清代张潮写过一本随笔格言体的小书《幽梦影》，文中机警深刻的妙语体现了一个中国知识分子的品味。特别是他从日常生活中的月、石、云霞，或蝶、树、花鸟中体悟到的生命真谛与诗情学问，让人由衷感佩他的细腻与才华。之所以会想到张潮和他的《幽梦影》，却是缘自肖芳凯其人其画。

　　作为画家的肖芳凯笃定淡泊，喜欢读书，勤于思考，颇有中国传统文人的气质。当我走进他的画室时，他从未像其他人那样自谦环境简陋云云。只寒暄几句，便向我展示他的作品，平时不善言辞的芳凯此时像换了一个人，谈起自己的作品来滔滔不绝，这显然得益于他平时阅读的相当数量的西方文艺理论着作。

　　舶来的思想就像舶来的油画一样，需要艺术家理解和吸收之后才能真正驾轻就熟地运用。芳凯对西方当代艺术理论绝不盲从，因为他已经有了非常明确的文化立场。这是他在临习中国传统山水画的过程中，掌握中国画的笔法，体会中国画的意境，领悟中国画的美学特征，逐渐形成的审美判断。但是，油画毕竟有其自身的规律和语言，不是将中国画的技法或主题简单移植就能获得中国画的精神内涵和意境。芳凯在清华大学美术学院攻读硕士时，师从石冲教授。这既锤炼了他的油画技艺，又加深了他对艺术的理解和思考。对一个画家而言，形式和内容的关系是终其一生需要面对的问题，换句话说就是“怎么画”和“画什么”。在西方美术史上，一个传统的艺术家经过学徒或学院的学习，掌握了创作的技法，“怎么画”的问题基本解决了。而来自教会、宫廷和贵族的委托，让“画什么”也不再是问题。但是随着现代主义兴起，艺术家们试图挣脱学院派的束缚，必须重新开始思考“怎么画”，现代主义对形式语言的探索正是力求解决这个问题。与此同时，随着艺术赞助方式的改变，艺术家们需要独立面对难以预测的艺术市场的淘洗，“画什么”的问题再度摆在艺术家面前。可以说，抽象绘画是对现代主义对“怎么画”和“画什么”问题的一个最合理的解答。后现代主义以来的美术仍然没有摆脱这对貌似简单的问题。肖芳凯这一代中国艺术家，既需要在形式语言上进行探索，又要在当代艺术格局中寻找定位。因此，他必须思考用什么样的语言去表现何种题材。

　　芳凯的绘画以园林为主题。为此他几乎遍览南方名园，写生创作，终于完成了一批个人风格突出的作品。园林，即微缩的山水，是在有限的空间内精心营造的一个知识分子的精神家园。张潮说：“有地上之山水，有画上之山水，有梦中之山水，有胸中之山水。地上者，妙在丘壑深邃；画上者，妙在笔墨淋漓；梦中者，妙在景象变幻；胸中者，妙在位置自如。”芳凯绘画呈现的是梦中和胸中的山水。画中的园林空寂无人，被梦一般的朦胧笼罩着，婆娑的花枝在墙壁和地面上投下斑驳的影子，所以，用“幽”“梦”“影”三字来概括芳凯作品给人的第一印象颇为贴切。

　　对于每一幅作品，芳凯都进行过从结构到色彩的系统研究。他通过素描来解决画面黑白灰的构成，再以水彩来探索画面的色彩关系，进而用小幅油画来表现笔触与肌理的效果，最终再完成大幅的成稿。这个过程中的每件作品都存在着递进的关系，同时又可以独立存在，不同材质的特性都被芳凯发挥得淋漓尽致。19世纪法国纳比派画家莫里斯·德尼曾说：“记着，一幅画在成为一件轶事、一匹战马或一个裸女之前，首先是各种色彩按照一定秩序覆盖的一个平面。”这句话是理解西方抽象绘画的关键，同样适用于我们观看肖芳凯的作品。我们从芳凯作品表面恣肆的笔触可以感受到中国书法用笔的气势，同时它们又构成了画面非常有机的组成部分，与背景中斑驳的色块相呼应，让人首先看到的似乎是一幅抽象绘画。然而，仔细审视，我们还是能在笔触与色彩交织的网络里看到亭台楼阁的轮廓，这让芳凯的作品具有了吸引观众不断深入探究的魅力。

　　肖芳凯的绘画以其独特的形式语言为我们呈现了一幅幅缘自艺术家内心世界的风景。它们的清幽揭示了一位艺术家略带孤独感的心境，朦胧的景物让原本熟悉的园林变得陌生，从而超越了我们理解的现实世界，而斑驳的树影和似乎承载着岁月的色彩让画面显得神秘而深邃。这就是肖芳凯为我们呈现的世界。

