梦与醉

——读林金福的油画

彭锋

一次偶然的机会，让我结识了金福和他的画。我记得是在看完一位艺术家工作室后，路过金福的工作室，不经意间看见了他挂在墙上的《眸》。作品仿佛散发出一股神奇的力量，将我牢牢吸引过去。我们一行人进入金福的工作室，在那里还看到了《琴》、《白舞鞋》和《卧女》。这几幅画加在一起，让我觉得面前的这位年轻人不同寻常。它们不是偶然的产物，不是对某种样式的模仿，而是进入了一种相当自如的表达，看得出来是经过审慎选择的结果，是心灵的产物。尽管高超的写实技巧容易掩盖画家的内心世界，但我们还是能够透过画面感受作者心灵的纯净。我都不敢相信，面前的这个小伙子在喧嚣的北京生活了长达十年之久。画面的高贵和静穆，让我想起温克尔曼对古希腊艺术的赞叹。纯正的油画品格，让我想起文艺复兴时期的大师的作品。金福的画，让我穿越时空，仿佛进入了久远的地中海文明。

随后我看到金福更多的资料，得知他在创作这些作品之前，还尝试过一些不同的风格。比如，有个阶段可以看到李希特的影响，还有个阶段可以看到弗洛伊德的痕迹。但是，只有到了这个新的阶段，金福才终于找到最适合自己的表达方式。这里所谓的适合，与观念和技术无关，与感觉有关，与个人气质和生命体验有关。如果从绘画史上来看，金福现在选择的这种古典主义风格，与他之前的探索相比，似乎是一种倒退。金福正是通过一种不断“退步”，找到了最适合自己的表达方式，让自己的创作接上了地气。金福的这种探索历程，告诉我们一个道理：与科学不同，艺术没有明显的进步的历史。历史上曾经出现过的艺术样式，不再以线性的顺序展开，而是以星座的形式环绕。对于艺术家来说，那颗最亮的星，一定是在感觉上离自己最近的，但不一定是在时间上离自己最近的。它有可能是一颗早已死去的遥远的星辰，经过漫长的跋涉，其光芒今天才抵达视域范围。对于金福来说，古典写实油画，就是离他心灵最近的那颗星辰，尽管它在时间上远比其他艺术样式更久远。

金福执着绘画，目的是什么呢？在照相技术尚不发达的时代，写实油画的一个重要的目的，是对客体的再现。绘画的再现，可以让对象超越时空的限制而获得永恒。就像奥斯卡·王尔德（Oscar Wilde）的小说《道连格雷的画像》（The Picture of Dorian Gray）所喻示的那样，画像可以让人抵抗时间的侵蚀，容颜不改，青春永驻。但是，随着摄影技术的发明，绘画的这种功能即被取代。金福耐心细致地刻画他的人物，与摄影师给他们拍摄肖像有何区别？金福并不回避这个问题，也不希望采取复杂的方式来应对它。在他看来，之所以不辞辛劳去描绘一个对象，原因是要把他们从日常对象转变为理想对象，并在其中找到自己的精神寄托。金福对绘画的这种朴素看法，在标新立异的当代艺术界并不多见。但是，它却与古老的美学理论形成回响。亚里士多德认为诗比历史更接近真理，因为诗不仅描写已经发生的事物，而且也描写可能发生而没有发生的事物。可能的事物，就是理想的事物。艺术不仅再现现实，而且表达理想。正因为艺术可以体现理想，它才不可能被纯粹的机械复制技术所取代。

金福在他的作品中表达和追求理想。在通常情况下，有理想意味着乐观主义。但是，金福不是一个乐观主义者，他甚至有些悲观。艺术中对理想的追求，与生活中的悲观主义倾向，似乎很不协调。这再一次让我们想起古希腊的艺术。温克尔曼将它们的审美特征概括为高贵的单纯和静穆的伟大。包括温克尔曼在内的欧洲启蒙思想家都一致认为，这是古希腊人的乐观主义的体现。古希腊艺术的美是古希腊人生活的美的反映。但是，尼采却不这么认为。尼采的逻辑是，生活与艺术是两回事。生活中所缺乏的，通过艺术来补偿。乐观主义者，不需要美的梦幻和理想，因为他们在生活中已经得到满足。在艺术中追求理想的人，往往是现实中的悲观主义者，他们需要艺术的慰藉，才能渡过生活的难关。尼采的这种解释，深化了我们对古希腊造型艺术之美的理解，也为我们理解金福与他的作品的关系提供了理论支持。金福也是在他的艺术中寻求生活中所缺乏的那种精神慰藉。

