关注历史、关注现实、关注当代人心灵，一直是青年雕塑家刘若望着力表现的主题。从他的《东方红》、《天兵系列》、《人民系列》、《天问》、《狼来了》等作品可以看出其不凡的实力。有论者认为，刘若望作品的突出特征是英雄主义气息，而实际上，唯美主义也是他所追求的东西，理想主义色彩与浪漫主义情怀在这位青年雕塑家画家身上得到了完美的统一。读他的作品，最令人震撼的是他的力量和情怀。他的力量是气吞山河的气势；他的情怀是华夏古风的高远。在这个白领趣味无处不在，浅吟媚语充斥于世、迎合与庸常之气盛行的时代，刘若望将阔大与雄沉、深郁与苍古的雕塑展现于我们面前，让我们心中顿生回肠荡气之感。

　　刘若望从传统雕塑中寻找资源，不是图式上对传统雕塑的简单借鉴和搬用，他对传统雕塑的借鉴是建立在对传统文化整体性的思考基础上。彰显了浓郁的中国特色，遥接了大气磅礴、畅神写意的东方美学传统，融入了原始的写意风、秦俑的装饰风、佛教理想化的造型风、帝陵程式化夸张风和民间朴素的表现风。有意与当下时尚拉开了距离，而独步于艺术精神的高地，沉湎于艺术家自己的想象空间。在他的作品中，那古旧的形式里不仅有汉魏风骨、盛唐气象，同时更有古往今来孕育的现代激情。

　　艺术家有一种情怀，即生命中涌动着一股下意识的激流，这股激流可以化为艺术的激情，变幻出无穷的艺术形象。这股激情源于生存环境，源于受教育的背景，源于天生的秉性。取决于艺术家的思想境界与艺术修养。这几点纠合在一起便产生了个性，当个性升华为审美态度时，便产生了艺术家充满情感的作品。刘若望七十年代后期出生于与中国人民朝夕相伴的伟大颂歌《东方红》的故乡——陕北佳县。璀璨的黄河文明，灿烂的黄土文化，是他艺术创作的膏腴血脉。读他的作品，我常常联想到那高亢雄壮的黄土情怀。有论者常提到他的秦人出身和短暂的京城阅历，这固然是刘若望艺术创造的重要因素。无论是黄土文化、古城情怀，它们原本就是中华母体文化的一部分，它不能不在艺术家的情感记忆中留下印记。但艺术家所完成的艺术履历，总是多种因素合力的结果，那里既有出身、阅历留下的地域风情和经验，同时更有个人对艺术的独特理解和追求，而这一理解和追求，又总与时代的审美之风和人文环境相关。但最终关键是如何将对现实社会、当代人心灵的关注、理解、思索，真诚地反映表现在自己的作品中。这在刘若望的作品中得到了充分印证。

　　著名评论家殷双喜教授说：“青年雕塑家刘若望的作品形态表情各异，但都饱含着一股喷薄欲出的阳刚之气，我想这种环绕作品挥之不去的阳气，既来自艺术家的少年壮志，也反映了这个时代中华民族的崛起，在一个缺乏信仰的时代，这是一种最为珍贵的民族正气，一如梁启超先生所说：‘信仰即神圣。在一个人为一个人的元气，在一个社会为一个社会的元气’”。我觉得刘若望的作品，是力的宣泄，是势的冲发，像大风暴在呼啸，似狂海涛在奔腾，如闪电划破宇宙，似雷鸣撼动群山。这正是我们时代所需的精神。他的作品虽然还是“人工制品”，但有一点无庸置疑：他找到了一种更接近生命、接近心灵的艺术创造形式。当艺术家以功利心态对待“时代精神”这样的大命题时，什么精神都不存在了。而只有当艺术家心醉神迷于自己的创作情感和心灵体验时，他钟情的艺术就超越了技术和艺术的层面直指精神的高度。刘若望的作品之所以表现出和谐生动的内在力量，就是因为他的作品艺术精神是在不背离心灵的基础上形成的。它们既不是简单的纯粹的艺术，也不是与艺术对立的“精神复制品”，而是对心灵的审美观照。记得黑格尔曾经有过这样的美学论断：象征型艺术是物质形式大于精神内容，古典型艺术是物质形式与精神内容的完美结合，浪漫型艺术是精神内容大于物质形式。按照这种分类描述，我自然是倾向于刘若望的作品视为浪漫型艺术。在《东方红》、《天兵系列》、《人民系列》、《天问》、《狼来了》、《车马仪仗队》等气势磅礴的作品中，让人领略到了一种时代的理想和激情。他的作品更在于抒怀言志，那金戈铁马的威武悲壮，如旌旗如战鼓的战斗渴望，它的感染力不仅来自雕塑本身，而且也来自雕塑之外无声的余韵。它既有雄心壮志的抒发，亦有壮志未酬的怅然。也正是这些丰富的文化品格，使刘若望的雕塑有了“大风起兮云飞扬”的大美境界。

