说起绘画，我们经常自认为很了解或很肯定它的历史趋势，甚至在教科书的现代主义绘画逻辑下，裁定了很多关于绘画的标尺。如果我们不对这些标尺进行反思和再思考，我们将对很多绘画视而不见，或视而偏见。以往从事绘画，都是习惯地去画画，或者按照既有的方式去追寻绘画的法则，而现代主义最大的特质不是取消画画，而是重新发现了绘画不等于简单的画面的形成，所有一切关于绘画的否定意见都成了它重新发现自身并完成自身独立世界的建构。

　　蒋焕之前从事写实绘画，使得很多人惊讶于他的写实功夫和细腻，但他自己却总是不满足，总觉得缺少了和自己的心灵契合的一种东西。在这一点上，蒋焕很清楚自己的艺术嗅觉在哪里，也一直在寻找自己一霎那的绘画灵光的闪现。他从小住在北京的地方离故宫不远，他上中学，老师告诉他你可以学画画。每天下午他自己背个画架去故宫的绘画馆看画或照着临一临。由于每天去，看门的人都认识了这个中学生，去了就直接进去，不像今天排着长队去看画，还看不好。

　　那时侯是70年代末，故宫的绘画馆没有几个人在那里。蒋焕一呆就是一下午，勾勾画画，很安静很自在。等到蒋焕考上首师大美术系去学绘画时学的是油画，而且是写实绘画。对此，他没有多想，觉得能来读大学就非常机会难得了，80年代初在中国能考上大学还是一件稀罕的事情。这样，他按照中国美术教育的习惯来学习、来画画，等他画了很多年后，忽然发现这样只是一件炫技的事情，和自己的心灵契合没有发生更多的联系。因为经历了诸种人生之后，蒋焕对生命价值有了切身的感悟，再面对自己的绘画时，已经不再愿意去习惯地画了。他开始从理性上、从知识上、从自己的心灵启悟上，来思考自己和绘画的联系，如何让自己的所思所想所感能以绘画的方式体现出来。

　　于是，这些年来，他开始尝试不同画法和方法，寻觅艺术语言的转换，更重要的是他开始获得新的自由，而不是被习惯的绘画模式所囿，也不为固定的绘画定义所限。夏天，去他的工作室，看到满屋子的画：他先画出油画，再拓印在宣纸上，形成了虚幻效果的拓印油画，既是对传统油画技法的消解，也形成了新的观念维度——否定了幻觉的绘画，实现了一种关于绘画的绘画的结果。说起绘画的绘画，这正是现代主义的命题之一，一直延续到今天，也是绘画作为独立世界的一种证明，超越了诸多的传统绘画命题，升华为自身即所是的存在和价值。蒋焕的油画拓印即是这种关系的一种探索，它已经将世界的再现剥离开，它不是所见世界的模拟，而是绘画存在方式的再现，而拓印的对象——女性之躯更加斑驳和朦胧。

　　这是世界的三重演绎：1、世界之在。这是物质自足的世界，不假外力，无需雕饰，是永远在我们之外的超我世界。人居于期间，自身为物，尚不知物是物非，自我意识不过处在这个世界的边缘之外，不足以构成对世界的知觉和认识，甚至当我们面对此一世界时，人自喜以为深知，其实不然。2、蒋焕以女性为对象，以拓印来消解对象的主体形象，其意图即是对构成世界的重要支点的女性予以重新认知。女性为人之世界的根源和本体，具有至尊的位置，享有崇敬的神圣性，当对之敬爱有加的时候，这个世界是平衡的、和谐的；当发生了性别对抗或异化时，这个世界是分解的、背离的。3、蒋焕的拓印转换是二次构成，它实质上拒绝了第一次在画布上作画的光亮、直接，获得模糊的效果，其视觉的呈现增强了对象的内在价值和回味余地，它拒绝了直接的视觉摄取，将情色欲望转变为美学观照。蒋焕努力在三重的世界变幻中，寻觅绘画的坐标，也是确立新的自我价值。

