潘剑个展《渐变》 | 江融：再造抽象表现主义
抽象表现主义自上世纪40年代在纽约发端以来，已经历了80多年历史。这个现代主义绘画运动对后世绘画产生过重大影响。那么，抽象表现主义是否有可能再造？抽象表现主义与中国文人画的“写意”是否能结合？中西合璧的绘画手法是否能为再造抽象表现主义做出贡献？潘剑绘画创作的渐变过程对上述问题给出了肯定答案。
抽象表现主义从技法上来说，深受一战之后欧洲出现的超现实主义画派影响，强调自发、自动或潜意识的创作。同时，也受到上世纪20年代俄国画家和理论家康定斯基（Wassily Kandinsky，1866-1944）关于色彩是用来表达对主题的体验，而不是用来描述客观的自然等观点的启发。虽然抽象表现主义画派的画家有不同的表现手法，但大致可以分为两种主要类型。一种是“行动绘画 “，另一种是“色域绘画”。
行动绘画的主要代表人物波洛克（Jackson Pollock, 1912-1956）围着地上的画布潜意识地用棍棒挥洒油漆并任其滴流的画风，便是典型的行动绘画。罗斯科（Mark Rothko，1903-1970）创作的色彩重叠、边缘模糊的大幅矩形色块绘画作品则是色域绘画的风格。行动绘画是艺术家将内心的创作灵感和冲动直接表达到画布上，而色域绘画是艺术家将内心的创作意念和情感通过大块的色彩来吸引观众沉思。这两种类型都是强调艺术家自发和即兴的表现手法，并注重利用抽象图像和深邃色彩的画面来调动观众体验普遍的内在情感。
潘剑的绘画渐变过程是抽象过程。他从黄昏中的城市、巨幅的海浪，到城乡结合部的垃圾，以及树林中的人物，再到漆黑的荒原、暮光中的树林、光的阴影、以及对流层的光，直到现在只有斑斓色彩的作品。他的绘画主题从较为具象的城市景观和自然景观逐步转向对光线和色彩的关注和表达，这个对主题探究过程是减法过程，也是从外在转向内心探索的过程。
他的绘画转变过程还是探索如何表现的过程。他从传统的画布油画开始，转向丙烯画和水彩画；再受宋代文人画的启发采用毛笔画油画，并用丙烯颜料与矿物质粉和阿拉伯树胶混合配成的颜料作画；直到现在采用类似于中国泼彩或拓印的方法创作。他的技法转变过程就是如何从传统手法解放出来，并进入到更加自由创作的状态过程。
潘剑在2005年左右开始的早期创作阶段，拍摄过大量海浪和落日、城乡结合部、公园和树林等自然风景及人造风景的照片，再用自己选择的色彩将现实的图像变成一个新的图像。这种借助摄影作画的手法，使得他的作品具有真实与虚构的双重性。后来，他将风景中的建筑、人物和飞机等具象的元素删除，减去更多繁琐的描述，只画树林的主题。这个时期的作品已变得相当抽象。尽管他在画树林，但他实际上是在画光线与阴影。与其说他在画树林，不如说他在画他对树林的印象，或者说是他在画自己内心情绪和心理感受。
从潘剑的绘画作品能看出，他一直着迷于对光影和颜色的探索。他曾对法国抽象艺术、观念艺术和行为艺术开拓者伊夫·克莱因（Yves Klein，1928-1962）独创的克莱因蓝情有独钟，但他一开始便将作品的光线压暗，因此，他的早期作品有暗蓝的海浪，昏黄的荒野和朦胧紫色的树林，反映出他当时对前途无望和内心忧郁的情绪。
2010年，他开始对作品颜色做减法，将颜色控制在黑白两色，并且愈来愈暗，以至于观者需要在他的作品前驻足凝神观看，才能看清画面中隐约存在的树木和小路。这种绘画的效果不仅反映了画家当时被黑暗笼罩的心情，而且他希望，这种凝视能使得观者在单独面对他的作品时产生情绪和心理上的变化，他认为，从视觉到情绪再到心理的变化是有缝隙的。
潘剑从2012年开始更加关心绘画语言本身。这个时期作品实际上更多是受到中国文人画的影响。文人画的“写意”讲求笔墨情趣，强调形似神韵，并重视书法、诗歌和篆刻等修养，以及画中意境的表达。因此是“抽象”，也是“表现主义”，与追求通过非具象的色彩或线条自发即兴表达自我情感的“抽象表现主义”有内在的相似性。潘剑通过研究文人画和练习书法而受启发，放弃方形的油画笔，采用毛笔画油画，使得这个时期的作品有水墨画的意境，却也是利用中西合璧的手法再造抽象表现主义的成功尝试。
至暗的时刻总是能出现光明。当潘剑的画进入到最黑暗的绝境时，公园中的一辆汽车的灯光给他带来了启发。2016年，他开始在黎明前用白色的画布当作背景，拍摄灯光下的树影，之后画灰白背景的树影。毛笔所画的树影非常细腻、灵动。除了舞动的树影之外，灰白颜色的画面已经近乎单色画的效果。同时，他开始尝试采用泼洒金属粉、云母粉或将油彩与丙烯混合等综合手段作画，通过对图像和颜色的双重减法，他的作品逐步更加接近他所要表达的内心世界情景。
2018年之后，潘剑采用自己调制的一种类似于克莱因蓝的颜色进行创作，他认为这种蓝色符合他设想的画面气质，而且，他希望用一种神秘的色彩来表达对现实世界的认识。同时，他也继续对 “光”和“影”的关系进行研究。他开始学习摄影术发明初期便出现的蓝晒法工艺。这种工艺是将铁化合物涂在纸上之后在阳光下可以曝光显影。英国植物学家和摄影家安娜·阿特金斯（Anna Atkins，1799-1871）曾经用这种方法将藻类植物标本放在涂有这种化合物的纸上显影制作了物影摄影作品。这种工艺所呈现的蓝色与克莱因蓝相似。
潘剑也借鉴蓝晒法的工艺，将一堆树枝和树叶放在画布上，喷上颜料后再将这些树枝和叶子拿掉，这样能产生不真实的树影。之后，他再顺从物影的偶然肌理，使用拓印或其他手段处理这些物影，使之变化并显得必然，由此产生了一个蓝色系列作品。他在创作这组作品时几乎不采用画笔，而是借用西方的蓝晒法和中国拓印方式来产生神秘的色彩和图案。他采用这种中西合璧的综合手法作画，与泼墨画和抽象表现主义的“行为绘画”手法有异曲同工之妙。
2020年疫情暴发后，他开始思考，当一个病毒能让世界停摆，艺术家能做什么的问题？他试着改变观看世界和绘画的方法，结果改变原先的创作方法。他开始预设作品处理工序和最终效果，但尽量不显现这些埋伏在画面之下的处理手法。他还从现实世界摄取颜色来创造虚拟的图像世界，借用雨后树叶的绿色，以及夜晚立交桥上霓虹灯带的魔幻色彩，并继续使用综合方法作画。
他的这组作品还采用了日本浮世绘色彩的一些元素，使得他的最新作品色彩有了明显变化。除了蓝色和紫色之外，还出现了桃红、柠檬黄、苹果绿等丰富而又细腻的色彩，而且色彩对比和反差强烈。同时，他采用消毒液等手段腐蚀和刮擦不同的色层，使得底色与后来添加的颜色之间产生交错的关系和空间感，并使得画面边缘出现了如闪电的电磁波图案，仿佛作品中的色彩来自于闪电电磁波所产生的各种颜色。他称该系列作品为 “闪电的边缘” 。该系列作品已不再出现树叶等具体形状，真正放弃了具象的描绘而集中在颜色所能产生的联想，其效果更能触及内心精神世界的问题。
从潘剑在过去十几年的创作转变过程来看，他从一开始便选择非主流的边缘状态，他没有跟随许多中国当代艺术家所采用的影像、装置或其他新媒介进行创作，而是坚持探索绘画媒介的可能性。中国当代艺术从”星星画派”开始，经历了“八五新潮”之后的“政治波普”、“玩世现实主义”和“艳俗艺术”等与批判现实社会和政治密切相关的流派。这些流派的作品绝大多数是具象的。虽然中国艺术家一直有对抽象艺术进行尝试，但中国当代艺术主流的“图像式”绘画排斥抽象，因此，抽象艺术一直处在边缘的状态中。
潘剑从具象绘画到抽象绘画的渐变，是选择了《圣经》上所说的“窄门”而进入到一条更加艰难的探索之路。他将绘画主题集中在对“光影”和“色彩”的表现，以期表达自己内心世界的感受，并尽量接近“绝对精神世界”。被称作“纽约画派”的抽象表现主义创始艺术家是为了寻找与上世纪30年代在美国流行的“社会写实主义”画派不同的表现手法，另外还为了回避战后美国麦卡锡主义对艺术家的审查而采用主题抽象的表现形式。该流派的代表人物罗斯科是从具象绘画开始，并逐步转变成只画两到三个不同但互补颜色组成的对称性矩形色块的巨幅抽象绘画，以便让观者有进入到他的绘画感觉，并体验他所要表达的“人类基本情感”。
克莱因也是利用纯粹的色彩来接近绝对精神。他认为，所有颜色都会引起具体的联想。蓝色最多暗示着大海和天空，因此，蓝色是没有维度的，而且是最抽象的。他希望能用蓝色吸引观众的眼睛，让他们用灵魂去观看，用想象力去解读。他断言，通过色彩，他能获得完全自由。潘剑承认，克莱因通过艺术语言表达对世界的看法对他影响很大，罗斯科用极致的绘画语言传达出的绝对精神世界也让他对绘画有了更大的想象。因此，他所要追求的“绝对精神世界”与罗斯科所要表达的“人类基本情感”和克莱因所要达到的“完全自由”的方向是一致的。
潘剑的作品注重色彩的应用。他从以蓝色为主色开始，逐步转向蓝紫色，之后简化为黑色和白色，添加了金色，又重回蓝色，再进入到现在多彩的画面。他在疫情前采用的色彩不仅反映艺术家当时创作的心境，而且，也是他想用这些色彩来改变来自现实的图像，以便营造一个陌生化的世界，希冀使自己和观者能离现实更远，离自己的内心世界更近。疫情后采用的色彩大多来自现实世界，但已经不再采用摄影所获得的现实图像作为绘画基础，而是通过各种不可复制的预设和严密的综合手段来制造一个不真实的世界。这组作品可以被认为是“行动绘画”与“色域绘画”的结合，其色彩效果是超验的，而且体现了艺术家的主体性。这组作品是对抽象表现主义的成功再造。
虽然潘剑的主要绘画媒介是来自西方的油画，而且他主要受西方画家和流派的影响，但潘剑的绘画也受到中国宋画和日本浮世绘的影响。他所追求的绘画境界与克莱因和罗斯科所要达到的艺术境界是类似的，同时，与宋代文人画家追求的归隐和出世的境界也相仿。因此，他的绘画作品是东西方绘画美学和技法的结晶。作为新生代的中国当代艺术家，潘剑仍有潜力继续将其作品的风格转变下去。如何能避免落入抽象绘画易具有过强装饰性的陷阱，而能够不断抵达绝对精神的境界，是他重新出发后需要面对的新挑战。我们将拭目以待。
Recreating Abstract Expressionism
By Jiang Rong
Abstract Expressionism has been around for over 80 years since its beginnings in New York in the 1940s. This modernist painting movement has had a significant impact on later generations of painting. So, is it possible to recreate Abstract Expressionism? Can Abstract Expressionism be combined with Chinese literati painting's "Xie Yi(freehand style)"? Can the combination of Chinese and Western painting techniques contribute to the recreation of Abstract Expressionism? The evolving process of Pan Jian's painting gives a definite answer to the above questions.
In terms of technique, Abstract Expressionism was deeply influenced by the Surrealist school of painting that emerged in Europe after World War I. Surrealism emphasized spontaneous, automatic or subconscious creation. Abstract Expressionism was also inspired by the view of the Russian painter and theorist Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) in the 1920s that color was used to express the experience of a subject matter rather than to describe objective nature. Although the painters of the Abstract Expressionist school had different methods of expression, they can be broadly divided into two main types. One is "action painting" and the other is "color field painting".