　　刘若望也并非是一味的慷慨悲壮豪情不止。他那些情感上细微轻柔之作，同样具有撼动人心的力量。高士在古代指的是品德高尚，不屑与人同流合污，过着离群索居生活的隐士。而刘若望新作《高士图系列》，表现出了他们的强烈自由愿望和独立倾向，不热衷于“兼济天下”，而是选择“清净修为”、“独善其身”的身心内涵。人物广颊丰颐，长髯飘逸，斗笠屐履，衣带当风，悠然捻须，神态潇洒，飘飘欲仙，可谓“法先人而为我用，师造化以抒己情”（张伯驹语）。他直接立足于中国雕塑艺术传统，立大象于无形，传大音于希声，化写实为写意，升华意境为灵境。塑造的手法上，兼工带写，方圆兼顾，在衣纹的处理上没有面面俱到地模拟生活中的真实，却在衣饰的处理上形成有线有面的体积感，使之呈现出静中有动的感觉。由于他巧妙地运用线面结合的方式，凸显出一种厚重的建筑之感，这种建筑感的视觉力度，更能体现出中国文人士夫非凡的目光中所透射出的慈祥、亲切、坚毅、刚强的人格魅力。也正因为刘若望的这种线面结合的方式，更能从审美意义上体会出中国人的内敛、含蓄的人格境界，它传达出的是一种中国远古文化的回声。浑圆的外表，简洁的造型，古朴的气息，期间中国元素的调度，中国气象的展示，让我们看到他的风格正从高亢的外向走向稳健的内向，看到了一个真正进入到雕塑内部并能靠雕塑语言表达内在精神的刘若望。

　　读若望新作《高山流水》，让我首先想到的是先秦琴师伯牙“巍巍乎志在高山，洋洋乎志在流水”的演奏和动人的乐曲。他在作品中将中国传统武术的造型与璀璨的先秦兵俑形象进行了巧妙地融和。简练的形体，浑圆的躯干，青铜斑驳的色泽，凸凹结合的肌理，他将原始的浑圆，古典的宁静演化为力的永恒、凝固的动。这些都折射出一种对人类历史文明发展的敬畏及对人类顽强生命力的崇敬，更充盈其间的是一种穿越历史时空的混响。特别是那敞开的身姿及动与静的表达，更赋予刘若望的雕塑一种当代艺术的魅力，徜徉青铜雕塑间，既让你回味无穷，又令你流连忘返，生发诸多想象……。像荡着涟漪的流水，时而缓．时而急，似流水的心在表白。大河奔腾，浩荡的洪流冲过历史翻卷的漩涡；激流勇进，惊涛拍击涌起多少命运的颠簸。如高山仰止、先声夺人、达到了高度的气韵生动。表象的观察与透过表象的本质把握、直觉把握，灵敏相一致。是冲天腾飞的巨龙——叱咤历史的风云，是威风凛凛的雄狮——舞动神州的雄风，是人类聪颖的智慧——点燃文明的星火。东方神韵的精彩，人文风貌的风流，千古沉积的动人史诗，孕育了源远流长灿烂璀璨的中华历史文明。正因为若望具有了对中华文明历史的深入研究和深刻理解，有了对雕塑的形体空间语言和雕塑艺术形式感的敏感性、悟性和很高的艺术品味，才使得他表现的人物有一种沉淀的、干练的、质朴的、厚重的艺术魅力，达到一种高于生活的精神感受。这无疑表明，刘若望从本质上把握了中国古代优秀文化和传统雕塑的精髓，且自然、生动、恰如其分地运用其作品中。形成了以中国的传统尚意的美学思想为内核，以西方浪漫主义、人文主义美学思想为补充，面向当代精神现实，形成了独特个人面貌的雕塑艺术风格。