张敢／清华大学美术学院当代艺术研究所所长 艺术史博士 博士生导师

The Garden of Dreams- On  Xiao Fangkai's Painting

　　Zhang Chao in the Qing Dynasty wrote an essay collection titled The Garden of Dreams, in which the witty, profound wisecrack reflects the taste of a Chinese intellectual. The truth of life and poetic knowledge he perceived from everyday things, such as Moon, stones, rosy clouds, or butterflies, trees, flowers and birds, particularly showed us his admirable delicacy and talents. But what reminds me of Zhang Chao and his The Garden of Dreams is actually Xiao Fangkai and his painting.

　　As an artist, Xiao is steadfast, stoical, bookish and reflective, with some characteristics of traditional Chinese literati. When I walked into his studio, he never commented on it like others would do. The ineloquent artist seemed like a new man, gushing over his works, which obviously resulted from the large amount of western artistic theories he had read.

　　Exotic thoughts are just like the exotic oil painting, both requiring the artist's comprehension and absorption before he could be proficient at using them. Xiao never follows these art theories blindly because he's got a clear cultural position. When he copies traditional Chinese landscape, studies the brushwork of Chinese ink painting, perceives its artistic conception, comprehends its aesthetic features, he's gradually obtained the aesthetic judgment. However, oil painting has its own rules and language, so simply transplanting Chinese painting techniques or themes can't guarantee the obtaining of the spiritual connotation and artistic conception of Chinese painting. Xiao was a postgraduate student of Professor Shi Chong at the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, where he practiced his oil painting techniques, and deepened his understanding of and reflection on art. To an artist, the relationship between form and content is a life-long issue to face. In other words, it refers to "how to paint" and "what to paint". In western art history, a traditional artist needed to study as a pupil or at an academy, and he basically knew "how to paint" after he mastered the creation techniques. And the commission from the church, royal court and aristocrats solved the problem of "what to paint". With the rise of modernism, artists are trying to break the shackles of academies, and rethink about "how to paint", which is exactly a problem that modernism intends to solve with the exploration of form language. Meanwhile, with the changing sponsorship of art, artists need to face the unpredictable art market independently, and the problem of "what to paint" stands in front of artists again. It's all right to say, abstract painting is modernism's most reasonable answer to the questions of "how to paint" and "what to paint". Art since postmodernism hasn't solved this seemingly simple question either.  Xiao's generation of artists need to explore the form language, as well as find the appropriate orientation in the modern art structure. Therefore, he needs to reflect what language to use for what themes.

　　Garden is the theme of Xiao's painting, for which he visited most famous gardens in the south, sketching and creating a collection of works with prominent individual style. A garden is the miniature landscape, a spiritual home elaborately created for intellectuals in a confined space. As Zhang Chao put it, "landscape can exist on the ground, in paintings, in dreams, and in minds. On the ground, the charm lies in the rising and falling ranges; in paintings, it lies in the brushwork; in dreams, it lies in the ever-changing visions; in minds, it lies in the flexible locations." What Xiao presents is the landscape in dreams and minds. The garden is empty, shrouded in dreamy haze, with swinging branches casting dappled shadows on the wall and the ground. Therefore, it's appropriate to describe the first impression of his works with the three words of "quiet" "dream" and "shadow".

　　For each painting, Xiao has done systematic research from the structure to colors. He figured out the composition of black, white and grey with sketch, explored the color relations with watercolor, presented the strokes and texture with small size oil painting, and eventually finished it in large pieces. In the process, each piece of work has progressive relationship, but can exist independently as well. He has brought the features of each material into full play. Maurice Denis, a French Nabis painter in the 19th century once noted, "Remember, before being an anecdote, a war horse, or a nude, a painting is first a plane covered by different colors in a certain order." His statement is the key to understanding western abstract painting, and it also applies to Xiao's works. We can perceive the vigor of Chinese calligraphy from the wielding strokes in his paintings, which are also an organic component of the picture. Echoed with the dappled color bulks in the background, the strokes first appear to be an abstract painting. However, observing closely, we can see the outline of pavilions and pagodas from the intersected network of the strokes and colors. That's what invites the audience to probe deeper into his works.

　　With the unique language, Xiao's painting has presented us landscape originating from the inner world of the artist. Its quietness reveals the slightly solitary mind of an artist, and the hazy scenery makes the familiar gardens appear strange. It has exceeded the real world in our mind, and the mottled tree shadows and the weathered colors have made the pictures mysterious and profound. That's the world Xiao has presented to us.

​Zhang Gan / Vice dean of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, Doctor of Art history, Doctoral supervisor