我认识王劲松的时侯他还没出道儿，脏脏的一个人，少年轻狂；有个笔名叫“一风”，挺帅挺大气，但不知道是什么意思，和什么有关。那是十多年前了，我们只见过一面（或者两面三面），我去看他的画展，印象里是脏脏的水墨，像当时的他一样。然后喝酒，酒喝得挺好，酒后各自东西，失散了。
再见王劲松他已经成名了，劲松尽失“一风”又叫回王劲松了，看来松风终是有别，风流云散而松屹立。再见王劲松时他好像洗了一个大澡，通体透亮，衣着虽称不得“光鲜”，但却干净干爽，像擦了痱子粉的婴儿的背。头发也齐整了，像新剪的草坪或新砌的院墙。这时的王劲松已经成婚，有一个面容姣好气度从容的夫人，当真是志得意满。
没有变的是王劲松的酒量，他依然保持着随时酩酊的姿态。他善饮，也善劝，劝人和他一起踩高跷。古来饮者留其名，芳名或骂名，劲松的名字传下去，会是一个芳香的骂名。劲松酒后有德，但劝人饮酒无德，此时无德胜有德，劲松以德报德，德德相报何时了？！
王劲松还有一个看家的本领——炒菜，正宗的东北水陆两栖菜，菜正汤圆，美食家皆引为美食。于是在家宴客，成了王劲松结交绿林的一种方式。
王劲松多才，长袖善舞，这些年他的翅翼掠过水墨、重彩、油画、行为、装置、摄影、录像等多个艺术领域，且每一方土地都足迹甚深，其中尤以水墨、油画和摄影更为山明水秀。
王劲松的水墨让人想起那八个著名的字——“团结紧张，严肃活泼”。
王劲松的水墨类运动速写，给人争分夺秒的感觉。那些龙眉扫帚眉一样粗豪的线条，充满了未来主义的热情和力量，发于“宴桃园豪杰三结义”，止乎“降孙浩三分归一统”，三分天下，一统江山，都在春色有无中，一笔勾销。
王劲松虽然用的是中国传统的笔墨，但书写的却是当代世界的人鬼传奇。看王劲松的水墨，可有可无；有，在墨汁的滴染渲沸和肘腕旋回时，时有惊心的衬影，像月光下的青草地，意韵来自飘飞的冷露和蝉的清噪；无，在所有之上一切之中，皆顾盼神飞，令人神驰的瞬间令你目不暇接，无需静心欣赏，奇异飞来眼底。
我非常喜欢王劲松的水墨，非常喜欢到了心仪的地步，但我至今不是很能理解王劲松的水墨为什么这么“传统”。（当然，我这是在替王劲松担忧，担心他的水墨一旦遭遇批评家，会落得个什么下场）王劲松的油画高高兴兴地观察和表现当代生活，那些简单的拐弯抹角和简单的兴高采烈都十分直接，再加上简单的画法和简单的形式，王劲松简单的油画具有了当代艺术简单的特质。王劲松的“观念摄影”也基本上能跟上潮流，有时也能引领潮流，属于“浪潮中”。而为什么偏偏于水墨一道，王劲松“落伍”了呢？
水墨，无论给它起其他什么名字，或者添加怎样的前缀，比如“现代水墨”、“实验水墨”之类，它在时下都是被排拒于“中国当代前卫艺术”门外的（或许是尚未入门）。搞所谓“现代水墨”、“实验水墨”的人，不管他是否承认，其实他都是期望成为既占有“现代”或“后现代”的成果，又能够因笔纸的传统中国特色，而木秀于世界艺术之林的“当代艺术家”的。问题在于他们往往太过轻视“传统”，他们仅仅把“传统”（纸笔和“书写性”）当成了一个“符号”，他们甚至没有把水墨当做一种“新”媒材去开发。于是捡了芝麻，丢了西瓜，捞了虾，放了蟹。
而王劲松恰恰相反，他从油画和“观念摄影”的前卫影子里走出来，宽衣解带后才赤裸地上了水墨的床，他依旧用传统的写作方式，这种方式甚至可以追溯到鸿雁传书一类的传说。王劲松用传统写当代，他自我标榜的什么“水的运用”之类的话其实毫无意义。我认为他偏执地用“传统的手法”作画很重要，这类姿态已经先锋和前卫了。有时候先锋和前卫，不在刀刃上，而在刀背上，就像镜花水月一样，迷人的不一定是“真”的（真的也不一定是真的）。王劲松的水墨就在“运动”与“战争”两个狭长的空间里放任自流，那些既写实又转筋的运笔，让人流连。写实有什么不好？其实在我看来，所有的艺术都是写实的，因为对人的理想而言，只要实现它就一定是“实”的。如果非要分写实与抽象，那我也觉得写实就比抽象好，就像一个美人儿和一个丑人，美人儿是真实的，大家都喜欢，而丑人的被人喜欢却是虚幻的，心灵美是编造出来的。（以上论调与中国目前的所谓“写实派”无关）
