无以复加的单纯——当代艺术家龔建英
《国际艺术新闻网》特约记者大奔
旅居多伦多的艺术家龔建英，生于北京，毕业于清华大学美术学院，现为森林中国美术馆视觉总监，作品以油画与自然光结合创作完成的系列当代艺术作品为主。(English by Daniel Chen)
Jianying Gong, an artist residing in Toronto, was born in Beijing and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University. She is currently the visual director of the National Forest Art Museum of China. Her contemporary artworks integrate natural light in her oil paintings.
龔建英2015年参加保加利亚大使馆个展，2016年参加联合国《天人合一》群展以及2017年的艺术北京博览会；2019年参展中俄论坛《东北亚文化艺术交流的故事》以及纽约国际艺术博览会。作品《云淡风轻》与《少女》分别参与2017年际华春秋国际拍卖公司、2018年保利国际拍卖有限公司的拍卖活动。10余幅作品被中外藏家及名人收藏。
Jianying Gong participated in a solo exhibition at the Bulgarian Embassy in 2015;
participated in the United Nations “Harmony of Man and Nature” group exhibition in 2016 and the 2017 Art Beijing Fair;
participated in the Sino-Russian Forum “The Story of Cultural and Art Exchange in Northeast Asia” and the New York International Art Fair.
Her “Light Clouds and Soft Winds” and “Young Maiden” participated in the auctions of the 2017 Jihua Spring and Autumn International Auction Company and the 2018 Poly International Auction Co. Ltd. respectively;
More than 10 pieces of her artworks have been collected by Chinese and foreign collectors and celebrities.
油画《灵》(spirit)I linen\paint，30x40cm 2019年
龔建英的作品灵感大多来源于自然。她一直试图用一种方法把自然展示出来。一个偶然的发现给了她灵感与思考并且吻合了她的新创作理念。她观察到当自然光源通过窗户照射到房间她的极简主义风格作品上所发生的神奇变化：自然光的照射改变了作品的原有画面，并且这种画面会不断地在变化当中。艺术家把捕捉到的这种神奇现象的美丽时刻，通过照片截留方式保存下来，从而形成一幅幅“活”的画面。艺术家还观察到绚丽和复杂的画面容易忽略这一现象，只有在极简的作品上，这种光与画面互动的效果才会带来耳目一新的感受，并赋予画面以灵魂。如果说艺术家以往更多的是研究探索怎么把光与色表现在画布上，而今天龔建英想表达的则是两者之间自然形成的变化之美，正如人们所能够理解的那样：大道至简。每个人根据各自对物的认知和理解，会捕捉到不同的审美，也会产生不同的视觉感受与思索。
《灵》(spirit)I 照片截留之1
Most of Jianying Gong ‘s artworks are inspired by the beauty of nature and she incorporates her own touch to encapsulate it. A fortuitous discovery gave her inspiration and just coincided with her new creative concept . She observed the mystical change that occurs in her minimalist styled works when natural light shines through the window, illuminating her studio. The natural light changes the original painting, shining differently every time. The artist captures the beauty of this magical phenomenon through preserving it into her art and thus forming a seemingly living illustration. The artist has also observed that complex pictures easily ignore this phenomenon. Only in minimalist works can this interaction between light and canvas evoke refreshing warmth and bestow soul in the art. Most artists aim to study and explore more how to express light and color on the canvas. However, Jianying wants to express the beauty of change naturally formed between the two. As one would say, “Out of clutter, find simplicity.” According to their own perception and understanding of objects, each person will capture different aesthetics, as well as produce unique visual feelings.
《灵》(spirit)I 照片截留之2
关于龔建英其人及其创作理念和作品内涵，北京大学艺术学院艺术学博士、中国艺术研究院美术研究所副研究员、硕士研究生导师练春海先生的一篇艺术评论文章有着很好的诠释：
Jianying Gong ’s creative philosophy and connotation of her works is applauded by an art review article by Mr. Chunhai Lian who is a Ph.D. in Art from Peking University School of Art, an associate researcher of the Fine Arts Institute of China Academy of Art, and a Master’s advisor.
