关注艺术家王清州的创作已近五年。他是我接触过的最勤奋也最乐于突破自己的艺术家。

王清州水墨作品欣赏 《时间证人》 Witness of Time 70*50cm

王清州水墨作品欣赏 《幽逸之一》 Sound of Silence Ⅰ 69*46cm

王清州水墨作品欣赏 《汲沦溪谷之一》 Beautiful Sights over the Kidron Brook Ⅰ 69*46cm

王清州水墨作品欣赏 《红绿虎翻之一》 Mighty Color Combinations Ⅰ 70*49.5cm

　　勤奋，在主观调动下，大多数艺术家都可以做到。而突破自我，就没那么轻易，要看艺术家的个人选择和禀赋。王清州，倒是出了名的“敢破敢立”。十数年来，他一直处在艺术思想和形式上的“破——立——再破——再立”这样的演进历程。所以，王清州的创作样貌始终是一个动态，给他的作品做一些定评，总觉得为时过早。我更倾向于，记录他旺盛创作状态之下的每一次“破”和“立”。

　　在金秋看到王清州的一批乙未新作，这是他在艺术上的又一次前行。在精神题旨上，王清州笔墨间透露出的是他的风骨。王清州独立、正直，这是他的本性和成长使然。他关切民生和家国走向，博览群书，不阿谀，时常公开直抒己见。如此胸襟之下，王清州以数十年日课的扎实功底，付诸于笔端的便是他胸中的江山，朗朗乾坤，慈悲有爱。一切景语皆情语。

　　再落到具体作品的表现形式。王清州在今年的创作，进一步淡化了造型，画面代之以纯粹精神化的线条和色块来呈现。在线的艺术的探索上，王清州自幼临池，经三十余年磨砺，其书法造诣受到诸多前辈的赞誉。线条和色块，对于王清州而言，完全是信手捏来，收放自如。在用笔和用色上他都是一个高手。《菩提本即树》、《红绿虎翻》、《地水火风如色身》、《微风吹动诸宝行树》等系列作品中，我们可以看到艺术家在纸上异常洒脱地笔走龙蛇，似花又非花，看山又不是山，画面里的一切都不是现实的复刻，而是精神的复调。水墨之外，这次新作里的油画作品，也是同样的潇洒气象。在我觉得，不需要界定王清州这批新作是在走抽象路子，还是意象。它们所反映的就是王清州在纯粹地写心。他自己如是说：“我的作品也许让人觉得既饱满又简约，但自然界是复杂的，有直白和看不见的隐藏，可视的现实也许单薄了许多。画面经常和现实坐着矛盾的两端，恰为风险的开始，往往是心灵和自我历史的情感表达，偶又基于精神及之外。”

　　王清州在艺术求索上时至今日的景象，在我看来，一方面，是缘于他继承了中国的文脉，中国文脉既是一种高级的生命潜流，也是审美潜流。这个潜流绵延数千年，所包藏的核心是天人合一。人是从属于自然的，不可能超越。而人的滋养，也需要系统兼有脉络，而不是割裂。当下的现实，都是在数典忘祖，分崩离析。王清州能坚持刻苦好学，触类旁通，记古训，做人在先，谈艺在后。没有市面上叫嚣的“文人画”的标榜，却有千年一脉的文气的清朗。行动就是继承。

　　而另一方面，王清州近年时常去欧洲等地的世界艺术重镇游学，与欧美的艺术家和评论家保持着紧密的交流和碰撞。艺术本身就是没有国界，在全人类当中所共通的。以一个艺术家的身份“走出去”的经历，最终让王清州卸下了原先戴在头上的帽子，和盘亘在心里的枷锁。他从传统庞大的窠臼里早走了出来，有所生发；也不计较于东方还是西方，古典还是先锋的语境选择。艺术本来就没有新旧，只有先后。艺术也没有东西，只有个体。王清州过的是自己的人生，艺术上走的也是自己的路。

　　“从童年的日记和照片知道你对艺术从小就喜欢，并不计较自己的作品是否能被买家喜欢，但很愿意真诚、阳光地敞开心扉和同道及国内外的专家交流学习，功夫在诗外，坚持各类实验的同时注意吸取艺术之外的营养，如哲学、宗教美术等，每一年总惦记着自己是否有进步，并坚持到现在。”这是一位网友在王清州微博上的留言，非常精到。王清州以自己的正直、好学和才华吸引了很多素不相识的朋友。因为他，大家得以多一分理由保有良知、多一个机会亲近艺术。我们都热切期待，王清州继续书写他自己的未来，绽放新的精彩。

Cultural Inheritance and Eternal Artistic Pursuit——Impressions of Wang Qingzhou's new works

　　It has been nearly five years since I began to follow the artist Wang Qingzhou's creation. He is the most diligent artist I know, who is also most willing to go beyond his comfort zone.

