前些年在上海看望刘海粟先生，他听说我是广西桂林人时，便要向我推荐一个年青有为的桂林画家谢天成，并把他为谢天成写的寄言拿给我看，当我看到其中有"吾弟泼墨山水气势不凡，其中有广阔的美学空间，逸气横流"这样的评价时，我不但为海老那褒扬后学的胸怀所感动，更从心底替天成弟高兴。其实，海老并不知道，早在他偶然发现谢天成画作并予以鼓励之前的许多年，我已结识了那位自谦为"瞎搞"的青年画家。
(During my visit to Shanghai a few years ago, I had the opportunity of meeting the late Liu Haisu, a celebrated Chinese artist. When he learned that I was a native of Guilin, Guangxi, he recommended an up-and-coming Guilin painter by the name of Xie Tiancheng, and showed me a message he had written to him. Among other things, the message said, "My younger brother, your ink-splash landscape painting is indeed one of a kind. In your works there is always an ethereal elegance that permeates the boundless aesthetical space." I was deeply touched by Mr. Liu's magnanimity towards a late-comer, and from the bottom of my heart I felt very happy for Xie, my fellow provincial. The great master did not know that many years before he came across Xie's paintings, I had already made the acquaintance of the self-effacing artist who always claimed that he was merely "fussing about" in the world of art.)
谢天成是科班出身的画家，他有扎实的西方古典绘画技巧。我欣赏他天赋的艺术敏感与热情，我更欣赏他不断搏击进取的精神与活力。天成并不受到画种与题材的局限，他更喜爱自由地写书法与作各种艺术创作。他曾经画过水墨淋漓的桂林山水，也以能表现空间层次的高难度泼彩方法，作过天地山川的宏幅巨制。他能以苍劲的笔法写出松涛云海，以大泼墨的技法与全新的视角描绘古代东方仕女与帝王；他还以彩墨晕染加上构成，来组合成极独特的抽象性绘画。有些人说他的风格多变，而刘海粟先生却对这个跟随他十几年的弟子却更多了一层理解，指出他"画业日进"、"立定精神，自张一军"。
(Thanks to the regular training he received in school, Xie has a solid mastery of techniques in classical Western painting. But what impress me most are his artistic intuition, and his indefatigable quest for progress. He is fond of venturing beyond the bounds of his media and subject-matter in search of freedom in calligraphically and pictorial narration. He can render and landscape of Guilin with a brush saturated with in, or create monumental compositions of mountains and rivers with splashes of color, a challenging technique designed to render depth to the space. There is a masculine touch to his brush when he depicts screens of pine trees and the ocean of clouds, and he portrays oriental ladies and emperors of yore with unusually large ink splashes which are remarkable for their unique perspectives. His abstract paintings are characterized by original combinations of chromatic forms. Critics are sometimes perplexed by the seemingly unpredictable changes in Xie's style. Liu Haisu, who obviously knew his disciple of dozen years better, argued that Xie was merely making "daily progress" in his art and that "acting with composure, he has initiated a school of his own.")
一些青年画家，过早寄希望于某种"样式"的"定格"，以小巧的制作或局部点滴的精炼讨巧于时事，沉迷于小圈中的自我完善以求成功。诚然，这种作法有一定的合理性与实用性，但我欣赏的是那种敢于打破各种桎梏的全面探索，那种"大器晚成"式的自觉及自信，我更佩服的是那种勇于自我否定的"折腾"精神与坚韧不拔的努力。实际上，在这种做法的后面，已孕育着一种厚积薄发的必然。也许谢天成早已把自己置身于这种境界之中。
(In their eagerness for success many young painters pin their hope on stereotypes and established patterns, and try to woo the viewer with petty skills or fragmentary exquisiteness. They often regard egoistic improvement as the key to success though their approaches may sound practical. However, in the belief that a great man takes time to shape and mature, I would say I prefer those who are confident enough to eschew the beaten track and pursue over-all exploration in art. I admire those who dare to say no to themselves and make dogged efforts in search of excellence. Those who take this attitude will amount to something sooner or later; this, I believe, is exactly what Xie Tiancheng is doing.)
