可不是!最近两年，徐仲偶调中央美术学院，任职于“城市设计学院”。他的近百幅以综合材料为媒介的巨幅版画作品(所刻木板叠起来已有一米多高)，其思路其格局其意味又让人为之叫绝。——何以如此?徐仲偶这批作品竟然是环境设计中的版画作品，或者说是版画作品中的环境艺术。

　　在这批作品中，徐仲偶痛快淋漓地发挥了他对中国艺术和中国精神的理解：他的这批作品借鉴于中国的书法和篆刻艺术，在汉字意蕴基础上，强调书法艺术的书写、笔痕、力量及速度、节奏与韵律感。他的作品中有书法用笔的骨法、力度、速度、节奏、韵律、笔势与章法，有“画道之中，水墨最为上”(传王维)之黑白关系的强烈对照。虚实关系尤其让徐仲偶着迷，老子“凿户牖以为室,当其无,有室之用”的观念使其出现大量的空白与简洁处理，他的作品中又充满着似乎不经意的偶然与偶然中的必然，岂不闻“自然为上品之上”(唐.张彦远)么?当然，还有中国文字自身的魅力：你看这里有中国文人“听竹”的雅趣，有“归一”的哲理，有“客居”的闲适，还有我行我素的“独立”的表达……其笔形结构有的象大山，有的则如梅墨，有的状屋宇，有的却似藤蔓，——其实，它们什么都是，又什么都不是!所有这些，仅仅是对造化的体验，对自然的感悟，对现实世界的虚拟的表达而已。唐书家李阳冰《上李大夫论古篆书》中有一段话说得精彩：“于天地山川，得方圆流峙之常;于日月星辰，得经纬昭回之度;于云霞草木，得霏布滋蔓之容;于衣冠文物，得揖让周旋之体;于须眉口鼻，得喜怒舒惨之分;于虫鱼禽兽，得屈伸飞动之理;于骨角齿牙，得摆拉咀嚼之势。随手万变，任心所成。可谓通三才之品汇，备万物之情状矣。”徐仲偶的艺术以一种更本质的角度，去应和自然、社会形、神、运动本质规律之“常”、“度”、“容”、“体、“分”、“理”、“势”。这无疑是对中国经典“外师造化，中得心源”唐.张)精神的一种独特的理解与传达……

　　徐仲偶把这一切称之为“从中国出发”!他想立足于“中国立场”，以中国精神直突入现代。

　　显然，徐仲偶的这一切确实绝非古典!他用现代版画的块面刻印方式并以综合材料的介入去完成自己的作品，他借鉴西方的形式构成关系，在简洁、单纯、抽象诸因素上，把传统书法、篆刻艺术与与之有异曲同工之效的版画艺术作了有机的结合。他的大块面的单纯色块乃至底色的介入，硬挺直线的黑块，他的超巨幅的大型壁画的尺寸，更使他的作品与中国古典作品相距甚远。当然，就我来看，徐仲偶的这批作品对古典传统最明显的突破，是他的场所意识。

　　中国古典绘画或者叫“卷轴”，或者叫“手卷”，或者叫“扇面”，顾名思义，这些绘画多是拿在手上“把玩”，或翻卷着看，或临时支在架子上近看。张择端《清明上河图》上那细如毫发的刻划，是非凑得很近很近才能看得清楚的，该画就是“手卷”。这些作品放在室内的几案上看，或是竹林下溪涧边“雅集”时传看“把玩”都可以，绘画作品反正是拿在手上细细品，与环境场所没有直接的关系，画家作画时根本没有环境场所意识则是共同的。然而现代环境与场所与古代太不相同，要把古典“把玩”类型的作品张挂于宽大明亮高敞方正的现代楼厅居室之中显然会严重不协调。而徐仲偶这批作品，从一开始就从现代城市建筑的总体设计角度，把自己的版画从形式、材料、尺寸、色彩与风格、意蕴诸角度，与整体环境作综合的考虑、协调、设计与绘制。他的那些简洁、单纯、含蓄、抽象，有着强烈冲突与对比，既以东方意蕴为基调，又糅进某些不着痕迹的西方因素的作品，与当代楼厅居室的浑然一体，就并非偶然之得了。徐仲偶这批作品可以作为绘画装框展示，可以以壁画的方式直接绘制于居室内外的墙体，甚至可以设计成建筑部件的外饰组合进建筑之中。通过这种独特的方式，徐仲偶完成了绘画艺术与建筑艺术的整合，完成了绘画艺术与现代城市生活的整合，当然也完成了中国传统艺术与现代审美的整合。

　　徐仲偶的场所艺术当然是他作为城市设计学院艺术家的专业使然，但他的这一独到而精彩的艺术观念，无疑会给从不考虑环境场所的中国当代画家们一个十分宝贵的启示。徐仲偶艺术从中国传统精神出发而呈现的十足的现代感，他作品中那种原创性的中国的当代意味，那种堂堂正正、浩然正大、当仁不让的中国气派，带给中国当代画坛的应该是更深刻的思考与反省。

　　2009.8.26　于成都东山居竹斋

　　As an old acquaintance of Xu Zhongou, I am often amazed by at his inexhaustible creative power. I once said that Xu Zhongou has been the most creative artist since the founding of the Sichuan Institutes of Fine Arts 60-70 years ago. Just putting together his works over the past dozen years and you are certain to be surprised by so many conceptions. His realistic black-and-white woodcuts have won the silver medal at the national fine arts exhibition (highest prize for printmaking at the 10th Fine Arts Exhibition); his realistic oil paintings have got an entry into the Paris Saloon Exhibition. His traditional Chinese paintings are unique, telling him apart from all other traditional Chinese painters. His sketches enjoy quite a reputation in all Sichuan absolutely for the style of his own. His block prints “Mortise and Tendon” series take the traditional wooden structure as the theme. His “walnut” series make walnuts the media; and the “Qinglong Town”is a ten-meter long woodcut scroll with the rural street market as the subject matter. All the six prints in the three categories have been collected by the British Museum. Then, there are the “Coin” series, the “Garment” series and the “Writing” series …… But he seems tireless. If he is not seen for a few months, a dazzling new series would meet your eyes.

