Lorand Hegyi
虽然选择从历史的角度来重新建构曾梵志绘画作品的语言肯定能引发出许许多多关于他的艺术发展情况，他在绘画史反面所汲取的参照以及影响他的艺术流派等等的观感和论述，我个人却认为将欣赏的焦点放在他绘画作品所呈现的实在的，独特的视觉效果，收获会比较大。我认为与其试图去重新建构他在当代中国画坛中所经历的个人的艺术发展过程， 不如将注意力集中在他作品所展现的扎实，感性而富有视觉魅力的特质以及他在现今激进画坛中创作所采用的文本参照这个问题。对我来说，投入曾梵志画作的扎实又感性的画面并对于这些作品最为直接，最为杰出的视觉效果加以描述是我最感到兴趣的做法。曾梵志的画非常吸引人，既灵动又充满了力量。他的画给观赏者一种画面不断在进化和转变的感觉，而这种变化又是极其奥妙无穷，难以捉摸的。这种多变的视觉氛围令观赏者感到振奋, 刺激观赏者去想象那当中隐藏着的无限玄机；那个天地里似乎蕴含着说不尽的故事，向四方八面延伸出去。就因为这样，画面就像一块探险地域，导向的探险地图引导观者进入神秘的，未知的领域。我的所谓探险地，指的是在画面构图里面揭示出的幽默，生动而自然的内蕴。 换句话说，画家因那感性的构图而显示了丰沃的视觉成果，而这视觉成果又是蕴含在各种富有想象潜能的，个人情致的空间里。曾先生那扎实的功力成功地将画中所有的主体性的环节及创作背后各方面的参照推进，浓缩到前景中，让我们明确地注意到他的画必然成就的叙述特质。
从这个角度来看，曾梵志的画首先给人的印象是：为我们提供了丰富多彩的内容。而这些内容又是与历史，政治，个人的情感和记忆, 心理与幻想等等因素紧紧联系，并且因为还带有点轶事的风格及 教诲的味道，画家遂变成了一个说故事的人，一个评论者。然而妙就妙在，真正的故事并非曾梵志所采纳的题材或所观察到的物象。他要说的，最精彩的故事是他创作过程所达到的成果，这个成果告诉我们，只有他画面中传达的那种变幻无穷的境界才是唯一的，最密切，最富有戏剧性的成果，这种境界 也是我认为最为真切的境界。即是说，曾梵志作品最真实的特质是画家本身集结了多方面的刺激与影响后而完成作品的独特过程。
曾梵志绘画中那多姿多彩的形象，丰富的构图，既有立体感还能引发想象力的，深含内蕴且近乎虚幻的视觉效果，在复杂的光影辉映之下，令他的画作栩栩如生，感情丰沛。某些作品甚至能营造神秘莫测，极为超然灵气的的氛围；因为这股灵气，他的绘画含有叙事史诗的超然气质。这灵气激发我们去思考他作为一个当代艺术探索者在画布上所展开的论述。然而，曾梵志这新鲜的，经过深华的艺术内容与学术界所采用的解构主义美术评述方式，是有分歧的。曾作品特有的内蕴，有待我们将之融入当代激进的艺术背景来赏析。我认为曾梵志的绘画巧妙的融合了解构主义方法与叙述性风格，因此画面上的成果本身是真正值得我们欣赏的故事。
我们如果能采取这个角度去欣赏曾的画，就能避免过分简化，注重轶事，以虚假的历史分析方法或更烦闷的心理分析方法来评论他的毛病。这一类常见的评论虽然挺全面，但其实是没有用途的，基本上是从西方艺评家的角度来观察中国艺术的做法。而这种评论方法，正好暴露了西方评论者对于各种领域与各种文化的学术，哲学和历史背景，社会结构及政治文化因素等等缺乏了解的毛病。
我们需要以另一种心态去欣赏曾梵志的绘画。要进入他的作品，我们要以直接的，开放的心灵去赏析他作品那独有的史诗特质 --固然这种特质也是由历史情境和个人的心智幻想铸造而成。 对于我来说，画家基予什么原因，是在那种情况，心理或情感状态下创作他的 “医院系列”或“面具”系列，受过那位西方表现主义大师在技巧或形象模式的影响，那位古典现代大师曾启发了他这一类的问题，远不比他在不同时期创作却持续表现在作品中那股强烈的震撼力来得吸引我。我正是以这样的观点来肯定他对于当代绘画所作出的真挚，独树一帜的贡献。也正是在这一个关键上，曾梵志留下了他的脚印----他的因为中国人独特的背景及遭遇而更形特出的脚印。
换言之，对于我，在探讨曾的绘画艺术时，最重要的问题是他绘画的史诗性。这种史诗性从一开始就对他的画，他的形象创作过程产生了一定的影响，不管这些作品是不是源自东方传统（一个可能被简化的看法）或个人/政治的集体情感。无可否认，这种史诗性风格的演进及发展必定要放在一个特定的历史，正值/文化背景来审视才行，而我们也要从他的心智和历史背景来追溯他的艺术奋斗过程。可是，他绘画的史诗性是绝对不能单单从审视这些历史条件来进行完整的解释或诠释。
曾的近作中布满了鲜活，坚实，灵动而丰沛有力的形象，这些形象既带有模仿的特质却又是不固定的，抽象的。这些原始的，粗豪的形象给人不断幻化的感觉，你没办法确定或明显地把它们定位—不管你试图从创作方法或者叙事的角度来捕捉它们，你都不能为他们定型。因为曾梵志画中的形象和结构这两个元素处在变动的状态，令人觉得他的创作策略的确是很像解构主义的策略。 但他的画更令我心动的是画面本身构成的故事性。这些故事，完美地体现了画家艺术的创作性。值得注意的是，曾梵志所采用的同一个艺术手法， 在一幅作品中能营造空间感和深度，反映一个反复的，近乎虚幻的空间，在另一幅作品中却能展现迥然不同的情境，编织另一个新的故事。在他的作品中，观赏者总是 能够同时发掘多种精妙的表现内容，这些内容通过相互交织的技巧，达到多层次的视觉成果。
这一种短暂的，流动的，不定型的视觉状态正是曾梵志绘画艺术最为重要，最为特出的一个因素。他那潇洒流畅的笔触，时而聚，时而散；时而疏，时而密，在巧妙的光影配合之下， 永无休止地在画面上创造新的形象组合，讲述新的故事。不管眼前呈现的是一段风景或一个人体或肖像，画家都能半虚半实的把他们变形。因此他的画有一种不断延伸的气派，就像作家在展开，铺陈一篇壮阔的史诗；我们在欣赏大主题之外， 还会发现旁边有许多小小的故事同时在开展；许多副题融进主题中为已经壮美，宏阔的大图景添加饶有趣味的新细节。
