纵观尚扬跨越整个20世纪90年代的艺术创作，又可以分成两个略为不同的系列，一是“大风景”系列，另外一个就是“诊断”系列。两个系列在象征性这一点上是有着内在联系的，都明确指向一个根本性的目标，那就是思考人类的处境。当然，尚扬首先是从中国的角度去开展他的“绘画思考”的，这显然又符合他“反20世纪”的艺术目标。
　　“大风景”系列，从绘画经验上看，自然可以将它和20世纪80年代早期尚扬在黄土高原上的经验联系起来。就像前面所说的那样，“黄土经验”源自那时盛行的寻根潮流，以为可以通过一种形象来概括中华民族的全部苦难与希望。显然，这种方式有它的局限性，那就是过于地域化，不足以表达更宏大的理念，并持续探索新的路向。这样，他就自然而然地进入创作的第二个阶段，在这个阶段中，实验成了工作的主要方向。可是，尚扬毕竟不是一个纯材料艺术家，更不是一个形式主义者，他有深藏于内心的社会责任感，有探求人类处境的强烈欲求。
　　当一个普通概念获得升华后，象征的意义便会冒头，其功能就能成为作品长久不衰的主题。尚扬从具体的地域抽身出来，反而发现地域本身的普遍性。这时尚扬尖锐地意识到，重要的其实不是黄土高原，而是“风景”，它隐含着的抽象意义可以像一组具体语词那样，离开所指而任意发挥作用。从某种意义上来看，人类所居住的环境都可以还原为“风景”。更进一步说，“风景”本身就是一组其能指意义可以不断滑动的独立词组，它不仅是表达的对象，更是表达本身。这样，尚扬就开始创作他的“大风景”系列。在这个系列里，尚扬的重点不再是具体的黄土高原，他只是选择了黄土高原那种平缓起伏的外形。他着重点放在了“风景”上，也就是说，他赋予了“风景”这两个字以新的视觉意义。他画的是人类广泛意识到的风景，或者说，他把“风景”人格化了，并从中抽象出人与自然这么一个重大主题，来检讨人类每天面对环境时所采取的态度。也就是说，“风景”不再是风景，而是一种真实的，同时又是抽象的存在。风景就是人的处境。更简单地说，风景就是人。为了强化这个主题，尚扬谨慎地运用波普艺术的“拿来方式”进行创作。他用稚拙的表现手法，把日常生活的符号填进“风景”，比如横空而过的飞机、耕耘的农夫、劳作的牲口、玩耍的小孩，甚至飘落的雨点、孤独的云，等等，一起来创造画面的效果。
　　但是，对于尚扬来说，这种风景和人的方式并不意味着把一种情绪放在风景的描绘上，因为这样一来，尚扬就仍然停留在表现主义的层次上，不能摆脱20世纪80年代所形成的传统。正是在这一点上，尚扬彻底离开了表现主义，他的方式是把画面所出现的综合因素，包括具体的表达手段都充分符号化。他的创作与其说是表达激情，不如说是按照一种深思熟虑的组合来安排画面。事实上，尚扬的“大风景”系列是一种极具抽象意味的创作，作品中所出现的因素和具体对象并没有什么真实的关系，真实的是一种象征、一组符号和由此而引出的人生理念。
　　于是，“大风景”系列就成为了尚扬艺术的标志，成为一种我称之为“尚扬符号”的视觉存在。
　　经过了整整十年的探索，尚扬最终完成了自我更新，从20世纪80年代的“尚扬黄”走到了20世纪90年代的“尚扬风景”，从具体的地域描绘和自我的情绪表现走到了抽象的符号集合和理念诉求。这是一个不算太长的过程，但是对尚扬来说，却是生命的升华。更重要的是，这升华不仅体现了一个中国知识分子和本土艺术家的毕生理想，它更镶嵌在中国当代艺术走向世界的历史进程中，具有时代的典型意义，同时又超越了这个时代，而获得长久的价值。
　　（摘录自杨小彦著《中国当代油画名家个案研究——尚扬》）

　　Shang Yang’s Techuies
　　Yang Xiaoyan
　　During the whole 1990s, The art Shang Yang indited can be divided into two series， one is Great Landscape, the other is the Diagnosis. There is an inherent relation of the symbol between the two series. And both of them indicate definitely an ultimate goal that is the thought about the human spot. Certainly, Shang Yang explored his painting ponder firstly from China, this was accorded with his artistic goal of anti-20 century.
