写实主义是一个典型的西方艺术学的概念。按照贡布里希在《艺术与错觉》中的研究，所谓“写实”只是西方艺术史当中一个对艺术发展所设置的目标，这个目标，用贡布里希借用波普尔的哲学术语来说，可以称之为“错觉主义”。也就是说，在漫长的艺术发展中，无数的艺术家在“错觉”的目标之下，一直在完善一种在平面上再现三维物体的专用技术。这个目标首先是在古希腊时代提出的，后来在文艺复兴时期得到了极大的张扬。同时，在18世纪时，“艺术”这一概念开始与“美”的概念相联系并逐步重合，艺术在某种程度上成为美的代名词。于是，近代人所熟悉的那种具有美学品格的“艺术”含义才开始成为艺术家们与美学家们的常用词汇。
然而，写实主义来到中国以后在理解上却出现了偏差，这种偏差甚至遗留至今。人们一般以为，绘画上的所谓写实指的是对客观物体的如实描绘。虽然在苏联的教条思想左右下，文艺理论家们连篇累牍地为“写实”加上了“典型”的概念，用以规定艺术家们应该如何在生活中提炼出“艺术”来。但是在美术界，写实这个概念落实到基础训练上，无一例外指的都是上述所说的那种“描绘”。在中国，这种“描绘”有一个最为动听的词叫“写生”。在特定意识形态的影响下，“写生”甚至具有政治的意义，用以对抗传统中那种师傅带徒弟学画所形成的“临摹”方式。五四以来几次大的关于中国画前途的论争，都包含了对旧国画当中“四王恶习”的排斥和批判。而所谓“四王恶习”其实就是讲究笔笔有来历的“临古摹古”之风，这种风气表明，绘画从根本上就是一种对杰出 “样式”(或用图像学的术语叫“图式”)的继承，画家从某种意义上说同时也是一个具有极高鉴赏力的专门人才。
在西方，长期以来，也就是说在贡布里希以前，不管是艺术界中人还是那些声名显赫的学者，基本上都接受了黑格尔的理论，认为艺术只是一种“时代精神”的感性显现，但是在具体的认知上，也就是对具体绘画的认识上，都对“写实”持有这样的信念，即认为写实能够导致“真实”。这个历史一直延续到19世纪时的印象主义时代，具体来说到了点彩派的修拉为止，可以说是达到了顶点。对于修拉来说，他的目标就是要使他的画具有物理学光谱那样的准确性，从而使绘画成为一门科学。
如果稍微了解贡布里希理论的话，我们会相当容易地在他的许多著作中找到他对表现主义理论的批判，但是人们可能会忽略他对那种以为人们可以在心灵白板的状态下用“原创性”去创造艺术的幻觉的指责，也就是对上述所说的那种“写实”的指责。其实，贡布里希的兴趣是在各种现代心理学、社会学与哲学的支持下(吉布森的视觉预知理论、波普尔的证伪主义、潘诺夫斯基的图像学等等)，通过对大量作品、艺术家与相关的经典和文献的研究来仔细描述人是如何用自己的眼睛这个器官，把一件处在三维当中的物体转变成二维上的平面绘画的，而这平面上的二维又具有三维空间的错觉感。这一结果导致了历史上的大师创作了他们那些激动人心的作品。贡布里希的《艺术与错觉》一书就是试图重建视觉对空间认知的全过程，从而为读解绘画提供必要的知识。关键是，不论是写实还是非写实，事实上所有的艺术家都在画他们之所见，互相之间几乎没有绝对的可比性。比如，站在错觉主义的立场上，人们是否可以指责古代埃及的艺术是一种“幼稚”呢？但是，没有证据可以证明埃及人的眼睛比希腊人的眼睛要差许多，我们大约只能说，在古代埃及，不存在一种可以让那些从事绘画的人们去“写实”的要求。也就是说，导致古希腊艺术出现的那些背景知识，在古代埃及社会中根本没有。道理就在这里了，支持西方写实主义的理论与目标及其知识体系，在中国社会中一直都没有产生。但这不等于说中国就不存在一般意义上的写实，只是近现代人们往往夸大了明清以来的文人画在整个中国艺术中的位置与作用，而忽视了中国艺术中另一方面的传统，比如说自顾恺之以来的人物画传统。
问题还是回到写实。写实究竟是怎么一回事？直话说，写实实际上也是一种画其所见的方式，不论是在绘画的开始、中间抑或结束，从来就不存在那种“白板理论”上的所谓“写生”。也就是说，不存在这样一种状态，画家为了画出自己的感觉，他们应该 “纯洁”地不带“偏见”地去向自然学习，去面对物体直截了当地写生，而为了获得这种能力，在学习绘画的初始阶段，就必须训练学生们用自己的眼睛(在绘画课室里，老师总是质问学生，你的眼睛在哪里，你的感觉在哪里)去观察对象，然后用一种“分面”的方法(也就是徐悲鸿所说的“宁方勿圆”，或者按照据说是契斯恰科夫的素描教程的要求把对象分解成许多小面，以便使物体能够一点一点地转过去的方法)把眼前的模特如实地画下来。这是基本功，是一个画家必备的能力。对这种能力的不切实际的要求，折磨了许多画家，以致于他们总觉得自己的“基本功”不行，到了老年时还想着应该去画画石膏或模特，而不要急于去“创作”。同时，对年青一代的学画者来说，特别是对那些热衷于“创作”的年青画家来说，最好的指责就是：你的基本功不行。而不幸的是，人们总是有理由去指出这些画家们的“形”不准(难道我们没意识到，形不准的画家比比皆是，包括指责别人形不准的人也同样形不准么！)。由此可见，一种只能称之为写实主义的偏见已经成为能否做一个好画家的技术前提，结果是掩盖了人们对绘画的价值观的探讨。
