赵力
作为20世纪中国美术史上的重要艺术家，颜文樑较早地进入到了美术史研究者的视野。从目前的研究基础而言，其文献图像资料相对比较分散，至今未见类似全集性的出版物，这不能不说是现实中的某种缺憾。
民国时期颜文樑的文献资料，散见于当时的报刊与杂志，相对较为集中的则见于苏州美术专科学校的校刊《沧浪美》和《艺浪》。《沧浪美》，创刊于1928年，由黄觉寺任主编，每期约10余页，共出版3期，画集1卷，由苏州文新印刷公司承印。1934年《沧浪美》改刊名为《艺浪》，16开本，铅字精印，并用铜版精印加上三色版彩印，仍由黄觉寺主编，印刷制版由本校工场承担。抗战期间《艺浪》停刊，至1947年复刊，行销全国，以图文并茂、精美印刷获得好评。纵观《沧浪美》、《艺浪》，颜文樑在写稿数量和作品刊发上都占到了最重要的位置，因此这两本校刊也就成为了研究民国时期颜文樑的艺术思想和艺术创作的重要文献资料。
20世纪50年代的颜文樑，不仅以其饱满的创作热情为我们提供了更加丰富的视觉资料，也通过出版的方式为后世的研究提供了可靠的文献依据。1957年上海人民美术出版社出版颜文樑所著《美术透视学》一书，艺术家结合自己的创作经验，系统介绍了美术创作中的透视学原理，并将透视学视为有效分析和掌握错综复杂物象的基础，充分反映了颜文樑对科学与理性之艺术原则的强调。1959年上海人民美术出版社出版的《颜文樑画集》，彩色印刷，虽然没有囊括更多的艺术家作品，但是浓缩了颜文樑在50年代之前的重要代表作品，无疑是艺术家重要的图像出版资料之一。此外同年由浙江人民美术出版社出版的《颜元摹任伯年画稿》，为颜文樑为其父所编，是研究颜文樑的家庭艺术背景以及早期艺术渊源的重要参考。
新时期之后的颜文樑，在1978年由上海人民美术出版社出版所著的《色彩琐谈》，该书针对色彩学的原理，进行了系统而细致地论述，对改革开放初期美术界的拨乱反正和关于“形式美”的讨论具有了重要意义。80年代以后颜文樑曾多次出版个人画集，如1985年上海美术出版社出版的《颜文樑画集》，收入了艺术家各个时期的重要作品，尤其是50年代以后创作的作品；此外像《颜文樑粉画集》、《颜文樑水彩画集》等的出版，也使得研究者可以借此看到了一个更为全面的艺术家的创作面貌。1982年由林文霞整理、北京学林出版社出版的《颜文樑•现代艺术家，画论、作品、生平》，无疑是有关颜文樑的迄今为止最全面、最系统的文献总汇，该书于1996年精装再版。全书分“序”、“画论”、“生平”、“作品”等4个部分，如自序所言，“本书并非一严密的理论著作，仅系我长期艺术活动中一些情况与个人点滴经验”，“其中有些资料，系从我原有旧文摘录或改写，部分则根据我最近讲述记录整理而成”，因此其文字既弥补了可能的历史缺环，又具有总结概括的特征，是对颜文樑艺术人生和思想变迁进行深入研究的重要资源。除了颜文樑的旧文摘录和口述记录之外，全书附彩图12件，黑白图片103件，为80年代最全面的一次作品著录；莫朴、卢鸿基的序文，在回忆中融入眷眷情愫；钱伯城撰写的“颜文樑先生年表”，仍为迄今最为详尽的艺术家年表，具有很好的资料价值，唯可惜戛然于1982年而并非完整；而黄觉寺的“颜文樑和苏州美专”，文虽简短，但从艺术家与苏州美专的关系入手，确立了颜文樑在中国美术教育史的地位与作用，开启了观察的新孔径，丰富了研究的方法与角度。
20世纪的90年代，有关颜文樑的研究渐为丰富。其中大量由颜文樑的同事、学生在其过世之后陆续发表的纪念性、回忆性文章，为研究者提供了更广泛、更全面的历史资料，对于进一步勾勒和还原艺术家的生平、活动、创作、从教、交游等历史情境具有很大的帮助。90年代末关于20世纪中国油画的研究逐渐为人重视，其中如李超关于上海油画史的研究、刘新关于20世纪上半叶中国油画史的研究，都涉及到了颜文樑的艺术创作、艺术观念和美术教育诸方面的成就，并进一步确立了其在20世纪中国美术史上的历史地位。关于颜文樑的个案性研究，则以尚辉的《颜文樑研究》为代表，该书于1993年由江苏美术出版社出版。《颜文樑研究》，全面而系统地研究了颜文樑的生平、艺术创作和艺术思想，在风格分期、美术教育、创作影响等方面进行了深入阐述，该书还附有272件颜文樑的水彩与油画作品，超越了80年代的资料基础，同时作者通过爬梳原始资料和口述史方法所获得的文献证据，也极大地丰富了研究者对颜文樑的认识。
进入21世纪，有关的画集出版是以2002年上海画报出版社的《颜文樑油画集》为代表，基本涵盖了“佛罗伦萨”、“罗马遗迹”、“普陀山门”、“玉带桥”、“豫园”、“北海雨景”等代表性的油画作品；此外，2006年苏州美术馆成立80周年之际，推出的“颜文樑画展”以及相关的活动，在资料整理方面为研究者提供了更多的线索和角度；2009年由中国现代美术出版社刊发的《沧浪掇英——苏州美专八十六周年纪念专辑》，则以颜文樑为中心，将资料整理和研究的范围，拓展至整个苏州美专发展演变的历史背景和文化线索。
21世纪以来，一些回忆性的文章依旧丰富而发展有关颜文樑的研究资料，其中以颜文樑学生尤玉琪，2008年发表于《南京艺术学院学报》的“我爱吾师——缅怀颜老夫子”为代表。
