在东西方文化交融中开辟新境——王还霆油画作品略议

文向云驹Xiang Yunju 图王还霆Wang Huanting 译曹宇光Cao Yuguang

在东西方文化交融中开辟新境
——王还霆油画作品略议

New Vista Exploration in the Cultural Integration of East and West——On Wang Huanting’s Oil Paintings

文向云驹Xiang Yunju 图王还霆Wang Huanting 译曹宇光Cao Yuguang

一个画家的艺术眼光、艺术风格、艺术生命、艺术使命是由他的故乡、阅世、经历、追求决定的。画家的艺术道路是他走过的艺术历程。像一条条溪流最后汇合成大江大海，每一条人生小路的风景，每一次艺术经验的新辟，每一种技法技巧技术的习得，乃至每一次艺术灵感的生发和苦闷艰难的坚持，都会留下汗水，流入生命的大河和艺术的长河。画家举办展览展示自己的心血之作，也就是向观众敞开自己的心扉，把自己的生命史透过艺术作品向观众展开。所以，凡是真正艺术家的画展，一定是画家与观众在神圣殿堂里的一次灵魂撞击、心灵对话和眼神对视。与王还霆作艺术对话，有以下三个视角值得关注。

我们先看他的艺术简历。王还霆1958年生于东北哈尔滨市，自幼爱画习画，儿时即在少年宫美术班学习，16岁历经上山下乡运动，改革开放后考入并毕业于哈尔滨市工农教育学院绘画专业。1988年东渡日本习画，为日本画界名宿东山魁夷作过两年助手，并全面、深入、系统地研究了日本画、漆画、木雕，对中国汉唐宋元明的漆画、贴金、雕漆、沉金、散金技术用十数年时间打入进去，又深研中国工笔、日本岩绘、莳绘技法，像工匠一样把木雕工具和木雕技术掌握到运斤如风的境界；然后不遗余力地在油画、木雕、漆画融合上开辟新的艺术道路。

早在1983年他的油画《妈妈我来》即参加黑龙江全省美展，1985年油画《变迁》获全国职工美展优秀奖。此后多次参加省级油画人物展等各类油画展。1988年以来在日本多次举办油画个展。1991年在东京举办个人木雕漆画作品展。2003年油画《村童》参加全国油画展，2006年起两次在俄罗斯哈巴罗夫斯克市举办个人展。2009年起陆续在广州、北京等地举办个人巡回展。王还霆自2010年起受聘为黑龙江省美协油画艺委会副主任。

这份艺术简历不仅告诉我们王还霆在艺术上经历了长期的训练和刻苦的钻研，经历了从油画到学习借鉴日本画的历程；从生活上有过当知青的经历，有过对东北山水、乡村城市、中国日本的丰富阅历。而且它还告诉我们王还霆是一位走着自己独特艺术创造和探索路程的艺术家，他的绘画作品的题材内容、风格、特色，不是模仿别人所形成的，而是自己积累和探索出来的。

我们再看他的艺术风格。王还霆的创作以油画为主，兼制漆画木雕。漆画和木雕在中国、日本都是历史悠久、传统深厚的工艺美术样式。王还霆由油画而兼及工艺的经历让我们想起国画大师齐白石由工匠而艺匠的道路。只是王还霆的探索更加具有难度，他不仅要尝试把工艺美术和油画艺术相互打通，而且实质上是要把东方艺术与西方艺术加以融合打通，使之水乳相融，生发出别样的光彩。事实上，这正是王还霆油画的风格、特色、独创、异样。

