内容提要
序
朱国荣
20世纪80年代的中国美术是改革开放后经历的最为激烈震荡的十年。西方的现代艺术、当代艺术几乎同时涌进了中国，在与西方现代艺术的碰撞中，中国画首当其冲，形势迫使中国画艺术家对此作出深入的思考和艰难的抉择。
成生虎从小受到中国传统艺术的熏陶，后又师承数位名家，进入上海工艺美术学校后，同时接受了中国画和包装设计两个方面的艺术教育，这些都为他今后的艺术变革打下了基础。进入80年代后，成生虎的山水画作品开始在上海市级美展中不断露面，成为当时上海画坛引人注目的一位青年画家。按理说，成生虎就此可以在山水画上发展下去。但是在1989年，成生虎突然间创作了一批新风格的水乡画，整整30幅，以作为他自己“三十而立”的新起点。“山水” 与“水乡” ，不只是两个文字的变动，也不只是从北方山水转入到江南水乡，而是标志着成生虎从传统中走出，进入现代。“三十之变” 对于成生虎来说是一个极为重要的艺术转折点，因为此时的他已十分明白，艺术创作只有紧跟时代，摆脱前人的东西，走出自己的一条路来才有价值。
这本画册里收集的是成生虎“三十之变”后的中国画作品，是他对绘画精神的领会、绘画风格的探求、心画合一的艺术与生命轨迹的留存，其中有许多作品甚至还未题款，却鲜活地涌现着画家最本真的情感冲动。在这些作品中，成生虎虽然依然神游于中国画艺术，但是他已经告别了他曾经尊敬与崇拜的古代大师们，他的艺术追求在东方传统文化与西方现代艺术之间架起了一座连接的桥梁。
成生虎祖籍余姚，生于上海，可以说是傍水而居，枕河而眠。江南水乡是他人生中的唯一记忆，也是他艺术创作的一个永恒情结。他说：“我必须画出自己深深眷爱的江南水乡的精髓，画出我心中的江南水乡。”所以他把水乡画作为他艺术探索、艺术创造的一个新课题，用他的心、情、功、技来圆他的艺术之梦。
与众不同的笔墨是成生虎个性流露与艺术创新的最为突出的标记。在成生虎的水乡作品中，墨色通常被用来表现民居的屋顶，那些从空中俯瞰的鳞次栉比的黑屋顶因其高度的简练而具有抽象的趣味。具象的参照符号与抽象的情感暗语之间存在着一种联接，处处给人以风景的暗示。作画工具的改变，必然会引起表现技法的改变；而表现技法的改变，又必定会产生画面形象的变化。成生虎使用排笔作画，笔下呈现的是一种略带规矩的墨形和排列整齐的笔痕，显示的是一种平面化与秩序感。表现手法的抽象性为画家的率性发挥提供了极为自由的天地，以致到后来抛弃具象，走向抽象便是顺理成章的事。在《黑与白的风景》系列中，抽象形态的墨色与留白合奏的交响，无论是开放的结构，还是封闭的形态，留给观者的都是一个无限的想象空间。
大片留白在成生虎的作品中，其重要性不亚于笔墨的表现。“留白”在中国传统绘画中是一种以虚代实、虚实相生的绝妙的艺术表现形式，它与西方现代艺术中的空白完全不同。成生虎在画中落墨很少，而特意留出大片的空白，这留白于是可以变为水，变成雪，或成为地，在黑屋顶下便是粉墙。在这“无中生有”中，成生虎发挥了丰富的想象力和无限的表现力。他从中国传统绘画中继承与发展出来的“留白”乃成为他绘画作品的艺术趣味和特征所在。也正是基于这一点，成生虎的绘画才有可能在现代抽象上走得更远，因为“留白”既有无所不包的内容，也蕴含了中国古代“阴阳” 的哲学观念。
成生虎在用色上同样是主观的、抽象的。他在画中喜欢使用蓝灰、黄灰、正红等色彩作大面积的铺设，很明显，他并不是在客观地表现对象的色彩，而是将色彩作为情感流露的一种载体。在成生虎作品的沉寂美中透露出的是画家宁静的心境，并带着些许的悲凉。
在成生虎的画中，总有一些类似符号小东西，纤细的线条，短促的条纹，有时还加上几许红色，似船非船，似窗非窗。这些小东西依附在大块的墨色边缘，起着某种提示、调节、对比等作用。这使我想起抽象画派鼻祖康定斯基的代表作《小小喜悦》，画中的一些小东西，诸如教堂、骑士、小船等也是用纤细的线条和小块的颜色来表现的，这些小东西在康定斯基的画中有时候甚至还起着重要作用。由此我想到，成生虎也许接受过康定斯基抽象艺术的影响。
与成生虎的水乡画相比，他的荷花画似乎更偏重于对色彩的表现，在《荷塘风韵》和《雨荷》系列中，以局部取景的构图，突出表现了不同天光下的荷与水的色彩变化，显得明媚而清丽。在《墨荷红唇》系列中，线与面的舞动与纠缠、小块的红色在大片的墨色中若隐若现，似乎暗藏着某些神秘的东西。
我与成生虎虽然相识，却从未与他有过艺术上的深入交谈。当年，他那些画有黑屋顶和大片红色天空的画给我留下了很深的印象。谁也不会想到成生虎会如此匆匆地离去，他那孜孜不倦的艺术探索也就戛然而止。这对于我今天来谈他的绘画艺术时，始终感到有一种深深的遗憾。
Preface
Guorong Zhu
The 1980s was a decade when our Chinese art was experiencing the most torrential shock since China’s reform and opening up. The modern and contemporary art of western countries came into China nearly at the same time which lead to the Chinese Painting was firstly affected by the article clash, under this circumstance, our Chinese painting artists have to think deeply and make the tough decision.
