(一)

　　他的陶艺作品就跨越了这两个极至之间的空间，并且为铲除存在于现代中国的精英文化与大众文化之间的羁绊做出了自己的努力。他的青花器皿造型简洁优雅，折射出中国的传统文化，这也是其作品创作的自然源泉。而他最近一个时期创作的作品，特别是他在费城做客座艺术家期间创作的那些作品，代表了他对抽象表现主义艺术风格的一种东方式的探索方法。

　　托尼•弗兰克斯

　　His ceramic works have crossed over the space between these two extremes, and made their own efforts to eradicate the fetters existing between modern Chinese elite culture and popular culture. The shape of his blue and white containers is simple and elegant, a reflection of traditional Chinese culture, which is also the natural source of his creation. The works of his in the most recent period, especially those he created as a guest artist in Philadelphia, represent an oriental method of exploring the art style of abstract expressionism.

　　Tony Franks

　　(二)

　　岁月的抽象――关于白明的陶艺 尽管表面上破碎、剥落、凹陷或折皱，但是，中国艺术家白明的这些小型陶瓷雕塑并没有太多地追求这种衰败的视觉效果，而是更多地关注作品的形式，正是这些形式抗御着岁月带来的毁灭性影响。在这些具有极少主义风格的作品中，时间似乎是抽象过程中的一种媒介，它紧紧地抓住这种持久性的本质，进而将这种本质融入到几乎等同于人的心脏大小的一块块致密的陶泥之中。这种对心脏的模糊暗示——心脏既是重要的器官，也是情感的象征性缩影——为阐释白明在作品中意欲表达的时间与人性之间的基本关系提供了一种解答的方式。 白明的陶瓷器皿，技术完美无瑕，风格雅致恬静。如果人们知道，在过去的十年里，他仅仅把自己的部分时间用于陶艺创作，那么，留给人们的印象就会更加深刻。他是一位真正的多才多艺的艺术家，曾撰写过7本专门研究当代陶艺的论著，而且在绘画方面也达到了相当的境界。与此同时，他也详尽阐述中国人对大自然的独特观念。 单独去看每一件雕塑作品，在形式上似乎都是相似的。然而，作品表面上留下的创作过程的印迹却是独一无二、各不相同的。 在白明看来，时间是一切事物中最伟大的抽象派艺术家。能够历经时间一次次无情否定的不仅仅是震撼心灵的畏惧感，而且还有真理的最纯粹的形式。

　　格伦•R•布朗(美国艺评家、堪萨斯州立大学艺术系教授)

　　Abstraction of Time – On Bai Ming’s Ceramic Works

　　While on the surface broken, peeling, with dents or wrinkles, these small ceramic sculptures by Chinese artist Bai Ming are not much in the pursuit of the visual effects of decline, but pay more attention to the form of works; it is these forms that have been resisting the devastating impact of time. In these works of a minimalism style, time seems to be a medium in the process of abstraction. He has firmly grasped this persistent nature and then integrated it into pieces of dense clay in the size almost equivalent to people’s heart. This fuzzy hint of the heart - which is both a vital organ and a symbolic microcosm of emotions – provides a solution to explain the basic relationship between time and humanity that Bai Ming intended to reveal in his works. Bai Ming’s ceramics features perfect craftsmanship and an elegant and quiet style. If brought into awareness that in the past decade he has only devoted part of his time to ceramic art, then people will feel more impressed. He is a truly versatile artist, who has written 7 books specializing in contemporary ceramics and reached a considerable level in painting also. At the same time, he also elaborated on Chinese people's unique concept of nature.

　　Looked separately, each piece of sculpture seems to be similar in form. However, the imprint of the creative process left on the surface of works is unique and distinct

　　In Bai Ming's view, time is the greatest abstract artist of all things. To stand against the relentless negation of time is not just a searing sense of fear, but also the truth in its purest form.

　　Glenn R. Brown, U.S. art critic and professor of art at Kansas State University

　　(三)

　　白明不仅是一位年轻的画家，也是一位创作瓷器和炻器的陶艺家。他在瓷器上创作的抽象作品闻名于中国。最近，他在美国向人们展示了他的装饰技巧。他是北京一所艺术学院的老师，也因为如此，他影响了许许多多的学子。

　　苏珊•彼德森(美国纽约市立大学亨特学院 荣誉退休教授)

　　Bai Ming is not only a young painter, but also a creator of ceramics and stoneware. He is known for the creation of abstract works in porcelain in China. Recently, he showcased his decorative skill to the public in the United States. He is a teacher of an Art Institute in Beijing, and because of this, he has influenced many students.

