最近，女画家梁群将第一次在她出生并生活的城市举办个人画展。像交给老师的一本作业，像斟给父母的一杯甜酒，像献给故乡的一捧鲜花。在2005年开始的时候，这个做画的女人向我们露出了她可爱而真实的脸庞。

　　记得那是我正在家里一篇一篇地写欧洲的时候，突然有人告诉我，梁群正在家里一幅一幅地画欧洲，你应该去她的画室看看。其实我早就知道梁群这个名字，只是从未见过面。只觉得这个名字总是被排列在她的几个哥哥后面，后来听说她是梁氏兄弟最小的妹妹;这个名字还一直被排列在那个名叫苑子牛的男人后面，后来听说她是那个男人的妻子。我认识她的小哥梁文伦，而且非常喜欢他做的陶，不但心甘情愿地买回家几件，还与朋友一起去过他的工作室。另外一个印象，就是当年每次路过长春路商场一带，我都要在路边那间门面不大的画廊里停留一会儿，而那间画廊用的是她的丈夫苑子牛的名字。就是说，梁群始终是一个隐藏在男人背后或被男人遮蔽着的女人，我始终看不见属于她自己的面孔。

朱古力百花 / Coco Flowers 2005

咖啡馆 / Cafe 2003

　　于是，我就以为梁群是一个多么小鸟依人的女人，我就以为梁群也许只是一个被兄长被丈夫熏出来的画家，她只能影影绰绰地让我感觉到她的存在，却不能出水芙蓉般进入我的视野。直到1999年，我所在的副刊有一天突然收到一篇配图文稿，说苑子牛梁群夫妇在民间发现了一幅百年前青泥洼山川地貌图，梁群由此为大连建市百年创作6米素描长卷。这消息让我心里悠然一亮。我感觉这个名叫梁群的女人背地里干了一件很扎实的大事，我感觉在这个名叫梁群的女人身上正膨胀着一种沉着而宁静的力量。她有可能就要与她身边的男人并肩或干脆走到男人们前面去了。

光阴（一） / TimeⅠ 2013

意象风景 / Image of Scenery 2012

孔雀东南飞 / The Peacock Flies to the
Southeast 2012

　　再后来，我从朋友那里看到一本梁群自己出版的油画册。梁群两个字在画册的封面上显得十分赫然，这可能是她第一次独自亮相，而不是人们习惯称呼的子牛夫妇。这个女人终于在众人面前露出了真实的脸庞。对于我，更重的是她在这本画册里所表达的东西一下子把我心里的某一块地方给撞疼了。我没想到，她把这个城市正在消失的老房子，以记忆的方式涂抹在画布上。那时候，我正在忧伤地为《大连老建筑》图册里的老房子们做文字说明，而她似乎早已经忧伤过了，她已经在以一个见证人的眼光，将童年生活过的街区，将苦涩然而温暖的日子，将落在窗子和屋顶上的夕阳，将跳皮筋和搬煤球的姿势，化为层层叠叠的线条，灰黄或暗红的色彩，让它们在时间里陈旧，在空间里永恒。梁群画的老房子在西安路附近，她就是在这片老房子里长大的。如果说每个艺术家的内心都有一缕童年情结，如果说童年是许多艺术家的艺术之梦开始的地方，那么西安路的老房子就是梁群自己将要飞翔之前踩踏的那个树梢。

　　我曾经沿着梁群的目光去眺望那片老房子，我发现它们在梁群笔下不止是怀旧的主题，那里面还藏有这个女人特别的心思。女人与房子，就像植物与土地。所以，当梁群这个植物一样青葱的女人要向大自然绽放自己的枝叶的时候，她的笔指向了那幢曾经包裹了她生命的房子。看上去是一种女人的直觉和惯性，实际上是这个女人不动声色的追求。

　　这种感觉，在我走进她画室的那一瞬间得到了更加确凿的印证。我比她早一年去欧洲旅行，欧洲在外形上留给我的记忆就是各式各样的房子。欧洲的草与树，天空与河流，如果不仔细看，就看不太出它与亚洲或非洲有什么分别。只有房子，不论你拍照下来还是画下来，不用人作任何解说，就知道它坐落在哪里。也许是西安路老房子的消失留给梁群太深的压抑，她像小女孩拾草剜菜一样，疯狂地把欧洲的房子收罗到她后背的大筐里，千里万里地带回来了。

　　我看见，那些从欧洲背回的日光下的房子，夜晚的房子，水边的房子，山顶上的房子，以及衬托那些房子的街道，藤蔓，路灯，广场，还有房子的另一种形式教堂，在她的画室里纷至沓来，拥挤如山。我看见，那些坐南朝北或面东向西的具体的房子，在梁群这里全都被抽象化了，或者说童话化了。我在那本老房子画册里已经感觉到了梁群对洋房坡屋顶的偏爱，欧洲则像个肥胖的老厨娘似的把她贪婪的胃口再次填满。坡屋顶的几何曲线，被屋顶侵蚀过的天空的蓝，夕阳最饱满的红，云彩最极致的斑谰，在画布上被她强化得既是欧洲又不像欧洲。因为欧洲已经老了，梁群却让欧洲仍如一个血脉贲张的少年。我感觉她并不是在浅薄地崇拜欧洲，而是崇拜欧洲的房子，她要在欧洲的房子上长袖独舞，自由狂欢。

