郭正善很少谈自己的画,在当现代艺术观念波澜壮阔,新的艺术样式层出不穷的时候,他仍然呆在他的小画室里,摆布画面的平衡和色彩的谐和,而且,一晃就是十多年的寒暑。这使我想起西方现代艺术之父——赛尚隐归故里,与孤独作伴,潜心探索画面的秩序和造型的坚实感。

　　郭正善把“静物”作为永久探索的课题,不能不说与赛尚、毕加索这些艺术大师沉迷于绘画难题的毕生努力有关。1983 年,郭正善毕业于湖北艺术学院美术系油画专业。四年学业造就了他对造型和色彩的专业理解。如果说80年代中期,他创作的“静物”还限于对塞尚和毕加索这些大师作品形式表面的摸索阶段,那么,90年代初,他就开始有意识地进行构型的观念、色彩的韵致和作品内涵的实质性追求。1991年,他创作了一批《静物》系列作品,主要从三个发展方向进行了探索: 一类借鉴了塞尚研究古典作品获得的造型观,通过明晰的物体外轮廓处理,强化造型的力度,并在逐步过渡的色彩衔接中构造物体的立体感,使画面造型具有坚实而又持久的秩序;另一类类似印象派的艺术观,即通过色彩的和谐与统一,削减物体边缘线的硬度,弱化物体的质感和量感,以加强画面灵动、活跃的空间效果;第三类恰好介入两者之间,既不放弃基本的构型,又能适度减弱物体外轮廓的硬边,既能维护画面的基本色调,又能保持画面的醇厚和力度。这三种类型的探索决定了他日后创作的基本格局。在这样的基点上,他于1993年引入了涂抹和肌理的效果,1994年融会了质感与量感的塑造法,1995年基本找到综合表达自己个性并具有东方意味和十分特殊的艺术处理方式。

　　郭正善的观念不是“运动”的观念,而是持久艺术的观念。按照柏拉图的理解,观念(idea)源于希腊语动词“看”,它通常与视觉图像(eidos)连在一起,并与感觉印象(eidolon)有关。郭正善十分强调艺术的感觉,深信艺术的永恒以及画面难题的无限性和持久性,不久前,我们聚在一起谈到了[意]莫兰迪(Giorgio Morandi)和[法]阿西加(AvigdorArikha)......有时, 艺术就是这么奇妙——在大师的笔下,哪怕那些并不起眼的平凡小景物,也能唤起我们持久的激动、赞叹与热情,以至为之倾倒、折服。凡高给他的弟弟提奥的一封信中表达了这样一种创作心态:“平衡赤、蓝、黄、橙、紫、绿六种基本颜色是件费神的事。这活儿需要大量工作和冷静分析,这时候一个人是殚精竭虑的,就像一个演员在舞台上扮演难演的角色那样,这时他得在半小时之内一下子想到千百种不同的东西......不要以为我会装模作样地做出一副狂热的状态。最好记住我是在埋头进行复杂的计算......”艺术的奥秘并不一定是惊天动地的豪壮誓言,也许,它就在难以言喻的微妙之处,在那恰如其分的艺术感觉和绞尽脑汁的复杂计算之中。郭正善把观念变成与作品紧密相联系的元素,把“观看”与“感觉”放在绘画的首要地位,把“大词”化为微妙的艺术平衡。这促使他在艺术上一意孤行,我行我素,甚至不厌其烦地与他熟悉的艺术母题打了15 年的交道。这难道不意味着他对“艺术本位”的信念吗?有时,他不断反复修改同一幅作品,直到满意为止。正是这样一种 “挑剔”的态度,使他的作品越来越趋向成熟。

　　1993年,他为自己假设了一道难题:如何在画面上平衡“正形”和“负形”这二度空间的结构关系?他不去参照具体实物,只需凭借经验与形式法则,并融入构型的观念。他既要把前景中的“实物”按照构成的要素组合起来,同时也要把空间背景组织得秩序井然——不是造型后的“剩余物”,而是在构型中把他作为有意味的形象与元素参与到画面结构中去,与物

　　象共同构成整体的艺术效果。为此,他煞费苦心。因为他不仅要考虑形状的分布、构型的疏密,还要考虑轮廓线的起伏,以及画面的平衡与秩序。为了解决这个难题,他不得不放弃印象派中无序的生动画法,在保持外轮廓清晰、完整的基础上,引入涂抹和肌理的效果,去增添一度因放弃印象派画法而失去的生动感觉。这种引进使他获得了另外一种结果,那就是秩序与平衡。

