雷子人所画的人物，在画面中看来仿佛是一些抽离了具体时间、空间和情境的活动片段的组合。时间和情节的概念在他的画面中似乎不再重要，和中国绘画的传统一样，画家竭力想要表现的是一种宁静、平和的心态。但是实际上，雷子人的人物素材大多是来自现实生活中具有某种具体性的场景，他的工作不过是挑选一些更为安静的场景，打破这种具体性的编织，按照理想的方式将若干行为动作重新结合在一起，最后，出现在他画面中的人物，往往是处在一种风花雪月的浪漫情怀之中，很明显在画家选择的素材和画面的最后呈现之间从创作开始就发生了一个微妙的质变。

　　如果完全用中国古代水墨画的分类标准来判断，在语言上雷子人的风格属于工写结合的风格。也就是说在他的作品中同时包含了工笔和写意的两种特征，所谓画面中的工笔特征体现在两个方面：首先是在人物的表现中强调一种用线的趣味，这种线的趣味不是大笔的一气呵成，而是细笔在画面慢慢移动后留下的痕迹。其次是雷子人在人物的描写中较大比例的运用了晕染等技法，尽管有意地控制使用这种工细的晕染，但是其工笔特征仍然是明确的。相反在画面主体以外的范围，画家几乎完全是以写意的方式来完成背景的铺陈，山水树木无一不是恣意挥洒的结果。

　　顾名思义，工写结合的语言方式是在工笔和写意之后出现的第三种方式，从中国古代绘画史的角度看，这第三种语言方式不是强调“非工非写”，而是强调“既工又写”，也就是强调两种本来具有对抗性的语言方式在画面上的和谐统一，从明代以后，画史上不乏这样的画家，早的如戴进、吴伟、近的如齐白石，但是在雷子人的绘画中，我们看到的并不全是一派和谐甜美，或者我们可以说这种和谐甜美的景象至多只是一种表象而已。在他的作品中人物造型的真实性与背景的虚拟性一开始就造就了画面的荒诞感，而大多时候人物的安详和景物的风起云涌形成反差，背景的饱和仿佛在对抗着人物的宁静，表面上看有山、有水、有树、有云，但实际上这些因素在造就画面氛围的同时仿佛也在包围着人物，既使在他那些以天空为背景的作品中，我们感到的也是空荡荡的虚无感。雷子人的作品所呈现的不是一种和谐，相反在人物的仔细描写和背景的墨色铺陈之间有一种对抗性的张力，它们所传达出的是潜在的不安定感和紧张感。

　　从中国画的发展中看，工写结合的方式绝对是一种调和的中庸之道，既然如此，面对雷子人的作品，我们的问题自然会是为什么画家选择了这种调和的语言方式，刻意去描写那些自己经心挑选的和谐的人物动态和场景，传达出的却是一种潜在的焦灼状态呢？雷子人仿佛就像一个善意的，却又不高明的说谎者。他竭力想营造一个安宁的空间，却往往在背景的铺陈中不小心泄露出某些现实生活的喧嚣。当然我们可以像许多人认为的那样把雷子人看作是画“梦”的画家。看作是一个沉溺在古代文人世界里的画家，但是他偏偏又是如此的不彻底，就像画家自己说的“突然间我发现现实中的许多空白，空白中的苍白，一些毫无生机存在的事实。于是我总想搜寻一片绿叶、一个明朗的天空……可是我又时常感受搜寻后的失落”，严格意义上看，雷子人的失落不完全是一种私密性的情绪性的失落。在这种失落背后隐藏的是他所操持的水墨语言的社会根性的丧失。

　　对于画家而言，他对生命的体验是和对艺术语言的体验纠缠在一起的，生命体验的本性决定了他对艺术语言方式的选择，而长期对一种艺术语言的钻研往往又会重铸生命的体验方式。这种交织发展的状态是由语言的特性所决定的。选择一种语言往往意味着一种生活方式，从这个角度看雷子人失落根源在于他在选择了一种和现实社会有着种种冲突的古老的艺术语言，中国水墨语言从根本上说试图传达的不是画家的情趣,不是画家对现实的即时性反应，而是画家的情景、即画家对现实的心理整合能力，而我们同处的这个时代却是一个全面向现代社会转型的时代，在这样一个时代，整个社会以“效益原则”为轴心发展。在这种原则指导下，一方面是社会的飞速发展，一方面是社会的飞速发展带来的个体的不适感和工具理性对个人信念的粉碎。在此情况下现实所要求的艺术是直接的、渲泄的情绪性表达，仿佛只有这样艺术才能跟上社会发展的节奏。显然水墨画的社会根基已经被社会的转型毫不留情地粉碎了，只剩下一个语汇的空壳。从这个角度看，雷子人对于水墨语言的钻研显得是如此的“不合时宜”。

　　在雷子人的画面中，我们可以清晰地感觉到真正发生矛盾冲突的不是两种局部性的语汇的冲突，而是由艺术语言所催化的生活信念和由社会现实所造就的现实体验的冲突，作为一个对水墨语言有着良好悟性的画家，雷子人试图坚信他能像他所喜爱的那些大师们一样以自己的方式来整合现实对于个人体验的粉碎。但是现实生活的发展又使他无法逃避情绪的主宰，无论是从他对语言的使用看还是从对内容的选择看，他总是在竭力控制画面中的情绪性表达，但又总是无法完全抑制住情绪的流露。如果从这个角度看，我们与其说雷子人是一个画梦的画家，倒不如说他是一个在半梦半醒之间表达的画家，与许多和他语言形态相仿的画家相比，他既没有完全沉溺在虚幻的梦境中，也没有被廉价情绪化表达所吞没。他的作品的意义恰恰就在于性情和情绪的冲突之间，在这种矛盾冲突的无意流露中我们能够捕捉到在中国文化的转型期里人文价值内在变化的某些极具魅力的轨迹。

