吴翦的都市垃圾山水

        吴翦的绘画都容易被人视为西方抽象表现主义绘画，或是油画形式的中国古代文人自我表现式的绘画，但实际上他的题材来自都市。从1990年代中期开始，吴翦就开始画他的这种很像“八大山人”风格的表现主义油画。但吴翦并没有任何模仿明清文人画或抽象表现主义绘画风格的企图，也没有那种自我表现的意识。相反，他的创作完全出于自己对当代环境的感受。吴翦画中的“山水”形象实际上是以日常看到的都市中的垃圾山为原型。垃圾山里面物质材料的“丰富性”刺激了吴翦的表现欲望。他把垃圾看作人文的结果，是人的消费剩余物。他从中看到了某种苍凉、萧瑟、和荒率。于是，他的画面亦充满类似元明清文人“萧疏荒率”的表现主义性格。但是，其出发点则同后者风马牛不相及。吴翦的“萧疏荒率”没有任何田园趣味，也与超尘出世的文人意境毫不相关，更是与西方的抽象表现主义无关。吴翦的感情完全出自于一个当代都市人的日常生活经验。他把人的消费物看作一种人性化的物，并赋予它一种人性，一种被都市人异化了的物性。所以，吴翦的画中有一种愤世嫉俗的因素，这种愤世嫉俗不是对现实中的某类或某群人的批判，而是对人作为一个整体的调侃和批判，它是人与其生活空间之间冲突的体现。但是，这种批判却是用那么纯粹的、不露声色的美学方式表现出来。这与受到后现代主义影响的“调侃”、“玩世”直接的社会性表现方法截然不同。从这一点出发，吴翦绘画的社会性和当代性内容被掩盖在它的传统和现代表现主义的美学形式之下。这种矛盾也体现在吴翦的个人性格中。吴翦是一个超然自逸、处世平和的青年艺术家，但是胸中却有永远喷发不尽的激情。                             

        高名潞

        Wu Jian's urban Landscape of  Garbage
        Wu jian's paintings are usually regarded as either Western-style abstressionist paintings or Chinese
literati paintings in the guise of oil paintings.Since the mid-1990s,Wu Jian has been producing expres-
sionist paintings with obvious traces of the style of Bada Shanren.But Wu Jian has no intention of the
Ming and Qing dynasties or the abstract expressionist style ,nor does he consciously  seek self-expre-
ssion.Actually,his paintings focus on  urban subjects and result from his own feelings about the current
environment. The landscape forms in his paintings are based on the garbage dumps found around the
city.The diversity and "richness"of the materials in the piles of garbage have stirred his desire to be exp-
ressive.He sees gabage as the result of human activity and the vestiges of human consumption.From
this,he extracts a sense of desolation ,bsrenness,and lack of restraint.His paintings may brim with the
expressionit style characteristic of literati in the Yuan,Ming,Qing periods,but his point of departure has no-
thing to do with these earlier painters.His work bears no trace of their pastoral preoccupations,no does
it have much connection to the literati desire fo transcendence - let alone to that of Western abstract expr-
essionism.
  Wu jian's emotions comes entirely from the daily experience of a contemporary urban resident.He regards
consumer goods as human and embraces them with a  sense of humanity and a materiality based on
the alienation of uban residents,which accounts for the cynicism in his works.Such cynicism is not a criticism
of certain groups of people but rather an indictment of the entire human race.It reflects the conflict between
people and their living space.What's more,the criticism is expessed in a  humble and quiet aesthetic way.
From this perspective,Wu Jian's paintings are traditional and quite the opposite of the blunter methods of
social expression influenced by postmodernism,either by making fun of the world or by approaching it with
a cynical attitude .His approach is closer to the aesthetic expression of histoical literati.The social and conte-
emporary content of  Wu Jian's paintings is thus disguised by its "traditional" and "modern expressionist"
forms.Such a contradiction is also evident in the artist's personality.Wu Jian is a carefree young artist at peace
with the world,who also has inexhaustible passion.