破茧于规 意中成蝶

戴李黎

青年“老”画家余宏达的艺术创新之路

作为著名工笔人物画家顾生岳的关门弟子，国家一级美术师余宏达对于艺术创新的追求可谓非常执着。他，少年老成，功力深厚，艺术表现风格上，力求大度伟岸的气局，烹煮的往往是艺术大宴。

他，大学读书伊始就屡获大奖，却始终在苦苦思索如何突破自我，找寻未来发展的道路……

有所敬畏，有所成就

你可以想象吗？一件2.4×2米的巨幅工笔画半身像，光是頭就有1.1米大。浙江省第八届青年美展的评委们刚进入展厅，就一眼看见了这幅作品。国画头像的最佳尺寸是比真人头略小一点，放到这么大，难度极高。因为画太大容易显得空，内容多了又容易画过了，分寸极难把握。评委们蜂拥上前，仔细察看这幅画，好奇转为惊叹。

这幅作品就是余宏达为参加第七届全国青年美展专门创作的工笔人物画《童第周像》。这是他的创新之作，参赛全国青年美展前，先须经省青年美展的检验。

作为浙江画院的专职画师，余宏达曾5次荣获省级展的最高奖，《竺可桢像》还入选了第十二届全国美展，2009年《草原骄子》入选全国第七届体育美展，同年加入中国美术家协会，在浙江画坛青年画家中有很高的知名度。对于这次获得浙江省第八届青年美展优秀奖（最高奖），并入选第七届全国青年美展，他格外欣喜。

余宏达坦言，入选全国青年美展的难度非常大。首先，它是仅次于全国美展的一个高级别画展;其次，它有年龄限制，45岁是上限，这个年龄段内恰恰是画家创作能力最强的时候，并且参赛不用地方美协推荐，自己投作品就成，参展也最踊跃;对他个人而言，刚好卡进年龄线，反倒处于劣势，因为青年美展的目的就是发现新人、推出新人，且作品力求创新。近年来，中国画发展很快，已经有成名作的画家创新更难。

余宏达是带着一颗敬畏心，抱着一种学习的态度去参加第七届全国青年美展的。对他来说，还有很多的艺术理想要去实现，也一直在寻找一个未来的创作方向，作品入选对自己是一个鞭策。

在题材的选择上，余宏达是有考量的，他选了童第周，一是因为儿时课文里写童第周的文章给他留下了深刻印象，一直想画，可以说是一个夙愿;二是他最专长的就是工笔人物画中的肖像画。每个画家因不同的气质、秉性，都有自己的绘画类型，余宏达画风偏雅，又适合画厚重的题材，画这种科学家特别对路。

其实，这次选择《童第周像》作为参赛作品，余宏达是做了一个大胆的尝试，因为参展效果好的是人物组合，肖像画只画一个人的半身，画面的感染力要比那些人物组合的主题性弱很多。但是他最终还是坚定选择做自己最擅长的。

一幅肖像画，要怎么创新呢？首先余宏达从参展效果上来做。参展要求上限是2.4×2米，他就把它画到最大，这样视觉效果好，醒目。原型是一张很模糊的黑白照片，这个很考验一个画家的还原能力，但这对余宏达来说不是问题。

其次，他把加减法做到极致。这么大的画面上，只有头跟手画得特别深入细腻，其他的都做了减法，舍去了很多东西，大片的留白，做到极简，突出重点。像显微镜之类的器物只是勾个线，又在作品上做了一些破坏性的实验，比如把人物的手稿很随意地写上去，这在以往创作中是不敢想象的，但创新就是要有这种不破不立的勇气。当然，为谨慎起见，余宏达在电脑上做过很多个效果图。