在颜文樑的艺术创作方面，2006年西北师范大学的牛二春和南京师范大学的沈建华分别以“颜文樑油画艺术研究”、“颜文樑绘画艺术研究”为题完成了各自的硕士论文。其中沈建华的“颜文樑绘画艺术研究”，以颜文樑不同时期的绘画作品为线索，将其绘画风格分为两大阶段，即再现写实和表现写意阶段，并从新文化运动、民族风格及其它因素(绘画市场、社会政治、自身性格等)的影响方面阐释了颜文樑风格形成和转变的原因，总结了颜文樑在艺术上所取得的成就及其在引进西方油画和油画中国化等方面所做出的贡献。2009年顾丞峰的“颜文樑艺术创作分期及相关问题研究”发表于《南京艺术学院学报》，作者在综合各家关于颜文樑创作阶段分期的基础上发表自己的观点，探讨了颜文樑作品与印象派的关系、与中国艺术传统的关联，以及关于颜文樑作品是习作还是创作的判定标准，同时对颜文樑在中国现代美术历史上的定位提出了自己的看法。2009年美国芝加哥大学艺术史研究所的苏文惠在德州奥斯汀举办的亚洲研究协会西南会议上，发表了题为“旅行过去，体验现代：颜文樑作品中的罗马古迹再现”一文，作者以1930年颜文樑在罗马旅行中以罗马废墟为题创作的3张油画作品为切入角度，运用视觉分析和图像学的方法，揭示了画家融合中外艺术传统的创作观念，同时认为要成功解读颜文樑作品的意义，则必须从跨文化的宏观角度加以观察，反映出了年轻一代学者的思考和拓展。
有关颜文樑历史地位的研究，包括2004年姚苏发表于《苏州大学学报》的“颜文樑与写实主义”，将颜文樑视为中国近现代写实主义绘画的先驱者之一，并认为艺术家在艺术创作上的写实主义取向、对艺术“真实”的追求和对绘画“科学”观的认识，以及其引进西方美术教育模式、传播西方写实绘画艺术的理论和技巧、创办苏州美术专科学校等历史功绩，对于写实主义绘画在近现代中国的发展起到了不可替代的作用；2006年李剑南在《美术界》发表的“从颜文樑到当代苏南油画的发展谈起”，则是通过对颜文樑的艺术研究，思考当代苏南油画的创作现状，思考中国油画的现状和未来之路。
有关颜文樑美术教育贡献方面的研究，包括2004年陆宇澄、刘丹在《苏州大学学报》发表的“颜文樑与苏州美专”，通过对资料的爬梳研究，指出颜文梁与苏州美专对我国近现代美术教育的推动意义。2004年赵思有在《苏州大学学报》发表的“刘海粟、徐悲鸿、颜文樑美术教育思想与作品的比较研究”，通过对刘海粟、徐悲鸿、颜文樑三位美术教育家的教育思想和艺术创作的比较研究，分析了共性与个性，并强调他们的教育思想对当代美术教学改革和创作发展具有借鉴和参考的价值。2008年南京艺术学院硕士研究生李洁璇，以“工场教育制度的引入和颜文樑实用美术教育思想”为题，从不同侧面详细论述了苏州美专实用美术科的教学和实习情况，体现出颜文樑实用美术教育思想在当时社会条件下的创新性和现实意义，对当代实用美术教育的启迪，并进一步确立了颜文樑作为新式美术教育先驱者的地位，以及不同于别人的美术教育贡献。
此外，2008年唐涛在《中国收藏》杂志上发表的“陈澄波VS颜文樑”，则体现出更为综合的研究方法。该文以颜文樑作品的艺术市场研究为新的角度，通过与台湾老一辈艺术家的行情对比，最终反映出国内相关学术研究的薄弱现状，以及目前国内市场在推广上的“价值缺位”与“能力不足”。
Yan Wenliang in Art History Studies
Zhao Li
As an important artist of the Chinese fine arts history in the 20th century, Yan Wenliang entered the fine arts history researchers’ sight at a very early stage. Concerned with the current research foundation, the literature documents and images are scattered and a complete works of publication has never been found till now, which can be seen as a kind of regret in the real world.
