评论

        对于寿山石雕刻艺术，近十五年是十分特别的。何马是这个行当中非常重要的艺术家。自1990年后，或者是在此之前，创意的热情正改变了传统的雕刻，如同发生在中国商业的更新。
        对于艺术史而言，这十五年的时期是非常珍贵的。在这个时期，新的观念被试用，新的标准被创造，充满了期待和兴奋，这让我想起了中国元朝的例子，以及20世纪早期的巴黎。
        对于一个像我这样的外国人，在九十年代末来到了福州，这个城市曾像一个新打开的啤酒瓶，樟林村，整个村里做艺术和工艺雕刻的师傅，以及在福州城里其他从事雕刻的艺术家们自己，经常展示作品，来看展的不仅有专家和收藏者，而且还有很多普通人，一边是强烈和鲜活的传统，一边是对于创新和改造的渴望，这是多么让人激动呀！
        为什么这些会发生？我认为，对于许多在艺术上有禀赋和才智的年轻人而言，这种藏在现象后的机会，成就他们的艺术敏感力，这意味着荣誉、名望或者是一种更为舒适的生活。来自社会各阶层中的聪明人，把艺术作为工具，将创意和禀赋转化为有形的物体，来展示他们的能力。向世界开放的中国，为找寻新的模式、尝试新的设计，质疑传统提供了一个机会。于此同时，石雕工艺深厚的技艺品质和传统存在于这个城市，如同法则一样，作为衡量卓越艺术品的一个标准，年轻艺术家的能量是燃料，伟大的工艺传统是发动机，像我这样的艺术爱好者正是去欣赏并享受驾驭其中的快乐。
        这就是背景，让我们谈论我们的大艺术家，他创作的不同阶段，以及作品风格。
        何马是一位诗意的艺术家，同时也有很酷的想象力。他时常把他的才能放在同一件作品里，这使得作品变得苦中有乐的混合体，兼有社会批判和沉醉生活的综合。作品“Watching over the wall”(墙外)、“Two types of laughter”(笑)、或者整个怪老翁和小孩系列“Evil old men chilclren”都刻画出喜苦参半的特点。也许，这些应该是将来要认真思量他对雨艺术最有贡献的作品。然而，对于何马其他作品所呈现的才华。客观的说，我大概还不能完全领会。
        随着时间的逝去，何马深化了人物造型的风格化：主体演进成流动的、块面的、象岩石搬的平滑造型，这些都传达了力量，柔和以及他想要融入别的感受。作品，“朗诵的老演员”就是很好的例子。
        融合了大量的社会批判和简练的形式，何马呈现给我们的是有趣和具有批判性描述的人物特征，这就是“何马风”。作为一种风格，很容易被其他艺术家所借鉴，照此说来，可以证实何马风已对未来艺术家造成最大的影响力。他对于人性的观点类似奥诺雷.杜米埃看待他的同龄人。艺术家都想要刺激他们的主题和观众。
        艺术家喜欢挑战寿山石雕刻艺术中根深蒂固的标准，他经常用石头的杂质部分来表现作品，金银色的石头外皮和原石材质的其他部分，这些应该是传统工匠忽略的部分。石头的瑕疵变成了人物衣服上的图案或是被用于其他肌理展现的方面。在作品“洞中圣贤”里，他甚至打破刻缕材质的模式，由花岗岩石形成的材质刻出老人，从寿山石的洞窟里凸透出来，而在当时，雕刻“石肉”还是传统的一贯模式。
        何马已经做了一个有趣的混搭，用一种具有西方观念艺术的图式来传达中国式来传达中国传统的信息，比如石榴等于多子，作品观念的价值要大于作品本身。
        “倒置”是一组系列作品，作品尺寸形成对照—小事物变大，而大的却变小，比如在一个大蔬菜上的小男孩就是属于这种形式。也是在这种形式的作品如“脸”，成群对砍的小兵，他尽力从作品中提炼出人性愉快和荒诞的特质。
        “出于泥土之外”作品系列，类似古青铜和瓷器的财富来自于土壤，是这种表现风格的另外一种形式。这里，当其他艺术家爱用材质可爱的石头来表现财富，并呈现出土的粗糙和寻常的肌理，何马用部分黑色的罗源石（即仙游石）表现宝藏，赋予宝藏凶险的图式。
        何马最有趣的主旨之一，是描述人，如同演员为了不同的情境而适用不同的面具一样，还没有全部呈现，何马处理这一主题的原型是什么，不同的表情飞舞起来，最终被融化于石头之中。这是一组重要的作品。
        何马和他的妻子王三三正努力创造一种造型简约的动物风格，在外型上有很多装饰艺术的风格。这是非常迷人的，当下，艺术家很少会倾注观念去发展新的装饰设计，就像用简约风格处理自然题材一样，这样两位艺术就爱正在做的事情给人面目一新的感觉。
        最后，不要忘了何马在风景、自然和叙述故事这类主题上的传统表达，这些主题是非常可爱并且是很不寻常的。我特别喜欢的作品是小件的“看月影的男孩”，作品反映了寿山石雕刻艺术家在工艺技法传统中最优秀的品质。
        就到这吧，看这本书的图片比读这篇导言要有帮助的多，就让读者自己明白为什么我是如此身深信何马是诸多闪亮雕刻明星中最有创造力和天赋的一位吧。

