从表面上看，形容汝南的绘画似乎不难，他的油画风格显然与俄罗斯，东欧现实主义绘画有着承接关联。但有两个疑点却又反驳这种简单化的认识。显然，汝南的绘画风格可以追溯到18世纪古典油画。一般认为，中国著名画家靳尚谊恪守了西方古典油画传统，其实这仅是某一类型的古典主义，古典绘画风格丰富多样，诸如荷兰古典风俗画的日常化，法国新古典主义的贵族严谨，西班牙古典魔幻的怪异，英国“拉斐尔前派”的矫饰。总之，它们都有自身清晰的脉络和独特的风格演变。今天，正在势头的莱比锡画派与德国古典主义之间有着难以拆散的联系，而20世纪80年代初风云一时的意大利“超前卫”绘画也受到意大利传统艺术的感染，有趣的是，中国人画油画有点概括性地理解西方油画。往往把丰富的东西简单化为单一的东西。

　　我为什么要把汝南的画放到18世纪来看呢？因为汝南的绘画让我联想到了西班牙画家戈雅，把头部画得非常概括，戈雅的这种风格常被看作是西方写意油画第一人。我之所以不去用俄国画家列宾对照汝南，是因为想用西方真正的古典主义精神给予汝南支持，尤其是戈雅的古典被看作是早期现代性的标志，只有把寻源寻到底，以后才可以对“放”能“放”得开。然而，我知道汝南是希望与古典主义告别的年轻艺术家，所以就产生了另外一个疑点，在他艺术表现远于传统近于当代时，我们却无法在艺术家的个人内心状态中获得解释，因此描述汝南的艺术就不那么容易。

　　一般来说，对汝南的作品关注都会侧重他的头像系列，如果说面孔是认识人的内心深处的窗口，那么他把肖像的面孔处理成模糊的似是而非的形象，这样认识人心灵的窗户就变得暧昧。然而，这种效果是靠什么来完成呢？艺术家通过流动性、随意性、偶然性浑厚而粗犷的写意方式实现的形象特征，以此把明确而具体的意义变成了想象和抽象的图像。也就是说，把身边作为个体人的特征转变成了普遍意义人的特征。

　　我想如果艺术家试图想让自己的艺术向当代性跨出一步时，就必须重新审视自己习惯的方法，从一些偶然性中探掘潜力，或换一种视角来观察自己和外部世界。当我在杂志上看到汝南的一幅巨幅现场写生作品时，内心一动，感觉这将不失为对汝南的一次机会，以此作为对当代艺术的尝试，这件作品伴随着录像（Video）记录，是在抗拒风的阻力情况下完成了对自然景观的写生——风，巨幅写生油画，自然，艺术家新鲜的感受，录像（Video），则记录了艺术实践中发生的真实过程。如果把这些不同的元素组合起来再一次观察汝南的艺术，我想这不妨可以以新绘画的概念对汝南这次勇敢尝试做出概括。

　　“新绘画”是中国当代艺术在今天不可缺失的一部分，也是常常谈论的话题。什么是“新绘画”？顾名思义，新绘画与传统绘画必然在多大问题上有很多歧义才可称为新绘画。但“新”并不意味着简单的寻找一种方法去替代“旧”，或许“旧”也有许多潜力可以借助，当代艺术区别于现代主义艺术在本质上不是替代，而是综合——通过借助多重元素来改变传统艺术单一化的表现，或者说传统艺术方式是综合体的一个支点，由此构成了新绘画的一个机遇。显然，汝南是强调画的方法的画家，绘画性在他的头像系列中明显占有主导性。汝南如果希望我给他一些批评，我会建议他“去”绘画性，在“去”绘画性中保留绘画性，以这样的方法实现起来会相当有挑战性。如何“去”绘画性，如何保留绘画性，在解决这个矛盾中会有无限的空间，而且并不一定是在画的过程中去寻找，或许可以在观念性、社会性、日常性中挖掘蕴藏的重要艺术元素和能量。所以，艺术家不仅要善于分析自我的内心世界，而且要通过对外部世界的观察和解析以改变自己的艺术认识深度。

　　毋庸置疑，汝南是一位很有天赋的画家，他的艺术气质也给人留下深刻的印象。他对我说他想来北京生活几年以改变自己的艺术想法。如今的北京不断吸引着全国各地怀有艺术梦想和献身艺术的青年人云集于此，汝南在这样一个现象中参与进来，一定会留下深刻体验。

