雷子人是90年代成长起来的画家。从艺术上看，他显得早熟与多产；从年龄看，他在当代名家云集的水墨画坛，应属晚生辈。但这个晚生辈却给水墨画坛带来一股新的气息，那是与他的前辈画家有着明显差异的一种气息。我不想用“风格”这个词来区别他们之间的不同，我宁肯把这种差异看作是一种艺术态度的差异。也是在水墨画家中我所希望看到的一种艺术态度。这种艺术态度，就是把艺术看作是由自己的生命和生活中滋生而来的一种东西，是属于自己的生命和生活的一部分。而不是与自己的生活毫不相干，生活归生活，艺术归艺术。自己的生命状态和生活情操与自己的艺术不发生或很少发生联系。生活是一个系统，艺术又是与其生活无关的另一个系统。然而，许多画家正是这样做的。当他们站在画案前，拿起画笔的时候，他们才显现为一个画家。他们所画的画和他们作为一个人的身心体验毫无关系，你从它的画上感受不到作为一个人的存在，作为一个当代人的生命气息。你能看到的只有一种程式、一种样式或一种风格。它们可能唬人却不能感人。在我来看，这是作为一个画家最致命的东西。

　　长期以来，水墨画都是一个自律性很强的画种，有着一整套画家必须适从的严格的规范和要求，使得画家在为之奋斗的过程中不知不觉失去自我，失去作为一个人的感觉，被异化为一种以追求外在风格样式为目标的奴仆。从而使水墨画的命题与当代人的精神生活失去一种内在的关联，以一种传统的审美趣味来应对现代人的精神需要。

　　然而，雷子人的画给我的感觉不是这样。他让我感到，他画画是一件再自然不过的事，画画就是他的一种生活方式，就是他对生命的一种呈示；他让我感到，他画画没有心理障碍，没有画地为牢地把自己确定为“专攻”什么什么的什么画家。题材和材料都不能对他构成约束，因为画画对他完全是顺手牵羊的事，像写日记一样，只要心有所感，什么形不形，色不色，笔不笔，墨不墨，随心所欲，糊涂乱抹就是；他让我感到，画画就是他生活的一个副产品，不是他要刻意追求的一个目标，目标是生活本身的充实、生命本身的充溢。只要有了充实的生活、充溢的生命，就有了一切，就不愁没有艺术；他让我感到，他也没有画好画坏的心理负担，他有意无意地回到一种生涩的、“不会画画”的状态，甚至可以说，他画的就是一种“坏画”，没有框框，没有规范，没有先入为主的成法与成见，更没有非如此不可的束缚。因此，他让我感到他是无拘无束的、自由自在的、甚至是信手涂鸦的。他的画没有让我感到有丝毫的沉重和滞碍。他甚至越界到水墨画以外的领域去感受新媒材的乐趣，并且没有偷食禁果的负罪感。

　　正是在这个意义上，我感到，雷于人的“画”是在和他的“人”、和他的情感经历一同变化，一同成长的。以他表现情爱的题材为例，90年代大量的这类作品于人的感觉都是温文尔雅，情窦初开的少男少女在一起安坐、散步、漫游、玩耍、长聊，只在内心感觉与异性相处的神秘、美好。那种怀春的感觉是纯情的、绵长的、无言的、感伤的、迷离恍惚的和充满浪漫气息的。当他步入人生新的阶段以后，我们看到，他的此类作品已由腼腆、羞涩的牵手过渡到激情、热烈的拥抱，由情爱过渡到性爱。那种长久的、无休止的拥抱不再是感伤的、和捉摸不定的，它既是一种肉体的触摸，也是一种灵魂的对话。这些表达，显然是与他的情感经历和生命体验相一致的。因此，它所显现的是一种真实的生命过程，是一种经验的迹化与外化。也是艺术的生命和灵光之所在。

　　从个人经验出发，雷于人的艺术很自然地与当代都市生活发生了紧密联系。他愈来愈远离了文人传统竞尚淡泊的离世心态，愈来愈趋向于消费时代的世俗生活。他显然意识到，在这个灯红酒绿和充满欲望的都市文化中，那些既有的农耕时代的文化符号己经很难与之协调。人类自进入现代（即工业文明时代）以后，由于人对自然资源的疯狂掠夺，环境日益严重地污染，人与自然的和谐关系己荡然无存。人对自然的不尊重，己经危及到人类自身，已经使人类不得不对自己的行为开始反省。在这种情况下，我们的艺术，如果依然还在复述往日的鸟语花香，显然已经不能反映今天的人与自然的复杂关系，因为它的诗情画意己经与当代人的精神困境没有任何联系。因此，水墨画家如何能使自己进入一种当代文化状态，如何能使自己的艺术进入一种新的文化语境之中，这是他们必须要思考和面对的问题。从雷子人近期画的一些近似于都市寓言式的作品（如《瑶池》、《折翅》、《堕六尘》、《落霞》、《圣水》等）中，我们不难看到他对都市人的生存状态所作出一种理解和思考。在当代水墨画中，能够像雷子人这样让自己的作品更贴近当代人的生活的例子实在是太少了。

　　我们当然也可以从其他角度切入来讨论雷子人的作品。他的不拘一格，使他在艺术上表现出多方面的才能，如在油画、陶艺、人体、风景等不同领域，他都有所涉猎，从古典到现代，他都有所借鉴。虽然还不是一种很成熟的状态（也许这并非坏事），但却处处能让我感到一种源自心灵的勃发生机。唯一的担心是，在走向自由、走向熟练的过程中，还能否保持这种生涩的感觉而不使油滑。“画到生时是熟时”，郑板桥的见地很高，但他自己也没有完全做到。但愿雷子人能做得好些。