王劲松的水墨是“腾空”的，它无所谓“白占黑”或者“黑占白”，所有的空间都在运动中，好像笔墨是持于手中的静物，宣纸随意念旋转。王劲松的水墨是“纠缠”的，所有的点滴渲染和挥洒，都紧密团结地呈现，像盖过章已经生效的合同。
王劲松的水墨虽好，但他却是因油画成名的，这真像是一个玩笑，而米兰?昆德拉却也正是因为一个“玩笑”而成为旗帜的——这就是所谓的“当代效果”。王劲松在水墨中酣畅，却在他的油画里玩弄观念。王劲松在他最著名的作品《大合唱》中，玩的是“在场”和“缺席”的观念，“在场”和“缺席”是当代艺术中永远追逐又永远纠缠不清的两个概念，但它们却被王劲松以猫捉老鼠的形式形象地呈现出来。那些有脸有皮的人，和画面外那些有脸没皮的人有什么区别？有脸和没脸又有什么区别？统一的面孔同一的表情，一张脸一个人和一千张脸一千个人又有什么区别？工业化就是“大合唱”，牧歌时代的“个唱”早已消失了声音。精神（道德）与理想（信仰）的缺席，才是王劲松油画的真正发轫。
王劲松在油画之后又玩起了摄影，玩摄影的王劲松开始玩弄思想。王劲松说：“一种旁观的呈现是我长期的艺术实践中追求的状态，这种状态让我着迷。我对人类生活的每一部分都倾注了热情，我乐于体味每一有趣的现象。平时收集资料用的相机，使我的这份热情有了更恰当的发挥。”王劲松以独生子女家庭为内容、题为《标准家庭》的作品拍了200幅；以退休老年夫妇为内容、题为《双亲》的作品拍了20幅；以墙面画“拆”字为内容、题为《百拆图》的作品拍了100幅。王劲松这次以数量取胜，但这个数量指的是工作量，而其实上述的艰苦劳动，到头来实际只产生了3件作品，因为如果单摆浮搁，那每一幅照片都毫无疑义。王劲松的这3幅照片都有其表征显著的社会学上的意义，尤其是《标准家庭》和《百拆图》，是一个历史的见证：前者是计划生育制度下“被迫的结果”，后者是时代前进必然的结果。
王劲松最近又拿起了他久违的油画笔，他将自己在纸上的水墨实验成果再一次运用于画布，特别是“枯”与“擦”的感觉，生涩而自由，表现着艺术家心中的某种理想状态。而这种技法的探索，其实也涉及了一个媒材的探索问题，属于明目张胆的传统后现代行为。王劲松的艺术一直挣扎于传统与反传统的纠缠与较量中，所以他的作品一直非常“暧昧”，在游戏感和仪式感之间徘徊。
王劲松以往的油画作品，即使涉及较严肃题材或运用某种通用红色符号，作品本身看上去也绝对不显滞重，而是欢欣鼓舞、有心没肺那种。而他的新油画却让我看得有些心伤，一种浓烈的世纪末尸体的味道散布。王劲松勾画了无数无聊且无助的脸孔，他们至今仍迷茫在途中。这是一个延续的问题，也是一个新问题：还有没有希望？
王劲松是一个出色的艺术家和一个聪明的思想者，他的作品伴随我们走在时代的大路上。
2003年～2007年
北京望京
Wang Jinsong: United, Alert, Ernest and Lively
Huang Liaoyuan
When I first got to know Wang Jinsong, he wasn’t an artist yet. He was sloppy, young and arrogant. He had the pen name “A wind” - it was cool and grand, but I had no idea what it meant, or what it was about. That was over ten years ago, we only met once (maybe two or three times); I went to see his exhibition, the impression I got was of some filthy ink painting – like him at the time. Then we drank together, we had a great time, after which we went our separate ways, and lost touch.
