王文生在中国油画界起步很早，成名也很早，在河北，他一度是许多知名的青年油画家的启蒙老师。作为一位大学教授，他完全可以在日常教学与创作中按步就班地走一条平稳的学院写实油画之路，但他显然不满足于这样的生活状态，毅然来到北京，选择了一个更具有挑战性的职业画家的创作方式。

　　去年以来，市场大潮汹涌，拍卖槌声不断，搅得许多青年画家心神不定，大批快速制作的中国符号和政治波普类作品、李希特式的黑白照片画、装嫩扮酷的青春卡通画成为市面上最为流行的产品，声势直追早些年畅销的学院写实油画。

　　在这种状态下，能够静下心来寻求自己的油画语言，深入探讨油画对当代人的精神生活价值影响的画家就显得十分珍贵。

　　王文生2005年以来的一批油画作品，显然不是追求时尚的外在压力的产物，而是在他原有的写实油画基础上的合理演进。他将自己早年对于河北乡村的风景与人物的朴实再现，逐渐转化为对油画色彩语言的研究，而在画面形象上，则逐渐转向现代城市生活，这个过程与19世纪末印象主义与后期印象派对写实主义绘画的语言转换有一种相似的内在逻辑的关联。可以这样认为，王文生正处在这一语言转换的过程之中，他的课题，在于对原有语言模式的辩证式过滤和取舍，而新的艺术语言的探讨，也将需要一个较长时间的反省和锤炼。

　　王文生的这批以海边景色与人物为主体的作品，打破了传统的人物画与风景画的分野，在自然风景的空间中表现人，具有很强的构成意味。空间的开阔与深远受到重视，远方的地平线成为画面平衡的重要因素，布局设色在单纯中追求精到。形象轮廓并不清晰，而是在色彩的渐进过渡中融入风景。画面中的人物没有明确的身份，动作自然，在阳光下舒展从容，具有很强的时代感。色彩的基调采用了比较柔和的亮灰色调，精彩的色块笔触使用的相当审慎，显示出不事铺排的朴实含蓄，在严谨的内在抽象结构中透出平和的心态。

　　在王文生的画中，无论用笔组织还是表面色层，都显得放松、自然，让我们想起大卫•霍克尼笔下的加州海滩的阳光与自由。这种放松的心态是当下社会特别是城市精英所缺乏的，也可以说，王文生的作品具有传统中国山水画那种陶冶人的心性的功能，他虽然描绘了现代城市生活的氛围，但仍然具有中国传统绘画中人在自然风景中的从容散淡。

　　在王文生的海景题材画中，强烈的立体光影造型为充满情绪气氛的平面色彩关系所取代，他在飘渺而松动的色彩笔触中把握坚实而清晰的光线。这种重叠厚涂所形成的不透光色层，不同于古典画法的多层透明罩色所形成的色调统一，而与后期印象派特别是修拉、塞尚等画家相通，更具现代油画的直接性与局部色彩的丰富对比。同时他的画面不过分追求油画光油形成的明亮与反光，而是在亚光的色彩效果中获得一种内敛的沉着。有关海水与浪花的描绘，界乎于真实与概括之间，既有油画色彩的丰富性，也有版画色调的概括性，是近年来不多见的风景探索。

　　王文生不是一个以表现社会重大主题和文学情节见长的画家，他是一个专注油画语言魅力、尊重自己的绘画感觉的抒情画家。在他的作品中，我们可以看到对巴尔蒂斯、后期印象派、毕加索等艺术大师的研究，看到他对油画历史的尊重、领悟和对油画语言变化的敏感。这使他的作品具有较多的油画文脉气息，在整体的大气概括中保持了局部细腻品味的层次与想象空间。

　　一直以来，我认为中国油画的语言史学习和研究过程远未完成，而这一进程在近十年来又由于某种海外的片面需求和中国市场的强力推动发生了扭曲，在一些青年学生中，谈论油画语言的研究，讨论油画的视觉魅力似乎是一个很古典的话题。展望中国当代油画的创作现状，我们更加感受到对中外油画传统深入研习的必要性。这不是摹仿现实的写实技术所炫耀的表面效果的完善，而是与油画语言历史的血脉相通。现代艺术同样如此，缺少深入的专业研究，无论古典写实绘画还是现代样式的“前卫”试验，都只能呈现出水分过多的苍白与空洞。