　　Exactly, he came out with nearly 100 pieces of huge block prints in the recent year since he was transferred to the College of City Design under the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. The blocks he has engraved are piled up more than one meter high. The lines of thought, the patterns and the implications are superb. Not only so. They are block prints for environmental designing or the environmental arts in printmaking.

　　These prints have revealed to the full his thorough understanding of the Chinese arts and the Chinese spirit. By borrowing Chinese calligraphic and seal-cutting art techniques, he stresses, on the basis of the meanings of Chinese characters, the way of writing, the traces, strength and speed of strokes, and the sense of rhythm and rhyme. He has exhibited his superb skills in the manipulation of the writing brush as seen in the structure of characters (bone), strength, speed, rhythm, rhyme, postures and principles as well as the strong contrast of black and white typical of Chinese paintings. This has testified to what Wang Wei said:“The use of ink is of utmost importance in Chinese paintings”. Xu is especially fascinated with the dualism of actuality and virtuosity. He applies the idea of Lao Zi that “Doors and windows are cut out of the walls of a house, and the usefulness of the house depends on the space where nothing exists”. This has given him a large amount of spaces, with which he treats succinctly. His works are also filled with seemingly careless fortuity and necessity behind fortuity, therefore resulting in works that can be rated among the best. Of course, Chinese written characters have their own charm. Here you will see the elegant interest of men of letters listening to the bamboo in the wind; there is also the philosophy of normalization; there is the pleasure of “being guests”; and the independent expressions….. The shapes of some characters are like mountains; some are like plums; some are like houses, and some are like vines. In fact, they are like everything and nothing. All these are the result of the feelings of and inspirations from Nature and the virtual expression of the actual world. When commenting on the manipulation of writing brush in seal-cutting script, Calligrapher Li Yangbing of the Tang Dynasty had this to say: “The shapes come from the heaven and the earth; the vertical and horizontal lines are derived from the sun, the moon and stars; the beauty of the characters is inspired by clouds, grass and wood; the appearances are like clothes, hats and jewelry; the expressions are inspired by the brows, mouth and nose; the movement of the strokes comes from the creeping, flying and running of worms, fish, birds and beasts; the strength comes from the bones, teeth and horns. The strokes are changing endlessly at will. It is truly the integral harmony of the heaven, the earth and people and a collection of the expressions and properties of all things in the world.”The art of Xu Zhongou responds, from the more essential perspective, to the constant state, strength, beauty, body, expression, principles and postures of things in Nature and society with regard to the shapes, spirit and movement. This is, no doubt, a unique understanding and conveyance of the Chinese classic spirit of “learning from Nature and getting a thorough understanding of it”(Zhang Chao, Tang Dynasty). Xu Zhongou epitomizes all these in his own words: “starting out from China”. He wants to set his foothold in China and wins a standing in the modern world with the Chinese spirit.

　　Obviously, all these are in no way classic. He employs the engraving methods of modern printmaking in his works while borrowing some of western elements. He uses the traditional calligraphy and seal-cutting skills and the graphic art to execute such simple, pure and abstract elements. By using big single color blocks and background colors, firm linear black blocks and his super-large mural size, he sets his works far apart from any classics. But, to me, of course, Xu’s breakthrough from the ancient classics lies in his awareness of public places.

　　Chinese classic paintings or“scrolls”or“hand scrolls or “fan paintings”are mostly for playing in hand or for reading or appreciation at close quarters by putting them on a stand. Zhang Zeduan’s “Qingming Festival by the Riverside”attends to such details that it has to get very close to see them clearly. This painting is what is known as “hand scroll”. These pictures have to be put on a table to view or for passing on from one another for viewing during high-taste gatherings under the bamboo bushes or by riverside. In a word, they are the hand-held refined works, having nothing to do with public places. It is rather common that Chinese painters do not have the awareness of environment and public places when doing their works. However, the modern environment and public places are quite different from those of the past. It would be totally out of harmony if the“hand-held”works are hung on the walls of spacious and bright modern flats. But, from the very start, Xu Zhongou puts his block prints in the context of the environment in terms of form, material, size, color, style and cultural implications. His succinctness, simplicity, implicity and abstractness present strong contrast. It is, therefore, not accidental that his oriental-based works, blended with some hardly-seen western elements, fit perfectly in the rooms of modern buildings. His works can be put in frames and displayed at exhibitions and they can also be painted directly on the interior and exterior walls like murals. They can even be models for structural members. By such unique way of painting, Xu Zhongou has achieved the perfect integration of the arts of painting and architecture, the integration of the painting art with modern city life and, of course the perfect integration of the traditional Chinese arts with modern aesthetic standards.

　　Xu’s art for public places is certainly the natural outcome of his profession as a city designer. But his unique and excellent artistic concept no doubt serves as a very valuable enlightenment to contemporary Chinese painters who never have environment and public places in their minds. His traditional Chinese spirit, his superb sense of modernity modernity, his originality and his upright, noble and non-buck-passing Chinese mettle he has brought to the world of contemporary Chinese painters are even more thought-provoking and reflection-inspiring.

　　August 26, 2009 Dongshanju Bamboo Study Chengdu