张帆个展评论 | 朱朱：基座的重置
Zhang Fan Ginkgo Space scene
张帆的《急就章》是一组对现在说“不”的作品，这个“不”的核心，在于他认为现在的抽象画依赖劳作量赋予意义，或者把劳作量置换成一种观念，“靠巨大的劳作量和劳作时间来完成一张作品的这种方式属于奇观式的绘画”，“理论上说，这种绘画任何人都可以完成，只需要对一个物体反复进行一种简单机械的操作就可以成就一种奇观”，这些奇观企图掩盖这样一个事实：精神性逐渐丧失，抽象画已沦为平面构成和工业设计的玩物。
仔细想一想我们身边的状况，似乎恰如他反对的那样，几乎每天都有大量的抽象作品被生产出来，它们拥有称得上精耕细作的外观和质感，特定的个人符号和图式，即使在后一方面不那么突出，但通过长期的经营，终得以在某个阶段固执地占据了我们的记忆，当那一天到来的时候，这个画家就宣告成立了——这种方法论不止在我们身边生效，也在国际通行；“僵尸形式主义”这个术语的出现，正是对那些“把基于过程的抽象画搞得如此让人难以忍受的”艺术家的明确反讽。[1]
张帆，《急就章第六组之三》，布面丙烯，200x200cmx2，2017
Zhang Fan, Improvisation No.6-3, Acrylic on canvas, 200x200cmx2, 2017
不过，仅仅说“不”是容易的，也是危险的，危险在于：当你置身于一种对立性的逻辑中，自我有可能随对立面一起缩减。将这种危险阐释得更具体一些：在你锐化社会学或艺术现象学的某些命题的同时，你的思维和表达很容易会被圈禁其中，这是一种反向的禁锢，但仍然是禁锢，它提供了对抗的激情，但并不保证一个主体进行真正的自我建构——幸而，他不只是对现在说“不”，也是在对过去的自己说“不”，并且，他赖以说“不”的基座是我们渴望赎回的传统。
对于抽象艺术，张帆曾经抱有某种现代主义式的骄傲，他早期的格子系列耽留于那种经典框架内，以追随巴尼特·纽曼、罗斯科等人的方式，通过垂直的结构和优良的质地，来体现他“对庄重，崇高，含蓄的绘画追求”。设想他一直循沿这种做法，纵然会错过一、两次抽象在中国的热潮，也可以缓慢地占据一席之地，成为重要展览或收藏拼图的一角，但是，当他的认知产生变化之后，他几乎在另启炉灶，这并非缺乏耐心的表现，也不应该被视为一幕针对他人成功的复仇剧，原因只有一个：基座的重置——他想要在中国画传统中发掘抽象的可能。
张帆，《覆盖在白色，黑色表面的灰色以及棕色的习作之二》，布面油画，400x250cm，2009
Zhang Fan, Study in Grey and Brown over White and Black Surface No.2, Oil on canvas, 400x250cm, 2009
《溪山林泉》和《水图》系列展示了他如何摒弃愉悦视觉的装饰感，向古典回溯，而《自叙帖》系列的出现，则表明他放弃了图像性的暗示，更进一步地接近北宋苏轼所倡导的“书法性的表现主义”。[2]简单地说，在最近的七、八年间，他以自我训练的方式缓慢地重演古典艺术史，对此他有过清楚的表述：我曾经说过我在作品中与宋画之间是一种半推半就的关系，我的初衷是消除形式。《溪山林泉》和《水图》这两个系列是我依照我的绘画逻辑发展出来的结果，从早期纵横交错的格子，到只有垂直结构的坚硬质感，再到我彻底消灭了画面中几何意义上的秩序，以一种被几个层次依次覆盖并留白的物理秩序来建立出另一种抽象绘画的结构，通过这几个阶段的发展，当一切直观上带有视觉符号意味的形式的消失，唯一可被感受到的就只有气息，这种气息隐约浮现和弥漫出一种五代北宋的绘画气质，所以我用了《溪山林泉》这个标题来进行代指。由于这个系列的朴素的描绘性的绘画方式还是无法尽情的言志达意，而我希望可以把所有的信息凝聚到一时一刻，把身体状态和情感状态精确的用一瞬间表达出来，所以《水图》开始有了一点点的书写方式存在。到了《采薇》和《自叙帖》，则完全是主动的使用这种书写性的绘画方式了，这个过程与中国绘画发展的逻辑也是相似的。[3]
张帆，《溪山林泉》，布面油画，150x260cm，2010
Zhang Fan, Mountains and Streams, Oil on canvas, 150x260cm, 2010
张帆，《溪山林泉》，布面油画，150x150cm，2010
Zhang Fan, Mountains and Streams, Oil on canvas, 150x150cm, 2010
这个过程慢慢地归结到“气息”（类似气韵说）以及“笔墨就是一切”上来，可谓观念性的复古。当书写性成为他的阶段性命题之后，他早期作品中整饬、华丽、工笔式的描画感和设计性消失了，代之以焦灼、粗放的写意性笔触，这在《采薇》和《自叙帖》中有着明显的体现，如果说在经历变化的整个过程中，成为一幅画的意识仍然盘踞在他的大脑中，《急就章》则是“溢而为书”，[4]要成为一张帖，这个系列的创作过程如题所示，速度极快，一张四米乘两米的大画在短短一个小时之内画完，横贯画面的成排线条摹拟了古代行草的走势，线条虽不具字形，但有着连绵起伏、一气呵成的意味，他的设想就在于线条“相互之间协调的节奏感，细节，质感，情绪，律动等等元素。这些元素都是在书写的过程中瞬间迸发出来的”。
张帆，《急就章第七组之一》，布面丙烯，160x200cm，2017
Zhang Fan, Improvisation No.7-1, Acrylic on canvas, 160x200cm, 2017
Zhang Fan, Autobiographical series of 2015 No.3, Acrylic on canvas, 150x180cm, 2015
在这样的工作方式中，劳作量被驱逐到画面之外，它不再能充当价值交换的堂皇说辞，而是恢复成应有的地位：蜷伏在画室角落里有待清除的成百上千张废品里——它属于日常的“渐修”，而被视为完成的作品则属于某种意义上的“顿悟”和到达。当然，我会试图多理解《急就章》一些，就这些被视为完成的作品而言，它们仍然属于一种高度理想化的摹拟，因为，与废品相比落差固然存在，但说到底它们还是假设了自我的更高境界，而非真的从笔墨、技艺和境界的意义上达到了某个绝对的高度，所以，它们似乎始终透出那么一种顽劣劲儿——并非真的很牢固地占据了古典主义的基座，但无疑像一种令人不安的箭头，冒着形式主义和仿生学的嫌疑，指示出传统中那些接近完美的创造物及其转化的可能。
2018年3月
[1] 引自NicholasChittenden Morgan《僵尸形式主义，1970—2016》一文，刊载于2016年12月7日Artforum中文网。
[2] 引自毕淑珍（MaggieBickford）《墨梅》（Ink Plum）第六章，江苏人民出版社2012年5月版。
[3] 引自今格空间对张帆的访谈。
[4] 引自苏轼《文与可画墨竹屏风赞》。
Resetting the Foundation
Author: Zhu Zhu
