历史上，早在殷商时期就有关于色彩的记录，后来大量的汉墓壁画和石窟壁画中，可见画者对于颜料的使用已经极为普遍。南朝谢赫的“六法”中明确了“随类赋彩”的理论，三百年后，在《历代名画记》中，张彦远则详细记载了当时绘画颜料的产地、使用情况以及历久不变的原因。¹ 同样，在西方绘画史上，也很早就有色彩和颜料的记载和使用，但真正对此有所自觉并具有革命意义的是从17世纪普桑、伦勃朗、委拉斯贵兹这些画家开始的。也是在这一时期，牛顿用棱镜成功分离出彩虹中的各种颜色，成为最早利用科学实验来解释颜色的先驱。进入19世纪，歌德的《色彩论》意欲“颠覆”牛顿的“纯科学”观点，提出颜色也是人类视觉的产物，是大脑对于外来信息处理的结果。 ²而与此同时，随着管装颜料的出现，传统的矿物质手工制作和调和方式逐渐被现代分工式的工业化生产所取代，并成为一种普遍的工具和材料。³ 不过在古代，颜料和色彩本身还常常负载着某种文化、政治及宗教寓意，而一旦被纯化为材料或工具，也就意味着抽离了这些内在的寓意，特别是20世纪以来，色彩及其物性的解放，或所谓媒介的自足化，意味着颜料本身已经具有了生产感知空间和意义的功能。

　　这样一个简要的历史线索构成了祝延存实验的基础和角度。当然，他并非是基于反思现代媒介化的一种实践，也无意于通过考古学的方式一探传统古代绘画技艺的究竟，之所以回到管装颜料之前的色彩实践方式，实际是出于对绘画物理性的好奇和尝试，以此拓展更多的语言维度。

物理与地理

　　和我们所熟知的学院式综合材料实验不同，他们更多还是试图通过媒材上的自由选择和挪用消解绘画的边界，甚至为了脱离绘画史的逻辑，有意和绘画的传统物理属性拉开距离。也有别于大多当代绘画实践，更多是通过追溯艺术史及相应的图像、观念等修辞话语展开新的叙事。但祝延存不然，他不仅恪守着绘画自身的基本话语方式和形式要求，而且，其实验本身则完全立足于绘画的物理属性，致力于矿物（有用色料物质）和植物颜料的考古式发掘和应用。当然，他也不是严格意义上的颜料考古学，目的并不在于呈现颜料的物理成分及其色彩特征，准确说是以借助一种前现代的媒材方式尝试一种新的绘画语言。

　　祝延存并没有将他所寻找和选择的植物和矿物作为颜料的材料，加工成颜料后再投入使用，大多时候，他连画笔都不用，而是直接用树叶、树皮、草、花瓣等作为材料和画笔进行绘制。除了个别矿物颜料需要研磨和添胶处理，有些地方还是要使用画笔，但通常情况下，这些植物本身既是颜料，也是画笔，或是以手为笔。在这里，画面的构图、节奏和笔触、色彩层次的把握全靠手、眼和身体的充分调动。但即便如此，他也并不视这样一种实践方式为行为或表演，对他而言，画面才是他真正的目的。也就是说，他还是将自己视为一个画家。

　　看得出来，祝延存在选择绘画的对象和图像底本的时候，并不是随机的，所有的图像底本都来自颜料植物和矿物所在地拍摄的风景照片。这样一种实验本身也决定了其很难在工作室中完成。所以，每到春季，他便开始抽时间前往植物茂密的云南、黑龙江、浙江、安徽、福建等地进行创作或搜集颜料和素材。看上去有点像写生，但根本上完全不同。在这个过程中，寻找颜料和发现绘画的题材是“同时”的，而且因为材料的性质和特征所限，大多创作都是在当地现场完成的。于是，从颜料的物理性到绘画的地理志之间便建立了一个观念的线索。而这样一种创作方式本身便带有一种考古学/人类学和田野调查的色彩，我们甚至可以将他的创作视为一种标本。只不过，这里的标本不是纯粹的标本，不是知识层面上的标本——他甚至连自己所使用的植物名称都不能准确辨识，而是一种形式化、美学化或观念化了的标本。