绘画的实际过程只能是这样的：比如说画一个人的脸，作画者首先要知道关于一张脸的基本知识—眼睛如何放，鼻子在哪里，耳朵的长度应该与从眼眉到鼻子之间的距离一样，等等。这些知识是前人传下来的，是具体教你画画的那些画家告诉你的，是一种类似“秘诀”那样的东西。然后，你才能在实际观察对象的过程中去修正你所知道的知识。所谓写实的等级是在这个过程中通过具体的画面来建立的，也就是说，那些在自然物象上越多发现与自己所知样式的差异并把这种差异画下来的人，就可能会比那些发现的少的人画得要“写实”和“像”一些。所以，写实本身只是一种概念，一种目标，这个概念是和某种视觉语言联系在一起的。具体来说，在西方，创造三维空间的错觉离不开明暗法、透视法和解剖法这三种手段，也离不开以对比色为基础的色彩学。画家们往往是在临摹前辈大师的杰作上获得这些知识的。这也就是本文一开始所说的，写实主义是西方艺术学中的一个概念的原因。因为，恰恰在中国的绘画艺术中，特别是在人物画的历史中，上述的三种语言从来没有被作为画家的一种常备知识而提出来过。以透视学为例，不要以为在宋朝张择端的《清明上河图》中发现了某种焦点透视学的证据，或以为郭熙在《林泉高致》中提出了“三远”说，就能证明中国也有透视学。中国从来就没有出现过西方意义上的那种焦点透视学。同样道理，中国画家对文学、书法与篆刻的知识，对西方画家则是没有什么意义的。明白了这一层文化背景，我们才能明白，五四时期在一片革“四王”之命的口号声中，在新意识形态(也就是学习西方)的热潮中，绘画革命实际上成为引进西方写实主义的代名词，或者说写实主义本身具有革命性的内容。重要的是，经过了一个世纪的绘画革命，写实主义通过美术学院的教育体系已经演变成了一种基础训练方法，写生成了这种方法中的最为基本的要求。以画石膏和模特为主的素描课成为所有画种的必修课。虽然其中不乏几个画种之间就素描的样式发生几乎是没有意义的论争，但基本无法让人们有机会去质疑这种训练的价值与意义。结果是，凸现在这种写实主义前景下的中国绘画便产生了它自身独特的焦虑。我认为，郭润文的油画风格和他学习油画的经历，恰恰包孕了这种中国式的焦虑，解读他的作品，将有助于我们透视这种焦虑的性质。
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对于郭润文的油画，我们会毫不费力地把它们归属到写实主义中去。因为不管从风格上还是绘画技术上，郭润文的作品似乎是写实的。然而，问题果然是这么简单么？我想首先叙述一下郭润文的学画过程。这个过程对于理解他的作品，进而了解中国写实主义自身的特点不无帮助。
可以想象，在“文革”后进入大学学习绘画的郭润文，在读书期间并不见得是那么如意的。他所就读的上海戏剧学院舞美系，其任课老师之一陈钧德先生是一个狂热的表现主义者，对于印象派以后到野兽派之间的绘画情有独钟。而在“文革”刚结束后的那一段岁月，虽然伴随着“伤痕文学”，在美术界也出现了一种“伤痕绘画”，但当时实际上影响人们视觉艺术的应该说是一股强劲的唯美风气，其背后是一种形式主义的审美观念。从我所看到的郭润文的早期作品来看，他显然是一个颇为固执的人，难以忘怀在 “文革”期间，也就是在自己学画的少年期间所学到的一些典型的类似宣传画那样的样式。在这种样式里，某种快捷的效果可能比起面对对象作画更为重要。除了在动作上模仿样板戏的典型动作以外，还省略了许多在“写实”的要求下所必须的细节是这种样式的一个显著特征。“文革”期间那些出名的画家往往是靠了这种并没有多少细节的作品来获取成功的，同时这种样式也符合普通话的观赏需求。而在这种样式背后，其实仍然是一种来自19世纪西方的并通过前苏联改造过的内容。从这个意义上说，不管是“文革”期间流行的样式还是“文革”前美术学院的所谓苏派画法，本质上都是一脉相承的，它们的差别只是写实程度不同而已。对比起来，20世纪70年代末80年代初流行的形式主义，则不管在审美趣味上和画法上都与上述样式拉开了一定的距离。
显然，在课堂上，年轻的郭润文一下子处在了一个进退两难的境地，他自小就熟悉或养成的对形的追求，与在陈钧德老师的引领下对色彩的要求产生了冲突。关键是，在表面上的色彩与形的对立中，还反映了一种价值观上的差异(当然，这种差异当时只能是一种感觉而已)，这种差异表现在美术史上，就是18世纪与19世纪的不同，就是所谓的“古典主义”与“印象主义”的不同(我觉得在这里用这些词汇都有些危险，因为我不相信在中国真的曾经有过典型的欧洲古典主义风格，那至多是中国人所以为的古典主义风格而已。但这并不妨碍我的论述，因为画家们的确是这样认为的，虽然他们，特别是在80年代初刚刚开始解禁时，往往是从印刷品上得知和学习到这些风格的。关于美术印刷品在中国当代美术发展史上的作用，倒真的是一个颇为有趣的课题)。我可以想象，读书时的郭润文不算是突出的，只是他的固执帮了他，使他在那段彷徨的日子里，一边对付课程的需要，一边沿着自己的思路摸索。同时，他的细心使他保持了对细节的偏爱，而他的“非前卫”(姑且用这么一个词)的性格也使他减少了在那个时代所特有的狂躁与激情。
