细想来，时至今日，与王牧羽老师相识已十七载。这位70后画家，我之所以称他“老师”，是因为他曾经是我高中时期美术理论的启蒙老师。正是这个亦师亦兄的人，把我带入艺术的文字世界，并用自己一路求学的执着精神现身说法，鼓励、启发、大步向前——他始终想让他的学生们明白，从艺之路，无有止途。他最爱说的一句话：我为你们骄傲。事实上，我们都，以他为荣。

　　这篇文字被我废弃过好几个开头，似乎怎么开头都不对，针对启蒙老师的作品进行评述，多少有僭越之嫌，也多少会有情谊兼顾，无可否认，内心深处的感念情绪总是在不经意间浮显而来。但我会努力在下面的文字里尽量忘却这是启蒙老师的作品，尽量保持一个评论人应有的理性与客观——希望这样做，可以勉强算作是我对王牧羽老师知遇之恩的感念与致敬。

　　一

　　王牧羽创作于2013年的“云象”系列是从那些有水、有树、有路、有房舍的“边缘”系列、“突围”系列里一步步走出来的，又好像是自然而然的升腾。它同时具备两种特征：一个是视觉美学的提炼，由宏观到微观，自下而上，从构图整体的风物之中筛择出某个局部进行深度观察，取景方式很像是电影常用的“摇摄”，以完成画面主体元素的转场；一个是物理层面的精神升华，陆地上任何生灵的呼吸最终都会成为“云”的组成部分，某种程度上，“云”是生灵存在的终极形态，又是其唯一象征。

　　即使是选取视域中的局部加以表现，王牧羽也从来不是一个被细节统治的人。因为他选择的是“无限的局部”——以空幻、虚渺、难以状形的“云”作为描述对象，让这些转瞬即逝的形状发出声音，让那些古往今来的时间在仰视的顷刻间弥合，复现那些与经典有关的蕴藉之味。

　　同样描摹平凡之物，不同于诗人弗朗索瓦·蓬热书写“板条箱”之时超乎寻常的感性俯视——“在通往集市的每个街角，它闪耀着，以粗木材那谦卑的明亮”，王牧羽是完全仰视的姿态，尽管描绘在纸上、最终呈现在展厅里都并非如此。某种程度上，诗人弗朗索瓦·蓬热的诗歌完美地强调了后现代学者利奥塔的美学：“艺术是日常生活余烬的瞬间闪光”，他用艺术的眼光于平凡世界发现了一只兀自闪耀的板条箱，甚至用同一种眼光发现更多。他用史诗般的文字去触摸那些略显卑微的物体，不惜脱离自身，钻到另一个物体的存在形态内部获得体验，如同莫兰迪不厌其烦地借助那些瓶瓶罐罐言说自身。

　　王牧羽的“云”则不尽然。这被古今中外文化艺术界反复吟诵的“云”，因其本身具有诗意的联想属性，是自然界相对的永恒存在，从不缺乏放笔直写或移情于上者。这一创作主题不会带给人卑微甚或普通的意象，它舒展、飘逸，有时内敛、不苟言笑，有时愤懑、激荡，在不同的氛围当中显现千变万化的情绪。观其表象，总有言不尽意的部分。他透过同质不同态的“云”，看到的是大千世界的不同事物：有形或无形。“云”可以是一曲《广陵散》，其笔墨放恣有度暗合曲调起伏回转，轻松地完成旋律的视觉化转换，又仿佛云间自有伎乐天藏匿于中，自在演奏。

　　“云”也可以是一所海市蜃楼的幻想之城，城在云中，云即是城，把城市从疲惫的苦役中解救出来，抛掷于空，浮现出大工业时代浮躁、彷徨表征层面之外的浪漫情怀，经由一个转瞬即逝的人间幻影；“云”还可以意涉二十四节气当中的某一个：惊蛰、夏至或立冬，节气是自然规律表现形式的一种，更像是宇宙洪荒周而复始的记事结，以各具情态的“云”充当记事结的意象符号，带有隐秘的诗意；“云”也或者指代“竹林七贤”中的某位雅士：嵇康、刘伶或山涛，“云”在此时有了“人格化”的属性，笔墨描述变得新鲜，富有性格，动态“拟人”，不再是诗意，而是诗本身。

　　同一个意象和概念被反复强调，并阐发出无限可能：一种有关于物象——“云”的气息联想，而不局限于“云”本身。与此同时，画的题目也成为作品语意的重要部分，经由联想向无限推演。

