李节平把他最近刚完成的一个绘画考察项目的系列作品拿给我看，希望我能够为此写点什么。我和他并不相熟，但对他的成名作《小夫妻》却很有印象。已经有很多年了，中国油画主流一直在盛行一种唯美主义的风尚。甚至有人统计过近40年历届全国油画展中的作品，发现仅仅一个少女斜躺在沙发上的普通题材，居然每一届都会出现，其入选率之高，说明“讨人喜欢”这一趣味已经深入油画专业界的内部，不仅让画家们沉浸在廉价的风格中沾沾自喜，而且还日益远离其所生活的现实，忽略，进而严重地脱离艺术的社会性。《小夫妻》的意义正在这里，李节平通过朴实的题材与同样朴实的描绘，让艺术重新回到培育它成长的现实土壤之中，让艺术家的眼光重新投向社会，再次尖锐与敏感起来，从而把审美还给令人沉思且动荡不安的日常，还给培育其成长的普罗大众。

　　曾几何时，我们的艺术是以现实主义为号召的，在现代艺术发展的道路上，现实主义曾经作为一种艺术的武器，有效地参与时代的大变革当中，成为这一变革在视觉动员上的有力方式，起到重要的作用。当然，艺术在现实主义发展的道路上，由于各种复杂的原因，其呈现一直是多样与曲折的，而不是直线发展的。当过度要求艺术归于一统，取消艺术家个人探索的空间时，艺术就陷入单调的境地而无法自拔，这时的艺术显然偏离了真正的现实主义道路，艺术家的个人作用因此也消失殆尽；同样，当艺术的多样化成为时代的自觉诉求，一种较为混乱的唯美主义又因市场的轻率介入而越来越深入地破坏艺术自身的独立价值，让本来成为推动社会进步的艺术变得花哨起来，逐渐丧失其应有的精神力量与批判作用。过去大半个世纪，现实主义艺术在中国的发展，无不呈现出这样一种曲折的样态。在这里，关键是现实主义，或者确切地说，是对现实主义的深入理解，以及与时代不同程度的结合。在我看来，作为19世纪社会运动在艺术上的表达，现实主义就整体而言是艺术现代性诸种风格中的一种，而且是重要的一种。在19世纪中晚期，西方艺术的主流价值基本上是由现实主义去书写的，不管是俄罗斯的“巡回画派”，还是欧洲“见证社会变化与进步”的“学院派”，以及20世纪早期以艺术为武器介入革命运动的批判潮流，现实主义都是其中不可或缺的手段。

　　问题是，最近几十年间，现实主义这一概念被写实主义所取代，这是一个饶有兴味的问题，值得引起艺术界的反思。就词源而言，Realism是19世纪库尔贝提出来的，不过，他提出之后，在相当长一段时间内被解释为绘画的写实主义，就像库尔贝本人所说，他只画看得见的，不画看不见的。后来，对艺术的变革引发了艺术家群体对社会进步的高度关注，在这样的情形下，写实主义作为一种描绘的手法上升为一种观察社会的方法，被更具有广度含义的现实主义这一概念所取代，艺术由此而获得超越表象的思想意义，而直指存在本身。英国著名文化批判学者威廉斯（Raymond Williams）指出：“Realism是出现在19世纪的新词汇。从1830年开始在法文里使用；从1850年开始在英文里使用。它包含了四种不同的意蕴：1．用来描述现实论者（Realist）的学说，与唯名论者（Nominalist）的学说相对立；2．用来描述独立于心灵世界之外的自然世界之新学说，就这层意义而言，它可以和自然主义（Naturalism）与物质主义（Materialism）相互为用；3．用来描述如何面对真实的事物（不是我们想象的或我们所希望的）——‘让我们用现实主义（Realism）来代替感情主义（Sentimentalism），勇于揭露那些单纯却令人畏惧的法则。这些法则，不管是否被看到，四处散布并且支配一切。’（爱默生，1860年）4．用来描述一种方法或一种关于艺术与文学的看法——最初指的是非常精确的‘再现’（Representation），后来指描述真实事件，以及提示真实存在的事物。”1威廉斯的这一解释对于我们理解现实主义很重要，现实主义强调的不是描述，而是如何面对。也就是说，艺术家在面对社会时，他的态度很多时候甚至比经典手法更为重要，因为他不是在描摹，而是在观察，在理解，在选择，甚至在揭露与批判，他的作品是对存在的一种价值判断。其中，重要的是态度与立场。