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), the main representative of action painting, subconsciously swiped paint with a stick around a canvas on the floor and let it drip, which is typical of action painting. Mark Rothko's (1903-1970) large rectangular color block paintings with overlapping colors and blurred edges are in the style of color field painting. Action painting is where the artist expresses an inner creative inspiration and impulse directly onto the canvas, while color field painting is where the artist uses inner creative ideas and emotions to engage the viewer in contemplation through large blocks of color. Both types emphasize the artist's spontaneous and improvisational expression and focus on the use of abstract images and in-depth colors to mobilize the viewer to experience universal inner emotions.
Pan Jian's painting trajectory is a process of abstraction. He has changed his subject matter from cityscape at dusk and large painting of waves, to garbage in the urban fringe, and figure in the woods, and then to darkened wastelands, woods at twilight, shadows of light, and light in the troposphere. And now there are only splashes of color. The subject matter of his paintings has gradually shifted from the more figurative urban landscape and natural landscape to his attention and expression of light and color. This process of exploring the subject matter is a subtractive process, and a process of shifting from external to internal exploration.
His painting transformation process is also a process of exploring how to express. He started with traditional oil on canvas, then moved to acrylic and watercolor painting; then, inspired by the literati paintings of the Song dynasty, he adopted brush painting and used acrylic paint mixed with mineral powder and Arabic gum to paint; and now, he uses a method similar to Chinese splash painting or inscription rubbing to create his works. The process of changing his technique is how he has freed himself from traditional methods and entered into a freer creative state.
In the early stage of his creation around 2005, Pan Jian took a lot of photos of natural and man-made landscapes such as waves and sunset, urban and rural areas, parks and woods, and then used his own choice of colors to turn the real image into a new one. This technique of painting with the help of photography gives his works a duality of reality and fiction. Later, he removed the figurative elements from the landscape, such as building, figure and airplane. This way, he gave up more elaborate descriptions, and painted only the subject of the woods. The works of this period became quite abstract. Although he was painting the woods, he was actually painting light and shadows. Rather than painting the woods, he was painting his impressions of the woods, or rather his inner emotions and psychological feelings.
It is clear from Pan Jian's paintings that he has always been fascinated by the exploration of light, shadow and color. He had a fondness for the original Klein Blue created by Yves Klein (1928-1962), a pioneer of French abstract, conceptual and performance arts, but he began by darkening the light in his works, so that his early works, with their dark blue waves, dusky wilderness and hazy purple woods, reflected his hopelessness and inner melancholy at the time.
In 2010, he began to reduce the colors of his works to black and white, and they became darker and darker, so that the viewer had to stop and stare at his works to make out the trees and paths that were vaguely present in the images. The effect of this series of painting not only reflects the painter's mood of being enveloped in darkness at the time, but he also hopes that this gaze will lead to an emotional and psychological change in the viewer when confronted with his work alone. He believes that there is a possibility for a viewer to change from the visual to the emotional and then to the psychological.
Pan Jian began to be more focused on the language of painting itself in 2012. His works during this period were actually more influenced by Chinese literati paintings. The literati's "Xie Yi" emphasizes the good taste of brush and ink, the resemblance and charm, the cultivation of calligraphy, poetry and seal carving, and the expression of the artistic conception in the painting. “Xie Yi” is therefore "abstract" and "expressionism", which is intrinsically similar to "Abstract Expressionism" that pursues spontaneous improvisation through non-figurative colors or lines to express one's emotions. Inspired by his study of literati painting and his practice of calligraphy, Pan Jian abandoned the square oil brush and adopted the Chinese painting brush for oil painting, giving his works of this period the mood of ink painting. It was also a successful attempt to recreate Abstract Expressionism using a combination of Chinese and Western techniques.
There is always a silver lining at the end of tunnel. When Pan Jian's paintings reached their darkest state, he was inspired by the lights of a car in the park. And in 2016, he began to use a white canvas as a background before dawn, photographing the shadows of trees under the lights, and later painting the shadows of the trees on the gray and white background. The shadows of the trees painted by the Chinese painting brush are very delicate and animated. Except for the dancing shadows, the gray and white colors have become almost monochromatic. At the same time, he began to experiment with integrated means of painting such as splashing metallic powder, mica powder or mixing paint with acrylic. Through the double subtraction of images and colors, his works gradually came closer to the inner world scenario he wanted to express.