油画《灵》(spirit)II linen\paint 76x61cm 2019年
龔建英是这样的一个人，她给人的印象极为平静、随和，但是随着交谈的深入，你会发现平静的外表下，是她坚定的执着，这也许是她最终能够甩掉世俗的包袱，走向自己素来向往的艺术通途之故。她似乎一拿起画笔就表现了极其不凡的一面，作品和她的人一样，恬静的表面之下掩盖着汹涌澎湃的波澜。
When I first met Jianying Gong, the impression I had was that she was a very calm and easy-going person. However, when we talk more to each other, I had more understanding about her. I found out that under her calm appearance hides a persistent and strong soul, which was likely the reason why she could get rid of the mundane burden and lead her on the pathway to the realization of her dream as an artist. When she had her paintbrush in hand, she suddenly became so special and peculiar . Her artworks are the perfect reflection of her personality, full of passion .
《灵》(spirit)II 照片截留之1
说到创作，以及画面主题灵感的来源，龔建英谈得最多的大概是“自然”，她似乎无时不在观察自然，无时不在和自然对话，但真正面对她的作品时，我们却发现它们所表现的其实离自然非常遥远，这情形看起来像个悖论。实际上，这里或许存在一个理解的误区，即我们把艺术家所谓的“自然”当成我们目力所及的日常诸物以及由它们所构成的关联，如果我们的思维仅停留在那些物体的表象上，以及由这些表象所构成的网络之中，那么就落入了她的陷阱。
When it comes to creation and the source of inspiration for the theme of the picture, the most talked about is probably “nature “. She seems to be constantly observing nature and talking to nature, When we watch her artworks, we find out that those artworks can present is far from the meaning of Nature, which seems like a paradox. In Fact, we may very easily misunderstand her artworks. The Nature that we understand might be the Things we observe in our daily lives or those connections established by our observation. However, we may all be “trapped” by her artworks if our minds or thoughts are still functioning in its normal way.
《灵》(spirit)II 照片截留之2
其实，艺术家并无心去设置那样的一个陷阱，她所表达的概念也没有问题，问题是她所言说的自然，她所注视的自然，以及她所取象的自然，与我们的祖先一样，都是与人相对的一面，是外在于人的一面，用一个英文单词来说，那就是nature，这个词还有另一层解释，就是本质，它不仅能指涉五彩缤纷的表象世界，也可以表达表象之下的本质，它是对外在于人的世界的抽象概括。如果我们通过这个理路来把握她的艺术，毫无疑问，我们找到了与她对话的前提。
As a matter of fact, the artist has no intention of setting such a trap. What she presents us is not exactly what we think it should be. The Nature she observes, the nature she looks at, and the nature she takes, as what our ancestors had observed or felt, is the opposite of Human-beings, the surroundings of Human-beings. The Nature, in its English origin, has its definition of original features. It presents not only the superficial colorful world, but also the features under its appearance which represents an abstract of the world standing opposite of Human-beings. If we could understand her artworks from this point of view, without any doubt, we will find the right way to approach her.
油画《灵》(spirit)III linen\paint 60x60cm 2015年
正如她所言，她长期阅读哲学、佛学、道学等方面的书籍，这些书籍潜移默化地塑造了她的艺术风格和语言。中国传统文化的最大特点就是学科之间不像西方传统那样有一道道的鸿沟，庄子的哲学著作可以看成一部精彩的寓言故事，或者小说，而艺术理论的探讨则通篇都是散文一样的排比，这种没有逻辑的哲学，没有推理的理论却成了中国的不朽经典。龚建英的创作实际上极好地暗合了这种文化精神，把诗意的表达与深邃的内省完满地融合在一起，在画面形成一个意志的漩涡，把观者带到玄思之境。
As she says, she has read books in philosophy, Buddhism, Taoism and so on, which have imperceptibly shaped her artistic style and language. The traditional Chinese culture, unlike the Western’s, has no clear boundary between the different academic subjects. For example, the philosophy of Zhuangzi (An Ancient Philosopher) could be read as a wonderful fable or story, while the discussion of art theory is like prose. It is a philosophy without logic, a theory without rationale. However, it has constituted the most eternal tradition in China. The artworks created by Jianying Gong have, in fact, presented the spirit of the culture. They combined the poetic presentation with the profound introspection in a perfect way. The appearance of her artworks has constituted the vortex of consciousness pulling the observer into a world of metaphysical contemplation.
