人物和作品

谢小凡的画 (二): 男人存在的意义是赞美女人

男人存在的意义是赞美女人

写日记是我多年养成的习惯,近几年有写不过瘾的感觉。所以,有段时间,我在办公室支起架子画日记。或者应该叫“月记”,天天没有目的地画几笔,积累出模模糊糊的形象,经月而成。

一天,法国建筑师让·努维尔来访,他在一幅画上填了几笔,又以一句法式浪漫打动我——男人存在的意义是赞美女人。我把这句话画了一张,“色相”滚滚如同其他的数张,都是窗口。

老百姓的生活里有无数窗口,是定格,也是事态或缓慢或急速的变化;这些画是我的窗口,里面有我的观念,但其实与其说是表现我的认识的窗口,不如说,我是窗口。

Writing diary is a habit of mine for many years, and in recent years I often feel that words alone do not give me full satisfaction, and as a result, for a while I set up an easel in the office and painted my diary, or more exactly, monthly diary, because I painted only several random strokes a day and it would take a month to finish a diary as the strokes built up and rendered indistinct images.

One day, Jean Nouvel the French architect visited me, he added several strokes on a painting and then touched me with a sentence of French romance: the meaning of the existence of man is to praise woman. I painted a painting after that sentence, its “imagery” the same as several other ones, window.

There are numerous windows in the life of ordinary people, they are freeze-frames, as well as the slow or rapid changes of things. These paintings were my windows, with my ideas in them, yet I would rather say I was the window, than see them as windows presenting my perceptions.

 

小时候听人说“你有日天的本事也不得行”,可见“日天”这一行为很夸张,当然也暗含改变局面的愿望。突然想起小时候听到的这句话,就画了这张画,意思是本事在大也无力回天,尽力了。

I heard the sentence when I was a child, “you are incapable even if you have the power to fuck the sky”. Obviously the act of “fucking the sky” is very exaggerating and suggests a wish to change a situation. The sentence suddenly came to my mind, so I painted this painting, meaning I could not have reversed the fortune even though I might have the capability. I have tried my best.

 

让·努维尔对我说:男人存在的意义是赞美女人。于是记录了这话的能量。

Jean Nouvel told me: the meaning of the existence of man is to praise woman. So I recorded the energy of his words.

 

小时候看“七品芝麻官”一直记得,从古至今当上官的人戴上这顶乌纱帽,就要经历好多议而不决的事情。遂画了历朝历代官帽,意指无担当。

I watched the movie “Petty Official of the Seventh Rank” (qi pin zhi ma guan) when I was a child and remembered it since. From ancient times until today everybody with this black gauze cap on would ex-perience numerous discussions and meetings without reaching a decision. I therefore drew the official caps from previous dynasties, suggesting the lack of courage to take on responsibility.

 

手边恰好有几张练字的田字格,又正好面对画布想画画,但不知画什么,于是把纸贴了上去。一下想到生活就在棋盘里,黑子白子好比人,定格了,无需拼命。棋是文人的手段、荷是文人的象征,即使流氓也要流出文人之气,就这么成了。

I happened to have several sheets of calligraphy exercise paper, and happened to face the canvas, trying to paint but not knowing what to paint. So I simply pasted the paper onto the canvas. Suddenly it came to my mind that life was played on a chess board, black and white stones were just men, fixed and needless to risk one’s life. Playing chess is a way of the literati, and lotus is the symbol of them. Even as a rogue I must play the rogue with the air of the literati. And that worked.

 

频繁地要求让·努维尔在设计方案上增添传统建筑元素,什么斗拱呀、什么坡顶呀、什么龙凤呀、什么花窗呀,试了个遍,最终是儿童拼贴画,滑稽而调侃,实在融不了。人有日记,这画是我的“月记”,我记录了这一个月的积极进取、主动作为。

Jean Nouvel was frequently asked to add to his design traditional architectural elements, such as the dougong bracket, the sloping roof, dragon and pho-enix, the flower window. Everything was tried and the result was a children’s collage, funning and mocking – they could not merge. Some write diary, and the painting was my “monthly diary”, with which I recorded the vigorous enterprising work I did in the month.

 

让·努维尔又提交一套新方案,让人惊叹其创造力之超强。此时恰好接受一项新的工作任务,要给民国初年画坛先驱王悦之做展览,我定名为“脉脉之思”。这张“月记”立在办公室,每日点滴,经月始成。期间,让·努维尔来谈工作,我让他在这张画布上画了新方案。

Jean Nouvel submitted yet another new design, making one to admire his strong creativity. I happen-ed to have received a new assignment at the time, to do an exhibition for Wang Yuezhi, a pioneer in the Chinese art scene in the early years of Republican China. I gave the title “Tender Affections” to the exhibition. This “monthly diary” was standing in my office and was painted bit by bit everyday, for a month. During the time, Jean Nouvel came to talk about work, and I asked him to draw his new design on the canvas.