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.