　　The Great Landscape series, on the painting experience, was associated with Shang Yang’s painting when he painted the Huangtu Gaoyuan Plateau in early 1980s. Accordingly Huangtu experience is derived from the seeking ask for the root that it is very popular then. He conceived that it could generalize all of the tribulations and the wishes of the Chinese nation by a sort of visualization. By all appearances, this mode is limited, so the baronial theory was not expressed exactly, and went on probing into a new way. In this way, Shang Yang involuntarily came into the second inventive phase, and in the phase, the experimentation became the dominating task. However, Shang Yang is not a simple material artist after all, and he is not yet a formalist. The social responsibility and the strong desire of hunting human being spot is hiden into his heart.
　　The symbolic meaning could be embodied and its function could be an unfading subject of the works for a long time when a general conception is sublimed, Shang Yang got away from the idiographic terrain, instead he discovered the universality of the terrain itself. Then he was acutely on to the important thing that is actually not the Huangtu Gaoyuan but the landscape. It connotes abstract meaning that is alike a set of material phraseology, it was off the indication but exerted discretionarily the effects.
　　In a way, the environment human lived could be reverted landscapes. Further more, landscape is a set of independent phrase that its meaning constantly slipped itself, it was not only the expressive object, but the expression itself. So Shang Yang began to creat the Great Landscape series, Shang Yang just chose the fluctuant gently figuration of the Huangtu Gaoyuan in it, the important was not the frondose Huangtu Gaoyuan any more. The keystone of the Shang Yang’s painting is landscape, that is, he endowed the landscape with novel vision meaning. He paints the landscape that was warned by abroad human being. Or to say, he anthropomorphized the landscape and abstracted the important subject that it was human and nature. It was to review the attitude when man affronts the environment everyday. That is, landscape is not the landscape, but a kind of actual and abstract existence. Landscape is the hominine spot, simply, the landscape is the human. In order to intensify the subject, Shang Yang adopted carefully the “bring fashion” of the bop art to invent. He added the denotation of daily life to the landscape by his childish and clumsy expressive technique. Such as the airplanes crossing the sky, the cultivated peasants, the woked animals, the playing children, even the falling raindrop, single cloud and so on. He created the menu together.
　　However, for Shang Yang, such manner of the landscape and the human didn’t predicate that the emotion involved the landscape painting. Because of this, Shang Yang still rest on the expressionistic administrative levels, he could not get rid of the tradition formatted from 1980s. Just because of this, Shang Yang deviate thoroughly from the expressionism, his manner was to symbolize fully the comprehensive factors appeared in the menu, including the frondose expression manner. His creation rather expressed enthusiasm than arranged the menu according to a sort of cogitative combination. In fact, the Great Landscape series of Shang Yang is a sort of mighty abstract invention. The factors and objects in the painting was not actual relation, the actual is a sort of symbol, a set of denotation, and it educed the philosophy of the life.
　　Therewith, the Great Landscape became the sign of the arts by Shang Yang, in other words, became a sort of vision existence of “Shang Yang denotation “I named.
　　After ten years exploring, Shang Yang achieved self-improvement finally, from the Shang Yang Yellow in 1980s to the Sang Yang landscape in 1990s, from painting the terrain concretely and expressed self-emotion to congregating the abstract denotation and pouring out the thoughts. The course was not so long, but to Shang Yang, it was a vital sublime. More important, the sublimation not only embodied the ideal of a Chinese highbrow and natural artist all his life, but it is inlayed historical process of the up-to-date art from China to the world. It was topical times, at the same time, it exceeded the times and obtained the value for a good while.
　　(Excerpt from Yang Xiaoyan: Case Study of China Contemporary Oil Masters---Shang Yang)

作者：杨小彦