New Rural Landscape Paintings & Super Reality—The Artistic Realm of Zhanshan’s “Super Landscape” Oil Paintings

　　Outstanding artists are not into repetition. Fortunately, Zhanshan is forever innovating. As early as the 1990s, Zhanshan has developed his own unique artistic language and personal style. However, not satisfied with attained achievements, he embarked on an art journey of exploring rural realist landscape painting with a modern touch. The “red sky" series art works created in 2005 has opened up a new realm of China’s contemporary rural realist landscape painting by way of a unique “super landscape” oil painting specifically demonstrated in two aspects.
　　First of all, his “super landscape” oil painting is reflected in “super rural flavor”. The “red sky" series goes beyond traditional rural landscape paintings in terms of subject matters and central themes, and actualizes a revolutionary transformation from painting rural landscape to portraying Mother Earth, from glorifying life to highlighting ecological consciousness and from depicting rural beauty to paying respect to the value and dignity of the nature.
　　Rural life and landscape are the dominating themes of Zhanshan’s works in the 1990s, while in the “red series”, scenes of people laboring or engaged in other activities are now placed in the peripheral edges of the paintings or as background. These scenes are sometimes found in the vast wilderness, belittled by distant, rolling mountains (See Red Sky     ) , and sometimes traceless (See Red SkyⅡ). The landscape is no longer the authentic reflection of the objective world, but the main structure of the paintings to convey subjective ideas and the survival status of all creatures. The diverted focus from rural life and scenery in Zhanshan’s “super landscape” oil paintings reflects how he introspected and rose above the human-centered stance and notion people have in modern times. When he has outgrown the former restrictions, he unreservedly dedicated all his passion and admiration to the land, mountains and fields where not even a trace of human activity can be found. Standing before the huge panoramic paintings, we can’t help feeling awesome at he magnificence and grandeur of the “Red Sky” series. The “super landscape” oil paintings write of and re-portray the divinity of the land, and the profound ecological awareness best conveys how the artist understands the dignity of the land, and how he respects and publicizes the value of nature, inspiring us to resume respect for other things and creatures in nature.
　　On top of that, Zhanshan’s “super landscape” oil paintings have also created a “super real" art realm for China’s contemporary realist rural landscape painting. His works of the 1990s strictly abided by the philosophy of realistic painting of concrete images so as to achieve clairvoyance, layers of colors and portrayal of details, etc. The “Red Sky” series brings forth a fresh sense of space, where Zhanshan abandoned the pursuit of naturalism and clairvoyance in realist rural landscape painting by diluting the distinction among remote, medium and close-up sceneries. This transcends and reconstructs traditional realist landscape painting of the West and spatial clairvoyance in rural landscape painting of contemporary China. In the panoramic scenes, there is no clear spatial clairvoyance of mountains, plateaus, lakes, trees, grassland, fields and farmers, and no real logic distinction among remote, medium and close-up sceneries, all of which are naturally and harmoniously integrated together.
　　A contemporary approach of artistic expression—flat painting technique is boldly applied in his works. The smooth texture achieved by way of technical treatment of the surface can be best embodied in how he painted the sky. Unlike traditional realist rural landscape painting which is restricted by realism and pursuit of authenticity, and lays too much emphasis on objectively reproducing natural lighting and colors, the “Red Sky” series rewrites the style of realist painting by evenly brushing a large area of pink to represent the sky. Similarly, the artist abandoned highly pure, bright and abundant colors commonly found in his early works and applied purer colors like yellow, black, grey and white to paint the expansive fields, mountains and the land. Clearly, the application of flat painting technique and revolutionary change of colors are a huge success. On the one hand, the “super real” flat painting technique gives realist rural landscape painting such a strong modern touch that achieves the effect of unfamiliarity and amazement; on the other hand, the adjusted lighting and colors more effectively signify the grandeur and solemnity of nature, the universe and the land, adding an epic magnificence to his works.
　　Zhanshan’s “super landscape” oil paintings serve as a thought-provoking reference for an innovative and modern approach to China’s rural realist landscape painting. We have every reason to believe that such an artistic style will be more mature as the artist continues exploring the significance of life and art, and it will help promote modern art including the genre of new rural landscape painting to a new high.
