绘画艺术总是存在着绘画语言之上的问题，一般而言，只要上那么几年的美术专科，古今中外的绘画语言技法总是能够掌握应用的，因此画个物体花卉场景故事当然不是问题。绘画语言之上究竟是什么？我们可以武断地说，绘画技法早已被前人实验表现殆尽，因此无甚可谈。但是我们看到，参与绘画的艺术家多如牛毛，并不因技法创造发现的阙如终止了各自的艺术之梦。那么绘画语言之上的问题又是什么呢？再次提出这个问题，个中就有观看艺术家梁群的作品引发的思考。

嬗变 / Evolution 2013

　　梁群早期的绘画，特别是来到北京之前在大连的油画创作，整体面貌基本延续了学院派的传统形式风格，在绘画技法的表现上有着驾轻就熟的描绘能力，其在大连的艺术影响力多半建立在以语言技法表现的基础上，完全称得上大连艺术家中画得最好的一位。这是事实，正如她的个展在大连的名人轰动效应。但是并不仅仅如 此。

　　如此说似乎有意指其炫技之嫌，更有把其理解为大连区域艺术家之偏颇。早在二十世纪的90年代，梁群夫妇就和圆明园艺术家打成一片，间接参与到当代艺术的观念思潮中，生存语境的互为关照，自然会在艺术家身上打上烙印，这一点比照其不同时期的作品即可看出，特别是绘画语言风格的确立上。直至后来举家来到北京，在被称为中国宋庄的画家村安营扎寨，均可说明有个语言之上的问题。相信这个问题许多艺术家身上都曾冲动发生过。这里说到了艺术的本体和艺术的生存问题。

　　在经验的事实上，美学已和绘画早已浑然一体，同时混淆了视听。在西方语境中，可以理解为美学的神话，在东方，特别是自然主义的描绘与企图，总是与天人合一观念理想本质同一。也因此，美成为了言说自然和人的关系的一种长此以往的态度，正如花卉静物之美，比之人的自然属性，可意会不可言传，大美不言，人止于自然之性状谓之为真善之美。因此，绘画修身养性为第一要义，别无其他。能够随物赋形，臻于自然之美，即是判断一个画家的能力，说穿了，这也是为什么写实教旨主义大行其道的根本原因。

　　然而之于自觉的艺术家而言，绘画技术语言本来就不是什么问题，更遑论语言之上的问题。看山是山，看山不是山，看山又是山，究其实，说的是时间空间的问题，艺术家的艺术生活态度的问题。当我们试图理解艺术家梁群时，在当下，形象气质创作风格可以直接与之对话、相互交流。而在美术史上，在之前的之前，我们仍能通过画家的作品在脑海里生成一个艺术家的形象，假如能够谋面，必令人诧异，艺术家创造着一个精神的自己，也是语言之上的独立精神的自己。梁群做到了这点，旗帜鲜明的个人风格能够告诉观众，艺术同样活在了当下。

　　这里需要说到，梁群走进了宋庄，也彻底走入了自己的精神世界。她用表现性的大笔触，强烈鲜艳的色彩，夸张变形的自由写意，描绘着一幅幅激情勃发的抽象花卉作品。在梁群作品中，我们看到其将自然主义的花卉摹写转向艺术语言的开放状态大胆表现，象征表意的生动趣味极富个人性情。我们很难把梁群的作品理解为抽象艺术，尽管花卉的开放状态在其笔下有着艺术家精神语言的立体构成。我仍然认为，梁群的美学态度在当下选择了一种与其生命理想吻合的抒情状态，而非语言映像的完全抽象。她的绘画情绪源自元语言的诗意抒写，大笔触的结构线条模糊而又富于激发情感的活力，同时提醒观众，以技法和写实的花卉再现已经不能局限艺术走向开放的事实。如此，梁群的绘画，在艺术的现实面前，呈现了绘画艺术改头换面的生存方式。

　　梁群的绘画似乎告诉了我们生命中暗含的基本逻辑，譬如花卉的自然情态和我们执意追求的自由诗意理想——诗意的自然之美早已不在自在的状态，但它从来就隐含着形象与象征的开放关系，在人与自然的分离中，人的独立人格拥有了与自然对话的权利的同时，人性不因这种有意识的分离而仅仅存在于语言之中。因此可以说，梁群的艺术态度是对自然主义的致敬，是人对自然万物艺术形式的开放，当然，也包括对艺术干预社会进程能力的被动怀 疑。

 2013年1月于宋庄画家大院

Image, Symbol and Openness

Discussion of the Artist Liang Qun’s Oil Paintings

　　In the art of painting there is always the problem of the language of painting. Usually, one only needs to go through those years of art academy training, and can then - no matter whether in ancient times or now, whether in the East or in the West - get a grip on the language of painting technique, so painting an object, flowers, a scenery or story of course is not a problem. What is actually above the language of painting? We can arbitrarily say that painting techniques have already been displayed to the max by previous generations, so there is not much more to say about that. But we can see that the artists painting are still uncountable, they have by no means given up their own artistic dreams just because the technical discoveries are waning. So what again is the problem above the language of painting? When coming up with this problem again, let us have a look at the thoughts brought up by works of the artist Liang Qun.

