著名海外华人艺术家林祥雄回到北京，举办自己在4年中的第二次个人画展。

　　定于明天在中国革命博物馆开幕的此次展览将包括他的大约130幅新作。其中有些将被拍卖，收入捐给为中国偏远地区儿童求学提供资助的新成立的创新基金。

　　“一个人的生命中如果没有艺术，就如同行尸走肉。一个人的艺术中如果没有生命或一种社会责任感，他的艺术就会枯萎，甚至死亡。”林祥雄在解释自己的信仰时说道。

　　林祥雄旅居新加坡，以印象主义题材为主题——赤道上空落日的狂暴的红光、拼死争斗的公鸡、挤满身着五颜六色服装的马来人的集市、橡胶树和椰子树覆盖的热带庄园、破败的旧房与新建高楼之间的鲜明对比、中华文明的摇篮——黄河上的咆哮的瀑布等等。

　　但是，他的作品不仅仅是壮观，而且还传递了一种信息。例如，打斗的公鸡象征人类的无情争斗。新建高楼与被废弃旧房之间的对比象征对明天的希望，或者也许是现代化对节奏缓慢的旧社会和既定价值观的侵蚀。

　　新加坡著名先驱画家刘抗在谈到林祥雄的艺术时说道：“他偏爱制作大幅度的画面，这会先声夺人，予人一种无形的压力，教你不得不振作起来抗拒一番，以消除身心的逼迫，从而衍生一种轻松的满足感。”

　　“他挥毫时所用的工具材料，是采纳中国传统的文房四宝，这样，更有机缘发挥千年古国的风范。”

　　“一旦上马，只觉泼墨泼彩，倾盆下下泻，笔力笔势纵横驰骋，排山倒海而来，令人呼吸局促，血压升高，像是陷入朦胧之境，然若定神一视，则山川林石，村舍渔舟，历历在望。鸡犬马牛，花果雀虫，栩栩欲动，宇宙万物，生活百态，尽在斯矣！”

　　“如果要在他画幅里面，追踪笔墨的来历，您会感到石涛、昌硕、白石、天寿的痕迹，但都不是；又似乎带着西洋现代派画家波乐和迪古宁的气味。但也不尽然，我想，该是祥雄博览百家杰作之后，有意无意间摄取了养份再赋之绢素的结果。他绝不愿做某家的忠仆，更不喜欢当某人的附庸。”

　　齐白石大师曾说过：“我行我道，我有我法，用我家笔墨作我家山水。”正是祥雄最好的写照。

　　艺术家林祥雄

　　著名中国艺术权威评论家王朝闻在谈到林祥雄的艺术时说道：“在他的绘画中，再现和表现之间的矛盾、继承传统与创新的矛盾仍然存在。在一个画家的进步过程中，这是不可避免的。”

　　他希望林祥雄在自己的绘画中运用更多的“减法”，而不是“加法”。他在给这位画家的信中说：“我的意思是，在你的一些渔船和海滩画中，你应当去掉多余的点和线条。我不知道你是否还没有完全将自己从后印象主义的影响中摆脱出来。不过，在你画的树林、野草和家禽中，我看到了隐含的美，那是中国美学的典型特色。”

　　林祥雄1945年出生于广东省潮州市的一个农家。1956年前往新加坡与父亲团聚。

　　由于是和刻薄无情的继母一起住，他少年时代很不幸福，饱尝了生活的艰辛，年纪很小就被打发去干活：擦皮鞋、在杂货店打杂、卖报纸等等。

　　然而，这种狄更斯式的童年成为他后来的艺术和商业活动的强大推动力。

　　他于1965年进入新加坡艺术学院。20世纪70年代前往巴黎学习艺术。

　　童年和少年时期的贫穷使得他明白，没有钱什么都干不成。这说明了为什么他既是商人，同时也是艺术家。

　　但是他很清楚金钱应当被用于对社会有益的高尚用途，或者，富人有可能会一事无成，不过是沉湎于物质享受之中的一堆行尸走肉。

　　自1968年以来，他在亚洲国家举办了一系列个人画展，包括新加坡5次和泰国2次（共7次）。

　　1990年，应中国文化部的邀请，他在北京、山西省省会太原和陕西省省会西安举办个人画展。在北京举行第二次中国个人画展之后，他的绘画作品将在全国各地巡展，包括上海、广州、武汉、西安、成都、沈阳、香港和台湾。展期直到明年。

