展览海报

展览名称：以无厚入有间——庄声涛先生个展

学术主持：林书传

策展人：冯黎敏

展览时间：2021.5.16-6.16

主办单位：瀚阳艺术中心

视觉设计：田字格设计 tzgdesign

展览地点：杭州西湖区曙光路120号，黄龙饭店西大堂

“山水” 色-墨-宣纸-47x78cm 2014 

以无厚入有间

庄声涛先生的作品，大都笔势赫奕、生气淋漓，虽以传统笔墨入画，却能焕然而出一股腾挪跌宕的不羁之力，虽有落拓恣意的逍遥风骨，却无半点佯狂放浪的习气，虽饱纳江南氤氲钟灵，却断无乡愿遗俗的曲逢。在东方与西方之间，在传统与当代之间，在生活与创作之间，他以无厚入有间的笃定，形貌岿然，自成乾坤。

“荷塘 1” 墨-宣纸 96x180cm-2008

所谓“以无厚入有间”，语出庄子《庖丁解牛》，故事讲的是厨师给梁惠王宰牛，梁惠王问他的技艺怎么竟然高到这种程度，庖丁说：“以无厚入有间，恢恢乎其于游刃必有余地矣，是以十九年而刀刃若新发于硎”，意思是以薄薄的刀刃进入牛骨的间歇，我能够游刃有余，因为十九年来，刀刃还象刚从磨刀石上磨出来的一样。这一精妙的回答，一方面彰显了其高超的技艺，另一方面形象地表达了“宝刀不老，愈见其利”的状态。我之所以用“以无厚入有间”来涵括庄先生的作品，并作为展览主题，是因为，无论是庄先生作为艺术家，他在作品中表现出的创作状态，还是作为一个生命个体，他在延绵数十载的时间轴线上，几次易地而居，每每在陌生之地所显豁出的精神状态，都极具“恢恢乎其于游刃必有余地矣”的特点。

“夜色-1”-墨-宣纸180x96cm-2006 

“情动于中”-墨-宣纸-100x50cm-2017

东方哲学讲天人合一，西方哲学讲主体客体，前者重感受和顿悟，后者重理性和思辨。庄先生的创作之路，选择了统纳两者所长，融东方的笔墨意蕴和西方的抽象表现于一炉，更关键的是他在本来互不兼容，硬若牛骨的东西方两套截然有别的美学系统中，精准地找到了间隙，并遨游其中。这其中有两个方面的原因，为他提供了坚固的基础，一个就是他自幼研习真草隶篆，深谙笔墨秉性，并进而转化为绘画中的书写性，这是一个连贯有序、讲求积累玩不得花样的系统性建构。另一个就是他无论是在东南亚，还是在法兰西、美利坚，无论身处何种语境，他都抱元守一，坚守东方传统的笔墨的根性。虽然表面上这两点有其相似性，即“书写性”和“笔墨根性”，但在本质上却截然有别。“书写性”是技法表现层面的表述，而“笔墨根性”却是形而上的表述，可以简单理解为，前者是“术”，后者是“道”，虽然互相勾连暗通骨血，却各有所指各有所重。

“重彩之大红”-色-水彩纸- 39x54cm-2019 

“重彩之粉白” 墨 色 水彩纸 46x61cm 2019

“重彩之桃红”-色-水彩纸-26x37cm-2019

庄声涛先生，从7岁起，汲汲于笔墨之道七十余载，其绘画的技艺、生命的状态，以及从作品中透射出的精神气象，都毋庸置疑地堪比庄子笔下“若新发于硎”的庖丁。“以无厚入有间”既贴切地表明了作为艺术家的庄声涛，在东方传统笔墨的根脉上，矢志弥坚，同时他化用西方抽象艺术的表现形式和构图方法，从容驾驭画面，每每在笔墨的间隙里，都能赫然有光。随着光在间隙中的游走，一个根脉通畅、元气淋漓、形神饱满的艺术家面貌跃然笔墨之间。他无论是从潮州出发，从新加坡出发，抑或是从苏州出发，归根结蒂，都是从笔墨出发，因而，笔墨里有他的故乡，有他里的潮州、新加坡，有他的苏州，笔墨里有他洞悉人间世后，“以无厚入有间”的智慧与从容。

——林书传

2021-5-9

艺术家庄声涛

庄声涛简历

1944  出生于中国

1955  移居新加坡

1964  进入南洋美术专科学校研究班

向中国书画名家施香沱先生学习书画

1966  组建旨在推动和发展新加坡的水墨艺术的年轻团体“墨澜社”

1969  任“新加坡开埠 l50年纪念美展”的工作委员及“东方美术组”评委

1972  获南洋大学一等荣誉文学士 

1977  获南洋大学文学硕士学位

1979  个人首次画展，新加坡希尔顿饭店，新加坡

任新加坡访华美术文物考察团秘书访问中国

1980  “第一届国际书法展”，香港

1981  游学法国，为期一年

1982  “旅法画展－庄声涛个展”，艺术之家画廊，新加坡

“新加坡艺术节美展”

第三届东盟美术巡回展”