丰富的细节在这篇壮阔的史诗里展开，一个母题在另一个角度重复地出现，生发出新的气象，这幅画就像是一条阔而深的大河，流过高山平地，流经家乡和异乡，陌生的风土与熟悉的人情，最后流入大海。曾梵志潇洒的那么一挥，画笔下便有精彩的天地，令人惊喜的情景。这里头当然也包含了画家自己的特质：他所描绘的并不是已经存在画外的风景，他所描述的是画面所能够包罗的一切故事， 是从复杂的创作过程生发的故事。他的故事因此没有界限；她那不断变化的形象结构决定了他能自由发挥，不受拘束。
曾梵志作品所蕴含的不可改变的短暂性就是他的绘画精华。这种短暂的状态，协助我们解开心里的谜团，引领我们进入那意想不到的奇景，那曲曲折折的铺排。曾梵志擅长化实为虚，因他的功力，他通过形象营造一种丰美的情致，激发人们心中如诗歌般的情怀。
曾梵志的绘画具有多变，奇异，开放而神秘的特点。他为作品所取的标题也是贴切合适的。 以“江山如此多娇”为标题的系列画作，在总体上给人的观感是经由书法笔触和抽象手法描绘的景致，其中有气势雄厚，生机勃发的风景，也有从历史回忆中涌现的人物的脸孔 （哟，是毛泽东）。不管画的是人或景，在他的画作
形象的不停变化下，作品的构图始终有一股强大的内在凝聚力。其实，这种含义的持续蜕变正好是曾梵志绘画的存在形式。流畅的，难以抑制的形体蜕变是他的创作特点。这个特点反映他的作品的精神：此时此刻呈现在观众眼前的意境就是他创作最为深刻的内涵。
曾梵志似乎是有意识的去经营扎实的，画面上的意义，然而他又似乎不想太深地陷入创作的问题或从道德的角度去确定形象的身份。他全心地投入绘画，他在混乱纠杂的人事氛围中审视问题，抒发他的看法；他的笔触是那么的鲜活，大胆而率真，他的作品传达了一种扎扎实实，开朗泼辣而真切 的情感。
这种真切的情感贯彻在他每一个时期的作品；其中包括他早期的表现性强的
“ 医院”系列，戏剧性的“肉”系列，怪异的肖像及富有自我探索意义的自画像，包含社会意识的面具系列，直到最近创作的巨大，深入，多层次，多趣味又带有神秘色彩的大型作品。 这些画，画面上都充满了强大的动力，仿佛一发不可收拾，然而却没有矫饰或煽情的缺点。
这也说明了曾梵志绘画中所表现的动力和气势并不是他有意识的采纳哪一种画派，刻意去经营的结果。画家不受任何固定形象的束缚，他又悠游自如的融合了各种美学，心理学，深化，语义学的刺激，通过画笔去塑造他心中理想的境界。
曾梵志以那种稳健，自然而亲切的绘画`风格，静静地抗拒任何轻易想把他定位在某个学派，把他作品简化的评析方法。
在此之前已有好多艺术评论家在评论曾梵志的绘画风格时，爱强调他的风格与抽象或者表现主义画派的关系，从西方艺术风格的分类来审视他。然而在我看来，他的作品富有一股浩大的气势和史诗般的魅力，不适合我们把他放在传统西方的绘画艺术，美学或美术史的框架上来赏析。 曾梵志的作品有自己的生命力，他的艺术光芒以其朴素真挚的情怀，照耀大地。
Beverley Blaschke, Vienna译
吴明珠中译
注：Dr.Lorand Hegyi 是法国圣艾迪安现代美术馆（Musée d’Art Moderne De Saint-Étienne Métropole）馆长 在使用这篇文章时，请著名作者。
THE VISUAL EPOS OF
ZENG FANZHI
Lóránd Hegyi
Although a historical reconstruction of the language of Zeng Fanzhi’s oeuvre would certainly provide occasion for numerous legitimate comments and observations on the development of his painting, his historical preferences in art and his chosen influences, it seems to me that a more fruitful approach will be to focus on the concrete, unique phenomenon of his painting and the question of the contextualisation of the visual references employed by Zeng Fanzhi in our radical here and now. This also means that rather than attempting to reconstruct his individual development as a painter within the Chinese culture of contemporary painting, it will be preferable to try to perceive the concrete, sensual, visual actuality of a Zeng Fanzhi’s painting and to describe its specific, immediate impact mechanism. Zeng Fanzhi’s paintings are evocative, powerful and dynamic; they invoke a sense of constant, unending evolution and transformation without foreseeable results. This makes them exhilarating and exciting, suggestive of hidden, complex stories that could be continued in all possible directions, so that the painting becomes an adventure, its surface a map for an expedition into terra incognita. By adventure I mean the