After 2018, Pan Jian used a color similar to Klein blue that he blended himself to create his works, which, he believed, fits the temperament of the picture he envisions, and, he hoped to use a mysterious color to express his awareness of the real world. At the same time, he continued his research on the relationship between "light" and "shadow". He began to study the process of Cyanotype, which had appeared at the beginning of the invention of photography. In this process, iron compounds are applied to paper and then exposed to sunlight to develop shadows. The British botanist and photographer Anna Atkins (1799-1871) used this process to put algal specimens on paper coated with such compound and produced photographic images. The blue color rendered by this process is similar to that of Klein blue.
Pan Jian also borrowed the process of Cyanotype by placing a pile of branches and leaves on the canvas, spraying them with paint and then removing them, which produced unrealistic shadows of the trees. Afterwards, he then followed the accidental texture of the shadows, using the method of inscription rubbing or other means to manipulate them, making them change and appear inevitable, resulting in a series of blue works. He created this series with almost no brushes but borrowed the Western Cyanotype method and Chinese inscription rubbing method to produce mysterious colors and patterns. This synthesis of Eastern and Western techniques is like combining the technique of ink painting and that of the "action painting" of Abstract Expressionism.
After the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, he began to think about what an artist could do when a virus can lock down the world. He tried to change the way he viewed the world and painting, and as a result, changed his original approach. He began to pre-determine the process and the final effect of his work and tried not to reveal the processing that lay beneath the images. He also took colors from the real world to create virtual image worlds, borrowing the green of leaves after rain and the magical colors of neon strips on overpasses at night, and continued to use an integrated approach to painting.
He also employed some elements of Japanese ukiyo-e colors, making a noticeable change in the colors of his latest works. In addition to blue and purple, rich and subtle colors such as peach red, lemon yellow and apple green appear, and there are strong color contrasts. At the same time, he used disinfectant and other means to corrode and scratch different color layers, which makes the relationship and spatial sense of interlacing between the base color and the colors added later grow. He also created patterns like electromagnetic waves of lightning at the edge of the picture, as if the colors in the work come from the various colors produced by the lightning electromagnetic waves. He called this series " Lightning’s Edge ". The series no longer features specific shapes such as leaves, truly abandoning figurative depictions and focusing on the associations that colors can produce, the effect of which is more in touch with issues of the inner spiritual world.
From the transformation of Pan Jian's work over the past decade or so, it is clear that he has chosen a non-mainstream, marginal state from the beginning. Instead of using the video, installation or other new media that many contemporary Chinese artists have adopted for their work, he persevered in exploring the possibilities of the painting medium. Starting from the “Star Painting School”, Chinese contemporary art has gone through the "Political Pop", "Cynical Realism" and "Gaudy Kitsch" that followed the " New Wave of 1985". The majority of the works of these schools are figurative. Although Chinese artists have been experimenting with abstract art, the mainstream "pictorial" painting of Chinese contemporary art rejects abstraction, and therefore abstract art has been on the periphery.
Pan Jian's gradual change from figurative to abstract painting is a choice to enter a more difficult path of exploration through what the Bible calls the "narrow door". He focused his painting themes on the expression of "light and shadow" and "color" in order to express his inner world feelings and get as close to the "absolute spiritual world" as possible. The founding artists of Abstract Expressionism, known as the "New York School," sought a different approach from the "Social Realism" school of painting that was popular in the United States in the 1930s, and also sought to avoid the censorship of artists in post-war McCarthyism in the United States. Rothko, a representative of this school, began with figurative painting and gradually transformed into large abstract paintings consisting of only two or three symmetrical rectangular blocks of different but complementary colors, in order to allow the viewer to enter into his paintings and experience the "basic human emotions" he wanted to express.
Klein also used pure color to approach the absolute spirit. He believed that all colors evoke specific associations. Blue suggests at most the sea and the sky, and therefore has no dimensions and is the most abstract. He hoped to captivate the viewer's eyes with blue so that they can view it with their souls and interpret it with their imaginations. Through color, he asserted, he could achieve absolute freedom. Pan Jian admits that Klein's view of the world expressed through the language of art has greatly influenced him, and the absolute spiritual world conveyed by Rothko in the language of extreme painting has also allowed him to imagine painting in a greater way. Therefore, the "absolute spiritual world" he seeks is consistent with the "basic human emotions" Rothko wanted to express and the "absolute freedom" Klein wanted to achieve.
