内容提要
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朱国荣
上海的油画家向来十分忙碌，每人每年要参加好多个展览，有个展、联展、大展、专题展、还要到国外去办油画展。何以如此，因为上海与油画有缘。听说现在上海的美术学院招生，选择学油画的考生要比学国画、版画、雕塑的多得多，他们并非是出于对将来就业的考虑，也并非是对当下油画艺术市场兴盛的预期投资，那是为何？因为喜欢，还是与油画有缘。
上海与油画的缘份可以追溯到一百多年前。“西洋画流入我国，年代已甚古远。惟我国画界之开始洋画运动，还不过是近三十余年间的事情吧。而上海方面洋画运动的发端，也可以说是中国洋画运动的开始。”①“上海西洋画美术教育，最早是徐家汇土山湾天主教堂所办的图画馆。该馆创立于清同治年间，教授科目分水彩、铅笔、擦笔、木炭、油画等” ②为此徐悲鸿把土山湾画馆称作是“中国西洋画之摇篮”。1911年从海外留学归来的周湘在上海首先创办了私立美术学校“中西图画函授学堂”，开设了油画等课程。乌始光、丁悚、刘海粟、陈抱一、张聿光、汪亚尘等人均为该校的学生。後来周湘又在董家渡天主堂右侧创办了上海油画院。1912年，刘海粟与乌始光等人共同合办了上海图画美术院，即后来称作的上海美专，在今年正值一百周年。当时在上海美专任教或就学的有王济远、陈抱一、庞薰柝、方干民、许幸之、倪贻德、俞云阶、李毅士、潘玉良等。1931年，留法归来的庞薰柝与留日归来的倪贻德等人成立了“用新的技法来表现新时代的精神”的油画团体“决澜社”，前後举办了4次具有探索精神的展览，展示了受欧洲现代艺术影响的新面貌。新中国成立後，在1960年恢复的上海美术专科学校，重新聚集起了一批油画教授和教师，在当时艰难的环境中培养出了一批又一批的油画专业毕业生，其中有魏景山、邱瑞敏、夏葆元、凌启宁、陈逸飞、王音、陈川、陈伟德、赵以夫、陈逸頀等。後来这批学生中有不少人做了老师，在上海戏剧学院、上海大学美术学院、上海交通大学等高等学府任教，出现了俞晓夫、周长江、黄阿忠等一批在当今上海富有影响力的画家。如今，他们又在大学里培养新一代的油画人才。事实上，上海在美术人才培养上，并不是一种近亲繁殖，因为上海还接纳了大量的外省市美术学院的教授、教师，甚至美院的毕业生进入各大学美术学院担任教职，这为上海油画多元的风格汇集起到了不可或缺的促进作用，而这也正是上海这座移民城市的活力所在。因此，上海在中国油画发展的各个时期中，一直扮演着一个极为重要的角色。这一角色正是通过上海油画家一代又一代的传承来保持至今的。
这次受邀参展的上海油画家大都是属于写实风格的，也有少数几位是画抽象的。在他们的作品中，我感到多少带有点欧洲绘画的艺术趣味。尽管俄罗斯巡回展览派和苏联社会主义现实主义绘画曾经在一段时间里给予中国油画以很大的影响；尽管他们中有不少人在美国有过一段不祘短的从艺经历与生活体验，但是在他们的作品中还是带着欧洲绘画的影响，这也许就是上海与欧洲的一种缘份。这中间既与上海老一辈油画家在欧洲的留学经历有关。他们将从欧洲学来的新古典主义、浪漫主义、现实主义、印象主义，乃至现代主义的油画技法和创作观念通过学院式教育、师徒式传授，或者通过美术展览，教给了或者影响了青年学生和油画爱好者；这也与老上海的生活深受欧洲文化的浸润有关。上海的建筑形态、生活方式和市民的文化追求在欧式文化的影响下，潜移默化地养成画家在艺术追求上的偏爱。正如著名女作家陈丹燕说，“上海是一个更喜欢欧洲的城市。”③陈丹青在最近回忆也有类似的表述，他说，“在他（林旭东）的寓所里，我们开始想象欧洲。……近时翻检彼此的旧作，我好生惊讶：在一个以二手三手苏联套路覆盖本土油画的年代，旭东与韩辛的直觉，竟使极度匮乏的自学生涯挣脱单一的影响，触探当年所能企及的资源，并尽可能画品端正。……早在七十年代，我画中那点欧洲意识就来自旭东与韩辛。”④可见上海的油画家在建立自己的艺术个性化面貌时，自觉地继承了老一辈艺术家的执着，严谨的学术态度，坚守着雅致脱俗的艺术格调。他们更善于表现，而不是宣泄；更善于精心描绘，而不是随心所欲。因此，你很难在一位成熟的上海油画家作品中找到粗糙和草率。
在上海油画家的作品中，渗透着对上海这座城市挥不去的情愫，昔时的情景、曾经的生活、现代的气息、今日的时尚，都会在他们的作品中若隐若现地的透露出来。很多人都会对上海老大楼里挂着的那些五花八门的信箱群记忆犹新，应小在他的“邻里系列”中则描绘了在一个水斗上装着许多只带水表的水笼头的景象，有异曲同工之妙。这些画面以纪实的手法刻录了上海已经逝去的一段生活的记忆，苦涩中带着无奈。情感的表达是艺术创作中最基本的目的，是艺术的本质和生命所在。上海油画家也喜欢走出上海，东南西北地走走看看，海纳百川的开放心态和关注生命的人文理想将他们的艺术视角拓宽到很远的地方，同时又会关注到容易被人忽视的细节，而这一切都会回到上海这个原点上来表现。
在上海的企业要做强、做大，从文化上介入，似乎已成为当下一致的看法和做法。唐朝集团是一家以高端餐饮为主业的民营企业，其业务已拓展至农业、体育、拍卖和网络贸易。其下属的上海唐恒文化艺术投资有限公司以庆贺唐朝集团建立10周年为契机，举办“视觉唐朝——上海油画家邀请展”可以说是迈开了艺术品经营的第一步。走高端的艺术品经营路线，既能够显示身处上海陆家嘴核心金融圈的唐朝集团的文化品位，又体现出其打造集艺术品展示、销售、拍卖和投资为一体的文化产业链，创建中国一流的艺术品交易平台的勃勃雄心。
朱国荣
上海市美术家协会副主席
2012年6月於上海雅仕轩
注释
①陈抱一：《洋画运动过程略记》，原载《上海艺术月刊》1942年第5~12期。
②丁悚：《上海早期的西洋画美术教育》。
③陈丹燕：《木已成舟》。
④见《新民晚报》2012年6月2日《讲讲我们四十年的故事》。
Preface
By Zhu Guorong
Shanghai oil-painting artists are very busy. Every year, almost everybody attends a good number of exhibitions: personal exhibitions, joint exhibitions, great exhibitions, thematic exhibitions, and even overseas exhibitions. Why? Shanghai and oil painting are destined to be together. We hear that ,at the Shanghai Art College admissions, more students choose to study oil painting than Chinese painting, printmaking, or sculpture, not out of consideration for future employment, nor expecting investment on the current thriving canvas art market. Why, then? They like it. They are connected to oil painting.