　　从这一点出发讨论李节平的成名作《小夫妻》，我认为他的作品恰恰具有这样一种气质，他的创作绝对不是对曾经的事实的简单描摹，对严酷的存在的视觉拷贝，他在表达这样一种观念，通过一对由外来务工人员组合的夫妻，他们正在工地砌砖墙这样的生活细节，在所谓观念流行的当下提醒我们现实的价值，包括对劳动、自强、创造与顽强的再次定义，而这些曾经的朴素认知，已经在美术界消失很久很久了。正因为这样，所以李节平的《小夫妻》才有一种震撼人心的内在力量，其意义正在于他以决绝的力量重新启动现实主义艺术的道路，并努力通过这样一种朴素的方式，再现普通形象的非凡尊严。

　　显然，他的“乡野考察”项目正是沿着这样一条现实主义艺术道路的再次尝试，只是，这一次不是单独的主题创作，而是一系列的作品；不是典型细节的组织，而是持续的观察。在我看来，这一次李节平颇像一个自觉的人类学者，深入乡村，以一种直白的眼光一而再，再而三地去捕捉还原乡村本初的形象，这些形象一直生活在广阔的田野上，但因为种种原因，却已经被艺术界遗忘了很久很久。当然，和职业的人类学家相比，他观察与表达的工具是绘画。

　　“乡野考察”这个项目，李节平考察的是广东乡村状况，艺术家选择了似乎尚待进一步发展的乡村进行考察，显然是有他的用意的。在李节平看来，不平衡问题是制约中国发展的一个重大问题，政府在解决这一问题上下了很大的决心，而作为一个现实主义的艺术家，他要“考察”的是其中的对现实具有提示价值的审美认知。在这一方面，李节平的认识是尖锐的，他认为：“这几十年，农民朋友被城里人坑得不浅，他们始终带着一种警惕防备的眼神，也多少学会了狡猾、表里不一的处事态度。他们甚至看不起城里人，不屑于城里人吃的那些带着农药残留物的食物。有时，我常想，农民既向往现代化生活，又惧于现代化的某些严规苛责和人事冷漠，他们可以寸土不让，也可以倾情以待，这也许是农耕文明的意识，或许是文明进步中的一道道坎。不管怎样，农村和农民是随着时代的进步在改变着，这是时代的脉动。”2

　　对于艺术家来说，他用一种什么方式把这一时代的脉动给表现出来？这显然是李节平视觉考察的重点所在。他用“粤农百态”这样一个题目就已经明确地告诉我们，他寻找的是一种生活的特殊留痕，现实是如何去形塑一个又一个具体生动的相貌，这些相貌，与养尊处优的城市外表大异其趣，本身就是一个具有现实主义意义的社会存在。如此一来，李节平就潜在地把自己的眼光改造成为一个人类学家。也就是说，他力图像一个具有平等观念的视觉人类学家那样，努力寻找与发现活跃在现实的那些生动而有趣的特征，强调彼此因成长而形成的相貌差异性，从而揭示生活的严酷性是如何形塑在其重压下仍然坚忍不拔地生存下去的群落，这一群落，李节平给出一个名字，叫“粤农百态”。

　　关于“粤农百态”，李节平的描述是：“在我看来，岭南原住民因基因强大，尽管有着几千年的融合繁衍，但今天地道的‘老广’无论在哪，其貌特征明显，其相厚实可辨。画广东人就要去到族群长期集聚之地，农村当是首选，农民世代繁衍，少有外族交混，相貌相对固定。”3原来，李节平是在用绘画的形式寻找与定义“老广”的相貌特征，他在一个又一个具体的形象面前驻足，不是单纯的写生，而是在其现实主义意义也正在其中得到充分的体现。

　　大概因为我一直在研究中国当代纪实摄影，对摄影家试图通过一系列的专题拍摄寻找比个体更具有象征意义的形象定义这一点非常熟悉，让我诧异的是，这一次的类似工作却是由一个艺术家来完成。关键是绘画，比起摄影更具有一个主观性，艺术家的观察很多时候就比对象更为重要。正因为这一点，我才觉得必须考察李节平笔下的形象，他希望通过一系列的描绘表达“老广”这样一个“粤农百态”的概念，和一种人类学的原则联系在一起，从而揭示其深化现实主义的方式。在我看来，在当代中国艺术界，尤其在当前的整体社会发展的大格局中，这一方式是具有时代意义的。甚至，从某种角度看，李节平的工作具有一种方向性的启示。

　　李节平当然不是人类学家，他是一个朴素的现实主义者，在深化这一概念，寻找甚至重建其中的社会价值方面，他有意无意地在从事一种与人类学原则相符合的艺术实践，既然如此，我觉得完全可以把他的实践命名为“绘画人类学”。我相信，李节平在这一深化的现实主义艺术的道路上，在考察与定义他所面对的现实存在当中，还会有惊人的绘画表现。

