林继昌

不同的时期，艺术皆有其可为，有其所不可能为，由此构成艺术史的现象。这个意思见之于海因里希·沃尔夫林总结出的一个信念。

在当代及未来，艺术家面向的可能是一个更加复杂、魔幻的环境。在感知某些不可为的警戒与事实跟前，顶着已有的总体的艺术，包括国度的、世界的，此前的及行进中的，业已成就的新、老艺术大师的压力。但是为什么还仍然可为？因为我们拥有的时间节点与空间位置，我们拥有的丰厚物质、资讯，以及身处变化万端的世象枯荣的杂多心理体验，这一切因前人的不可能拥有而成为我们从事当代艺术的“优势”。因而我们坚信，艺术没有终结，艺术还在继续。

当我们愿意相信真正的艺术家就是那个携带诗意种籽，同时又具有普罗米修斯盗火勇气的人，那么艺术史新的一页，就将不会是陈腐乏味的。在资本及物质时代，与平庸对立，创造惊奇与神话一一柏拉图称之“为清醒者而制造的人工幻梦”的另一所房子是可能的。接受这一份秘密的激励，我们看到艺术在尘世灾难中可能带来的光亮，并享受着艺术创造所带来的快乐。

在此前具足话语权的艺术史描述中，中西方各有各的成就与辉煌。西方艺术史逻辑链条上环环相扣生成的艺术样式，与传统中国美术史脉络启应闭环中被揭示出的微妙演变形态，两相对照，两个体系的描述呈现出西方逻辑与东方玄学之差异性。由于其貌显见的艺术形态差异，即使最近四十年中西方艺术有缘密接，但对话仍然显出曲折困难。当我们将此前的艺术形态设定为过去时态，只看艺术语言的原初表达，不难发现“书写性”可视为人类艺事行为起点且持续进行的共有方式，从具有仪典意义的抄经、文书抄写到具备审美能力的书写，人类在漫长的书写之途互通款曲。

显而易见，书写是视觉传达、交流的手段。由书写生成符号、文字、篇章及纹章等，人们在实用性的书写过程中同时逐渐形成审美性书写，譬如由于速度要求，书写呈现出流畅与流丽的取向。美的感知在被推向极致之后促成了非功利的艺术。又譬如书法中的狂草，就已经是将艺术表现摆在第一位，而作为实用性的字形的辨识度被降至最低。当艺术从依附于各种实用性、功能性的工作中逐渐摆脱依附关系，变成自觉的独立的一个生态身份时，艺术家主体将会在其所处时代环境中获取全息感知，不同的族群由其文化根性，处世悟觉，对所处时代环境所发生的事象形成直觉与判断，而艺术创作，本质上是艺术家基于此基础心理，对世界产生差异化的感知与投射。中西方书写艺术的分歧，见之于中国写意与西方表现，这并不妨碍书写艺术作为心灵、心理的共同表达，到了当代，写意与表现融合而成为满足从视觉到心理的表达。西方艺术到了现代主义后，从表现主义艺术家的创作中更加见证了书写艺术的趋同，如亨利•米肖、马克•托贝、杰克逊•波洛克、德库宁、马瑟韦尔、塔皮埃斯等西方艺术家的表现性创作。在相近意义上，中国书法的狂草在明代徐渭、傅山等艺术家身上，也已见出他们将写意性发挥到表现性的极致的气象。

今天，我们拥有艺术资讯在数量上远远超出前人，拥有网络时代的宽泛与简便。无论是最新考古的发现，科学探索揭示的宇宙秘境，地球环境气候变化，国家及国家之间的危机事件等等，都在认知层面上反向挖掘拓展人类的心理空间，心理心象的象象环生，足以生长成为书写艺术的表现空间。当人类从实用性出发的科技生产力为人类制造一间漂亮的物的房屋时，艺术的使命是创造另一间神奇的房屋，以呈现人类历史中精神史或心灵史的一面。因此重提书写艺术的命题，即是站在物化的对立面，由艺术执行这项非功利的任务。那么对艺术家而言，书写的目的已不是重复功能性书写的路径，而是审视与判断，从最初的象形文字到完全物化的印刷体，从早先的日书、帛书的文字图形记事到电脑化的符号图像，文字与符号改变了颜面，书写的呈现将会是一种新的表现，因艺术家个体的不同，表现的方式千差万别，但摆脱了实用性指向的书写总会导向内心，呈现个体在其所在时代感知的心理事件，由艺术化的心理事件的串合，汇成时代的心灵叙事。

这个展览，试图重新审视与探索书写艺术神奇的有效性，以应E.H.贡布里希论证的艺术目标：“再次为人类竟能用形、线、影、色呈现那些被我们称为‘图画’的视觉现实的神秘幻象而感到惊奇。”书写蕴含的魅力与表现力无远弗界，因它从致敬文字的源头，参与当代性艺术创作，当能获得更加丰富的表现力与持久的生命力。 

2022/3/2于广州

 Handwriting and Expression

Preface of International Contemporary Art Invitation Exhibition 

Jichang LIN 

In different periods, the possible and impossible coexist in art, which constitutes the art history. Such connotation comes from a belief summarized by Heinrich Wölfflin.