　　女作家大多有自恋倾向，女画家也少例外。许多年前，我曾看过一篇画评，大意是说女画家常常以那种细密琐碎的事物为表现对象，比如星星点点的花朵草丛，纵纵横横的编织物的针脚等等。我知道这个评者并无恶意，只是在说这种值得注意的现象。由于记忆深刻，以后我再看女画家的作品，就总拿这个评说作参照。我发现，梁群的画也有恋情，只是她的恋不是低头向内，而是转身向外。向外也不是四处奔跑，而是只奔向她所钟爱的房子。记得那天，我在梁群的画室里像梦中人一样，穿过了她为我设置的无数的房子，一直跟她回到西安路上的童年。

　　前不久，接梁群一个电话，叫我去看她近期画的《春有百花》系列。我说，你不画房子了吗？她说，没离开房子。我怎么能想像出呢？这个画油画的女人居然让房子开出漫天的花朵。听梁群说，这些画是她听何训田的《春有百花》音乐偶得的灵感，所以就以音乐的名字命名。她让这些美丽的花朵不是生长在山谷里，而是安插在由她建造的房子里。来看画的人众说纷纭，有的直言不喜欢，有的顿足说爱死了。我属于后一种。我说，梁群你在今天真像这些花一样盛开了。

　　在这里，我看见梁群背上那片凝重的房子被她自己卸下了，轻装的梁群如一个刚出浴的美人，手指也修长了，呼吸也清朗了，于是在一个对镜理妆的早晨，看见了生命的玄机，美的奥妙。那片片簇簇的花朵便从她心灵的密室里钻出屋顶，钻进春天，钻到我们面前。它们那楚楚生动，顾盼流香，没有一丝杂质，也没有那么重的包袱，几近于金子般的纯粹，轰然拨动了我的心旌，并让我沉醉其中，从此不愿醒来。

　　古人有言，大智若愚，大巧若拙。我知道，西安路上的房子曾经让梁群伤痛无比，欧洲的房子曾经让梁群激情难抑，春有百花里的房子，则让梁群由痛而喜，由动而静，出落得从容飘逸，气定神闲。她终于以一个东方女人的自觉，在那一张张空白的直纹粗布上写出了最新最美的文字，画出了最新最美的图画。在那上面，既有中国书法里的狂草，中国京剧里的脸谱，有中国的年画和剪纸，隐约还加进了一点日本的浮世绘。最醒眼的是那片浅浅的粉红，可能会让人感到不能承受的轻，然而那里面却是许多文化符号的杂揉，比清一色的房子更丰富，更耐嚼。

　　春有百花，秋有月，夏有凉风，冬有雪。在梁群笔下，秋月如花，凉风如花，雪也如花。花如女人，女人就是那花。以前与梁群相处，我感觉在她的个性里有男孩子式的豪放气质。可是《春有百花》让我窥察到了另一个梁群，也许这才是本色的梁群。她最终是一个风情万种的女人，一个可以让房子与鲜花相映生辉的女人，一个用油彩不断制造童话的女人。

2006年

A Woman’s Fairy Tale

　　Recently, Dalian native, Liang Qun, had an exhibition in her hometown. It was like handing in a homework assignment, giving the parents sweet wine and presenting flowers to her hometown . Year 2005 marked Liang Qun’s emergence as an artist into the spotlight.

　　A few years ago, I was writing articles about Europe at home, when a friend told me there was a painter called Liang Qun, who was doing paintings based on her experiences in Europe. It would be nice for me to visit her and her studio. Actually I knew the name Liang Qun for a long time but had never met her in person. She is the youngest sister in a big family, many of them in the arts. Her husband, Yuan Ziniu, also a painter, opened a gallery, which I had visited several times. Her another elder brother Liang Wenlun I know well, is a ceramist. I was in fond of lingering around the gallery whenever I dropped by. However, at that time, Liang Qun did not show herself a lot in public. For me, she was more like a lovely and dedicated wife, always behind her husband.

百花2008 / Flowers 2008

　　For a long period of time, Liang Qun and I barely knew each other. I used to guess she was a painter only influenced and overshadowed by her brother and husband. Until, one day, Liang Qun surprised me and proved how dead wrong I was. It was in 1999 that the newspaper I was working for published an article about Liang Qun and her husband. They had acquired an old painting, which was drawn 100 years ago, about Qingniwa area of Dalian from a local family. Based on the old painting, Liang Qun created a six-meter-long painting for the 100th anniversary of Dalian City. I was deeply impressed by this, thinking that Liang Qun had done a really wonderful job and I could see the deep and quiet strength she had. I believed that this woman was talented enough to shine sooner or later in the public.

