| 马可鲁
每每浏览自己近二十年客居纽约时期的作品，总能感觉到一份难得的“沉静”。
那时的日子堪称“面壁”，从容面对生计之余竟也涂抹出为数不少的画作,我尤其珍惜它们呈现出的“无声”的状态。
自一九九三年起,我的画面逐渐浮现出中国山水及山水中草木的形态。却一如既往的奉行“极简”，似乎执意要了结“文化乡愁”与转而师效古人的宿愿。至一九九五年，完成“八大”系列。九六，九七年又有黄子久，董源。此次展览中的仿赵松雪“水村图”则已是两仟零八年的尚未完成之作。
艺术诉诸内心，不限于媒材与样式， 而我独钟绘画。二十年前作如是说；论画：以为描画“物” 易， 绘画“物” 难，而画中“无一物”而不失为好画则更难。 故曰：除块垒，去耿介，不骄饰，忌浮华，去机巧，勿炫耀，直面素白，虚怀“ 静观，此真画也。
这确是一番理论，今天看来或稍许隙隘与拘泥。我不曾止于“抽象”，在画中喜欢来来去去，何况政治时效，社会当下于我， 一一不在话下
2008.11.06 I often skim through my previous 20 years of works made while living in New York, every time I feel a rare sort of“serenity.”
Those days were like my“wall meditation,”tolerantly facing the challenges of subsistence and still scratching out a fair amount of works in the studio; I especially treasured the“muted”state that these works displayed.
Since 1993, mountains, rivers and forests of traditional Chinese landscape painting have gradually emerged in my painting, however, the same“extreme minimalism”seemed insistent on dealing with the“homesickness”and conversely long-cherished wish of these effective ancients, in 1995 I finished the“Bada Shanren”series, in‘96 and‘97 the Huang Zijiu and Dong Yuan series respectively. The work after Zhao Songxue’s“Watery Village”in this exhibition is actually a recent, but still unfinished work from 2008.
Art appeals to the inner self, it is not limited to medium or style, I prefer painting. Twenty years ago I understood that painting, I understood the theory of painting as: sketching objects was easy, painting objects was difficult, and it was even more difficult to paint a good painting without a subject. Therefore: eliminate the narrative, be upright and just, avoid mannerism and gimmicks, do not show off, and genuinely face the canvas,“observe myself”with an open heart, this is real painting.
This is actually a theory, maybe today it seems a little narrow, too formal or conservative. I’ve never restricted myself to the“abstract”, but prefer to come and go within my paintings, for me, the political, trends or contemporary society, its not even part of my ethos.
Ma Kelu November 6, 2008 |
