外出寫生 | 埋頭畫畫

關(guān)于李珊和九九的雙個展

Drawing and drawing:

Heading out and Bending down

On dual exhibition of LI Shan and Kumi Usui

文/王凱梅

Written by Kaimei WANG

1975年的秋天，剛滿18歲的李珊跟隨著將她帶入藝術(shù)世界的大哥哥大姐姐們，從北京來到北戴河寫生，這是胡同里長大的她生平第一次見到大海。面對蔚藍的大海，李珊感覺任何文字都無法表達她激動的內(nèi)心。從隨身帶的自制小畫箱里拿出紙筆，李珊畫下了眼前海浪撞擊礁石，在她眼里像爆開的大米花兒一般白浪滔天的風景。整個1970年代，帶著畫箱外出寫生就是李珊的繪畫日常，她成為一群熱愛畫畫的年輕人秘密組織的“無名畫會”中最年幼的一員，和他們一起游蕩在北京的公園里，尋找各種機會畫山水，畫樹木，畫紅墻落日，畫白塔倒影。在一個嚴格奉行社會主義現(xiàn)實主義的人物畫為唯一美學基準的時代，風景只是革命形象的背景，李珊和她的伙伴們的外出寫生不僅代表著先鋒性，而且充滿風險性。

In the autumn of 1975, LI Shan, recently turned 18, travelled from Beijing to Beidaihe to sketch outdoors. Accompanying her were several more experienced older art enthusiasts who had introduced her to the world of art. Having grown up in Beijing’s iconic hutong, - small lane, it was the first time that LI encountered with the Pacific Ocean. Facing the blue storming sea, LI Shan found herself struck speechlessly with exhilaration. She pulled out her homemade artist’s kit and started to depict the crashing waves colliding towards the sky, which in her eyes looked like a sea of white rice popcorn. Throughout the 1970s, LI Shan cultivated a daily routine of sketching outdoors with her art kit. Later, she became the youngest member of the “No Name Group,” an underground artists group consisting of many art enthusiasts in Beijing. The members wandered through the city’s parks drawing mountains and trees, sunsets over the red walls, and reflection of the white pagoda, typical sceneries of Beijing’s parks. At the time when the only sanctioned aesthetic involved portraits painted in rigorous socialism realism style, and landscapes and nature were only relegated to the background of revolutionary images, what LI Shan and her friends did - heading out and sketching outdoors, were not only an act of avant-garde, it was also a risky gesture.

與此同時，在遠處太平洋上日本群島的東北部巖手縣的一個海邊小鎮(zhèn)上，8歲的Kumi Usui（九九）和鎮(zhèn)上的孩子們一起，每逢周末都坐在由她父親教授的書法課堂上，學寫大字。一筆一劃間，九九朦朧地感受著筆墨觸動著她的情感與認知。上初中時，一位有法國游學經(jīng)歷的美術(shù)老師啟蒙了九九的藝術(shù)興趣，到了讀高中的年齡，她就認定自己要做一名藝術(shù)家。每逢假期，她從家鄉(xiāng)坐一整天的火車到東京進藝考補習班。補習班里匯集著往年落榜的老考生，他們關(guān)于何為藝術(shù)和藝術(shù)家使命的談話，啟蒙了她對藝術(shù)家不同的人生觀的認識。1988年她被錄取到東京武藏野美術(shù)大學，成為油畫系的學生。彼時的日本藝術(shù)教育體系依舊秉承著傳授繪畫技藝的傳統(tǒng)，在學具象畫還是抽象畫的選擇中，九九選了后者。

這兩位未曾謀過面的藝術(shù)家，她們的作品在這個展覽上相遇了。

Meanwhile, in a small town on the Pacific coast in Japan’s northeast Iwate Provence, an 8-year-old girl called Kumi Usui was attending a calligraphy class taught by her father, alongside with children from near and far. For the young Kumi Usui, each brushstroke seemed to elicit a vague emotion and understanding. When she was in junior school, an art teacher returned from France enlightened her about art, by the time she entered high school, she had decided to become an artist. On each school vocation, Kumi would ride the train to Tokyo for a whole night in order to attend a cram school for art exam. Her peers at the cram school included students who had failed to pass the exam in previous years. Their conversations about art and the artist’s purpose gave Kumi a new understanding of the profession. In 1988, she was admitted to Tokyo Musashino Art University and enrolled in the Department of Oil Painting. At the time, the art education system in Japan still adhered to traditional methods of teaching techniques of painting. Presented with the option of studying either figurative or abstract painting, Kumi chose the later.

