方鹤访谈--亦真亦幻的世界

采访：吴琴 人物：方鹤 时间：2007年8月 地点：北京世纪翰墨画廊 整理：吴琴 方鹤 方鹤是当今有个性的艺术家之一，就像她喜欢的艺术家一样，她的作品唯美，但充满想象力；表达方式含蓄并发人深思。在当今这个纷繁复杂的艺术世界，方鹤能够坚持自己的艺术追求，并不断的汲取知识取得进步。她的艺术，给我们平凡的生活带来奇妙的色彩，给我们平淡的日子带来奇幻的物象；她的艺术，揭示时代困惑的同时也给我们以美的享受和真的安慰。 吴琴（以下简称吴）：中国传统绘画和西方绘画，哪个对你的影响较大一些？ 方鹤（以下简称方）： 西方的影响大一些。我1996年去了上海博物馆和苏州博物馆，观摩到大量中国古代绘画和雕塑原作，才领悟到中国古代艺术的魅力。那之后才开始学会欣赏并喜欢中国古代艺术。而接触西方艺术早得多，初中时就很喜欢达·芬奇（Leonardo da Vinci），在美校学习时接触西方现代派比较多，那时拼命的看印象派的作品，塞尚(Paul Cezanne)、梵高(Vincent van Gogh)、高更(Paul Gauguin)等。而西方古典和当代艺术以及中国古代艺术大都是离开学校后自学的。 吴：讲一讲你的学艺之路？ 方：我在美校时的专业是雕塑，但是我太瘦弱，而学雕塑需要力气。好在美校环艺系的基础课很多，素描、色彩我都掌握得不错。毕业前我就开始创作，毕业后自学了油画。最开始是画在10x10cm的三合板上，现在可以画150x150cm的了。 03年我去美院进修，专业是版画，学了插图，石板技法和美柔汀技法。那之后我的素描和构图都有提高。 我从96年开始喜欢中国古代艺术，象绘画，诗词和建筑。开始看这方面的书，包括中国绘画史和书法史。练了半年书法，主要是隶书，还学了古琴。 吴：你的作品，为什么有的需要画一年、两年甚至更长时间才能完成？ 方：我画画有时的确需要很长时间。有的因为要不断的修改，有的因为是几年前的旧稿。 吴：谈谈你最喜欢的几个艺术家？ 方：我喜欢意大利的画家弗朗切斯卡（Piero Della Francesca）、佛拉·安吉利科(Fra Angelico)、和契里科（Giorgio de Chirico）；尼德兰的希罗尼穆斯·博希（Hieronymus Bosch）、彼得·勃鲁盖尔（Pieter Brueghel）、英国的威廉·布莱克(William Blake)，法国的亨利·卢梭（Henri Rousseau），美国的安德鲁·怀斯（Andrew Wyeth），罗马尼亚雕塑家布朗库西(C.Brancusi)；女性艺术家奥基芙（Georgia o’keeffe），小野洋子（Yoko Ono）,弗里达·卡洛（Fulida kahluo），Remedios Varo , Leonor Fini，喜欢他们是因为他们都是非常有个性的艺术家，他们的作品很唯美，并且从作品可以看出他们想象力很丰富，同时也不缺少深度。 吴：有人认为你的画和达利(Salvador Dali)的画很像，你怎么看呢？ 方：达利是个非常自我的画家，我想我也是。另外他是最有名的超现实主义画家之一，而我的画中透露出的超现实意境，使人们容易联想到他的画。不过现在我还是更喜欢契里科，卢梭和博希。 吴：你的作品有这样的特点：唯美，亦真亦幻，并且你作品中采用的各种元素都有象征意义，例如《漂浮在五元素中的猫》，在创作时你是怎么考虑的呢？《猫公像》显示中国传统人物绣像的风貌，但感觉又和传统有所不同，能解释一下吗？ 方：我画《漂浮在五元素中的猫》中的那些立方体主要是因为它们很美，我尽量不把丑的物体放到画面中，即便是它有象征意义。画面上的立方体是柏拉图立体，也是西方的五元素。分别是：火，空气，土，水和以太，这和中国的五元素不同，也是我感兴趣的原因之一。这幅画我是在尝试画出湿壁画的效果。 《猫公像》则是仿中国古代的绣像，原稿是用线描画的。边框模仿了中国古代线装书籍的装帧。因为是猫公，所以还戴有鱼项坠的项圈。 吴：中国传统书画，你最欣赏哪些时期？你的作品中除了技法有吸取中国传统的外，作品有没有关于中国传统的题材？ 方：唐代的人物，宋朝的花鸟还有元，明的山水,都有我很喜欢的作品。我特别喜欢米芾的书画，苏东坡的诗书，赵孟?和倪赞的山水，当然还有王羲之的书法。90年代后期我开始迷恋中国传统的东西，那之后的作品，比如《女人（Women）》，《中国亭子系列（Chinese pavilion series）》和《道万福的猫（Cat salute with Chinese traditional way)》等，都有对于中国传统文化的思考。中国传统文化的没落和传承.传统中被束缚，同时也因此被保护的事物以及他们所面临的被现代文化冲击的命运，都是我关注的内容。 吴：04年后，你的作品风格又有了变化，还有抽象作品! 方：04年开始，我去了柬埔寨、意大利、比利时和法国，感受不同的文化，欣赏了各国的艺术原作。在欧洲旅行时，看了很多西方古典艺术，给我印象最深的是意大利的湿壁画。在意大利可以看到绘画从湿壁画到油画的发展过程。湿壁画的技法主要是水彩。这种技法的笔触很清晰。经过时间的洗礼，侵蚀，颜色有种很古朴的美。从欧洲回来对我在技法上影响比较大的就是湿壁画，之前我的画中没有笔触，没有油画特有的透明感，而现在我可以做到。 这期间我也在拼命读书，学英语，并且尝试新技法，表现新题材，拓展我能表现的空间。现在我还是在尽力打开思路，希望能使我的表现更加丰富和宽广。另外能用极简抽象来表现是我的一个目标，因为在我的理解中唯美的最高境界应该是无。 吴：现在，你熟悉西方艺术，也热爱中国艺术，你创作时，在中国文化艺术和西方文化艺术之间怎么取舍呢？ 方：目前我的技法是油画，风格主要是超现实主义,并且对人文主义感兴趣，所以我对西方文化和艺术很关注，尤其是文艺复兴和之后的文化和艺术。 同时我通过对中国传统艺术的学习来了解中国的传统文化，并进一步了解中国社会和中国人，特别是对我自己的认识。因为我的题材大都是基于我——一个中国女性对自己和周围世界的感受。我也希望通过我的作品使人们意识到个人的存在，并且推动中国社会更加的关注个人。 吴：你是怎么看待处于东西方文化冲突和融合中的中国当代艺术的？你自己又是怎么应对这种状况的？ 方：艺术需要以经济发展为基础，中国的经济刚刚开始复苏。对传统文化的重新认识也才刚开始。另外，中国开放的时间也不长，与西方文化的融合与冲突也处于初级阶段。文化的发展是缓慢的，不可能急于求成。如果中国能继续开放和发展下去，我对中国文化的未来挺乐观！ 前段时间看了西班牙艺术简史。有一句话是描述当前全球一体化时的西班牙艺术家。我很感兴趣，“each artist seeks his own personal space. and follows his own individual quest for freedom and personal expression.”大概意思是说，艺术家在创作时跟随自己独特的对自由和个人表现的探询来寻找自己个人的艺术空间。西班牙是东西方文明的一个交汇处。文化在那儿交汇、冲突，非常的激烈。所以对于一个艺术家来说以什么形式来表现是很现实的一个问题。这有些类似于现在的中国，西班牙的艺术家有效地解决了这个问题，他们拥有的杰出的艺术家证明了这一点。我想如果西班牙艺术家做得到，我们应该也能。这也是我正试图达到的。 A World for Real or A World of Dream ——Interview of FangHe Interviewer : WuQin Interviewee : FangHe Time : Aug 2007 Place : Hanmo Art Gallery Edit: WuQin, FangHe Translator: WuQin, FangHe, YuLi Today, FangHe is one of the characteristic artists, like the artists she appreciates. Her works are aesthetic but filled with imagination；Her expressions are subtle but set people think speculatively. In the modern complicated art world, FangHe is the one who can stick to her art pursuit, and learn knowledge constantly to make progress. Her art brings magic colour to our ordinary life, bring mysterious images to our insipid days; her art unveils confusions and gives us the joy of beauty and the comfort for real. WuQin: Chinese art and Western art, which gives you more influence? FangHe: Western art influencs me more. I started to enjoy and appreciate Chinese ancient art after I went to Shanghai Museum and Suzhou Museum in1996. After having appreciated a large number of Chinese ancient art works in