humorous, vivid, spontaneous unfolding of unforeseen events within the composition of the painting, in other words, the fertile evolution of its implicit potential, which is embodied in various imaginative contexts, in various emotional and associational environments, by the sensual structuring of the painting on the canvas. This concretisation of the primary acts of visual and plastic composition in painting puts the different thematic links and the various references in the foreground and draws attention to the narrative which thus evolves.
In this light, it is understandable that Zeng Fanzhi’s painting – first and foremost, at least – offers us content that is rich and exciting, linked with history, politics, emotions and memories, psychology and fantasy, and somewhat anecdotal and didactic, so that the painter becomes a storyteller, a commentator. But the true narrative is to be found behind the storyteller’s tales, behind the commentator’s observations: it is the narrative of the painting’s creation, which makes it plain that the unceasing transfiguration of the visual figure is the only true condition, the only immediate reality, the true dramatic and, for us, relevant event. The process of becoming is the actual narrative here, manifested in the various connotative contexts of the embodiment of the act of painting.
The dynamics of Zeng Fanzhi’s manifold pictorial events, the rich structuring of his sometimes gigantic canvases with their hidden, yet extremely significant, multifaceted, fictively three-dimensional, imaginative, almost illusionistic spatial dimensions, the complexity of the light effects which not only animate and emotionalise his paintings but also, in another, one might almost say quasi-mythical, sublime context, give them the transcendental character of epic narratives, exhort us to contemplate his works in the context of a painting discourse that is contemporary per se. Paradoxically, it is precisely this apparent divergence between the newly found sublime context and the intellectual strategies of deconstruction in visual language, with their connotations and methods, that characterises the discourse of contemporary painting practice, with the new narrative clearly seeking to be integrated, albeit cautiously and somewhat covertly, into the radical contemporary context. Remarkably, Zeng Fanzhi’s paintings manifest an idiosyncratic combination of deconstructivist methods and picturesque painted stories, so that the creation of the painting, as such, becomes the actual narrative.