彼德.唐勒

        The last fifteen years have been very special for the art of Shoushan stone carving. HeMa is an important artist in the middle of this activity. Since 1990 or just before, a creative fever has changed traditional carving, similar to the revolution that is happening in Chinese business.
        Moments like this are rare and precious in the history of art. They are the times when new ideas are tried out and standards are created, when there is expectation and excitement in the air. I think of examples like China during the Yuan dynasty, like Paris in the early XX century.
        For a foreigner like me, arriving in Fuzhou at the end of the 90’s, the city was as a newly opened bottle of bubbling wine: Zhang Lin Cun, a whole city of carvers making art and craft objects; other artists working in Fuzhou itself; frequent shows well attended not only by experts and collectors, but by many common people; a strong and lively tradition on one side and a desire to renew and to innovate on the other. What excitement!
        Why was all of this happening? I believe the power behind this movement to be the perception by many talented and bright young people of Art as a means to glory, to fame, and to a more comfortable life. Intelligent people from all social classes used Art as the tool to turn creative instinct into concrete objects and to show their capabilities. China’s opening to the world offered an opportunity to look for new models, to try new designs, to defy tradition. At the same time, the high quality craftsmanship and tradition of stone carving existent in the city served as discipline and as a standard of excellent work. The energy of the young artists was the fuel and the great tradition was the engine; art lovers like me just had to appreciate and enjoy the ride.
        This was the background; let us talk about our great artist and different phases, different styles of his work.
        HeMa is an artist of poetic and also cruel imagination. He often puts both talents into the same piece, which becomes a bittersweet combination of social criticism and charm. “Watching over the wall”, “Two types of laughter” or the whole series “Evil old men and children” illustrate the point. Maybe the future will consider this line of work his most important contribution to Art, but maybe I am being unfair to other sides of his talent.
        Over time, HeMa developed a stylisation of the human form: bodies evolve into flowing, massive, rock-like smooth shapes that convey feelings of power, softness or others he may want to instil. The “Old actor declaiming” is a good example.
        Combining a little of social criticism and simplified lines, HeMa presents us with a funny and critical depiction of characters, the “HeMa Style”. Being a style, it was easy to use by other artists and, in this sense may turn out to be his biggest influence on future artists. His view of humanity is similar to the way Honore Daumier looked at his contemporaries.  Both artists like to needle their subjects (and the viewer).
The artist likes to defy established standards for Shoushan stone, he often uses stones with “foreign matter”: incrustations by metals and other stone material that would be rejected by the traditionalists. The flaws become patterns on clothes or get used in other ways. In “Old sage in the cave” he even carves the old man out of the matrix material (granitic lava) and the cave out of Shoushan stone, when traditionally the matrix is always used as the frame.
        HeMa has made a curious blend of the Chinese tradition of conveying a message through an image - as in “pomegranate = many children” – with western Conceptual Art, where the idea is much more valued the work itself.
        “Inversions”, a series of pieces where size is contrasted – small things become large and large ones become small, like a small boy on a large vegetable – belongs to this line.
        Also in this line are the “Faces”; groups of small pawns with faces on, into which he tries to distil his view of human funniness and absurdity. 
        The series “Out of the earth” -treasures like old bronzes and porcelains that come from the soil - is another of these. Here, while other artists would use a “pretty” stone to represent the treasure and make the soil rough and unattractive, Hema uses the dark part of Loyuan stone for the treasure, giving it a sinister and threatening look. 
        One of HeMa’s most interesting leitmotivs, not totally explored, is the presentation of people as (hollow?) actors using different masks for different situations. What is original is HeMa’s handling of the subject, different masks flying around and eventually getting wrapped around stones by the wind. It is a great set of works.
        HeMa and his wife Wang Sansan are involved in creating a style of simplified animals, a little Art Deco in looks, which is very charming. These days, when artists rarely put any thought into developing new decorative designs like new simplified ways to use natural subjects, it is refreshing to see what the two artists are doing.
        Last, do not forget HeMa’s depiction of traditional subjects of landscape, nature and story telling. They are lovely and often unusual. I especially like the small “Boy looking at the reflection of the Moon”, it shows the best qualities of a long line of Shoushan stone carving artists.
        Enough! Looking at the pictures in this book will be much more rewarding than reading introductions. Let the reader find out why I am so convinced that HeMa is among the most creative and talented of so many bright stars!

        Peter Hiller    
        The  professor&The former director of Brazil Sculpture Museum
Fuzhou   2006