　　二

　　中国传统文化中的气韵，即使是落落生动、语语目前，也终究脱离不了“藏”的面纱。含而不露，恰如“隔岸观物”、“雾里看花”，保有一定距离地观看更容易引发神思与情感，而绝非一览无余地再现原物。而王牧羽在此基础上又过渡到另一层，他既不满足于描述那些现实世界的具体轮廓，又没有采取一定距离地观想对岸的风物，而是选取了一个极具代表性的符号，从这一个点生发整个世界。毫无疑问，“云”成为了王牧羽世界观的意象——可仰观、可倾听、可对话。此时的“云”于他而言，无所不包，无所不在，承载着自远方推送而来的、蕴藏中国传统文化气息的思想，飘荡在我们每个人平视的前方。

　　“云”是中国文化当中是极富传统韵味、独具人文气质的风物、兼具古典、浪漫气息，同时它也作为一个美学符号，一个无限循环的精神投射物而存在。在我们日常所见的图像范畴，诸如被广泛装饰在古代建筑、雕刻、服饰、器具上象征吉祥与崇高的云纹，在文学范畴，关于“云”的古体诗、现代诗、小说更是不可胜数。再没有什么形态比“云”更变幻莫测，比“云”更能显示“世事无常”。“云”带有聚合游散、一期一会的性质，指向生活的虚处。

　　单一的题材往往最难传达，其难度与在熟悉的景观中发现陌生感约同。从艺经年，王牧羽未曾有浅尝辄止、畏难取巧的心态，亦少有直抒胸臆、率性而为的作品。或与他的性格有关，只要是他认定的类型，必然是经过深思熟虑过的。王牧羽的理性源于文学感知力的先行。酷爱文学、早年写诗的他看到云，在想到“取云为象”之前，或许最先投射于心的是“浮云游子意”、“白云千载空悠悠”吧。然而他并不满足于它的文学联想，他要将它从生活中区分开来，并回赠给生活一个形式、一个意义。他强调画面的布局、章法，并将“人格化”灌注其中，呈现给我们一个更富意味、更加厚重、更具文化感的视觉图像，深藏于心的敏感得以安置、有所依凭。“云”是他对传统文化的致敬之作，同样也是他个人艺术语言之于图式的全新探索与尝试。

　　钱钟书在《谈艺录》中有提及文艺创作“心手合一”的重要性：“夫艺也者，执心物两端而用厥中。兴象意境，心之事也；所资以驱遣而抒写兴象意境者，物之事也。”艺术是个人的分泌，带有独一无二的基因属性，不仅来自于与生俱来的卓越天赋，更来自于后天的所思所学、所悟所感。独特的生命体验是烙上作品的最具辨识力的标签。

　　2014年4月23日于望京融科

　　Implicit Artistic Flavor: Illusory Life

　　—a Commentary on Wang Muyu’s Clouds

　　Thinking it over, I have known Mr. Wang Muyu for 17 years so far. He is a post-70s generation painter, and I address him “teacher” respectfully for the reason that he was my enlightenment teacher of fine art theory during my senior high school years. He, act as an elder brother as well as a teacher, is the person who led me into the art world. His persistent spirit of pursuing for knowledge encourages and enlightens me to go forward. He has been trying to convince his students that the way for pursuing art is endless and everlasting. He always says: “I am proud of you”. The fact is, we are all proud of him.

　　I have discarded the opening part of this article for many times for not knowing the right way to start it. To comment and criticize my own teacher’s work might be beyond my ability and biased with emotion. Undoubtedly, my sincere gratitude would emerge out of mind unconsciously, but I will try my best to forget temporarily in the following lines that they are my teacher’s works and maintain the due reason and objectivity of a critic. By doing this, hopefully I can slightly express my gratitude and salute for Mr. Wang Muyu’s helping for my career.

　　I

　　Wang Muyu’s Clouds (Painting Series, 2013) was gradually developed from his two painting series containing elements of water, trees and houses— fringe and Breakthrough, but also looked like a gush naturally. The painting series Clouds had two characteristics. The first is the extraction of visual aesthetics, from macro to micro, from bottom to top, the in-depth observation on selected local details from the whole scenery in the way like “pan” frequently used in film making, in order to switch main elements in it; the second is the spiritual sublimation on the substance aspect, the breath of any creature in the planet will turn into part of “cloud”, so to some extent, “cloud” is a ultimate form of living creatures, also a icon of them.

　　Wang Muyu is never a person who is predominated by details even when he chooses the local parts to express the whole scenery, because the chosen details was “unlimited details”—the dreamy, misty and indescribable Clouds. He speaks for the transient image; he lets you to joint past with future in the moment of watching clouds in the sky, and reproduces the classic refined savor of temperate.

　　Wang Muyu differs from the poet Francois Ponge despite that they both describe mundane things in the point that Francois Ponge showed his extraordinary emotional overlook in writing his crate—“In every street corner leading to bazaar, it shines in coarse wood bright, so humble”. Wang Muyu showed total reverence to his painting, although things may different when described in paper or finally in exhibition hall. To some degree, poet Francois Ponge’s poetry perfectly interpreted the postmodernism scholar Lyotard’s aesthetic theory: “Art is a momentary flash of everyday life embers”, his artistic vision discovered a sparkling crate in the mundane world, even with the same kind of vision to find more. Ponge used to feel those slightly humble objects with epical narratives, even aparting from himself, penetrating into another object to get experience, as Morandi had been expressed himself repeatedly with those jars and bottles.