《灵》(spirit)III 照片截留之1
说到龔建英作品的艺术特色，我们恐怕要先区分龔建英心目中的两种“自然”。一种“自然”其实是对待创作的态度。艺术家根据来自客观世界的真实感受和体验，在画布上不受任何约束地随性抒发，使作品成为外在世界在其内心世界的延展；一种“自然”是作品所呈现的效果。龔建英的作品呈现了“与客观事实相一致的景致”，她的作品，尤其是早期的作品，似乎表达了很多微妙的细节，但是如果仔细端详那些细节，我们会发现其实它们是非常抽象的，仿佛我们从未接触过此类事物，哪怕它们是如此地“寻常”。实际上它们是艺术家传递给我们的一种体验，超常的真实。艺术家将对自然的深刻领悟与细致入微的观察，用四两拨千斤的方式将事物内在复杂多变的本质固定在画布上。这种体验高于一般的日常感受，它是对日常事物凝视的过程中所产生的超然体验。人们对日常事物的把握其实是不确定的，对它们的认识越深入，越接近本质，因此，在大多数时候，我们其实与事物是有距离的，而这种距离感恰好又因为“熟悉”而成为被普遍接受的“自然”状态。艺术家独特的感悟力，有时就像一道光，能够把事物的幻像与本质分割开来，在作品中把日常经验中“似是而非”的认识清除出去，因此，不难理解，何以艺术家笔下的“自然”如此地出离我们的预设。她的创作实际上走向了抽象，或者说是一种更高的真实，这种抽象，是剥离了虚幻外壳的“自然”或“本质”，是一种可控的自然。它就像DNA、量子一样，充斥着我们的世界，但我们却无法通过肉眼来认识它们，而是要通过极其复杂的“仪器系统”来把握它们，这种把握实际上拓宽了人类对现实世界的掌控能力。
When it comes to the artistic features of Jian-ying’s works, we should first distinguish between the two “nature “. According to the true feeling and experience from the objective world, the artist expresses the work without any restriction on the canvas, which makes the work become the extension of the external world in its inner world, and another kind of “nature” is the effect of the work. Her artworks are extension of the reflection of the real world in her mind, which present a “scenery” that matches the objective world. Her works, especially her early stage ones, seem to contain many subtle details. However, if you observe those details, you will find those details extremely abstract. They do not seem to exist in the world we can touch or we can feel, even if those details seem very normal. However, they are the experience and the truth above normal that the artist wants us to feel. The artist attached her profound understanding of the Nature and her observation of world to the canvas where she presents the complicated features of the Nature in a simplified way. That experience is above what we could feel in the daily life. That experience is from our observation on the world. People can have different feelings of the world. However, when they understand more or are provided with more opportunities to understand the world, they have themselves closer to the Nature of the world. Generally, there is gap between the real world and what we understand of the world. But the gap is considered by us as Nature because it was the world what we are familiar with. The unique understanding of the Artist, sometimes like a ray of light, is able to isolate the Nature from the illusion of the world. The artist can remove those specious understanding of the world from her work. Thus we could know the reason why the Nature we feel from her works is so far away from the world we are familiar with. Her creation, literally, leads us to an abstract, or in other words, a high level of truth. The abstract removed the illusory shell or appearance of the Nature, which could be controlled by human beings. The true Nature is more like DNA, like quantum. The Nature is everywhere, but we could not understand the Nature by our eyes. We have to use different tools to know the Nature. The way we learn from using the tools will extend our ability to control the real world.
