在激情与沉思之间
——观刘骐鸣的油画
吴永强
刘骐鸣的油画创作呈现了一个在梦想中惊厥、在放浪中沉浸、在秩序中被放逐的世界。观其前后作品，它们不仅提供了一位艺术家成长过程的记录，也提供了在特定历史语境下中国人的生存文献。
上世纪90年代初，刘骐鸣考入四川美术学院，有幸成为张晓刚、叶永青、王林等杰出画家和批评家的弟子。对艺术天性的敏感、才俊名师的点拨、川美开放的艺术氛围，使他在初涉艺术生涯之时，便得以饱览多元的艺术胜景。刘骐鸣从川美老师的悉心指导和个人的勤学苦练中磨砺了艺术表现的基本功，从历史上的大师作品中领悟到艺术的原动力，从个人阅读和与师友们的讨论中了解到中国艺术已经发生的变化；而从张晓刚等一代名家的创作中，他又亲眼目睹了正在涌现的艺术新潮，觉察了探索的真谛、艺术的自由。所有这一切，开阔了他的眼界，并给予他以广收博取的机会。在川美学习的几年中，刘骐鸣尝试了多种语言和风格，将学习从一种惯常的被动过程提升为一种主动积极的尝试和探索的过程，为以后的创作生涯做了厚实的铺垫。
刘骐鸣的创作可被分为两个时期，第一个时期可称为表现主义时期；第二时期可称为观念和意象时期。不过，看了他全部的作品，我仍然觉得有理由把它们视为一个艺术整体中的两种趋势，二者虽有风格上的差异、时间上的前后之别，却并非各行其是，互不牵挂。刘骐鸣充满激情的个人气质使他倾向于表现主义，而他爱思考的习惯又使他不断试探观念穿透意象的限度。画家一直在探索将表现主义的扩张性与艺术家本能的秩序感结合的道路。从大地、身体、甚至游丝般的气息中，他体会了艺术的真实，再用这种真实来释放激情，探照人生。在他的画面中，绵密的塑造，浇铸了土地的坚实；纵放的挥写，撕裂了胸口的憋闷；轻柔的笔触，抚摸了历史的创痛；厚实的色层，呈现了生命的质感……从他的画前走过，我们冥然领悟到，什么是感性与理性、浪漫与现实的平衡。
从川美毕业后，刘骐鸣来到位于川西高原的汶川县阿坝师专工作，在远离都市的环境中，他与艺术界的喧闹保持了距离，从而得到一个机会，能够对从生活到艺术、从艺术到生活的诸多问题进行沉思默察，静心思索，开始了一次蜕变的历程。同时他也在成都建立了自己的工作室，这样经常奔波于阿坝高原与成都平原都市之间。可是，这种历程却有机体般的连贯性，而并非以断裂的节奏完成。其大学毕业前后的作品连续地显示出前期风格的特质，具有表现主义的直率与坦白：对社会的关切、个人的苦闷以及偶发的睿智……种种来不及交融的内在因素，在不联贯的语言中汹涌而出。我们看到，仿佛艺术家身体内的某种机关突然被发动，沉睡的狮子一跃而起，发出狂乱的吼叫；分明的黑白，如黑夜之中，神话中的狮子绽开了白色的鬣鬃。
来到汶川，刘骐鸣尽管经历了从学生到教师的角色转换，尽管从燠热的山城来到凉爽的高原，他的画面却依旧为灼热的激情所吞没。有一个时期，内心的沸腾甚至使他来不及对画面语言作出筛选。也许是寂寞的环境增加了他的表达愿望，而环顾周遭，却少有可倾述者，这时，画布和颜料就成了当然的表达媒介。创作于川西高原的作品《1996年10月26日夜》，标题是一个时间痕迹，而画面却是情之所至的影踪，记录了唯有在那一夜才肯出现的特殊心理状态。这使人想起了波洛克。不同之处在于，波洛克使命般地怀着创造新型艺术语言的诉求，而刘骐鸣则以自发性为宣泄激情和解决内心矛盾的出路。如果他的画面中有某种“观念”的影子，却不是关于艺术的智性的观念，而是被原生态的生命激情所融化的观念。针对当时艺术界流行的“观念艺术”这个时髦名词，他说，他希望自己的艺术是“观念化艺术”。透过他的画面，我感到尽这一个“化”字之所能而有的感性热度，正是它，沟通了生命的本原与艺术的本原。
汶川时期的黑白系列《1996年10月26日夜》、《白系列》、《黑系列》，把刘骐鸣这种自我写真的爽快发挥到淋漓尽致。后两幅作品又构成《脸谱系列》，其中，《白系列》或可作为《黑系列》的表象性结局。后一幅画带着爆裂的动感，仿佛是冷不防撕开的面具。那些看似互不相关的视觉残片，采取游弋的姿式、恐慌而暧昧的表情，有的打算沉入更深的黑暗，有的在半明半暗的灰色域中徘徊，有的如沃霍尔头上倒竖的怒发，时而远离我们，时而咄咄逼向观众……然而，所有狂乱与动荡，到了《白系列》中，刹那间获得结构，变化为面具，无声、矜持，却以异常的孤独，疏离了这陌生的世界。
刘骐鸣汶川时期的作品常以“面具”为意象，并以此为涌动的激情输入了观念的深度，这是个体在社会中必然戴有的面具。萨特说，“他人即地狱”；刘骐鸣这一时期的画却好像对我们说，“他人即面具”。——我们生活在一个四处游荡着面具的世界上！可是，不管这些面具何等严密，都藏不住与身俱来的破绽，艺术家让色彩从破绽中挤出，在面具中撕出口子，越来越大，越来越宽，任凭欲望、妒忌、贪婪暴露秘密，销毁着所谓“文明世界”的道貌岸然。
如果说，当刘骐鸣一站到空白的画布面前，“面具”的观念便已然成竹在胸，我真是难以设想这样的状态，因为其画面效果使人更愿意相信，其“眼中之竹”、“手中之竹”与“胸中之竹”（假如在他的创作中存在这种过程的话）实在难以抽刀断水，他的作画过程也就是面具之聚合、生成与瓦解的过程。在此，视觉与观念彼此诘难，相互给予，腐蚀了观念的硬度，留下了思想、激情与形象碰撞的轨迹。