　　Susan Peterson, honorable veteran professor of Hunter College, the University of New York

　　(四)

　　白明的瓷如儒、如道、如禅，深遂、悠远、神秘。

　　白明的瓷是儒。他的青瓷、花瓷作品文儒雅致，贯穿着儒家文化的思维脉络，中庸、含蓄、温绵和柔韧，瓷质温润如玉，造型简洁、明快、素雅，具有水一样的韵律，无论器具的外形和器具的内质都符合传统儒家“中庸”即“合度”的要求，单纯中不乏精致、巧美，充分地表现出形的变化和瓷质的品格，蕴含着优雅和刚柔结合的儒家文化气质。 白明的瓷是道，自然、灵动、超然，蕴含着道家思想的玄远。他的现代瓷，在造型上具有道家文化“朴素”、“自然”的审美特征，着重张扬的是一种自然生命本身在合规律的运动中所表现出来的自由精神，文化意识与材料运用有机的结合，使道家”玄远”抽象的表达方式和现代体验的意向图式结合为一体，形象和意义构成了完整的比喻关系。 白明的瓷是禅，清纯、智慧，透出一分幽冥的灵感。他的系列作品《参禅——形式与过程》，结构简洁，形式纯粹，随意卷起的泥片所形成的自然肌理形态给人的视觉提供了极大的可视性和神秘感，流线的韵律和团块的扭转中似乎寓示着某种逃离现实喧嚣和躁动的情感，显示出一种东方文化思维特有的参禅的时间意识，那些神秘的短线刻痕暗示着某种内心的迷径，而所有作品整体的组合又似乎是在重塑当代人的存在意识和生存观念——人生如参禅。

　　罗一平(广东美术馆馆长，艺评家)

　　Like Confucianism, Taoism and Zen, Bai Ming’s ceramics are deep, distant and mysterious.

　　Bai Ming’s ceramics are Confucian. His blue and white ceramic works are learned and refined, with the thinking of Confucian culture running through, which is moderate, subtle, gentle and flexible. The quality of porcelain is like the luster of jade, in a simple, crisp and elegant shape, with a water-like rhythm. Both the shape and quality of these ceramics are in line with the "golden mean" of traditional Confucianism, that is, "heterozygosity", simple without lacking in fineness and exquisiteness, which fully demonstrates the change of shape and quality of porcelain, and contains a Confucian cultural temperament of elegant and rigid combination.

　　Bai Ming’s ceramics are Tao, which is natural, agile and aloof, containing the mysteries of Taoism. His modern ceramics have the "simple" and "natural" aesthetic characteristics of Taoist culture in the shape, highlighting the free spirit of a natural life itself demonstrated in regular movement. The organic combination of cultural awareness and use of material makes the "mysterious" and abstract expression of Taoism and the intention schema of modern experience combined together, with image and meaning constituting a complete analogy. Bai Ming’s ceramics are Zen, pure and wise, revealing a dark inspiration. His series of works, Zen - Form and Process, are in simple structure and pure forms. The natural texture formed by freely rolled-up clay tablets provides great visibility and a sense of mystery for the visuals, the rhythm of flow lines and torsion of clumps seem to indicate some kind of emotions escaping from the noisy and restless reality, showing a sense of time in Zen typical of oriental culture, those mysterious short notches suggest a certain inner dilemma, while the combination of all works as a whole seems to reshape the contemporary sense of existence and concept of survival - life is like Zen.

　　Luo Yiping, curator of Guangdong Art Museum and art critic

　　(五)

　　白明自1995年以来的创作摸索，在中国大陆的艺术环境里，是一场相当冒险的孤独之旅。年轻一代不乏急着赶上装置艺术潮流的追随者，也不缺那些努力供应西方世界所渴望的“异国风情”或“政治伤痕”图腾的制造者。惟独像白明这样选择既不受传统规范，又不随波逐流的创作方向，当然具有他非常强烈的心理因素和突破性目标。他这样草根性的自觉和本土意识，使他有别于一般跟进西方的年轻艺术家，虽然创作的抽象形式从视觉上看来和西方的抽象艺术关系十分密切，但仔细研究他的绘画内容与技巧时，才真正理解他的简约与质朴和西方的抽象绘画实在有相当的距离与差异。如果了解“物语”在中文和日文体系中有着不同的语境理解，那么，也就不难明白白明的绘画历程，显示出“抽象”在西洋现代和中国当代艺术系统里也有着不同的画境理解，所以，白明绘画中抽象的语汇也不等同西方的a b s t r a c t I s m !

