文/易英
很早的时候，英国的哲学家博克就说过，一切恐怖的、惊惧的、可怕的东西都可以成为美的对象。这是那种唤起崇高情感的美。人们的认识总是从美好的东西开始，就像一个人的成长过程一样，对于崇高的体验来自经验的积累，生活的磨炼。徐晓燕的画也是从美好开始，绘画之美，土地之美。这两者是紧密相连的。她后来的画是绘画之美依旧，土地却失去了原来的美丽，却是渗透着悲哀与沉重。她的画面之美与美的对象似乎是分离的，博克的崇高之美是来自地象本身，对象就是自然，是人在作用于自然时的情感与自信。也不是原来意义上的人化的自然。而是被人破坏的自然。如果说崇高是人的自然情感对应于自然，那么异化的自然就派生不出崇高，不论自然被涂上多么美丽的色彩。
徐晓燕的画像一个寓言，尽管还是那么写实。她的每一个镜头几乎都是真实的确，经过油画语言的转换，客体的真实就成了绘画的表象。徐晓燕原先是一个田园歌手，她用近似印象派的笔法画出华北原野迷人的景色，秋日的阳光下，一望无边的田野，裼色的土地和金色的秸秆交相辉映。徐晓燕不仅有良好的色彩感觉，准确地把握了微妙动人的色彩关系，而且她那种一笔到位的造型技巧使绘画的美感与自然的真实达到完美的结合。从本质上说，从艺术的感觉和技术的完美来表现自然，还是以自然的真实为基础。从什么时候开始，自然已经离我们远去，自然美从我们的视线中消失？徐晓燕的田园牧歌犹如乡土现实主义最后的余音，此后，图片、广告、影像、波普、卡通取代了绘画的经验，都市的丛林取代了田野。人在远离自然的时候也在破坏自然，在复制客体的时候把客体的垃圾也抛向了自然。因此，人们在失去自然的经验的时候也失去了自我的环境。
徐晓燕的艺术是用本质对应非本质，她作为一个画家仍然保持了自然的本质，她的颜色、用笔和构图的方式都是非常本色的。或者说是自然的。这种绘画性是和她的生命历程，对自在的感觉融为一体的，她的画面，除了颜色和用笔以外，她的构图和表现自然的方式也是非常抒情的。她以前的田原风景有一种蓬勃的生气，后来发生了变化 ，比如在那幅叫《月亮湾》的画中，构图还是那么漂亮，一条优美的弧线分开了水面与田野，浓秋的黄裼色应该与反射着天光的蓝色水面相对比，但是画面上是一片衰败的秸秆和浑黑色的死水，绘画的生动倒是应着死寂的自然。绘画就像徐晓燕的个人本质，她的处克碎裂义不仅反映在她的画上，也反映了她的本性。对她来说，个人的本质依然存在，但那样一种非本质的现象已经发生了变化，自然已经失去了本质。在中国画家中以绿生生态、环境保护为题村的不在少数，徐晓燕则表现了她的独特方式，一方面是非常的优美，另一方面是非常的忧虑，因为自然在她的眼前是一点一点的破坏，从原来抒情的牧歌的田野, 到死寂的衰败的自然。自然并非自然地死亡，而是河水的污染，垃圾的封堵。垃圾出现在徐晓燕的笔下，进入她的风景，仿佛这旨自然的一部分，然而它天是自然的杀手，它在颜色上非常斑斓，却像腐烂的肿瘤和毒疮，里面充满着邪恶，这是人类自己在破坏着自己的环境，所以说徐晓燕的画这也是一种象征，当我们的生活越来越走向后现代，越来越被我们所制造的东西所环绕的时候，我们的环境已经发生了深刻了变化，当我们用波普和卡通来反映我们的视觉经验的时候，实际上我们已经失去了我们的自然本性。徐晓燕是用人的自然本质来面对已经非本质的自然，她的画面是美丽的， 但给人的感受是忧伤的，她不是从认识上来告诉我们什么是环境，什么是生态，而是从她自身的体验，从她的美的创造和美的表现中，反衬生态的破环和自然的腐败。
BEAUTY AND PATHOS----ON RECENT WORKS OF XU XIAOYAN
In the 18 th century, the British philosopher Edmund Burke has observed that all things that are horrible and fearsome can serve as the subject of beauty, It is the kind of beauty that will provoke lofty emotions, What people first get to know in the world art mostly beautiful things, Just like the way an individual grows into adulthood; the accumulation of life experiences will gradually teach him to sense the loftiness around him, Likewise, Xu Xiaoyan,s art has its origin in beauty, in her case, the beauty of painting and the beauty of the earth, which are two closely linked elements. In her more recent works, the beauty of painted images is still there, but the earth has given up its charm to the crushing weight of sorrow. It seems that the beauty of painted images has been separated from the subject of beauty itself in Xu Xiaoyan,s art, The beauty of loftiness proposed by Edmund Burke derived from the subject itself, which is nature, of humanity’s emotion and confidence in nature. In Xu Xiaoyan,s case, the subject is still a subject observed and perceived by human beings, but nature is on long what is used to be; it is not the original nature favorably decorated with human activities, but a nature damaged by its two-legged inhabitants. If oftiness is one of the spontaneous human sentiments about nature, an alienated nature, however embellished it is, will never generate a quality like that.