The destiny of Shanghai and oil painting can be traced back to a hundred years ago. Western Paintings was introduced in China long time ago. But the beginning of Western Painting Movement in China, however, was about thirty years ago. The Western Painting Movement in Shanghai could also be cited as the beginning of Western Painting Movement in China. The earliest Western painting education in Shanghai started at the art museum run by the Tushanwan Catholic Church in Xujiahui. The museum was founded in Tongzhi years of Qing Dynasty, teaching paintings such as watercolor, pencil, rub pen, charcoal, oil painting, and etc. Therefore, Xu Beihong called this museum as “the cradle of Western painting in China”. In 1911, Zhou Xiang returned from studying abroad, and founded a private painting school in Shanghai, the Chinese and Western Paintings Correspondence School. Wu Shiguang, Ding Su, Liu Haisu, Chen Baoyi, Zhang Yuguang, and Wang Yachen were students of the school. Later, Zhou Xiang established the Shanghai Oil Painting Institute right to the Dongjiadu Catholic Church. In 1912, Liu Haisu and Wu Shiguang founded Shanghai Picture Academy of Arts, later called Shanghai College of Arts that celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Those who have been teaching or studying in Shanghai College of Arts include Wang Jiyuan, Chen Baoyi, Pang Xunqin, Fang Ganmin, Xu Xingzhi, Ni Yide, Yu Yunjie, Li Yishi, Pan Yuliang, and etc. In 1931, Pang Xunqin returned from France, and Ni Yide returned from Japan. And they together founded a painters’ club called “Juelan Club” with the motto of “new techniques to express the spirit of the new era”. They had organized four exhibitions, displaying the new face under the influence of European modern art. After the beginning of new China, Shanghai College of Arts was restored in 1960. A number of painting professors and teachers were gathered. Despite a difficult environment at the time, the college has taught a few great painters, including Wei Jingshan, Qiu Ruimin, Xia Baoyuan, Ling Qining, Chen Yifei, Wang Jieyin, Chen Chuan, Chen Weide, Zhao Yifu, Chen Yiming and so on. Later, many of these students had taught at Shanghai Theatrical Institute, Academy of Fine Arts of Shanghai University, Shanghai University of Communications, and some of them became influential painters in Shanghai today, such as Yu Xiaofu, Zhou Changjiang, and Huang Azhong. Today, they are teaching new talents at different universities. Shanghai embraces professors, teachers, even graduates of fine arts from everywhere to teach at the academy and the institute of fine arts, who play indispensable roles in promoting the variety of Shanghai paintings, and this is exactly the vigor of Shanghai as an immigration city. Therefore, at each development stage of Chinese oil painting, Shanghai has been playing a key role. And the role has been inherited through generations until now.
