眼观心绘:魏根生作品展Observe with Eye, paint with Soul - A Solo Exhibition of Wei Gensheng
策展人｜Curator
周思衡 Dio Zhou
展期｜Duration2021年10月23日 - 2021年11月17日
开幕时间｜Opening Reception2021年10月23日 15:30
地点｜Venue江苏省南京市鼓楼区凤熙路 27号27 Fengxi Road, Gulou District, Nanjing, Jiangsu
魏根生通过他的游山玩水的记忆和经验来合成充满着动能的抽象山水图。魏根生运用富有运动感和充满表现力的画法来描绘他的山水情怀。尤其是他的快速划过的急促笔触，和相较传统山水画更为大胆的用色。都让我联想到了西方的抽象表现派的琼·米谢尔，和她画有那么一些神似。观察现实世界是他们共同的艺术灵感的出发点。观察以后。两者都通过充斥着个人风格的画法来打造一幅超越我们日常认知的风景画。虽然两者的视觉表现非常神似，但是两者的创作概念的却大相径庭。不同于西方的抽象表现派画家，魏根生只想要通过个人的绘画风格来演绎一幅真实的山水画。所以，你总是可以在他的抽象山水中找到一些现实的残影，你可以看见一群牦牛，一辆吉普，船只和房子。但是对于米谢尔来说，她的关注点只在于寻找属于她自己的纯粹的艺术表达，只想去留下一幅风景的意象，并非一幅风景的写照。通向村庄 Path Leads to a Village对于中国的当代水墨画家来说，他们必须要去面对千年以来的优良传统，并在传统的语言框架下探索属于自己的绘画表达。对于那些追随西方艺术体系的画家，他们要做的是力求突破传统的界限，去做一些绝对的创新。但是，以下的这篇讨论并不是关于谁好谁坏，或者谁是更符合当代的创作语境。因为不管是中国水墨，还是当代油画，他们都要去面对他们独有的艺术史中留下的疑难杂症。对于魏根生来说，他必须要在意象和现实之间找到平衡。对于米谢尔来说，她要通过现实来描绘一幅超越现实的图像。我们不应该用“当代艺术”这个标尺来一概而论,应该用合适的语境来讨论合适的话题。因为各有各的奇思妙想，也是各有各的难处。作为一名山水画家，魏根生的高度抽象确实让人眼前一亮。你基本上看不到平常认识中的风景画。当你凑上前去观察时，画上那肆意挥洒的印记和不受拘束的图案组成了我们“认知”中的丘陵，山峰，河畔和平原。就像他的前辈一样，魏根生站在高处注视着他眼前的一切。但是不像他前辈的南派山水画，运用大量的留白来渲染平和的气氛和环境。也不像北派山水的大气和怡然自得。魏根生的山水具有一股只属于他的狠劲，画中充满了他的冲劲和激情。遁于无形之一 Becoming Ether No.1尤其是在他的手工纸系列，你更容易体会他那近乎野蛮的热情。那些纸上作品是他大胆的创新，这些纸由凹凸不平的表面构成，纸张的纤维织纹清晰可见，有些甚至有洞。当你再凑近一些，你甚至可以看见纸上的树皮。突然你会觉得这些纸张并不是单单是画画的宣纸，这些是自然的皮肤。然而，正是这些粗暴的处理和不受节制的挥洒反而增强了他的画面感。因为山和水对于魏根生来说，是一头狂野的动物，而他是一位驯兽大师。这些纸就是他的笼子，他的笔触就是他的鞭子。他尝试着把一头叫做美景的珍奇异兽抓住，驯服它，把它最让人惊叹的一面展现在我们面前。静中带动是很多中国山水画家们毕生的创作意境追求。潘天寿大师曾说过他自己的创作思路是：“静中有动，动而益静。静之，深之，远之，思接旷古而入恒久，其为至美也。” 魏根生从某种意义上来说也是潘天寿提出的静中带动的追随者。在魏根生的画中，他的动是快速笔触和粗犷的纸质，他的静是静谧的构图和诗意的景象。那些雄伟的山峰，遥远的水村，既安静又稳固，虽由神彩飞扬的笔触所描写，但是他们的本质确实不动与不变的。传统就像魏根生画中的金字塔般的大山一样，你无法去抹去他的存在，他想做的只是在一种语言框架内，把大山用另外一种画法来演绎。遁于无形之三 Becoming Ether No.3 魏根生也是一个真正的行者。他不是在旅行中，就是在准备下一场旅行的规划中。那些古代的山水画家可能会嫉妒魏根生能到处旅行的方便。魏根生也不像西方的写生画家，比如保罗塞尚。塞尚把自己的工作室带进了自然之中，把他喜欢的触手可及的圣维克多山画了一遍又一遍，自然的把自己的对环境的细致观察带入画中。当魏根生在旅行时，他就是一个纯粹的游客。当他被壮丽山河的美给感动的同时，也用美酒和美食把自己的肉体给照顾的舒舒服服的。但是，旅途的结局必然是离开，魏根生最终还是得回到自己的工作室，把美景画下来就是他记录快乐的工具。有人可能会问，那魏根生为什么不用旅行时的相片来提升他画中的细节呢。因为相片不能记录画家的面对山河时的感动和愉悦，所以他更倾向于运用自己的印象和回忆来作画。这也是因为，魏根生作为一名当代的画家，他的创作不只是图像的再现，因为精准的图像不能完全展现他作为山水画家那放荡不羁的灵魂。山腰一大屋之一 A Big House in the Middle of the Mountain No.1 Observe with Eye, Paint with Soul
Written by / Dio Zhou
Wei Gensheng uses his memory and experience during his travel to synthesis an energetic and abstract landscape. The landscapes are always painted in gestural and expressive fashion, which almost reminds you of abstract expressionism. His quick and animated brushstrokes and the experimental color palette resembles the paintings of Joan Mitchell. Both use what they see in the real world as the source of their creative inspiration. Both use their stylized visual language to depict a landscape that goes beyond what we see with our eyes. The visual presentation from both share lots of common grounds, but their concept is vastly different. Gensheng wants to depict real landscapes with his vision. Therefore, there is always a hint of reality in his painting. You can see a herd of bison, a jeep, boats, and some houses among his paintings. In terms of Joan Mitchell, she only focuses on her creative expression, only wants to leave an impression of the landscape instead of a representation. 山腰一大屋之三 A Big House in the Middle of the Mountain No.3Contemporary Chinese ink-wash painters must deal with the thousand years old exemplar tradition before them and find their expression within the framework. On the other hand, the other contemporary painters who follow western artistic philosophy should strive to break the established tradition and construct something that is about absolute originality. However, this discourse is not about who is better nor who is the way in contemporary visual art, because each path has its unique art historical issue one must wrestle with. Wei must find the balance between his vision and reality, and Mitchell must use what she sees as a source to paint a metaphysical picture. We should not only evaluate the art with one “contemporary art” metric, instead, but we should also recognize the variety of art created by each person with their contextual originality. It is because each person is facing their difficulties and they are creating something new within their understanding. The sophisticated level of abstraction in Wei’s painting will surprise you. There is almost no “real” landscape you normally perceive. When examined up front, you see the freely spilled out brushstrokes and unrestrained shapes, forming the “supposedly” hills, peaks, riverbanks, and plains. Just like the conventional