王文生的画有一种淡淡的雅致，没有强烈的色彩对比，也没有强烈的黑白对比，各种层次都拉得很近，像惠斯勒的绘画标题“灰色的和谐”。颜色用得很淡，却不灰暗，因为他在淡色中运用了补色，浅淡中的颜色却是十分响亮，好像在平凡的生活场景中罩上一片阳光，在阳光的照耀下，一切事物都显得明亮而浅淡，即使是投影，也反射着天光，用补色衬托着亮部，形成漂亮的色域。王文生对于色彩世界有自己的理解，他追求色彩与心境的对应，不刻意表现某种色彩的公式。他用笔非常轻松，几乎没有塑造，在笔触与笔触之间还留下一些白点，在画面上显得很跳跃，这使人想到他画画是不收拾的，一遍完成，保留那种最单纯和直接的状态。对于一个成熟的画家来说，做到这一点很不容易，我们都是学院训练出来的，笔触是为塑造服务，越是熟练的笔触，越作用于塑造，笔触也失去了独立的价值。可能王文生从来就没有达到过学院所要求的塑造，有限地保留了笔触的自由，原来是缺点的东西现在成了优点，笔触不服务于形象的时候，总是把艺术家的个性和情感留在笔触上，这就是所谓手性，手性没有规则，完全是艺术家的感觉。王文生用笔就和他的颜色一样，手性和心性达成一致，朴实而率真。

　　王文生这样的画法不会去关注主题或题材，他像印象派画家一样，是要以自己的方式来表达自己对世界的观察和感受，也就是说，表现的对象是感受的媒介，一个有意义的题材和一个平凡的东西对他都是一样的，他需要的是阳光和色彩，怎样借助于这些媒介把他的绘画感觉表现出来。题材其实在他的无意识之中，在他的现实经验中，他看到阳光下的沙滩就画了沙滩，还有沙滩上的人们;他看到水面反射着波光，就画了游泳的人;同样，当室内弥漫着光线的温暖时，他就用雅致的颜色画出室内的温馨。确实是没有很重要的事情，就像非常普通的生活的视觉记录。事实上，作为艺术这是很重要的，生活中的个人把生活的经验带入艺术，而艺术的表现又是基于个人的经验，艺术家让我们感受到了生命的真实存在，走进他的天地，如同走进我们自己的生活。19世纪末期，法国的纳比派画家在一种世纪末的焦虑中营造出一个精神的港湾，那是田园牧歌已经远去，工业化的阴影正在逼近之时。王文生的画就是在这个物质化图像化的时代向人的本质和原始的一种回归。对于他来说，可能从来就没有向往过那个时代，他只是自然地存在，但这种存在就像牧歌的回声，召唤我们回归自然，虽然自然都不再自然了，只能是精神的自然。王文生的画就是一种精神的自然，这种精神不是指思想的高度，是指我们的本性、灵魂和感受，这些在他的笔端流淌的，也是我们今天日益失落的。

　　2006年12月1日

　　Nature of the Spirit--On the Paintings of Wang Wensheng

　　By Yi Ying

　　One feature of the paintings by artist Wang Wensheng is the slight elegance of some kind, free of intense color contrast, or strong white-black contrast. Different color layers and shades are painted very closely, somewhat like “Grey Harmony”, the painting title of James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). The colors are tinted thin, but not gloomy, for he uses the complementary colors in the light colors, such light colors are quite striking, as if the ordinary settings are showered in the sunlight, under which everything looks bright and light, even the projection reflects the daylight. The bright area against the complementary colors forms beautiful color fields. Wang Wensheng has his own understanding of the color world. He pursues the agreement of color and inner world, not painstakingly trying to show some color formula. Conversely, he paints with ease, almost free of any plastic creation, leaving a few white spots between brushworks, as if leaping on the pictorial surfaces. This makes us think that he seldom redoes or retraces what he does, but enjoys finishing at a time, reserving that direct and simple state. It is not easy for a mature painter. To some degree, we are all academically trained to think that the brushwork serves plastic creation. The more skillful the brushwork is, the more it influences plastic work. Therefore, the brushwork loses its liberty. Maybe Wang Wensheng has never completely lived up to the academic expectations and therefore fortunately retains some independence. The thing being a shortcoming has thus turned out to be merit. Whenever the brushwork does not serve images, it is always the artist’s individuality and feelings that are kept on the brushwork. This is what we call the sense of hand, which does not have any rules, wholly depending on the sensations of the artist. The way Wang Wensheng uses his paintbrush, just as he does his colors, is simple and forthright, with his skill and inner mind achieving an ideal agreement.

　　With his unique style, Wang Wensheng will not be concerned about any subject matter or theme. Like an Impressionist painter, he will in his own way depict his perceptions of this world, that is to say, the objects depicted are the media of his perception. A meaningful subject matter and an ordinary thing are all the same to him. What he needs is sunshine, color, and the way to depict his perception via these mediums. The subject matter is actually in his subconscious, while in his realistic experiences, he paints whatever he sees, like the sand beach and people there; when he sees the light reflected on the waves, he paints people swimming. Likewise, he paints in elegant color the warmth inside the house when it is bathed in the warm sunlight. Indeed they are quite common things, a visual record of quite ordinary lives. In fact, it is of great importance to art. The individual in life brings his life experiences into art; and art expression is based on the individual experiences. The artist thus allows us to perceive the real existence of life. Coming into the world of his paintings is just as if one comes into his or her own life. In late nineteenth century, Nabis artists in France created a spiritual harbor in an environment of anxiety near the end of the century. That is a pastoral that no longer exists, while the shadow of industrialization is looming up. Wang Wensheng’s paintings are a return to human nature and primitivism in times of materialism and imagination. He may not yearn for that era at all times, instead, he just exists very naturally. This existence as the echo of the pastoral has called us to return to nature, a nature which is no longer nature in its real sense, but a spiritual nature. The paintings themselves by Wang Wensheng are indeed a kind of spiritual nature. It does not refer to how profound our thinking is, but to our natural instinct, soul and feelings, which are shown in his paintings. Yet it is also what we lose day by day today.

　　December 1, 2006

　　Yi Ying is Professor of Art History in Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing and Chief-in-editor of World Art Journal.