Literati Painting? Abstract Painting?

Some Thoughts on the Art of Yan Shanchun

Lu Peng

Yan Shanchun’s is an art of cultivation, an art in which is implicit a deep respect for our own artistic history. And at the same time, this is an art that requires from us a theoretical understanding of both the ancient tradition of Chinese literati painting and the modern tradition of Western abstract art.

There is no question that literati painting represents the pinnacle of the Chinese artistic tradition. For over a millennium, the forms and themes of literati art have remained essentially unchanged, free of stylistic transformations or conceptual revolutions. Rather, the development of the literati tradition has been marked by a process of gradual and subtle evolution, at the heart of which has always been the search for and perfection of what the literati call quwei – a quality that has been translated in the West variously as artistic sensibility, inner vitality, discernment and taste. This concept of quwei is intimately linked with the literati lifestyle and its cultivation of knowledge; and it is precisely this quality that has most set literati art apart, keeping it within the purview of high or elite art. The gaze of literati art is focused on the inner life of the artist, yet at the same time it is a tradition founded on a sense of historical memory, of reverence for the past. As a result, the role assigned to individual creativity within the tradition is extremely subtle. Due to its origins in the calligraphic tradition, literati painting places far greater emphasis on brushwork than on form.  Another fundamental feature of the tradition is the creation of an aesthetic doctrine to encode literati artistic conceptions. Since these artistic conceptions derive essentially from the traditions of calligraphy and painting, if one does not possess a theoretical or connoisseurial grounding in these traditions one can never truly understand literati art or discern the subtle expressions of individuality within a painting.

Western abstract art has always been concerned primarily with what might be termed metaphysical expression. Its main developmental thrust has been in the visual embodiment of the most primordial inner emotions. Abstraction is thus an art that constantly confronts the landscape of the heart; and as such, it requires that the artist possess both a strong visuality and a deeply felt, almost uncontrollable creative impulse，

During the late 1970s Yan Shanchun studied at the China Art Academy in Hangzhou, previously known as the West Lake National Art Academy. This unusual institution was extremely progressive and yet at the same time was steeped in the literati tradition; and to this day it has maintained great pride in this combination of openness and classicism. During his time there Yan Shanchun was deeply immersed in the study of the lives, connoisseurship and art of early 20^th century literati masters such as Huang Binhong and Pan Tianshou, and extended this also to very systematic research into (and publication of an important study regarding) the entire literati tradition which was so highly revered by them. At the same time, in his artistic training Yan specialized in Western painting and became well versed in a whole range of techniques from realism to impressionism and abstraction. In his analysis of the Western-influenced painting of artists such as Lin Fengmian, Wu Dayu, Ni Yide and Guan Liang, Yan Shanchun came to the realization that the concept of quwei not only was a common ground shared by both Chinese and Western painting but also was an intrinsic quality of the art of painting itself. His solid foundation in formalist techniques combined with his deep artistic cultivation have allowed him to travel a path completely different from that of other contemporary Chinese artists: one marked by an ability to nurture and develop his painting by cultivating his knowledge.

In his recent works on canvas Yan Shanchun employs the various media and techniques of ink, acrylic and tempura to create visual remembrances of his youth spent along the shores of West Lake. Yan spent more than 24 years roaming amid that beautiful landscape and has an intimate knowledge of each nook and cranny. In the last few years, this act of remembrance has become an integral part both of Yan’s life and of his creative work. Equally, this act of remembrance, or one could also say re-visualization, is also one of the most enduring themes of Chinese literature and art; and it is this which above all imbues Chinese painting with its strong sense of history. It is also why the Chinese literati’s pursuit of elegant brushwork and an artistic mood of reflective tranquility require that the artist who creates the work and the connoisseur who ‘reads’ it simultaneously position a painting within two different contexts: the context of art history and of personal life experience.  While Yan’s remembrances/re-visualizations of West Lake are identifiably filtered through the artistic lens of painters like Huang Binhong, Pan Tianshou and Lin Fengmian, yet he has clearly developed his own independent modes of expression.

Another of Yan Shanchun’s characteristics is that he has always maintained a strong sense of equilibrium, or counterpoise: one could say he is an artist enamoured of the ‘Law of Contradiction’. In terms of form, his paintings are grounded in the principles of abstract art—yet at the same time there is always a very clear conceptual direction. In terms of expressiveness, his brushwork is both spontaneous and calligraphic, and yet always shows a quality of restraint. And stylistically speaking, while he pursues the qualities of elegance and refinement, there is also always a rough or unpolished quality, a kind of intentional awkwardness: the artist himself defines this style as ‘rough elegance’ (shengxiu). This concept of ‘rough elegance’ has never appeared before in traditional Chinese poetics or painting theory, but it is a quality we can identify in the work of Tang poet Lin Shangyin, the paintings of Yuan master Zhao Mengfu and the calligraphy of Ming artist and theorist Dong Qichang (but of course the ability to discern this quality requires that one has developed a very good eye.) In formulating his theory of art, Dong Qichang wrote that ‘a thorough grasp (shou) of technique is important in calligraphy, but one must then forget technique and seek spontaneous naturalness. A fresh conception is important in painting, but one must still have a thorough grasp of the tradition.’  I believe Dong Qichang’s concept of shou (thorough grasp or understanding) is related to Yan Shanchun’s concept of xiu (elegance), although of course Dong Qichang was speaking from the perspective of technique.

