孟新宇油画风景画风格的转变据他自己的讲述，始自于2001年的一次农村庙会。庙会上民间艺术的木版年画、虎头靴、泥泥狗使他产生了顿悟，由此他联想到：莫奈、凡高、毕加索、齐白石、李可染、傅抱石、八大山人等。从此，孟新宇的油画风格为之一新——“我力图把中国文人画的造境、民间艺术的色彩，儿童的想象和稚拙糅合融入到油画的表现语言中去，三岁的儿子画起画来果敢、自信，也给了我很多启示。当然这些都是手段，我最终的目的是为了营建一个我的‘精神家园’”。

　　孟新宇的这一转变对于他的艺术来说是革命性的。这是从美学思想、艺术观念到表达语言的一体化转革，亦即从艺术的精神法则到形式法则的同步变革。分析他产生这个艺术变革的两方面资源，我们不难找到它们之间的内在关系。首先是直接触动他的艺术变革的民间艺术--木版年画、虎头靴、泥泥狗等，以及儿童艺术的想象和稚拙等等。这些艺术在形式上尽管各自很不一样，但在内在的美学特征却具有某些相似性，如：质朴、粗犷、野性(感性)、天趣、率真等；由此他联想到中外大师们。孟新宇想到的中外大师名单——莫奈、凡高、毕加索、齐白石、李可染、傅抱石、八大山人等，虽然分别属于东方和西方，并且还是不同历史空间中的人，但他们也有某种相似性：都是开宗立派的、具有变革性的大师，都处于历史的风云际会之中，都主张感性，师造化等。

　　虽然孟新宇没有从理论的角度十分认真的追究自己艺术变革的深刻精神文化根源，但他以艺术家特有的直觉方式感悟到了。圣人说：礼失而求诸野。圣人所说的礼，在这里是指精神文化制度和文化风气，这个礼失了，就要求诉诸自然、感性、造化--即所谓“野”。然后建立新感性和在此基础之上的感性文化。

　　孟新宇在中国当代的文化变革大潮中找到了自己艺术的方式，由于他的方式是与当代精神文化在内在性是一致的，这样就使得其艺术与变革保持同步性。指出这一点是很重要的，因此在当代中国，笔者看到了太多为大词人辛弃疾讥讽了的——“为赋新辞强说忧”似的艺术表达了。

　　孟新宇的油画风景作品不但在美学思想和文化观念说当代性的，他的油画表达语言也是很有个性特征的。他挣脱了中国油画表达的传统模式，但又没有落入近些年流行的国外表现主义的套路，而是走出了一条具有本土意味的艺术路子，这是十分难得的。当然孟新宇正当盛年，在艺术上尚有很多课题等待他去完成，但只要持之以恒，他是会有更大作为的。

When Substantial Quality Take Place to Varnish

-- A brief on the aesthetics of Meng Xinyu Oil Landscapes

　　It should date from the year of 2001 when he went to see a temple fair, which became the chance for him to change the style of his landscape painting. There are many kinds of folk arts as wood-printing, tiger-head-boots, clay dogs, and so on. All these genuine works gave him a hard strike in his mind. He associatively thought about Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Qi Baishi, Li Keran, Fu Baoshi, Zhu Da……From then on, he changed……."I try my best to use expressive language of art with compositive imagery inclusively containing context of Chinese literati painting, color of folk arts, imagination and naive of children. My three-year-old son paints with great courage and self-confidence, which illuminates me a lot. Of course, all these are means. My final destination is to animate a home of my soul."

　　It is a decisive turn. He took a revolutionary change in his art. This climacteric happened in aesthetic conception, art language, and expression phrase. In other words, the total renovation is a synchronous variation of principles of spirit and form. If we analyze his action in art from the fountainhead, it is not hard for us to find the inner relationship between the two. First of all, what give him inspiration are folk arts as wood-printing, tiger-head-boot, clay dog, well as imaginative and naïve works of Children Arts. They are so different in forms, but the aesthetic characteristics in core are similar. Rusticity, boorish, wild or geist, natural, faith etc, all let his thoughts lead him to masters in and out of China. The names on his psyche list of leadership include Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Qi Baishi, Li Keran, Fu Baoshi, and Zhu Da. They could be divided into two parts of the globosity and be separated by space and time. In general, they are the same. They are path breakers, inaugurators, innovators, masters, and struggle in the tossing wave of historical moments. They hold high the banner of sensibility, following the Nature……

　　Although Meng Xinyu does not be well aware about his base of the critical turn in Art from the approaching of theoretical thoughts, he really senses something with peculiar intuition of artist. Saint said that rules lost but somebody could establish in the Nature. When Saint talked about rules, they mean culture systems and customs. If we lost our rules, we must go to the Nature, the Geist, and the Lord. They could help us to mould our new sensors and sense perceptions standing on the before.

　　Meng Xinyu appeals to his own way of action in the turbulent tide of modern cultural innovation. It accords to his soul and the core of now cultural civilization. It can help him to keep pace with the changes. It is important so that I want to point out this aspect, because in China I find too much cosmic replacement and imitative arrow towards the Art in case there is no real concern with and about reality, which has already be strictly satirized by the great poet, Xin Qiji, in Song Dynasty. This kind of art works are sickly sentimental.

　　Oil landscapes of Meng Xinyu are not only contemporary works with modern aesthetic and cultural concepts, but also individual expressions in unique style. He bursts free from the conventional mode of Chinese Oil Painting, and he escapes away from the tricks of western expressionism taste in vogue. He goes on his own way of vulgar mood. It is so special. Certainly, Meng Xinyu is in his booming period. And there so many questions are waiting for his answers. If he has patience, he can win the world.

作者：邓平祥