张永旭多年来处于一种无为状态，我的意思是，他与那些在艺术领域大红大紫的人物截然相反，不声张，不炒作，不做一切和创作无关的外围工作，以致于连一些朋友也误以为他干起了别的什么行当。大家都知道，当下的社会充满了喧哗与骚动，充满了华而不实的吹嘘，充满了各种投机和钻营，艺术家在这样的生态中很难安心创作，很难把艺术看作与生活常态区别的精神寓所，更别说理想和信念了。我并非把艺术当成是远离现实存在的精神乌托邦，但是，过于实际的态度和过于急迫的欲望，肯定会降低艺术的品格和标高。正如雨果嘲笑那些套着巨人衣服做夸张表现的侏儒，是一种人性中的自欺欺人的弱点。我相信，一个富有才华的人，–给他必要的条件，假以时日，是能够为我们带来期待中的惊喜的。

　　若干年前，我曾为张永旭（他和尚扬、孙良、毛焰）在上海的展览写过序言，后来又给他在南京的一次观摩展写了篇小短文，对他的作品赞赏之余也提出过期待。前年在新疆，我见到他的新作，简直大为惊讶，不仅作品的面貌有所改观，更主要的是表达的深入和自如，而在最近，我又看到了他的全新的作品，说实话，我觉得张永旭在他这一代画家里，称得上是最无成见和最有冲劲的，他攀登自己认准的艺术高度，毫不顾惜任何外部的牵制，这只有真正的艺术家才能在实践中贯彻的。当然，在很多情况下，艺术家处在两难境地，一方面，若被鲜花掌声、名誉金钱所包围，极有可能迷失自己；另一方面，若自我封闭，被自己的幻觉包围起来，也会迷失自己。所以，艺术家怎样保持在社会与自我之间的平衡，不仅是实践的需要，也体现了才能的一个构成部分。

　　张永旭许多年来坚持表现主义画法，随意率性，不拘细节，极尽粗犷，与他的生活状态浑然一体——这是指，张永旭在他的生活里表现出来的东西让不少人奇怪，按理他并不缺乏现实生活的智慧，在人际关系，在攫取财富，在拓展前程等等方面，都可以做得天衣无缝，但他却朝着另一种状态发展了。即使从他的作品中也能够挖掘出他的精密和细腻，正如他在日常生活中大开大合却并不粗鲁一样，朋友们都欣赏他这一点，在我看来，很少有人像他那样将艺术与人生揉捏得如此合缝，这正是他选择表现主义方式的根本。表现主义曾经是众多艺术家非常热衷的方式，有一度甚至泛滥成灾了，它与中国的学院教育制度有关，与当代艺术的生态背景有关。当某种方式成了媚俗的潮流，其中裹夹的大量泥沙便会湮埋金子。我和张永旭多次讨论过表达方式的意义和有效性，在某些原则性的立场上，他始终是独树一帜的。独立性和自主性奠定了张永旭对自身追求的坚实基础，在这一点上，他可以说是固执的。固执有时候是缺点，有时候却是优点，而且是非常突出的优点。我和张永旭讨论艺术时笑称：骄傲使人进步，谦虚使人退步，艺术家如果谦虚谨慎，将不可能凌驾于平凡之上，只有平庸的人才是唯唯诺诺、人云亦云的。

