping's Great Cold: Back Home published on the back cover of this issue is the real life scene that the artist saw during his rural investigation project, and it reminds us of the "petit couple" that he once created have finally come home with eagerness and joy on the eve of the New Year. This moment concreted in the painting may also condense the profound implications of the historic changes in peasant life over the past 40 years.