李旭（上海张江当代艺术馆馆长）
随着世界经济一体化进程的不断加速，文化的全球化正成为每一个独立民族国家需要严肃面对的问题。西方文化价值观已经通过各种物质产品和传播媒介，无孔不入地渗透到世界的各个角落，我们已经无法回避文化单一化的危机。在这样的现实环境里，任何一个民族，如果其传统文化没有被充分地当代化，就势必失去自身魅力而被其后人所淡忘和拒绝，没有了传承和转变，所有非西方传统文化都将难以逃脱被边缘化、博物馆化的命运，文化自信也将荡然无存。
实验水墨，在1980年代中期以后的中国大陆当代艺坛上逐步成为一道特立独行的景观，20多年来，虽历尽波折，几经沉浮，至今仍在为中国当代文化建构的话题持续提供着独具价值的视觉证据。在明确水墨媒材作为文化身份的前提下，实验水墨艺术家们开始了前无古人的探索，在传统与当代、东方与西方、观念与形式之间，他们的探索为中国视觉艺术当代性的建设做出了重大贡献。作为实验水墨艺术的代表人物，刘子建以他执著的态度坚守着自己的精神世界，在整个艺术界为市场运作的成功欢呼雀跃之时，我们不应忽视，更不应忘记这种执著的价值。
刘子建的水墨实验开始于1980年代中期的具象和表现，在1990年代逐步走入纯抽象，虽间或有具象符号与文字形象穿插其间，但这并没有影响到其总体上的抽象语汇。由于参与实验水墨的许多艺术家们都有割断传统、另辟蹊径之念，所以对抽象的探索在当时蔚成风尚，但20年后蓦然回首，一贯坚持个人风格语言至今的个体却寥寥无几。抽象艺术，从表面上看来路途宽广，但因个人风格须在万千图像中得以确立，在某种程度上来说就要比具象艺术对想象力和创造力的要求更加苛刻，故此，任何一个成功的抽象个案，其诞生过程就势必异常艰难。
失重的画面、悬浮的符号、漂移的笔触、断裂的构图、非传统的技巧和不确定的视觉效果，共同构成着刘子建的精神世界。他的形式实验，与许多抽象艺术史上的经典案例一样是发端于具象的，但他转型时的重要标志并不是对具象元素的简单舍弃，而是另行开创了一整套自足的语言体系。从突破最核心的传统技法出发，他把以毛笔为主要描绘工具的习俗加以扬弃，泼洒、涂刷、拓印、切割、拼贴都开始成为他表达的主要方式。在语言符号上，他大胆地运用突兀奇崛的直线割裂画面，在视觉上形成重叠多元的空间，并进一步把复杂多变的方、圆、三角、十字、网格重新集结为墨气淋漓的组合。在众多以水墨为媒材的实验艺术家中，刘子建走得最远、变化得最丰富、反叛得最彻底。
刘子建所构建的形式语言系统是丰富繁杂的，但他的艺术价值虽启始于形式，却并不仅仅局限于形式，尽管没有了山水花鸟那些传统的具象视觉提示，他的作品中却常常渗透出博大恢弘的情怀。一方面，他的作品有着对“大象无形”、“逸笔草草”的继承，把当代人对抒写胸臆的自由表达推向了一种极至；另一方面，他那交叠割裂的画面，更象征着当今时代躁动不安、沉浮失序的表征。
在抽象类型的实验水墨艺术家中，多数个体是以象征和半抽象风格为语言特征的，这与中国古代没有纯粹的抽象艺术有关，中国人自古以来欣赏抽象美的精神特质，也多半隐藏在对奇石和草书的品味之中。刘子建在实验水墨中开辟出一条另类的道路，把当代精神症候与传统物质媒介组合成深刻的视觉图像，无论在水墨艺术的范畴里，还是在抽象艺术的视野中，他的努力都在为我们的思考提供着全新的坐标。
Liu Zijian：In the Vision of Abstraction
Li Xu （Director of Z-art Center，Shanghai）
As the economic globalization is accelerating worldwide，cultural globalization is a serious issue that every single nation has to deal with，the Western culture is spreading through different product materials and media around every little corner of the world，We forgotten and abandoned。Without inheriting and transformation，all non-Western rooted traditional cultures will lose ground，of can only be seen in the museum；hence no cultural confidence will still exist。
Since the 1980s，the experimental ink painting has gradually become a special vision in contemporary mainland Chinese art circle。For more than 20 years，overcoming numerous hardships，experimental ink painting is contributing valuable visual evidence to the Chinese contemporary cultural construction topic as always。With clear“culture”identification，experimental ink artists started their unprecedented explorations between traditional and contemporary、between East and West，between concept and expression。These explorations helped the modernization of Chinese visual art tremendously。Liu Zijian，the dominant artist in experimental ink painting，is famous for his punctilious of his own spiritual world。While the whole art circle is celebrating the success 0f the market and its strategies，we can’t ignore of even forget the value of punctiliousness。
Liu Zijian started his experimental ink painting in figurative expression beginning in the mid-1980s，but stepped into the next stage of pure abstraction in the 1990s，though figurative symbols and images still appeared in his work。Since the majority of the artists participating in experimental ink painting held a common belief that kept away from tradition，abstraction became the prevailing fashion back then。However，after two decades passed，few individuals retained a personal style。Ostensibly，abstraction is wide open，but it requires more creativity and imagination than figurative art because personal style doesn’t change even as images vary。Hence，a successful establishment in abstraction must go through a difficult path。
Graphic screens，suspended symbols，shifting brushwork，fragmented compositions，non-traditional skills and visual uncertainty construct Liu Zijian’s spiritual world。Like many classic abstraction cases in history，Liu’s experimental modality originated from figurative art，but his transformation wasn’t conducted by simply abnegating the figurative elements，but through the establishment of a self-sufficient linguistic system of ink painting。His breakthrough started from a core of traditional skills。But he didn’t only use the brush，but also sprayed，scrubbed，rubbed，incised，and used patchwork as additional parts of his core skills When operating with linguistic symbols，Liu was brave enough to utilize straight lines to dissect the screen into a multi-space structure；further more，using ink，he refined the square，circle，triangle，cross，and grid combination。Among the experimental ink painting artists，Liu Zijian went the farthest，explored the most，and rebelled to the at most extent。
Liu Zijian constructed a rich and complex linguistic system。Though his value originates from modality，he isn’t constrained by modality。Without the traditional visual objects such as mountain，spring，and birds，Liu’s work still carries the same inspiration。First，his work inherits “shapeless great picture”of “limited important strokes”，and he pushes the expression of freedom to an extreme。Second，his fragmental patchworks symbolize the contemporary chaos and uneasiness。
Within the abstract experimental ink painting artist，many individuals are using abstract symbolic language system in their work。This is because pure abstraction didn’t exist in ancient China，and Chinese people have special interest in rare stone and cursive hand，which can be considered the Chinese abstraction。Liu Zijian blazes a trail for the experimental ink painting。With his effort，contemporary semiotics of social context and traditional media combine to create a profound visual image。No matter in the experimental ink painting category or the abstraction art field，Liu Zijian defines a brand new coordinate for us to ponder。
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