　　在此，这样一个“标本化”的实践过程还依赖于三重时间结构的支撑：一是创作过程中伴随地理志变化的时间性，二是创作过程中的时间性，画面中的色彩及其光影结构有时候所暗示的也正是他寻找颜料和即兴创作的时间及气候，三是作品“完成”后，媒材的发酵、纹裂甚至跌落带来的画面变化所具有的一种时间性。在我看来，这三重时间结构形成了画面另一个新的人类学维度。需要重申的一点是，尽管所有这一切都是事实，但祝延存并不愿将其作为实践的重心，他一心还是想回到绘画，回到画面，意欲开启一个新的感知空间。

视觉与感知

　　由于所有的图像都来自颜料所在地，题材基本都是风景。然而，颜料（包括纸张）的物质特性和祝延存独特的画法，决定了画面最终呈现的已然不是传统意义上的风景画。它不是再现，也并非诉诸一种象征，无论是颜料和笔触，还是构图与形式，都有意地在强化视觉整体的平面性和压迫感。此时，色彩对于颜料的依附变得复杂，在创作初始，表面上其实难以辨识颜料的物质性，所以它与色彩之间极其微妙甚或是一种“分离”关系。由于色彩会伴随颜料物质性的变化而变化，意味着它又似乎依附于物质性。不过即使如此，我认为至少在观看的那一刻，祝延存强调的还是视觉及其可能的感知空间。

　　大量使用绿色的植物和黄色、红色的矿物质，使得画面的基调基本都偏绿或偏黄，加之构图由于版画经验中的设计意识和平面性自觉的干涉⁴，凸显的是块面关系和对纵深空间的“封闭”，甚至有时还通过大胆的造型或形象处理，包括光影关系的变化，拉近前景与背景的距离。在我看来，画面中山和山之间的块面关系（如近作《瓮基》、《茶马古道》[2014]等），树和背景之间的“虚实”关系（如“景迈山日志”系列[2014]等），实际都是为了构成一种内在的紧绷和拉扯。

　　然而，当画家诉诸颜料实验本身的时候，其实是在凸显一种触觉，而且用手取代画笔，也是为了强调一种触感，因此，我们可以说，祝延存在此强化视觉压迫感兴许就是为了压缩和有意地回避触觉。因为触觉一方面过于古典，另一方面又很容易将绘画的重心转移到行为和表演。同时，我们无法回避它还在释放一种随着时间变化的嗅觉。而且关键是，画面原本就是画家感知的结果，所以在创作过程中，其实已经渗透了画家的视觉、触觉和嗅觉等多重感知方式。不过，这并不意味着画家的实践就一定是紧随或依循这套感知逻辑，有时候，反而是一种“对抗”的结果。

　　在这里，画家对于画材/工具以及绘画本身的经验感知、对绘制对象/照片的视觉感知，以及对于原本自然场景的综合感知等多重感知搅和在一起。也说明，这样一种材料的尝试和使用，更多还是一种物理意义上的选择，材料本身并不承担任何文化和伦理意义。这和他的版画实践有着一定的关系，某种意义上，祝延存是将版画的所有程序压缩为一种直接的绘画方式，或者说是以一种新的——也可以说是传统的——绘画机制取代了版画的操作程序。当然，无论是颜料和色彩的尝试，还是绘画方式的实验，这样一种选择根本还是基于对既有经验的一种反思和有意的不合作，而他最终的目的又是试图完成一张画，所以选择以照片作为底本的时候，实际上又似乎依赖于既有的视觉经验。或许在拍摄的过程中，经验还是会被现实场景所侵扰，可一旦转化成照片，并以照片的形式入画的时候，实际上是一次“规避”身体经验的实践，此时，生效的无疑是既有的绘画经验和知识经验。所以，从颜料的实验，到画面的转译，最终的呈现也许无关视觉，但照片或观看的介入意味着，这样一个生成过程和感知结构中还隐含着一个视觉的逻辑。