　　Wang Muyu’s Clouds was not always the case. Chanted in the art world from home and abroad, the cloud was a relative eternal existence in nature for its poetic association by itself, never lacking of description or lyric to it. This creative theme will never bring people humble or have ordinary feelings, it stretches elegantly, sometimes introverts sternly, sometimes angers agitatedly, presents ever-changing moods in different atmospheres. Watching deeply through its appearance, there is always more to say. Wang Muyu can see many things, tangible or intangible, in the wider world through the homogeneous but in different state of “cloud”. Clouds may be a song “A Music From Guangling”, its ink brush movement on paper coincided casually and freely the tune’s ups and downs, accomplishing the visual transformation of the melody, also as if a singer is singing freely in the cloud.

　　Clouds can also be a fantasy city in mirage—city in cloud, and cloud is city, the city is liberated from exhausted servitude to the wide universe, representing a romantic mood beyond the impetuous, wandering surface of the industrial era, via a fleeting phantom; Clouds can also denote one of twenty-four solar terms—the Waking of Insects, the Summer Solstice or the Beginning of Winter, solar terms is one of a manifestation of the laws of culture, more like a prehistoric cyclic memorizing knot. The selection of “cloud” as an icon bears hidden poetic meaning. Clouds might also refer to one of “The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove”—Ji Kang, Liu Ling or Shan Tao. Clouds bears the characterization of “personification” of poetry, ink and brush become refreshed with characters, this dynamic “anthropomorphic” is no longer poetic, but the poem itself.

　　In Clouds, these imago and concept were emphasized repeatedly to develop endless possibilities with the association of the object of “cloud” with artistic flavor, which is not limited to “cloud” itself. Meanwhile, the painting name became one important part of painting meaning, enlarged to infinite via imagination.

　　II

　　The artistic conception of traditional Chinese culture is usually under veil of “implication”, even in vivid and lively narratives. It implies but not reveals, like “watch things from the other side of river” or “admire the flowers in the mist”. It is easier to trigger thought and emotion by admiring in a distance, rather than to exactly reproduce the original substance. Based on this idea, Wang Muyu probed further, he was neither satisfied with reproducing specific profiles of items in real world, nor observing them in a distance. Instead, he selected an icon which is most representative to the world. Undoubtedly, “cloud” has become an imago of Wang’s worldview which can be revered, listened, and talked. To him at this point, “cloud” exists everywhere and everytime, carrying the ideology from afar which contains traditional Chinese artistic conception, floats in front of him and the viewers of his works.

　　“Cloud” is unique scenery in Chinese culture which is abundant in classical and romantic flavor with humanistic temperament. It also exists as an aesthetic symbol, a repeatedly used representative of spirit. As we find in daily life, in image domain, the cloud pattern was widely used as decoration in ancient buildings, sculptures, and costumes to symbolize good luck and nobleness; in literature domain, “cloud” was in numerous ancient and modern poems and fictions. Nothing is more unpredictable in shape than “cloud”, nothing can represent “impermanence” better than “cloud”. It has the property of aggregation, separation, and once in life opportunity that interprets illusory life.

　　Often a single theme is most difficult to present, probably as like to find new strangeness in a familiar landscape. During the years in art, Wang Muyu has never been satisfied with smattering knowledge or been opportunistic, nor did he have blunt, willing-it works. This depends on his characters; every painting style he chooses must be the production after his second thought. Wang Muyu’s sensibility is based on his literary perception. Being love literature and writing poems since his earlier life, Wang Muyu was firstly influenced by poems about cloud—“I shall thinking of you—traveling like floating clouds” and “Only white clouds still float in vain from year to year” before he choose “cloud” as his painting theme. However, he is never content with its literary associations, he want to separate it from life, and repay to life a form and a meaning. He stressed the layout of the painting, and exerted “personification” in it, presented us visual images with rich meaning, culture and concordance, making the sensitivity deep in mind be settled down and affiliated. Clouds painting series were his tribute to traditional Chinese culture, also his wholly new probe and attempt in presenting his artistic word with images.

　　Qian Zhongshu once referred to the importance of “mind and hands in one” on literary creation in his book Studies in Old Chinese Poetry: “Art is executed with combined mind and hands. It is the mind to have an imago and inspiration, but it is the hands to carry out those imago and inspiration”. Art is a part of our body, carrying unique genetic properties. Art not only comes from innate talent, but also from acquired learning, thoughts and enlightenment. Unique life experience is the most discerning label imprinted on his works.

　　Written in Wangjing Rongke on April 23, 2014

作者：孙欣