美术史家贡布里希在《艺术的故事》一书中说“没有艺术这件事情，只有艺术家”（There really is no such thing as Art. There are only artists）。一切等待被解读的艺术作品，实际都是艺术家生命经验与艺术思维的相交融的产物，其内核依然是艺术家本身。

　　叶向礼生于人文底蕴丰厚的江南，受家庭环境的熏染，自幼对书画情有独钟，虽无缘进入艺术院校学习，却凭个人的天赋与执着，一步步画出了自己的风格，步入了艺术的殿堂。教育只能提供艺术创作的技法，优秀作品的诞生更大程度上依赖的是作者自身的颖悟与修为。一切成功而有恒久价值的作品都显示着艺术家的自信，这种自信来源自艺术家的自身的底气，源自艺术家广阔的视野、深刻的思索与自我的气质、修养。不为学院教育所桎梏，专心致志而不理会已有的成见，叶向礼以我手写我心，画笔紧随直觉，反而更能随心所欲探寻到艺术的本源。

　　英国哲学家约得（G.E.M.Joad）说：“自我与非我相见之顷，因非我之宏远，自我之范围遂亦扩大，心因所沉思之宇宙为无限，故亦享有无限之性质”。艺术家借助对天地万物、历史未来的沉思，获得了超越时空而存在的特权。在“乾坤”、“悟”、“盘古开天”、“初生”、“图腾”系列中，叶向礼建构起属于自己的天地之初的宇宙宏图，生命从荒芜中起源、演化、延绵，生命之猛力在混沌的世界里纵横奔突，似欲冲破画面飞腾而去。“万物皆备于我”，画中洋溢的生命力，正是作画者自身生命力的外化。对叶向礼来说，这比当下一切喧嚣繁华的存在更为真实，更接近生的本质。天人合一，艺术家的自我在这样的绘画体验中得到趋于完满。

　　丰子恺曾说：“所谓美的态度，即在对象中发现生命的态度。”如同徐悲鸿画马，在马的身上赋予了画家自己的个性和理想，借画马抒怀，寄托悲哀、忧郁、希望和欢乐。或许是生长于江南的缘故，对叶向礼来说，最堪寄托情怀的是荷花。叶向礼对“荷”这一意象有着近乎痴迷的偏爱，他用心观察荷的姿态，捕捉荷的美。从小荷才露尖尖角的初绽，到映日荷花别样红的盛放，再到留得残荷听雨声的枯寂；从清晓到黄昏，从初夏到深秋，从艳阳到雨后。荷之姿态各异，神韵各异，对叶向礼来说，这恰如人生在不同阶段的状态。有时需尽情挥洒生命的能量如夏日盛放的红荷；有时需沉潜收敛静待时机，一如秋江残荷；或如佛之莲花座，于万丈红尘中独守一片清心。画家的生命经验在“荷”身上找到了最佳的契合。物我合一，荷魂即画家之心魂。

　　作画之初需要激情的碰撞，而画格的提升则需要理性的调度。叶向礼的画中，无论荷花、大漠、远山，无论具象还是抽象，笔触的组合，色彩的交融，一切都在秩序之中。动与静、紧张与松弛，参差错落，顺机而变。对画面秩序的把握，在于去芜存菁，条分缕析，在于从无序中寻找有序。每一次绘画的即是对外物与内心反思的过程，通过绘画，叶向礼在无序的世界中建立起了自身生命的秩序与通路。

美术评论家 鲍洪权

2015年7月

　　Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich, a famous art historian in his book The Story of Art said, "There really is no such thing as art. There are only artists", therefore, all the art works to be interpreted are the products of blending the life experience and artistic thinking of artists, with its core lying in the artists.

　　Ye Xiangli, born in the rich cultural heritage of the area to the south of the Yangtze River, has long been attached to painting and calligraphy under family influence since childhood. Though he has never got chance to studying in any school of art, he ultimately formed his own style and stepped into the palace of art with his talent and perseverance. School training only provides artistic techniques, while excellent works of art depend more on the perspicacity and cultivation of the artist. All the works of success and everlasting value show the self-confidence of the artist, which stems from the vision, thinking, quality and cultivation of the artist. Unconfined by school training and mundane prejudice, Ye Xiangli will finally trace the origin of art with his broad perspective, deep thinking, intuition and self temperament.

　　Cyril Edwin Mitchinson Joad, a British philosopher said, "Ego and non-ego meet each other, and as non-ego is broad, the ego broadens itself as well. Heart, as the universe it ponders over is infinit, enjoys infinite nature." Artists, through their contemplation of the heaven, the earth, the beings, history and future, get the privilege beyond time and space. In his works of "Universe", "Meditation", "Pioneering Pan Gu", "New Born" and "Totem", Ye Xiangli constructs a universe of his own at the very beginning of life, as life originates, evolves and develops from a barren state; vigor of life stretches itself in the chaotic world and seems to break out of the paintings. "All things under heaven are being prepared for me", so the booming life in the paintings are the extension of the vigorous life of the painter. For Ye Xiangli, it is more realistic than current hustle and bustle and closer to the nature of life. With the integration of heaven and humans, the ego of the artist comes to consummate in the painting experience.

　　Feng Zikai once remarked, "The so-called aesthetic attitude is to discover the attitude of life in objects." As we all know, Xu Beihong expressed his personality and ideal, sorrow, depression, hope and joy in his depiction of horses. Maybe it is because Ye Xiangli was born and grew up in the area to the south of the Yangtze River that he has been attached to lotuses most. He is obsessed with the image of "lotus", so he would appreciate the beauty of lotuses in different times, seasons and postures, from dawn to dusk, from early spring to deep autumn, from bright sunny days to fresh-washed days, from budding lotuses to blossoming ones and to withered ones. For him, lotuses stand for different life periods; sometimes you need the fullest life energy as blooming red lotuses in summer; sometimes you need to wait for opportunities as withered lotuses in autumn; sometimes you need to be calm and composed in mundane life as the lotus seat of Buddha. The life experience of the artist is best converged into the "lotus", and the soul of the lotus is the soul of the painter.

　　Passion is needed at the beginning of painting, and rationality is needed for the improvement of paintings. Ye Xiangli, while painting everything, e.g lotuses, deserts and mountains, controls his strokes and colors skillfully in a combination of being static and dynamic, being tense and relaxed. The grasp of the painting order is to make meticulous selection and analysis, to find order out of disorder. Every painting is the reflective process of external matters upon inner hearts. Through paintings, Ye Xiangli has established his own life order and channel in a world of disorder.

Art Critic Bao Hongquan

July 2015.

作者：鲍洪权