对面具的撕裂和焚烧，可作为一次告别仪式，表明了刘骐鸣艺术的一次转折经历。事实上，在即将告别求学生涯的时候，他就有过一次同类性质的仪式，那是作为毕业汇报在四川美术学院举办的个人作品展，题为“轻重之见-（出）氡氚（入）”。展题看似文字游戏，实则包含了一种对艺术乃至于人的历史性处境的感想——轻与重、出与入、惰性与变化……而展出的作品看上去也颇见反差：有的一如既往地延续着表现主义的澎湃激情；有的用符号化的自嘲形象走到了玩世写实主义的边缘。它们共处一室，印证着展题中的悖论，从而通过共时性的场景，诠释了时间中连续与变化的张力，而这正是刘骐鸣创作之路得以延展、成为今天所是的秘密所在，其中深藏着毅力与决断的辩证法。出现在这次展览中的玩世写实主义的作品以《合影留恋系列》为代表，那并排假笑的人物，把学生时代行将结束时的复杂心情表现得苦涩而无奈，玩笑的表面掩饰不住一种哈姆雷特式的自诘——是出？还是入？《吃系列》也有类似的意匠，但亦可见视觉风格的差异——前者是干涩的，后者是膨胀的——在更微妙层面上，显示了刘骐鸣艺术的不变与变。
另一方面，面对藏羌高原尴尬的宗教文化缺失与体制桎梏的无奈，2000年，当他经历了五年的调离申请失败后，最后以“三不要”离开阿坝师专。刘骐鸣告别了汶川，回到家乡绵阳，任教于西南科技大学，不久，再一次出走，只身赴京，作为一位自由艺术家加入了北漂的行列。这也许是他生活中一次更彻底的告别。经过一段时间的等待，我们终于再度有机会看到其创作的新面貌。如果说，深刻在激情下面必有理性的沃土作为支撑，那么，在刘骐鸣的艺术中，我看到的正是这样一种情况。随着年龄渐长，与情感平衡的理性结出了自然的果实。这时，对人的命运富有历史感的沉思更多地占据了他的绘画世界。在近两年来他的那些尺幅平常的画面中，我们邂逅了某种不平常的记忆。这是中国人集体的记忆，早已尘封在心，今天，被刘骐鸣以个性化的艺术方式打开了。灰蒙蒙的调子，裹住了我们的观看；空旷的背景，又助我们寂寞。在看与被看之间，在现实与过去之间，在遗忘与记忆之间，好似雨雾弥漫，云层涌动，使我们看不真切，却被粗暴地裹胁。那旷茫的云端，孤立了权力的图像。然而，图章般的色彩却足以穿透时间，嘲弄健忘，一再锁住我们的命运。
观看这些北漂时期的刘骐鸣作品，我们会突然置身于一种被悬置的状态，感到无依无靠。艺术家用空旷的构图和散落在遗忘与记忆之间的片段，构成超现实的情境，记录了一个个内省时刻的梦魇，在陌生与熟悉之间，使我们痛感“被抛”的无奈。
在呈系列化而不断蔓延的茫远的天空与灰色的云层中，枯枝、红绳、红旗、红领巾、红内裤、古老而常新的城门……影影绰绰，魅影般地闪现着记忆的残片，仿佛努力遗忘又不断想起。浮动和翻滚的云层，就像难以释放的悲哀，越来越潮湿，越来越沉重。刘骐鸣说，他“喜欢以一种远距离静观的方式记录”，然而，当他从岁月流过的地方开启心扉，我们却看到，死寂和空旷将人与跟人相伴随的物悬挂起来，地平线被推远了，从而放大了孤独，使人顿生忧惧、迷茫和面临“无限”之时才能产生的绝望。我们已经分不清，这是过去还是今朝？是梦境还是现实？可是，我们却突然领悟了这块土地上众生的命运。
刘骐鸣的这些作品是婉转的，迷朦灰冷的色调、捕风捉影般的造型、水穷云起的虚实，赋予它们不可言喻的的诗意。他的画裹住了锐利的锋芒和颤慄的心情，却引起了深沉的悲怆。
刘骐鸣多样的艺术风格，并非杂乱无章，无迹可求。基于对美术史的深刻了解和对20世纪以来不断增生的视觉语汇的熟悉，在绘画语言上，他基本采取的是自由撷取、为我所用的态度，因为对他来说，只要是能够表现激情、传达思想的语言，就没有理由拒绝。至此，我领悟到，为什么刘骐鸣会对毕加索所谓“艺术没有变，变的是人们的思想”的说法倍加欣赏了。原来，他的每一次风格变化，都意味着一种思想的变化，一种观念的纵深拓展。如果说，除了激情，他的艺术还有什么不变的因素，那便是对人的尊严的呵护以及作为知识分子怀疑与批判的本能。
2008年6月于四川大学
In Between Passion and Meditation
——Watching Liu
Qiming’s paintings
Wu Yongqiang
Liu Qiming’s creating on oil painting
shows such a world,convulsions in dreams, immersion in exile，and exile in
the order. Watching his artworks of now and past, they not only provide a
record of artist’s growing up,but also provide the Chinese people living
literature in the specific historical context.
In the early 1990s, Liu Qiming was
admitted to the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, with the honour of becoming the