During the period of the Republic of China, Yan Wenliang ’s literature works were partially found in the newspapers and magazines and some more centralized works appeared in the school journals ‘Cang Lang Mei’ and ‘Yi Lang’ of Suzhou Art School. ‘Cang Lang Mei’, initiated in 1928 and with Huang Juesi as the chief editor, had been published 3 terms of more than 10 pages each term and one painting album, which were printed by Suzhou Wenxin printing firm. Renamed as ‘Yi Lang’ in 1934, the journal, in 16 folio and type font, was trichromaticaly printed with coated paper. It was chiefly edited by Huang Juesi and was printed in graphic arts by the school workshop. The journal ‘Yi Lang’ which was suspended during the Anti-Japanese War and resumed in 1947 become popular around the country and was appreciated for its combination of articles and pictures as well as the exquisite printing. As Yan Wenliang played an important role in the respect of article writing amount and the works publishing, the two school journals ‘Cang Lang Mei’ and ‘Yi Lang’ became the key literary documents in studying Yan Wenliang ’s artistic idea and creation during the Republic of China.
In the 1950s, Yan Wenliang not only created more of rich visual documents with his full creative passion but also provided his successors with reliable literary works by the way of publication. In 1957, Shanghai People’s art publishing house published the book ‘Fine Arts Perspective’ written by Yan Wenliang in which the artist gave a systemic introduction of the perspective principle in the fine arts creation combined with his own creative experience. He interpreted the perspective as the basis for analyzing effectively and acquiring complicated objects, which fully reflected his emphasis on the fine arts principles in science and rationality. Color printed, the publication ‘Yan Wenliang Collection of Painting’ published by Shanghai People’s fine arts publishing house in 1959 was, no doubt, one of the significant image publications of the artist, which concentrated some important works of Yan Wenliang at the time before the 1950s though without more artists’ works. In addition, ‘Yan Yuanpan Ren Bonian Sketches’ published by Zhejiang People’s fine arts publishing house in the same year and edited by Yan Wenliang’s father was seen as the key reference for studying Yan Wenliang’s family background in fine arts and the early fine arts origin.