我想他一定是很快就进入了对西方古典绘画的迷恋之中，特别是对那种油画的质地与效果的惊讶，促使画家自己定了一个当时并不很高而现在看来颇为明智的目标，那就是让自己处在一个技术训练的状态中，以摸索古典油画的技法为主。这个目标对郭润文而言竟延续了十多年，在这十多年里，郭润文完成了在上海戏剧学院舞美系的学习，之后抱着同样的目的去了中央美术学院油画系进修。而尤其幸运的是，当时中央美术学院正在开办由来自法国美术学院的古典油画材料与技法专家宾卡斯主持的训练班，这个班的课，使郭润文第一次亲眼目睹和实践了欧洲古典油画的整个技术过程，开始明白从前所学到的谬误，明白了弥漫在中国油画界的原来只是一种来自前苏联的被称之为“一次性画法”的本来面目。这一切，对郭润文而言无疑都是具有震撼力的，同时又坚定了他的目标与他当初的选择。这样，在经过十多年的训练之后，郭润文基本上掌握了那种产生油画质地的技术，对油画形成了一种严格的操作概念，也对油画的完整性与物质感有了切身的体会，对油画的纯正性有了终身不悔的追求。
就在郭润文努力学习油画技术的这一时期，中国美术界发生了近几十年以来最为激动人心的变化，由“85美术运动”引发的新一轮的美术运动，激起了中国画界的震动，那强烈深远的震波对郭润文而言，无疑也具有潜在的影响。我曾经在一篇介绍郭润文的题为 《记忆的双重性》的文章中，谈到了处在这一时期的郭润文：郭润文早年的作品，显然更多是属于技术层面上的，属于探索如何画出“油画味”的习作。他画人体和静物，也画肖像与风景。对他来说，完善一种技术是一个优秀画家所必须具备的条件，诚如李可染先生用一生的时间和实践来阐明的那样，必须先做画匠，然后才能去做一个画家。因为对于一个画家来说，他每天所面临的总是一些具体的、不得不花费大量精力和时间去解决的技术难题，这些难题能否解决得好，直接关系到一张画的好坏与否。这时的郭润文，作为一个地道的画家，他的全部问题也只是如何把一幅画画得像那么一回事，画得有油画的味道，油画的质地和油画的趣味。或者也可以说，这时的郭润文只是一个技术至上者。而作为对比，当时中国的美术界却正处于一个趣味急剧变化的年代，画坛上有许多年轻的画家都急不可耐地奔先锋和前卫，匆匆忙忙地去制造“思想”，大有“语不惊人死不休”的气概。翻开80年代的中国美术史，在多种多样的风格当中，郭润文似乎是有些落伍的迹象了。(文见新加坡《亚洲艺术家》杂志第九期)
然而，这只是其中一方面的现象。也就是在美术运动风起云涌之际，中国的艺术市场也开始启动了。最早进入中国的当然是国外的画廊，它们显然带来了外国画廊的趣味。再加上美术学院可以理解的保守性，以“古典主义”为自我标榜的油画风格开始在美术学院出现。这种出现的前因当然和我以上所论述的中国式的写实主义是有关系的，但现在还加进了一层商业的因素，两相结合，使中国美术界几乎在与“85美术运动”同一时期，出现了一股新的写实风气，而在这股写实风气中，尤其以人体为主要母题的油画写实风大盛。1989年是中国近20年当中的重要年份，就在这极不寻常的一年里，北京同时举办了“中国现代艺术大展”和“中国人体艺术大展”。有趣的是，两个展览都引起了世人的关注，甚至引起了少有的轰动。这充分说明，写实主义在中国仍然有着巨大的市场。而其中的变化则是，油画界已经初步摆脱了“文革”及“文革”前的那种以一次性画法为主要技术特征的模式。从技术上来说，郭润文是跟上了后者的发展的。
三
如果郭润文仅仅停留在上述所说的技术阶段，我想他会成为一个像样的油画家，也会有自己的市场。但是，这样一来，郭润文就只能算作是一个技术型的专家了，从价值的角度来说就很可能会乏善可陈。而这样的画家，经过了十几年的变化以后，大概也不会太少。幸好郭润文是一个敏感的人，技术的确是他的一个非常重要的追求，但并不是他全部的作画理念。如果说，在整个80年代郭润文只是在技术上寻求突破的话，到了90年代，他突然有了一个感悟和警醒。这个感悟和警醒的心理依据，我个人的猜测是画家在经历了多年的努力之后，突然对“写实主义”有了一个不同寻常的理解。他开始反复地问自己，像这样一种画法，这样一种具有油画质地的表现技术，真的仅仅是写实那么简单么？至少在他看来，他所熟悉的西方古典杰作当中，有着大量极其主观的和程式化的手法，它们仅仅是一些重要的描绘方式，而不是描绘对象。况且他无法回避自己所形成的作画习惯。在这个习惯里，郭润文既有照片(全由画家自己拍照的、符合他作画所需的)为依据，同时，更通过对某些物象的特殊肌理的独特把握来形成其画面的质地与风格，从而发展出一种个人化的样式。而之所以发展出这样一种样式，也是长期工作的结果。因为他需要的是一种油画的物质性，而这种物质性基本上是无法在所谓写生当中得到的。也就是说，所谓现场的写生，对他而言也只是提供了一个参照物和刺激而已。他越是在技术上发展，就越是发现技术本身有着一种可贵的偶然性存在， 而正是这种在反复描绘当中所出现的偶然性，会突然使画面呈现出惊人的效果。慢慢地，郭润文觉得他总是在寻找那些适合他的效果的对象来画，他发现自己并不是一个什么都可以画的画家，那种神话般的“万能画家”，他甚至怀疑是否存在这样的画家。因为技术总是有限的，表现了这样的效果，也许就无法表现另外的效果。更重要的是，为什么要去表现另外的，对自己是如此陌生的效果呢？而且，郭润文还发现，他既然只对油画感兴趣，只对那种油画的质地着迷，那么，与此无关的一些绘画方式也就引不起他的兴趣了。比如说，他现在颇有些怀疑那种关于素描的争论了。在这种素描的争论里，有一种言论是占了上风的，那就是色调素描比结构素描要差许多。可郭润文每天画油画都得面对色调。还有就是对速写的看法：一个画油画的人是否也应该有一手好的速写功夫？如果这种速写与自己所形成的方式不相一致怎么办？等等。当然这些都是技术问题，但技术问题现在开始与价值问题奇妙地挂起钩来了。价值问题越来越严重地困扰着画家，使得画家对于价值观有着比之从前要强烈得多的渴求。
1993年，郭润文画了一幅题为《永远的记忆》的油画，这张油画除了保持画家一贯以来的技术品格以外，陡然增加了一层精神内容。在这张类似静物的作品中，观众无论如何也看不出半点传统静物画的样式，反倒整幅画透露出了一种抽象的意味，一种残旧的遥远的气象。这幅作品表明，郭润文经过长期的考虑之后，终于在自己的创作上跨出了关键的一步，他不再关心那些陈旧的关于“写实”与“表现”的话题，而是把关注点彻底地移向了内心世界，以个人的经历为思想的资源，以熟练而杰出的技术条件为内容，开始了新一轮的工作。在这个阶段里，郭润文取得了令人瞩目的成绩，继《永远的记忆》之后，又画了《对白》、《失去的空间》、《落叶的春天》、《封存的记忆》、《梦归故里》等一批作品，这批作品在中国油画界迅速产生了影响。如果说，此前的郭润文尚被划入以“古典主义”命名的那种风格范围的话，此后的郭润文则被视为属于90年代新风格的行列。在这个行列里，还有石冲和冷军两人，他们都用一种令人惊异的手法创作出了具有说服力的、同时又以价值为前导的杰作，从而表明中国油画已经初步摆脱了原来那种单一的“写实”风格。到了1996年，郭润文又接连创作了《天惶惶•地惶惶》、《玩偶》等以玩偶与真人相结合的带有超现实特征的作品，表明画家在追求价值方面的全面努力。
四
现在看来，在经过漫长的学习与钻研之后，郭润文发现他日渐远离了从前所理解的那种“写实主义”，也远离了从小就熟悉的所谓“写生”。他现在成了一个典型的样式画家，这种样式是他经过了这么多年才达到的，是一种技术与价值相平衡相统一的境界。在人到中年之后，郭润文知道他今后的工作目标了，那就是在一种样式的支持下继续寻求对价值的表达，并进而给艺术一个图式上的总结。他需要地道的油画，这一点使他永难放弃对西方古典油画的钟爱，同时也不可能丢掉多年来在技术上的体会；同时，他也需要艺术，需要对人生有一个负责任的交代，所以他更会倾尽一生的精力去寻求价值上的和谐。而这显然要耗掉他比之前在技术上所花费的更多的时间。幸好这也是一种命定，因而也是一种幸福。
反过来看，从郭润文的发展道路上，我想多少也透视出写实主义在中国的命运。西方油画在进入中国上百年之后，是不是已经到了某种成熟的阶段呢？这一问题，将留给新一代的艺术家与理论家去解答了。
The Destiny of Realism in China
—The Sociology Explanation of Guo Runwen’s Oil Paintings
By Yang Xiaoyan
I
Realism is a typical artistic concept in the West. As described in the Art and Illusion written by Gombrich, the so-called “paintingrealistically” is an objective defined for the artistic development in the history of the Western art. This objective may be called the “illusionism” as described by Gombrich by referring to a philosophical term from Karl Popper. That is to say, numerous artists have been perfecting a plane-based 3D expertise under the objective of “illusion” in the long evolution of art. Such objective was put forward during the period of the Ancient Greece and then known widely during the Revival of Learning. Meanwhile, the concept “art” began to be linked to “beauty” in the 18th century and then both concepts overlapped gradually, while “art” meant “beauty” to some extents. Hence, the aesthetic “art” familiar to the modern people begins to become a word common to artists and estheticians.