《灵》(spirit)III 照片截留之2
艺术家作品中的“自然”，或者说是第二层意义上的自然，实际上是一种建构意义的自然。如果说在艺术创作中，龔建英的第一阶段是在做无意识的、自发性的探索，那么到了第二阶段她则在做有意的努力 。正因为有了这种努力的意向，她才会对光影，以及周遭的一切事物都开始敏感起来，她不是在守株待兔，她在寻找最合适的突破口，因此当那束神奇的光“偶然”穿透花窗投射在房间角落，映入她的眼帘之后，从此便再也没有逃离过她的画面，“这与以往我们看到的复杂画面上所呈现出来的光有着完全不同的感受，形成了‘活’的画面。在不同时间的光照下产生的画面不同。”她的作品，在这个时期，变得更为抽象，甚至走向极简，这不是偶然，而是经过深思熟虑后的选择。艺术家相信，在画面中纯化形象的同时强调对光的塑造可以产生意想不到的效果，光影在画面中互动带来的灵感让艺术家创作了意象更为深邃的作品。这些作品不再停留于研究和探索如何把光色交响的千变万化表现在画面上，而是着力于把不同光线在时空中投射的痕迹截留下来。绚烂的画面容易让人忽略现象背后的本质，《道德经》有云，“五色令人目盲，五音令人耳聋。”物质的纯粹化，才能给精神留出空间，画面的表达单纯了，给思想驰骋的空间就会更大。
The Nature in the artworks of the artist, or nature in the second sense , is acyually the Nature to be constituted of the meanings of life. If the first stage in her artistic creation was an unconscious and spontaneous exploration, the second stage is a deliberate effort. With a clear purpose, she could be more sensitive to the color, the shadow of the light and everything surrounding her. She is not just waiting for the moment to come. She is actively looking for a breakthrough. When the magic light inadvertently breaks through the flower window, reflects in the corners of the room and is caught by her eyes, the light would never be escaped from her Canvas. The light in her artworks is different from what we saw before in very complicated artwork. The light is alive. Her artwork reflects different light in different time. Her works, in this time, becomes more abstract and even leads to the simplest way. It was not happening by chance. It was from her thoughtful choices. The artist believes that her artworks could generate an unexpected effect after the purification and re-shape of the lights. The inspiration from the interactive movements of the lights in her artworks helps her create more meaningful and profound artworks. These works will not focus on research and exploration of reflection of the changes of the lights in different circumstances. However, more focus is put on reflecting traces of the different lights in space and time. The artist knows that the colorful artworks will make people ignore the Nature behind the artwork itself. Dao Te Ching said:
Color’s five hues from the eyes their sight will take；
Music‘s five notes the ears as deaf can make;
The purification of the physical world can only leave the space to the spiritual world. The simplest way to present the artworks would empty more room for contemplation and imagination.
《灵》(spirit)III 照片截留之3
艺术家的作品显然受到纽曼、罗斯科、雷曼、克莱因、蒙德里安、莫兰迪等艺术家的影响，但是在形式或语言的抽象中，她摈弃了那种独立于人性之外的“冷漠”，注入了温情，赋予日常的物象以诗意，“景昃鸣禽集，水木湛清华。” 水木清华的氤氲对于龚建英的创作而言具有特别的深意，也正是这样的涵养与熏陶，使得艺术家能够做到内心坚定如一，在艺术创作上做到遍采众家之长，却又不囿于他们的束缚，最终脱颖而出，可以相信，在这条洒满阳光的道路上，她的艺术之旅会越走越好。
The artist’s work is obviously influenced by Newman, Roscoe, Lehman, Klein, Mondrian, Morandi and other artists, but in the abstract of form or language, she rejects the kind of “indifference” independent of human nature. She infuses warmth and gives poetic meaning to the daily images. “The birds return home and the water is clear and the forest is blossoming”. The artistic conception of dynamic nature means a lot for Jianying Gong’s creation. It is because of her knowledge and experiences and understanding of the Nature, the artist can focus herself on her art creation. The artist is able to learn from those masters. However, she is not limited by what she learned from the masters. She will make breakthroughs. I can believe that on this sunny road, her artistic journey will be better and better.
《灵》(spirit)III 照片截留之4