　　Behind Tranquility

　　Pi Li

　　The figures in Lei Ziren's paintings seem like live segments broken away from the concrete time, space and situation but integrated again on the drawing paper. The concept of time and story appear no longer important; like the tradition of Chinese painting, what he's trying to present is the tranquil and placid inner world. However, in effect, most of his figures are from specific circumstances in our daily life. He just picks out certain sights that are more tranquil and breaks the specific composition, then combines them in his ideal way. Therefore, the figures in his paintings are usually immersed in a romantic atmosphere. Obviously, there has occurred a subtle but qualitative change from the selected materials to the final expression of the painting, since the beginning of this producing progress.

　　If entirely judged by the classification criteria of ancient Chinese brush drawing, Lei's style of drawing language belongs to a combination of fine and freehand brushwork, which means that in his paintings concurrently exist fine and freehand characteristics. The fine characteristics are reflected in two aspects. First, about the character depiction, you can find his emphasis on a trick of using lines, which is not like one stretch but an imprint by the slow movement of fine lines. Second, Lei uses a lot of skills like brush-shading and his fine-lined-shading, which he intentionally tries to control, clearly expresses the features of fine line drawing. On the contrary, the background of the painting is drawn in the freehand style. All mountains, waters and trees in his work are out of his arbitrary will.

　　Namely, the fine-and-freehand combined drawing language is the third one after fine brushwork and freehand drawing. From the perspective of the history of ancient Chinese painting, the third language does not stress "neither fine nor freehand" drawing, which instead emphasizes "both freehand and fine" style. It is a harmonious unity between the two inherently conflict languages on the paper. Lei is not the first one; since the Ming Dynasty, there has emerged many artists adopting this style, such as Dai Jin, Wu Wei and Qi Baishi. However, in Lei's paintings, what we see is not an entirely harmonious scene; in other word, the seeming harmony is only a presentation. The authentic figures and invented background in his work create a fantastic atmosphere. Most of the time, the figures' tranquility provides a contrast to the vigorously changing scenery which in turn resists those tranquil characters. In his drawings, there are mountains, waters, trees and clouds, which actually encircle the characters when creating the atmosphere. Even in his work whose background is the sky, we could only feel deserted nihility. Lei's paintings do not express harmony; contrariwise, the confrontational tension between his figure depiction and background rendering, gives out with an underlying insecurity and inquietude.

　　Considering the development of Chinese painting, the combination of fine brushwork and freehand style is definitely a golden mean. Since it is so, we naturally have such a question: Why Lei has chosen such a neutralizing language, by describing those meticulously selected dynamic figures and harmonious sights, to convey a latent anxiety. He is like a sincere but silly liar, who tries his best to create a tranquil space, yet unwittingly leaks certain clamour of our world. Of course, we can regard Lei as one artist who paint "dreams", just as many persons do. If he is an artist who's immersed in the world of ancient scholars, he is definitely not a pure and thorough one. He has once said, "I suddenly realize there are so much blankness, so pale, as well as those facts without any vitality. That's why I always want to find one leaf of green, and a bright sky… however, what usually comes to me is a sense of loss after searching". Strictly speaking, Lei's sense of loss is not an absolute private feeling; behind it underlies the loss of his brush drawing language's social base.

　　For the painter, his life experience is tangled with his experience of art language. The nature of his life experience determines his choice about the drawing language of art. And long-term endeavor to one art language would often reshape the life experience. This intertwined development depends on the nature of language. Choosing one language usually means the choice of one life style. Therefore, Lei's loss has its source in adopting the ancient art language, which now and again collides with the social reality. Chinese brush drawing - this language - primarily tries to convey the painter's world, namely his inner integrating ability towards the outside reality, instead of his taste or his immediate response to reality. However, the world we are living undergoes a comprehensive transformation to modern society; in this day and age, the whole society surges forward with the "benefit principle" playing a dominant role. Guided by this principle, on one hand, the society achieves rapid development; on the other hand, it develops so rapid that the individual feel uncomfortable, along with instrumental rationality's crushing force against the individual faith. The real world in this case requires art to be direct and releasing emotional expression, as if this is the only way for art to keep up with the pace of social development. It is obvious that the social base of Brush painting has been crushed by social transformation, only leaving an empty shell, the drawing language. From this perspective, Lei Ziren's endeavour to brush drawing language seems so "ill-timed".

　　We can clearly feel that, in Lei's paintings, the real conflict isn't between two independent drawing languages, but between his living faith catalysed by art language and his real experience brought by social reality. As a painter with profound understanding of brush drawing language, Lei tries to integrate the fragments of personal experience shattered by reality, in his own way, just like his favourite masters. However, the social developing reality prevents him from escaping the emotion's domination. His use of drawing language and his selection of source material both demonstrate his strong effort to control the paintings' emotional expression; at the same time, he could not completely restrain the outpouring of emotion. From this point of view, it is better for us to regard him as one painter indulging in both dream and reality than one who just paints "dreams". Compared with many painters with similar drawing style, Lei is overwhelmed neither by complete illusory dreams, nor by cheap emotional expression. The true value of his work lies in this conflict between disposition and emotion.

作者：皮力