In the contemporary era and in the future, artists may face a more complex and magic environment. In front of some alerts on and facts about something that cannot be achieved, and under the pressure from existing overall art, including the art of all nations and art of the world, former art and art in progress, and pressure from accomplished new and old masters of art, why some achievements can still be made? Because we are in a good time node and spatial location, we have abundant material resources and information, and complex mental experience in a world featuring constant changes in which everything withers and flourishes. All of these constitute our “advantages” in engagement in contemporary art as these are not available to predecessors. Therefore, we firmly believe that there is no end to art, and art is always on the way.

When we are willing to believe that true artists are those people featuring poetic quality and brave enough to steal fire like Prometheus, the new page on the art history will not be stale and boring. In an era of capital and material, it’s possible to be antagonistic to mediocrity and construct another wonderful and mythical house, which is called by Plato as “an artificial dream created for sobers”. Please embrace the secret encouragement, as we see the brightness that may be brought by art among disasters of the world and enjoy the happiness brought by artistic creation.

In previous description of the art history which has enough right of speech, China and western countries have their respective achievements and glories. Comparing the artistic pattern generated from link-to-link logic chains of the western art history and the subtle evolution forms revealed from the closed loop of sequence of thoughts of traditional Chinese art history, the description of the two systems represents the difference between the western logic and oriental metaphysics. Due to the obviously different art forms, the dialogue seems still tortuous and difficult, although the Chinese art has closely and luckily contacted with the western art in the past forty years. When we set previous art forms as the past and only look at the original expression of the art language, it’s easy for us to find that “handwriting” can be deemed as the starting point of humanity’s artistic behaviors and a common approach which lasts even to now. From copy of scriptures and documents to aesthetic handwriting, human beings deliver their feelings to each other in the long handwriting journey.

It’s obvious that handwriting is an approach of visual communication. Symbols, words, chapters and coat of arms are generated by handwriting, and aesthetic handwriting gradually came into being in the process of practical handwriting by humanity. For example, due to requirements on speed, handwriting shows a smooth and beautiful orientation. The perception of beauty, after being pushed to the extreme, contributed to non-utilitarian art. For instance, Kuangcao, an excessively free cursive style (in Chinese calligraphy) already puts artistic expression in the first place, and the recognition of practical font outline is minimized. When art gradually gets rid of the dependence on various practical and functional work, and gets a self-conscious and independent ecological identity, the artists will obtain holographic perception from the environment of the era to which they belong. Different ethnic groups form intuition and judgment on the events that occur in the environment of the era to which they belong based on their cultural roots and the philosophy of life, while art creation is essentially the artists’ differential perception and projection of the world based on this basic philosophy. The difference between Chinese and western handwriting art can be seen from that Chinese handwriting has an impressionistic style and western handwriting prioritizes expressionism. However, it does not prevent handwriting art from being a common way for expression of the mind. And in the contemporary era, impressionism and expressionism coupled with each other and handwriting becomes a way of expression which satisfies both the visual needs and mental needs. After western art met modernism, the convergence of handwriting art was witnessed from the works of expressionist artists, such as Henri Michaux, Mark Tobey, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Antoni Tàpies and other Western artists. In a similar sense, from the works in Kuangcao, an excessively free cursive style (in Chinese calligraphy), of artists such as Wei XU and Fushan in the Ming Dynasty, we can see that expressionism was leveraged to an extreme extent based on expressionism.

Nowadays, with a wide variety of and easy access to information in the network era, we have much more information on art than predecessors. The latest archaeological discoveries, the cosmic mysteries revealed by scientific exploration, the environmental and climate change of the earth, and the crises of and between countries, etc. all expand the mental space of human beings at the cognitive level, and constantly generated new mental images are enough to grow into a space for expression of handwriting art. As the technological productivity of human beings creates a beautiful house for mankind from the practical perspective, the mission of art is to create another magical house to present the mental history of human history. Therefore, to re-mention the proposition of handwriting art is to stand on the opposite side of materialization, and art performs this non-utilitarian task. So for artists, the purpose of handwriting is no longer to repeat the path of functional handwriting, but to examine and judge. From the initial hieroglyphs to the completely materialized print form, from the earliest record with text graphics on divination books and silk books to the computerized symbol images, the appearance of words and symbols have changed, and handwriting will have a new expression. Different artists adopt quite different ways of expression, but the handwriting that gets rid of the practicality will always be connected to the heart, presenting the things perceived through mind by the individuals in their era. The string of artistic mental ideas converges into a spiritual story of the era.

This exhibition tries to review and explore the miraculous effectiveness of the handwriting art, in response to the artistic goal argued by E.H. Gombrich: “Once again, I am amazed that human beings can present the mysterious illusions of the visual reality that we call ‘pictures’ with shapes, lines, shadows, and colors.” The charm and expressiveness contained in handwriting are far-reaching, as it has not only paid tribute to the source of characters, but also participated in contemporary artistic creation, from which it can certainly obtain richer expressiveness and lasting vitality.

On March 2, 2022 in Guangzhou