The painting style of invited Shanghai oil painters is mostly realistic. In their works, I can feel the artistic taste of European paintings. Even though the School of Russian Roving Exhibitions and Soviet Socialist Realism paintings had a great influence on Chinese paintings, and many of them spent some time in the United States, Influences from European paintings can still be found in their works, and maybe that is a destiny between Shanghai and Europe. It is from the influence of the study experiences in Europe of the older generation oil painters in Shanghai. Through academic education, mentoring, or art exhibitions, Shanghai oil painters have been taught European style painting techniques and creative concepts from new classicism, romanticism, realism, impressionism, and even modernism or affected young students and painting enthusiasts, which is also associated with the infiltration of European culture into the lifestyles of old Shanghai. Under the influence of European culture, Shanghai architectural form, lifestyle and culture pursuit have imperceptibly developed the preference of painters in the pursuit of art. Chen Danyan, a famous writer, said, “Shanghai is the city that favors Europe. Chen Danqing has similar expressions in a recent recall, he said, “In his (Lin Xudong) home, we naturally begin to imagine Europe... Recently when we read old works of each other, I was exceedingly surprised: In the age when the second- or third-hand Soviet routine was prevailed in local paintings, the intuition of Xu Dong and Han Xin, without being influenced by biased influence of self-taught career, could let them explore all possible resources and paint the best out of them. Early in the 1970s, the European touch in my paintings resulted from the influence of Xu Dong and Han Xin.” Shanghai oil painters have consciously inherited the dedication and rigorous attitude of older generations, while building their own artistic personalities. They have insisted on the purity in their styles. They rigorously focus on realistic depiction and details. Therefore, it is hard to find rough and hasty touches in oil-paintings of mature Shanghai painters.
The mixed feelings about the fashion and life style of old Shanghai in modern Shanghai can be peeped in oil paintings of painters from Shanghai. Many people would be fresh with the memory of different mail boxes hanging in old buildings. “Neighborhood” series of Ying Xiaojie, depicting the scene of a sink filled with many water meter taps, shows the very idea. These scenes have depicted, in a documentary way, an aspect of old Shanghai that was helpless out of bitterness, have gone. Emotional expression is the basic purpose of art, where the essential meaning of art and life stay. Shanghai oil painters also like to go out of Shanghai, and venture diverse topics concerning humanistic ideals and life, while putting attentions on easily-overlooked details, all of which come back to the original expression style of Shanghai.
The appreciation of culture is becoming more and more important aspect for stronger and bigger companies in Shanghai. Tang Dynasty Group runs a high-end restaurant chain, one of the most prestigious restaurants in Shanghai, and is extending the business area to agriculture, sports, auction, and online business. Its subordinate, Shanghai Tang Heng Arts and Culture Investment Co., Ltd. is presenting the oil painting exhibition: Vision Tang Dynasty - Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Tang Dynasty Group, which can be described as the first step into the art business. The pursuit of the prestigious art business shows not only the cultural taste of Tang Dynasty Group, which is located in Lujiazui financial circle, but also the ambitions of creating cultural industry chain, ranging from art shows, sales, and auctions to investment, creating a first-class art trading platform in China.
Zhu Guorong
Vice-Chairman of Shanghai Artists Association
June 2012
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