Realism, however, saw the deviation after it was introduced to China in term of its understanding. Such deviation remains so far. It is generally understood that the so-called “painting realistically” means the as-is painting of an object. With the impacts from the dogmatic ideas from the former Soviet Union, artistic theoreticians repeatedly added the “typical” concepts to “realistic painting” so as to specify how artists should to abstract “art” from human life. As to the circle of fine arts, “realistic painting” unexceptionally means the as-is painting in terms of the basic training. Such as-is painting in China means vividly “painting from life or nature”. With the effects of specific ideology, “painting from life or nature” is even of political significance, being applied to oppose against “copying or imitating” in the study of painting by means of traditional teaching in the form of maser and apprentice. Several hot arguments after the May 4th Movement of 1919 concerning the future of traditional Chinese painting implied the exclusion and criticism of “vices of four Wangs (referring to the four famous painters in early Qing Dynasty: Wang Shimin, Wang Jian, Wang Hui
and Wang Yuanqi)” in the old traditional Chinese painting. The said “vices of four Wangs” means the vogue of “copying the ancient paintings and ancient masters” that each stroke has its origin or basis. Such vogue indicates that painting is radically an inheritance of the prominent “models or patterns”, while painters are the experts of high percipient to some certain extent.
Over a long time in the West or prior to Gombrich, a man, whether a member from the circle of art or an outstanding scholar, almost accepted the theory of Hegelian, believing that art was a sensible visualization of “time spirit”, that realistic painting resulted in “reality” as to the concrete perception of the concrete paintings. Such perception lasted until the creation of impressionism in the 19th century, particularly until the appearance of Seurat as a member of Divisionism, when such perception reached the peak. For Seurat, his objective was to allowing his painting tools to be accurate as spectrum of physics so as to turn painting into a subject of science.