landscape painting, Wei is an observer of the view before him, he stood very high and very far, carefully scan the view in front of him. However, unlike the conventional southern landscape that leaves lots of negative space, creating a pacifying atmosphere. Nor does his painting resemble the northern style which is grandiose and smoothing. Wei’s landscape feels intense, some energies and passions are specific to him within his paintings. Especially you can see those “masculine” passions carrying out from his hand-craft paper series. Those papers are an adventurous experiment of Wei Gengsheng. The paper has uneven textures, the grains of paper are visible. Some even have holes in them. If you take one step closer, you can see some tree bark flakes on the paper. Truly, this is the skin of nature, rather than a piece of refined paper. However, this kind of roughness and unruly characteristics enhance the vision of Wei Gengsheng, that nature or the landscape is like a wild and powerful beast. The paper is his cage, the brushstrokes are his whips, Wei is like a masterful beast tamer, trying to capture this awe-inspiring beast, tame it, and present its magnificence in an articulate environment. 山景音符之二 Notes of the Landscape No.2驻车敬大山之一 Stopping the CartoPay Respect to the MountainDynamism in serenity has always been the ultimate conceptual pursuit of Chinese ink wash painters for many generations. Pan Tianshou, an extraordinary master who explored and innovated Chinese ink-wash painting scene, once proposed that: “seek serenity in the mood with vigorous atmosphere, it is because serenity create a sense of tranquility, depth, and remoteness that connects the past with now, which eventually becomes eternity and that is where ultimate beauty lies.” Wei might as well be the follower of such ideas, but the path he took, did not devotedly follow what Pan proposed. As we can see in his painting, Dynamism is the brushstrokes and the materiality of his paintings. The serenity is his subtle composition and poetic subject matter. The gigantic mountains, the distant village, the motionless rivers are quiet and steady. They are portrayed with an energetic and expressive brushstroke, but they will not change, nor will they move. The pyramid-like mountain is the symbolic representation of traditions and histories of ink wash painting Wei is dealing with, he cannot simply ignore it, but he can try to repaint it in the way he prefers within the “appropriate” frameworks. 山景音符之一 Notes of the Landscape No.1狗狗随我而来 Dog who Followed MeWei truly is a wanderer of the earth. He is either planning to go somewhere or on his way somewhere. Wei does not paint like western painter, such as Paul Ceazane who took his studio into nature and painted the same mountain Sainte Victoire repeatedly out of love and accessibility. Therefore,Cezanne will naturally input his detailed observation of the environment into his painting. During Wei’s travel, he was truly a “tourist”, he is being amazed and overwhelmed at that moment of sightseeing, indulge himself in the endless joy of eating and drinking like a man of flesh. There is always an end to any journey, Wei in the end must return to his home studio. Painting the scene is his tool to records his happiness. One could argue that Wei could work with the digital image he had captured during his time to enhance the details in his painting. However, photos cannot fully capture his excitement and euphoria. Therefore, he prefers to work with his memories and impressions. It is because Wei as a contemporary painter. His creative practice has gone beyond mere image representation. He is more interested in the depiction of his liberty soul.山底一村 Village at the Bottom of the Mountian牦牛与大山 Bisons and the Mountians参考资料：
Harvey, Ben. “Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire (Article).” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, 2014, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/modernity-ap/a/czanne-mont-sainte-victoire.
Keny, Tara. “Joan Mitchell: Moma.” The Museum of Modern Art, 2018, https://www.moma.org/artists/4026.
潘天寿。墨韵国风：潘天寿艺术回顾展 Revitalising the Glorious Tradition: The Retrospective. 康乐及文化事务属, 2011. 126页.
王 维. “魏根生: 唐人诗意新演绎_王维.” 搜狐, 6 Apr. 2021, https://www.sohu.com/a/459280704_120051866.
“魏根生：真正的行者_作品展.” 搜狐, 30 Jan. 2020, https://www.sohu.com/a/369717365_301394.
“魏根生｜疫情下的艺术行旅.” 网易首页, 1 July 2021, https://www.163.com/dy/article/GDRH5B7H0514BJ4S.html.
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