　　任何艺术家的创作特点都处在一个时间段上，没有人可以超越自己的局限性，因为存在本身就是局限的。张永旭最近的作品是现阶段创作的结晶，从中能够看到油画在我们时代的独特魅力，无论在色彩、用笔上还是结构、肌理上，新的元素仍然处于一个极佳的增进过程，让我们领略油画“语言”的美妙和无止境。油画的“语言”在不短的期间内已处于被忽视被丢弃的景况，这是因为许多艺术家对待油画传统的态度发生了根本的变化。我并不认为，油画“语言”值得特别重视，换句话说，艺术家在自己的作品里表达什么，和“语言”的僵硬框框是无关的，以艾略特对待写诗的观念看：一切语言的秩序和规则，都是创作的敌人。尽管如此，仍然不能把某种可能性给排除掉，油画“语言”的成功运用，以前是，现在是，将来还会是油画魅力的一部分。这种坚持，与多元化多样性的存在也是合拍的，清一色地消灭“语言”，和清一色地置“语言”于绝对地位均是蛮横的，蛮横对艺术实践只有害处。张永旭没有因为对“语言”的迷恋而丧失自由，他深入到“语言”的核心，同时肆意挥洒，将自由的心境完美地体现出来，也使观赏者获得观赏的自由，以各自的立场、角度、方式去理解和欣赏。张永旭把人物和物体做了十分恰当的夸张，用近乎谜一般的色彩烘托气氛，他的画面热烈又深沉，奔放又内敛，具有形式的美感以及视觉的冲击性。

　　永旭永远不会停止他的步伐，他是一个生命力特别旺盛的艺术家，他对艺术包括对生活的好奇心就像一个求知欲强烈的孩子，从国外到国内，从内地到边陲，他的活动半径远比那些按部就班的所谓艺术家大得多，因为他身上充满勇气，充满激情，充满对未来的憧憬——这些都没有诱使他利欲心膨胀，相反到阻止了他太过“有为”地入世。在一定程度上，可以把张永旭看做是个无为者，他不止一次对我说，艺术家就是创作，一心一意创作，除此之外全是扯淡。我想里面还是涉及到一个平衡点的问题，艺术家一心一意创作是毫无疑问的，但也需要让更多的人有机会观赏其创作，并提出一些建议。适当的入世（有为）有助于搭建交流的平台，而交流能使艺术家获益——在精神上获得更多的养分，在人际关系获得更多的动力。实际上，古人所说的无为而有为已把两者的关系解释得非常清楚，就看我们如何去实践了。　

　　ZhangYongxu has been in a nonactive state for many years. That is, he focuses on arts creation, rather than do those things not related to arts creation such as making public, advertisement and so on. In addition, his nonaction was totally opposite to those extremely popular persons in the arts field, which leads to confusion from his friends that he has turned to a new undertaking. Nowadays, the society is full of uproar and disturbance, flashy and without substance boast, various speculation and secure personal gain. With such an art atmosphere, it is too difficult for artists to create and treat arts as the dwelling place of mind that is greatly different to daily life, let alone to pursue ideal and faith. I’m not going to treat arts as a spirit utopia far from existence. However, too much emphasis on reality and over-eager desire is sure to degrade the quality and style and elevation of arts. Just as Hugo ever laughed at dwarf’s exaggeratedly performance with giant clothes, it is a kind of deceiving oneself as well as others, a kind of drawback of humanity. I believe that, a very talented person would be sure to bring prospective surprise, if provided with enough time and necessary conditions.

　　Several years ago, I wrote a preface for Mr. Zhang at his exhibition together with ShangYang, SunLiang and MaoYan in Shanghai. Later on, I wrote one another short commentary for his personal exhibition in Nanjing. Briefly, the comment expressed my expectation besides admiring his works. The year before last in Xinjiang, his new oil paintings gave me a super surprise. It shows the greatly progress of appearance of works and, in particular, the deepgoing and free expression. Recently, I appreciated his completely new works once again. Honestly, I believe that Mr. Zhang is the most aggressive and the most unprejudiced artist in his generation. Once his target has been set to an arts level, Mr. Zhang ignores any external resistance. Only a real artist could do it in practice. Of course, an artist often finds himself be in a dilemma that he would most likely lose when surrounded by flowers, applauses, money and fame, even on the contrast, cutting himself off from reality and surrounded by self-illusion. Therefore, it is not only a need of practice, but a part of artist’s ability, to keep balance between society and self.