2018年9月17日写于费城

杨小彦

中山大学传播与设计学院教授、博士生导师

广州美术学院客座教授、硕士生导师

西安美术学院客座教授、博士生导师

华南师范大学客座教授

　　1 见《关键词：文化与社会的词汇》，北京三联书店，刘建基译，2005年，第393页。

　　2 见李节平本人叙述其创作过程的文字稿。

　　3 见李节平本人叙述其创作过程的文字稿。

An Attempt at Anthropology of Painting

​The Deepening of Realism in Li Jieping's Rural Investigation Project

　　After showing me a series of latest paintings, Li Jieping wished that I could write something for the works. Though I am not familiar with him, I was very impressed by his work Petit Couple which shot to his fame. Aestheticism is a dominate style which has been prevailing in Chinese oil paintings for many years. Some people even counted out the works displayed in the previous national oil painting exhibitions in the past forty years and found out that the ordinary subject of a girl lying on a sofa has been actually exhibited every time. This indicates a common phenomenon: the interest of pleasing audience has penetrated into the oil painting profession, leading the artists not only to immerse their works in a cheap style, but also to get away from the reality of their lives and neglect or even seriously break away from the social nature of art.

　　The significance of Petit Couple lies just right there. With plain themes and sincerely depictions, Li Jieping made his art works down-to-earth. By turning the artist's vision to the society and making them both incisive and sensitive again, Li Jieping brought back the aesthetics to the real life and the general public.

　　Art creation was once led by realism. Realism has once been a sharp blade on the road of modern art development playing an important part in participating in the great changes of the times. Certainly, on the road of realism development, art has always been diversely and tortuously developed due to various complicated reasons. If art creation is required to be unified, the space for the artist's personal exploration shall be limited and the artistic creation will fall into a monotonous situation. In this way, the art work will deviate from the real path of realism, and at the same time, the individuality of the artists will disappear. Similarly, when the diversification of art becomes the conscious appeal of the times, a chaotic aestheticism, with a rash intervention of the market, increasingly damages the independence of art, which makes the art gaudy and losing its both spiritual strength and critical role in pushing social progress. For more than half a century, the development of realism art in China - to be specific, people's deep understanding of realism and the integration between realism and the times - has been presented in such a tortuous state. In my opinion, as an expression of art in the social movement of the nineteenth century, realism, in general, is one and also an important one of the various styles of modernism. In the mid-tolate nineteenth century, the mainstream value of Western art was basically expressed by realism. Whether it was "The Wanderers" in Russia, or the "Academism" in Europe that witnessed the "social change and progress", or the critical trend that intervened in of the revolutionary movementas a weapon in the early 20th century, realism was always an indispensable way.

　　In fact, in recent decades, the concept of realism has been replaced by naturalism. This is quite an interesting issue that deserves to be pondered by the art world. In terms of etymology, realism was proposed by Gustave Courbet in the 19th century. However, realism was interpreted as the naturalistic painting for quite some time after he had proposed it. In Courbet's words, he committed to painting only what he could see. Later, the change in art led the artists' attention to social progress. Under such circumstances, naturalism, as a depictive approach has risen to a way of observing society and been replaced by realism which has more extensive meaning. Thus art has gained the ideological meaning which went beyond the representation and could refer directly to the existence itself. Raymond Williams, a famous British cultural critic, pointed out that the term of Realism was a new vocabulary that appeared in the 19th century. It was used in French and English in 1830 and 1850 respectively. It contains four different implications: 1, to describe the theory of realist, and is opposed to the doctrine of naturalist; 2, to describe the new doctrine of the natural world which is outside the spiritual world. In this sense, it can be applied in conjunction with naturalism and materialism; 3, to describe how to face the real thing (not what we imagine or what we hope for) - ‘Let realism replace sentimentalism. People should be dare to expose those simple but dreaded rules which has been spread around and dominate everything no matter whether they are seen or not' (Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1860); 4, to describe a method or a view of art and literature - initially refers to a very precise ‘representation', and later refers to the description of real events, and indicate the existence of reality." 1 This interpretation of Williams on realism is rather helpful for us to understand what it is. Realism emphasizes not on describing the reality, but on how to face it. That is to say, when an artist is depicting the society, his/her attitude is often more important than the techniques because instead of simply describing, he/she is observing, understanding, choosing, and even exposing and criticizing. In so doing, his/her work could be a valuable judgment to the existence, and the artist's attitude and position play the more important roles.

