观念性的关注与表达——岳田的艺术探索及其意义

余润德/文（中国著名艺术评论家、艺术家、策展人）

       在艺术多元化时代，当代艺术油画创作伴随着文化背景的巨大转换，外来文化思潮及新媒体艺术的巨大影响，一些艺术的形式、观念、语言在艺术家的实验与探索中不断更新，也是对当下艺术语境的嬗变直接反应，面对时代的变化，在赋予油画新的含义时，构建了全新的艺术价值理念。中国青年艺术家的油画创作，再次让我们看到了艺术中“当代性”价值的巨大力量。正是在反复遭遇当下人文意识形态的基本问题中，他们特殊的作品才形成了一个多义性的形象暗喻与文化象征系统， 进而涉及到了有关人生意义的永恒问题，这无疑是值得欣慰的。

如果说艺术史是发现问题并解决问题的过程，从艺术史的角度出发，画家岳田的作画理念颇受西方后现代主义的艺术影响，因这种艺术观念注重的不是艺术的纯粹审美功能性，而是艺术的交流与认知功能，这种艺术理念强调对现实生活的主动介入观念，并努力与现实生活形成一种前所未有的平行关系。正是这些原因，岳田的作品才具有西方传统油画语言体系所没有的社会性与现实性因素。对于岳田来说绘画的生命不依于所画对象的解说性而源于我们的主观感觉方式的表现性，艺术并非时尚或其他意识形态的附属，它仍然具有自身探究的可能性。这种可能性就在于探索个人内心感受与新的艺术形式的融合，从而将一切精神，情感，物质等最终回归于绘画，回归于视觉形象。洛克说，形象是物质感知所生产的一种感觉在精神中的再生产。在这种形象的变异和重组之中，陈述和放大自己的生存感受，充分体现艺术家对个人和社会，技术与观念，物质与精神的综合感受和认识。也就是说，在画布上建立其图像与人生态度的美学性高度统一，回到生命的原初萌动，用心触摸个人的生存感悟。

岳田的新作中 “佛学话语”的介入进而表达了一种完全从属于他自己的艺术观念，比如当人们欣赏他的《唯境无识》时，便会自然而然地进入一个充满神秘气氛的魔幻世界，由于它既和现实有关系，但又非现实本身，因此从他的近作中，我们不仅可以看出他将现实与超现实，自然与非自然，理性与反理性的事物与观念交织在一起的创造，这都使他的近作有一种魔幻般的诗意。

中国当代具象油画已经描述出了这样的线索，即艺术家们为了揭示观念与表达内在经验，已经走上了在当代语境下个体语言建构的道路，新表现主义与超现实主义则大行其道。然而，就是在这种学术立场和观念的基础上，岳田运用自己独特的艺术视角转换方式采用写实语言技巧，并保持了一种形象写实而内涵古典的审美理想，其审美格调是沉静的冥想，是人与环境关系的诠释。画家还将东方美学追求和浪漫气息巧妙纳入到了作品里。从中，我们并不难体会出他对美好生活的向往与对大自然神圣灵性的感知，看他的画时，总感到画中的图像早已不是可感知的自然，而是画家心目中的自然。常常让人们超脱于现实之外，进而产生美好的幻觉与冲动。在他的作品中作为美好事物象征的花卉总是以局部与大特写的方式呈现，并在无限的延伸，它分明暗示着真善美的普世价值。岳田恰恰是通过写实的技术手段，来完成他对人生，自然与生活的哲学思考，而这种审美效果显然是批判类艺术无法达到的，这无疑是极为难得。