　　13年前，我在一篇有关青年画家任小林的评论中，曾谈及毕沙罗及其同时代的画家，他们对艺术有执着的追求、踏实的研究，对油画语言革新有强烈的愿望，代表着19世纪画家的理想。艺术史上，有些画家向当时的社会提出问题，另外的一些画家向艺术传统提出问题，他们都是令人尊敬的画家。现在看来，王文生应该属于后者，他为油画的魅力及其悠远丰富的历史所深深激动，渴望着学习、理解并有所贡献。较之欧洲数百年的油画发展史，中国油画还处在一个成长的阶段，有许多油画艺术的奥妙等待着中国油画家的探索。德拉克罗瓦曾经说过“观看绘画是眼睛的节日”之类的话，如果说，中国油画的发展就是目前这个样子，青年人纷纷转向以图像符号和色彩平涂为主的波普艺术，我真是觉得很可惜，我们的眼睛今后将会失去多少有意味、有品味、有内蕴的审美盛宴。一种不是为了观看和品味而只是为了想和猜的艺术，一种不是为了感动心灵而只是为了买和卖的艺术，对我们的生命有何益处?

　　以复制性影像为主的图像时代是一个对传统视觉侵蚀和挑战的时代，在这样一个时代里，绘画的成就和天职就在于抵抗世界的图像化和艺术的样式化。我希望艺术家以谦卑的姿态重新面对世界，在朴素的劳作中接近事物。只有在这种朴素的创作劳动中，我们才有望切入世俗的浮华表象，进入具有文化多样性的视觉经验的真实境界。

　　王文生的画让我们重新回到视觉，回到直观经验，这既是物理时空上的返回家园，也是人文精神的返乡之旅，在眼与手、心与物的会合中显现出创造的意志与视觉的奇异。

　　2006年12月1日

　　The Power of Simplicity

　　By Yin Shuangxi

　　Wang Wensheng started on the Chinese oil painting circle very early, and he became famous very early too. In Hebei Province, for a time he had been the abecedarian of a lot of the well-known young oil painters. As a university professor, he may well be expected to stay on the steady academic path, working on realistic painting and teaching at the same time. But obviously he is not satisfied with this state of living. He resolutely chose to come to Beijing, and thus chose what a professional painter does, which is more challenging than ever.

　　Since last year, the turbulent marketing tide surges and the constant sound of auction mallet have made many young painters so restless that a large number of paintings have been instantly made, like works of Chinese symbol and political pop art, Richter-typed black and white photograph paintings, cartoon paintings that play cool. They become what is most popular on the market nowadays, no less popular than the academic realistic paintings that were previously quite salable.

　　Under such conditions, it is very precious for an artist to be able to get down to seek one’s own painting language and probe into the influences oil paintings have upon the spiritual life and values of the contemporary people.

　　Obviously Wang Wensheng’s works since 2005 are not produced out of the external pressure to pursue fashion, but reasonably evolved on his original foundation of oil painting. He has transformed the simple reproduction of the landscape and figures in his early years into the study of canvas language, and further into modern city life on the picture images. This process has some inherent and logical connection with the language transition that happened for Impressionism and Post-Impressionism to change realism in late nineteenth century. In other words, Wang Wensheng is now under a critical stage of language transformation. His task lies in his dialectical filtering of original language modes, and the exploration of the new art language will take reflection and perfection over a long period of time.

　　Wang Wensheng’s recent works on seashore depict seaside landscape and figures as the main subjects. By breaking the boundary of the traditional figure and landscape paintings, he shows strong composition by portraying figures within the space of natural landscape. In addition, he emphasizes the vastness and profoundness of space in which the distant horizon has become the balancing factor of painting. Through the simple use of composition and color application, the outline and contour of the figures are not defined clearly but gradually merge with the landscape. The figures, with no clear identity, move or extend their limbs naturally and leisurely in the sun. Such characteristics have a strong sense of epoch. The keynote color adopts a relatively subdued bright grey color. The beautiful color blocks and the brush strokes are done with prudence, showing the simplicity and the peace of mind in the rigorous inherent abstract structure.

