正如科学的发展经历了精密的学科分类后，现在又趋向作综合的研究，从而演化出新的学科并取得新的飞跃一样，绘画也是如此。中西结合，老一辈画家早已作出了有益的探索，就是久为人们认可的中国画人物、山水、花鸟的分科，在当代画家手中也淡化了彼此的界限。各画科不同的技法、造型、程式的自我限定，已阻拦不住画家敏锐的目光、充沛的感情和激动的画笔了。日益丰富的社会生活正造就着属于自己时代的画家，杭州画院画师郎承文就是这样一位多能的画家。

　　我与承文相熟已二十多年，他初登画坛的创作《桐花春雨》就是一幅使人至今难忘的佳作。如果说，像我这样科班出生的人可惯于为古人作画的话，那么，可以说承文一开始就是凭借感受和感情为自己作画。他的感受敏锐，善于发现审美对象此时此地的特点：他的感情丰富，善于与审美对象作感情交流。于是，正如石涛所说的“山川与余神遇而迹化”的境界，就不时地在他的笔底呈现。这主要是得力于他的“生活”和“蒙养”的根底，当然更有赖于他的悟性。我们看他的山水画，境界、效果和气氛的营造各不相同，就是因为他与山川“神遇”后的“迹化”不落俗套、“机巧”百出，由此他能就此问题写出专著《中国画水墨新技法》，当然大有益于千万学画者。

　　画家表现生活往往有其独特的视点。当年，承文向往的山野之趣，烟云之幻，天人合一。近年，他却有新的审美视野，他从描绘日夕相亲的城市开始，进而钟情于庭院深深、曲径通幽的古宅旧院，进而寄情于生息之间的生命。在现代生活日益繁荣的今天，承文着眼于此，决不是无病呻吟的怀旧吊古，也不是愤世嫉俗的洁身自好。从他的作品的基调看，丝毫没有阴暗颓唐的气息，而是一种对传统文化的依恋之情，更是他几十年积贮起来的家族情结的亲切表现。因此，他从山水画转移到庭院建筑的描绘，转移到对活跃于门墙中的生命的吟唱，不是标新立异的“移情别恋”，而正是他几十年生活积淀的必然升华。他少年时代受到传统戏曲的耳濡目染，随着岁月的流逝，戏曲文化像酒曲一样催发了他对民族悠闲文化的迷醉之情，尽管他不直接画舞台人物，但戏曲写意的内涵、程式的构建、造型的夸张、服饰的灿烂，唱腔的酣畅，无不融入了他的画面。我想，如果懂戏曲的去观赏他的近作，也许也会一唱三叹、荡气回肠似的感觉吧!由此可知，承文笔下的古宅旧院不仅仅是过去曾经辉煌过的历史陈迹，而是他力图以一个现代的关照去阐释传统的民俗之美。特别是从画面上散发出来的悠闲、恬淡、幽默、神秘的气息，为奔走于功利社会中的我们，提供了一角得以小憩的精神绿洲，在这些原本平凡的场景中体会到不平凡的超越之感。基于这样的感受，欣赏他的作品常常使我联想起陶渊明、杨万里的一些诗经。他们的诗歌正因社会的日趋纷繁而愈现其美学和精神的价值。我想，对承文的作品也应作如是观。

　　大自然和社会为有才能的艺术家提供着取之不尽的审美原料。石涛所说的“神遇而迹化”，主要是指画家：“神遇”后的“迹化”，是使形式美有革新的作用。但是，如果换个角度来看，与其说承文所表现的悠闲系列给了人们以新的美感享受的话，不如说他的艺术劳动为我们展示了生活的某一种新形式——尽管这种生活形式对我们的上一辈来说或者是不足为奇的，而对于已经融入现代生活的人来说，新旧交替的我们一代，是有必要为他们作出新的阐释。在现代，我们得到了不少东西，但也的确失去了不少东西，艺术家的作用虽然不能给人们创造一个完善的现实，但完全可以为人们的精神世界提供或招回一些过去的美好图景。因此，我想对承文的创作，不能仅从开拓新的审美境界的角度来理解，更重要的是对优秀传统文化及其样式的呼唤。

俞建华

1996年8月23日

PAINTING A LIFE OF LEISURE IN THE DEEP COURTYARD

　　Juist as the development of science,having gone though precise classification into various disciplines,is now once again tending towards synthetic study which will then evolve into new disciplines and achieving new leaps,so is the art of painting.Painters of older generation have already made valuable exploration in combining traditional Chinese painting with Western art.Even the long recognized boundaries of the genres of figure,landscape,and birds and flower in traditiongal Chinese painting have become blurred with contemporary painters.The different self-defined techniques,compositons and formulas of the various genres can no longer block painters’sharp eyes ,rich feelings and agitated brush.The increasingly rich social life is creating painters of its own time.Mr.Lang Chengwen of Hangzhou Art Academy is just one of such versatile painters.