　　稳定、坚实的构图平添了画面纪念碑式的静穆、醇厚的感觉,并使他的作品区别与一般的静物画(见《静物1994.1》, 获第二届中国油画展作品奖,载《美术文献》1994年第二期)。也许,他对这种硬边平面化的处理还不太满意,1994年他又融会了质感与量感的立体塑造法。这使他摆脱了塞尚强调块面的成就,进入了属于自己的艺术领地。因为这种立体感不是按学院派的素描关系和明暗程式,而是在层层叠加、反复塑造的厚抹过程中获得的。当然,物体的质量感加重了画面的凝重和分量,但清晰的轮廓硬边似乎很难与立体的厚抹塑造产生的肌理韵致取得微妙的平衡。(见1995年创作的《静物》,载《96 上海双年展》画册)很可能郭正善意识到这个问题,他想通过虚化暗部和模糊暗部边缘线的办法消除这种差异,甚至还使用了挥洒式笔法去加强画面的生动性(同上),以表达他心目中理想的效果。

　　1995至1996年间,我认为他找到了一种日趋成熟的综合表达自己个性的艺术方式。在他的另一幅作品中(《静物》, 1995年,获“第三届中国油画双年展”佳作奖),既保留了他以往平衡与秩序的成果,以及厚重而有分量的视觉效果,同时又加强了外轮廓“意象”化的形式处理,使画面在有秩序的节奏中,出现了富有意味的律动与谐和。此后,他创作了两幅《静物》(参加“96上海双年展”)进而采用了混合色调的叠加法,强化“抽象肌理”在画面中的重要地位(其中一幅载《中国油画》1996年第二期),这使我想起塔皮埃斯在美术史上的重要贡献,即Collage版画技术提供“的肌理与颗粒”的画面效果。这种效果使物体的景深浑厚而具有力度,凝重而富有生气,从而克服了先前的画面矛盾,达到一种新的境界。郭正善的另一幅参展作品,却是在这个基础上强调了“自然痕迹”与“抽象肌理”的结合,使作品更具有潇洒自然的东方韵味。

　　他的作品保持了这样一种艺术魅力:醇厚、自然、韵致、潇洒,十分符合美学整体的绘画要求。正如批评家彭德所言: “郭正善的表现是一种内功,一种中国式的表现。他那没有刺激性的作品特别适合于用品茶的方式去品位。”(《中国油画》1996年第二期)十余年前,我曾这样评价过他的作品,“几个象征性的粗陶瓦罐——被凝聚的远古文化的象征——作为视像和母题在一套组画中被反复描述,赋予的色彩像酿造过的浓酒。也许是作者为远古文化的熏陶所致,抑或是对曾经光耀、记录我们民族文化的缅怀。蹉跎岁月,他在现代人的眼中经历了一段苦难的、悠久的、变形的,却是永恒的、令人追恋的历史。维特斯根坦曾经说过:早期的文化将变成一堆瓦砾,最后变成一堆灰土,但精神却萦绕在灰土上。”(《中国美术家通讯》1987年第十期)这种评价仍然十分适合郭正善于90年代创作的一批作品。如今看来,郭正善的《静物》系列作品在起构图的整体性上,除了具有上述特征以外,还颇有中国北宋山水画中静穆而又崇高的的气派。作品伟岸而凝重,博大而精练,体现了具有东方意趣的的宏伟构型观和难以言喻的精神指向。这种涩中有味的韵致与秩序感,只有细心品读的人才能嚼出其中三味。正是在这一点上,我体会到郭正善的艺术追求与甘苦;也正是在这一点上,我赞叹他为此而取得了他人很难体会到的一种艺术成就。

　　(收录于《郭正善油画作品集》，以及《画迹与心印祝斌文集》湖南美术出版社)

　　英文版：

　　ZOrder and Charm:
GuoZhengshan’s Still Lifes and His View on Painting

　　Zhu Bin

　　For more than a decade, GuoZhengshan has been staying in his studio to seek on his canvas balance of structure and harmony of colors, who enjoys himself and seems unwilling to talk too much about his own oil paintings in a time abundant with various modern artistic conceptions and new artistic styles, which reminds me of Cezanne, the “Father of Modern Art” in the West, who spent long periods by himself as a virtual recluse, seeking order and solidity on his canvas.

　　Guo had still life as his lifetime subject matter of painting, as artists like Cezanne and Picasso made their lifetime commitment to painting. When he graduated in1983 with a degree in oil painting from the Department of Painting at the Hubei College of Art, Guo had already gained a professional understanding of form and color. In the mid-1980s, his oil paintings, all entitled Still Life, were no more than an experimental approach to the work of such masters as Cezanne and Picasso, but in the early 1990s, he began to approach substantially the conception of form construction, charm of colors and meanings of works. In 1991, he created a series of paintings, all with the same title Still Life, approaching from three major directions that could be categorized as the following: First, he tries to create on the surface of his paintings, through distinct treatment of lineament and dynamic formation of the objects, a solid plastic effect and an eternal order; Second, he strengthens the spatial dynamics on the surface of his paintings through weakened edges and volumes of the objects; Third, he combines the above two to build the sense of both order and dynamics.