Thus we can avoid the danger of an oversimplified, pseudo-historical, anecdotal approach and an even less interesting psychological analysis, those frequent, comprehensible but ultimately useless attendant phenomena of discussions of Chinese contemporary art by Western art critics, which, however, do draw attention to exactly what is lacking in the Western context, namely sound knowledge of the intellectual, philosophical and historical background, social structures, politico-cultural constellations and development perspectives of various disciplines and cultural fields.
Zeng Fanzhi’s oeuvre provokes a different answer; it demands another form of perception based on a direct aesthetic examination of the quiddities of his painting, which of course have been developed and moulded by real historical situations and specific mental constellations. For me, the questions of why and under what circumstances, under what psychological or emotional and moral constraints, under what influence he painted his hospital paintings, or his “Mask” series, and which European masters of expressionism provided him with formal influences, concrete models and certain methodological guidelines, or which classical modern masters had an impact on him, are less interesting than the fundamental question of the creative energy that is constantly manifest in his various artistic periods, the highly concentrated intensity of the dynamic force of his painting. This is where I see his authentic, specific contribution to contemporary painting; this is where he sets his special mark, all the more distinctive due to the path he has followed, his Chinese background and orientation.
In other words, for me the important questions pertain to the quiddities of his painting as such, which have characterised his work more or less from the beginning and have affected the process of form creation, irrespective of whether they have to do with an oriental – unavoidably generalised and probably simplified – tradition or a psychological/personal or political/collective perception strategy. Of course the development and the methodological evolution of these quiddities must be seen against the backdrop of specific historical, politico-cultural situations with their concomitant Weltanschauung, and of course his artistic path can only be interpreted in this intellectual and historical context, but the quiddities of his painting, as such, can no more be fully explained by or deduced from these historical conditions than they can be forgotten or ignored in presenting an overall view of his oeuvre.
Constantly changing, fluid formations filled with movement, vigour and power, evincing partly mimetic characteristics and partly écriture-like, gestural, motoric improvisations or physical, tangible structuring, fill the dynamic canvases of Zeng Fanzhi today. The elementary, unbridled intensity of this robust, unceasing movement gives none of the presented constellations the chance to become truly consolidated; this painting is essentially unconsolidated, and thus it is not localisable or identifiable, either methodologically, formally, or at the narrative level. This narrative changes and evolves as a matter of course, as does the methodology of the structuring on the canvas. In this specific eclectic methodology, Zeng Fanzhi’s style of painting resembles the strategies of deconstruction, but nevertheless his paintings present provocative stories that communicate the narrative of the painting’s creation. Painting techniques which in one painting create space and depth, a complex, fictive, almost illusionistic spatial stage, in another painting create totally different effects, a different narrative, letting the painting tell a different story, although the directions taken in their interpretation are not altogether mutually preclusive. There always remains free space in which to follow different courses concurrently, and there is always an intensive interweaving, a confusing reciprocal exchange of effects to be observed.
In this state of ephemerality, of fluidity, of unconcludedness, lies, perhaps, one of the most important and most specific elements of his art. Just as the swirling brushstrokes, through their division and separation, concentration and diffusion, accompanied by dramatic-emotional, connotative-narrative light and shadow effects, freely, inexorably and unceasingly bring new formations into being, introduce new stories and create landscape visions, human bodies or portraits out of the paint he puts on the canvas, only to melt them down and transform them again, so, too, do Zeng Fanzhi’s pictorial situations evolve, as if a large-scale visual epos with many parallel strands were unfolding, continually weaving new subplots into the central storyline and incorporating new particulars and new details into an opulent, all-encompassing whole.
This gigantic visual epos, unfolding in numerous picturesque details, repeating certain main motifs as leitmotifs and continually creating different pictorial situations, flows like a huge, broad, deep river that passes through flat and hilly landscapes, familiar and unknown countries, exotic cultures and well-known, familiar communities before it reaches the sea. Zeng Fanzhi’s paintings tell stories, reveal unexpected situations and report unforeseen events, all of which were brought into being by the artist’s act of painting on canvas. In this lies the unique quality of this artist’s painting: his art does not illustrate stories that already exist outside of the painting, but rather shows the creation of all the possible stories contained in the painting, as a painting event, as the capacity to create something narrative out of complex painting processes. For this reason, his stories have no intrinsic boundaries; the structure of the painting, with its changing contexts, specifies no particular directions in which possible connotations must unfold.