1983  “新加坡画家三人展”，墨尔本，澳大利亚

1985  “庄声涛书法近作－ 庄声涛个展”，新加坡国家博物院，新加坡

1986  “我的道路－庄声涛个展”，亚化画廊，新加坡

1987  “新方向，八十年代新加坡的现代艺术”，新加坡国家博物院，新加坡

“国家博物院百年纪念展”，新加坡国家博物院，新加坡

1987.8  前往美国加利福尼亚州

1988.4  北上华盛顿州，入科尼斯艺术学院学习，制作版画，完成“山的系列”套色木板

1988.9  入华盛顿大学艺术院绘画研究所主修西洋现代艺术，并着手制作系列油、胶彩和拼贴作品

1991  艺术研究生作品联展，华盛顿大学亨利画廊，美国

1993  “水墨之旅”，国家博物院画廊，新加坡

“第二届东盟艺术研讨会和作品展”，马尼拉，菲律宾

1994  “秋思－庄声涛个展”，生画廊，新加坡

1996.10 前往杭州 

1997.8  前往苏州，并客居至今

1999  “Power and Poetry”三人展，新加坡美术馆，新加坡

2006  “第五届深圳国际水墨双年展”，关山月美术馆，中国深圳

2007  “水墨在途——2007上海新水墨大展”，朱屺瞻美术馆，中国上海

2009  苏州本色美术馆“入驻”艺术家

2016  “Variation in Ink”庄声涛回顾展，私人藏家，新加坡

2017  “庄声涛水墨展”，谁先觉画廊iPreciation,新加坡

2020  “浓墨重彩－庄声涛独家在线个展”，谁先觉画廊iPreciation，新加坡

2021  “楮墨之外——在苏州”庄声涛个展, 谁先觉画廊 iPreciation,新加坡

“朱墨-3” 墨-色-宣纸-100x100cm-2016 

I rely on Heaven's structuring

The works of Zhuang Shengtao are grand and vivid. Though traditional strokes have been part of his paintings, a bohemian allure emanates from the image that is free and unfettered, without any pretentious wildness. Shaped by the lofty aura exclusive to the regions south of the Yangtze River, these works aren’t done as part of the tacky homesickness. Instead, they drift between the East and the West, transcend modernity and the contemporary, and connect life with creations. In a word, Zhuang is trying to fit for spaces with a calm, uncompromising and heavenly mindset.

According to Zhuangzi’s Dismember an Ox as Skillfully as a Butcher, a butcher named Ding once explained to King Hui of Liang about his high skills of dismembering an ox. Ding said, “The key is to fit my thin blade for the spaces between ox bones, where I can move the blade as I wish because my blade has been in a perfect shape over the past 19 years, just like it’s being recently ground on a stone”. This is a spectacular response that highlights his mastery of sublime skills and demonstrates the fact that “an effective blade never ages but gets ever sharper”. Therefore, I quote from the ancient record and use “Fitting For Spaces” as the catchphrase for Mr. Zhuang’s works and the exhibition. As an artist, Zhuang has been seen as an individual life in his creations, and he has relocated multiple times over decades, no matter where he went, his spiritual status in an unknown place has been reminiscent of “moving a blade as he wishes”.

The philosophical insights in the East put humans as an integral part of nature, but the Western philosophers came up with subjects and objects. Therefore, feelings and sudden enlightenments are highlighted in the East, but rationality and critical thinking in the West. Zhuang, however, has borne both the East and the West in mind for his creations that juxtapose the oriental connotations of strokes with the abstract genre of the West. More importantly, he has been so accurate in locating a comfortable space from the two incompatible and starkly contrasting aesthetic systems. I think two reasons laid a solid foundation for his style. First, he has been studying Chinese calligraphy since childhood and his deep understanding of ink strokes facilitated the transformation of writing quality in painting, which is a coherent, sequential, accumulative, regular and systematic construction. Meanwhile, he has been adamant about the oriental nature of strokes no matter when he was in Southeast Asia, France, America, or other places. Though there is a similarity between “the writing quality” and “the oriental nature of strokes”, the difference is still inevitable because “the writing quality” describes techniques, but “the oriental nature of strokes” represents a metaphysical description. To put it simplistically, you talk about the quality as a “skill”, and you must associate the nature with a “philosophy” - though the two are latently intertwined with allusions and emphases of their own.

Zhuang Shengtao has been painting since 7, and after more than 70 years, the painting art of his works has done a mental journey of reflecting what he has been through in life. Never should there be any doubts when he is compared to the butcher written by Zhuangzi. Zhuang Shengtao’s status as an artist is cemented with the philosophy of “Fitting For Spaces”, the persistence in sustaining the traditional strokes of the East is touching, and when it comes to images, one can see a shining light between the strokes performed with the manifestation and composition of the western abstract art. It is a shining light leading to the spiritual charms of an artist who is steadfast, sanguine, and optimistic. No matter he embarked on the journey from Chaozhou, Singapore, or Suzhou, his strokes have been with him. The sight of his strokes naturally brings up his hometown, alongside whatever places he has been to. These are the strokes imbued with his insights of the world as well as the wisdom and ease found in “Fitting For Spaces”.

Lin Shuchuan

2021-5-9