　　著名策展人，艺评家 陆蓉之 (台湾)

　　Bai Ming’s explore in creation since 1995 has been a very risky lonely trip in the artistic environment in mainland China. Among the younger generation, there is no lack of followers in a hurry to catch up with the trend of installation art, nor is there lack of totem makers trying to supply "exotics" or "political scars” the Western world has been longing for. But only Bai Ming chose such a creative direction free from traditional norms while not drifting along, which of course contains very strong psychological factors and breakthrough objectives of his. His grass-roots consciousness and local awareness makes him different from other common young artists following the West. Although the abstract form of his creation looks very close to Western abstract art, only after careful study of his paintings and skills, can you really understand there is a considerable distance and difference between his simple rusticity and Western abstract painting. If you know that "story" has different linguistic contextual meanings in Chinese and Japanese systems, then, it won’t be difficult for you to understand that the "abstraction" shown in Bai Ming's painting course has different painting contextual meanings in the Western modern and Chinese contemporary art systems. Therefore the abstract vocabulary in Bai Ming’s paintings is not equivalent to the Western abstractism.

　　Well-known curator and art critic Lu Rongzhi (Taiwan)

　　(六)

　　面对白明的画，我很难进入理性判断，因为在视觉的本能反应中，我已沉浸于一个和谐的氛围之中，就如一个人独处时聆听音乐，不知不觉进入音乐所创造的情感世界;那样清晰、细腻、澄明、柔和，间或也有激越的生命冲动和涌流的情感波澜。这些作品给我的总的印象是沉静的、温涧的。 在他的艺术中，真正的精神资源还是来自本土文化。他自觉到，必须从本土文化中找到一个精神支柱，才有可能与这一来自西方的样式拉开距离，而正是这种对本土文化的追慕，使他的作品具有一种不同于西方的文化底蕴。无论是江南丝竹般的温润，还是黄钟大吕般的交响，均能传达出一种古老而久远的文化气息，这里既透露着清静优雅的文人格调，又折射出深厚凝重的汉唐风范。白明从不使用浓艳、强烈的色彩，他的画基本保持在灰调与黑调之中。那些安静的灰调作品，很容易把我们唤回到空灵淡泊的水墨天地;那些凝重的黑调作品，又常常把我们带到北派山水浑厚华滋，深冥幽邃的境界。

　　艺评家 贾方舟

　　In front of Bai Ming’s paintings, I find it difficult to enter a rational judgment, because I have been immersed in a harmonious atmosphere with visual instinct, just as one unknowingly entering the emotion world created by music when listening to music alone; so clear, delicate, clear and soft, also accompanied by the vigor of life impulse and the surge of emotional waves. These works generally give me a quiet and gentle impression. In his art, the real spiritual resources are from the local culture. He felt that he must find a spiritual support from the local culture to make it possible to distance from Western style, while it is such a pursuit of the local culture that gives his works a cultural heritage different from the West. Whether it be gentle music in the south or a symphony of great music, it can convey an ancient cultural atmosphere, where both a quiet and elegant literati style is revealed, and a deep solemn air of Han and Tang dynasties is reflected. Bai Ming never used nuanced, intense colors, and his paintings always remained in the gray and black tones. Those quiet gray-tone works easily make us recall the ethereal indifferent ink world; those dignified black-tone works often bring us to the vigorous, deep and quiet realm of Northern School landscapes.

　　Art critic Jia Fangzhou

　　(七)

　　在近几年的作品中，他的整个思维活动与直觉感性有机结合了起来，文化意识与材料运用有机结合了起来，这就使他的艺术境界达到了新的升华。现在，在他的作品中，东方的文化内涵不是通过符号来体现，而是通过整体的结构、肌理、色泽来预示。他的整个艺术气质和创造激情贯注到了作品的深层，在那里，形成了鲜活的灵魂，也形成深厚、自然、阔大的境界。这时候的白明，已成为一个有个性而又有学术高度的白明。

　　艺评家 范迪安

　　His works in recent years saw an organic combination between his entire thinking and emotional intuition, between cultural awareness and use of materials, which makes the realm of his art reach a new sublimation. Now, in his works, the cultural connotations of the East is not embodied by symbols, but indicated by the overall structure, texture and colors. His entire artistic temperament and creative passion continue all the way to the in-depth of works, where a living soul as well as a deep, natural and big wide realm has been formed. At this time, Bai Ming has become an artist with both personality and academic achievements. Art critic Fan Di’an

