无变之变

         观德昌先生画作有感——李玲微

新加坡，狮城并无四季，一年如夏，常感慨人生若也如此，甚好不过，无波无折，平静淡泊。近观德昌先生之中国画作，才知艺术若也如此，则万万不得，无变无化,平淡无华……德昌先生之中国画作，以山水为多，花鸟次之，用墨有浓有淡，着色有素有艳，浓淡变化之中层次尽出，素艳变化之间情趣尽来……我虽不修艺术评论之专业，也可赏画作之神情，道个人之感悟，略谈陋见。

“青山无墨千秋画，绿水无弦万古琴”。崇尚自然是艺术家之灵魂，然画家眼中笔下之山之水，却非现代相机所摄之原山原水。画家眼中之山就是画，似让人看到自然之山，却又在自然之中寻它无处；画家笔下之水就是琴，似让人能听到绿水韵动之音，却尽现代乐器之能无法演奏它。我不知道是否所有画家之画皆是如此，但我观德昌先生之画作，已明然感受到。周国平先生的散文名句如是说: “目光如水，但比水更清彻透明；目光如海，但比海更宽广无极。仿佛他眼内的世界，要比眼外的世界深邃得多，幽远得多” 。我想套用周国平先生的话，评德昌先生的画: 青山如画，但画中之山比青山更秀美挺拔；流水如琴，但画中之水比琴音更激荡婉转，仿佛他笔下的山水，要比笔外的山水深邃得多，幽远得多。

当代诗人汪国真自述喜欢出发：“我喜欢出发，只为到达的地方都属于昨天，哪怕那山再清，那水再秀，那风再温柔，太深的留恋便成了一种羁绊，绊住的不仅有双脚，还有未来……世界上有不绝的风景，我有不老的心情”。观赏德昌先生的画作，从年轻时画作的秀逸，到现在画作之沉稳，似乎能感受到德昌先生也总是喜欢出发，哪怕那山再清，那水再秀，绊不住先生的双手，绊不住先生的未来，青山依旧,绿水依旧,但先生笔下之山之水,却常新常流……

李玲微

2013年8月

写于新加坡南洋理工大学

Change of the Unchanged

Singapore, Singapore doesn’t really have four seasons, it’s like summer all the year, make me think that would be good if life also like this, seems always the same, without much changing. While watching Mr. Guo Dechang's Chinese paintings that remind me art shouldn’t be like that, that would be horrible if the art is unchanged, plain like the Singapore’s weather. Dechang's Chinese paintings, not only focus on landscape paintings, but also give attention to flower and bird paintings, the use of ink can be thick or thin, coloring can be light or dark, shade emerged from the variety of the ink use, and delight emerged from the changes of colors...... Although I am not a professional art critic, I can still enjoy the paintings, to express my personal feelings, and talk about my ideas.

"No ink in green mountains but that’s everlasting painting, no string in babbling rivers but that’s everlasting guqin". Respect nature is the soul of artists, but the mountains and rivers in painters’ eyes are not the same as what the modern camera captured. The mountain in a painting artist's eye can let people see the natural mountain, but couldn’t find the exact mountain anywhere in the nature; the water in the paintings are the pianos, makes people feel they can hear the sound of water dynamic rhyme, but the modern instruments cannot play it. I don't know whether all the artists’ paintings are like this, but Mr Dechang’s paintings surely did. Mr. Zhou Guoping's famous essay says: "Sight like water, but more pour than water; sight like the sea, but broader than the sea. It’s like the world in his eyes is much deeper and richer than the real one". I want to use these words of Mr. Zhou Guoping for Mr. Ping Dechang's painting: the mountains are like paintings, but the mountains in the painting are more impressive than the real ones, waters are like pianos, but the water in the paintings sounds more exciting than the pianos could play. It’s like the scenery in his paintings is much deeper and richer than the real one.

The contemporary poet Wang Guozhen: “I like the departure, as all the places I’ve been to belong to yesterday, no matter how beautiful the mountains and rivers are, deep nostalgia could become a kind of fetter, hold not only his feet, but also the future...... The world has countless sceneries, I have an ageless mood". Watch Dechang's paintings, from the comeliness works of his earlier age, up to the steady style now, seem to be able to feel that Mr Dechang had always loved departure as well, no matter how beautiful the mountains and rivers are, that can’t be his hands’ fetter, can’t be his future’s fetter, the mountains are still the same, green water is still the same, but the mountains and water in Mr. Guo Dechang’s paintings never looks the same.....

 Li Lingwei

August 2013

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore