一个人的艺术有一个发展的历程，有的人初出茅庐就崭露头角，有的人如涓涓细水汇成大河。祁海峰更像是后者，但也有前者的因素。说有前者的因素是因为他起点很高，在早期作品中就有明显的个人风格，这种风格虽然几经变化，但基本上一以贯之，始终保持着特有的话语标识。但是他的艺术历程并不是单线的形式发展，每一个阶段都有丰富的变化。祁海峰毕业于浙江美术学院油画系，他就学的那几年正好是中国现代艺术运动最火热的时候，浙江美院又处于现代艺术的前沿，在祁海峰早期的作品中很能看出现代艺术运动的影响，这种影响一直到现在还看得出来。在20世纪80年代，祁海峰的画就很有特点了，他不是单纯地追求形式，而是在再现中寻找自己的表现方式。
　　祁海峰的画受多种风格的影响，表现主义、象征主义、超现实主义等，甚至还有古典的和波普的。但每一种风格都不是独立地存在，综合的形式通过题材表现出来，在他的画中形式与题材形成一种特殊的关系。题材是客观对象，题材的变化仿佛是祁海峰生活的记录，生活的每一个阶段都有不同的题材。但是他又不是被动地记录题材，而是把生命的力量投射在对象上。艺术是表现对象内在的生命，这很适合祁海峰的画，内在的生命就是艺术家的主观意志，意志又是通过形式来显现的。祁海峰对于乡土题材应该是最有感受的，但他没有追随当时流行的乡土现实主义画风，而是用自己的方式诠释了乡村的经验和认识。在上世纪90年代初，祁海峰有好几年生活工作在农村，对农村生活很了解，也很触动，但他不是简单地面对生活，他用艺术的尺度把握了艺术与生活的距离，用形式的力量与乡土的精神相结合，达到主客观的统一。他有意调动各种手段来表现精神的主题，如《山魂》、《飘》的超现实主义，《暖阳》的祭坛画式的构图，《银色的梦》则似尼德兰绘画的风格，这些尝试也是探索，他在寻找精神与精神的对应关系，也就是形式表现的力量与原始的生命力的结合。祁海峰把这个时期的作品命名为“乡土风情”系列，实际上他的目的不是表现风情，而是表现人的生存，表现那种坚韧顽强的力量。在这种表现中他也把自己的生命投射其中，因此在乡土的形象中不仅看到土地、农民和村落，更重要的是看到他的自我。他是用他的眼光来观察，用他的方式来表达。
　　“乡土风情”虽然描述的是农村，但也是祁海峰生活的记录，“红色涌动”更像用个人方式来表现和记录集体经验和历史记忆。上世纪90年代有一个“红色回潮”的时期，在历史的大变动中，在全球化浪潮的冲击下，寻求历史定位，认同文化身份，是“红色回潮”的重要动机。不过，“红色回潮”的一个典型特征就是与都市文化和国际话语的密切联系。祁海峰的“红色涌动”仍然是乡土的，甚至在语言上也是传统的，虽然是“现代的”传统。像祁海峰这样的立足现实生活的红色记忆在“红色回潮”中是很少见的。他的“红色涌动”把我们拉回到烽火岁月的太行山区和冀中平原，但不论是红色的乡土还是风情的乡土，对他来说是一个连续的过程，是对同一片土地的现实的观察和历史的记忆。祁海峰的“红色涌动”不是整理历史的碎片也不是搬用历史的符号，而是把亲身的感受与历史的认识相结合，用自己的语言方式来表达。在他的画中没有具体的事件，只有意象和象征，那些农民可能是现代的，也可能是历史的，因为历史本身就是他们创造的。没有明确的能指而是模糊的空间，更像是红色笼罩下的集体记忆。祁海峰在这儿成功地运用了象征主义的手法，既区别了他自己原来的超现实的原始的乡土，也区别了全球化话语的政治波普。我们在寻求文化认同的过程中，总是过多地关注文化符号，关注历史的、传统的和地域的既定样式，祁海峰的“红色涌动”则是从现实向历史展开，从个人经验到集体记忆，创造了他自己的历史表达方式。
　　祁海峰的艺术历程总是体现出一种矛盾，即纯艺术的追求和现实的表现之间的矛盾。虽然在“乡土”与“红色”系列中他用形式改造了题材，也让题材唤醒了形式，但他在本质上仍然是形式的，如果让他自由创作的话，他很可能会在纯艺术的天地中漫游。这种可能性反映在他的一些“山水”作品中，他从来没画过抽象，这些作品就算他的抽象了，而且是一种表现的抽象。这些抽象就像他的风景写生一样，没有往纯形式方面发展，而是借用中国传统山水画的样式。从抽象表现到传统山水，仍是从文本到文本，虽然太行风景还有他个人经验的因素。这也反映出祁海峰的形式追求总是有文本的依托，尤其是现实的经验不可能让他在书斋画室里凝思，从乡土到红色已使他“积重难返”，现实的题材的“文本”对他的影响，即使是潜意识的影响也远远大于他的纯艺术或纯形式的理想。在祁海峰的“表现”系列中，最吸引人的是国际题材，如阿富汗和伊拉克。抽象与图像在画中交错并置，这在他以前的画中是少有的，虽然题材从地域走向了都市与国际，但他那种表现的语言却是从“山水”中锤炼出来的。更为重要的是，人与人的生存的主题与乡土一脉相承，他仍然在表达一种个人的经验与判断，尽管不是那种直接的亲身体验。题材发生了转换，但主题没变，而且还以大写的人表达了新的关怀。
　　不论是形式还是题材，祁海峰都向我们展示了一种丰富性，他把对艺术的追求与对生活的关怀融合在一起，只要生命不息，只要生活在继续，他就会不停地让他的艺术丰富下去。