春风 Spring Breeze

春天的铃声 The Bell Rings in Spring

王还霆的油画在充分继承、发挥油画艺术写实传统的同时，在画面中深深地注入了主观性、装饰性、意向性、艺术性。他在表现东北风情时，浓墨重彩地渲染和再现了东北的原野、风雪、民俗、村落、人物，具有鲜明的写实风格。但是他的所有作品中都彰显着画家自己的感觉：有一处沉郁的色调，有一些“去写实”的细节，营造出一种“艺术”的氛围。它们不像一些经典油画逼真程度甚至超越照相，它们也不像印象派、抽象派油画，影像成为附属，彰显的是主观的光、影、色。王还霆的油画既不脱离写实风格，又不纯粹地客观主义，有时甚至刻意具有工艺性、版画风、装饰味。比如，有些细节可以因为工艺性而超过照相的逼真，但主体物象上又刻意疏离逼真。所以，我认为他的油画是具有自己风格、特色、样式的油画，是与前人、别人、他人不一样的油画，也是不可复制、不可重复、不可模仿的油画。他的油画完全是由他自己的人生道路和艺术历程铸造出来的，是特别具有东方意味、东方品质、东方美学、东方技术、东方传统的西式油画作品。在东西方文化融合上，王还霆比前人的眼界更广阔，他在中国、日本、历史、传统、民间等更加广大丰富的背景上展开东方与西方的交融借鉴。这样的探索尽管非常艰难，但毫无疑问具有深远的意义和重要的艺术美学价值。

我们复看他的艺术巨制。王还霆花费极大心血创作了两幅大型油画作品。一幅是明代抗倭题材，一幅是东北抗日联军抗日题材。两幅都是抗日题材，一古一今，都是大幅巨制，场面壮阔，人物众多，具有史诗性的追求。选择明朝抗倭和东北抗联这两个题材进行巨制创作，是王还霆艺术情结的一个表现。他出生在东北黑土地，他又长期旅日学习。这使他有可能深刻体察和思考中日历史。一方面说明他是一个在骨髓里浸透着爱国主义精神的艺术家，一方面说明他对中日历史进行了自己独特的观察与研究，一方面还说明了他为此进行了长期的、精心的筹备、准备。他说：“我在国外生活20多年，国外的生活让我更加思念祖国，对祖国的情感很深，越出国越爱国。”他在日本就产生了强烈的创作历史画的冲动，为此专门研究日本古代服装、武士动作、日常心理状态，搜集了大量资料，画了大量速写。他研究戚家军、湘军，将中国军队分为兵、卒、俑三类，研究日本军人，将其分为武士、浪人、忍者，又用围棋布阵法来结构战争场面，数十遍地拆局、布局，终于形成巨制的构思构图、结构场面和人物动作。在反映中日战争场面和人物细节上，很少有人这样注重历史的真实。以致于日本观众观看这些作品后都认为，王还霆让他们在外国人的画布上看到了自己民族真实的样子。他每天凌晨一点钟起床作画，前后历时九年时间。可以说，通过数十年的准备和长达近十年的绘制，王还霆完成了他的代表性作品的创作。戚继光抗倭东南大战真实描写了冷兵器时代的宏大战争场面，人物众多，主次分明，海战场面震撼人心，海岸沙滩上厮杀壮烈，戚继光的战旗、战马威震倭敌。在东北抗日联军战场描写中，雪白血红，战旗、战火在白雪皑皑中闪亮夺目，大雪苍茫，铁骑奋勇，林海征战，赵尚志、杨靖宇等抗联英雄人物的形象与山河同在，与日月争辉。作者的颂扬、讴歌、崇敬之情跃然画面，这两幅巨制生动而深刻地表达了中国人民对历史的记忆。

一个画家终其一生能在艺术上找到自己的语言，开辟属于自己的艺术特色，并且能用这些艺术手段创作出与自己人生、祖国山河、民族命运、人类历史紧密相联的、或大或小的题材和心血之作，那他的创作就是值得尊重的。所有名垂青史的画家都是从这样一条艺术道路上向我们走来的。让我们继续瞩目王还霆的创作。