Shenghu Cheng had been nurtured by Chinese traditional culture since he was a child, and later he was educated by several famous artists, when he entered the Shanghai Arts and Crafts College, he received the artistic education of Chinese Painting as well as the packing design. All of these laid a foundation for his art reformation. In the period of 1980s, Shenghu Cheng’s landscape painting began to appear in the Shanghai municipal arts exhibition continuously and Shenghu Cheng himself became an attractive young painter at that time. According to the common rule, Shenghu Cheng would regard the landscape painting as his career and keep on this road. However, in 1989, he suddenly created a new style of “water-and-village” painting which stretches 30 papers. As a new start of his 30s, this difference was neither just in the literature, nor the transformation from landscape in northern countries to the beautiful scene of the south of the lower reaches of the Yangze River. This Change in his thirties was an extremely important turning point, and also he was quite aware of that only keeping up with the time, getting rid of the obsolete styles of the predecessors can he braze a trail of his own.
This album was collected Shenghu Cheng’s Chinese paintings which were created by him after his innovation of painting style in his thirties. All these reflect his comprehension to the painting spirit, his research of the painting styles, and they were the preservation of his art and life. Some of the works even didn’t have the inscriptions, but they described the painter’s most essential feelings vividly. Though Shenghu Cheng was still enjoying himself in the creation of the Chinese paintings, he had said goodbye to his respected and admirable ancient masters, moreover, his pursuit of art had built a bridge between the oriental traditional culture and the western contemporary art.
Shenghu Cheng’s ancestral home is YuYao, and he was born in Shanghai, both of these are beautiful places. The south of the lower reaches of the Yangze River is the sole memory of Cheng’s life and also is the eternal emotion of his artistic creation. He says “I must paint the quintessence of the beautiful place and the land flowing with milk and honey in my heart.” So he regards the “water-and –village painting” as a new theme of his art research and creation to make his dream come true through his heart, emotion, diligence and technique.
The unique paintings are the most prominent mark of Cheng’s character and artistic innovation. In Cheng’s works, the raven color usually been used in the roof of the house, the roofs viewed from the high position are full of abstract image because of its highly contract. There is a certain link between the specific symbols and the abstract feelings which gives us a hint of the scenery. The change of the painting tools is bound to lead the change in the technique of the descriptions and the change of the latter one will of course change the painting images. Cheng’s painting is the combination of the mannered ink and the regular pen touch which indicate the sense of space and the order. The abstractness of the description offers the author more space to create which make Cheng finished the translation from the physical object to the abstractness. In the series of the 《The scenery in Black and White》the symphony the abstract raven and white ,both the open structure and the closed form give us an unlimited imaginary space.
The importance of the large blank in Cheng’s works is not less than the ink. The blank in the Chinese traditional painting is the artistic expression of the mixing reality and fantasies; this blank is totally different from the one in the modern art of western countries. In Cheng’s painting, the ink is not very much, instead most part is for the blank, the blank can be water, can be snow, the land or can even be the wall in the dark night, this is the imaginary. He inherited the traditional painting and the blank he developed is the art interesting and the characteristic of his paintings. It is this point that makes Cheng’s painting more famous in the modern abstracts. The blank in Cheng’s painting not only include everything, but also the philosicophical concept of “Yinyang”
When it comes to the color, Cheng’s using of color is subjective and abstract. He likes to use the colors such as black-grey, yellow-grey and red; obviously, he is not using them to describe the objectives, instead to express his feelings. Cheng’s works reflects the painter’s quiet state of mind as well as a little sense of sorrow.
In Cheng’s painting, there are little things resemble to the symbols, the slim lines, short stripe, sometimes he also adds some red, like the boat, like the window. These little things attach to the edge of the bulk ink part, which makes me remember the typical work of the founder of the abstract painting《little joy》in which the little things like church, knight, boat are also described by the slim line and the little chunk of the color, all these play an important role in Kandinsky’s painting. I have to suppose that Cheng must be affected by Kandinsky’s abstract art.
Compared with Cheng’s “water-and –village” painting, his lotus painting seems to lay particular stress on the color. In the series of 《Lotus pond charm》and《The Lotus in the Rain》, the author used the structure of the scenery in the part to describe the color change of the lotus and the water in the different daylight. The lotus and the water in the pictures are so beautiful and bright. In the series of《Ink Lotus and red lips》,the wave and the tangle of the lines and faces ,little chunk of the red in the picture seems to hint something mysterious.
Though I am acquainted with Cheng, we never had a in-depth talk in the art. In that very year, his paintings in which there are raven roof and red sky gave me a deep impression. Cheng’s sudden pass away really shocks me, his diligent pursuit of art stopped abruptly. I feel terribly regretful when I talk about his painting art today
Shanghai July 2011
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