左正尧开始于20世纪年代中期的艺术创作，有一条主线就是描绘或塑造女性形象。其间，他做过《天九地八》等陶艺装置和《流水账》纸本装置，取民间娱乐骨牌和单位报销票据为材料，本与女性无关，但以中国文化符号和生活习俗作为切入点、从传统与现实两方面寻找契机的表达方式与其一贯的创作思路是一致的。‘85时期的人物画借禅宗理义表达善与恶、人与佛、宗教与世俗的关系，基本上属于工笔画范畴。但艺术家通过抽离背景和缩减对象的手段，赋予画面以超现实性，比如《回归》，其造型形态与王广义、耿建翌当时作品同属一类：简约、冷峻，沉浸于理性思考的情景，只不过左正尧用的是纸本彩墨。这种思考在20世纪90年代初期演变成为《二元统一的图像表达》，实际上是乡村背景加上民间风情的装饰性绘画，但创作过程中发生的变化则耐人寻味：其一是上下正反图式的并置，这为其创作的观念倾向埋下了伏笔;其二是从剪纸造型的平面性转向莱热式的筒体化，不仅沟通日后的浮雕作品，而且从村姑形象过渡到城市女性。而贯穿其中的超验性，以粗厚圆浑的造型，具有母体图腾化的精神趋势。在男女二元对立的关系中，艺术家欲将其统一的愿望归于母体，乃是合情合理的考虑。从这里开始，艺术家对女性的寻找虽然充满困惑，却有了一种归宿和依托。

　　接下来，他的作品题为《通往城市的路》，横躺的都市女郎似乎漂浮在城市上空，笔墨趣味与年画色彩，使左正尧在水墨创作中对女性形象的描绘，丽而不赘，艳而不俗，其轮廓清秀，勾勒自如，在美术史“斜倚女人”这一母题中，是值得加以讨论的独特类型。消费时代对人的生产性，注定了世间女性必为文化工业所占有。艺术的生活化、市俗化与大众化，并没有使女性自我问题消失，反而使其自主与自由面临新的更多的挑战。女性问题在中国之所以尤为尴尬，乃是因为虚假的集体解放，常常让人放弃个性生长的要求，屈从于男性政治强权和文化强势。左正尧笔下那些茫然失落的青年女性，可以说是艺术家对精神现实的真切体会。

　　但他不愿意停留在表层描述的表现之中，作为男性艺术家，这种他者化的观察与体验是同时外在于自身的。于是，左正尧在某种程度重返母体崇拜，因为只有这一源自远古的无意识心理，可能超越文明时代的男权中心，是不用区分男女的。左正尧近期创作，无论是绘画还是雕塑，其女性形象都更加母体化，或手衬作思考状，或自抚作护卫状，给人以静穆丰厚之感。形态如藏文化的“玛尼石”，循石造型，聚积成堆，随缘而又崇高，天然而又壮丽。左正尧取其形式感而异其宗教性，将自己对于女性精神的寻找贯注其中。而不锈钢材料的使用，则将传统文化与现代文明、集体无意识与个体意识、图腾崇拜与性别思考聚集在制作过程之中。我甚至觉得，他从草图到成品的每一阶段，都可以成为其作品的组成部分，因为材料转换过程不仅仅是制作工艺，也可以成为寻思与体验女性问题的精神载体。

　　我不知道历史是否真的会有螺旋式循环，以至最终回到更高级阶段的母系社会，但知道人类对失落文明的寻找永远不会完结。左正尧的创作表达了男性对于女性与生俱来的兴趣和与时俱增的困惑，也表达了艺术家对女性意识自我重建的期待。因为有此期待，艺术家有可能超越男权社会功利，去揭示出人类心灵深处的共同意愿—在精神的不断追求中回望过去、重返母体。