These two artists, LI Shan and Kumi Usui, who have never met each other in life, their artworks will meet for the first time in this dual exhibition.

伴隨著中國社會的變遷，“無名畫會”已經(jīng)成為中國當代藝術(shù)中獨立藝術(shù)萌芽時代的重要代表被載入史冊，李珊卻依舊持續(xù)著多年來養(yǎng)成的外出寫生的創(chuàng)作方式，只是她外出的足跡越走越遠。北極的斯巴爾德群島，南半球的新西蘭，午夜太陽，雪山浮冰，…翻閱近年來李珊的旅行手帳，隨處可以看到“坐下來畫上一張”的記錄。2019年，她又畫了一張《天壇肖像》，“記不清多少年沒有來天壇公園了...背著小畫箱溜達到祈年殿附近，找個安靜的角落開畫?！彼膶懮巡皇菍ρ矍帮L景的再現(xiàn)，她要畫的是再次看到祈年殿的感覺：平靜、喜悅，帶著一絲絲傷感，風景聯(lián)系的更是藝術(shù)家的感受。在藝術(shù)帶給人類的種種啟迪和意義中，外出寫生把藝術(shù)帶回了創(chuàng)作的原點。對于李珊，繪畫是記錄美好生活的方式，更確切地說，繪畫本身就是她的美好生活。

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Along with the development of the Chinese society, the “No Name Group” became an important milestone representing the pursuit for free spirit within the Chinese contemporary art in its very early stage and holds a significant place in art history today. LI Shan keeps on the habit of painting outdoors until today. The only difference is, she has been venturing further and further away from home — from Svalbard on the Arctic Sea, to New Zealand in South Pacific-- she has painted the midnight sun, snow-capped mountains, and floating glaciers on the icy water. Browsing through LI’s traveling notebook, you’d find remarks of “sitting down to draw” everywhere. In 2019, she painted a new Portrait of the Temple of Heaven. “I can’t remember how many years ago since I last visited the Temple of Heaven...with my little painting kit, I wandered towards the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. I found a quiet spot, and started painting,” she recalls. By that time, her painting was much more than a representation of the scene in front of her eyes. She was trying attempting to capture the feeling of seeing the Hall once more. The painting is calm and joyful, lingering with a hint of nostalgia. The scenery becomes a thread connecting the artist back to her experience. Among the gifts of enlightenment and significance that art brings to mankind, painting outdoors brings art back to its starting point. To LI, painting is a way to record the happiness in life, or to be precise, painting is LI Shan’s happy life.

幾乎就是在中國社會發(fā)生巨變，中國當代藝術(shù)開始與世界接軌的時候，九九第一次來到中國。從橫濱到神戶到上海，九九的異國旅行從一次原本有限期的休假延展為無限期的留學，再以后，愛情和人生的歸屬地。三十來年后，九九是一位說著一口流利的普通話，甚至重慶話的在中國工作生活的日本籍藝術(shù)家。以拋開束縛，不理會原因結(jié)果地埋頭畫畫的工作方式，九九創(chuàng)作了難以計數(shù)的抽象繪畫作品。紙擺在桌子上，藝術(shù)家埋下頭，用介乎日語書寫大字的抓筆方式和西方抽象繪畫的游走式樣，讓丙烯色彩占據(jù)一張張速寫本大小的紙張。這些作品，有的寥寥數(shù)筆，勾勒一些靈動的點和線；有的濃重猛烈，整張紙被一種單色涂滿再涂滿，藍色是她常常用的顏色。顯然，直覺是牽引這些幾乎處在無意識狀態(tài)下畫畫的筆，而又是什么引導直覺和無意識構(gòu)建生命的心靈工程呢？這是九九用藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作塑造她對生命本質(zhì)的思考，如何讓藝術(shù)回歸到創(chuàng)作的愉悅、動機和意義的原點。

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Just as the Chinese society went through drastic changes and Chinese contemporary art started to connect to the rest of the world, Kumi Usui visited China for the first time. From Yokohama to Kobe to Shanghai, Kumi’s tour in China extended from a time-limited planned vacation to an indefinite period of study abroad, and later, the artist would find love, and a place of belonging here. Three decades later, Kumi lives and works in China. She speaks fluent Mandarin, and even Chongqing dialect. Just as she immersed herself in practice at the cram school so many years ago, she has immersed herself in painting countless abstract works, with her head bending down, she keeps on paining regardless of the boundaries and forget about causes and results. Her technique combines the gestural brushstrokes of Japanese calligraphy and the wandering style of Western abstract painting. Acrylic paint covers sheets and sheets of sketchbook sized paper. The works are varied. Some feature a few brushstrokes, and a smattering of canny points and lines. Others are dense and passionate — covering the entire sheets with a single color, often blue. Intuition is clearly in charge here, with many brushstrokes made almost unconsciously, but what lies behind the mental engineering that guides one’s intuition and instinct? This is the question that Kumi Usui meditates upon in her artistic practice -- the essence of life, and how to create art that returns to the origin of joy, motivation, and meaning.

