30周年 | 三十年前，我开始考虑开一家画廊
Red Gate Timeline Online View
识别二维码，浏览红门画廊30周年时间轴
30 Years Ago 三十年前
Author作者: Brian Wallace 布朗·华莱士
我开始面临选择，是回到澳洲，还是在北京找一个商业领域的工作(我的背景是工商管理与市场营销)，但两者对我都没有什么吸引力。值此左右为难之际，想起我在80年代后期艺术领域的经历，我开始考虑开办一家画廊。
I was faced with the decision to go home or to find a job in business in Beijing (my background is in business management and marketing), neither of which appealed to me. Facing that dilemma and based on my experience from the late 80s, I thought about opening an art gallery.
30 Years Ago 三十年前
红门画廊创办至今已经三十年了，对我们而言这是个历史性时刻。1991年开业时，谁又曾想到红门竟然能一直走到今天？回想当年，我们只是感觉当时应该是开一家画廊的好时机——这倒并非是说我们知道怎样来具体操作，甚或我们能否真正开得成这画廊。在那时，我们从未梦想过红门可以一直奋进至今。
Well! Here we are thirty years on – who would have thought in 1991 that Red Gate Gallery could have reached this historic date? We had a vision and a perception that the time was right to open an art gallery - not that we knew how to do that, or even if we could. We never dreamed then of how far it would go.
1991年7月24日，澳大利亚报纸 “The Age” 刊登红门画廊开业的整版报道。
不过在当时发展艺术，可不只是外国人主动发起的一项事业——当时中国的草根艺术界对这有强烈需求。
年轻艺术家群体并不满足于封闭隔绝、默默无闻的做法，他们的更高期望是显而易见的。这些艺术家们想将自己的创造力以及对身边正在觉醒世界的理解，展示给更为广泛的观众，包括朋友、其他艺术家、以及能够欣赏他们但还不知在何方的公众。这些年轻艺术家离开幸福安逸简单朴实的家乡，从中国各地来到首都北京。他们居住在城市的边缘地带如圆明园以及后来的通县与宋庄等，象吉普赛人一样飘泊游荡于北京艺术圈中，得不到当权艺术机构的认可支持，处于地理以及人文双重意义上的边缘地带。这样的艺术环境有时令人沮丧，又给人希望振奋人心；看似贫瘠，但又生机勃勃活力四射。
Developing the art scene back then was more than an initiative by foreigners; something much more grassroots was happening.
There was a palpable yearning by the youthful art community for more than isolated, anonymous practice. The artists wanted to show their creativity and their understanding of the awakening world around them to a wider audience of friends and artists, and an appreciative, yet unknown public. These young artists were traveling from all over the country to Beijing, leaving the blissful innocence of the provinces to wander through the Bohemian world of the Beijing art scene, literally and figuratively at the margins of the city in environs like the Old Summer Palace and later Tongxian and Songzhuang. It was an environment at once daunting, exhilarating, impoverished, but oiled with energy.
1988年 都市四艺术家 展览资料
这些艺术家中的许多人曾受教于中国最为声誉卓著的艺术学府，这是对他们天赋的充分认可。也有的只受过一般性训练，甚或干脆未受过什么艺术培训，但是他们同样具有艺术的天赋与激情。无论何种艺术家，属于他们的时代在当时尚未到来。一直到下一世纪，他们的出色洞察力与判断力才得到官方艺术界及后来社会大众的最终承认。
Many of these artists had been trained at the most prestigious academies in China, giving them the highest recognition for their talent. Others had modest training or no arts training at all, but had the gift and the passion. Either way, their time was yet to come: only in the next century were their insights and critical eye finally recognised, first by the establishment and later by society at large.
上世纪80年代处于萌芽状态的商业性现代艺术景观中，还包括首创性的北京音乐厅画廊－就我们所理解的专业性商业运作的画廊而言，80年代还没有其它画廊可比。这反映了那时社会与商业中的单调与贫乏——那是一张等待浓墨重彩来涂抹的白色画布。
Meanwhile, the nascent commercial contemporary art scene of the 1980s was comprised of the pioneering Concert Hall Gallery - in the 80’s there were no other galleries, as we understand a professional commercial art gallery scene to be. This reflected the austere palette of society and business at that time – it was a bare canvas waiting to be painted.