With a little understanding of the theory of Gombrich, we can easily find out his criticism of expressionism theories in many of his works, but we may ignore his denouncement of the illusion that art could be created on the pure soul with the “originality”, namely, this denouncement of the hereinabove “realistic painting”. Factually, what Gombrich was interested in is to describe how a painter turns a 3D object to a 2D painting with the 3D illusion by means of his or her eyes, with the support from various theories of modern psychology, sociology and philosophy (e.g., the visual prevision theory of Gibson, falsificationism of Popper, iconology of Erwin Panofsky, etc.), after the research on a great number of works, artists and related classics and literature. As a result, many great artists created their masterworks in the history. The Art and Illusion written by Gombrich tries to restructure the full process of the visual perception of space so as to provide the essential knowledge to interpret paintings
The key is that all artists are painting what they are seeing by mean of realistic painting or not and there is almost no comparison between realistic painting and non-realistic painting. In the position of illusionism, for example, could man blame that the art in the ancient Egypt is “childish”? There is no evidence, however, that can demonstrate the eyes of Egyptians are much inferiors to the eyes of Greek. We may infer that no painter in the ancient Egypt was required to paint realistically. That is to say, the background for the creation of the ancient Greek art could be found in the ancient Egypt. So there is the point. China never sees the theories, objective
and knowledge systems supporting the Western realism, but this does not mean that no general realistic painting exists in China, whereas the position and roles of literati painting in the Chinese arts since the Ming and Qing dynasties are exaggerated by the modern people on one hand while some other traditions of Chinese arts, such as, the figure painting since Gu Kaizhi, are belittled on the other hand.
Let’s turn to the realistic painting. Then what is “realistic painting” on earth? Frankly, realistic painting also means a form that what is seen is painted in fact and you can not discover any “realistic painting” as described in the “theory of tabula rasa” during the process of painting, whether at its very beginning, midway or end. In another word, the status does not exist that a painter should learn from nature “purely” without any “prejudice” and paint realistically by facing an object to paint out what he or she has perceived. To obtain such capability, painting learners or students shall use their eyes (teachers ask students in the painting class “where are your eyes and your perceptions”) to observe objects and things at the beginning of study and then paint the models faithfully by means of “facade-subdivision” (or “preferring to square not round” as described by Xu Beihong, or decomposing the object into many petty facades as described in the line drawing textbook by P.P. Chistjakov so as to turn around the object bit by bit). This is a basic skill and indispensable to a painter. Many painters have suffered from the unpractical requirement for such capability, so that they always think that their “basic skill” is poor and are not anxious to “paint” while thinking of painting the plaster models or human models when they are old. Meanwhile, as to the younger generation of painting learners and those young painters being wild about “painting” in particular, you can criticize them with “your poor basic skill”. Unfortunately, we usually have excuses to point out that the “form” is not correct (many painters paint with the incorrect form, including those criticizing others of incorrect form). This shows that the prejudice of realism has become the technical precondition for a painter to be a good painter, so that the
exploration into the value of painting has been covered up.
The actual process of painting shall go like this: if you want to paint a face, for example, you shall basically know about the face firstly—how to position the eyes, nose and ears and how to keep the distance between the eyebrow to nose and so on. Such expertise derives from the former painters and is told by those teachers as “tips”. But you have to correct what you have learned in observing objects. The grade of so-called “realistic painting” is established by means of the concrete pictures during such process, that is to say, those who have found and painted more differences between natural objects and their knowledge will paint more “realistically” and
“similarly”, vise versa. In such case, realistic painting is a concept and an objective. This concept is linked to some visual language. Specifically, the illusion for creating a 3D space relates to three approaches of chiaroscuro, scenography and dissection and also to contrasting colors-based chromatics. Painters usually acquire such expertise by imitating the masterpieces of former masters—this is a reason why realism is concept in the Western art as described at the beginning of this text. In China, however, the foregoing three languages have never been mentioned as the necessities for our painters in China’s painting art and in the history of our figure painting in particular. Taking the perspective as an example, although you have discovered some evidences for the perspective from the Painting of Scenes of Shanghe River in Spring painted by Zhang Zeduan in Song Dynasty and the “three perspectives” as referred to by Guo Xi in the Woods and Fountains in Distance , you can not prove that China has the perspective. China never sees its focus perspective in terms of the sense of the West. Similarly, the knowledge of Chinese painters about literature, calligraphy and seal cutting is senseless to the Western painters. Understanding such cultural background, we can know that the painting revolution with the slogan against “Four Wangs” during the May Fourth Movement of 1911 under the new trend of new ideology turned out to be the introduction of the Western realism, or it can be observed that the realism proper includes the revolutionary contents. It is important that realism has been evolved into a basic training method through the education system of the academies or schools of fine arts after a century’s painting revolution, while painting from life or nature becoming the essential requirement of such method. The sketch classes focusing on painting of plaster model and human model have become the required courses for all kinds of paintings, of which some used to argue meaninglessly about the forms of sketch, but there is almost no chance for us to question on the value and significance of such training. As a result, the Chinese painting focusing the foreground of such realism produces its unique anxieties. In my opinion, the style of Guo’ paintings and his experience of study includes such Chinese-style anxieties and the interpretation of his paintings will be conducive to our perception and comprehension of the nature of such anxieties.