　　蒋焕的另一组新作是用炭笔在素描纸上进行创作。这是很平常的绘画媒介，通常作为打草稿、画写生之用。以往蒋焕也是这样用着，但等到他重新思考自己的艺术方向和语言变革时，储存在他记忆深处的东西不期然地涌现出来。他少年时去故宫看画的那些潜藏的印痕变成了一种重新绘画的自觉。他在运用炭笔的瞬间，那种无形的力量似乎将他带入时间隧道，仿佛看到了中国艺术的前辈先哲的身影，这种单色的炭笔很自然地游走起来，观看世界的视线犹魂魄般只取形的神采，而无拘泥和拖沓，暗合气韵生动之理。蒋焕毅然果断起来，这就是他梦寐的神情状貌，他想打通自己的绘画与世界关系的摸索，竟藏于自己的潜意识里。他像电击了一样，一下子被定格在慢慢流淌的时间之网里，看到了那个广阔的视域，一片浩瀚的天地，单纯静穆，念天地之悠悠。我们与世界是怎样的关联和存在感？这是蒋焕再探索自己的绘画过程中不断追问的，也是他希望层层递进、渐次走入自己的魂魄深处。单色绘画的哲学意义已经被当代艺术界有过多方面的论述，它指向了绘画的自我变革的一个趋势，也是自身独立价值的召唤，是摆脱自然主义的物质世界再现的一种诉求。

　　绘画在今天可以体现多种价值，它不再以视觉可识别性为唯一目标和判断的最高准则，而是以它自觉、自如、自动的方式来证明人的独立价值和生命创造力，形成被创造的意识世界。人在视觉世界的创造中来显示存在的意义，人的精神和对世界的发声都是因为新视觉的诞生而彰显、而可能。寻求人的意义和命题，就是艺术与绘画的命题与意义。对此，别无他求。蒋焕是明乎此而动于心，为绘画矢志在路上。

2015年10月30日于中央美院

A Transformation in Rubbings, A Presence in the World:

New Works by Jiang Huan

Wang Chunchen

　　When we talk about painting, we often believe that really understanding or really affirming the historical tendencies in painting fixes many rules about painting, even when we engaged with the logic of textbook modernist painting. If we do not contemplate or reconsider these rules, then we are turning a blind eye or taking a biased view toward many things about the medium. In the past, paintings were made according to personal habit or existing methods, in pursuit of some ideal of painting. The most notable characteristic of Modernism was not the elimination of painting; painting is not merely simple painted forms, so every negative opinion about painting becomes a chance for painting to rediscover itself and construct an independent world.

　　Previously, Jiang Huan engaged with Realist painting, and he surprised a lot of people with the time and care he put into his Realism, but he always felt dissatisfied, or that he lacked something that suited him. In this sense, Jiang very clearly understands his own artistic sensibility, and he has always sought out that flash of inspiration for his paintings. His childhood home was not far from the Forbidden City in Beijing. When he went to middle school, his teachers told him that he should learn to paint. Every afternoon, he carried his easel to the Hall of Painting at the Forbidden City to view or copy paintings. Because he went every day, all of the security guards knew him and he could walk straight in. Today, you have to wait in a long line for a poor view of the paintings.

　　In the late 1970s, there were very few people at the Forbidden City’s Hall of Painting, so Jiang Huan could stay for an entire afternoon, painting quietly and comfortably. After Jiang was accepted to the Art Department at Capital Normal University, he studied oil painting and Realism. He did not think too long about his choice of medium, because he thought that the opportunity to simply attend university was rare enough. In the early 1980s, getting into college was still uncommon in China. As a result, he learned and painted based on the habits embedded in the Chinese art education. After he had been painting for many years, he suddenly realized that Realism was just a way of showing off, which did not resonate with him anymore. Because he had lived a varied life, he understood the value of life, and when he looked at his own paintings, he found that he was no longer willing to paint out of habit. He began from a rational, intellectual, and spiritual enlightenment, then he considered his relationship to painting and how best to present his thoughts and feelings in painted form.

