处于改革开放时代的中国艺术，一方面获得了充分自由发展的社会条件，另一方面也面临着来自西方乃至国际艺术的影响，其中中国水墨艺术所面临的挑战以及在新的文化语境中的突围、变革与创新，成为中国当代艺术最有特色的现象。

　　中国水墨艺术拥有悠久的历史和深厚的传统，在长期的发展中形成了以文人画为代表的形制，在艺术观念、物质媒介、表现方法和欣赏方式上都形成自足的体系，尤其在语言上具有东方艺术共同的写意特征。这种传统为当代的中国艺术家提供了可资借鉴的充足资源，但也在价值标准上为当代水墨的发展设置了障碍。就像西方艺术从20世纪初开始的变革一样，中国水墨艺术的现代变革也是现代中国文化进程中一种重要的力量，在进入21世纪之后，这种变革更加呈现出强劲的趋势。

　　受邀参加本次展览的艺术家都是在水墨艺术探索和创新上具有鲜明个性并且富有才华的人物，他们的作品从不同的维度展现了水墨艺术的当代发展。他们深切地感受着中国社会的急剧变革，以一种新的人文情怀关注现实，超越了传统的艺术主题和题材，使水墨艺术和其他媒介的艺术一样，指向当代的生活和人的精神变迁，敏锐地表达自己对于外部世界的思考和体验。在他们的作品中呈现出来的多种视角和感受的直接性，反映了水墨艺术积极参与社会文化重构的当代性。本次展览题为“自由的尺度”，意在提示艺术家们从自我的真实感受出发的艺术立场和在水墨这种媒介中谋求纯粹精神的文化理想。实际上，在传统的水墨观念中，人与自然的内在和谐，通过“笔墨”实现人与物质世界在精神层面的融合，彰显心灵的自由，就是一种重要的遗产。在复杂的社会文化现实面前，中国艺术家重新激活了水墨艺术的这个本质，既直面现实，反映时代的变迁，又通过笔墨的自由抒发，建立属于自己的精神家园。

　　在新观念的驱使下，中国水墨艺术的形式风格前所未有地超越了传统经验的局限。艺术家们在运用敏感的中国(宣)纸、单纯的墨(色)和书写性的笔(线)时，导入了现代和当代的艺术状态与视觉经验，也就是强化了水墨媒介和表现方式的独特性，甚至将水墨的语言推向极致。他们在作品的结构和造型上并不谋求与客观世界的对应，而是内在地建构自己对于世界的独特理解，敞明自己的精神诉求，在笔线墨痕的节奏与韵律中充满生命力量和感性。这种在绘画过程中完全开敞的意识状态，都堪比西方的抽象绘画和抽象表现主义绘画，但是，水墨艺术运用几乎纯一性的墨，既能呈现出充满微妙变化的氤氲气息，又极具强烈的视觉形式张力，使之更具备在现实世界与精神世界之间穿行的可能性。

　　把中国水墨艺术介绍给国际公众特别是西方公众，是一件富有探险精神的工作。西方许多著名博物馆里陈列着古典形态的中国水墨作品，他们可能固化了西方公众对中国绘画的理解。而类于这样的展览，组织者的努力旨在向西方公众介绍中国水墨艺术作为当代艺术的生机和活力，也期待展览开跨文化的对话与交流。在全球化文化进程中，带有自身文化身份的艺术样式是如何在全球与本土之间呈现出转换和突破，恐怕会是一种饶有兴味的话题。

　　Forward

　　by Fan Di An

　　In the open and reform generation of Chinese art, one aspect has been to achieve sufficient free and developed social conditions, another is to face the arrival of Western and even International art’s influence; among the challenges Chinese ink art’s faces, is how to in the new cultural context to break out of an enclosure, to transform and to innovate, which has become the defining characteristic of the modern Chinese art phenomenon.

　　The art of Chinese Ink Painting has a long history and profound tradition; in the course of its long-term term development it has become a scholarly painting method representing a kind of formal code, in artistic concept, material medium, and as a method of expression becoming an self-sufficient system, especially in the aspect of its language, its most expressive and Eastern characteristic. This tradition offers an abundant resource of experience to modern Chinese artists, although an obstacle has been constructed in the in the valuation standards of modern ink painting. Just like the transformation of Western art at the beginning of the 20C Chinese Ink Art’s modern transformation is also an important force in the process of modern Chinese culture; since entering the 21C this kind of change has appeared as an even stronger trend.

　　The artists invited to take part in this first exhibition of Ink Art are all exploring and innovating and showing their individuality and artistic character and talent, their works from different dimensions displaying Ink Art’s modern development. They keenly feel Chinese society’s rapid development, as a new cultural mood interested in reality, they go beyond traditional art’s themes and subject matter, making Ink Art and other forms of media share common ground, facing people’s modern lives and spiritual vicissitudes, sharply expressing their own thinking and experiences of the external world. In their works many kinds of perspectives appear, with feelings expressed in a straightforward way, reflecting Ink Art’s active participation in society’s cultural reconstruction of modernity. In the original exhibition theme “Freedom as Standard”, the idea is for the artists to raise the real feelings of the Self, and by an expressive art position in the ink medium to strive for pure spirit’s cultural perfection. In fact in traditional Ink Art’s there is a concept of Man and Nature’s intrinsic harmony, through brush and ink man and the material worlds’ fusion is brought about on a spiritual level, and precisely manifesting the spirit’s freedom a kind of important heritage. Facing society’s complicated cultural reality Chinese artists have once again activated Ink Art’s intrinsic quality, straightforwardly facing reality, reflecting the generation’s challenges and through brush and ink’s freedom of expression, establishing their own spiritual territory.

　　Prompted by this new conception Chinese Ink painting art forms and style have unprecedentedly surpassed traditional constraints. The artists use delicate Chinese (Rice) paper, simple brush strokes (Colour) and writing style brush (Line) intervals, introducing modern and contemporary art’s current state and visual experience; by doing so they strengthen Ink Art as a media, and its expressive mode’s unique character，even pushing Ink’s language to the ultimate. In their works’ structure and styles they make no attempt to correspond to the objective world but instead intrinsically construct their own unique understanding of the world, making clear their spiritual message, the brush lines tracing with a rhythm and a cadence full of living power and emotion. In this kind of complete opening of the state of consciousness in the process of painting, they can all be compared to western abstract painting and abstract expressionist painting, although Ink Art uses almost entirely one type of ink, which is not only able to express many subtle changes, but also possess intense visual formal tension, causing even richer possibilities for intercourse between the real and spiritual worlds.

　　Introducing Chinese Ink Art to an international audience, especially a Western audience is a kind of work rich with spiritual adventure. In many famous Western museums classical forms of Chinese Ink Art works are displayed and these perhaps have fixed the western public’s understanding of Chinese painting. In staging this kind of exhibition the organizers’ great efforts have been in order to introduce to the western public Chinese Ink Painting as a contemporary art with vitality and force, and they look forward to the exhibition opening a dialogue and communication. In the process of the globalization of culture, carrying one’s own cultural identity in artistic style is the way for the global and the local to connect and manifest as transformation and breakthrough, which is perhaps an interesting theme.

来源：雅昌艺术网 作者：范迪安