II
Guo’s paintings can be easily classified as those of realism, because both his style and skill seem to be realistic. But it is really so easy? Here I have to describe Guo’s experience in painting study first. Such description will be helpful for understanding his painting and even the features of the Chinese realism.
It can be imagined that it was not very lucky for Guo to learn painting at a university after the Cultural Revolution. He used to study at the Faculty of Theater Art, Shanghai Theater Academy and one his teachers Mr. Chen Junde is a crazy expressionist, who is passionately in love with the painting between post-impressionism and fauvism. During the period just after the Cultural Revolution, the Painting of the Wounded came out following the appearance of the Literature of the Wounded and the visual arts was then affected remarkably by the strong aestheticism vogue behind which was the popular aesthetic ideas of formalism at that time. As to his early works as I have watched, Guo was rather persistent and he would not like to forget those typical poster-like forms exposed to him during the Cultural Revolution or his childhood learning to paint. For such forms or patterns, some quick effect is more important than painting with an object in his eyes. Such forms featured the absence of many necessary details as required by “realistic painting”, besides the actions imitating the typical actions from the “Model Beijing Operas” popular at that time. The famous painters during the Cultural Revolution succeeded with such paintings with fewer details, whereas such forms catered to the taste of common people. Behind such forms there was the contents imported from the West in the 19th century and revised by the Soviet Union. In such sense, both the forms popular during the Cultural Revolution and the so-called “Soviet-style” painting method adopted by the academies or schools of fine arts prior to the Cultural Revolution are the same in nature, with the only difference in the degree of realism. In contrast, the formalism popular in late 1970s and early 80s kept a certain distance from the above-mentioned forms or patterns in terms of the taste and painting method.
Obviously, Guo, as a young man then, was embarrassed and crag-fast in classes. With his pursuit for forms in his childhood, Guo conflicted with the requirements for colors as instructed by Mr. Chen Junde. The key is that a difference of value was disclosed behind the antinomy between forms and colors (of course, such difference was just a feeling at that time). Viewed from the history of art, such difference means that between the 18th century and 19th century or between the so-called “classicism” and “impressionism”. (These words are highly risky in my opinion, for I doubt China ever sees the typical European classicism style and the so-called “classicism” means the classicism style as believed by Chinese at most. But I am not troubled with such concepts in my description, for our painters believe in such concepts, though they knew about and learned such styles from publications particularly during the period of our initial implementation of reform and opening policy at the early 1980s. It is an interesting topic that the role of
art-related publications plays in the modern development of Chinese fine arts.) I can imagine that Guo was very outstanding at university, but he was helped by his adherence, so that he could cope with his courses while exploring along his own thoughts during the period of hesitation. His scrupulosity remained his preference to details and his “non-progressive (dictated for the moment)” character allowed his to abate the mania and enthusiasm featuring uniquely that epoch.
I think Guo was infatuated with the Western classic paintings soon and surprised at the quality and effect of oil painting, so that he defined an objective—not very demanding then, but very smart as viewed now, that is to say, he allowed himself to be in a status of technical training so as to focus on the exploration of the skills of classic oil paintings. Guo maintained this objective for more than a decade, during which Guo graduated from Shanghai Theater Academy and then went to the Department of Oil Painting at China Central Academy of Fine Arts for an advanced study for the same purpose. Fortunately, then China Central Academy of Fine Arts started a training program in the charge of Bencas with France Art Academy with respect of classic painting materials and skills. Guo enjoyed the full technical process of the European classic oil painting for the first time in his life from this training program and began to realize his previous errors and understood that what was popular in the Chinese painting at that time as just the original feature of the “Alla Prima” from the Soviet Union. Facing such case, Guo was shocked and confirmed his objective and initial choice. After the practice and training of more than a decade, Guo mastered almost the skills to create the texture of oil painting and generated a rigid operational concept for oil painting, while experiencing the integrity and sense of reality of oil paintings for the sake of the unregretful pursuit for the purity of oil painting for all his life.
