有关艺术和艺术史的误读从未停止过，发生在《艺术的故事》The Story of Art 中的故事不止为“艺术”勾描了某种存在史，也同样可能为理解有关“风格”之外的艺术增添了另一种背景书。英国艺术史家E.H.贡布里希认为：“实际上没有艺术这种东西，只有艺术家而已。”但“艺术家就像个诡辩家一样，让别人心中浮现出跟现实不符的印象。”因为“大多数人喜欢在画面上看到一些在现实中他也爱看的东西，这是非常自然的倾向。”观众和艺术作品之间不存在绝对的鸿沟，除非刻意强求艺术的高贵，抑或为作品寻找一个终极的阐释目标，人们并非真的“看不懂”艺术，而是被要求殊途同归：对作者命意有不折不扣的的像巫咒一样的预见能力。

　　简单的说，发生在艺术中的故事不只是故事本身。像建筑一样，大多数人会关注建筑的居住功能，即如何住得舒适，但优秀的建筑师也许更在意思考除此之外的一切美或与美的游戏相关的东西，甚至个人更加私密的内心诉求，那些隐藏在冷冰冰砖瓦背后的被后人牵强附会在“建筑艺术”中的种种图谋，如同一处空间，完全可能被看似透明的玻璃阻隔了，又同样可能以镜像的方式被虚拟式的复原。当“图·景”不断措置，反而可能获得空间之外的想象，通过读图，我们试图了解到存在于艺术作品中的人情物态，及藏于其中的秘密。

　　探询秘密，秘密则公开了种种与“误绘”相关却看似合理的悖论，准确是艺术重要的品质之一，误绘不是“准确”的对立面。在远古的埃及，创作者巧妙地动过“小心眼”，见诸于壁画中的男女体态，人体腰部的肚脐眼普遍偏移在于“真实”不合情理的位置，却成功塑型，异常生动且准确。毕加索几乎“盗用”了这一手法，创作了大量被称之为立体主义的人体艺术作品，这些奇异的人体是如此地与我们习惯的观看格格不入，却同样散发着性感的体香。误绘为这类创作虚拟并延长了被感觉质疑的真实。

　　唐代章怀太子墓《狩猎出行图》、金代赵霖《六骏图》或贡布里希提到的热里科《埃普瑟姆赛马》中的奔马，若不是画师有意识地误绘，使之四腿平伸与真实相悖，就不可能显现这些神骏奔腾的速度；在一幅现藏于西安博物馆的唐代太子墓壁画中，一条马腿保留了最原始的草图痕迹，而众多的马及马腿皆有准确及细致的晕染。此结果要么可以被理解为画工粗心大意，要么相信是其有意而为，藏匿如此“不准确”的一条马腿的用意何在？——如同八大山人笔下的一只猫或黄宾虹黛色的山岚莫名的残缺了一块空白，非云非物，却皆洞天别开，如见光明。

　　即便我们熟稔某种视知觉原理也无法得意于“误绘”的发现，尤其面对传统中国绘画，“误绘”几乎可以认为是另一种必要的创意或设计。武梁祠汉画像砖《六博》（第七石第三层），将人物画像规制在一个我们熟悉的焦点透视结构中，却并未使之渐行渐远，正相反，几乎均衡地将人物平面铺展开来，“最远”处的主题得以凸显，可以肯定的是，这种剪影式的不合常理的视像，能够使画像的叙述功能得以强化；为了获得自在的观看，古代前贤几乎默认了与“科学”相违背的成像法则，近小远大式的桌椅、床榻、几案等等，在“造物主”看来，远处上翻的平面，也许能更方便载物，那些置于其上标榜身份的古董字画、书香墨宝能够一览无遗，士大夫可以倚之闲适地卧游怡情养性；《惠山茶会图》中的井圈和置于山涧的器物，反映了文徵明不惜主动“误绘”，使之成为契合明代文人茶事之功的象征性书写，尽管场面颇显矫饰。

