以东方文化为根，以未来想象为翼：关于中国绘画当代重构与未来生成的思考

Tradition Is Not an Endpoint, but the Beginning of the Future

Rooted in Eastern Culture, Winged by Future Imagination: Reflections on the Contemporary Reconstruction and Future Generation of Chinese Painting

孙宏涛（雍城子)  Hongtao Sun Yongchengzi / Joseph Sun

阳朔印象 Impression of Yangshuo

2025 | 宣纸新彩墨 Neo-Color Ink on Xuan Paper

当代中国艺术一直在谈论传统、传承与创新。然而，真正值得追问的并不是 “要不要继承传统”，而是：我们究竟以什么方式继承传统？

如果所谓传承只是不断重复既有样式，那么传统虽然被保留了，却未必真正获得了生命。因为传统从来不是一种静止的形式，而是一种不断生成、不断更新的文化能力。真正的传统，并不只是过去留下来的东西，更是能够在新的时代继续创造的精神力量。

Contemporary Chinese art has long engaged in discussions about tradition, inheritance, and innovation. Yet the question truly worth asking is not whether we should inherit tradition, but rather: in what way should tradition be inherited?

If inheritance merely means repeating established forms, then tradition may be preserved, but it may not truly regain its vitality. Tradition has never been a static form. It is a cultural capacity that continuously generates, renews, and transforms itself. True tradition is not merely what has been left behind by the past; it is a spiritual force capable of continuing to create in a new era.

红色照金山 Red Zhaojin Mountain

2023 | 宣纸新彩墨 Neo-Color Ink on Xuan Paper

回顾中国艺术史可以发现，每一次重要的艺术推进，都不是对过去的简单复制。敦煌壁画之所以伟大，不只是因为它保存了古代图像，更因为它在多元文化交汇中创造了新的视觉体系；宋元山水之所以成为高峰，也不是因为它重复了前代图式，而是在新的时代心境中完成了中国山水精神的深化。明清时期及近现代以来，徐渭、石涛、朱耷、陈洪绶、齐白石、张大千、黄宾虹、陆俨少、林风眠、李可染等诸多艺术大家的价值，同样不在于他们最像古人，而在于他们能够从传统深处生发出随时代而发展的新艺术语言。

Looking back at the history of Chinese art, we can see that every significant artistic advancement was never a simple copy of the past. The greatness of the Dunhuang murals lies not only in their preservation of ancient imagery, but also in the fact that they created a new visual system through the convergence of diverse cultures. The Song and Yuan landscape traditions reached their height not because they repeated earlier pictorial models, but because they deepened the spiritual dimension of Chinese landscape painting within a new historical consciousness. From the Ming and Qing dynasties to the modern period, the value of masters such as Xu Wei, Shitao, Zhu Da, Chen Hongshou, Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian, Huang Binhong, Lu Yanshao, Lin Fengmian, and Li Keran does not lie in how closely they resembled the ancients, but in how they were able to generate new artistic languages from the depths of tradition languages that evolved with their times.

夜沐桂林 Guilin Bathed in Night

2024 | 宣纸新彩墨 Neo-Color Ink on Xuan Paper

由此可见，传统真正珍贵的地方，不只是它留下了什么，而是它曾经如何创造。传统的核心不是样式，而是生成；不是结果，而是方法；不是让后人停在过去，而是给予后来者继续向前的根基。

This shows that what is truly precious in tradition is not only what it has left behind, but how it once created. The core of tradition is not style, but generation; not result, but method. It does not ask later generations to remain in the past, but offers them a foundation from which to continue moving forward.

生命的礼赞 Hymn to Life

2008 | 宣纸新彩墨 Neo-Color Ink on Xuan Paper

今天，中国绘画再次面对新的时代转换。人工智能正在快速生成图像，数字技术正在改变观看方式，全球化正在重塑文化边界，新的媒介、新的材料、新的传播系统不断进入艺术现场。在这样的现实面前，中国绘画所面对的问题，已经不只是如何保存传统，而是如何让传统具备面向未来继续生长的能力。

Today, Chinese painting once again stands before a major transformation of the times. Artificial intelligence is rapidly generating images. Digital technology is changing the way we see. Globalization is reshaping cultural boundaries. New media, new materials, and new systems of communication are continually entering the artistic field. In the face of this reality, the question confronting Chinese painting is no longer merely how to preserve tradition, but how to enable tradition to continue growing toward the future.