　　Therefore, over the last few years, he has experimented with different painting techniques and methods, and he sought a way to change his artistic language. More importantly, he found new freedom, away from the confines of his habitual painting mode and the limitations of fixed definitions of painting. Over the summer, I went to his studio, where I saw a room full of paintings. He first painted in oil, then he did rubbings on rice paper to create a mixture of both media that had a fantastical effect. As he distanced himself from traditional oil painting techniques, he created a new conceptual dimension; by negating hallucinatory painting, he created paintings about painting. Paintings about painting were also one of the propositions of modernism that has persisted to the present day, but it also serves as proof that painting is an independent world, which transcends many traditional conceptions of painting and elevates painting to something with its own presence and values. Jiang Huan’s blend of oil paintings and rubbings are an exploration of this relationship. His work departs from the representation of the world, avoiding the imitation of our world; instead, he presents one possible mode for painting and makes the women’s bodies in his rubbings hazier and more uncertain.

　　Jiang’s world can be interpreted in three ways: 1.He is a presence in the world. This is a materially self-sufficient world that does not need external forces or exterior decorations. It is a world outside of us that perpetually transcends us. People live within it, and they do not know if other things exist or not. Self-awareness only exists outside the edges of this world, but this is not enough to construct the consciousness and recognition of this world. When we confront this world, we should be pleased with this deeper knowledge, but we are not. 2.Jiang chooses women as his subjects; the rubbings dissolve their figures in an attempt to re-understand the women who provide key support for the construction of the world. Women are the origins of the human world, and they hold the place of utmost respect, revered as sacred. This respect makes the world balanced and harmonious. When sexual resistance or alienation takes place, this world decomposes and deviates. 3.Jiang’s rubbings are a secondary formation; they substantively reject the shine and directness of the first painting on the canvas to achieve an indistinct effect. This visual presentation strengthens the subject’s intrinsic value and leaves room for the imagination. These rubbings reject direct visual representation and transform desire into something aesthetic. Jiang Huan works to seek out coordinates for painting and establish new values for himself within the fluctuations of these three worlds.

　　Another group of new work are charcoal sketches on paper. Charcoal is a very ordinary part of painting, because it is usually used to create drafts or sketches. In the past, Jiang had also used charcoal in this way, but when he reconsidered his artistic direction and changed his style, something stored deep within his memory unexpectedly emerged. Hidden impressions from his visits to the Forbidden City as a child became his conscience as he rediscovered painting. When he used charcoal, some unseen power pulled him back down the tunnel of time toward the shadows of China’s artistic ancestors. These monochrome charcoal works naturally flowed from him; when he views the world, he sees the soul of everything in his sights; he is neither overly particular nor obstructive, because he attends to the rhythm and vitality of the world. Jiang Huan resolved to create the world of his dreams, and he wanted to slowly formulate the relationship between his paintings and the world, which was hidden in his subconscious. As if receiving an electric shock, he was suddenly caught in the net of slowly flowing time. With this broad vision of a vast universe, he can simply and quietly appreciate the remoteness of the universe. What presences link us to the world? Jiang has continued to ask this question in the course of his painting, and he hopes to advance gradually into the depths of our souls. The contemporary art world has discussed the philosophical meaning of monochrome painting from a variety of perspectives, which indicates a transformation in painting, but it also calls for an independent value in painting, casting off the need for the naturalistic representation of the material world.

　　Today, painting has multiple values; visual discernibility is no longer the highest standard for viewers, nor is it the only goal for artists. Jiang consciously, freely, and voluntarily shows independent values and living creativity, which creates a unique mental world. In the creation of a visual world, people present the meaning of existence. The human spirit and its voice in the world are manifested and made possible through the birth of new visions. Exploring the meaning and proposition of humanity is the meaning and proposition of art and painting. Jiang does not seek anything else; because he understands this and is moved by it, he has pledged himself to painting.

October 30, 2015

Central Academy of Fine Arts