disciple of Zhang Xiaogang, Ye Yongqing, Wang Lin, and other distinguished artists and critics. The sensitive nature to
the art, help from famous teachers, the open atmosphere on campus, all these
factors made him enjoy the diverse art world in his early artistic career. Liu
Qiming gained careful guidance from his teachers on campus, and he was diligent
learning and practising his basics skills. He understood the driving force from
the master works in history,and from his personal reading and discussion with
the his fellow classmates and teachers he knew about the changes taking place of Chinese arts.What’s more, from the famous artists’ creating
such as Zhang Xiaogang, he also witnessed the emergence of art trends, aware of
the true meaning of the exploration, and artistic freedom. All these opened his eyes and gave him wide opportunities. Several
years learning in Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Liu Qiming tried several art languages
and styles,and he upgraded study from a passive process to a proactive process with attempt and
explorement,which created a solid base for his later art career.
Liu Qiming’s creating can be divided
into two periods.The first period can be
called expressionism phase, and the second period can be called conception and
image phase. However,after watching all his artworks, I still feel that I have
reason to view them as a whole in two
trends, although both trends are different
in style, in terms of time one is before
the other, they two don’t conflict. His passionate personal temperament makes
him be inclined to be an expressionist, and his habit of thinking makes
him try and explore concepts and break
through the limitations of images. Artists have been exploring a road to
connect expansion of expressionism and
artist’s instinctive r sense of order. From the earth, physical body, even
thread, he understands the truth of art, and then he releases real passion to
illuminate life.In his screen, thick shapes cast the solid land;unrestrained
writing tears the tedium in chest; gentle strokes touch the pain of history;
thick layers of color show the texture of life…Walking past him, we suddenly
gain the balance of emotion and reason,
romance and reality.