　　Mr. Zhang has been insisting on a drawing technique of expressionism for many years. He draws at will, expresses straightforward and uninhibited and never concerns with details— It is a unified entity with his lifestyle. In other words, there are few people who could understand his performance at life. Generally, he is not lack of wisdom in reality. He should be able to do everything perfect, such as spreading interpersonal relationships, seizing wealth and developing his prospect and so on. This conclusion is drawn because precision and exquisiteness could be found even in his paintings. But instead, he goes ahead toward a different direction. Friends appreciate this, just as they are fond of his careless but not rude lifestyle. It seems to me that, very few people can deal with the relationship between arts and life as well as he does. It is the essential reason for him to choose expressionism, which was ever hankered after by lots of artists and once even run wild. This phenomenon is in relation to the China institute educational system and the backgrounds of contemporary arts. When a certain expressive method becomes a tide of trying to please the public, gold will be sank into oblivion by the lots of sand enclosed. I have discussed with Mr. Zhang several times about the meaning and effectiveness of various methods of expression. On some essential standpoints, he always flies his own colors. Independence and deciding for himself has built a solid basis to accomplish his objective. He is stubborn at this facet. Sometimes, stubbornness is a drawback but it also could be an advantage. As a matter of fact, it is even a very outstanding one. I ever joked with Mr. Zhang that arrogance made artists progress and modesty made them retrogress when discussing arts. Artists will never override the ordinary if they keeping modesty. Only mediocre persons are subservient and always echoing the views of others.

　　The characteristics of creation of any artist have their own limitations. Moreover, existence itself has limitations, thus, no one can overstep their limitations in a certain stage. Mr. Zhang’s latest works are his achievements of the present stage. By these creations, the unique charm of oil paintings could be found in our time. New elements, such as colors, the usage of painting brush, the structure and the skin texture, are still in a fantastic promoting process. They provide us with an opportunity to enjoy the wonderfulness and endless of the language of oil paintings which had ever been ignored and discarded for a long period due to the radical change of many artists’ attitude toward the tradition of oil paintings. But I do not realize that the language of oil paintings is worth of special attentions. In short, what an artist wants to express in his works is nothing to do with the stiff frame of the language used. As Eliot’s attitude toward writing poems, order and rules of any language are the enemies of creation. Though it is true, a certain possibility cannot be excluded. The successful application of the language of oil paintings is, and will continuously be, a part of charm of oil paintings; just it has been in the past. This insistence is in line with pluralism and diversity of existence itself. Complete elimination of a language or putting it into an absolutely position is arbitrary. Arbitrariness only does harm to the practice of arts. Though he indulges in the language of oil paintings, Mr. Zhang does not lose freedom of creation. He goes deep into the core of the language and paints willfully. His perfect expression of liberal state of mind, also made viewer get the freedom to appreciate, understand and taste at his or her own standpoint, angle and way. Mr. Zhang makes a suitable exaggeration for figures and objects using mysterious colors to set off atmosphere by contrast. The general appearance of his paintings is enthusiastic but reserved, untrammeled but introversive, and brings viewers formal aesthetic feeling and visual impact.

　　Mr. Zhang will never stop his step. He is an artist of vigorous vitality. His curiosity to arts and life makes him a child with strong desire to pursue knowledge. From abroad to home, and from inland to border area, the scope he covered is far larger than that of so-called artists who follow the prescribed order. It is because that he has been filled with courage, enthusiasm and yearning for future. However, all these cannot tempt him to be blinded by greed but instead prevent him from being too “promising” in the society. Mr. Zhang is a nonactive person in a sense. He has said to me more than once, that the only thing artists should do is to create heart and soul, and that doing other things means talking nonsense. Nevertheless, I believe that there is a balance point. Undoubtedly, artists should create whole-heartedly, but they need more people to view and admire their products. Meanwhile, suggestions are necessary to provide. Reasonable promising is good to build up communication platforms. In addition, artists could get benefits from interactive communications, including obtaining more spiritual nutrient and more impetus from interpersonal relationships. Actually, it is clear enough that the relationship between nonaction and promising has been explained by our ancestors. It is our decision to choose how to do.

作者：李小山