　　2004-8-16　于北京京北上苑三径居

　　Art and Man-What I think of Lei Ziren's painting

　　By Jia Fangzhou

　　Lei Ziren won his first fame as a painter in the 1990s. Speaking of artistic achievements, he is precocious and productive; speaking of age, he belongs to the young group among the numerous reputed painters in the contemporary painting circle. However, it is this young man who brings a fresh breeze to today's ink painting, which distinguishes him from his seniors. I don't want to use the word "style" to describe the difference; rather, I would take it as a different attitude towards art, which is also what I hope to see from ink painters. This attitude is to regard art as something deriving from one's own life, something belonging to life; it is not to take art as something irrelevant to life, to disconnect art and from his or her own life, or to view life as one sole system and art as another separately, which, however, is exactly the way many painters are doing their business. They can be called painters only when they are standing in front of a painting table and holding a brush in their hands. What they paint has nothing to do with their physical and psychological experience as a human being. From their painting you can feel nothing connected to a living man. What you see is only a formula, a pattern, or a style; they may surprise people but cannot move them, which, as far as I'm concerned, is the most fatal thing for a painter.

　　Ink painting has long been a genre of strong self-restriction. With a whole set of strict standards and requirements to comply with, painters gradually lose themselves without awareness in the process of struggling for it. They lose their sensations of a human being, and become alienated slaves only seeking for exterior style and pattern. The submission leads to the lack of internal connection between the themes of ink painting and the spiritual life of contemporary people. Ink painting can only respond to people's spiritual demands with a traditional aesthetic taste.

　　However, this is not what I feel when I see Lei's works. He gives me the feeling that painting, for him, is something that couldn't be more natural, that painting is exactly an aspect and a presentation of his life. He gives me the feeling that there is no psychological block on his way to painting. He does not confine himself to any profession for only painting certain items. Neither subjects nor materials can pose restrictions on his creation because painting for him is as natural as writing a diary; so long as he has got some inspirations in mind, he can paint whatever he likes, caring nothing about the shape, color, brush or ink. He gives me the feeling that painting is just a by-product of his life, rather than a goal requiring purposeful chase. His goal is the enrichment of life itself. So long as he owns a fruitful life, he owns everything, with no exception of art. He gives me the feeling that he does not worry at all whether his painting is going to be a good or a bad one. He, intentionally or unintentionally, goes back to an unskillful and primitive state, back to a state of "knowing no skills in painting". You may even say that his works are "bad paintings", without framework or norms, fixed routines or stereotypes, not to mention the removal of all the have-to-be restraints. Therefore, it seems to me that he is completely free from all limits; painting is even just like graffiti for him. I feel no heaviness or obstruction from his works. He even enjoys the excitement brought by new media beyond the boundary of ink painting, without the guilt of tasting the forbidden fruit.

　　It is in this sense that I feel that Lei's paintings are changing and developing with himself as well as his emotional experiences. Take his paintings about love for example. In 90s, most of his works on this subject wore the air of gentleness and tenderness of love, depicting young boys and girls who fall in love for the first time sitting quietly, walking, wandering, having fun and chatting intimately. Only in their mind do they taste the mystery and happiness of staying together with the opposite sex. The adolescent embrace of love is innocent, everlasting, beyond words, sentimental, vague and above all romantic. After he stepped into a new stage of life, we can thus see that in these paintings, the shy hand-holding scenes have been replaced by passionate embrace, and sensation of love has transferred into sexual love. The long, endless embrace is no longer sentimental or uncertain; it is a physical touch of the body, and also a dialogue between souls. These expressions, of course, are consistent with Lei's own emotional and life experiences. Therefore, what they present is a true procession of life, an exteriorization of experience, and is also where the vitality and inspiration of art lie.

　　From his personal experience, Lei's art naturally establishes close connection with today's urban life. He has increasingly stepped farther away from the traditional  life philosophy that artists should be indifferent to fame, wealth or other secular affairs; instead, he tends to draw nearer and nearer to worldly life in the consumer era. Apparently he is aware that those existing cultural symbols from agrarian time has a hard time to fit into the urban culture characterized by indulgence and desires. Ever since modern times (the industrial civilization), man's excessive exploitation of natural resources has led to increasingly serious environmental pollution; the harmony between man and nature has gone. The disrespect of nature has posed a threat to human itself, pushing people to reflect on their behaviors. Facing this fact, art, if still repeating the past peace and tranquility, is certainly not able to reflect the complex relations between man and nature, for the idyllic vision can by no means help with the spiritual dilemma of people in modern times. Therefore, it has to be figured out how ink painters can lead themselves into a contemporary culture and how they can integrate their art into a new cultural context. From Lei's recent works (like Pool of the Immortals, Breaking Wings, Falling in Six Sensual Traps, Sunset Glow, Holy Water etc.), all of which are like urban allegories, it is not difficult to notice that he presents his understanding of the reflections on the living state of urban people. Few examples can be found in today's ink paintings that can connect so closely with people's current life as Lei's works do.

　　Surely, we can also discuss his works from other aspects. His inclusiveness attitude has made him versatile in many other art fields. He tries oil painting, pottery, human body paintings and scenery paintings with a reference to both ancient and modern styles. Not having achieved a very mature condition (which may not be a bad thing), his works convey to me a strong vitality that originates from his mind. The only thing that needs to be cautious of is to maintain the unskillful state instead of becoming slippery in style as he progresses to freedom and sophistication of his expression. Chinese famous artist Zheng Banqiao had a wise saying that "When paintings become more unskillful, they show the best skills", but Zheng himself didn't practice his words thoroughly. I hope Lei will do a better job.

　　August 16, 2004,

　　Shangsyuan Sanjing House, Beijing

作者：贾方舟