不过，金福似乎并没有严格地维持生活与艺术的边界。他对绘画是如此地投入，以至于模糊了角色与演员的区别。金福从一个相反的方向，与当代艺术走到了一起。尽管与当代艺术家将艺术降低为生活不同，金福力图将生活提升为艺术，但结果一样，都是取消生活与艺术的边界。生活与艺术的边界的模糊，会让梦幻逼真，也会让真实虚幻。如同庄周梦蝶所喻示的那样，真实与虚幻可以颠倒。这种颠倒关系，让金福的作品蕴含的信息变得复杂起来。与唯美主义者不同，金福的人物在美的外观下，潜伏着某种紧张、不安和莫名的力的涌动。

由此，金福所塑造的人物，不仅是美的，而且是强健的。这两种审美特征，在西方美学中是相互独立的。尼采就看到，古希腊艺术不仅有制造梦幻的造型艺术，而且有制造沉醉的悲剧艺术。前者就是所谓的日神精神体现，后者则为酒神精神的彰显。在西方美学随后的发展中，这两种审美特征逐渐发展为相互对立的优美与崇高。在造型艺术中，通常用女性来表现优美，用男性来表现崇高。然而，在金福的作品中，我们经常看到用男性来表现优美。优美与崇高的对立，在金福的作品中达成了和解。我们在古希腊艺术中，也可以看到这种和解。因为古希腊人心目中的美，可以超越性别之上。优美与崇高的对立，只是在后来的文化中被不断加强。金福用男人体来表现优美，不由得让我们想起美在古希腊的起源。真正的美，不像后来的美学家所总结的那样，是小巧、光滑、透明等单一的特性，而是一系列矛盾的冲突与和解，是动与静的完美结合。正因为如此，温克尔曼在描绘古希腊艺术中的美的时候，采用了一系列反义词，认为它们“就像海的深处永远停留在静寂里，不管它的表面多么狂涛汹涌，在希腊人的造像里那表情展示一个伟大的沉静的灵魂，尽管是处在一切激情里面。”

如果真是这样，尼采所区分的日神精神和酒神精神，就不应该视为截然分裂，而应该被视为统一整体中的两面，就像白天和黑夜构成一个整天，或者像阴阳构成的生命和谐。金福所塑造的人物，让我们看到了阴阳和谐的理想。在席勒看来，这种理想只存在于古希腊。由于现代社会分工和分裂，理性与感性，崇高与优美，阴柔与阳刚，就不再能够统一起来。金福的作品，让我们想起席勒所憧憬的那种理想。优美的外观制造日神般的梦幻，涌动的力量制造酒神般的沉醉。那种从醉生梦死中迸发出来的美，如同从容的绝唱，袅绕而动人心魄。

彭锋

2013年11月6日于芝加哥

ntoxication and Dream--- Interpretation of Lin Jinfu!&s Oil Paintings

I got acquainted with Jeff and his drawings by chance. I remember I happened to pass by Jeff!&s studio after I visited an artist!&s studio when I accidentally saw his drawing Eye Pupil on the wall. A mysterious power seemingly emitted from the drawing, which firmly attracted me. Our delegation entered the studio and saw his other works including Violin, White Dance Shoes and Sleeping Girl. All the drawings impressed me so much that I felt the young man before us is extraordinary. They are neither casual outcomes nor imitations of some paradigms, but free feeling expressions in a proper manner. You can see they are carefully selected drawings and products generated from the bottom of the painter!&s heart. Although superb sketching skills can easily conceal a painter!&s inner thoughts, we can still read through the images to feel the purity of the painter!&s soul. I even could not believe the fellow facing me had lived in the noisy Beijing for as long as ten years. The images in the paintings are so noble, solemn and quiet that they made me think of Winkelmann!&s praises for the ancient Greek art. The pure nature of the oil paintings reminded me of the works by masters of the Renaissance. Jeff!&s drawings seemingly carried me across times and space to the distant Mediterranean Civilization.