Radical and irrevocable ephemerality is the state in which it exists: this is its essence and this is the key to understanding the surprising questions it poses, its unforeseen connotations, its unexpected turns and transmutations, which can suddenly let the gestural composition suggest illusionistic spaces, or transform expressive, emotional improvisations into mimetic associations. This gives rise to a rich, complex, unlimited aura of fantasy and remembrance, of poetry and emotion, which offers all possible associations with various experiences and unlimited expansion of the scope of the painted picture.
Ephemerality, mutability, flow, irregularity, openness and mysteriousness characterise Zeng Fanzhi’s paintings. In this context, the titles of his works are apposite and relevant. “This Land So Rich In Beauty” is the title of a series of paintings which evince an almost abstract expressionist, calligraphic gesticulation, then again an almost touching, dynamic, explosive, monumental landscape portrayal, here again a human figure – and Mao, at that, arisen out of memory – and in all this, the dynamics of the painting and the unceasing transmutation of the connotations of the massive gestural composition reveal an inner coherence. The continuous metamorphosis of connotations is the existential form of the painting’s vital structures. Fluid, irrepressible, unchannelable transmutation is the quasi-biological, spontaneous, intuitive content, and at the same time describes the quintessence of Zeng Fanzhi’s painting: it is the legitimation of the painting hic et nunc.
Zeng Fanzhi seems to cultivate and radicalise the hic et nunc character of painting, and yet is it probably not his intention to deal with the entire question of creation in painting and identification strategies in great depth or from an ethical perspective. He lives in his work, he articulates in the midst of a chaotic, anarchic examination of positions and questions, and in spite of his vigorous, fresh, adventurous innocence, he imparts an existential sensibility, a courageous openness, a dramatic emotionality.
This emotionality accompanies his entire oeuvre, from the early, expressive hospital paintings to the dramatic “Meat” series, from the psychologically oriented portraits and the self-portraits in search of self to the socially critical “Mask” series, and in the last monumental, almost automatic, gestural paintings, which open up in various connotative directions, it takes on a quasi-mystic dimension. These paintings are dominated by a gigantic, fundamental, universal turbulence that never comes to rest, never bridles its extreme intensity, and yet never imposes upon us any kind of dramatic, pathetic or spectacular theatricality.
This means, for example, that the unceasing, vigorous, dynamic movement in his paintings is not necessarily or directly associated with clearly calculated aesthetic or ethical objectives, nor is it exclusively bound up with specifically planned effects or stylised effect mechanisms, and even less is it interlaced with formal patterns and logos, but instead manifests a capacity for unending transmutation, a constant state of fluidity and flexibility, its substance being the inexorable transformation of materials and their association with various aesthetic, psychological, allegoric, semantic systems, which at the same time are, themselves, emotionalised and relativised. It is not these semantic systems that interest Zeng Fanzhi, but rather the possibilities for enabling pictures to emerge, even though the various semantic systems play a part in intensifying the poetic diversity of the narrative.
Zeng Fanzhi’s paintings offer a permanent, pathos-less, natural, unassuming, fundamental resistance – not loudly declared, but quietly asserted in the daily practice of his art – against simplistic, reductive, one-sided, easily found classifications, above all against formal rules of style and conventional forms of communication, against historically formed, traditional sign systems that are irrelevant outside of their own context and which characterise certain artistic elements and methodological processes. His ephemeral, fluid, flexible referentiality is the fabric of his work.
Even though a significant number of critical commentaries on Zeng Fanzhi’s work place his relation to abstraction or expressionism in the foreground, that is, explain his work solely on the basis of Western categories, the imposing, massive outpouring of his paintings seems to communicate a different artistic quiddity that lies, perhaps, outside the conventional aesthetic categories and historical contexts of Western modernism: namely, the constant, irrepressible creation of ever-new constellations of images, which at the same time diffuse and reabsorb their referentiality, simultaneously expand and relativise the scope of the painting. Thus, this dramatic, coherent, massive oeuvre lives within an unending, unlimited, fluid, unconsolidated process of becoming, which, unfolding behind the picturesque exoticism of the painting on the canvas, is the actual, underlying, essential and relevant narrative.
Translation: Beverley Blaschke, Vienna