自然与绘画

　　祝延存对于颜料和媒材的敏感和自觉，源自他所受的版画训练及相关的教学经验，但是在这里，我更愿意从他2000年的新疆写生谈起。事实是，这次写生中他还是依赖于版画经验理性地组织画面，并开始尝试如何直觉地运用色彩。⁵也正是在这次写生中，他对于绘画与自然的关系有了新的体认。在短短三个月的时间里，他不断地尝试和实验各种画法，就是一心想画出羊肉的味道，雪山的劲儿，以及塔吉克人特有的热情。⁶正如他所说的，在这里，他“需要一个‘场’来深化对色彩概括表现的心理需求，需要一个能对内心产生冲撞的迷人境域，而这更像是向高更的一种致敬。”⁷这当然不是一种简单的如何再现或表现自然，而是自然中所潜在的绘画的可能性引起了他更大的兴趣和关注，包括颜料、用笔、形式、色彩及其天然的物理属性和精神特质。在这一点上，他似乎回应了17世纪荷兰绘画及其与自然的关系，但不同的是，后者的落脚点还是在如何再现或描绘现实，而在祝延存这里，套用福柯“实物—画”的逻辑，实际上是在将绘画物化的同时，首先物化自然，在此基础上，将自然视为一种素材和工具。因此，他对颜料的选择并不是基于知识经验的实践，更多是凭借感知和体验的一种行动，我们可以将其视为绘画这一实践本身所具有的存在感，也许就是祝延存所谓的“我在”的意识。

　　实际上，这也意味着祝延存并不是将绘画彻底扔进自然当中，这种物质性的直接参与，抽离了画笔及其所负载的一切经验和知识，而是让渡给手和身体。但问题是，在绘制过程中，构图、造型，包括“笔触”的关系，实际又都是依赖于既有的绘画知识和经验，明显可见表现主义的意趣和象征主义的色彩。因此也可以说，在那么一瞬间，画面中的这些知识经验实际上抽离了它的自然属性。

　　但是，颜料和身体的物理属性和自然特征却又是画面风格重要的决定性因素之一。比如当我们直接以植物作为颜料和画笔的时候，一方面在利用植物本身天然的水性，但另一方面，水性也使得颜料无法自足，通常情况下都是被调和的结果，而画面由于难以形成清晰的“笔触”关系和肌理层次，致使他不得不利用纸张的纹路形成肌理，但因为纸张本身的吸水性化解了这些肌理，弱化了色彩的纯度，所以，他还是选择通过块面的方式建构空间结构和画面整体的节奏。另外，无论是以植物作为画笔，还是以手指代替画笔，显然都可用以勾勒形象的轮廓，不过线条还是显得有点僵硬，不像画笔因为天然的弹性，自觉地赋予线条一种质感和节奏。当然，就此我们也可以说，恰恰是这种身体的局限性回避了流俗的线条审美趣味，而多了一份朴素和稚拙。因为植物和矿物本身的单纯性，加之他又不是制造现代专业颜料，所以笔触的调和实际是一种原始材料的调和，调和本身不能改变颜料的色调及其基本属性，从而使得画面整体的基调显得单纯、质朴。这也意味着，颜料尽管被还原为植物和矿物材料，但是它并不是一种现成品实践，本质上还是服务于造型、风格和观念的一种材料和媒介。就像前面所说的，在这里，祝延存的目的不是描绘自然，也不是介入自然，更不是一种关乎自然的观念实践，或一种隐匿剧场的建构，确切地说，他只是借助自然诉诸一种新的绘画语言的可能。

　　事实是，艺术史上每一次颜料的发现，都近乎酿成一次绘画的革命。15世纪前后，扬·凡·艾克最早开始使用油画颜料，从此，油彩几乎主宰了文艺复兴以来的绘画；上世纪50年代，丙烯颜料进入绘画，迄今依然是艺术家们最常用的媒材之一，甚至已成为一个约定俗成的经验。从这个意义上说，祝延存之所以选择从颜料入手，尽管无法比肩这些先贤大师，但至少可以说是循着艺术史的路径找到了一个绘画的缺口和反思的角度。它既不同于逸出绘画史/艺术史界限的建构，也不是骎骎于画面形式和风格的创制，而是从生产的角度，基于颜料的实验，尝试介入僵化的当代绘画秩序。