The "Improvisation" series by Zhang Fan is a collection of works that say “no” to the modern times. The basis for this rejection lies is Zhang's conviction that contemporary abstract paintings is now either relying on hard work to give meaning or substituting the concept of work for meaning. “I believe that finishing a piece of work through labor is wonderous”, “In theory, anyone can make a painting - they merely have to repeatedly apply a simple mechanical action to an object to produce such a miracle”. Such “miracles” seek to cover up the fact that spirituality has gradually been lost, and that abstract paintings have become products of graphic and industrial design.
If one looks carefully at what is happening one sees that large numbers of abstract works are being produced on a daily basis, and this is exactly what Zhang is objecting to, with the appearance and texture of refinement, distinctive personal symbols and forms (even though the latter is perhaps less obvious). After many long years of labor to perfect style and techniques, at some moment these paintings might manage to permeate our conscious, and when that day arrives, the painter is then proclaimed to be established - this isn't just the pattern in China, it is also true internationally. The term "Zombie Formalism" emerged precisely to satirize those artists "making the process-based abstract paintings so unbearable." [1]
Just saying "no" is easy. However, it might also be dangerous. The liability is that in investing oneself in the logic of opposition, one's self might become dissolved in what one is opposing (that is in the painting). More precisely, the problem can be put as follows: by exhaustively studying particular propositions in sociology or art phenomenology, one's ideas and expressions easily become confined by them. This can be seen as a sort of reversed imprisonment, but it still remains a form of imprisonment. Such an opposition feeds the passion for confrontation, but does not guarantee an artist’s legitimate self-construction. Fortunately the artist is not just saying "no" to the present, but also to his past self. Moreover, the base on which he relies to say "no" is the tradition that we long to redeem.
Once Zhang Fan was faithful to the modernist style in abstract art. Inspired by Barnett Newman and Rothko, Zhang's early grid series stays within this classic framework. This is manifest in the vertical structures and fine texture, reflecting his "solemn and sublime pursuit of painting." Had he continued in this tradition of painting, even though he might have been passed by some of the trends in abstract art in China, over time he would still have won his place and taken part in important exhibitions and collections. But when his understanding of abstract art changed, he had almost to begin again from nothing. This was neither through of lack of patience nor because he wished to revenge himself in the face of the success of other artists. His one and only catalyst was the desire to return to the fundamentals of art - he wants to discover the possibility of abstraction inherent in the tradition of Chinese paintings.