The Chinese fine arts have seen the radical and stirring changes in recent decades during which Guo has been devoted to the study of oil painting skills. The fine arts movement arising from the New Tide of Fine Arts in 1985 shocked the circle of Chinese painting and the strong and far-reaching significance of such movement imposed the potential impacts on Guo. I described Guo at that time in my paper Dual Memory :
The early paintings of Guo Runwen are more technical and act as the drawings to probe into how to disclose the “taste of oil painting”. He painted human bodies and still life, as well as portrait and landscape. For Guo, it is necessary for an outstanding painter to perfect a skill, just like Mr. Li Keran practicing and illustrating with all his life the truth that you have to be a limner first then a painter. As a painter, you have to face and solve the specific technical problems every day with time-consuming efforts. The proper solution to such problems directly relates to the quality of your painting. For Guo as a real painter at that time, his only problem was how to create an oil painting very well and full of the necessary taste, quality and attraction. Alternatively, then Guo cared about his skill only. In contrast, the circle of fine arts in China was at the times with radical changes to the style and taste of paintings and many young painters rushed to become progressive and experimental in creating “ideas and thoughts” in hurry for “making a great coup”. Opening the Chinese art history in the 1980s, Guo seemed outdated in terms of the various styles and features at that time (Asian Artists , Vol. 9, Singapore).
This is about one side of the phenomenon. When the art movement went like a rising wind and scudding clouds, China’s art market was also started. Foreign galleries came to China initially and they brought the alien styles and features. The oil painting style “classicism” as claimed by some painters was popularized among the academies of fine arts, plus the conservativeness understood by such academies. The cause to such case relates to the Chinese-style realistic painting as described previously, but the commercial factor is included. With the combination of these causes, the Chinese circle of fine arts witnessed a new style of realistic painting
almost at the same time as the Art Movement in 1985. Such new style was mostly popular among the oil paintings with the subject of human bodies. The year 1989 was important in the recent two decades, when Beijing hosted the Chinese Modern Arts Exhibition and the Chinese Human-body Arts Exhibition simultaneously. It was interesting that both exhibitions attracted the viewers and even stirred the people. This demonstrates that realistic painting enjoys the great market in China. But the changes can be found that the circle of oil painting has basically shaken off the pattern almost with the technical feature of “Alla Prima” during and prior to the Cultural Revolution. Technically, Guo keep up with the evolution of such changes.
III
I believe that Guo will become a good oil painting painter and has his own market if he stays at the above-mentioned technical stage. If so, however, Guo will be included as one of the technical experts and would not be described due to his absence of creation and strong points from the point of view of value, while there would be many of such painters after the evolution of more than a decade. It is lucky enough that Guo is sensible. Skills mean his important pursuit, but not all of his painting concepts. If Guo sought the technical breakthrough in the 1980s, he was touched and waked up suddenly in the 1990s when he enjoyed an extraordinary comprehension of “realistic painting” after his hardship and efforts of years as I suppose from the basis for such case. Then Guo asked himself repeatedly: is it as easy as realistic to paint like that and to express with the characters of oil painting? At least in his view, there are a great number of extremely subjective formularized means in the Western classics familiar to him—such means are just some key painting modes, but not the portrayed objects. Furthermore, Guo cannot get ride of his established painting habits. As to such habits, Guo takes the photos (all taken by Guo to meet his demands for painting) as the evidence and created the character and style of his paintings with the unique mastery of the special texture of some objects so as to develop a personal pattern. Such pattern also results from his long-term painting. Guo needs the corporality of oil painting, whereas such corporality cannot be obtained from the so-called painting from life or nature. That is to say, the onsite painting from life or nature provides a reference or stimulus to him. The more he develops technically, the more he finds the skill has an estimable contingency. It is the contingency emerging in the repeated painting will deliver a surprising effect to pictures. Gradually, Guo finds that he is looking for those objects fit for his effects to be painted and believes that he is not a painter who can paint anything, nor a mythical “versatile painter”. Guo even doubts that there is any versatile painter, for skills are restrictive—with an effect represented, you cannot disclose some other effects. More important, why do you want to represent some other effects strange to you? Guo also finds that now that he is interested in oil painting and fascinated with the quality of oil painting, he would not like to be interested in other painting modes. For example, Guo is doubtful of the arguments concerning sketch, of which one prevails that the tone sketch is much inferior to the structure sketch. But Guo has to face tone in his everyday creation of oil painting. As to sketching, Guo wonders whether an oil painting painter shall be skillful in sketching and what such painter shall do if his sketching is inconsistent with this established modes and other questions in his mind. Of course, these are the technical problems, but now are tied to the value wonderfully. Painters are more and more troubled with the issue of value, so that painters are eager for values much stronger than before.
In the year 1993, Guo painted his oil painting Eternal Memory, which remains his consistent technical feature, plus a spiritual factor. In this painting like a still life, viewers cannot find out any form of a traditional still life, whereas exposing an implication of abstract art and a shabby and remote impression. This painting shows that Guo has moved a key step finally in his painting after the consideration of long time; he does not care about the outdated topic about “realistic painting” and “expression” and moves his focus completely on his heart instead, while starting a new round of work by taking his personal experience as the resource of thought and the mature and excellent technical condition as content. At