　　明代李日华《竹嫩画媵》有论：“大都画法，以布置意象为第一，然亦只是大概耳……”也许“误绘”的悖论意义在于：中国画以非再现性方式表达了其空间与造境更胜于真实的可能，正如幻觉铺陈为中国画家找到了某种心理依据一样。如果“诗使所触及的一切变形”（雪莱），那么误绘则为变形做了部分合符心理审美的矫正。传统山水画家惯用“搬前换后法”（明代沈颢《画麝》）营造了与现实环境相距甚远，与心灵内景却更为契合的“山水”，那些被后来者亲睐的皴、擦、点、染既是组成某种图景的构件，也是供人玩味的单元要素，荆浩在《笔法记》中提醒人们“写云林山水，须明物象之原”，他明确画松要有君子之德，造型要“狂而不曲”，如果“飞龙蟠虬，狂生枝叶者，非松之气韵也”——准确描绘一颗松树是可能的，但要使之神如君子，不“误绘”并非易事。

　　前贤规范的笔法为误绘者找到了托词。宋代郭熙在《林泉高致》中提出过并非眼见为实的观想方式：视山“以水为血脉，以草木为毛发，以云烟为神采”，视水“以山为面，以亭榭为眉，以渔钓为精神”，画家们运笔墨丘壑添虚无云烟，制造了与庄子所谓“藐姑射之山，有神人居”相仿佛的逍遥境界。或如倪高士本人乐于把心境投放在“河阔楼底雨如洗，只疑身在孤蓬底。清晨倚槛看新晴，依旧山光青满几……”般的诗意中。后人所热衷讨论的“一河两岸”对倪瓒来说也许是个圈套，不过，倪云林并没有为此圈套背书——在许多传统中国画作品中，如石涛所言“法之为法而非定法”的那个存在，让“画”有了无限误绘的可能。

　　“屋漏痕”、“锥画沙”、“印印泥”等笔法，“三远法”、“起承转合”等构图法则为物象转换和某种实境的呈现提供了技术支持，与显见的技术性误绘不同，美术史术语与美术作品中的修辞关系建立或解构，并不意味着其意象和指向总能重合，好在视觉生产不完全依赖技术，也不徒有观念。模糊的风景一旦清晰起来未必引人入胜，伴随新的误绘，如果还有奇迹，有什么比这更叫“艺术”？

