内容提要
恒变不居—王同仁画集序
范曾
与同仁兄相识忽忽四十余年矣。1957年我入美院读美术史系，越明年，转中国画系。同仁高我一班，应称学兄。知其从学黄胄，名师高徒，信为不虚。
同仁质朴其外、高华其内；冰清其性、烈焰其情，具有大艺术家不可或缺之素质。而为人又笃厚诚挚，自少及长，自长及老，凡生活中琐碎事、麻烦事、劳而无功事、无名无利事皆加诸其身。彼毫无怨怼，欣然而往，此种情状，令我不平，而同仁惟憨笑而已。
他又是一位敏于所感、情至笔随的天才。1995年他来巴黎，一日携数百张水墨画至我乡间别墅，令我瞠目久之。所画为希腊、罗马石刻，为非洲黑人木雕，为狮虎象豹之类、怪兽异禽之属。且皆画于极为粗糙的糊墙纸上，用笔跌宕奇妙。从艺半世，未见有画家如此想，如此画。始而以为荒诞，继而为之激赏，最后剩下钦佩。钦佩其童心未泯，钦佩其不鹜名利，惊叹其具有一双善于发现“真”的眼睛，一支欣于表现“善”的画笔。伪恶者必丑，同仁本能拒绝；真善者必美，同仁则趋之不及。同仁之成功，盖源此心灵素质。
某日于同仁家中，忽抱来一大捆巨作，室小画大，惟有铺地观赏，再一次令我结舌久之。画面施以浓、焦、枯墨，所画为甘藏人物，为晨曦黄昏、为荒原野草、为耕牛骆驼。印象是苍莽、豪纵、姿肆，《庄子》所谓“深闳而肆”者也。其中亦偶有碧眼黄发之洋人、深皱皓髯之老翁。其笔力之深雄浑厚，足可以令怯懦者振而起、令狂骄者愧而。杜工部“语不惊人死不休”，同仁是其俦焉。唯见线条如屈铁、如古藤，刻入缣素，力可扛鼎。初亦以为离谱，继之为肯定，最后只有拜服。“奇音在爨，庸听惊其妙响”，自以为识见不凡而“庸听”如我，对王同仁必欲自立门户、不寄前贤时彦篱下的不断探索，实在至为欣赏。
王同仁艺术道路略类高低栏之障碍赛，必自设阻隔而飞跃之，一而再之，再而三之，至今不以标榜风格为目标，而以随心所欲为惬意，恒变不居，以60岁之翁时有异想天开。非天赋颖异、笑傲一世之豪杰不敢以艺术生命作此孤注一掷之远游。同仁以为远游之目标既定，则可舍弃一切为世人所赏而早已为己所鄙弃者。在美的领域，艺术家应是“来吾导夫先路”的开拓者，而不是俯就时俗，甚至挤眉弄眼之辈。这就是同仁的抱负，同仁的尊严之所在。
希腊古哲赫拉克利特有云：“人不能两次跨进同一条河流。”同仁深感目下画界惰性之可恶：不只反复跨进自己的一条河，踟蹰不前；更可笑的是不断跨进别人的河里，还以为发现了什么东西，张扬之、鼓吹之，成为滑稽的公众人物。在这一点上王同仁经常用“知耻近勇”来勉策自己，决不肯做一个从俗沉浮的“知名”画家。
看王同仁的风发才情，似“生而知之”者；看他跋山涉水，刻苦自励，又似“困而知之”者。总之，天才加奋斗，造就了王同仁。
“博学之”，言其勤奋也；“谨问之”，言其谦和也；“慎思之”，言其求索也；“明辨之”，言其敏悟也；“笃行之”，言其质实也。有了这样的品格，同仁兄的艺术天地必然广阔，他精于国画，兼通油画、版画、水彩；他是画家，又擅于籀篆行草。“人一能之，己百之；人十能之，己千之”，这就是同仁的本领。仅借《中庸》篇概述其身，并总结此文。
1999年11月14日 于巴黎 雪夫汉寓
THE METAL-LIKE LINES CASTING DEEP FEELINGS
By Wang Tongren
As it is said, ¡®¡®the difficulty in carrying out one¡¯s will lies in overcoming his own self, but not otherwise.¡± In the years of surpassing myself, very often I trudge in puzzlement and deep thought.