　　雕塑从来都是在形神兼备和传神不传形两者之间确立审美取向的，聪明者则在两者之间进行嫁接，取其优长，舍其所短。刘若望在其中以写实和表现中形成“写意”风格，结构明确，造型蕴藉隽永、手法含蓄氤氲，而整体上的开合聚散、收放自如等，都为作品带来了鲜活性，显现了内在的充实与外部形态的美感相合，自然焕发出盈然的生机与活力。

　　今天的艺术，需要对艺术有着深刻思考的艺术家，也需要与现实生活息息相关的艺术家，惟其如此，才能创造激动人心、令人感奋、充满创意的作品。已经取得令人称羡成绩的刘若望，要攀登雕塑艺术高峰，还需在各方面做更艰巨的努力。我们相信他不会浅尝辄止，不会在鲜花和荣誉面前止步，而会在崎岖的艺术道路上奋力前进，为此而不懈努力、执着追求，收获辛勤耕耘获得的果实。

　　Poetic Passions for Sculpture

　　-Appreciation of Liu Ruowang's Sculptures

　　Liu Ruowang, a youth sculptor, has always focused on history, reality and the modern souls. His talent can be perceived from works like Red East, Heaven Soldiers, People, Asking the Heaven and Wolves are Coming. Some critics believe heroism is the prominent feature of Liu's works, while in fact; aestheticism is also what he is after. Idealism and romanticism perfectly integrated in this young sculpture and artist. Liu presented grand and magnificent sculpture art before us in this era filled with low interest and mediocre pursuits. We are impressed by his majestic and powerful strength and feelings for ancient Chinese culture.

　　Drawing resources from traditional sculptures, Liu didn't simply imitate their graphic patterns; what's more, he used them for reference on the basis of thinking of the traditional culture as a whole. Liu's works demonstrated rich Chinese characteristics with grand and magnificent oriental aesthetic traditions-original free brush style, decorative style of the tomb figures from the Qin dynasty, idealized designing style of the Buddhism, stereotyped exaggerative style of the Emperor's graves and the plain expressive style of the general public. Liu dwells in his own imagination space, deliberately keeping a distance from today's fashion. There are not only elements from the Han, Wei and Tang dynasties, but also modern passion in the old forms of all ages.

　　Artists share a feeling, a subconscious current of their lives that can be transformed into the passion for art and thus create various art images. That passion comes from living environment, education background, and natural instincts, but is determined by ideological level and art accomplishment. All these factors combined resulted in individual characters. When personalities ascend to aesthetic attitudes, works full of passion are created. Liu was born in Jiaxian County in northern Shaanxi-hometown of the great song The East is Red in the late 1970s. Rich and splendid civilization from the Yellow River and loess plateau provided him with plenty of creation materials. His works always remind me of that. Some critic often mentions his identity and his short stay in Beijing, which are important factors for his creation. As part of the Chinese culture, both loess land culture and emotion for the old city influence the artist deeply. Artists' art resume is always a result of multi forces, combining identity, experiences as well as personal understanding and pursuit of art which is connected to a time's aesthetic and cultural environment. The ultimate goal, however, is to truly reflect their attention, understanding, enquiry of the reality and modern souls. Liu's works did well in that.

　　"Liu's works all demonstrate a bursting vigor though in different forms and expressions. It must come from his youth ambitions as well as a rising Chinese nation. That's the most valuable thing in such an era in want of faith. Like Liang Qichao once said 'faith is sanity. It's the vitality of both people and a society.' "said Yin Shuangxi, a well known critic. In my perspective, Liu's works are pouring out of the strength and momentum like roaring storms, running waves, lightening across the universe and thunders rocking mountains. That's what our time needs. Though Liu's works are still "man-made", there's no doubt that he has found an art form closer to life and souls. Spirits vanish when artists treat grand proposition like "temporal spirits" with profiting attitudes. Art only transcend technical and art level when artists get lost in their own creation and spiritual experience. Liu's works are created following his heart and that's why his works exhibit a harmonious inner strength. They are neither pure and simple art works, nor "spiritual duplicate" against art, but aesthetic perceptions of soul. I remember Hegel once said such an aesthetic judgement: in symbolizing art, material forms weigh heavier than spiritual contents; classical art is the perfect combination of material forms and spiritual contents; in romantic art, spiritual contents weigh heavier than material forms. According to this classification, I tend to regard Liu's works as romantic art. People perceived an ideal and passion of an era in Liu's magnificent works such as The East is Red, Heaven Soldiers, People, Asking the Heaven, Wolves are Coming and Guard of Honor with Cars and Horses. Liu's works are more about his emotions and ambitions. The appeal of sculptures not only comes from sculpture itself, but also from its connotations. There are ambitions fulfilled as well as failed. It is these cultural deposits that led Liu's works to a splendid state of "a gale has risen and is sweeping the clouds across the sky".