Physical Property and Geographia of Painting

　　In China, the record of color can be dated back to Shang Dynasty. Later, pigment is commonly used in tomb mural of Han Dynasty and grotto mural. Xie He, an artist and theorist of Southern Dynasty, pointed out artists should apply specific coloring of different objects in his theory -- “Six cannons of painting”. Three-hundred years after the advent of Xie’s theory, in Zhang Yanyuan book -- Li Dai Ming Hua Ji (Famous Paintings through History), he documented the origin and usage of pigment used in Southern Dynasty paintings and explained the reason why the color can be everlasting without change. ¹Likewise, Western people also began to use and record color and pigment long ago. In 17th century, artists like Poussin, Rembrandt and Velazquez became aware of the importance of coloring. At the same time, Newton split color with prism, and explained color through scientific experiment firstly. In 19th century, Goethe challenged Newton’s “scientific” theory, stated that color is the product of human vision and the result of information processing of brain in his book -- “Chromatics”. ² Meanwhile, with the emergence of tube paint, traditional hand-making pigment was replaced by modern industrial production which became popular tool and material. ³ In ancient times, pigment and color carried cultural, political and religious meanings. Once they were regarded as merely tool and material, they no longer carry these meanings. In 20th century, the liberation of color or the self-sufficiency of color means pigment itself can make people feel space and meaning.

　　The history above is the foundation of Zhu Yancun’s practice. He doesn’t mean to reflect modern mediumlizaiton nor to explore ancient painting techniques archaeologically. The reason why he paints in the way artists used before tube paint appeared is that he is curious about the physic property of painting and tries to develop more linguistic dimensions.

Physics and Geography

　　As we all know, people doing academical comprehensive material painting practice try to dispel boundaries of painting by selecting and using medium freely, and try to break away from the history of painting by detaching from painting’s traditional physical property intentionally. And most people doing contemporary painting practice try to create new narration by ascending corresponding image or concept in art history. Different from those people, Zhu Yancun adheres to painting’s basic discoursing pattern and form, bases his practice on the physical property of painting, and focuses on the archaeological exploration and application of mineral pigment (useful pigment material) and plant pigment. Strictly speaking, his practice is not a pigment archaeology. He doesn’t aim to present the physical constituents or the colorific features of pigment. Specifically, he explores a new painting language with the help of ancient media material.

　　Zhu Yancun doesn’t process the plant and mineral material he found into pigment. Most of the time, he directly uses leaves, bark, grass and petal as material and brush to paint. Except for some time when mineral material need to be grind and added glue. Usually, these plants are pigment and brush at the same time. Sometimes he uses his hands as brush. In this way, composition, temple, stroke, and gradation depend wholly on the coordination of hands, eyes and body. Nevertheless, he doesn’t see his work as performance. As for him, painting is his real aim which means that he regards himself as a painter.

　　We can see that Zhu Yancun doesn’t choose objects and master copies randomly. All master copies come from pictures of origins of mineral pigment and plant pigment. This kind of practice is hard to finish in a fixed studio. Therefore, every spring, Zhu Yancun finds time to go to lush places such as Yunnan, Heilongjiang, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian to find pigment and material and paint there. It seems like sketching. But actually they are completely different. Because Zhu finds pigment and painting objects at the same time, and most of his paintings are completed on-site due to the special features of material. Hence, there is a conceptual connection between physical property of pigment and geographia of painting. Painting in this way is like fieldwork of archaeology and anthropology. We can even see his works as specimens which are not knowledge-based as he has no idea of the name of plants he used. His works are formalized, aestheticized and conceptualized specimens.

　　This specimen-making process depends on three kinds of time: firstly the time in which geographia changed through painting, secondly the time of his painting process -- color, light and shadow will imply the time and weather when he discovered pigment and painted improvisedly, thirdly the time in which medium ferment, craze, and peel off leading to some change of the original painting. As for me, these three times constitute a new dimension of anthropology. It is worth reiterating that although all these are true fact, Zhu Yancun still focuses on painting itself and tries to create a new sensation space.