岳田受过严格的学院训练，有着扎实的艺术功底。是中国80后新生代艺术家中近年涌现出的一位优秀画家，也是国内最年轻的进入保利国际拍卖会并成交的画家。岳田的新作中，映射出新生代艺术家写实绘画的变化。在某种意义上人们可以认为他正对传统写实绘画进行颠覆性构建“艺术语言的解体重构”，正好折射出现实生活中的重大变化。岳田并没有把自己限制在一种固定的模式中，他的艺术之路告诉我们，这位难以满足的画家不断的进行创新的艺术探索，他对形而上生命意识的关注转化为对佛学意识形态的关注。他的新作品《自相共相》系列，在当代语境中具有强烈的象征意味，且又充溢着一种令人欲言又止的忧伤，画面中或丰腴或纤瘦的女子，无一例外地凝固着空灵的忧伤之美，流动的线条、鲜明的色彩、自由的笔性，随着画家的情感自然而然地流淌、旋转、辐辏，细腻处见唯美，柔和间显坚韧，把女性外柔内刚亦柔亦刚的特质，通过近乎空灵的气氛得以彰显，又仿若拈花打坐般静极，画笔干净，富有张力。隐藏在画里的思想常常被人忽视，又或者不被人充分理解，岳田的作品观念含藏于精心的造型、构图和情感传达之下，看到岳田的独具匠心，顺着画面传递出只属于他的思想纹理，感性与理性兼备，给予人深层次的思索和想象空间。这些画是一扇扇小窗，透过它们，我们得以走进画家的内心世界，是纯净的、忧伤的，也充盈着他的艺术理想和精神追求。

画家岳田是一个皈依居士，自然而然成为他的重要信条。几年来他反复将自然之物精心设计成一套符号系统，并加以表现与诠释，为的是让人们关注生活中对自然的普遍性规律的认知。

Art Review on Yue Tian

In the era of pluralistic art, contemporary painting art develops under the great change of cultural background, and the great influence of foreign culture and new media art. The form, concept and language of some artists continually update in their experiment, reflecting directly evolution of current art context. In the face of the changes, they attribute painting new meaning, and meanwhile form totally-new artistic concept. Young Chinese artists present great influence of "contemporary" concept in their paintings. Encountering repeatedly current human ideology, their special works form a multi-image metaphor and cultural symbol system so as to relate to the eternality of human life. Undoubtedly it is gratifying.

If art history is a process of problem-finding and problem-solving, from the perspective of art history, the painter Yue Tian is influenced by western postmodernism, for the artistic concept doesn’t focus on purely aesthetic function of art, but communication and cognition of art, and it emphasizes active intervention with real life so as to form perfect parallel relationship between art and life. Therefore, Yue Tian's works presents social and realistic factors, which doesn’t exist in traditional Western paintings. In Yue Tian’s view, painting life doesn’t derive from the interpretation of painted object but the expression of painter’s subjective feeling toward object. Art is not fashion or affiliated ideology, and it still has great potential of self-inquiry, which realizes integration of personal feelings and new art form so that spirit, emotion and material could eventually return to painting and visual image. Rock said, image is spiritual reproduction of a person’s material sense of object. In variation and recombination of images, art expresses and amplifies artists’ sense of existence, and fully embodies artists’ comprehensive understanding on individual and society, technology and concept, material and spirit. That is to say, image and attitude is highly unified in aesthetics on canvas, reflecting the original bud of life and sensing the existence of life sincerely.

"Buddhist discourse" applied in Yue Tian’s recent works makes his artistic concept unique from others’. When appreciating his 《唯境无识》, people come naturally into a magic world with mysterious atmosphere because it is related to reality, but not reality itself. We see that in his recent work, he interweaves ideas and things, realistic and super-realistic, natural and non-natural, rational and irrational, which brings his latest works a poetic magic. 

Chinese contemporary figurative oil painting has taken on such clues. To reveal their artistic concept and express their inner experience, artists started to use fully individual language in contemporary context, causing New Expressionism and surrealism extremely popular. However, basing on such academic standpoint and ideas, Yue Tian uses his unique transformative perspective and real language to maintain his ideal aesthetic style with realistic image and classical connotation. His works is full of quiet meditation, interpreting the relationship between human and environment. He also weaves romantic mood and oriental aesthetics into works in a craft way, which promotes us to understand easily his yearning for a better life and his appreciating for spiritual nature. While enjoying his paintings, we always feel that the image in his painting is not perceived nature, but nature in the eyes of painter. His works often detaches people from reality, and leads them into beautiful illusion and impulse. The flowers in his works are always portrayed as local, close-up or infinitely extended way, to imply universal value of the truth, the good and the beauty. Clearly in his works, Yue Tian explores philosophy of nature and life by means of reality-portraying skills, and such aesthetic cannot be achieved in critical art. Therefore, it is extremely rare.