　　Take the above consideration into account to comment on Li Jieping's work, I think Petit Couple

　　has exactly such temperament. Instead of simple describing the facts of the past or visually copying the harsh existence, his creation, through the depiction of the migrant-worker couple who are building the brick walls at the construction site, aims to remind us of the value of reality including the re-definition of labor, self-improvement, creativity and stability. Actually, this simple cognitionhas disappeared in the art world for a long time. For this reason, Petit Couple has a kind of alarming inner strength which opened a path to reboot modern realism art with a striking power. In such a simple way, he aims to reproduce the extraordinary dignity of ordinary people.

　　Obviously, his Rural Investigation Project is another attempt along such a realistic art path, which brings us a series of works based on his continuous observation. In my opinion, Li Jieping is quite like a conscious anthropologist. He went deep into the rural areas and captured the original images of the countryside with a straightforward vision. These images from the vast rural fields, for various reasons, have been forgotten by the art world for quite a long time. But for Li Jieping, compared to professional anthropologists, painting is his observation and expression tool.

　　In this project, Li Jieping investigated the situation in the rural areas of Guangdong. Obviously, he had his intentions in choosing the villages that still need to be further developed for his own motivation. In his view, the issue of imbalance is a major problem that constrains China's development despite great effort has been made by the administration. As a realist artist, what he wants to "observe" is the aesthetic cognition that has the suggestive value to reality. In this respect, his understanding is incisive. He wrote: "In the past few decades, many peasants have been deceived by people from the city, so they always have a pair of vigilant eyes and more or less have learned the attitude of cunning and duplicity to deal with affairs. They even looked down on the city people and disdain the food that city people had with pesticides. I often think that peasants are not only hoping for modern life, but also fearing certain strict rules and human indifference in modern society. They contest every inch of ground and they are also sincere to you - this may be the consciousness of farming civilization, which perhaps be a stumbling block in the progress of civilization. In any case, the rural areas and the peasants are changing with the progress of the time, and this is the pulse of the time." 2

　　As an artist, how to present the pulse of this era is obviously the focus of Li Jieping's visual creation. Choosing the theme of "Guangdong Peasants" shows clearly that what he was looking for was a special trace of life - how these faces were shaped by reality. These vivid appearances are completely varied from those of the pampered citizens, because these images themselves are a kind of social existence with realistic significance. Therefore, Li Jieping has potentially regarded himself as an anthropologist. That is to say, just like a visual anthropologist with an idea of equality, he tried to find

　　and discover the vivid and interesting features that are active in reality. The difference in appearance of the peasants reveals how the harshness of life shapes a community - "Guangdong Peasants", named by that Li Jieping - still survives under the pressure of life.

　　Regarding the "Guangdong Peasants", Li Jieping said: "In my opinion, the Lingnan aborigines have strong genes. Even after mixed and multiplied for thousands of years, today they still have obvious features and easy to be sdistinguished. Painting Guangdong people should go to the place where ethnic group long-term gathered. The rural area is the first option because there were fewer foreigners mixed with peasants during the generations and they have relatively fixed appearance."3 It turns out that Li Jieping found and defined the characteristics and features of Guangdong people by means of painting. The reason why he dedicated to drawing one and another specific person is to fully reflect the significance of the reality.

　　Probably because I have been studying contemporary Chinese documentary photography, I am very familiar with photographers who are trying to find a more symbolic image through a series of special shooting. What made me surprised was that this kind of work was done by an artist. More importantly, when it comes to painting, the artist could be more subjective than the photographer as the artist will pay more attention to observing the objects. For the sake of this, I must link Li Jieping's image investigation which expresses the concept of "Guangdong Peasants" by a series of depictions on Guangdong people, with the principles of anthropology to reveal a way of deepening the realistic art. I believe this method is of great significance in the contemporary Chinese art world, especially in the current overall pattern of social development. Even from a certain perspective, Li Jieping's work has a directional inspiration.

　　Li Jieping is certainly not a real anthropologist. However, he is a sincere realist who is deepening this concept via seeking and even reconstructing the social values. He intentionally or unconsciously engages in an artistic practice that is consistent with the principles of anthropology. In this way, I think his practice can surely be named as "Anthropological Painting". I believe that on the road of deepening realistic art, Li Jieping will have more amazing paintings when investigating and defining the reality he faces.

17th September, 2018 in Philadelphia

Yang Xiaoyan

Professor and doctoral supervisor in School of Communication and Design Department, Sun Yat-sen University

Visiting professor and master Supervisor in of Guangzhou Acmdemy of Fine Arts

Visiting professor and doctoral supervisor in Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts

Visiting professor of South China Normal University

　　1Key Words: Cultural and Social Vocabulary , Beijing Sanlian Bookstore, Translated by Liu Jianji, 2005, 393 pp.

　　2See the text wrote by Li Jieping about his creation process.

　　3  See the text wrote by Li Jieping about his creation process.