　　(Zhi Yu, post-doctoral degree holder of Literary Aesthetics, graduated from School of Liberal Arts,Renmin University of China, works as a professor in Sichuan International Studies University and in ResearchInstitute of Foreign Aesthetics and Modern Art) 
　　优秀的艺术家不会重复自我，值得庆幸，占山就是这样的艺术家。早在20世纪90年代，占山就已经形成了自己独特的艺术语言与个人风格，但他并不满足，相反，他走上了一条探索乡土写实主义与风景绘画当代方式的艺术之途。2005年“红色天空”系列作品的出现表明，占山以一种独特的“超风景”语式油画从两个方面开创了中国当代乡土写实与风景绘画的新境界。
　　占山“超风景”油画首先表现为“超乡土”。他的“红色天空”系列超越了传统乡土绘画的题材与主题，实现了中国乡土写实与风景绘画从乡土到大地、从生命礼赞到生态意识、从田园牧歌到敬畏自然价值与尊严的革命性转换。
　　如果说田间地头的乡土生活与乡村景物占据着占山20世纪90年代画作的主导位置，那么，在“红色天空”中这些人类劳动场面和其他人类活动痕迹开始向画面边缘或深处隐退。它们有时被安置到广袤的荒野之上，映衬在遥远、高大而起伏不定的山体面前，显得异常微小而谦恭（如《红色天空(1)》）；有时甚至干脆被逐出画面，根本找不到存在的位置（如《红色天空(2)》）。风景不是什么客观世界的真实反映，而是绘画主体建构与表征而出的主观意向与生存感觉。乡村生活与乡土景物的淡化显现出占山“超风景”油画对现代性以来人类中心主义立场和观念的反思与超越。超出乡土题材之后，占山将激情和景仰毫无保留地奉献给没有一丝人类活动痕迹的原生态大地：山峦与原野。站在全景画般的巨大画面之前，庄严辉煌的《红色天空》几乎要将我们一吸而入。占山“超风景”油画对大地神性的书写和重绘使我们重新学会尊重自然他者，其间所蕴含着的深邃的生态意识饱含着艺术家对大地尊严的领会和对自然价值的聆听与确认。
　　不仅如此，占山的“超风景”油画还为中国当代乡土写实和风景绘画开创了“超真实”的艺术境界。占山20世纪90年代的乡土绘画恪守着具象写实的语言体系，追求空间透视、色彩层次和细节描绘等写实技法，而“红色天空”系列则给我们带来了全新的空间感。占山抛弃了乡土写实与风景绘画自然主义和透视主义的真实观念，不再区分远景、中景和近景，这意味着对西方传统写实主义风景画与中国当代乡土绘画空间透视关系的超越与重构。在全景画式的巨大场面中，山峰、高原、湖泊、树木、草地、田野和农人等不存在明确的空间透视关系，远、中、近景也不再具有明晰和真实的逻辑层次，所有这些因素自然而和谐地融合在一起。
　　在具体的表现技法方面，占山大胆采用了当代艺术的平涂技法，通过表面技术处理而获得一种平滑的肌理效果，这突出地表现在他对天空的处理之上。受写实主义真实理念制约，传统乡土写实和风景绘画非常强调客观再现自然光线和色彩本身。“红色天空”系列重新改写了写实主义的语言体系，占山用均匀平涂的大面积粉红色来表现天空。与此相适应，在表现原野、山峦和大地时，占山采用了更具有主观性的黄、黑、灰、白等相对单纯的色系，而放弃了自己早期乡土绘画纯度极高的斑斓而丰富的色彩。显然，平涂技法的运用与色彩语言的革命性转换是极为成功的。一方面，这种“超真实”的平涂技法使乡土写实与风景绘画获得一种当代性很强的陌生化惊异效果；另一方面，光线与色彩感觉的调整也更有力地呈现了光线与色彩感觉的调整也更有力地呈现了自然天地的堂皇与庄严，更加有力地渲染出“红色天空”的史诗气质。
　　占山“超风景”油画为中国乡土写实与风景绘画提供了一种极具创新性的当代方式。我们有理由相信，占山“超风景”油画还会在生命之思与艺术之思的深化中更趋成熟，并将新乡土和新风景的当代艺术思潮推向更高远的艺术境界。
　　(支宇:四川外语学院，中国人民大学文学院文艺美学博士后，外国美学与当代艺术研究所，博士、教授）