Strictly academic training in university attributing to him a solid art foundation, Yue Tian is an outstanding one among Chinese painters born in 1980 or after, and he is also the youngest painter who auctioned his works successfully in Poly International Auction. Yue Tian’s works reflect the style change of emerging artists by realistic painting. In some sense, people can think he is subverting traditional realistic painting by "disintegration and reconstruction of artistic language", just reflecting the significant changes in real life. Yue Tian does not confine himself to a fixed pattern, and his art experience tells us that he is hungry for artistic exploration, innovates constantly his works, and now he focuses his concern on Buddhism ideology rather than metaphysical life consciousness. In his 《唯境无识》 series, he demonstrates strongly symbolism in contemporary context, and reflects a kind of sadness hard to express. In his painting, women, plump or thin, all present ethereal beauty of sadness. His painting includes flowing lines, bright colors and free painting, which take on naturally by flowing or rotating according to painter's emotion. In his painting, we come to see beauty in delicacy, tenacity in mildness, grace and strength in female, which are demonstrated in almost ethereal atmosphere, or in very quiet surrounding like a person’s picking flowers or a Buddhist’s sitting in meditation. His painting shows brush clean, full of tension. Ideas hidden in his painting are often overlooked, or are not fully understood, and these ideas are hidden in elaborate shape and composition of his paintings, and communication of his emotion. Yue Tian has his craftsmanship which promotes us to catch his unique thoughts conveyed in his painting, perceptual and rational thoughts, which deepen our thinking and enrich our imagination. The paintings are like small windows, through which we can walk into the painter’s inner world, pure and sad, which is also filled with his artistic ideal and spiritual pursuit.

Yue Tian is a Buddhist convert and everything that comes very naturally is his important creed. For several years, he has designed carefully natural things into a system of symbols, presenting and interpreting them repeatedly, in order to encourage people to consciously recognize universal laws of nature in their life. 

岳田艺术简介 A Brief Introduction to Yue Tian’s Art

岳田，中国当代新锐艺术家，从事当代架上艺术创作。中国农工民主党党员；清华大学美术学院油画研究生；现任清华大学美术学院—清美艺术创作研究会理事，一级美术师，中国农工民主党山东省画院理事，欧中文化艺术交流协会副秘书长，国际美协欧洲分会理事，JLCCA玖麟艺术创始人。

展览与拍卖Exhibitions and auctions

2009年 作品参加人文精神新锐艺术家油画联展/北京

2009年 SHOW系列岳田架上绘画作品展/北京

2010年 作品参加中韩艺术家交流展/首尔Seoul

2010年 参加中国美术家协会西部大地情作品展/鄂尔多斯

2011年 作品参加《无序》当代青年艺术家油画作品展/北京

2012年 作品《触境》被前领导人收藏于中南海

2012年 作品参加《京风吴韵》国际美协欧洲分会九人邀请展/无锡

2012年 作品参加北京国际艺术博览会

2012年 北京保利国际拍卖会《残缺的存在感》作品拍卖成交/北京

2013年 作品参加清华大学美术学院研究生作品展/北京2013年 作品参加新加坡艺术博览会/新加坡 Singapor

2014年 作品应邀参加《绽放》中国第三届青年油画家联展/北京

2016年 pure intuition 2016纯粹的直观艺术联展/美国San Francisco, CA

2018年《梵门》系列作品2018私人收藏品鉴会 /西安

2019年 situation情形当代艺术邀请展/德国Munich

作品近年被国内外知名人士及专业机构收藏。

出版及入编Published or edited

《笔墨清美—清美艺术创作研究会作品集》、《清华大学美术学院研究生作品集》、《绽放-青年油画家作品集》、中国邮政《美丽中国—中国艺术名家岳田作品邮票典藏集》、中国邮政《纪念中国抗战暨世界反法西斯战争胜利七十周年•当代艺术名家岳田邮票典藏集》、《中国农工民主党•齐鲁前进》、《自相共相—岳田油画艺术品鉴集》、《1949——2020新中国美术图鉴》等；作品多次出版及入编学术性画集与专业性刊物。