生态西山 Ecological Xishan

2015 | 宣纸新彩墨 Neo-Color Ink on Xuan Paper

如果一个文明只能反复讲述自己的过去，那么它终将被放置在历史之中；如果一个文明能够不断创造自己的未来，它才真正拥有生命力。艺术也是如此。中国绘画不能只依靠过去的辉煌来证明自身价值，而必须在今天重新建立能够回应时代的表达方式。

If a civilization can only repeatedly recount its past, it will eventually be placed within history. If a civilization is able to continuously create its own future, then it truly possesses vitality. The same is true of art. Chinese painting cannot rely solely on past glory to prove its value. It must reestablish, in the present, forms of expression capable of responding to the age.

惊涛骇浪 Raging Waves

2015 | 宣纸新彩墨 Neo-Color Ink on Xuan Paper

因此，我越来越清晰地意识到：以东方文化为根，以未来想象为翼。

根，决定我们从哪里来；翼，决定我们将走向哪里。

没有根的未来，容易漂浮，最终失去文化方向；没有未来的传统，则会僵化，最终失去生命活力。真正有力量的艺术，应当既能向传统深处扎根，又能向时代远处展开。

Therefore, I have come to see with increasing clarity:

To be rooted in Eastern culture and winged by future imagination.

The root determines where we come from; the wing determines where we are going. A future without roots easily drifts and ultimately loses its cultural direction. A tradition without a future becomes rigid and eventually loses its vitality. Art with real power must be able to take root deeply in tradition while extending itself toward the distance of the age.

山海秘境 Secret Realm of Mountains and Seas

2009 | 宣纸新彩墨 Neo-Color Ink on Xuan Paper

这些年来，我持续探索新彩墨画与马克笔画。表面上看，这是关于材料、媒介与技法的实践；但在更深层面，它所指向的，是中国绘画语言在当代语境中的重新生成。

敦煌壁画的色彩精神、永乐宫壁画的庄严气象、中国水墨的虚实关系，以及矿物色所承载的历史温度，都是中国绘画传统中极为重要的文化资源。但这些资源的意义，并不在于被反复临摹和复制，而在于成为新的创造起点。传统如果只能被观看，它就是遗产；传统如果能够继续生长，它才是生命。

Over the years, I have continued to explore Neo-Color Ink Painting and Marker Painting. On the surface, this may appear to be a practice concerning materials, media, and techniques. Yet at a deeper level, it points toward the regeneration of Chinese painting language within a contemporary context.

The chromatic spirit of the Dunhuang murals, the solemn atmosphere of the Yongle Palace murals, the relationship between void and solid in Chinese ink painting, and the historical warmth carried by mineral pigments are all important cultural resources within the tradition of Chinese painting. However, the significance of these resources does not lie in repeated imitation or reproduction, but in their capacity to become new starting points for creation. If tradition can only be viewed, it is heritage; if tradition can continue to grow, it is life.

雪浴鹿塬 Snow Bath on the Deer Plain

2015 | 宣纸新彩墨 Neo-Color Ink on Xuan Paper

在长期实践中，我逐渐形成了自己的创作认识：墨立其骨，灰定其色，水润其象。

墨，不只是材料意义上的黑色，而是画面的结构、骨架与精神秩序；灰，不只是黑白之间的过渡，而是古与今、东方与世界、现实与精神之间的中间地带，也是色彩学在东方绘画语境中的一种转化与应用；水，也不只是技法中的流动媒介，而是赋予画面呼吸、变化、生长与时间感的生命力量。

因此，“墨立其骨，灰定其色，水润其象”并非一个固定的技法公式，而是一种开放的生成逻辑。它强调的不是重复某一种样式，而是在结构、色彩、气息与精神之间重新建立关系。绘画的生命，不在于表面形式的新旧，而在于内部语言是否仍然具有生长能力。

Through long-term artistic practice, I have gradually formed my own creative understanding: Ink establishes its structure; gray determines its color; water nourishes its image.

Ink is not merely black in the material sense, but the structure, framework, and spiritual order of the painting. Gray is not merely a transition between black and white, but an intermediate zone between past and present, East and world, reality and spirit. It is also a transformation and application of color theory within the context of Eastern painting. Water is not merely a flowing medium in technique, but a vital force that gives the image breath, change, growth, and a sense of time.

Therefore, “Ink establishes its structure; gray determines its color; water nourishes its image” is not a fixed technical formula, but an open generative logic. It does not emphasize the repetition of any particular style, but the rebuilding of relationships among structure, color, atmosphere, and spirit. The life of painting does not lie in whether its external form is old or new, but in whether the inner language of painting still possesses the capacity to grow.

