绘画的秘密一直是去发现另一层华美的肌肤，这是胜过人世间所有皮肤且不老而绚丽的肌肤，它或者是绘画的光泽，如果是用油画作为颜料的话，它或者用绢色带来的玉质感。绘画肌肤的触感，也是绘画永恒的诱惑，以物质的油画颜料抵达那如此切近又如此渺远的微妙触感，这就是绘画的光晕（aura of light）或者色晕（aura of color）之美。让绘画的表层带有如同玻璃镜子或者翠玉中烟云的隔离感，让迷人的色泽焕发出朦胧的诗意（aura of atmosphere），却又永远处於不可触的异域，但迷离的绘画在一片虚化中又召唤着我们的凝视，这正是绘画存在於这个技术世界的美感尊严与不可取代的诱惑。

　　在中国当代富有实力的年轻画家中，肖芳凯几乎是最为着迷於此绘画表面，摸索绘画语言本身那层表面色泽与灵晕的艺术家，他以细密的呼吸笔触与细微的过渡色层，让我们看到了另一种风景，既有诗意又有着古意，但又如此日常，就是我们身边的景色，但此景色却又充满迷离的梦幻。肖芳凯的绘画带来一种朦胧的视觉，在隐隐约约中，在显隐之间，绘画的场景总是处於一种迷离的氛围，如同水中的倒影，永远摇曳着青春的梦幻。

　　肖芳凯的绘画在形成自己的语言之初，就有着很高的心志，他接续西方里希特镜头失焦後所呈现的朦胧平薄式风景绘画，以及自己老师石冲对於画面表面塑胶质感半透明的触感处理，或者还有刘炜风景画上笔触的痉挛涂写性。显然，肖芳凯如此确立自己的目标，试图与最为富有绘画性的这些大家们较量，就是要追求绘画语言的本体性，回到绘画本身的纯粹语言表达，进入绘画内在难度的探索，这既要勇气，也要天赋，更需要持久地工作与摸索。而幸运的是，肖芳凯也找到了自己的绘画语法与视觉语言。

　　这就是在整体上营造出一种看似朦胧诗意的氛围，一种似乎通过“毛玻璃”才可能看到的风景，画面都比较繁密，有着无数的细节，有着色层与光线的细微变化，看似写实的描绘，其实局部却异常抽象，营造出一种迷离的氛围美学。但如果接近观看，则全然不同了，画家以无数细小的笔触，或者以刀划线，或者以刀尖来涂写，或者颜料纠集，来触发笔触的微妙细节，这是画家自己发明的绘画小单位与独特句法。在抽象的笔触细节与整体的朦胧气氛之间，画家要以丰富的色层变化及其构图营造出一种毛玻璃的触感，绘画要画得“毛”，这是绘画表面触感的生机，其实这也是中国传统画家，比如“四王”中的王原祁了不起的发现，因为毛茸茸是植物生机的触觉提取，当代中国画家中的毛焰也有此触感的追求，毛茸茸的一层触感乃是自然鲜活的无尽余留。肖芳凯一直试图让绘画表面铺上一层毛茸茸的且线条枝蔓的“网状”，似乎就是视网膜本身的显现，我们的视网膜就是由无数视觉神经所编制而成，而回到视网膜本身的这种直觉性，就是绘画重新出生的秘密。这也是一种诱惑，即绘画表面这层毛茸茸的枝蔓样态，似乎要求观众的视觉去整理、去抚平，而绘画当然又拒绝此触摸的欲望，绘画的本体“错觉”与“幻觉”再次就得以保留了，绘画的魅力与魔力也在此再次萌生。

　　要保持此朦胧模糊又充满隐忍生机的气氛，绘画的色彩就必须有着独特的处理，而肖芳凯的色彩就异常特别与令人难忘，画家似乎总是在画他想像中的黄昏与黎明，因此颜色总带有苍茫与昏黄的色调，如同德彪西的音乐，但又并不漂浮，因为其暗绿与灰白的色调异常沉着与幽邃，对於色调的这种降调与幽暗化处理体现出画家惊人的成熟与内在生命的张力体验。画家要执着地画出世界显现与消失的那个微茫时刻，但又总是带有一种内在的灼热，一种内在的细密度与光的强度，使看起来消失的时光，那些暗色调在白光的炙热中不会褪色，而是在画面上永恒地闪耀，永不会消失，一切都还在那里隐忍地生长，每一根松针，每一叶花瓣，每一块石头，都有着自己的生命，还在呼吸着，还在彼此地呼应，在它们自己的世界里，这层“毛玻璃”所隔离的那次朦胧的诗意色调在保护着它们，使其免受这个世界的伤害。

　　肖芳凯的绘画还不仅仅关注日常的周围风景，而且还试图在当下的风景中带入中国古代文人画的意境，带入那种微茫的诗意，不仅仅是画出带有文人画主题的作品，比如竹林与怪石等等，而是在意境的营造上，在当下灼热的风景中带入一种远古的冷感，尤其是苍茫的古意，一种渺远感，一切看似废墟与消亡中的风景，但却有着无尽的生机隐含其间，这也是为何他可以与之前学习过的那些大家们拉开距离，而形成自己的视觉语言之故。正是这种诗性的古意是现代性中国绘画可能给出的贡献，绘画表面这层肌肤的编织，以及对之持久的呵护与守护，就是对时光本身的余留。在这个意义上的绘画，不是风景，而是一种“心景”（Mindscape），一种虚托邦，一种可以寄托生命内在目光的异境。

