当代的青年画家，远未经历过他们的父兄辈所经历的人生磨难，但普遍比他们的父兄们更热衷于表现心灵的苦难，这里有真实，但肯定也有不真实。或许有的人误以为表现生活、表现欢乐则不能免俗而难有个性吧，闫博却恰恰从这里切入发现了真实的个性。
　　他喜欢马蒂斯的艺术，但马蒂斯对他最重要的影响不在形而在神髓，马蒂斯对现实生活的乐观态度和对美好事物的满腔热情激起了他的强烈共鸣，对于一窝蜂地玩深沉、玩痛苦、玩批判性、玩泼皮，特别是对大量盲从者的装腔作势，他极为反感，因此他感叹：“看美展还不如逛商店。”
　　他热爱美好的事物，但他的艺术不是“安乐椅”（马蒂斯自称），更反对媚俗，闫博喜爱齐白石的艺术，主张“表现生活”，热衷在生活的犄角旮旯发现美，借局部的局部、截景的截景来寄寓他的童趣、真趣、谐趣。
　　以童真之心关注周围的一边一角——这是他特殊的观察角度和精神追求。
　　与前期齐白石的草虫、虾蟹不同，闫博不求描绘得精微而求抒发得痛快；与后期齐白石的花木大写意的取向类似，他追求油画中的大写意。在技法上他主要得益于西方的野兽主义，表现主义等画派，但他抛弃了表现主义的疾痛感和悲剧性。他的画以单纯简洁的大块结构、明快响亮的色彩对比、奔放有力的笔触运动，构成了一曲曲欢快的摇滚。看他的画，有如置身于灿烂的阳光之下。难得在于，结构单纯简洁但不空洞、色彩明快响亮但不艳俗、运笔奔放有力但不失控。
　　闫博画中的布色有很强的平面装饰感，这或许受益于马蒂斯，但他不喜欢以形式美的眼光去处理装饰感，装饰感在他的画中仅仅是强化色彩节奏力度的手段，他总是用丰富的色彩和有力的笔触去抵制矫饰化，以强化心灵表达的真实性和生活感受的直接性。
　　他对自己并不满足，探索和创作欲望极强，这正是希望之所在，他发现了属于他自己的艺术天地，在这里他活得那么真实、那么自由、那么自信，这一点是最重要的。
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Preface
Liu Xiaochun
　　The young artists today, though not experiencing any hardship that their parents had undergone, are much fond of expressing the sufferings that their souls feel than their elders. Some of them may be true, some of course not. Perhaps someone thinks that it is not a way of expressing personality but vulgarity if just to depict life and joy. So it is here that Yan Bo finds his own true life and personality.
　　He likes Matisse and he is influenced most by Matisse, not in terms of forms, but in terms of spirit. He is strongly inspired by the optimistic attitude to life and the enthusiasm for the positive aspect of life that Matisse has. So he is quite unsympathetic to those artists who just follow suit pretending to be sad or critical or cynical. He says: “it is no much better to visit such exhibitions than to show around the department stores”.
　　Yan Bo is fond of beautiful things, but his art is not “fauteuil” (Matisse’s phrase). He opposes kitsch. He loves Qi Baishi’art (a great Chinese artist in the 20th century, very influential and popular with his themes from life, such as flower, lobster, grapes, vines, birds, katydid, and etc.) and his statement of “expressing life”. He likes to find out beauty in anyplace in daily life, then depict one part of them or select one corner of them to show his innocence and simplicity and humor.
　　He uses his innocent eyes to look around himself – this is his special perspective and his pursuit.
　　In contrast with Qi Baishi’s early works such as grass, birds, shrimps and crabs, Yan Bo makes efforts to express himself thoroughly not depict something in detail; in comparison to Qi Baishi’s late works such as flowers and trees depicted at will, Yan likes to create something that is depicted with free strokes in oil. Technically, he has benefited from Fauvism, Expressionism, and so on, but he gets rid of the sad side of Expressionism. His paintings feature simple large structure, bright color contrast, and animating strokes, so forming happy melodies of rock-n-roll. Encountering his paintings seem surrounded by the shinny sunlight. It is worth mentioning that the construction is simple but not empty, color bright but not vulgar, and strokes strong but under control.
　　In Yan Bo’s paintings there is a strong sense of plain decoration, which may be derived from Matisse, but he does not like to handle such decoration only by way of forms. It is only a means to stress the rhythm of colors, he always resists mannerism by rich colors and strong strokes in order to express reality and feelings directly.
　　He is not satisfied with himself and has an unfailing desire for exploration and creation. This is what hope lies in and he has found what belongs to him. Thus, he lives true, free, and confident, that is very crucial.

作者：刘骁纯