不久前，天成弟从大洋彼岸打来电话，得知他在纽约国际艺术博览会上的那些《远古的神秘》、《陈旧的盛装》、《雨季的情思》与《山月山花》等作品赢得与会艺术家的赞赏。20多幅作品以梦幻般的色彩与全新的技法，构成了具有东方情调的班驳机理的一幅幅抽象画面。隐约的形象渗入其中，仿佛人文精神充满于天地混沌之中。他希望我对这些作品提意见，我曾看过他从前的作品，他的山水画作品如《江山烟雨》、《雷雨倾山乡》、《日出之印象》，善于用墨和色交织成一个整体，不着眼于局部山川草木之刻画，而着意于整体气韵的造就与磅礴气象的表述。他以大泼墨写意法画的人物作品，如《敦煌女史》、《帝王图》等有丰富的层次与生动的笔法，大处得气魄，小处见精妙，赋予特有的传统水墨法以一种泱泱大国之气概。如今，我又面对这些新作，我感受到的还是他那一如既往的那种追求，那是一种希望对艺术精神本质感受的把握和一种对宇宙永恒精神的追求，那是一种希望对万物动与静、生与死的律动的理解与自身血肉灵性思索的揭示。许多看过他作品的老一辈画家们，都不约而同地看到了这一点。王个簃先生曾评曰："气势很旺，大有可为，"白雪石先生也曾为他题"泼墨淋漓写千秋"之句。其实，正是这种追求，使谢天成的作品能在变化中显统一，于探求中见恢宏。也正是这种精神，才使他的作品能真正包含有中华民族传统文化那种天人合一的宏观境界以及于发展中得以升华的时代精神。
(Not long ago I received Tiancheng's phone call from across the Pacific. He was attending an international art show in New York, where his works----The Mystery of Remote Antiquity, Old Wine in New Bottle, Nostalgia of the Rainy Season and Mountain Flowers under the Moon----were highly acclaimed by viewers and fellow artists alike. The twenty-odd works he put on the show were captivating with their dreamy colors, nascent techniques and rich oriental temperament. On the phone he told me he had developed a way of blending faintly visible images into his compositions, thereby adding a soft touch of humanity into the otherwise chaotic-looking universe, and he solicited my opinions on these works, which I had seen before he left China. In his Landscape in Clouds and Rain, Thunderstorm over a Rolling Country and Impression of the Sunrise, color and ink are blended into a harmonious whole. Instead of attending to every detail of the mountains, river, grass and trees, he was intent on achieving an overall resonance. As a result all these compositions exude a quality that is at once majestic and soul-touching. In his Female Court Officials of Dunhuang and The Emperor, which were done with gigantic ink splashes, the figures look dignified in manner and exquisite in detail; with his subtle and graphic brushwork, Xie has added substance and dimension to the abstract school of traditional ink-and-wash painting.
In his new creations, Xie remains his tenacious self, seeking, as always, to grasp the spiritual essence of art and the eternity of the universe, to understand the antithetical relationship between life and death and between motion and stillness, and musing over man's soul and body. This fact is not lost on those veteran painters who have seen his works. Said Wang Geyi, "From the great momentum shown in his paintings I can tell this man has a great future." In an inscription in Xie's honor, Bai Xuebai wrote, "Splashing your ink with such abandon, you have brought the multitude of things to life."
Only with dogged efforts can Xie Tiancheng perceive uniformity in kaleidoscopic changes and achieve excellence through trial and error. The result is that, in each of his landscapes, he is able to merge man and heaven into one by following the Chinese cultural tradition, yet at the same time we always sense the sublime spirit of the times in which we find ourselves. )
我只能对天成弟说："你应该更加地放开手眼，追求心灵上至高的觉悟真境界，那才是世界寄于中华民族的厚望，也是中华民族应该给世界的贡献。"我祝愿他在前进中获得不断成功。
（To celebrate the publication of this album, what I merely want to say to you, my younger brother Tiancheng, is this: "Press on, for the achievement of Enlightenment of the soul. That is what the world is expecting of China so ardently; that is what we, the Chinese, can do for the world in return."）
陈绶祥
（Chen Shouxiang）
【陈绶祥】
〖陈绶祥（1944- ）广西壮族自治区桂林市人。中国艺术研究院研究员。著作有《中国美术史》（魏晋南北朝分卷）、（隋唐分卷）、《中国民间美术全集》、《遮蔽的文明》、《中国的龙》。〗
（Chen Shouxiang (1944- ). A native of Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Cheng Shouxiang is a research fellow of the Chinese Art Research Academy and deputy director of the Academy's Fine Arts Institute. His writings include History of Chinese Art (one volume on the Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern dynasties and another on the Sui and Tang dynasties), Collected Folk Art of China, A Civilization in Obscurity and The Chinese Dragon.） |
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