　　In Wang Wensheng’s paintings, both the brush stroke and the surface color layer look relaxing and natural, which reminds us of the sunshine and freedom of Californian beach in the paintings of David Hockney. And this relaxed state of mind is rare in contemporary society, especially the city elite. We can also say that the works of Wang Wensheng has its edifying function present in traditional Chinese landscape paintings. Though he depicts the atmosphere of modern urban life, he is still able to retain the ease and peace in traditional Chinese paintings.

　　In Wang Wensheng’s seascape paintings, strong stereoscopic light sculpt is replaced by plane color relations charged with emotions. He is able to manage a firm and clear beams of light in loose and misty color brushwork. This overlaying of color, one over the other, forms a color layer that light cannot penetrate. This is unlike the tone unity achieved through many layers of transparent cover color in classical paintings, but is similar to painters of Post-Impressionism like Georges Seurat and Paul Cezanne, with more contrast between directness and partial color richness. At the same time there is no unduly pursuit for brightness usually formed by canvas paint. Instead he obtains an restrained calmness in the color effects of sub-light. The depiction of seawater and waves is between truth and generalization, with both rich oil painting color and the generalization of print tone, which is a rare exploration of landscape painting in recent years.

　　Wang Wensheng’s strength is not in depicting the unusual social events or literature plots. Rather, he emphasizes the charm of painting language itself, and respects the direct sentiment of a painting. His works show his interest and study of great masters such as Balthus, Post-Impressionism and Picasso. He values the history of oil painting and comprehends the sentimental change in painting language. This enables him to render his art with more contexts of delicate taste and contemplation.

　　For a long time, I have thought that it is far from mature to study and research the course of Chinese oil painting language history. This course has been negatively influenced in recent ten years by the overseas one-sided demand and the driving force of Chinese market. To young students, it is a very stereotyped subject to talk about the research into oil painting language and its visual charm. The more we look at the situation of Chinese contemporary oil painting, the more we realize the necessity of in-depth research of the oil painting tradition both in China and in other countries. This is simply not the perfection of superficial effects achieved by the realistic technique imitating reality, but is closely connected with the history of oil painting language. It is true of modern art. Lack of deep professional research, either in classical realistic painting or in modern avant-garde experimentations, can only result in emptiness and paleness in the paintings.

　　Thirteen years ago, in a writing of mine about a young painter Ren Xiaolin, I mentioned Camille Pissarro and his contemporaries. They have persistent pursuit and steady study of art, with very strong aspirations to reform oil painting language. They represent the painter's ideal of the 19th century painters. In art history, some painters put forward questions to the society at that time; others questioned art traditions. They are all respectable painters. It seems now that Wang Wensheng should belong to the latter. Deeply fascinated by the glamour of oil painting and its long and rich history, he wishes to continue to learn, understand and contribute. Compared with the European history of oil painting development over a hundred year, Chinese oil painting is still at a stage of growth. Secrets about art await Chinese oil painters to explore. As Eugene Delacroix once said, “Looking at paintings is the festival of eyes”. If this were the situation of the development of Chinese oil painting - many young people turn to images and symbols and flat-application of pop art, I really feel regrettable how much aesthetic feast our eyes would therefore fail to enjoy. What good does it have if an artwork is not made for us to see and appreciate but simply to think and guess, if a work of art is not made to touch our heart, but only to target the market?

　　An era focusing on duplicating images erodes and challenges visual traditions, during which time the obligation of an artist is to resist the stereotype in art creation. I hope that the artist is humble and simple to confront the world again, getting close to things in sober labor. Only thus can we expect to penetrate into the flamboyance of the secular world in order to understand the diversification of visual experiences of the human world.

　　Wang Wensheng’s works allow us to return to the visual, to direct experiences, which is a trip returning home in physical space as well as in humanistic spirit. In the integration of eyes and hands, heart and objects is shown the will of ingenuity and the wonder of the visual.

　　December 1, 2006

　　Dr. Yin Shuangxi is art critic and curator, and deputy chief-in-editor of Art Research Magazine.