Tong Yan Runan: Contemporary Painting  Translated from Classical Aesthetics

Huang Du

　　Superficially, there is no difficulty to describe Runan's paintings. The Style of his oil paintings apparently related to the Russian and Eastern European Realism. But there are two doubtful points to refute such simplified understanding. Evidently, the painting style of Ru'nan could be traced back to classical paintings in the 18 century. Generally, Jin Shangyi, the distinguished Chinese artist is considered as the one having strictly abided by the western classical art tradition. Actually, it is only a genre of classicalism. In the kaleidoscope of classical painting styles, such as the everyday life of Holland classical genre painting, the nobly preciseness of French neoclassicism, the fantastic magic of Spanish classicism and the priggism of "the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood" in British, each has its own thread of story and development of style that is clear and distinct. Today, the new Leipzig School in the full flush of success is inextricably related to the German classicism, and the paintings of "Italian Transavant Garde" were influenced by Italian traditional art as well. Interestingly enough, Chinese painters in their works usually comprehend western paintings in a generalized way, at least to some extent. The diversification is often simplified.

　　Why I read Runan's works in the context of 18 century? Because I associated his paintings with Goya, the Spanish artist, whose head portraits was so condensed, that he was viewed as the first western painter to adopt the impressionistic style. I reject the idea to contrast Runan with the Russian painter Repin, because I want to bolster him with conventional western classicalism. Especially, Goya's classicalism was regarded as the sign of early modernity. However, I know that Runan, as a young artist, hope to depart classicalism, thus comes the other doubtful point: if his artistic expression is as far as tradition and as new as the present age, why cannot we find the proper interpretation in his inner world? So it is somewhat difficult to describe Runan's art.

　　Generally speaking, attentions paid to Runan's works often emphasized particularly to his head portrait series. If the face was the window to look into the dim recess of one's mind, in the delusively blurry images of his portraits, the window to read one's heart became ambiguous. But how could he create such effects? By forming the character with fluidness and uncertainty and in a haphazard and straightforwardly impressionistic way, the artist transformed concrete and specific meanings into imaginary and abstract images. In other words, individual characteristics were converted into universal meaning of human life.

　　I suppose, if the artist has tried to take a further step towards contemporary art, he has to re-sight his usual method and to exploit potentials in contingency, or observe himself and outward world from a new angle. Once I saw on a magazine a giant drawing from nature by Runan, suddenly I had a brainwave that why this cannot be a chance for him as an experiment on contemporary art. This art work, along with its video record, is a sketch of natural sight finished against the resistance of wind: the wind, the giant oil painting, the nature, the fresh feeling of artist, and the video, all recorded the actual art-practicing process. If we integrate all these constituents to view Runan's art again, it is not impossible to generalize his brave attempt with the conception of "new painting".

　　Today, the "new painting" is an indispensable component in the contemporary Chinese art，and is talked about time and again. What is "new painting"? Just as its name implies, it necessarily differentiate with traditional painting for the most part. Yet the "new" does not indicate simply to substitute the "old" with an alternative means. Perhaps, with the help of the "old" we can develop lots of potentials. In essence, the contemporary art distinguishes from modernism art not by substituting, but integration – in virtue of multiple elements to change the unified expression of traditional art, or using the traditional method as the pivot of the synthesis, the new painting thus open up one of its opportunities. Obviously, Runan strongly emphasizes painting techniques; brush qualities seem overwhelmingly dominant in his head portraits. If my critiques are welcomed by Runan, I will suggest him to "remove" the brush qualities, and while "removing" also reserve it. How to "remove", and how to reserve, in resolving this paradox there would be infinite space. The answer is not always found during the drawing process; actually, important art elements and energy could be contained in conception, sociality, and ordinary life. Therefore, the artist should not only be adept at decomposing his or her inner world, but increase the depth of artistic comprehension through perceiving and analyzing the outward world.

　　Undoubtedly, Runan has great talent as a painter, and he is an impressive person with artistic temperament as well. He told me that he would stay in Beijing several years to renew his thought on art. Nowadays this city increasingly attracts young people with burning art ambition and deep devotion from all part of the country, and it is sure that Runan will gain valuable experience in his participation.

​(Translated by Fanny Wang)