风过其田 Wind Over the Field From Life Series

2026 | 亚麻布马克笔 Marker on Linen Canvas

马克笔画的探索，也使我进一步意识到：媒介本身并不决定艺术的高低。新的工具并不必然意味着背离传统，传统材料也不必然意味着真正继承传统。关键在于，艺术家能否在新的媒介中建立属于自身文化精神的表达方式。

如果马克笔只是工具，它当然无法构成独立的艺术语言；但如果它能够进入东方审美结构，参与线、色、气、象的重新组织，它就有可能成为当代中国绘画语言的一部分。新媒介的意义，不在于替代传统，而在于扩展传统的边界。

The exploration of Marker Painting has also led me to further realize that medium itself does not determine the value of art. New tools do not necessarily mean a departure from tradition, and traditional materials do not necessarily mean a true inheritance of tradition. The key lies in whether the artist can establish, through a new medium, a mode of expression rooted in the artist’s own cultural spirit.

If the marker remains merely a tool, it naturally cannot constitute an independent artistic language. But if it can enter the structure of Eastern aesthetics and participate in the reorganization of line, color, qvital energyi, and image, then it may become part of the contemporary language of Chinese painting. The significance of new media is not to replace tradition, but to expand its boundaries.

谷雨 Grain Rain

2024 | 马克笔画 Marker Painting

由此来看，中国绘画未来真正需要解决的，并不是 “用什么材料画”的问题，而是 “以什么精神创造” 的问题。材料会变化，工具会更新，观看方式也会不断改变，但艺术最核心的部分，始终是精神结构与文化创造力。

在人工智能时代，这个问题变得更加迫切。今天，图像生成越来越容易，技术可以快速制造图像，也可以模仿许多风格。但艺术家的价值，并不只是制造图像，而是在图像背后提出问题、建立语言、表达精神，并为时代留下新的文化经验。

未来艺术的竞争，未必只是技巧的竞争，而更是思想、判断力和创造力的竞争。

一个艺术家真正重要的地方，不是他能不能画得像过去，也不是停留在表演式的新奇与短暂的视觉刺激之中，而是他能不能在过去与未来之间建立一种新的可能，使艺术语言在时代变化中持续生长。

From this perspective, the real issue facing the future of Chinese painting is not “what material should be used,” but “with what spirit should creation take place.” Materials will change, tools will be renewed, and modes of viewing will continue to evolve. Yet the core of art will always remain its spiritual structure and cultural creativity.

In the age of artificial intelligence, this question has become even more urgent. Today, image generation has become increasingly easy. Technology can rapidly produce images and imitate many styles. But the value of the artist does not lie merely in producing images. It lies in raising questions behind images, establishing language, expressing spirit, and leaving new cultural experience for the age.

The competition of future art may not be merely a competition of skill, but one of thought, judgment, and creativity.

What truly matters for an artist is not whether he can paint like the past, nor whether he remains within performative novelty and short-lived visual stimulation, but whether he can establish a new possibility between the past and the future, allowing artistic language to continue growing amid changing times.

天光沐海 Sea Bathed in Celestial Light

2025 | 马克笔画 Marker Painting

因此，对于中国绘画而言，最值得思考的问题或许不是：我们如何像古人一样画画？而是：如果古人生活在今天，他们会如何创造？这个问题，比单纯讨论技法更重要。因为它迫使我们重新理解传统。传统不是让今天的人永远站在古人的身后，而是让今天的人能够站在传统的根基上，继续向前创造。

真正的文化自信，也不是不断证明祖先曾经多么伟大，而是证明今天的我们依然具有创造新价值的能力。一个文明最重要的标志，不是它保存了多少遗产，而是它是否仍然能够生成未来。

中国绘画的未来，不应只是对历史的回望，也不应只是对西方当代艺术的追随。它应该在东方文化自身的精神结构中，重新建立面向当代与未来的语言系统。

Therefore, for Chinese painting, perhaps the question most worthy of reflection is not: how can we paint like the ancients? Rather, it is: if the ancients lived today, how would they create?

This question is more important than a simple discussion of technique, because it compels us to understand tradition anew. Tradition is not meant to keep people of the present forever standing behind the ancients. It allows people today to stand upon the foundation of tradition and continue to create for the future.

True cultural confidence is not the repeated proof of how great our ancestors once were, but the proof that we today still possess the ability to create new value. The most important sign of a civilization is not how much heritage it has preserved, but whether it is still capable of generating the future.

The future of Chinese painting should not be merely a return to history, nor should it be simply a following of Western contemporary art. It should reestablish, within the spiritual structure of Eastern culture itself, a language system oriented toward the contemporary and the future.