The next time I saw Wang Jinsong, he was already quite famous, and he had abandoned the name “A wind” to be Wang Jinsong again. Obviously there is a difference between Song (meaning pine, a character in Wang Jinsong’s name) and Feng (wind)—when the wind blows, the clouds disperse but the pine still stands strong. When I saw Wang Jinsong again, it seemed as though he had taken a long bath, his whole body was glowing, not that his outfit was “bright”, just clean and fresh, like a powdered baby’s back. His hair was neat, like a newly mowed lawn, or newly built fence. Wang Jinsong is now married to a beautiful and leisurely wife – he’s become truly complacent.
What has not changed is Wang Jinsong’s love of alcohol; he has maintained a willingness to become inebriated at any given time. He loves to drink and is also good at persuasion, persuading others and himself to have a great time. Since ancient times, famous drinkers have left behind either a fragrant or a cursed name; when Jinsong’s name is passed on, it could be a fragrant curse. Once drunk, Jinsong still maintains his composure, but he has no morals when persuading others to drink, of course, that’s when not having morals is better. Jinsong will pay back morality with morality, and when morality repays morality will there be any end?
Wang Jinsong has another specialty – cooking, genuine northern food. The dishes are delicious and the soup is tasty. Using this specialty he often invites friends over for dinners at home, this has become Wang Jinsong’s way of making friends.
Wang Jinsong is multitalented and very capable. Over the years he has tried his hand at ink painting, heavy colors, oil painting, performance art, installation, photography, video and many other artistic domains. He has left his mark on every one of them, and has made especially significant contributions in ink painting, oil painting and photography.
Wang Jinsong’s ink painting reminds us of these famous words – unity, alert, earnestness and liveliness.
Wang Jinsong’s ink painting resembles sketches of a sporting event; they appear to be racing against time. The broad lines of dragon eyebrows are imbued with futuristic energy and strength, as “the three cavaliers vowed of loyalty on a banquet at the peach blossom”, to “having captured Sun Hao, and united the land from the three”, the world divided into three was being united again, all happened as the spring came and gone, with one brush to end it all.
Even though Wang Jinsong uses Chinese traditional brush and ink, he portrays legends of people and ghosts of the contemporary world. Looking at his ink painting, there can be presence or absence. Presence – with the spread of ink and swinging hand, startling reflections, like the green lawn under the moon, its beauty partakes from misty dew drops and the cicada’s chirp; absence – above and before all, capturing one’s spirit, allowing it to surf in a moment of visual overload – no need to calmly taste, they will fly into your vision.
I like Wang Jinsong’s ink painting very much, so much that I admire them from the bottom of my heart. However, I still can’t figure out why Wang Jinsong’s ink paintings are so “traditional” (of course, this is only my worry for him, worrying about what will happen when his paintings are attacked by a critic). Wang Jinsong’s oil paintings, on the other hand observe and present contemporary life with great joy, even the most simple twists and excitements are directly revealed. Added to this are his simple execution and form. Wang Jinsong’s simple oil paintings possess the simplicity of contemporary art. Wang Jisong’s “conceptual photography” basically follows along with the current trends, and at times he is at the forefront of the trend. He’s considered “in the current”. How come he’s so enamored with ink painting, is Wang Jinsong “lagging behind”?
Ink painting, no matter what other name is given to it, or which other prefixes are added - “contemporary ink painting”, “experimental ink painting” – is always rejected before the gate of “Chinese contemporary avant-garde art” (or it has never entered). Those working in “contemporary ink painting” or “experimental ink painting”, whether they admit it or not, are hoping to achieve a “contemporary” or “post-modern” outcome. At the same time, they hope to use the characteristically Chinese brush and paper to establish themselves as outstanding “contemporary artists” on the international stage. However, they often belittle “tradition”, they often treat “tradition” (paper, brush and “calligraphic quality”) as only “symbolic”, or they fail to treat ink painting as a “new” medium to explore. Thus, they pick up a sesame and leave a melon behind, catch a shrimp and let a crab go.
