林兵把自己创作的艺术解释为“意象性的带有记忋的风景”。在这一解释中，也许最重要的是“意象”二字的含义。从林兵的艺术作品看，我认为“意象”至少具有两层含义：一是从艺术风格上说，林兵创作的油画之所以是“意象”的，是因为它不是写实的，也不是纯抽象的;二是从艺术家与表达对象的关系看，林兵油画的“意象”性表现在它不是对景写生的，而是记忋的外化，是通过回忋的方式创作的“风景”。

　　在我所看到的林兵的油画作品中，《后院》是他的作品中比较写实的一幅，从中我们可以看到塞尚的建构主义方法对它的艺术语言和画面结构的影响。《后院》的重要性在于它提供了我们考察林兵意象性油画风景的视角，那就是林兵艺术的图式来源，以及他对这一图式的改造、使用和修正所取得的艺术效果。我的基本看法是，林兵的意象油画作品由两部分组成，一种是风景中的实体部分，如山川、岩石、土地、树木等;另一种是苏轼说的那种有常理而无常形的天空、云彩、水、雾、风和阳光，它们构成了作品中虚的部分。林兵用在《后院》一画中的艺术手法描绘记忆风景中的实体部分，这样就使他对自然、故乡的回忋具有坚实的形象依据，并且，我还想指出的是，在这一类艺术形象中，可以看到林兵作为油画艺术家，对现代主义艺术的形式和结构，有非常深入的研究和表现的能力。当然，必须看到的是，林兵意象风景作品中的实体部分并不具有独立的地位，而是依据形式和情感的需要，林兵把它与有常理而无常形的天空、云彩、水、雾、风和阳光，也即虚的形象予以结合，创造出了虚实相生，形象独特，意境深远的风景艺术。

　　林兵从塞尚出发，通过引入云彩、水、雾、风和阳光等无常形的形象，改变和修正了塞尚的图式和语言，从而使他的风景在这种虚幻化、意象化的重构中，既创造了一种属于林兵自己的艺术风格，也使其艺术获得了一种亲近自然的亲切感，给欣赏者以美的享受。

　　从艺术形态上说，林兵这些建立在回忋基础上的意象风景，总体上仍属于现代主义的艺术范畴。但是，林兵对当代社会的生存体验，改变了现代主义艺术的本体论立场。这也就是说，林兵并不像现代主义艺术家那样，只关心与艺术内部相关的形式和语言，而把描绘和表现的风景、静物、人物，只看成是艺术家创造新的艺术形式和语言的借口。这是因为作为生活在当代社会中的林兵来说，真正的生存感受是：在一个人工化的都市世界中，我们都无法再直接面对自然，去体验它的神奇和伟大。林兵把这视为现代生活的局限和缺憾，并希望用艺术的方式予以弥补。林兵这一艺术创作的动机，意味着他所建构的视觉形式，其重要性并不在其本身，而是因为它能引导我们回归自然，重返故乡。在我看来，这正是林兵的意象性风景艺术超越现代主义艺术的地方，同时也是他的艺术在当代社会中的价值之所在。

　　2010-2-1于北京望京花园

　　(中央美术学院)

　　(史论系主任、博导)

英文版本

　　Return to Nature

　　— About Lin Bing’s Imagist Oil Painting

　　Lin Bing explains his art works as “imagist scenery with a memory”. In this explanation, the most important thing may be the meaning of the word “imagist”. I believe that in his art works, “imagist” has at least two implications: firstly, in artistic style, his oil paintings are neither realistic nor pure abstract; secondly, as for the relationship between artist and the objects expressed by him, his artworks are “imagist” because they are not the sketch of nature, but the externalization of memory, “scenery” created by recalling memories.

　　Among his oil paintings I have seen, “Backyard” is a more realistic painting. We can see the influence of Cezanne's Constructivism on its art language and frame structure. Its importance is that it provides us a perspective to view Lin Bing’s imagist oil painting, which is his artworks’ schema source, and the artist effect he achieved through the modification, use and correction of the schema. My basic view is that Lin Bing’s imagist oil painting consists of two parts, one is the physical part of the scenery, such as mountains, rocks, land and forest etc., the other is the virtual part such as sky, cloud, water, fog, wind and sunshine etc. which exist in not fixed form as said by Chinese ancient poet Su Shi. In “Backyard”, Lin Bing artistically describes the physical part of the scenery in his memory, which makes his memory for nature and hometown has a solid image basis. Moreover, I think that in these artworks, we can see Lin Bing has a very in-depth study and expressing capability on the form and structure of modern art. Undoubtedly of course, the physical part in his artworks are not standing alone, Lin Bing has combined it with those virtual images like sky, cloud, water, fog, wind and sunshine, according to the needs of form and emotion, and then creates a scenery art with a combination of real and unreal, unique image and far-reaching conception.

　　Lin Bing starts from Cezanne, but he modifies and corrects Cezanne’s art schema and language through introducing the virtual images like cloud, water, fog, wind and sunshine. In this virtualized, imagist restructuring, he creates his unique art style, and gives his art a kind of intimacy of close to nature, lets the viewers enjoy the beauty of his works.

　　Considering the art form, these imagist scenery built on memories, generally still belongs to modern art. However, Lin Bing’s own living experience in the modern society changed the ontological position of modern art. In other words, Lin Bing is not like other modern artists, who only care about the forms and language relevant to the inside of art; he only takes the landscape, still objects and people he portrays as an excuse to create new artistic form and language. This is because as for Lin Bing, an artist living in the modern society, his true feelings about life is: in this artificial urban world, we can not face the nature directly and experience it magic and greatness. He takes this as the limit and regret of urban life, and hopes to make up for it in an artistic way. This art creation motive means that the importance of the visual form he constructs is that it can lead us to return to nature, to our hometown. In my eyes, this is where Lin Bing’s imagist scenery art goes beyond modern art and the value of his art in modern society.

　　2010-2-1, at Wangjing Garden in Beijing

作者：邹跃进