　　Liu's works are not all solemn and stirring, his delicate ones are also heart touching. Gaoshi refers to the recluse don't associate with undesirable elements. Their strong will of freedom and independence was revealed in Liu's new work Portrays of Gaoshi series, choosing to "pay attention to one's own moral uplift without thought of others" and "discard all desires and worries from one's mind" instead of "taking care of the whole world". These perfectly calm figures were like fairy gods with long faces, full cheeks, long mustaches and bamboo hats. Liu "Absorbed techniques of the ancient masters and expressed his own feelings through nature." (Quoted Zhang Boju) Liu created images without entirely relying on forms, sounded without voices, transformed realism painting into free hand and lifted artistic conception to a higher level based on Chinese sculpture traditions. In image-creating, Liu employed both fine brush and free hand, taking care of both the square and round elements. He didn't vividly imitate the clothes ripple in real life, but created a sense of volume with lines and surfaces, showing dynamic in a static motion. This skillful combination of lines and surfaces formed a visual effect more readily expressed the Chinese literati's personal characters-amiable, kind, firm and persistent. It also resonates with Chinese ancient culture, which makes China's conservativeness more apparent in an aesthetic sense. We see Liu is approaching the inner side of sculpture and expressing his inner spirits with sculpture language, growing more introvert with more prudence from his arrangement of Chinese elements-perfectly round appearances, simple designs and the unsophisticated atmosphere.

　　It reminds me of Bo Ya's (Bo Ya, a musician in the pre-Qin dynasty) adept play of dulcimer seeing Liu's new work Lofty Mountains and Flowing Water. In it, Liu skillfully blended traditional Chinese martial arts with soldier portrays of the pre-Qin dynasty-simple lines, round bodies, bronze color and concave-convex skins. Liu put the original roundness and classical serenity into an eternity of strength and condensed mobility, which reflected the esteem for human history and development as well as human's strong vitality. A contemporary art charm was added into his work through those open gestures and the expression of mobility and stillness. You can't help being led up to meaningful afterthoughts and lingering on without any thought of leaving when indulging yourself in those bronze sculptures. They are like running water, sometimes rapid, sometimes slow. Torrents in history witnessed numerous ups and downs in life. Observation and grasp of essence strike a balance. Like a giant dragon roaring into the sky or an awe-inspiring lion, the wisdom of human race made it possible to a long-lasting Chinese civilization. Liu's works showcase an accumulated, plain and pure charm because he has a profound understanding of Chinese history and is sensitive and has a good taste about sculpture's spatial language as well as its sense of form. This doubtlessly shows that Liu has mastered the essence of ancient Chinese fine cultures and traditional sculptures, and he applied it into his works well measured. Liu's unique sculpture style has formed facing the contemporary reality with traditional Chinese aesthetic thoughts as the core, complemented with western romanticism and humanitarian aesthetic thoughts.

　　Sculptures have always been establishing aesthetic orientations between similarity in both form and spirits and only in spirits, while the wise man has been trying to make grafts between them and drawing on the strong points while deserting the weak points. Liu formed his "freehand brush" style-clear structure, meaningful design and implicit technique. The works demonstrated vigor and vitality with strength from inside and beautiful outside forms.

　　Today's art calls for artists with deep thoughts about art and who are closely related with real life. Only thus can they create exciting and creative works. There is a long, hard journey to go for Liu who has already made some significant achievements. We believe he will keep striving to do better instead of quitting in front of flowers and honor and gain even greater achievements with his effort.

By Zhao Jinwu

作者：赵进武