But Wang Jinsong is precisely the opposite. He emerged from the shadow of avant-garde oil painting and “conceptual photography”; having loosened his clothes and indulged in ink painting, he relied on traditional methods, methods that could even be traced back to the legends of the wild goose as a messenger in the Book of Records. Wang Jinsong uses tradition to portray the contemporary. His self-important “application of water”, to tell the truth, is rather meaningless. I think his stubborn application of the “traditional method” is more important, such a gesture is already pioneering and avant-garde. Sometimes the pioneering and avant-garde is not revealed on the sharp side of a knife, but on the dull side; like reflections of flowers or the moon, what’s attractive is not necessarily the “real” (and what is real is not necessarily true). Wang Jinsong’s ink painting is set free in the narrow space between “motion” and “struggle”; his use of the brush, both realistic and spastic, makes the viewing enjoyable. What’s wrong with realism? In my opinion, all art is realistic, because in terms of people’s ideals, as long as it takes place, it’s real. If there is a need to distinguish between realistic and abstract, then I would certainly choose realism. it’s like a beautiful girl and an ugly girl, the beautiful one is real, people like her; but people’s liking of the ugly girl is fabricated, good at heart is a fabrication. (the above analysis is irrelevant to China’s current discussion on “realist schools”).
Wang Jinsong’s ink painting is “cloud surfing”, without worrying about “white dominating black” or vice versa, the entire space is in motion, as if the brush and ink in his hands are unmoving while the rice paper spins at his will. Wang Jinsong’s ink painting is “tangled”, every drop is dyed and unrestrained, everything is realized with solitude and tension, like a contract that has already been stamped and put into effect.
Although Wang Jinsong’s ink paintings are outstanding, he has become famous because of his oil paintings. This is really a joke. But Milan Kundera also became a banner because of a “joke” – this is the so-called “contemporary effect”. Wang Jinsong has an easy mastery of ink painting, but he is playful with concepts in his oil painting. In his famous oil painting, “Grand Choir”, he played with the idea of “presence” and “absence” - two concepts that have been constantly pursued yet never disentangled in contemporary art. But they are presented by Wang Jinsong in a cat-catching-mouse style. What are the difference between those with face and those who have face but no skin? What then, is the difference between having and not having face? The uniform faces and expressions, what then is the difference between one face for one person and a thousand faces for a thousand people? Industrialization is the “grand choir”, the time of solo on the highland has long lost its voice. The absence of spirit (mores) and ideal (beliefs), are the true motivations behind Wang Jinsong’s oil painting.
After having done oil painting, he moved on to photography. While he was playing with photography, Wang Jinsong began to play around with ideas. Wang said, “in the long process of artistic experimentation, I always have tried to present the view of the observer. I am passionate about every aspect of human life, and I am willing to experience any interesting phenomenon. The camera usually used to collect materials gave me an appropriate way to express this passion.” Wang Jinsong took over 200 photographs on the subject of the one child policy, entitled “Standard Family”, over 20 photographs on the topic of elderly couples, entitled “Parents”; and over 100 photographs of Chai written on the wall of about-to-be demolished buildings, named “One Hundred Images of Chai”. This time Wang Jinsong gained his success through quantity – but this quantity refers to the amount of work, and the above mentioned hard work in the end resulted in only three pieces of work, because if they were displayed alone, each photograph would be completely meaningless. These three photographs all have great social significance, especially “Standard Family” and “One Hundred Images of Chai” – both are historical records. The former is a “coerced outcome” of family planning regulations, and the latter is the inevitable outcome of progress.
Recently, Wang Jinsong has once again picked up the long-neglected oil brush. He has applied the results of his ink painting experiments onto canvas, especially the impression of “dryness” and “rubbing”, crude but free, unveiling the artist’s idealistic state of being. In fact, the exploration in such techniques implies an exploration of medium, this is the bold behavior of traditional post-modernism. Wang Jinsong’s art has always struggled in the tangles and challenges between tradition and anti-tradition, therefore, his work has always been rather “ambiguous”, wandering between frivolity and ceremony.
Wang Jinsong’s previous oil paintings, even when involving serious topics or applying certain red symbols, are not at all stagnant, rather they are jubilant and carefree. But his new oil paintings make me a little melancholy, they give off the pungent fragrance of a dead millennium. Wang Jinsong has outlined numerous faces of boredom and helplessness, who are, until this day, wandering. This is a continuous question, and also a new question: is there still hope?
Wang Jinsong is an outstanding artist and philosopher, his works are accompanying us on the path of time.
2003—2007
Beijing, Wangjing