落款也特别讲究，专门请教了池沙鸿老师，老师建议字一定要写得小，如此方显得画更大，投照片会特别有优势。

果然，《童第周像》主体有冲击力，远处所见，大气开阔，头部鲜明;近处端详，造型严谨， 形神兼备。特别是脸和手，虽然写实逼真，但不匠气，而是意在笔先。墨色运用得出神入化，保持了生动的绘画性。整幅画又简约得高级，很有现代感。

这幅画的创作手法，属于工笔重彩，尽精微，自广大。它的艺术创新性体现在简跟繁、精致跟随意之间的碰撞。

余宏达说，这次入选青年美展对自己其实是一次考核，他想通过这次历练来告别自己作为画家的青年时代。

念念不忘，必有回响

余宏达自幼酷爱绘画，尤其在人物画上表现出一些天分，幼时在少年宫学习国画与素描。高中就读杭七中第一届美术特色班，因成绩突出任班长。此后更是开了外挂般在学霸和学神的路上飞奔。

首先，余宏达课外有幸跟随顾生岳先生学习绘画，顾先生见他是个难得的苗子，收他做了关门弟子。这使得余宏达一开始学人物工笔画的路子就很正，起点很高。其次，他在高中毕业后应届考上了浙江美院（现中国美院）国画系人物专业。大学四年专业成绩均列系里第一，并分别荣获过中国美术学院吴弗之造型艺术奖、中国美术学院潘天寿奖、中国美术学院一等奖学金、全国首届高等美术院校新秀中国画大展金华奖、中国美术学院崇丽艺术奖。特别是毕业作品《百年少帅》，荣获了2002年全国第五届工笔画大展铜奖、2002年浙江省中国人物画大展金奖。此后他又以专业第一的成绩顺利考取本校研究生，读研期间继续荣获中国美术学院研究生一等奖学金、2005年浙江省首届中国画人体展金奖。再后，研究生毕业，他凭着优异的专业成绩和较强的工作能力顺利进入浙江画院，成为全院最年轻的专职画师。

学霸余宏达并没有被成绩冲昏头脑，从本科毕业起就一直在思考一个问题——如何打破惯性创作思维，找到一条创新之路。他深知画家要不断求新求变，不能老躺在以前的成绩上，不然作品将会落伍。可最难的就是自我突破，起点越高，突破越难。但再难，这条路也得走。

创新不是空中楼阁，不能凭空瞎造。创新也要走正路子。中国工笔人物画是一门古老的艺术，发展到今天，已经有了很大的创新。当年浙派画家在潘天寿先生倡导下，吸收西方的素描，提倡中国人物画为现实主义题材服务，就是一条正道。

探索中，余宏达首先做的就是加法。在画院，他学写意、练书法。除了画工笔肖像，还创作了一些其他类型的画，如工笔写意画、现代女性工笔画、观音像为主的佛教题材作品、特定题材创作、瓷瓶画……4EAFA7D6-BE52-47B1-9919-0D0AAEDED6CD

还有对兄弟艺术的借鉴，如了解版画创作;对北京当下的前沿艺术家、当代艺术甚至电影海报艺术也进行了比较深入的了解。门类跨度多艺术的冲击，也给了他很多启发和灵感。

一方面余宏达在创作题材、样式、手法上广泛涉猎、学习、实践，另一方面他在展览参赛上找突破口。他分析了很多案例，反思自己创作上的优劣：笔墨功夫扎实，画小细节很好，小品、个展有优势，但参加大的赛事，特别是全国性的大展，在一张画能够体现一个人最高水平的大创作上太过传统，大效果很难体现。余宏达始终觉得没有把自己完全发挥出来，他也尝试過几次大幅作品创作，画得很累，也不是很成功。他去各地观展，思考成败得失，再总结出一套适合自己的理论。

大赛展览属于展厅艺术，视觉冲击力很重要，观众首先视觉被吸引，才来看细节。认识到这一点，余宏达把作品定位在了巨幅。然后，展览对现代绘画的语言要求也会比较多，所以作品一定要新，这也是吸引眼球的另一方面。因此，创作上一定要突破完全传统的手法，加上现代艺术手法的因素。