Pan Jian's works focus on the application of color. He started with blue as the main color, gradually shifted to blue and purple, then simplified to black and white, added gold, returned to blue, and then moved to the current colorful images. The colors he used before the pandemic not only reflect the artist's state of mind at the time of creation, but also his desire to use them to alter images from reality in order to create a defamiliarized world, hoping to bring himself and the viewer further away from reality and closer to his inner world. The colors used after the pandemic are mostly from the real world, and he no longer used the real images obtained from photography as the basis of painting, Instead, he created an unreal world through various unrepeatable, pre-determined and tightly integrated means. This group of works can be regarded as a combination of "action painting" and "color field painting", whose color effect is transcendental and reflects the artist's subjectivity. It was a successful recreation of Abstract Expressionism.
Although Pan Jian's main medium is oil painting from the West, and he is mainly influenced by Western painters and schools, his paintings are also influenced by Chinese painting of the Song dynasty and Japanese ukiyo-e. The realm of painting he pursues is similar to the artistic realm that Klein and Rothko sought to achieve, as well as the realm of reclusion and transcendence that the literati painters of the Song dynasty sought. Therefore, his paintings are the crystallization of the aesthetics and techniques of Eastern and Western paintings. As a new generation of contemporary Chinese artist, Pan Jian still has the potential to continue to transform the style of his works. How to avoid falling into the trap of abstract painting's tendency to be overly decorative, and to keep reaching the realm of absolute spirituality, is the new challenge he needs to face after starting anew. We will wait and see.
作者介绍
江融，获纽约市立大学政治学硕士学位，曾在纽约国际摄影中心进修；出版过《摄影的力量》著作和斯蒂芬•肖尔《照片的本质》译著；曾担任《中国摄影》杂志《面对面》和《摄影2.0》专栏主持，并为《摄影世界》杂志主持《世界当代摄影家影廊》专栏；曾在国内外美术馆举办过多次摄影个展；2007年为平遥国际摄影节策划主持首届国际摄影高端论坛；2009年获中国摄影金像奖（理论和评论类）；2011年担任连州国际摄影年展策展人；2017年起主编世界当代摄影大师成名作丛书；2018年担任纽约华美协进会举办的《山艺术》摄影展策展人；2020年担任美国露西奖基金会国际摄影大赛评委；现任联合国展览委员会委员和中国国家艺术基金会专家库摄影类专家。
Jiang Rong has earned a Master Degree in Political Science from the City University of New York, and studied at ICP School in New York. He has published an interview book entitled “The Power of Photography” and translated Stephen Shore’s “The Nature of Photographs” into Chinese. He has been a contributing writer for the Chinese Photography magazine and Photo World magazine in China. He has held solo exhibitions in many venues both in the US and in China. In 2007, he organized a high-level international forum on photography for the Pingyao International Photography Festival. In 2009, he won the Golden Figure Award for Best Photographic Critic in China. In 2011, he served as a curator of the Lianzhou Foto Festival. Since 2017, he has been the Chief Editor of “the Breakthrough Monographs of the World Contemporary Photographers” published by Zhejiang Photographic Press. In 2018, he was part of the curatorial team of the exhibition “The Art of Mountains” held at the China Institute in New York. In 2020, he was a jury member of the International Photographic Award of the Lucie Foundation in the United States. He is now serving as a member of the United Nations Exhibition Committee and a photographic expert of the National Fine Arts Foundation in China.
当前展览
开放时间：周二至周日 10:00 - 18:00 (17:00 停止入场)
票价：60 元Exhibition on view: EvolutionDates: June 5, 2021 - July 4, 2021Open Hours: Tues - Sun, 10 am - 6 pm (Stop entry at 5 pm)Tickets: 60 CNY
开放时间：周二至周日 10:00 - 18:00 (17:00 停止入场)
票价：68 元Exhibition on view: About Body ShamingDates: May 14, 2021 - June 14, 2021Open Hours: Tues - Sun, 10 am - 6 pm (Stop entry at 5 pm)Tickets: 68 CNY