　　(八)

　　白明的综合材料试验建立在三个雄厚的基础上;对材料媒介的敏感，对中国传统抽象语汇的研究与继承以及对个人话语的现实定位。 他既想以形式的纯粹和特性的价值来拒绝意识形态的侵入，以艺术和现实的差异来重建艺术的历史功能;又想把艺术建立在一系列的反思性主题上，从而使作品的观念性超越语言实验的价值同时，他又试图从糜烂的物质性的现实中返回到历史理性的高度以及从那里找到重建人类价值的可能性。这样，白明就不得不同时是一个形式主义者、生活的体验者和历史主义者。

　　艺评家 张晓凌、孟禄新

　　Bai Ming’s comprehensive material testing is based on three solid foundations: the sensitivity with material media, the study and inheritance of Chinese traditional abstract vocabulary, as well as the practical positioning of personal discourse.

　　He not only wants to reject the intrusion of ideology with pure forms and the value of characteristics and rebuild the historical function of art through the difference between art and reality; but also wants to create a series of reflective themes for art, so that the concept of works would go beyond the value of language experiments, while at the same time, he tries to return to the height of rational history from the erosion of material reality and find the possibility of rebuilding human value there. In this way, Bai Ming has become a formalist, life experimentalist and historicist.

　　Art critic Zhang Xiaoling, Meng Luxin

　　(九)

　　白明的作品更多的是一种综合，是对这些年中国油画边缘探索的综合。

　　艺评家 殷双喜

　　Bai Ming's works are more of a summary, a summary of his marginal exploration of Chinese painting these years.

　　Art critic Yin Shuangxi

　　(十)

　　白明的作品有三种指向：一种人物的，大都带表现性;一种是理性的;还是一种带有“随机”性的，随着物材表现的过程，不是强调表现性，也不是纯理性的。我喜欢他的在理性之中带有一种“随机”性的作品，这种东西有底蕴。他的理性色彩又不是西方的冷抽象，他是冷中有热，他这类作品我认为是一种焦虑中的静观。他把他对现实生活之中的焦虑融在一种静观当中，我觉得这种作品达到的水平比较高。 我想是一种传统文化精神和哲学在当代的一种回升的愿望。这种理想和愿望不管是从他的作品还是从画的题目中都能看出来。上面说到这些作品就显得很宏观，很大度。

　　著名策展人，艺评家 刘骁纯

　　Bai Ming’s works have three directions: first character, mostly with performance; second rational; third of a "random" nature, which is neither emphasizing performance nor purely rational with the performance of material. I like his rational works with a "random" nature, which has inner heritage. His rationality is not like the Western cold abstraction, with hot in cold, which I think is a contemplation in anxiety. He combined his anxiety in real life with contemplation; I think this kind of works has achieved a relatively high level.

　　I think it is a contemporary desire to rebound the traditional spirit of culture and philosophy. Such a desire and aspiration can be seen whether from his works or from the title of the painting. The above-mentioned works are very macro and inclusive.

　　Well-known curator and art critic Liu Xiaochun

　　(十一)

　　白明选择了纯粹性的历险，这实际上也是他对自我本质的选择。他的艺术感觉、意识与经验是在陶艺创作过程是对材质、肌理和时间的体验中形成的。绘画对他来说意味着艺术的纯粹，他对材料验的纯粹性在绘画的语境中即升华为精神的意义。

　　著名策展人，艺评家 易英

　　Bai Ming chose a pure adventure, which in fact is a choice of his self-essence. His artistic feeling, awareness and experience have been formed through the experience of material, texture and time in the creation process of ceramics. Painting is pure art to him, while his pure experience of material has elevated to a spiritual sense in the context of painting.

　　Well-known curator and art critic Yi Ying

　　(十二)

　　“大象”是一切形色世界的共相，“大音”是一切音响世界的共相，它既是概括的，同时也是具体的，这里又体现出朴素的辩证法思想。白明对老庄哲学有着深切的领悟，在他的作品中，力图表达的正是这样一种充满哲思的恢宏而博大的“无”和“大”的境界。白明在继承这样一种传统的同时，做了富有个性化的和具有中国时代精神的创造，这是白明的艺术创作的最大成就。 在白明的作品中，言、象、意是一个高度的统一体，共同展示着哲思之美，颇有庄子所论的“知者不言，言者不知”(《庄子•天道》)的大智若愚的境界。

　　著名策展人，艺评家 郭晓川

　　"Great image" is a common phase of the entire visual world, whereas "great sound" is a common phase of the entire audio world, which is both general and specific, also demonstrating a simple dialectic thinking. Bai Ming has a deep understanding of Taoist philosophy, and tries to express in his works such a philosophizing and magnificent realm of "nothing" and "greatness". While inheriting such a tradition, Bai Ming has also made creations full of personality and spirit of the times, which is the greatest achievement of his artistic creation.