museums, had I began to comprehend the charm of them. Since then I began to enjoy and appreciate Chinese traditional art. Compare to that, I have been connected to Western Art much earlier. I am interested in Leonardo da Vinci's works, since I was a junior school student. I tried my best to read impressionism’s work when I studied in art and craft school. Same as Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and so on. Western classical, contemporary art and Chinese ancient art are most learned by myself after I left school. WuQin: Can you talk about your road of art learning? FangHe: My major was sculpture at art and craft school. Learning sculpture need muscle, but I'm too emaciation. Fortunately, I was good at sketch and gouache, as there were many foundation classes in sculpture department. I began creating before graduation, and after that I learned oil painting by myself. At the beginning, I drew on 10x10 cm board. Now the size can be 150x150 cm. I had attended an advanced study at Print Department of China central academy of fine art from 2003 to 2004 . I learned illustration, lithograph technique and mezzotint technique. After that, my sketch and composition were improved. I have been interested in ancient Chinese arts since 1996, like painting, literature and architecture. And began to read books in these aspects, including Chinese painting history and calligraphy history. I practiced six months’ calligraphy ( mainly official script), and even studied classical zither as well. WuQin: Why some of your works need one year, two years or even longer time to complete? FangHe: Sometimes I really need to paint a very long time. Some because of the need of constantly revise. Some because they are developed from old sketches from several years ago. WuQin: Can you talk about your favorite artists? FangHe: I like Italian painters Piero Della Francesca, Fra Angelico, Giorgio de Chirico，Netherlands painters Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Brueghel, England painters William Blake, France painters: Henri Rousseau, America painters: Andrew Wyeth , Romanian sculptor: C.Brancusi ,Women artist: Georgia o’keeffe, Yoko Ono, Fulida kahluo, remedios varo and Leonor fini. I like them because they are the artists with very strong personalities. Their works are aesthetic, full of imagination, and deep. WuQin: Some people think you and Salvador Dali's paintings are very much alike, what's your opinion? FangHe: Dali is an artist who has very strong self-conscious, so am I. In addition, he is one of the most famous surrealistic artists. My paintings reveal the surrealistic atmosphere too. That is why people like to associate my paintings to his works. But I prefer Giorgio de Chirico, Henri Rousseau and Hieronymus Bosch right now. WuQin: Your works have such features: aesthetic, real mix with dreaming. And all the various elements you used in your works have symbolic significance. Such as 《Cat Floating With Five Elements》, what were you considering when you were creating?《Mr. Cat》imitated the traditional portrait of Chinese, but also seems to be different from that. Can you explain? FangHe: The elements I drew in 《Cat Floating With Five Elements》mainly because they are very beautiful. I tried my best not to put ugly objects into a picture, even they have symbolic meanings. The cubes in the painting are the Platonic Solids, five elements of the West as well. They are: fire, air, earth, water and ether, and different from Chinese five elements, which aroused my interest too. I’m trying to give a frescoes effect in this painting. 