村口 Entrance to a Village

留守 Those Left Behind

A painter’s vision, style, vitality and mission in art are determined by his or her hometown, life experience and pursuit while a painter’s personal experience will lead to his or her approach in art. Like every stream that ultimately runs into river or sea, every slice of enlightenment along the living path, every kind of innovation in art experiment, every success in acquisition of technique or skill and even every wink of inspiration or perseverance against hardship demands efforts and contributes to the perfection of life and art. By exhibiting his or her artworks full of devotion, a painter opens his or her heart to viewers and tells about his or her living story. Therefore, a genuine artist’s art exhibition must be a sacred occasion where the artist has a spiritual impact, dialogue and eye contact with the viewers. In the art dialogue with Wang Huanting, there are following three perspectives worthy of our attention.

The first perspective is his art resume. Born in Harbin in Northeast China in 1958, Wang Huanting has borne a particular passion for fine arts and kept practicing painting since his childhood. He used to learn at painting class in the Children’s Palace until the age of 16 when his training in fine art was suspended during the Cultural Revolution. Soon after the policy of reform and opening up was adopted, he was admitted into the Painting Department of Harbin Workers and Farmers Educational College. Upon graduation, he went to Japan for further study in 1988 as a personal assistant of Kaii Higashiyama, a master in Japanese fine art circle. During his stay in Japan, he made an all-round, in-depth and systematic research of Japanese painting, lacquer painting and woodcarving. He even spent over a decade on technologies in Chinese dynasties of Han, Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming such as lacquer painting, gold foil, carved lacquer, immersion gold and scattered gold. With a proficiency in Chinese traditional realistic painting, Japanese rock painting and maki-e, Wang Huanting has achieved a superb mastery of equipments and techniques in woodcarving. Then he spared no efforts to explore a new approach on the integration of oil painting, woodcarving and lacquer painting.

As early as in 1983, his oil painting Mom, I’m Coming was included into the provincial fine arts exhibition in Heilongjiang and two years later his work Changing Life won the Award of Excellence in the national workers’ fine arts exhibition. Afterwards, he participated in provincial figure oil painting exhibitions and other oil painting exhibitions on many occasions. From the year 1988 on, he held his personal oil painting exhibitions many times in Japan, and in 1991, he held his personal woodcarving and lacquer painting exhibition in Tokyo. In 2003, his oil painting Child in Village was involved into the national oil painting exhibition and from the year 2006 on, he has held personal exhibitions in Khabarovsk in Russia. Since 2009, he has consecutively staged his personal tour in Guangzhou, Beijing and so on and since 2010, he has been engaged as deputy director general of Oil Painting Art Committee of Heilongjiang Provincial Artists Association.

From his resume, we can obviously see that Wang Huanting has undergone a long-term training and painstaking study in oil painting as well as reference in Japanese fine arts, and he has gained abundant experience about landscape, urban and rural expressions in Northeast China and Japan. Moreover, he has become a distinguished artist with his unique artistic creation and exploration as the contents, style and characteristics of his paintings are outcome of his years of accumulation and exploration in arts instead of mere imitation.

The second perspective is his style in art. With main creation in oil painting, Wang Huanting is good at lacquer painting and woodcarving as well, both of which are significant approaches of fine and applied arts of a time-honored history and profound tradition in China and Japan. Wang’s artistry from oil painting to applied arts will easily remind us of Qi Baishi, a master of traditional Chinese painting evolving from a simple artisan, but Wang’s exploration in art is more difficult. He endeavors not only to combine applied arts with oil painting, but also to integrate essentially Oriental arts and Occidental arts in a perfect harmony so as to bring about extraordinary charm in arts. As a matter of fact, this is just Wang’s unique style, ideal, highlight and innovation in oil painting.