整个80年代，现代艺术的持续发展渗透逐渐为人感知，并在1989年中国美术馆举办的“中国现代艺术——禁止掉头”这一关键性大展中达到高峰。此次展览被称誉为中国现代艺术的新纪元，由于充斥着行为艺术的枪击声与炸弹威胁，这次活动引起巨大轰动而又恶名昭著，预示了艺术发展的一个大逆转。接下来的两年是觉醒与反思时期。现实的冲击令人清醒，沉重打击了在文革过后的田园诗生活中长大的年轻艺术家们。即使可以，他们也很少尝试去展出作品－何况这也并不现实。相反，他们在作其它事情－出国去留学，工作，或者离去，或组织家庭，或者有了新的兴趣——这是一个艺术界作出巨大调整的时期。
During the 80s the contemporary art scene continued to percolate, and culminated in the pivotal China Avant-Garde No U-Turn exhibition at the National Art Gallery of China (Meishuguan) in February 1989. Honestly hailed as recognising the new era of contemporary art in China, this notorious blockbuster - replete with gun shots and a bomb threat – prefigured a major reversal for the art scene. The ensuing two years were a period of disenchantment and reflection. A sobering shaft of reality had hit the young artists, who had grown up in the post-Cultural Revolution idyll. There was little attempt by these artists to exhibit, even if they could. They did other things: they moved overseas to study, or work, or to get away, had families, or pursued new interests – it was a time of great adjustment.
1989年 北京现代艺术沙龙·水墨画展 请柬
我也同样作了调整。那时我到中国已经3年，并不想离开。1989到1990年间，我在外文出版社工作。之后于1990年我决定去北京的中央美术学院学习中国艺术史，参加了为期一年的联接性课程。与来自全国的艺术家同学与老师一起，在9个月多一点的时间中，我们一张张地学习幻灯片，覆盖了长达五千年的中国艺术史。对我来说，这是一次中国艺术广泛领域的惊人概览，包涵了书法、绘画、雕塑、陶瓷器、青铜器、雕刻、家具、建筑、园林艺术等。
学习结束时，我到中国已经转瞬五载了。这时我的奖学金已经停止，积蓄也已花完，我一直在《远东经济评论》从事的兼职工作也无法永久持续。我开始面临选择，是回到澳洲，还是在北京找一个商业领域的工作(我的背景是工商管理与市场营销)，但两者对我都没有什么吸引力。值此左右为难之际，想起我在80年代后期艺术领域的经历，我开始考虑开办一家画廊。
I adjusted as well. I had been in China for three years and was not ready to leave. From 1989 - 90, I worked at the Foreign Language Press, and then in 1990 made the decision to go to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing to study Chinese art history, participating in a one-year bridging course. Along with students who were artists, researchers and teachers from all over the country, we covered 5,000 years of art history, slide by slide, in little over nine months. For me it was a breathtaking introduction to the broad range of the Chinese arts – calligraphy, painting, sculpture, ceramics, bronzes, porcelains, carvings, furniture, architecture, gardens.
Within a flash, I had been in China for five years. My scholarships were gone, the savings were depleted, and the part-time job at the Far Eastern Economic Review I had had all along was not going to last forever. I was faced with the decision to go home or to find a job in business in Beijing (my background is in business management and marketing), neither of which appealed to me. Facing that dilemma and based on my experience from the late 80s, I thought about opening an art gallery.
Memory before 1991
1991年前的记忆
01
圆明园艺术家作品陈列室简介
02
1989年的艺术家展览宣传物
03
1989年 中国现代艺术展 开幕现场 幻灯片
04
1989年在智化寺举办的艺术活动请柬
05
1990年 轮 青年艺术展 请柬
05
1991年《初生的太阳》苏新平作品幻灯片
05
1991年 布朗受聘为北京古观象台艺术咨询
图片来源：红门画廊
左右滑动，查看更多
节选自《到角楼去 红门画廊与中国当代艺术》 ISBN 978-988-99266-8-7
有部分删减
红门画廊
红门画廊Red Gate Gallery由澳大利亚籍人士布朗·华莱士Brian Wallace创办于1991年，是中国最早经营当代艺术的外资画廊。三十年来，红门画廊始终致力于中国当代艺术推广和国际艺术联络。邀请国际、国内知名策划人在红门画廊策划当代艺术活动，进行高水平的学术交流，向中国观众介绍国内外当代艺术，为中国当代艺术的发展以及中西方的艺术交流做出了巨大的贡献。
图片来源为红门画廊
版权归红门画廊和艺术家所有
Images courtesy of Red Gate Gallery
Copyright Red Gate Gallery and the artists
Red Gate Gallery @ 798
更多媒体资料，请联系
brian@redgategallery.com
For more information, please contact
brian@redgategallery.com
Directions to Red Gate Gallery
地图索引
Copyright © 2021 Red Gate Gallery, All rights reserved.
Tel | 电话 : (86) 10 5762 3032
Email | 邮箱 : brian@redgategallery.com
Address: 798 Art District, No. 2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
地址 : 北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路2号, 798艺术区