After graduating from Sichuan Academy
of Fine Arts, Liu Qiming volunteered to work
in Aba Teachers
College ,a plateau area in Wenchuan
County in western Sichuan, far away from the urban
environment. Maintaining a distance from the noisy art world, he gained an
opportunity to be able to contemplate and observe various issues in between art
and life,and a transformation process
began.At the same time, he established his own sdudio in chengdu, shuttling in Aba plateau and chengdu plain. However,
this course is coherent like an organisms, not being completed in fractured
rhythm. His artworks before and after his graduating from the University
displayed the characteristics of pre-style, with the candor and frankness of expressionism,concern to the society,
personal boredom and sporadic wisdom… Various internal factors which didn’t
have time to blend came out with incoherent language. We have seen, as if a
certain body organs in his body suddenly
been launched, the sleeping lion leaped high,with
screaming frenzy. Distinct black and white, the lion in the myth burst his
white mane at night.
To Wenchuan, though Liu Qiming experienced the conversion from a student to
a teacher,from heat to cool mountain plateau, his paintings were still engulfed
by the burning passion. Even in a period of time, he could not make selection of
the language for the screen due to his boiling passion. Maybe the lonely
environment increased his expression desire, though there was few people to talk
to.so, at this time, of course paint and canvas became the expression media. The
artwork ""night on October 26, 1996" was created in Plateau in
western Sichuan.The title was a time trace, however the screen was the radical
resort,it recording the special psychological state only existing in the night. This reminded people of Pollock. The difference is that Pollock
came with a mission to create new artistic language, while Liu Qiming
vented his passion and resolved his inner contradictions of spontaneously. If a
certain "concept" in his artworks,it is not on intellectual ideas of
art,a concept melted by the original passion
in life. As to the popular term in art world "concept art", he said,
he hoped that his art is " conceptionalized art." Through his painting, I do feel the
emotional heat of his words,because it is this that connect and communicate the
primitive of life and the primitive of
art.
His black-and-white series in wenchuan
like "night on October 26, 1996"
"White Series", "Black Series", portrayed his style
throughly. The latter two artworks construct "Face Series", and
"white series" can be the superficial ending of the “black series”."Black
series" seems to be masks burst by a sudden, full of dissilient movement.
Those seemingly unrelated visual tags, cruising,with panic and ambiguous
expressions, and some intend to deepen into the darkness,and some in the semi-dark-gray domain wandering, and some like the angry hair in
Vohori’s head,and some being far and near,even fiercely pointing to the
audiences… In the white series, all the
frenzy and turmoil disapper,instead of instant construction,or to say bing a mask,silent
and restrained,and the leaving loneliness
alienate this strange world.
"Mask" is the common image in
the artworks of Liu Qiming in Wenchua,and mask is endowed with conception with flowing
passion,and this is mask individual must
wear in society. Sartre said, "Hell is other people"; Liu Qiming’s
paintings in this period seem to express to us, "mask is other people."
We live in a world full of maskes loitering! However, no matter how
tight the mask is, it can’t hide its rips in born,so that he makes the
rips extruded from the colors,tearing openings in the mask,even the
openings becoming larger and larger,wider and wider.Disire jealousy and
voracity expose secrets,destroying the so-called "civilized world".
When Liu Qiming standing in front of
the blank canva, the concept "mask" is already in his mind.If so, I can’t
imagine such a state, because its effect in the painting let people willingly believe
that "views in eyes," "
views in hands "and “views in mind”(if
such a process exists in his creating)couldn’t
be divided so clearly,and the process of
his painting is a process of polymerization, forming and collapsing. Here,
vision and concept conflict and impact each other,and vision erodes the hardness
of concept, leaving the collision trace of thinking passion and image.