During the period after the New Time, Yan Wenliang wrote ‘Se Cai Suo Tan’ which was published by Shanghai People’s Fine Arts Publishing House in 1978. The book, containing a systemic and detailed discussion in chromatic principles, played a significant role in setting things right of the fine arts field at the early stage of the reform and opening up policy as well as the discussion in ‘formal beauty’. After the 1980s, Yan Wenliang published many personal painting albums such as ‘Yan Wenliang Collection of Paining’ published by Shanghai Fine Arts Publishing House in 1985 which collected the artists’ important works at different times and the works after the 1950s in particular. Besides, with the publishing of ‘Yan Wenliang’s Gouache Collection’ and ‘Yan Wenliang’s Watercolor Painting Collection’, researchers could see a more comprehensive picture for the artist’s creation. ‘Yan Wenliang•Modern Artist, Painting Theory, Works and Biography’ edited by Lin Wenxia and published by Beijing Xuelin Publishing House in 1982 has been the most comprehensive and systemic literary collection related to Yan Wenliang till now. Bound and revised in 1996, the book consisted of 4 sections including Preface, Paining Theory, Biography, and Works and as what the preface says: ‘Instead of being a tight theoretic work, the book tells some stories and personal experience in my long time artistic activities’ and ‘some of the information stems and is revised from my original articles while others are managed with my recent oral records’. Therefore, the words of the book which make up the possible historical flaws and processes feature of summary are the significant resource for conducting profound studies in Yan Wenliang’ s artistic life and his idea changes. The book, except for Yan Wenliang’ s old literary works and oral records, included 12 color pictures and 103 black and white pictures, known as the most comprehensive works collection in the 1980s; in the prefaces by MO Pu and Lu Hongji finded the emotion and yeans in the memory; ‘Sir Yan Wenling’s Chronology’ written by Qian Bocheng was the most detailed artist’s chronology now and had a documentary value but was uncompleted due to the suspension in 1982; In the respect of links between the artist and Suzhou Art Collage,‘Yan Wenliang and Suzhou Art College’ written by Huang Juesi, with its simple and short articles, established the position and role of Yan Wenliang in education on Chinese fine arts history, which opened a new way for observation and enriched the methods and angles in research.
In the 1990s, with more studies on Yan Wenliang among which are memorial articles published by his students after he passed away provided researchers with more extensive and comprehensive historical documents. The studies were very useful in further describing and recovering some historic scenes of the artist’s life, activities, works, teaching and communication. At the end of 1990s, the researches on the 20th century’s Chinese oil-painting history were all related with Yan Wenliang’s achievement in his artistic creations, artistic ideas and fine arts education and further proved his historical position in the 20th century’s Chinese fine arts history. As far as Yan Wenling’s individual case studies concerned, ‘Research on Yan Wenliang’written by Shang Hui is a reprehensive which was published in 1993 by Jiangsu fine arts publishing house. The book conducts an overall and systemic research on Yan Wenliang’s life, artistic creation and ideas, discussing in depth the various styles, education on fine arts, creation influence and so on. There were also 272 pieces of watercolor paintings and oil paintings by Yan Wenliang in the book, which surpassed the documents in the 1980s. Meanwhile, the literature evidence gained by the writer through sorting out original documents and the method in oral history greatly enriched researchers’ understanding in Yan Wenliang.
With the entry of 21st century, the relevant painting collection publications were represented by ‘Yan Wenliang Oil Painting Collection’ published by Shanghai pictorial publishing house in 2002, which basically covered some representative oil painting works such as ‘Florence‘, ‘Rome Relic‘, ‘Mount Putuo Gate‘, ‘Jade Belt Bridge ‘, ‘Yu Garden‘ and ‘Raining Scene of North Sea‘, etc. Moreover, ‘Yan Wenliang Art Exhibition’ and its related activities at the 80th anniversary of Suzhou Art Gallery establishment in 2006 offered researchers more clues and angles in the respect of processing of data. In 2009, China Modern Art Publishing House published ‘Cang Lang Duo Ying—Memorial Album for the 86th anniversary of Suzhou Art College’ which extended the range of document editing and research to the historical background and cultural clues of the whole Suzhou Art College’s development.