　　I have known Chengwen for more than 20years.”Chinese Parasol Flower in Spring Rain”,the creative work that brought him into the art circle,remains to be an excellent and unforgettable painting to this day.If professional painters by training like myself are accustomed to painting for ancient people,then it can be said that Chengwen,at the very beginning of his career,painted for himself by relying on his own impressions and feelings.keen in perception,he is good at discovering the characteristics of the object then anf there;rich in feelings,he is capable of communicating with what he is going to paint..So the “creative power”gained through”my spiritual encpunter with mountains and rivers”,a statement made by master painter Shi Tao (1642-cir.1718),emerges from under Chengwen’s painting brush from time to time.This owes mainly to the foundation of his”life”and”artistic cultivation”and,of course,depends all the more on his power of understanding.When we look at his landscape paintings,we find that the creation of the realm,effect and atmosphere varies with each work .This reaults from his unconventional ingenuity brought about by “creative power”gained though his “spiritual encounter”with mountains andrivers.His book “New Technique in Traditional Chinese Ink and Wash Painting”based on this experience natually benefits geeatly beginners of painting by the tens of thousands.

　　Painter often have their own unique point of view in depicting life.In those days,what Chengwen yearned for was the delightfulness in the wild mountains,the illusion of mists and clouds and the harmony between Heaven and man .In recent years,he has acquired a new field of vivion aesthetically,begdinning from describing the city with which he is closely associated,then developing love for ancient houses with deep courtyards and winding paths that lead to quiet seclusion,and then devoting his passion to the life inside.In the prosperous modern life of today,Chengwen’s affection with this is in no way sentimental remembrance of past timse,nor is he being cynical in order to preserve his own purity.Judging from their keynore,his works do not have

　　any trace of the dark and dejected,but a reluctance to part from traditional curure and,more than that,an affectionate expression of his family attachment that has accumulated for dozens of years.Therefore,his shift from the landscape painting to the depiction of houses and courtyards,to the singing of life active within the four walls is not”shifting affection to a new lover”in order to be original,but a natural sublimation of his life experience during the past decades,In his childhood,Chengwen was imperceptibly influenced by traditional Chinese operas.With the passage of time,the culture of traditional operas has given rise to his infatuation with our national leisure culture like distiller’s yeast.Although he does not draw stage characters directly,the connotation of the operas’vivid expression,the making of the formulas,the exaggeration of the compositions,the splendor of the costumes,and the melodiousness of the musical voices have all merged into his paintings.When those who are knowledgeable of traditional Chinese operas go and appreciate his recent works,I think,they are likely to experience the feeling of being intoxicated and enthralled.From this we can see that the old house in Chengwen’s paintings are not merely historical remnants that reflect a one-time grandeur,but the beauty of traditional folkways expounded by the artist in the eye of modern man.In particular,the atmosphere of leisure,indifference to fame and gain ,humour and mystery emitted from his paintings a spiritual oasis in a cornerod his world for us to take a break from the hustle and bustle for material gains,enabling us to experience extraordinary transcendence on the matter-of-fact ordinary scenes,Based on this kind of experience,while appreciating his paintings,I often associate them with scenes in the poetry of Tao Yuanming and Yang Wanli..It is precisely against the ever-growing complexity of society that the aesthetic and spiritual value is more manifest in their poetry.I think that Chengwen’sworks should also be viwed in this way.

　　Nature and society have provided gifted artists with inexhaustible sourcer for artistic creation.What ShiTao meant by “creative power gained though spiritual encounter”is mainly the innovative effect of making the form beautiful achieved by the painter after his “spiritual encounter”.But,to look at it from another angle,rather than offering people a new sense of beauty though his depiction of leisure life in series,Chengwen’sartistic labor has opened our eyes to a new way of life—although this way of life may not be surprising at all to older generation,it is necessary to give it a new explanation for those who have merged into modern life and for our generation who are living close to the turn of the new century.Inmodern times,while we have got a lot of things we have lost as much.Although artists cannot create a perfect reality for the people though their creative works,they are fully cspable of providing or calling back some beautiful scenes of the past for our spiritual life.Therefore,I think that we must not comprehend Chengwen’s artistic ceation merely from his developmeng of new aesthetic levels,but more important,we should take it as his call for the fine traditional culture and its form of expression.

Yu Jianhua

August23,1996