　　Under self-motivation, most artists can be diligent. Nevertheless, it is not so easy to exceed oneself, which depends on an artist's personal choices and endowments. He is such an artist as is known for "bold breakthroughs and innovations". For more than 10 years, he has been making progress in both artistic ideas and forms with "constant breakthroughs and innovations". Therefore, his creation is always dynamic, and I feel it too early to define his works all the time. I prefer recording every "breakthrough" and "innovation" when he is energetic in creation.

　　In the autumn, I saw a collection of his new works, which represented his further progress in art. In terms of the spiritual themes, the works reveal the strength of his character. He is upright and independent, which comes from his nature and life experience. He is concerned about the people's livelihood and the development trend of China; he is well-read, dislikes flattery and often expresses his own opinions frankly in public. With such breadth of mind and the firm foundation built by daily practice for decades, he paints the rivers and mountains in his mind, showing a pure and peaceful world filled with compassion and love. Everything for portraying scenery expresses emotions.

　　As for the expressions of specific works, in this year's works, he further reduces the use of shapes, and adopts purely spiritual lines and blocky colors in the paintings. On the artistic exploration of lines, he is praised highly by many veteran artists for his attainments in calligraphy, which he achieved through more than 30 years of hard training, as he started practicing calligraphy in his childhood. He is skillful in handling lines and blocky colors in all situations. He is quite good at using brushes and colors. From the work series such as Linden, Mighty Color Combinations, Earth, Water, Fire and Wind, and Breeze Blowing Those Trees of Good Virtues, we can feel a natural and unrestrained air in his paintings. With his extraordinarily natural and unrestrained brushwork, it seems there are flowers yet not flowers, and mountains yet not mountains. Everything in his paintings is not the duplication of reality, but the polyphony of spirit. In addition to the traditional Chinese paintings, his oil paintings among the new works this time are also elegant and unconventional. I think there is no need to define this collection of his new works as abstractionist or imagist ones. What they reflect is his pure portrayal of mind. As he said, "My works may leave an impression of richness and simplicity on people, but the nature is complex, with things visible and invisible, so the visual reality may be too feeble... Images and reality often take both ends of the conflict, which is just the commencement of risks. The images tend to be emotional expression of the soul and personal history, but sometimes based on spirit or beyond spirit."

　　In my opinion, he can make such achievements in art, on one hand, because he inherits Chinese cultural tradition, which is a superior undercurrent of life, as well as an aesthetic undercurrent. This undercurrent has existed for over thousands of years, the core of which is the unity of heaven and mankind. Mankind is subordinate to nature, and cannot go beyond nature. The nourishment of mankind should be systematic and can be clearly tracked, rather than disconnected. The reality today is that most people forget their origin and are disintegrated and torn by dissension. He is always diligent and eager to learn, and can learn by analogy. Keeping the old tradition in mind, he places the moral pursuit in front of artistic creation. Without the label of "literati painting" that is excessively publicized in market, his works show the lofty characters of literati inherited from the cultural tradition for thousands of years. Inheritance lies in action.

　　On the other hand, he often goes to study in the important bases of art in the world in recent years, and keeps close contact with artists and critics in Europe and the United States for communication and collision. Art knows no boundaries, and is a common language of all mankind. With the experience of learning overseas as an artist, he finally gets rid of the label forced on him and the yoke long in his heart. He has long since walked out of the set patterns of tradition, and has made some innovation; moreover, he does not care about the context selection of the East or the West, the classical or the vanguard. Art is not classified into the old and the new, but that coming early and late. It does not belong to the East or the West, but individuals. He lives his own life and walks his own way in art.

　　"From your childhood diaries and photos, it can be seen that you've been interested in art from an early age, and do not care whether your works are popular with buyers. However, you're willing to open your heart sincerely and brightly, and share opinions with counterparts and experts at home and abroad and learn from them. Perfection comes from practice. While keeping making various experiments, you pay attention to absorbing nutrients from other fields, such as philosophy and religious fine art. Every year, you keep it in mind whether you've made progress, and still stick to it up to now. " This is a message left by a netizen on his microblog, which defines him accurately. He has made friends with many strangers who are attracted by his honesty, diligence in learning and talent. Thanks to him, we have another reason to keep conscience, and another chance to get closer to art. We are eagerly anticipating that he will continue to paint his own future, and make new achievements.