2009年6月6日

四川美院桃花山

　　Looking for Females—Notes on Zuo Zhengyao’s Creations

　　Wang Lin

　　In the artistic creations that Zuo Zhengyao started in mid-1980s, there has always been a theme depicting the images of females. During the period, he also finished the ceramic installations such as Sky Nine Earth Eight and paper installations such as Waste Book by taking the mahjong and invoices for references, which are not related to the subject of females. However, it is in conformity with his consistent way of artistic thinking as he has taken the symbols of Chinese cultures and folk customs as a starting point and sought after the possible methods to express both the traditions and the current realities. By quoting the Zen principles to explain the relationship between the good and the bad, the man and the Buddhist and the religion and the secularity, his figure paintings from the Eighth Five-year Period are basically categorized as the meticulous paintings. However, the artist has given his paintings certain surrealistic meanings by deleting the background and simplifying the objects same as what he done in his painting, Return. The plastic forms were regarded similar to the paintings of Wang Guangyi, Geng Jianyi, which were characterized by simplicity, coldness and deep indulgence in rational thinking. The mere difference was that Zuo Zhengyao’s paintings were color paintings on paper. In early 1990s, such a way of thinking was transformed into an “imagery expression in a dual way”. As a matter of fact, they became the decorative paintings by integrating the rural background with the folk styles. From another perspective, the changes taking place through his artistic practices became more thought-provoking. The first is the reverse-and-adverse compositions which laid a foundation for his conceptual inclinations in his later creations. The second is that the graphic form of paper-cutting images has been changed into a simplified one, which has not only been connected with the later relief works, but also changes the images of rural girls into the ones of urban females. In his works, the transcendence and the perfect round forms have a clear demonstration of the spiritual inclination towards the female totemism. In the dual conflicting relationship between the male and the female, it is a reasonable way of thinking that the artist is inclined to take the unified expectations into the parent body. Starting from that point, the artist, though perplexed, had a sense of dependence while looking for females.

　　In the following years, the lying urban girls seem to be floating over the city in his painting titled A Road Leading to the City. By applying the brushing techniques and the colors of the Chinese New Year Painting to his ink and wash, Zuo Zhengyao gives a beautiful and colorful depiction of the female images with delicate and fluent lines. In the art history, the “reclining females” is a unique theme worth studying. In the age of consumption, it is destined that the females are taken as the theme of the cultural industry. The life-stylization, secularization and popularization of the arts have not solved any problems concerning the females. Instead, such factors have led to more and new challenges to their independence and freedom. It is especially more embarrassing that problems concerning the females have been produced by the false liberation of the females in China. In such an environment, the females are often forced to abandon their aspirations of independent development and turn to submit to the power authority and cultural sovereignty of the males. Under Zuo’s brushes, the young and ignorant females are regarded as the distinctive understanding of the spiritual reality that the artist has in his artistic experiences.

　　However, he is not willing to simply give a superficial depiction of females. As a male artist, his observation and experience is both from inside himself and outside himself. To a certain extent, Zuo Zhengyao has returned back to the worship of the parent body because it is simply the unconscious psychology which originated from the ancient times that may possibly go beyond the centralization of the males at the age of civilization. In his recent creations, whether paintings or sculptures, Zuo’s females images look more femalized. Whether falling into deep thinking or taking a protecting posture, all the female figures present us a sense of solemnity and richness. Looking like the Karma Stone of the Tibetan culture, he finished his sculpture based upon the natural shapes and lines of the stones, presenting a natural and magnificent air. By taking their shapes while taking no consideration of its religious meanings, Zuo Zhengyao has merged his exploration of the female spirit into his works. In contrast, his uses of stainless steel is a process of integrating the traditional cultures with the modern civilizations, the collective unconsciousness with the individual consciousness and the worship of totems with the reflections of genders. In my opinion, each stage from drawing to finished works can be regarded as the inseparable part of his works. It is because the transforming process is not simply a process of manufacturing, instead, a spiritual media to think about and realize the crux of any issues concerning the females.

　　I am not quite sure whether it is true that the history proceeds in a spiral development process and finally returns back to the matriarchal society at a higher level, but I have fully understood that the mankind has been making their endless seeking for their lost civilizations. In his works, Zuo Zhengyao has expressed the males’ inherent interest in the females and their growing perplexities with each passing day and the artists’ expectations of self-reconstruction of the female consciousness. Due to their expectations, the artists may possibly go beyond the materials gains of the male society to reveal the common aspiration cherished in the depth of human souls: enjoying the pleasure of retrospection while ceaselessly seeking spiritual satisfaction and a return back to the parent body.

　　June 6th, 2009

　　Taohua Mountain, Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts

作者：王林