Vision and Sensation

　　Since all images origin from where pigments are found, most of Zhu Yancun’s paintings are of landscape. However, due to properties of pigment and paper and the special technique Zhu Yancun used, his paintings are not paysages in conventional sense. They do not reproduce the landscape nor symbolize something. From pigment to brushstroke, from composition to form, Zhu Yancun consciously intensifies planarity and tension of overall vision. In this way, color complexly depends on pigment. At the beginning, pigment has subtle or even detached relation with color as it’s hard to recognize physical property of it. But color changes with the changing of pigment property change, which makes it seemingly depend on property. Even though, Zhu Yancun wants to stress vision and possible sensation space at the time when people look at his paintings.

　　Using large amount of green plant, yellow and red mineral, Zhu Yancun paints mostly in green or yellow tone. ⁴ Through engraving-like composition and conscious interference of planarity, his paintings stress connection between blocks and “sealing” of depth and space. Sometimes, he shorten the distance between foreground and background by bold modelling and image handling such as changing light and shadow. As for me, the relationship between mountains (in such as “Urn Base”, “Tea-Horse Road”[2014] and etc.), ideological and practical contrast between trees and background (in such as “Diary in Jingmai” [2014] series and etc.) are carefully designed to create internal sense of tension and pulling.

　　However, artists who are doing pigment experiment are actually presenting a kind of touch. And replacing brush with hands is also a stress of a kind of tactile impression. Therefore, we can say that maybe Zhu Yancun tries to reduce and intentionally avoid touch by strengthening visual oppression. Because touch is not only too classical, but it will easily transfer the emphasis of painting to action and performance. Meanwhile, we can’t get rid of the released smell which changes with time. The point is that tableau is the product of artists’ feeling. So painting contains various perceptions of artists such as vision, touch and smell. But it doesn’t mean all artists work in this way. Some paintings are the result of “confrontation”.

　　Here several perceptions including artists’ knowledge of media, tool and painting, their visual impression of objects and their feelings about natural scene are merged together. Zhu Yancun’s trial of media is more of a physical choice from various materials. The used materials bear no cultural or ethical meaning at all. This relates to his experience of engraving to some degree. He compresses all procedures of engraving into a direct way of painting, or we can say he uses a new or traditional painting mechanism to replace engraving procedure. Both the trail of pigment and color and the practice of painting technique are all based on his introspection of previous experience and intentional noncooperation. But his aim is to finish a painting. So using photos as master copy seemingly depends on his existing visual experience. Though the experience may be disturbed by real-world scene in the course of photo shooting, it’s actually an action of “avoiding” body experience when scene being recorded in photo and the photo being painted. And his painting experience and knowledge take effect. Therefore maybe pigment experiment, transfer of scene and the final painting have no relation to vision, but using photos and watching scene makes his painting process also contains vision experience.

Nature and Painting

　　Owing to Zhu’s experience of learning and teaching engraving, he is quite sensitive to pigment and media. But I prefer to start from his sketching in Xinjiang in 2000. Actually, his composition still depends on his engraving experience at that time, but he begins to try to apply color instinctively. ⁵ It is through this sketching, that he has new understanding of the relation between painting and nature. During the three months, he constantly tries various ways to depict mutton’s flavor, Snow Mountain’s charm and the hospitality of Tajik.⁶  In his words, he “needs a ‘Chang’ to strengthen the psychological need of presenting color generally, and needs a fascinating place which can impact people’s mind, and this is more like a tribute to Gauguin”. ⁷ Of course it’s not just a problem of how to reproduce or represent nature. What interests him more is the potential of painting which exists in nature including pigment, stroke, form, color and its natural physical property and spiritual character. From this perspective, he seemingly echoes the 17th century Dutch artists’ exploration of connection of nature and painting. The latter focuses on how to represent or depict things, while Zhu Yancun, in Foucault’s “picture-object” logic, materializes painting. He firstly materializes nature and then regards nature as material and tool. Therefore, he doesn’t select color base on experience and knowledge but on his perception and intuition. We can see his color selecting as the sense of being of the action of painting itself. Maybe this is what Zhu Yancun calls the consciousness of “I exist”.

　　Actually, this also means Zhu Yancun doesn’t just throw painting in nature. Things in nature are directly used to paint. In this way, hands and body participate in painting while brush and all experience and knowledge it bears are dissociated. The problem is that, in the process of painting, composition, modeling and brushwork all depend on the experience and knowledge he already has, making his works full of symbolism and the interest and charm of expressionism. Thus we can say that, at one moment in time, the natural attribute of knowledge and experience contained in the tableau is dissociated.