While inheriting and strengthening the realistic tradition of oil painting art, Wang Huanting manages to infuse some subjective, decorative, intentional and artistic elements into his works. In his works about landscape in Northeast China, his thick and heavy colors highlight and recapture the open country, snowstorm, folklore, rural community and figures in a distinctive style of realism. However, all his works convey a different sense of his own as some gloomy tune or some semi-realistic details produce an atmosphere of art. They are neither as vivid as true objects depicted in classic oil paintings nor tiny accessory in oil paintings of Impressionism or Abstract School that stress on subjective light, shadow and colors. Wang’s style in oil painting, based upon traditional realism, is not a simple imitation of Objectivism but intentionally endowed with craftsmanship, print style and decorative feature. For example, some details of high application purpose are more vivid than true objects while the main body looks far from reality as a deliberate detachment. In a word, my conclusion is that, different from oil paintings of his ancestors and peers, his works enjoy a unique style, character and pattern, none of which could be reproduced or imitated. Wang’s oil paintings are completely outcome of his own experience in life and art, inWestern forms but with a particular Oriental taste, quality, aesthetics, technique and tradition. As to cultural integration of East and West, his unprecedented vast vision enables him to manage integration and mutual reference of East and West with such abundant background factors as China, Japan, history, tradition and folklore. Undoubtedly, his exploration, though quite difficult, is blessed with a profound significance and aesthetic value in arts.

The last perspective is his achievement in art. With painstaking efforts, Wang Huanting created two large-scale oil paintings. One is about ancient Chinese military forces’war against Japanese pirates in Ming Dynasty and the other is about voluntary army’s fighting against Japanese invaders in Northeast China in the 1930s. The two giant artworks of the same theme of resistance against Japanese invaders are considered to be epic creations of magnificent event and massive figures and typical presentation of Wang Huanting’s art complex. As a native of Northeast China and a traveler in Japan for quite a long time, Wang has profoundly experienced and pondered over the history of China and Japan. As an artist full of patriotic spirit, Wang Huanting has not only conducted unique observation and study of this sensitive history, but also made long-term and sophisticated preparation for his artistic creation. “I have lived abroad for more than two decades, which results in my deep affection and nostalgia for my motherland and patriotic spirits.” he said. His enthusiasm for those historical creations can be sourced back to his living in Japan, and for this reason, he made such a particular survey about ancient Japanese costumes, samurais’ combat actions and daily mentality that a large quantity of materials and sketches were accumulated. His research about Chinese military forces such as General Qi Jiguang’s army or army from Hunan Province tells differences about soldier, private and warrior and that about Japanese military forces tells about samurai, ronin and ninja. Wang even adopted the game of go to simulate battle formation and his repeated deployment and removal for over scores of times finally led to a comprehensive format, structure and figures’ varied motion. As far as the warfare reproduction and figure details in painting, there is hardly any painter like Wang Huanting who is so accurate with the reality in history. As a result, Japanese viewers unanimously suppose that they have seen the authentic appearance of their ancestors in a foreigner’s oil painting. At one am, he would get up to start a new day’s creation and in this way, he spent nine years until completion. To some extent, Wang’s representative works are outcome of his decades of preparation and nearly a decade of artistic creation. The grand spectacle of warfare in the age of Cold Steel was depicted in the Southeast Battle led by General Qi Jiguang against Japanese pirates. Countless figures of varied features and distinct gradation provide a shocking naval battle, heroic sacrifice on beaches and Chinese glorious victory over invaders. In the painting of voluntary army of Northeast China, the military banner and fire are shining against white snow and red blood. Riding horses in heavy snow and immense forest bravely, such heroes as Zhao Shangzhi and Yang Jingyu outshine the sun and the moon and become as eternal as mountains and rivers, for whom the painter expressed respect, praise and eulogy to the utmost. The two giant paintings are vivid and profound reflections of Chinese people’s memory about this unforgettable history.

If a painter can find an art language of his own, establish his own art features and present some significant works closely related to his life, motherland, national destiny and human history in artistry, his creation is well worthy of our respect because all those painters who earn their places in history have traveled the same path. Hopefully, Wang Huanting will bring more promising works to us in the future.

三羊开泰 Bliss in Three Rams