風景是李珊外出寫生的對象，而表達內(nèi)心的風景又何嘗不是九九繪畫的初衷？兩位藝術(shù)家，從不同的角度和方式回歸藝術(shù)的起源點，再現(xiàn)自然和想象風景。約翰·伯格說，畫家的視野總是被他們度過童年和少年的地方深深影響著，就如泰晤士河對于透納，勒阿弗爾對于莫奈，庫爾貝終生都在返回他出生長大的汝阿山脈。無論李珊外出寫生的腳步走得多遠，上世紀70年代北京的公園投射的明媚愉悅總是李珊繪畫中透出來的精神氣；而九九的畫中常常出現(xiàn)的幽深的藍，清亮的藍和寫大字一樣的線條，不斷把她帶回太平洋邊小時候的家。盡管她鐘愛重慶的麻辣火鍋，她也在畫故鄉(xiāng)的海。

Landscape is the subject in LI Shan’s art, nevertheless, Kumi Usui’s intention is as well depicting her inner landscape, isn’t it? The two artists approach the Genesis Point of art from different perspectives, may it be recreating nature or imagining landscapes. Art critic John Berger once pointed out, “The region in which a painter passes his childhood and adolescence often plays an important part in the constitution of his vision. The Thames developed Turner. The cliffs around Le Havre were formative in the case of Monet. Corbet grew up in – and throughout his life painted and often returned to – the valley of the Loue on the western side of the Jura mountains.” No matter how far LI Shan’s footsteps may take her, her paintings always shine with the same light as Beijing’s parks in the 1970s. Just as the various shades of blue and the calligraphic brushstrokes in Kumi Usui’s paintings always bring her back to her hometown on the Pacific coast. Though she may have acquired a love for Chongqing’s spicy hotpot, her childhood sea will continue to echo in her paintings.

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關(guān)于藝術(shù)家

李珊(1957)借著自學研究成為中國早期的前衛(wèi)女藝術(shù)家，在藝術(shù)史中占據(jù)著獨特的位置。在上世紀七十代初期與中期，李珊曾以非官方藝術(shù)家的身份積極參與“玉淵潭畫派”的創(chuàng)作活動，其后或名為“無名畫會”的主要成員。在這一時期創(chuàng)作中，藝術(shù)家鎖定在庭院、寶塔、城市街道、公路及其他建筑表現(xiàn)的題材上，這些題材也貫穿于其近作中。

李珊現(xiàn)工作生活于北京，個展包括“李珊的清單”（星空間，北京，2021）、“李珊個人項目”（巴塞爾藝術(shù)展展會，香港，2019）、“復 | 興”（東畫廊，上海，2017）、“李珊：新作和七十年代精選作品”（科恩畫廊，上海，2015）、“從1970年代到現(xiàn)在”（科恩畫廊，上海，2014）、“流動”（La Case藝術(shù)空間，北京，2007）及“回望自醒”（TRA畫廊，北京，2006）。其作品被香港M+視覺文化博物館納入永久收藏，并進入中國、澳大利亞、加拿大、歐洲及美國的多個重要私人收藏。

九九 Kumi Usui，生于日本，畢業(yè)于東京武藏野美術(shù)大學，留學于四川美術(shù)學院油畫系，現(xiàn)工作并生活于重慶。九九的創(chuàng)作主要涉紙本丙烯、綜合材料繪畫及裝置。其創(chuàng)作觀念創(chuàng)作實踐圍繞日常生活與情感展開，并在《埋頭畫畫》系列作品中嘗試模糊生命與繪畫的邊界，試圖回到繪畫的本質(zhì)狀態(tài)進行無目的性的繪畫，審問繪畫本身的意義、生活的意義與自我的意義。九九的作品曾在星匯當代美術(shù)館（重慶，2020）、OCAT西安館（西安，2016）等機構(gòu)展出。她的個展包括“LIFE BOX 2020”（器空間，重慶，2020）、“師進滇/九九 雙個展”（D空間，成都，2019）、“KUROE 黑繪”（藝術(shù)深圳，深圳，2016）和“線-沒有答案”（器空間，重慶，2015）。