易英 艺术批评家，中央美术学院教授，博士生导师，
《美术研究》、《世界美术》社长、主编

Solicitude for Life and Existence---On Qi Haifeng’s Paintings
　　In the history of art, some artists are well-known when they are very young, while some become successful due to the years’ hard work. It goes without saying that Qi Haifeng belongs to the latter. However, graduating from the Oil Painting Department of Zhejiang Institute of Fine Arts, he has a high starting point. When he was in college, the Chinese modern artist movement was at its peak, and his college was on the front line. Its influence can be seen in his early works and even in his present works. As early as in the 80s, he began to develop his unique style of painting. Although there are some changes, he has always remained this unique discourse signs in his paintings. What he has pursued is not the pure form but his own expressing style.
　　Qi Haifeng’s painting style is influenced by several artistic trends, such as expressionism, symbolism, surrealism, classicism and even pop art. In his works, each style reveals itself in a comprehensive rather than an isolated way. There is always a special relationship between forms and subjects. The subjects are objective, and they are the records of the painter’s life because each stage of life has different subjects. He doesn’t record them passively but projects the strength of life on them. It is safe to say that Qi’s works reveal the inner lives of the subjects. The inner lives are the artist’s subjective will, and the will reveals itself through forms. Of course, Qi is familiar with Chinese rural areas, but he doesn’t follow the then popular local realism. He conveys his experience and understanding in his own way. At the beginning of 90s Qi lived and worked in the countryside, which led to his better understanding of the farmers’ lives. He learned to keep a distance between life and art with the art as a ruler. His works are a unity between subjects and objects by combining the strength of forms and the spirits of native land. He tries every means to express the spiritual themes, such as the surrealistic techniques in “Mountain Spirit”, “Gone with the Wind”, the sacrificial altar-like composition in “Warm Sun”, and the Nederland’s style in “Silver Dream”. He seeks for the suitable relationship between spirit and spirit, that is to say, the combination between the strength of expressing form and the original vitality. Qi names his works of this period as “Local Life” series. In fact, in this series what he wants to express is not the life style on the native land but the existence of human being, and their tenacious and dauntless spirit as well. In this way he projects his own life onto his canvas. Therefore, not only native land, farmers, villages can be seen, but painter himself can also be seen in the paintings. He observes everything with his own eyes and expresses them in his own way.
　　Although “Local Life” depicts the life of the local area, it is the record of the painter’s individual life. “Red Surge” is more like that of collective experience and historical memory in personal method. “Red Resurgence” occurred during the 90s when the history experienced great changes and the world moved towards globalization. Seeking the historical position and cultural identification was the important motivation of “Red Resurgence”. The typical characteristic of the “Resurgence” is its close connection with the urban culture and the international discourse. Qi’s “Red Surge” is traditional even in language, though it is the “modern” tradition. It is rare to see that the red memory is composed on the basis of the realistic life in “Red Resurgence”, while Qi’s paintings remind people of the Taihang Mountain areas and Hebei Central plains during the war period. Whether red or native, it is a continuing process of realistic observation and historical memory of the same land. Rather than arrange some historical fragments and copy some historical symbols, Qi combines his personal experience with his understanding of history and expresses them in his unique style in the “Red Surge”. There are no specific events in his paintings except images and symbols. The farmers are both modern and historical, because history is created by them. There are no definite signifiers but the vague spaces. They are more like a collective memory shrouded in the red. Qi is successful in adopting the symbolism which is different from his former surrealism and also different from the political pop in the globalization discourse. Usually, when we seek for the cultural identification, we pay more attention to the cultural symbols and show more concern about the historical, traditional and regional set style. However, Qi’s “Red Surge” creates a kind of historical expression which spreads from realism to history, from the personal experience to the collective memory.
　　There is a conflict between the pursuing for the pure art and expressing the reality in Qi’s paintings. Although in the “Local” and “Red series” he employs forms to reform subjects and makes subjects wake up forms, in essence he attaches more importance to forms. Suppose he is allowed to create freely, he will probably wander in the world of pure art. We can see this in some of his landscape paintings. He has never drawn an abstract painting so these pictures can be regarded as his abstract ones ----- the expressionistic abstract pictures. Like his landscape paintings, these abstract pictures are painted in Chinese traditional method. From the abstract expression to the traditional techniques is from text to text. His personal elements in the works about Taihang Mountain reveal that his pursuit for forms relies on the text. What he sees in reality can not keep him only staying in the studio. He can not get rid of the reality. The “text” of the realistic subjects influenced him so greatly that even in sub-consciousness he attached less importance to pure art or pure forms. The most attractive pictures in Qi’s “Expressing Series” should be those on the international issues, such as issues about Afghanistan and Iraq. In these paintings, abstracts and images are juxtaposed, which is rarely seen in his former pictures. His subjects cover a wider range from the rural area to the city and then to the outside world, yet his expressing language is refined from the landscape painting. What’s more, the theme of human’s existence and that of the native land can be traced back to the same origin. He still expresses his personal experience and evaluation. The subjects have changed while the theme remains. He also expresses the new concern about the world from a higher standing point.
　　Whether in the form or in the theme, Qi Haifeng displays his varieties in painting. He combines his pursuit for art with the concern for life. He will accomplish greater artistic success in the future.

Yi Ying: Art Critic, Mentor of Doctoral Student, Professor of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Proprieter&Editor-in-Chief of Fine Arts Study, World Fine Arts

作者：易英