山野轻风 Gentle Breeze in the Mountain Wilds

2017 | 马克笔画 Marker Painting

新彩墨画与马克笔画的探索，正是在这一意义上展开的。它不是对传统的告别，而是试图让传统进入新的时代语境；它不是对过去的否定，而是希望让过去在今天获得新的生命，并在未来继续延续。

回望千年文脉，不是为了停留在历史之中；面向未来创造，也不是为了切断传统根脉。二者并非对立，而是同一条文化长河中的两个方向。

The exploration of Neo-Color Ink Painting and Marker Painting unfolds precisely in this sense. It is not a farewell to tradition, but an attempt to bring tradition into a new context of the times. It is not a denial of the past, but a hope that the past may gain new life in the present and continue into the future.

To look back upon a thousand years of cultural lineage is not to remain within history. To create toward the future is not to sever the roots of tradition. The two are not opposites, but two directions within the same cultural river.

加州的树 Trees of California

2026 | 宣纸马克笔 Marker on Xuan Paper

根深，方能叶茂；翼展，方能远行。

以东方文化为根，以未来想象为翼。传统不是终点，而是新的起点。中国绘画真正的生命力，不在于复制过去，而在于从传统深处不断生成新的未来。

Only with deep roots can leaves flourish; only with open wings can one travel far.

To be rooted in Eastern culture and winged by future imagination. Tradition is not an endpoint, but a new beginning. The true vitality of Chinese painting does not lie in copying the past, but in continuously generating a new future from the depths of tradition.

​孙宏涛（雍城子 / Joseph Sun）

旅美当代艺术家，长期致力于新彩墨画与马克笔画语言的研究、实践与拓展。其创作立足东方美学语境，关注传统媒介在当代绘画中的转化、重构与可持续发展。

曾举办多次个人艺术展览，出版多部个人专著及理论研究文章。作品与理论文章发表于专业艺术平台，并多次获得相关学术与艺术奖项。

作品曾于中国美术馆、山东美术馆、浙江美术馆、江苏美术馆、广东美术馆、陕西省美术博物馆、西安美术馆、上海东方美术馆等专业机构展出与收藏，并于美国、法国、日本、德国、捷克、马来西亚、韩国、印度等国家与地区交流传播。

现为中国美术家协会会员、美国国际艺术协会（AIAP-IAA）会员、中国工笔画学会会员。

代表性理论文章

-《浅谈中国彩墨画的发展与衍变》

-《重构当代绘画语言》—— 新彩墨画与马克笔画的实践探索

-《从工具到语言》—— 我的“马克笔画”探索与实践

-《从器入道》—— 新彩墨画的当代创新与可持续演进

- 传统不是终点，而是未来的起点 —— 以东方文化为根，以未来想象为翼：关于中国绘画当代重构与未来生成的思考

个人官网

雅昌艺术家官网（孙宏涛）

https://sunhongtao.artron.net

更多信息与展讯可检索：“画家孙宏涛”。

Hongtao Sun (Yongchengzi / Joseph Sun)

Contemporary artist based in the United States, whose practice focuses on the research,development, and expansion of Neo-Color Ink Painting and Marker Painting. Rooted in an Eastern aesthetic framework, his work explores the transformation, reconstruction, and sustainable evolution of traditional media within contemporary painting.

He has held multiple solo exhibitions and published several monographs and theoretical writings. His works and theoretical articles have appeared on professional art platforms and have received various academic and artistic recognitions.

His works have been exhibited and collected by institutions including the National Art Museum of China, Shandong Art Museum, Zhejiang Art Museum, Jiangsu Art Museum, Guangdong Museum of Art, Shaanxi Art Museum, Xi’an Art Museum, and Shanghai Oriental Art Center, and have been presented internationally across the United States, France, Japan, Germany, the Czech Republic, Malaysia, South Korea, and India.

He is a member of the China Artists Association, the International Association of Art (AIAP-IAA), and the China Gongbi Painting Society.

Representative Theoretical Writings

- On the Development and Evolution of Chinese Color Ink Painting

- Reconstructing Contemporary Painting Language — The Practical Exploration of Neo-Color Ink Painting and Marker Painting

- From Tool to Language — My Exploration and Practice of Marker Painting

- From Instrument to Dao — Contemporary Innovation and Sustainable Evolution of Neo-Color Ink Painting

- Tradition Is Not an Endpoint, but the Beginning of the Future — Rooted in Eastern Culture, Winged by Future Imagination: Reflections on the Contemporary Reconstruction and Future Generation of Chinese Painting

Official Artist Website

Artron Artist Website – Hongtao Sun

https://sunhongtao.artron.net

For more information and exhibitions, please search: “Artist Hongtao Sun”.

Writer : 孙宏涛

Art Director : 阎明罡

Editor : Michael / 楓林 / Barbara

Proofreader : Thea wei / Hedy Liu

Chief Editor : 赵秦

Managing Editor : Jennifer.Z