The series of "Mountains and Streams" and " Scroll of Water " demonstrates how he strives to eliminate elements that were merely visually pleasing, in order to return to tradition. While the "Improvisation" series shows his desire to abandon the implication of the imagery and to work towards Su Shi's advocacy of " expressionism of calligraphy". [2] In simple terms, over the last seven or eight years, he has gradually reinterpreted the history of traditional art in a self-trained manner. As he says:
The relationship between my works and the Song paintings is like Yin and Yang. My original intention was to eliminate the forms. The two series "Mountains and Streams" and "Hand Scroll of Water" are the result based on my philosophy of painting. From the early criss-crossing grids in paintings, to the hard texture of vertical structures, then the complete elimination of the order of geometry in the picture - building the structure of abstraction by a physical order covered by several layers and blanks in turn. Through the development of these phases, when all direct visual symbols vanish, the only thing that can be felt is the mood. This mood contains a touch of Northern Song Dynasty paintings. Therefore, I used the title of " Mountains and Streams" for the reference. Because of the simple descriptive painting methods of this series, I couldn’t express as much as I like, and I hope all the information can be distilled and have the physical and emotional state accurately expressed in a single moment, so the "Hand Scroll of Water" series began to contain a little of “writing”. In the "Picking Flowers In Reclusion" and "Improvisation" series, I entirely applied this method of “writing” in painting. The process is similar to the development of the philosophy of Chinese painting.
This process can be construed as "Qi Xi" (the theory of energy) or "stroke is everything" - this can be understood as Zhang going back to appropriate from ancient tradition. For, as soon as “writing” became the main theme of Zhang’s work, the cool descriptive and stylistic brushwork of his early works vanished to be replaced by passionate and rough strokes. This is quite obvious in the paintings "Picking Flowers In Reclusion" and “Autobiographical series”. And if throughout this metamorphosis the business of making a painting still existed in his consciousness, in the " Improvisation" series Zhang delivered himself to the “currents of emotion” [4]. The title of this series hints at the specifics of the creative process: the speed of execution was extremely fast - a four-meter by two-meter canvas completed in just an hour. The lines across the tableau mimic the movements of ancient cursive calligraphy - whilst barely resembling the shape of any Chinese character, they still appear undulating and coherent. From Zhang’s point of view, the lines endow the work with a coordinated sense of rhythm, detail, texture, emotion etc., and that such elements spontaneously emerge in the process of “writing”.
In this system of doing things, “hard work” is “banished” from the painting and can no longer be used as a substitute for intrinsic artistic worth. It must assume its rightful place: huddling in the hundreds of wasted canvases that are swept into the corner of the studio. “Hard work” belongs with daily "practice", whilst a painting deemed to be finished may be associated with a kind of "epiphany" and “arrival”. Of course, one might endeavour to understand the "Improvisation" series in a more profound manner. For the works that one considers as finished remain approximations to the ideal - compared with all the wasted paintings, the difference is apparent. After all, they correspond to an enlightened state of self, instead of reaching an absolute height in terms of brushwork, skill, or temperament. Rather than of steadfastly clinging to the basis of Classicism, they seem to consistently manifest some unruliness. No doubt they resemble a wavering arrow– at risk of falling to the side of formalism, inherent in the near perfect creation in tradition and the possibility of its transformation.
March, 2018
[1] Nicholas Chittenden Morgan: "Zombie Formalism, 1970-2016". Published in Artforum China on December 7, 2016.
[2] Maggie Bickford: “Ink Plum”, Chapter 6. Jiangsu People's Press, May 2012 edition.
[3] Zhang Fan's interview with Ginkgo Space.
[4] Su Shi: “Praise of Wen Yu Ke’s Ink Paintings of Bamboo on Screen”
GINKGO SPACE成立于2014年。通过展览、出版、驻留等多种方式，建立具有广泛影响力的开放平台，GINKGO SPACE积极参与国际当代艺术的发展进程，探索亚洲当代艺术的独特美学价值和文化身份，持续关注中国艺术家的多元创作。
GINKGO SPACE was founded in 2014. Through a range of activities including exhibitions, publications, artists’ residencies, collectors' salons and non-profit projects, Ginkgo space aims to participate in the developmental progress of international contemporary art, and to examine Asian artists’ diverse creativities in depth, actively exploring the unique aesthetic values and cultural identities in contemporary Chinese art.
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