Tearing and burning the masks can be
viewed as a farewell ceremony, experience is a turning point in Liu Qiming ’s art
road. In fact, before he ended the time as a student in school, he had a similar ceremony, which was his
individual exhibition on his graduation in
Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, with the title "views on heavy and light -
(out) of radon tritium (in)" . The title seemed literal game, but in
reality it contained a thought about art and people’s condition in history,light
and heavy, out and in, inertia and change… The artworks on display seemed with contrast,Some
continuing the surging passion of expressionism as usual, some approaching the
edge tocynical realism with symbolized self-mockery
image. They exist in a space, confirming the paradox of the title. By the scene of synchronicity, they explain the tension of continuum and changes of the time, which is
the reason of Liu Qiming’s creating road extending and the secret of why he is
here, dialectics of perseverance and determination deep inside. "Taking
group photo nostalgia series" is the cynical realism representative in the exhibition. Those simpering people side
by side,presents the bitterness and helplessness of the complex feelings of ending
of the school times.The joke couldn’t hide a hamlet-style self-assail:being out or in? "Eat Series" has a similar meaning,
but in visional style it’s different from the former series.the former
series is dry,while this is inflatable, which
displays the stablilization and changes of Liu Qiming’s art
in a more subtle level.
On the other side,
facing the lack of religious culture in Aba
plateau and helplessness to shackles of institution system,
he experienced five years of application
leaving, but ultimately failed. At last, in 2000 he left Aba Teachers College
with the results”three-no”.Liu Qiming left Wenchuan for his home in Mianyang, being a
teacher in SouthWest University of Science and Technology.Soon after that,he went for Beijing alone, joining the ranks of
the North drift as a free artist. This is perhaps a more thorough farewell in
his life. After a period of waiting, we finally have the opportunity to
see a new look of his creating.If we say
that being profound below passion must
be the soil of reason as a support, then in the art of Liu Qiming, I see such a situation. As man growing older, reason
and emotion bear the natural fruit. At this time, meditation with a sense of
history to man’s fate occupy more in his paintings. We met some extraordinary
memory in his normal sizes paintings created
in the recent two years.The memory is
the collective memory of the Chinese
people, dust-laden in mind, and taday it is opened by Liu
Qiming with his personalized way. Tone in grey wraps our watching; the open background helps us to be lonely.
Between seeing and being seen, reality
the past,memory and oblivion, it’s like the
clouds surging, so we couldn’t see it
clearly,but we are coerced by it fiercely. The far and vage clouds isolate the images of power. However, the
seal-like colors are enough to penetrate the time, making a mockery of oblivion,
lockeing our destiny once again.
Watching these artworks of Liu Qiming during his North drift
period, we will suddenly be in a state of being suspended, helpless and unsupported.
He uses the open composition and segments
scattered in oblivion and memories construct a surreal situation, recording introspection
nightmares one by one. In between strangeness and familiarity, we are belpless
for”being abandoned”.
In the series of spreading far sky and gray clouds, deadwood, red rope, red
flag,red scarf, red underwear, ancient and often new citygate… they flash the
segments of memory vaguely,like phantom. It seems exert to forget but is
constantly remembered.The floating and rolling clouds are like sadness hard to release, becoming more and more humid,
more and more heavy. Liu Qiming said "he likes record life in a remote
observing way". However, when his experiences opened their hearts, we see
that people and the things accompanied them are sespended by silence and openness, with horizon being pushed far,which enlarge loneliness, people in fear, confusion
and despair wneh facing "unlimited". We couldn’t tell this is the past or the
current, dream or reality. However, we suddenly realize the fate of the people
on this land.
Vage clod colors, hearsay evidence-like
shapes, visual and actual conditions ever and again, all these endow artworks
of Liu Qiming unspeakable poetic. His paintings swathe sharp edges and
trembling feelings,arousing deep sadness.
The various artistic styles of Liu
Qiming is not haphazard. Based on a profound understanding of art history and
being familiar with the visual terms newly added since 20th century, in
language of painting, he adopts the basic attitude”absorb freely for my use”. Because to him, he has no reason to reject the visual
languages as long as they are able to demonstrate passion and convey ideas.Now,
I understand why Liu Qiming agree and appreciate Picasso’s so-called "Art
does not change, but and people's thinking changes". In fact, every time
his style changes means a change of thinking, a depth expansion in concept.Besides passion, what’s not changed in his art?that is care
to the human dignity and the instinct to doubt and criticize as an intellectual.
In June,2008, at Sichuan University