As China entered the modern era, artists looked to the West for artistic models that would help to remedy what they perceived as the stylistic stultification of Chinese traditional painting and in particular its lack of further development in terms of a formalist language. Many artists began to focus on recording scenes and narratives from ‘real life’ as a means to close the gap between the elitist world of traditional art and the rest of society. As for contemporary artists, they now tend to focus more on the fleeting realm of the senses as their main subject of expression. In theory, each of these artistic approaches has praiseworthy qualities, yet all of them tend to produce artwork that seems ungrounded and lacking in internal strength. Given this situation, Yan Shanchun’s artistic style and the creative path he has chosen to take are especially worthy of our attention and study. For his is an art that is steeped in the patina of history, but that is also moving into the future.

(Translated by Valerie C. Doran)

文人畫？抽象畫？

――關於嚴善錞繪畫藝術的思考

呂澎

這是一種有教養的藝術，一種亟待我們的藝術史認真對待的藝術。這種藝術需要我們運用古老的中國的文人繪畫和現代西方的抽象繪畫的理論來加以詮釋。

毫無疑問，文人藝術是中國傳統藝術的精華。一千多年來，它的主題並沒有太大的變化，它的形式也沒有出現過革命性的變化，它只是在一種漸漸的演進中展現著文人對於趣味的完善和追求，而這種趣味又與整個文人的生活和學養緊密地聯結在一起，並與社會大衆保持著一定距離。顯然，文人藝術作爲一種關注內心生活的藝術，它似乎更多的是基於對歷史的一種緬懷。文人藝術把個人的創造性放在一個非常細膩和微妙的位置上，它對筆法的關注更甚於對形象的創造，這是由於他們的書法傳統在起作用。另一方面，他們爲自己的藝術創造了一種意境的學說，這種學說來自他們的文學傳統。可以說，如果不熟悉他們的文學和書法傳統的人，是很難真正理解他們的藝術以及他們藝術中的個性的。

西方的抽象藝術，從一開始起就有一種形而上的思考，在不斷發展的過程中，即向熱抽象的發展過程中，它又將原始性，亦即人的最內在的一種情緒作爲表現的物件。應當說，抽象畫是一種面對內心的藝術，它需要藝術家有相當豐富的視覺閱歷、不可遏制的內在的創造衝動。

嚴善錞在70年代末就學於中國美術學院，它的前身便是西湖國立藝術院。這是一個在當時非常前衛、但同時也是一個具有文人氣質的學院，幾十年來，這種開放而又不乏古典情懷的精神，一直是這個學院引以爲傲的傳統。嚴善錞曾深入地研究過黃賓虹和潘天壽等大師們的人生、學問和藝術，乃至對他們再三致意的整個文人畫人傳統，也都做過系統的研究，並發表過富有建設性專著。同時，作爲一個西畫專業的藝術學徒，他也經歷了從寫實主義到印象派和抽象派的技術訓練。在林風眠、吳大羽、倪貽德、關良等西洋畫家的藝術風格中，他領悟到了中西繪畫的變通之處以及繪畫藝術的內在本質――趣味。堅實的造型基礎和全面的藝術修養，使他走上了一條與當代中國藝術家完全不同的創作道路：以學問養畫。

嚴善錞近期的布面畫，運用了水墨、炳烯和濕壁畫的材料和技法，用以來表現對自己的童年的視覺經驗和故鄉西湖的追憶――他在那個美麗的西子湖畔整整生活了二十四個年頭，遊邊了那裏的每一塊山石。對於年近知命的嚴善錞來說，追憶成了他生活和藝術創作中一個非常重要的部分。追憶，或者說是複現，是中國文學藝術的一個最爲永恒的主題，也正是由於這種主題不斷綿延，使中國的藝術具有了一種如前所說的歷史感。事實上，中國的文人畫中所追求的那種優雅的筆墨和恬靜的意境，都是需要創作者和欣賞者在將作品放在一種藝術史的上下文及個人的生活經驗中去創作和閱讀。當然，嚴善錞對於西湖的記憶和複現，實際上也是經過了黃賓虹、潘天壽、林風眠這些藝術大師的圖像的過濾。但是，他的表達卻有著自己的獨到之處。

嚴善錞是一個始終想在藝術上保持平衡、或者說是嗜好「矛盾律」的畫家。在形式上，他的畫面具有抽象畫的基本特質，但又具有明確的意境指向。在表現上，他是即興式和書寫式的，但又是有節制的。在格調上，他追求雅致，但又有一種生澀、拙樸之趣，用他自己的話說，就是「生秀」，即生澀而秀麗。這一概念在中國傳統的詩論和畫論中都沒有出現過，但這種趣味卻是我們常常可以從李商隱的詩、趙孟頫的畫和董其昌的書法中能感受到的，當然，識別這種趣味需要「好眼力」。董其昌在論書畫時，曾經提出過「字須熟後生，畫須生外熟」。而其中的「熟」，就與嚴善錞所談的「秀」有一定的關聯，只不過董其昌是從技術層面上來談論這一問題的。我認爲，「生秀」是中國文人藝術的至趣所在。

中國的現代藝術，一開始把注意力放在了對外部世界的觀察和描寫，試圖以此來解決中國傳統藝術在形式上停滯不前和不發達問題；後來，畫家們又開始把注意力放在對現實生活中的有趣故事的記錄和組織上，試圖以此來根本改變傳統藝術脫離生活的問題；現在，畫家們則將描寫稍縱即逝的感官世界，作爲主要表現的內容。從理論上講，這些藝術都有其令人讚歎的價值，但是，作爲一種藝術，它們缺乏一種內在的力量。因此，在這種情形下，嚴善錞的藝術風格和他的創作道路，就尤其值得我們重視和研究。他的藝術不僅具有歷史的魅力，更具有一種前瞻的動力。