　　Nonetheless, the physical property and natural feature of pigment and human body are crucial elements of drawing style. For example, when we directly use plants as pigment and brush, on one hand we utilize water contained in plants, but on the other hand water dilutes pigment. Usually, water and pigment blend together making his paintings hard to have clear “stroke” and different levels of texture. So he has to use the texture of paper. But as the hydroscopicity of paper reduces the clearness of texture and the saturability of color, he decides to use blocks to construct spatial structure and picture rhythm. Besides, no matter brushes are replaced by plants or fingers, they can outline things but lines are rigid without the quality and rhythm possessed by lines drawn by brush which has natural elasticity. Of course we can say it is this limitation that helps him avoid popular aesthetic taste of lines and possess more simplicity and naiveness. Because of the simplicity of plant and mineral and his aim which is not to produce professional modern pigment, the blend of strokes is actually the merged original material. And the action of merging itself doesn’t change the tonality and basic property of pigment. Thus the tableau looks simple and unadorned. This also means that though he uses plants and minerals as pigment, he doesn’t make a practice of ready-made objects. They are essentially material and media which serve modeling, style and concept. As written before, Zhu Yancun doesn’t aim at depicting nature nor intervening, and he doesn’t want to conduct a practice of natural concept or a construction of hidden theatre. To be precise, he tries to find a possible new painting language with the help of nature.

　　The fact is that every time when a new kind of pigment is found in art history, a revolution of painting would happen correspondingly. Around 15th century, Jan Van Eyck first used oil color and from then on oil painting plays a dominant role in painting after Renaissance. In 1950s, acrylic paint appeared. Till now, acrylic is one of the common media used by artists. Or we can say that using acrylic is a conventional experience among artists. From this perspective, though Zhu Yancun’s pigment practice isn’t as profound as those masters’, by virtue of art history, he at least finds out a gap of painting and a new perspective to introspect. It’ s different from construction which is out of bounds of art history and creation focusing on style. It is, from the perspective of production, an attempt, based on an experiment on pigment, to break rules in rigescent modern painting.

1.于非闇：《中国画颜色的研究》，北京：北京联合出版公司，2013，第2页。
2.汪涛：《颜色与祭祀：中国古代文化中颜色涵义探幽》，郅晓娜译，上海：上海古籍出版社，2013，第1-2页。
3.参见德·迪弗（Thierry de Duve）：《杜尚之后的康德》，沈语冰、张晓剑译，南京：江苏美术出版社，2014，第135-165页。
4.郭鉴文：《体验是艺术表达的前提——祝延存访谈》，见：《祝延存纸本作品》，2010。
5.同上。
6.《祝延存：有时绘画是一种个人现象》，见：《祝延存纸本作品》，2010。
7.郭鉴文：《体验是艺术表达的前提——祝延存访谈》，见：《祝延存纸本作品》，2010。
1.Yu Feian: “Zhong Guo Hua Yan Se De Yan Jiu (The Study of Chinese Coloring)”, Beijing: Beijing United Publishing Company, 2013, p. 2.
2.Wang Tao: “Color and Sacrifice: Exploration of Color’s Meaning in Ancient China ”, translated by Zhi Xiaona, Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2013, p. 1 - p. 2.
3.Thierry de Duve: “Kant After Duchamp”, translated by Shen Yubing and Zhang Xiaojian, Nanjing: Jiangsu Fine Art Press, 2014, p. 135 - p. 165.
4.Guo Jianwen: Experience is the Premise of Art -- Interview with Zhu Yancun, see in “Works of Zhu Yancun”, 2010.
5.Guo Jianwen: Experience is the Premise of Art -- Interview with Zhu Yancun, see in “Works of Zhu Yancun”, 2010.
6.Zhu Yancun: Sometimes Painting is an Individual Phenomenon, see in “Works of Zhu Yancun”, 2010.
7.Guo Jianwen: Experience is the Premise of Art -- Interview with Zhu Yancun, see in “Works of Zhu Yancun”, 2010.

作者：鲁明军