However realistic they are, Xu Xiaoyan,s painting resemble a fable. Every single view of hers is real, but after a conversion through the oil painting language, the reality of the subject is transformed into a mere representation in the form of a painting. Like a pastoral singer, Xu Xiaoyan has employed the near-impressionist techniques in depicting the fascinating views of the open country in North China Plains; under the autumn sun, the yellowing crop stalks are shining against the dark, rich soil, which stretches as fat as the eye can see. While her remarkable perception of colors enables her to grasp the subtle interaction between different hues, her superb precision of drawing realizes the perfect combination of the beauty of paining and the truthfulness of nature, In representing nature through artistic perception and perfect techniques, the reality of nature is still the ultimate basis. Now, however, nature itself has abandoned us, taking away with it its inherent beauty, The pastoral paintings of Xu Xiaoyan are like an enduring echo of rural realism, as graphics, advertisements, imagism, pop art and cartoon are usurping the experience of painting is the way how concrete jungles have replaced the wilderness. Besides isolating itself from nature, humanity is also ruining nature, as the garbage produced in the process of replicating human objects and ideas are being thrown to nature, As a result, humanity is losing both the experience of nature and the physical environment of it.
In her art, Xu Xiaoyan has pitted essence against non-essence. As a painter, she has retained the essence of nature; the manners she uses colors and brushes as well as the compositions of her paintings are quite undecorated, in another word, nature. For her, painting is a way to experience life and merge with nature. Besides the colors and brushwork, she is also very lyrical in the composition of her painting and her representation of nature. Her pastoral landscapes used to bean a vigorous force of life, which has changed now, Take the work titled “Moon Bay” for example, while the composition is still beautiful as ever with the graceful arch dividing the water and land, a dead, sordid pool is there beside a field of yellowing crop stalks, in the place of a crystal clear lake surface reflecting a blue sky that the spectator would expect, The vivdness of the composition is in sharp contrast with a nature that is dying For Xu Xiaoyan, painting is a way to express her essence as individual, and the naturalism in her paintings reflects her true self. However, while her essence as an individual is still there, the non-essential phenomenon has changed as nature’s essence is being deprived. Among the Chinese artists working on the themes of eco-friendliness and protection of environment, Xu Xiaoyan has chosen a distinctive style of her own, which conveys at once extreme beauty and harrowing anxiety. Xu Xiaoyan,s pastoral lyricism has been replaced with the pathos of a dying nature deteriorating bit by bit before her very eyes. Nature is not dying a natural death, but being choked by polluted waters and heaps of garbage. The garbage, which seems to have become part of nature in Xu Xiaoyan,s landscapes, is the very culprit that is killing nature. The garbage’s bright colors are like those of decaying tumors and sores filled with wickedness. This is how human beings are destroying the environment that is their homeland. In a sense, Xu Xiaoyan,s paintings convey a kind of symbolism. As our life is veering toward post-modernism and we are getting surrounded by more and more products of our own manufacturing, the environment is undergoing an irreversible change; as we turn to pop art and cartoon for visual experiences, we are actually losing our natural essence. Xu Xiaoyan insists on representing nature through natural techniques; as the nature is not its old self, she is contrasting the natural essence of humanity with a nature deprived of essence. As a result, the images of her paintings, though beautiful, tend to provoke sorrow in spectators. Instead of teaching her audience what environmentalism and eco-friendliness means, she chooses to reflect the deterioration of the ecological system and nature through her creation and representation of beauty, based on her own experences.