　　2013/8/18于董各庄

　　What is Painting? Secrets in Paintings

　　Lei Ziren

 The Misreading of art and art history has never been ceased. Stories in The Story of Art not only depict a certain existing history for art, but also provide a possible background for the understanding of art besides of "style". British art historian E.H.Gombrich argued that "there is virtually no such thing as art and only artists exist" but "they are like sophists, messing with people's mind and giving them an impression inconsistent with reality." Because "it is a natural inclination that the majority of people like to see their favorite things in real life appear on the tableau." There is no absolute gap existing between audiences and art works unless the nobility of art is purposefully overstressed or a certain ultimate interpretation is artificially planned to be reached. People are not "laymen" when art is concerned. It is just that they are all requested to arrive at a same end: the possession of a magical power to predict the exact intentions of the painter. To put it simply, art story is beyond the story itself. Taking architectures for instance, most people will focus on its living function (namely, how to live comfortably.) while excellent architects are more likely to pay attention to its aesthetic values, things related to aesthetic games and even the personal and private inner appeals. Those far-fetched art schemes hidden behind cold bricks and tiles are like a space which can either be totally blocked or be mirrored to a virtual recovery by seemingly transparent glasses. When "picture ? scene" is constantly arranged, an imagination beyond the restriction of space may occur to us and lead us to grasp the harbored human feelings and secrets through picture interpretations. Secret inquiring discloses various "mis-painting"—— related yet plausible paradoxes. "Accuracy is" an important quality of art but mis-painting is not at its opposite side. In ancient Egypt, mural painters often cleverly displaced his characters' belly buttons to "real" but unreasonable places. However, the figures in the way he created were extremely vivid and accurate. Picasso practically "stole" this technique in his creation of a large quantity of cubist artworks of human bodies. Those peculiar human figures, though strongly jarring with our conventional impressions, gave out a same sensual aroma. Hence, mis-painting invents and prolongs for this kind of creation a sense of reality doubted by organoleptic examination. Galloping horses in such pictures as Hunting Trip in the mausoleum of prince Zhanghuai of Tang dynasty, Six Horses by Zhao Lin in Jin dynasty and Gericault's Epsom Horse Racing once mentioned by Gombrich are intentionally mis-painted by painters to make their four legs to extend horizontally which is contradictory to facts However had it not been mis-painted, the horses' amazing speed would have never been fully felt. In Xi'an Museum there is a mural painting in the mausoleum of a Tang Dynasty prince on which a horse leg is left in its primitive sketch while other legs and horses are processed with precise and fine gradation of colors. This is either a careless mistake or a deliberate attempt by the painter. But what would he attempt to achieve by drawing such an "inaccurate" horse leg?-It is the same as the cat drawn by Zhu Da and the blank space among the dark blue mountain mists painted by Huang Binhong, all endowing the whole picture with an enchanting and illuminating touch. Our knowledge of visual and perceptional theories could not compare with the effects of mispainting", and this is peculiarly true in the realm of traditional Chinese paintings where "mis-painting" has nearly become an indispensable creative design. On the portrait bricks in Wuliang Shrine (third layer in the seventh stone), the painter arranged his characters on a familiar focal perspective structure but instead of making them fade away gradually, he evenly spread them in a plane to highlight the theme of "farthest". One thing for sure, this illogical silhouette-typed view strengthens the portrait's narrative function. In order to get a comfortable view, Virtuous people in ancient times practically gave tacit consent to "science"-violating imaging laws. Things like tables, chairs and beds were drawn with the principle of "the further they are, the bigger they get". Probably in the "creator's" eyes, the surface in the distance is more loadable and all the identityrevealing antique paintings and treasured calligraphies on it can be taken in at one glance. Moreover, literati and officialdom can also lean leisurely against it to cultivate their dispositions; the walling crib and the objects in the mountain stream in the painting Tea Party in Mount Hui show that Wen Huiming voluntarily "mis-painted" them to conform to the typical writings on tea by scholars of Ming dynasty, though the scene is somehow pretentious. Li Rihua of Ming dynasty said in his book Zhu Nen Hua Ying that most painters took image settings as a priority but the outcome turned out not very desirable. The significance of "mis-painting" lies, perhaps, in that Chinese paintings in a non-representational way confirm the possibility that their space and imagery can surpass reality-the same as how illusion provides a psychological basis for Chinese painters. If like Shelley's words "It transmutes all that it touches", then mis-painting makes partial aesthetic psychologyfriendly adjustments for the transmutation. Traditional landscape painters were accustomed to the technique of "taking existing works for reference" (from Musk Deer by Shen Hao of Ming Dynasty) and created a "landscape" much closer to inner scenery than to actual environment. Such popular drawing methods as Cun, wiping, dotting and dyeing are not only components of some image but also elements for people to savor and relish. Jing Hao in his article Strokes reminded people that "the essence of the images must be fully expressed in cloud forest and landscape paintings." He clearly pointed out that the painted pines should have characters of a noble man and postures of upright wildness for if "their branches coiled like a serpent and leaves sprouted crazily, the graceful bearing will lose in no time."- it is possible to precisely portray a pine tree but quite difficult to render them with gentleman's charisma without "mis-painting". Painters with mis-painting experiences find their pretext in previous normative drawings. The Elegance of The Bamboo and Spring by Guo Xi of Song Dynasty proposes a new theory of "seeing is not believing", arguing that mountain "takes water as blood vessels; vegetation, hair; and misty cloud, expression" and water "takes mountain as countenance; pavilions, eyebrows; and fishing, spirit". Painters use brushes and inks to add ethereal misty clouds, creating a world similar to Zhuang Zi's faraway Gushe Mountain where celestial beings reside in. Ni Gaoshi gladly immersed himself in such a poetic atmosphere as "rain drizzles on a low tower built beside a broad river, making me wonder whether I'm sheltering under a lonely lotus leaf. Leaning against the rail, I behold morning sun and mountain of green." Later some people say Ni Zan fell into the trap of "a river has two banks" but he did not recite-Shi Tao's argument "laws are laws because they are not fixed" provides infinite possibilities of mis-painting in traditional Chinese paintings. Drawing techniques like "water stains on the wall", "awl piercing sand" and "sealed mud" and composition rules like "three kinds of farness" and "opening, developing, changing and concluding" provide technical supports for object-image transformation and reality representation. Different from obvious technical mispainting, establishment and deconstruction of rhetoric relation in art history jargons and art works do not mean that an image can always match its referent. Fortunately, visual production depends neither entirely on technique nor on concepts. A blurred landscape may be more appealing than a distinct one. Miracle comes with mis-painting and if it is

 not worthy of the word "art", then nothing is.

 2013/08/18 At Donggezhuang

作者：雷子人