As regards with Yan Wenliang’s artistic creation, Niu Erchun from Northwest Normal University and Shen Jianhua at Nanjing Nomal University completed their master thesis with ‘Research on Yan Wenliang’ s Oil Painting Arts ‘ and ‘Research on Yan Wenliang’s Art Painting’ respectively in 2006. With Yan Wenliang’s painting works at different times as the clues, ‘Research on Yan Wenliang’s Art Painting’ written by Shen Jianhua divided his drawing style into two periods, representation of reality and freehand expression. The work explained the reasons of Yan Wenliang’s style formation and changes under the influences of New Culture Movement, Chinese national styles and other factors (painting market, social politics, personalities and so on) and summarized the achievement he gained in fine arts and contribution he made in the aspects of introducing and sinicizing western oil painting, etc. In 2009, ‘Research on Yan Wenliang’s Artistic Creation Periods and relevant issues’ in ‘Nanjing Artistic College Journal’ was written by Gu Chengfeng who stated his own opinions based on Yan Wenliang creation periods and explored the relations between his works and impressionism as well as the Chinese arts tradition. He also outlined a standard for identifying exercise works from creation in Yan Wenliang’s works while proposed his own ideas in the position of Yan Wenliang in the Chinese modern fine arts history. Su Wenhui who worked at the research institute for fine arts history at Chicago University in 2009 published the article with the title ‘Traveling in the past, Experiencing the modern time: The representation of Rome historical site in Yan Wenliang’s works’ at the southwest meeting for the Asian Research Association held in Austin , Texas . With the three oil paintings of Rome ruins theme created by Yan Wenliang during the trip in Rome in 1930 as the article’s approach, the writer applied the methods of visual analyses and iconography to reveal the painter’s creative idea of combining the Chinese and foreign artistic traditions. In order to successfully understand the meanings of Yan Wenliang’s works, the writer also thought that it was necessary to observe from a trans-cultural and macroscopic sight, which reflected the thought and idea expansion of the younger generation.
The studies on the historical position of Yan Wenliang, including ‘Yan Wenliang and Realism’ in ‘Suzhou University Journal’ issued by Yao Su in 2004, regarded Yan Wenliang as one of the pioneers in the Chinese realism painting at modern times. The writer also believed that Yan played an irreplaceable role in his realism approach in artistic creation, pursuit of ‘real’ arts and acknowledge of ‘scientific’ painting, applying the western artistic education pattern, promoting the theories and skills of western realistic art painting, some historical achievement such as establishing Suzhou Arts School and the development of realistic painting in China at modern times. In 2006, Li Jiannan published his ‘Talks from Yan Wenliang to the Development of Modern Sunan Oil Painting’ in ‘Artistic Circle’, which reflected on the current creation situation of Sunan oil painting as well as the current states and future development of the Chinese oil painting through Yan Wenliang’s artistic research.
In the aspect of studies on Yan Wenliang’s artistic education contribution which includes ‘Yan Wenliang and Suzhou Art College’ issued by Lu Yucheng and Liu Dan in ‘Suzhou University Jounral’ in 2004 appointed out, by the way of sorting out documents, the promoting significance of Yan Wenliang and Suzhou Art College for the Chinese artistic education at modern times. The article ‘Comparative Study of Liu Haili, Xu Beihong and Yan Wenliang’s artistic education ideas and works’ published by Zhao Si in 2004 in ‘Suzhou University Journal’ analyzed the commonness and individuality through the comparative study on the three artistic educators, Liu Haili, Xu Beihong and Yan Wenliang’s education ideas and artistic creation and emphasized the reference values of their educational ideas in the modern artistic teaching reform and creation development. In 2008, a graduate student Li Jiexuan from Nanjing Art College wrote the article ‘the Introduction of Factory Education System and Yan Wenlialng’s Ideas on Practical Arts Education’ through which the writer, in different sides, gave a detailed discussion in the teaching and practice situations of practical arts at Suzhou Art College. The article presented the innovation, realistic meanings as well as the enlightenment for the practical artistic eduction of Yan Wenlikang’s ideas on practical artistic education in the social conditions at the time and further established the Yan Wenliang as the forerunner in the new artistic education and his unique contribution in artistic education.
Besides, ‘Chen Chengbo VS Yan Wenliang’ issued by Tang Tao in ‘China Collection’ in 2008 displayed a more comprehensive research method. The article took the studies on Yan Wenliang’s works at the art market as a new point of view and finally reflected the weak situation of related academic researches in China and the vacancy in value and inadequacy of ability in the promotion of the current domestic market after compared with the older generation of Taiwan artists.