夏可君／中国人民大学副教授 哲学博士

​The Atmosphere of Xiao Fangkai's Painting:The Hazy Halo on the Surface

　　The secret of painting has always been to discover another magnificent layer of skin, so gorgeous that it outperforms any skin in the world yet doesn't age. It can be the luster of the painting, or the jade texture brought about by the charming colors. The skin texture of painting is its eternal temptation. The delicate touch created by the oil paints is close and yet distant, which is actually the beauty of the aura of light or the aura of color. The sense of isolation on the painting's surface is like a glass cover or mist. The fascinating colors create the aura of atmosphere, staying in the untouchable exotic domain. The hazy painting is inviting us to gaze, revealing its aesthetic dignity and irreplaceable temptation in this technology world.

　　Among these competitive young artists in China, Xiao Fangkai is the one who is most fascinated with the surface of painting, groping after colors and the aura of the painting language. With elaborate strokes and the delicate transitional layer of colors, he's shown us a different view, poetic yet ancient. It's the scenery in everyday life, but full of blurred fantasies. Xiao's painting is visually blurred, being between explicit and implicit. The setting of the painting often has a misted atmosphere, just like the reflection in the water, flickering with the dream of the youth.

　　Xiao's painting is ambitious when his painting language begins to take shape. He's learned from Richter's out-of-focus landscape painting that appears hazy and thin, his tutor Shi Chong's handling with the plastic, semitransparent surface of painting, and Liu Wei's shivering strokes in landscape. Apparently, Xiao has established such a goal, endeavoring to compete with these creative masters. He intends to pursue the noumenon of the painting language, return to its pure expression, and explore its internal difficulty. These require courage and talents, as well as enduring work and exploration. Fortunately, he has already found his painting grammar and visual language.

　　That's to create a hazy, poetic atmosphere in general, so the scenery can only be seen through the "frosted glass". The pictures tend to be dense, with numerous details, and delicate variations of color layers and light. The seemingly realistic depiction is actually extremely abstract in detail, creating a misted aesthetic atmosphere. Observing closely, you'll have a completely different conclusion. With numerous tiny strokes, or lining with knives, or painting with the point of a knife, or piles of paints, the artist is depicting the delicate details. That's the painting unit and unique syntax he has invented. Between the abstract details and the integral hazy atmosphere, the artist has to create a touch of frosted glass with rich varieties of color layers and composition. The painting needs to be "hairy", which shows the vitality of the painting's surface. That's also a marvelous discovery of traditional Chinese painters, such as Wang Yuanqi of "Four Wangs". Hairiness is the touch of plants, and also the lingering appeal of nature and freshness. Contemporary artist Mao Yan also works on the touch of hairiness. Xiao attempts to cover the surface of the painting with a layer of hairy and interlaced net, like the emergence of retina itself. Our retina consists of numerous optic nerves, and the returning to the directness of retina is the secret of painting's rebirth. This is also a temptation, for the hairy vines on the surface invite the audience to touch, but painting, of course, refuses the desire to touch. The "illusion" and "hallucination" of painting remain as a result, and its appeal and magic revives again.

　　To keep the misted yet vibrant atmosphere, artists need to deal with the colors in a unique way. Xiao's colors are extraordinary and unforgettable. He seems to be always painting the dawn and dusk from his imagination, so the colors are in a bleak and dim tone. It's like Debussy's music, but it's not floating. The dark green and greyish white tone appears to be extremely calm and profound, and the falling and darkening tone reveals the artist's astonishing maturity and experience of internal life. The artist is obsessed to paint the dim instant of the world between appearance and disappearance. The internal glow, the internal density and intensity of light, makes the fading time shines eternally in the picture, and the dark tone never fades in the glow of white light. Everything is growing silently, including every pine needle, every pedal, every stone. Everything has its own life, breathing and echoing with each other. In their world, the hazy poetic tone segregated by the "frosted glass" is safeguarding them from the harm of the world.

　　Xiao's painting not only focuses on the surrounding scenery in everyday life, but also tries to introduce the artistic conception of ancient Chinese literati painting, and the dim poetry as well, into modern landscape. He's not only creating literati-themed painting, such as bamboo groves and bizarre rocks, but also bringing an ancient coldness, especially the dim ancient conception and sense of distance, into the current flaming landscape when creating the artistic conception. The seemingly ruined and fading landscape implies endless life in it, and that's how he could form his own visual language, but is still independent from all these masters. It's the poetic ancient conception that might be a contribution to contemporary Chinese painting. The weaving of the surface skin of the painting, and its lasting care and safeguard, is the preservation of time itself. In this sense, the painting is no longer landscape, but mindscape, a Utopia, an exotic domain to entrust the internal light of life.

Xia Kejun / Associate professor of Renmin University of China, Doctor of Philosophy