　　Guo’s idea of art has nothing to do with “movements”. His idea of art is one of everlasting art. In Plato’s theory, idea, originally a Greek verb that means “to see”, is related to eidos as well as eidolon. Guo is a painter with an idea of art of that kind. He focuses on the artistic perception, and believes in the artistic eternality as well as infinity and eternality. For one thing, it was masters like Giorgio Morandi and AvigdorArikha that we were talking about the other day, whose paintings of those little sceneries were able to arouse our excitement, exclamation and admiration.

　　In a letter to his brother Theo, Vincent van Gogh wrote of his creation: “...balancing the six essential colors: red, blue, yellow, orange, lilac, and green. Sheer work and calculation, with one's mind strained to the utmost, like an actor on the stage in a difficult part, with a hundred things to think of at once in a single half hour...Don't think that I would maintain a feverish condition artificially, but understand that I am in the midst of a complicated calculation long beforehand.” Perhaps, the mystery of art doesn’t lie in heroic pledges, but in the subtle which are beyond expression. Guo is such an artist who is always seeking artistic harmony. He turns his idea into elements of the painting, puts “seeing” and “perception” on the top priority of painting, and translates “the big” into “the subtle”. And he remained himself repeatedly dealing with the same artistic motif for the past fifteen years, which is a true evidence of his “art for art’s sake”. For many a still life paintings, he made changes repeatedly until he found perfect satisfaction.

　　In 1993, Guo began to look for answer to a question that he had raised for himself: How to balance the structural relationship between the positive shape and the negative one on a two dimensional canvas? He didn’t refer to the particular objects, but worked on it with his idea of construction based on his experience and rules of form. He needed not only to construct the objects in the foreground, but also to organize the background space as a meaningful element and image into the whole composition. He carefully worked on arrangement of shapes, density of construction, changes

　　of outline, balance of plane and order of surface. To do that, he was forced to abandon the Impressionist painting techniques, which was characteristic of disorder, and took advantage of the scribbling and texturing techniques on a basis of clear and complete outline, which resulted in order and balance of his paintings.
Stable and solid composition adds monumental solemnity and richness to his paintings of still life, which stands out among paintings of the same genre by his contemporaries, as exemplified by his Still life 1994.1 (1994), published in the journal Fine Arts Literature (1994: 2). He was perhaps not too satisfactory with the flattened hard edges, and in 1994, he introduced three-dimensional modeling—repeated layers of thick paint instead of the academic stereotype of drawing and light-and-shade contrast, which set him free from what Cezanne had achieved on plane of still life painting and helped him to establish his own artistic territory. The thickness of the objects enriched the solemnity of his painting surface, but the clear hard edge seemed hard to balance with the textural charm resulting from three-dimensional thick paint technique, as reflected in his Still Life (1995), which was published in the Catalog of Shanghai Biennial 1996. Realizing that problem, Guo tried to weaken the dark side and blur the edge of it to improve the effects of his painting. During the two years from 1995 to 1996, Guo, as I learned, established himself with his gradually matured general artistic style of expression. His Still Life (1995, awarded Excellent Work Prize at The Third Chinese Oil Painting Biennial), kept the previous qualities of balance, order and solemnity, and was added a meaningful rhythm through a blurred outline of the objects. Later, he further employed the technique of overlying color tones to strengthen the role of “abstract texture”, as exemplified in his two Still Life paintings included at the Shanghai Biennial 1996. That reminded me of Spanish artist AntoniTapies his contribution to the history of fine arts, i.e., the surface effects of texture and particle on a collage-technique-of-printmaking basis. Guo’s another still life painting, combined the natural traits and abstract texture, and appeared natural and unstrained, bearing an Oriental taste.

　　Guo’s paintings of still life remain rich, natural, unrestrained and charming, which are conforming to aesthetic qualities of the art of painting. Art critic Peng De commented in the journal Chinese Oil Painting (1996:2): “GuoZhengshan’s oil painting of still life requires intrinsic attainments and is very Chinese. His paintings, being not aggressive, are perfect to be viewed and appreciated in the way of drinking and tasting tea.” Some ten years ago, I made such comments on Guo’s painting: “A few pottery vessels--a symbol of ancient culture—are repeatedly depicted as image and motif in a series of still life paintings, the colors being as rich as wines. It perhaps indicates that the painter is possessed with the ancient culture, or perhaps he is recalling and describing through that vehicle the glorious national culture in the past.” “The earlier culture will become a heap of rubble and finally a heap of ashes, but spirits will hover over the ashes,” wrote Ludwig Wittgenstein in his Culture and Value . It may serve as a perfect comment on Guo’s series of paintings of still life in the 1990s. Nevertheless, Guo’s series of paintings, all entitled Still Life, bear not only the above mentioned qualities, but also the solemn and grand manner of traditional Chinese landscape paintings in the Northern Song Dynasty. The charm and order of his paintings requires careful appreciation, for that is what he has been seeking and has achieved in his art though it might not be easy for others to appreciate. I understand the bitter-and-sweet process of his artistic approach and appreciate his artistic achievements.

来源：雅昌艺术网 作者：祝斌