　　Later, I read one of her painting catalogues in my friend’s place. Without surprise , her name on the cover, and I saw the talent she showed up. Most importantly, what she painted touched the tone, for me, bitterly. I never expected she had put the memory of the old houses and streets, actually are disappearing nowadays, on the canvas. At that time, I was sadly editing a book about old architecture in Dalian. Her works exactly expressed how I felt about the old and warm past of Dalian. The old district where she grew up, those bitter yet warm old days, the sunsets which passed those windows and roofs, and the little games which were played by kids, all went into Liang Qun’s paintings. She witnessed all the changes and kept them alive in time and space by her paintings. The old houses Liang Qun painted were in Xi’an road, where she spent her childhood, and also started her art dreams.

意大利海岸 / The Coast of Italy 2011

 
回望体育场 / Looking Back at the Stadium 2002

　　Because of Liang Qun’s paintings, I travelled back to visit Xi’an road once again. I realized those old houses not only inspired Liang Qun in her art, but also sparked her special feelings to life in her work. Women and houses is like plant and earth. As Liang Qun started to paint those houses, she was like a plant which had already absorbed all the energies from earth and was ready to blossom. Those houses were her spiritual pursuits deep in heart although on the surface they appear like a woman’s intuition and habit.

　　I made a trip to Europe the year before she did. What remained in my mind about Europe are actually the uniquely different types of houses, European houses. You might find almost the same types of grasslands, trees, sky and rivers somewhere in Asia also, but the European style of houses is unique compared with the houses in Asia. Liang Qun was so enchanted by those European houses, as evidenced by her inclusion in her paintings.

　　In her studio, I saw paintings of houses in the sun, in the night light, along the river and on the top of mountains. Around those houses are streets, vines, lights along the road, squares, and churches. Houses in Liang Qun’s paintings were being abstracted into fairy tales. I could see her preference to European style houses even from her catalogue from the Dalian exhibit. Europe is like a heaven for her, where she fell in love with all kinds of stylish houses. In Liang Qun’s canvases, we see beautiful lines of the roof tops, the brightest and richest red sunset, and the colourful clouds. She has turned the old Europe into a young man. She admires Europe, and in those houses; she lost herself in that beautiful land.

　　In my opinion, most female writers are narcissistic, as are female painters. Many years ago, an art review that I read stated that female painters like to paint the little things around them, such as sparks of flowers and grass, or knitting and weaving. The author did not mean to look down on female painters, he just pointed out that we should pay attention to that kind of phenomenon. That commentary stayed in my mind for such a long time that I couldn’t help taking it as a criterion to judge female artists. When I was viewing Liang Qun’s paintings, I realized she is a little bit narcissistic too, but her passion and love flow out to the world, especially to those old houses, not narcissistically to herself. I got lost in the world presented by her paintings, and felt I was led by her all the way to her childhood in Xi’an road.

　　Not so long ago, I received a phone call from Liang Qun inviting me to her studio to look at the new painting, the Spring Flowers series. I asked her, “you don’t paint houses anymore?”, “I have never left them”, she answered. How could I imagine that she had let her houses blossom. She was inspired by a song called Hundreds of Flowers in Spring by He Xuntian, a famous composer. The flowers in Liang Qun’s paintings are not in the mountains but on the houses. Some say they don’t like the new paintings, but some fall in love with these paintings immediately. I am the later. I told her, “Liang Qun, you are like those flowers, you are blossoming today.”

百花2006 / Flowers 2006

百花2011 / Flowers 2011

　　In her studio, I saw a lighter Liang Qun. The heavy houses have been lifted from her shoulders. A lighter Liang Qun had achieved clarity of vision in her art. The flowers she painted are rich, rigorous, pure and light. I love those flowers so much.

　　There is an old Chinese saying, it goes like this: the highest wisdom is actually stupidity. The most complicated skill is actually awkwardness. The old houses in Dalian were fading away, which hurt Liang Qun considerably. In Europe, she was so excited by those grand and splendid European houses. While the houses in Spring Flowers turned Liang Qun from painful to happy, from active to quiet, she became much freer and more stable. I can even see she has included Chinese calligraphy, Peking opera, Chinese traditional spring festival drawings and collages, and even some Japanese flavors, in her paintings. There are many cultural symbols in those pink flowers.

　　Spring blossoms flowers, while autumn receives the full moon, summer has breezes, while winter gives us snow. On Liang Qun’s canvases, the moon, the breeze,and the snow are all like flowers, so are women. In this case, Liang Qun is not the person I used to know, seemingly boyishly vigorous. The Spring Flowers series allowed me to find out another Liang Qun, probably a true Liang Qun. At last she is a charming and enchanting lady, who is able to make the houses and the flowers match perfectly, keeping telling us fairy tales with her paintings.

2006

作者：素素