Later I learned more about Jeff, knowing that he had tried with some different styles before drawing those paintings. For instance, from his paintings, we can see the influence of Daniel Richter at one stage but traces of Lucian Freud at another stage. But only at this new stage has Jeff eventually found the most suitable approaches for him to express himself. The so-called !'most suitable!( has nothing to do with conceptions and skills, but is closely associated with feelings, personal disposition and life experiences. If judging from the perspective of painting history, Jeff!&s taking-up of this kind of classicist style seems to be a sort of retrogression compared with his previous probing. It is a kind of successive !'retrogressions!( that Jeff has seized these most suitable approaches and made his creations realistic. Jeff!&s probing process tells us one thing---!&unlike sciences, there is no clear history of progresses for art!&. The artistic paradigms turned up in the historical time have no longer evolved in linear sequences, but expanded in the form of constellations. For an artist, the brightest star must be the one he or she feels the closest to him or her, but not necessarily the closest in terms of time. It maybe a distant star died long ago, but its light has gone through a hard lengthy trip to reach his or her vision. For Jeff, realistic oil painting of the classical style is the star closest to his soul, although it is much more distant from other artistic forms in terms of time.

What is Jeff!&s purpose for his persistence in painting? In the age of backward photographic technologies, an important purpose for drawing a realistic oil painting is to re-demonstrate an object. This re-demonstration provided by painting enables the targeted object to become eternal by transcending limitations of both time and space. As indicated by Oscar Wilde in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, a portrait can resist the erosion of time, keep people!&s appearance unchanged and stop the youth from ageing. However, with the invention of video-shooting technology, this function of paintings was replaced. What is the difference between the figures drawn patiently and painstakingly by Jeff from the pictures taken by a photographer? Jeff neither shuns this question nor wants to cope with it in any complex means. In his opinion, the reason for his tireless portraying of an object is that he wants to transform it from an everyday object to an ideal one, and finds his own spiritual sustenance therefrom. This simple and modest view of Jeff!&s painting  is rarely seen in the contemporary art circle, which values unconventional ideas. However, his view echoes with the ancient aesthetic theory. Aristotle believed poetry is closer to truth than history, because poetry does not only describe what already happened, but also things that may happen but never happen. The possible is the ideal. Art does not only represent reality, but also expresses ideal. It is because art can reflect ideal instead of being replaced by the purely mechanical replication technologies.

Jeff expresses and pursues his ideals with his works. Usually, having ideals means optimism. But Jeff is not optimist but somewhat pessimistic. The pursuit of ideals in his artistic activities seems quite incompatible with his pessimistic trend in real life. Once again, it reminds us of the ancient Greek arts. Winckelmann summarized their aesthetic characteristics to be nobly simple and solemnly great. European Enlightenment thinkers, including Winckelmann, all agreed that this is the embodiment of the optimism held by the ancient Greeks. The beauty of ancient Greek arts reflects the beauty in the ancient Greeks!& life. But Nietzsche doesn!&t think so. According to his logic, life is different from arts, and what is lacking in life is compensated by arts. Optimists do not need dreams and ideals of beauty because their needs have been satisfied in their life. People who pursue ideals in artistic activities are often pessimists in reality. They need artistic consolations to get through the difficulties in their life. Nietzsche!&s such interpretation deepens our understanding of the beauty of the ancient Greek plastic arts, and also provides the theoretical support for us to understand the relationship between Jeff and his works. In his artistic activities, Jeff seeks the spiritual comfort that is absent in real life.

However, Jeff does not seem to be strictly maintaining the boundary between life and art. He indulges himself so much into painting that he has blurred the distinction between a character and an actor. By taking an opposite direction, Jeff has grabbed the essence of the contemporary art. Different from the contemporary artists who degrade art to life, Jeff tries to promote life to be art. Despite of that, the result comes out to be the same, because both have involved elimination of the boundary between life and art. The blurring of the boundary between life and art will both make dreams seem real and reality look illusory. Just as revealed by Chuang Chou Dreaming a Butterfly, reality and illusion can be reversed. This kind of reversion has complicated the information contained in Jeff!&s works. Unlike the aesthetes, Jeff has imbued the figures in his paintings who have beautiful appearance with some kind of lurked tension, uneasiness and inexplicable power surges.

Therefore, the figures created by Jeff are not only elegant, but also robust. These two aesthetic features are mutually independent in the western aesthetics. Nietzsche has found out the ancient Greek art covers not only the plastic arts that can create dreams and illusions, but also the tragic art