　　The early works of Liang Qun, especially the oil paintings made in Dalian before coming to Beijing, basically take up the traditional ways of academism and exhibit her ease and ability in painting. Her artistic influence in Dalian is mostly based on (painting) language skills, she can absolutely be called one of the best painters of Dalian. This is a fact, just like the sensational effect that her exhibitions have on Dalian’s celebrities. But there is more to it.

天歌 / The Song of Sky 2012

　　This might almost sound as a dislike of her virtuosity, but it is rather about the biased artists of the Dalian region. In the nineties, Liang Qun and her husband got together with the Yuanmingyuan-artists and participated indirectly in the conceptual trend of contemporary art. They were living in a way of caring for each other and greatly influenced by nature, compared with works from different periods this is easy to see, especially in her establishment of an own style. Later she moved to Beijing and pitched a camp in the Songzhuang artist village, this all can illustrate that there is a problem above “language”. I believe this problem has violently occurred to many artists. Here, we have talked about the reality of art and the problem of existence of art.

混沌开启 / Opening of the Chaos 2012

　　In the reality of experience, aesthetics and painting have been integrated into each other for a long time, and at the same time they have confused the seeing and hearing. In the Western world, this can be understood as the myth of the aesthetics. In the Eastern world, especially the naturalistic depictions and attempts, it always has to do with the essence of the concept of man being an integral part of nature. Therefore, beauty has become a kind of ongoing attitude towards the relation between man and nature, just like the beauty of a flower still life, compared to the natural quality of man, can be understood but cannot be described. Real beauty cannot be described, man can only name the shape and properties of nature as the beauty of true goodness. So, the main purpose of painting is self-cultivation, no other than that. Being able to go along with the objects to compose a form, to attain natural beauty, that is judging a painter’s ability. Bluntly, this is also the reason why realism fundamentalists propagate their belief on a large scale.

　　However, as for self-conscious artists, the technical language of painting has never been a problem, let alone the problems above language. To see a mountain being a mountain, to see a mountain not being a mountain, and then again to see a mountain being a mountain, actually it is a matter of time and space, a matter of the attitude of an artist towards artistic life. When we try to understand the artist Liang Qun, we can immediately get into a dialogue with image, disposition and creative style and have some interaction. In art history, in former times, we can still visualize an artist by his or her works, if we could meet that artist we would certainly still be surprised, as the artist is creating a spiritual self, which also means an own independent spirit on top of the style. Liang Qun has achieved this, her clear-cut stand and individual style can show everybody that art is just as alive now.

　　Here, we need to say that when Liang Qun moved into Songzhuang, she also thoroughly got into her own spiritual world. She uses expressive big brush strokes, strong bright colours, exaggerating distorted freehand brushwork, depicting one abstract flower painting pulsing with passion after the other. In Liang Qun’s works, we can see how the naturalism of flower depictions turns into the open state of bold artistic expression, a symbolic and vivid as well as very interesting personal temperament. We cannot classify Liang Qun’s works as abstract art, although the open state of the flowers under her brush has the three-dimensional structure of artistic spirit and style. I still believe Liang Qun’s aesthetic attitude is one of expressing emotions identical with her life’s ideals, rather than a complete abstraction of style. The moods of her paintings originate in the expression of a metalingual poetry, the composition of her big brushwork is vague and still full of exciting emotional energy, at the same time it reminds the spectator that technique and realistic flowers reappearing cannot limit the fact anymore that art is becoming more and more open. So, in front of art’s reality, Liang Qun’s paintings represent a mode of existence of art changing its face.

　　It is as if Liang Qun’s paintings told us the basic logic of life, just like the natural spirit of flowers and the free poetic ideal that we are chasing after - the poetic beauty of nature has not been in a free form for a long time, but has always implied the free relation of image and symbol. In the separation of man and nature, at the same time that man’s independent personality has got the right to communicate with nature, humanity does not only exist within language and style because of this conscious separation. Therefore we can say that Liang Qun’s artistic attitude is paying respects to naturalism, it is an opening of the art forms of man towards the universe, of course this also includes passive suspicion of the intervention of art in society’s ability to progress.

At Songzhuang Artists Compound

January 2013

作者：牧野