《Mr. Cat》imitated the form of traditional Chinese portrait. It was sketched in line, framed with the ancient book's bounding. As it is Mr. Cat, I also give him a fish necklace for decoration. WuQin: Which period of Chinese calligraphy and painting do you like most? In addition to the techniques learned from traditional Chinese art, do your works have any traditional Chinese themes ? FangHe: The portraits of Tang Dynasty, the flower and bird paintings of Song Dynasty, and landscape of Yuan and Ming Dynasties, all have works I appreciate. I particularly like the paintings and calligraphy of MiFu, calligraphy and poems of Sushi, landscapes of ZhaoMengfu and NiZan, of course, Wang Xizhi's calligraphy. I began to fascinating about Chinese traditional art since late 1990s. And since then some of my works express the thought of Chinese old tradition and culture. Such as 《women》，《Chinese pavilion series》，《Cat salute with Chinese traditional way》and so on. The decline and heritage of China's traditional culture, The things has been constrained but also being protected by tradition at the same time, and the destiny they have when facing the influence?of??modern culture… These are all the concerns I had. WuQin: There were some changes in you’re art after 2004, you have even created some abstract works! FangHe: I went to Cambodia, Italy, Belgium and France from the year 2004. I enjoyed different cultures and appreciated a great deal of original art. I appreciated plenty of Western classical paintings when I traveled in Europe. The Italian Frescoes impressed me most. You can see the evolution process from Frescoes to oil painting in Italy. Frescoes technique is mainly watercolor. The brush strokes are very clear . After the baptism and erosion of the time, the colors reflect the very beauty of ancient and simplicity. Frescoes influences me more in technique after I came back from Europe. My paintings were lack of brush strokes and transparency before, but now I can achieve it. During this period I was desperately reading books, studying English, and trying new techniques and subjects, expanding the space I can express. I'm still trying to open my mind, hope to be able to enrich and broad my expressional field. Besides, using abstract minimalism to express is one goal of mine. Because I believe the highest realm of aesthetic should be nothingness. WuQin: Now, you are familiar with the Western art, also deeply in love with Chinese art, how do you choose between Chinese art and Western art when you create? FangHe: My technique is oil painting, genre mainly is surrealism, and interested in humanism. So, I am very concern about western culture and art, especially renaissance art and the art after that. At the same time, through study the traditional art of China to understand the traditional culture. And further understand the society and the people，particularly is the recognition of myself. For the most themes of my works are all based on me, a Chinese female's feeling which about herself and the world around her. I hope through my works, it could make people aware of the existence of individuals, and could drive the Chinese community to pay more attention to individuals. WuQin: How do you look at the Contemporary Art?that?is?between the conflict and fusion of?Oriental Art and Western Art? How do you deal with the situation? FangHe: Art is built on economical development. Chinese economy is just start to recover. The recognition of Chinese traditional culture just renewed too. Besides, Chinese opened its door just not long time ago. The integration and conflict with Western culture are at the initial stage. The development of culture is normally slow. It couldn't be impatient for success. However, I am optimistic to the future of Chinese culture, if China could go on opening and developing. I read a brief history of Spanish art earlier before. I'm very interested in a saying which was used to describe the Spanish artists in the period of globalization. “Each artist seeks his own personal space, and follows his own individual quest for freedom and personal expression.” Spain is a place where Oriental and Western civilizations interchanges, culturally convergences with intensive conflicts. It is a real challenge for Artists to come out with their own style. This is similar to China now.Spanish artists effectively solve the problem, they have the outstanding artists to prove this point. I think if they solved the problem, we could do the same. This is also what I am trying to achieve.