经过多年的学习、实践和探索，余宏达开始做减法了。他决定专注于自己最大的优势——肖像画，立意现代理念，借鉴各类现代艺术创作手法，深耕细作，挖掘自己的最大潜能。

念念不忘，必有回响。困扰了余宏达十几年的瓶颈，终于在《童第周像》的创作中获得突破！多年的思索和积累在这一刻破茧成蝶，余宏达以一种很迅速的方式，15天时间完成了画稿，画得轻松惬意。

这幅画的获奖对他很重要，因为全国大展，国、油、版、雕同时评选，各类评委一人一票投选，能够入选，说明他的这次创新之路被国家级各个专业都认可了！

未来前进的方向有了，接下来，余宏达要画弘一法师。他计划画一个系列这样的巨幅肖像画，在浙江美术馆或者中国美术馆办一个像样的个展。我们祝愿他在新找到的这条创新大道上阔步前行……

链接 ：

余宏达现为浙江画院人物画工作室主任。著名工笔人物画家顾生岳的关门弟子，国家一级美术师，浙江省中国人物画研究会副会长兼秘书长，杭州师范大学硕士生导师。

Breaking the Rules with Freehand Strokes：

The Artistic Innovation of Yu Hongda

By  Dai Lili

Yu Hongda is a persistent innovator， bold in style. He won awards when he was a university student， but he has always thought about breakthroughs.

A huge gongbi （a realist traditional Chinese painting technique） half-length painting 2.4 × 2 m in format， with its head as big as 1.1 meters！ The judges of the Eighth Youth Art Exhibition in Zhejiang Province had never seen such a big head， so they all marveled at it. Yus Portrait of Tong Dizhou is highly innovative. As an artist at the Zhejiang Academy of Painting， he has won many provincial-level awards. He was particularly praised for his Portrait of Zhu Kezhen， A Proud Man on the Grassland （2009） as a member of China Artists Association.

Yu chose Tong Dizhou （1902-1979）， a famed Chinese embryologist， as his subject matter because he knew Tong in his school textbook， and he is specialized in portrait painting. Because of his temperament and nature， Yus style is elegant， and suitable for grave themes of scientists. He chose a half-length as a bold attempt， as the theme is much weaker than a group of figures. How to innovate a portrait？ The upper limit of the entries is 2.4 × 2 meters， so he draws it to the maximum for an eye-catching visual effect. In fact， his painting is based on a vague black and white photo， which truly tested the ability of a painter to restore the details on a painting. He made his additions and subtractions to the extreme. In such a large picture， only the head and hands are delicately executed. And he made subtractions elsewhere and gave up a lot of things. The blank parts on the picture are minimalist to highlight the key points： objects like a microscope are just outlines， and destructive experiments have been done on some details. For example， the manuscripts are freely written. This kind of courageous innovation was unthinkable before. Of course， Yu cautiously made repeated renderings on the computer beforehand.4EAFA7D6-BE52-47B1-9919-0D0AAEDED6CD

The inscription is also particularly small to make the painting appear larger. Sure enough， the Portrait of Tong Dizhou is impressive. When you see it in the distance， the picture is open with its clear-cut head; when you close up， it is meticulously modelled， rich in form and substance. His strokes in the face and hands， realistic but not mechanical， are very imaginative. The ink shade is exquisite， vivid and painterly， to make the whole picture simple and modern. The technique of this painting is colored meticulous brushwork， static yet vast. Its innovation is reflected in the collision between simplicity and profusion， between exquisiteness and randomness.