　　虽然是旅居海外，但是林祥雄依然从中国文化和自己的祖国获得灵感。“国家对于我来说就是树木的根。只有深深地扎根于我的国家，我才能够克服困难，在精神上和艺术上成长壮大，”他说。

　　林祥雄说，从自己的海外经历中，他了解到：“那种共同感和兄弟之情是中国文化的精华，在过去几千年里将整个民族维系在一起，使它能够挺过所有游牧民族的入侵、自然灾害和外国侵略。”

　　这种认识也许就是他在中国大陆开展社会、慈善和艺术活动的原因。而大陆是中国主流文化的源泉和大本营。

　　“艺术家的内心是一个宇宙，它包含万物，包括自我、物质世界和一切。这是艺术家在哀叹中、释放被压抑感情的过程中、封闭自己内心的过程中所创造的宇宙，”他说。

　　林祥雄说，艺术家的内心就好像树的种子，能够在温室里培养，并成长、开花、结果。但是温室里的植物都是软弱、脆弱，注定要枯萎、死亡。如果它被种在辽阔的荒野，受到自然环境的滋润，它就会变得坚强，能够经受风雨。这是在暗示自己的经历。

　　他认为，对于一个艺术家来说，成功往往意味着失败的开始。“艺术家在认为自己取得成功时，就等于在宣布自己艺术的死亡。”

　　艺术家就是艺术僧侣，永不停止地探寻生命的真谛。他说，回归艺术家之路是没有意义的。

　　“这是因为这个世界上从来没有什么是完美无缺的，这就促使人们努力去做到完美，就像是科林斯王（希腊神话中的人物）一样，他不停地往山上滚石头（而石头马上就会再滚下来）。正是这种对完美的渴求不停地激励艺术家对创造美的热情。”

　　（原刊于《中国日报》，1994年9月8日）　　 

Art and benevolence in ideal harmony

　　Renowned overseas Chinese artist Lin Xiangxiong has returned to Beijing for his second one-man show here in four years.

　　About 130 of his latest works are featured in the exhibition, which opens tomorrow in the Museum of the Chinese Revolution. Some of the paintings will be auctioned, with proceeds going to the newly founded Innovations Foundation, which finances the schooling of children in remote areas of the country.

　　"If one's life is void of art, one is as good as a walking skeleton. If one's art is void of life or a sense of social responsibility, one's art is withering and even dying," Lin said, explaining his beliefs.

　　Lin, who lives in Singapore, chooses impressive themes — the angry red glare of the setting sun over the equator, cocks locked in desperate combat, bazaars crowded with colourfully dressed Malays, tropical plantations bristling with rubber trees and coconut palms, sharp contrasts between dilapidated old houses and new high-rises and roaring waterfalls on the Yellow River — the cradle of Chinese civilization.

　　But his works are not merely spectacles. They have a message. For example, his fighting roosters symbolize ruthless struggles among human beings. The contrast between the newly emerging high-rise buildings over derelict old houses symbolizes hopes for tomorrow — or perhaps modernization's erosion of the gentle-paced old society and established values.

　　Liu Kang, a renowned Singapore artist, says of Lin's art: "He is fond of brushing huge pieces. This forestalls the viewers' senses and imposes a kind of pressure on their minds, which galvanizes the viewers' spirit.

　　"He uses traditional Chinese painting media such as brush, stone colours and rice paper to convey his moods and feelings. This facilitates his playing up the quintessence of the age-old Chinese culture.

　　"Once getting down to painting, he splashes ink, showers colours and strokes his brushes over the paper with a momentum that makes any viewer breathless. But after having a clear look at the piece, one sees villages in the picture, or mountains, or fishing boats, or domestic animals, flowers and birds. All appeal to the viewer’s feel of life.