Art relies on spirit for its vitality, whereas the eternal might of man¡¯s spirit comes from creation. The true art is the crystallization of feeling, intelligence and life.
It is my life-long goal to portray the times and convey the spirit of the highland. The rough, unaffected and vitalized character of men and women on the loess plateau as well as the hidden inner beauty of the Nature are worthy of expression, which, in truth, is the source of my art life, reinforcing the principle of my creation as ¡®¡®painting must come straight out of the heart¡±.
Art is eternal. One has to give up the self-confidence that he can benefit from the old, and set up a new type of conviction in adventure, if he really wants to make breakthrough in his art. It is a long process of knowing and practicing, from sketch expressing one¡¯s heart to creating images mainly by brushwork, and from brushwork relying on the image to its independent aesthetic effect. For Chinese painting, the simpler the brushwork is, the broader the connotation would be. Here, ¡®¡®simple¡± does not only mean the skill or form, but more importantly, it means that, from the very beginning of the approach and composition, one must try to condense and generalize the profound meaning and rich content. Therefore, ¡®¡®true meaning in simple brushwork¡± has become the theoretical base when I paint the burned ink figures, as well as the spiritual coordinate guiding the road of my art creation.
My burned ink figure painting is inspired by the simple and unsophisticated carvings in the Qin and Han Dynasties (221,B.C.~220,A.D.), and drawn in effect from the figure painting on brick plane; it emphasizes the sense of sculpture, completeness and strength, making the object even simpler and more generalized. When ¡®¡®bone-like brushwork¡± is strengthened, the picture looks grant and thick, leaving a very strong impression of engraved picture or iron picture or rubbing. Depicting the simple and honest, bitter and endurable inner world of men in the western part of China in such a way, we bring about a strong artistic appeal vividly and incisively.
The burned ink figure painting, while giving up the charm in various forms of ink and the traditional idea of ¡®¡®there are five different shades of colour in ink¡±, reduces the layers of ink to the minimum and uses only the very thick and burned ink to outline the figure: It makes full use of the blocks of burned ink to create a strong contrast between black and white, giving the main subject in the picture big blocks of burned ink, linked with metal-like lines, thus a deep and forceful, heart-striking artistic effect is thus obtained.
Not to strive for resplendence, refinement and the variety of emptiness and solidity, the burned ink figure painting lays stress on the description of integrity of the character by the strength of the brush, that is, heavily and unsmoothly use the brush, forcefully raise and press the brush, move the brush reversely and conversely, resulting in the beauty of seal-carving, and the bold and hard casting-like looks, the wonder of which lies in between form and formlessness, intention and intentionlessness. The ink comes from the brush naturally and freely. By making calligraphy and painting into one, we reach the artistic realm of ¡®¡®painting being the highest level of calligraphy, while calligraphy being the ultimate attainment of painting¡±, and win the independence and aesthetic value of the brush and ink.
The burned ink figure painting shows its rhythm, dredges its spirit and brings forth its vigour through the arrangement of ¡®¡®white¡±: the clever leaving of the blank space is not only the necessity of the form, but also the embodiment of the spirit of the picture itself. Therefore, the white-blank space, which is more abstract than lines, together with burned ink blocks and metal-like lines, creates a quiet and plain beauty of ¡®¡®ink and white prevailing over the world¡±. Once the red seal is added to the picture, the three colours of black, white and red produce a clear, void and profound charm, reaching a high level of true feeling by simple brushwork.
The burned ink figure painting, if exquisite colours are applied, could make the ink brighter by contrast; but if the colours are used improperly, they will confuse the whole relation and weaken the tension of the picture, in that case the colours must be given up and only ink should remain. In order to obtain an eye-catching picture done in fresh ink, sometimes the colours should be as close to the ink as possible, sometimes they should be in its contrast.
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