Yu Hongda has loved painting since childhood， having learned Chinese painting and sketching in the Youth and Childrens Palace in Hangzhou as a child. Besides， Yu was fortunate enough to learn painting from Gu Shengyue， a well-known gongbi figure painter who accepted him as his last disciple. With a high starting point， he was enrolled into the figure painting major of the Department of Traditional Chinese Painting at Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts （now China Academy of Art）. His scores ranked first in the department， and he won Wu Fuzhis Model Art Award， Pan Tianshou Award and first-class scholarship of China Academy of Art， and Jinhua Award at the nations first art college Rookie Chinese Painting Exhibition， Chongli Art Award of China Academy of Art. His graduation work Centennial Marshal Zhang Xueliang won a Bronze Award of the Fifth National Gongbi Painting Exhibition in 2002， and the Gold Award of Zhejiang Provincial Traditional Chinese Figure Painting Exhibition in 2002. As a top graduate student， he continued to win first-class scholarship at China Academy of Art and a gold award at the first Zhejiang Traditional Chinese Painting Exhibition in 2005. After that， he entered Zhejiang Academy of Painting with his excellent professional achievements and strong working ability and became the youngest full-time painter there.

Yu has been thinking about a question： how to break inertia thinking and find a road of innovation？ He knows that an artist must constantly seek new changes， instead of lying on the previous achievements. The hardest thing is self-breakthrough. The higher the starting point， the harder the breakthrough. Innovation cannot be made blindly. Innovation must also go on the right road. Chinese gongbi figure painting is an ancient art， but it has already a lot of innovation to this day. Under the advocacy of Pan Tianshou （1897-1971）， the Zhejiang School absorbed the western sketch and improved Chinese figure painting as a realistic theme. It was the right way.4EAFA7D6-BE52-47B1-9919-0D0AAEDED6CD

The first thing Yu did was to explore “adding elements”. In the academy， he learned freehand and practiced calligraphy. In addition to portraits， he also did some other types of paintings， such as gongbi freehand paintings， modern female gongbi paintings， Buddhist themes like Guanyin images， specific theme creations， porcelain bottle paintings. He also learned about other art genres， such as printmaking， with a deep understanding of Beijings current avant-garde artists， contemporary art and even movie poster art. The impact of multiple art genres also gave him inspiration. Yu is well-read; he learns and practices creative themes， styles and methods， and he finds a breakthrough in the exhibitions and contests. He analyzed many cases， reflecting on the advantages and disadvantages of his works： he is strong at ink and brush， details in paintings， and he excels in sketches and individual exhibitions. But in grand contests， especially at national exhibitions， he is weak at creating great masterpieces， since he is too traditional to produce a single work to represent his highest level of capability. Yu always feels that he has not fully shown himself. He tried several large formats， not very successful though he worked hard. He went to watch exhibitions everywhere， weighing merits and demerits， and summarized a theory that suits him.

The exhibitions or the contests pertain to art of the exhibition hall， emphasizing visual impact. The audiences are first attracted visually before they see the details. With this， Yu positioned his work on huge formats. Then the exhibitions will have more requirements for language of modern painting， so his works must be novel to attract attention. Therefore， he must break through the completely traditional methods， by adding elements of modern art.

After years of learning， practice and exploration， Yu Hongda then began to do “subtractions”. He has to focus on his biggest advantage — portrait painting， and dig out his biggest potential by relying on modern concepts and learning from various modern art methods. After persistent trials， he has overcome the bottleneck that has troubled him for a dozen years， and finally came up with Portrait of Tong Dizhou！ Many years of thinking and accumulation came to fruition at this moment. Yu completed his draft in 15 days. He painted leisurely and comfortably. He said to himself， it came to pass！

This award is very important to him because at the national exhibition， entries of traditional paintings， oil paintings， block paintings， and sculptures were contesting at the same time. Judges voted for their favorite works. His success means that his innovation has been recognized by judges from different genres！ For the future， he has found a direction. Next， Yu wants to draw a portrait of Master Hongyi. He plans to draw such huge portraits as a series， and hold an exhibition at Zhejiang Art Museum or China National Art Museum.4EAFA7D6-BE52-47B1-9919-0D0AAEDED6CD