　　"The fountainhead of his art can be traced back to the works of such Chinese masters as Shi Tao (1643-1718), Wu Changshuo (1844-1927), Qi Baishi (1863-1957)and Pan Tianshou (1897-1971). But there are no obvious traces of these masters in Lin's paintings. It seems that he is also influenced by Western impressionism. But, again, not obviously so. It can only be said that he has unknowingly absorbed elements of various art schools and turned them into his own."

　　Master Qi Baishi once said: "I use my own brush and ink to paint my own landscapes." The remarks reflect Lin’s artistic independence, too.

　　Wang Chaowen, a renowned Chinese art critic, says of Lin's art: "In his paintings, contradictions between reproduction of the objects and expression of the painter, between inheriting tradition and making innovations, still exist. This is unavoidable in the progress of a painter."

　　Wang hopes that Lin will apply more "subtraction" than "addition" in his paintings. "I mean," Wang says in his letter to the painter, "in some of your pictures of fishing boats and beaches, you should, if you please, shed superfluous dots and lines. I don't know if you have not entirely freed yourself from the influence of post-impressionism. Your paintings of woods, wild grass and poultry, however, I see implied beauty that is typical of Chinese aesthetics."

　　Lin was born into a farming family in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province, in 1945. He travelled to Singapore to join his father in 1956.

　　Living with an unkind step-mother, Lin's teenage years were unhappy. He tasted life's bitterness being sent to work at a young age — shining shoes, apprenticing to a grocer and selling newspapers.

　　Yet his Dickensian childhood gave him an overwhelming driving force that would power his later artistic and business activities.

　　Lin entered the Singapore Academy of Arts in 1965. In the early 1970s, he went to Paris to study art.

　　His poor childhood and teenage years have taught him that nothing can be done without money. That explains why he is a businessman as well as an artist.

　　But he also knows well that money should be used for noble purposes that benefit society. Or, a wealthy man can be nothing but a heap of flesh and bones steeped in the gravy of material comforts.

　　Since 1968, Lin has staged a series of solo exhibitions in Asian countries. These include five shows in Singapore ,and seven in Thailand.

　　In 1990, he was invited by the Chinese Culture Ministry to hold solo exhibitions in Beijing, Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province and Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province. The paintings in his second Chinese one-man exhibition will tour the country, after Beijing. Stops include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Xi'an, Chengdu, Shengyang, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The exhibition will tour until next year.

　　Although living overseas, Lin still draws his inspiration from Chinese culture and from his motherland. "Nation is to me what roots are to the trees. Only if I am deeply rooted in my nation, can I tide over difficulties and thrive spiritually and artistically," he says.

　　From his experience overseas, Lin says he has learned: "The sense of community and fraternity is the quintessence of Chinese culture, which has tied the nation together past thousands of years and enabled it to survive all the period of nomadic invasion, nature-wrought havoc and foreign aggression"

　　This realization, perhaps, is behind his social, philanthropic and artistic activities in the Chinese mainland, which is the fountainhead and home base of mainstream Chinese culture.

　　"The heart of the artist is a universe that embraces everything — his ego, the physical world and all. This is a universe the artist creates, lamenting, venting pent-up feelings and baring his bosom," he says.

　　The heart of the artist, like a seed of the tree, can be cultivated in the greenhouse. And it grows up, blossoms and bears fruit. But the hothouse plant is also weak and fragile and is doomed to wither and die. If it is planted in the vast wilderness, left at the mercy of the elements, it will become weather-beaten and tough, Lin says, alluding to his own experience.

　　For an artist, success often means the beginning of failure, Lin believes. "When the artist considers himself a success, he is as good as declaring the death of his art."

　　An artist is an artistic monk, searching incessantly for the truth of life. There is no point of returning to the road of the artist, he says.

　　"This is because nothing is ever perfect in this world, which prompts people to try to make things perfect like Sisyphus (a figure in Greek mythology) rolling the stone uphill (which at once rolled down again). It is this yearning for the perfect that whips up the artist’s enthusiasm for creating beauty incessantly."

　　( Printed on "CHINA DAILY", 8-9-1994 )

作者：平华