　　In Bai Ming’s works, words, image and meanings are highly integrated to demonstrate the beauty of philosophy, with a realm of the greatest wisdom concealed, as Zhuangzi said "The wise speak little while the speaker knows little" (Zhuangzi, Heaven).

　　Well-known curator and art critic Guo Xiaochuan

　　(十三)

　　从心底里说，我十分喜欢他的这些作品。理由之一是他的作品大气、大度、大方，给我带来了一种少有的震撼力。白明的抽象艺术境界既无具象之形，无常形，无定形，又单纯、简约、虚灵，并趋向了一种纯粹的境界，且还蕴含着丰富的情感意蕴和哲理意味。

　　著名策展人，艺评家陈孝信

　　From the bottom of my heart, I am very fond of his works. One reason is that his works are magnificent, inclusive and generous, bringing me a rare shocking. Bai Ming’s abstract art realm has neither the shape of specific image, nor regular or fixed form, pure, simple and mysterious, tends to a pure realm, and also contains a rich emotional connotation and philosophical meaning.

　　Well-known curator and art critic Chen Xiaoxin

　　(十四)

　　“感谢您与我分享这一不同寻常的时刻，对于我来说这是一次非凡的经历。我发现：白明的陶瓷艺术达到的高度，远远地超出我的所有想象，我也永远不可企及。现在我知道了，有这样的美丽存在着，对我来说已经无比美妙”。

　　摩纳哥首相夫人 MARIE-JEANNE ROGER

　　"Thank you for sharing with me this unusual moment; for me, this is an extraordinary experience, I found that Bai Ming’s ceramic art has reached a high level which is far beyond all my imagination and I can never attempt to reach. Now I know, with the existence of this beauty, it has been fantastic for me".

　　Monaco Prime Minister’s wife MARIE-JEANNE ROGER

　　(十五)

　　从白明最近在巴黎的回顾展可以看出他在陶瓷与绘画领域宽广的表现力，在这两大领域里 , 他都可称得上是一位重量级的大师。尽管陶瓷与绘画有着明显不同的美感 , 但它们都展现出一种视觉上的延伸和独立思维的拓展。虽然在内容和外观上有着显著的区别，它们却有着相似的特点 ：平静而又文雅，简单却又深刻，反映出绝大多数中国艺术中的抽象基因。只是其中一些偶然性的矛盾元素，给人一种在和谐的气氛中所独有的“杂乱”之感，好像真正的生活正侵蚀着内心的精神世界，也许这是中国传统中一个亘古不变的元素。白明的绘画和陶瓷作品都有着熟悉的传统魅力，同时也具有原始的独特性。他的画非常细腻，富有强大的生命力，而他所做的陶瓷更加优雅，静中带有一种充满光彩的完美的成熟，其内在的神秘和奥妙却弥漫在整个作品里。一切尽在朦胧中，需要我们去琢磨和体会。我们从白明的作品中走出来会感到很充实，却仍然十分好奇……       

　　  —托尼•法兰克斯  联合国教科文组织国际陶艺协会前主席

　　Bai Ming’s recent retrospective exhibition in Paris demonstrated a wideranging expression in both ceramics and painting. In both fields he is a considerable master, and while these two distinct areas of activity express very different aesthetic sensibilities, they both demonstrate a breadth of visual research and a depth of personal concern. While so different in content and appearance they express similar temperaments; both are tranquil and elegant, both simple and profound, reflecting perhaps the abstract base of most Chinese art. Occasional contradictory elements, however, show glimpses of turmoil in the harmony as though real life disturbs the inner spirit. Perhaps this is a constant element in the Chinese tradition, but while both Bai Ming’s paintings and ceramics have the familiar appeal of tradition, they are also both highly original and individual. The paintings are heavily textured, robust and energetic, as though still in progress, while the ceramics are more refined and quieter with a high gloss sophisticated finish. But mystery pervades all the work; nothing is obvious; and we come away from Bai Ming’s exhibition enriched, but still curious.

　　Tony Franks

　　Former Chairman of the UNESCO international caramics association