宣永生的书 

                                             ——一份简短的传记

                                                 罗杰·李    Roger Lee

         这一系列的“戏非戏”戏剧作品，出版于2010年，书名显示出宣永生东西方融合的艺术实践。作品有一个近乎德国表现主义（“桥派”）的敏感性，略悲哀的着色，缓缓渗出的笔触表现的年轻女子——呈现在一个大胆的极为强悍的表现主义的笔下。画面中的中国京剧人物同中国社会中其他男性的行为相似，而时髦的年轻女子穿着喇叭裤和三角背心散发出一种欧美风的性感。笔触表现 似乎是中国传统的，但它们似乎又不太具有严格的学术性，似乎更带有幽默感。京剧装扮者的肩膀环绕着厚重的笔触，其上用更重的墨色描绘小球状斑点，表明这里是肩章。宣永生采用书法的写性笔触表现，为圆润臃肿的表现者塑造出了外形，而不是仅仅用电线一般纤弱的线条去勾勒人物的手和手指。年轻的女子，苗条丰满，书法感的线条涂抹出了她的上半身，她的下半身则表现得更放松，也更具有书法感和表现力，让人感觉更圆润更柔和。为了暗示出东西方之间的一场冲突，男 性和女性的姿势几乎是对抗性和侵略性的。宣永生作品中的中国主题和融入西方自由和开放的笔触表现并置的状态，是他作品的标志性特色。

      宣永生对自然的热爱，不仅源于他的中国背景，就艺术家自己的说法，加拿大落基山脉和温哥华的山水为他提供了伟大的启示。他并没有仅仅照搬自然形态，而是用一种中国风格，用这样的精神来激励他创造出潮湿、芬芳、原生态的山水画。

      而他的笔触生有中国的根，单单使用蜿蜒、轻松的笔触，就能表现出更自由、也更富有说服力的效果，画面使用丰富的飞白效果，暗示中性色调表现出的是一片水和墨世界。

     宣永生已经创作了大量作品，这些作品结合了他对中国传统水墨画的技艺专业判断和内心生活气息的表露，“气韵”，带着欧美性的自我表达和自我启示通过个人风格的 笔触表现宣泄下来。他采用加拿大的现代主义与自由开放，带有开放性和实验性的松弛感。他继续这种两种文化融合的实验，完全反映了艺术家本人文化双重的性质。他同时站在中国和加拿大的背景中。

                                                                           （节选自《宣永生的书》）

                                                                罗杰·李：加拿大里贾那大学美术史论教授。

                                                Xuan’s Book 

                                           —A Brief Biography 

                                                    Roger Lee

This series of theater works, seen in the 2010 publication…..title of book, shows Xuan’s dual East and West art practice. The works have an almost German Expressionist [Bridge Group] sensitivity in the slightly mournful coloring and soft bleeding washed brushstrokes of the young woman, while the actor is portrayed in a bold slashing Expressionist brush. The Chinese male actor predominates much as men do in Chinese society, while the harlot-like young woman dressed in bell-bottoms and a halter top exudes a Euro-American sexuality. The brush strokes seem Chinese but they are less rigidly academic and seem almost playful. The actor’s shoulders are rounded with a powerful heavy-loaded brush accented with small globular blobs that suggest epaulettes. Rather than using a wire-like line to define the hands and fingers, Xuan employs a calligraphic brush that gives added  form to the rotund and corpulent actor. The young woman, while svelte and buxom, is defined by calligraphic lines around her upper body while her legs and thighs are loose and more calligraphic and expressive, giving the feeling of heavily rounded and softly formed legs. The male and female poses are almost confrontational and aggressive in order to imply a contest between East and West. Xuan’s juxtaposition of Chinese subject and use of brush fused with Western freedom and openness is the hallmark representative of this publication. 

Xuan’s love of nature derives not only from his traditional Chinese past but, as the artist has said, from the mountains and waters of the Canadian Rockies that were a great inspiration for him. He has not copied them naturalistically but, in a very Chinese fashion, uses their spirit to inspire him to create landscape paintings that breathes with the humidity, aromas and feelings of raw and unpolulated nature. 

While his brush appears to have Chinese roots, one can see the much freer and more expressive use of simple meanders, light brush strokes, showing an abundance of flying white, which suggests the watery world on the mid right. 

Yongsheng Xuan has produced a body of work that has combined both the technical expertize of Chinese traditional brush painting technique and the presentation of inner life breath, Qi, with the Euro-American sense of personal expression and revelation of self through a personally styled psycho-calligraphic brush. He has adopted Canada’s modernism and freedom with an openness and experimental looseness. His continuation of this fusion of two cultures perfectly reflects the dual nature of the artist himself. He has his feet both in China and in Canada. 

                                                             (Adapted from Xuan’s Book )

                                                                  杰·李：加拿大里贾那大学美术史论教授

 

 

 

 

 

 

作者：罗杰·李