法國思想家布萊瑟•帕斯卡（Blaise Pascal，1623—1662）在《思想錄》（Pensées）中寫道：“人只不過是一根蘆葦，是自然界最脆弱的東西，但它卻是一根會(huì)思維的蘆葦。” 然而，承認(rèn)人的脆弱似乎不是人類尤其不是西方人的主導(dǎo)思想，具有“人本主義”世界觀的西方人總是愿意標(biāo)榜人類作為萬物之靈長的強(qiáng)大與偉力。早在古希臘時(shí)代，偉大的悲劇作家索?？死账梗⊿ophoclēs，約前496—前406）就說過這樣的話：“在自然界中即使再大的力量，也沒有超過人的力量。” 即使脆弱是人類生命的客觀屬性，人們也總是有意無意地加以回避和掩飾，我們甚至渴望征服人類自身的脆弱性。披覽人類藝術(shù)史，我們可以看到無以數(shù)計(jì)的頌揚(yáng)人類偉大堅(jiān)強(qiáng)的杰作，古希臘神話中的大力神赫拉克勒斯（Helacles）更是西方歷代藝術(shù)家鐘愛的對象，我們幾乎看不到表現(xiàn)人類脆弱的藝術(shù)作品。西方現(xiàn)代主義和后現(xiàn)代主義藝術(shù)對人性的種種缺陷進(jìn)行了深入的挖掘，但也沒有一個(gè)藝術(shù)家明確表現(xiàn)過生命的脆弱性。因此，當(dāng)武明中致力于通過繪畫表現(xiàn)人類生命的脆弱性時(shí)，他無疑揭示了人性的新緯度，開拓了藝術(shù)的新領(lǐng)域。
武明中不是哲學(xué)家，但他從當(dāng)代世界和現(xiàn)實(shí)生活的切身體驗(yàn)中，感到了生命的脆弱。為了表現(xiàn)這種不可言傳的脆弱感，藝術(shù)家在畫布上發(fā)明了一種裝著紅葡萄酒的透明玻璃人像。這樣一種奇異別致的藝術(shù)形象看似靈感乍現(xiàn)、信手拈來的偶然產(chǎn)物，但卻是他經(jīng)過深思熟慮、反復(fù)探索的結(jié)果；玻璃人像是透明的，但這些形象的含義卻未必一覽無余；除了警示生命的脆弱，武明中的透明玻璃人像還蘊(yùn)含著更豐富更復(fù)雜的藝術(shù)史含義。
武明中第一批成熟的作品完成于20世紀(jì)90年代中后期，當(dāng)時(shí)的中國藝壇，政治波普藝術(shù)、玩世現(xiàn)實(shí)主義和艷俗藝術(shù)正盛極一時(shí)，武明中順應(yīng)時(shí)代潮流，以一組具有波普藝術(shù)風(fēng)格的作品表明自己積極介入當(dāng)代藝術(shù)的立場。我之所以將這組作品歸類于波普藝術(shù)，是因?yàn)槲涿髦胁捎昧瞬ㄆ账囆g(shù)慣用的現(xiàn)成圖像挪用策略，但實(shí)際上它們與當(dāng)時(shí)的政治波普藝術(shù)有著本質(zhì)的差別，武明中挪用的圖像不是那些作為政治符號的領(lǐng)袖人物，而是一些帶有條形碼的西方美術(shù)史上的著名形象，而且，他還通過三聯(lián)畫的形式，用并置的辦法，描繪了一張正張著大嘴打哈欠的人臉。因此，這類作品在波普藝術(shù)特點(diǎn)之外又具有新表現(xiàn)主義繪畫的品質(zhì)。根據(jù)武明中自己的說法，這些作品表達(dá)的是對消費(fèi)社會(huì)的困惑。在我看來，這些作品的真正意義在于試圖通過超越國家政治、關(guān)注人類共同的生存境遇，達(dá)到對中國當(dāng)代政治波普藝術(shù)的顛覆。
從2000年開始，武明中創(chuàng)造了一種帶有卵形腦袋的人像，也就是一種身體四肢和衣著高度寫實(shí)，但五官略而不做，頭部被簡化成雞蛋狀的人物形象。武明中在現(xiàn)實(shí)生活中注意到這樣一個(gè)現(xiàn)象，就是在官場和外交場合，各種人物特別是政客的相貌和五官并不是人們關(guān)注的焦點(diǎn)，人們更看重的是他們的身份，而且，他們的手勢和動(dòng)作往往代表著人物的角色，更能體現(xiàn)事件的性質(zhì)、過程和結(jié)果，雖然這些動(dòng)作通常帶有公式化色彩，但它們具有約定俗成、一望即知的象征含義。以這樣的人物形象，武明中創(chuàng)作了題為《接見》、《談判》、《投票》和《宣誓》等現(xiàn)實(shí)題材的作品。盡管在這些作品中，我們看不到人物的相貌，但他們握手、鼓掌、舉手和舉杯的動(dòng)作姿態(tài)已經(jīng)將人物角色和事件結(jié)果交待得一清二楚。這些作品的素材主要來自大眾傳播媒體，其主題的選擇再一次突破了狹隘的民族性，顯示出畫家敏銳而開闊的世界主義眼光。
2002年，武明中的個(gè)人藝術(shù)史翻開了嶄新的一頁，他的畫布上突然了出現(xiàn)一種人們從未見過的藝術(shù)形象——裝著XO威士忌的透明玻璃人像，通過這種形象，藝術(shù)家希望表達(dá)他從現(xiàn)實(shí)生活和個(gè)人情感經(jīng)歷中領(lǐng)悟到的生命的脆弱感，人世間那些原以為堅(jiān)不可摧的東西其實(shí)是脆弱不堪的。武明中在喟嘆脆弱之余，不禁產(chǎn)生了通過繪畫表達(dá)這種脆弱，也就是將這種脆弱的意念變成視覺形象的沖動(dòng)。按照象征主義者的說法，“任何一種觀念，都存在一種能夠?qū)⒅畟鬟_(dá)的視覺形象”。然而，究竟什么樣的物象能表達(dá)脆弱這樣一種抽象的質(zhì)感和心理的感受呢？藝術(shù)家開始了艱難的尋找和實(shí)驗(yàn)，終于，玻璃進(jìn)入了武明中的畫面。從此，一個(gè)全新的藝術(shù)世界在他面前豁然洞開。
根據(jù)古羅馬作家大普林尼（Pliny the Elder / Gaius Plinius Secundus，23—79）的《自然史》（Historia naturalis）記載，玻璃是在公元前3500年左右由腓尼基人（Phoenician）最早發(fā)明的，它是一種由石英砂和碳酸鈉經(jīng)高溫熔化、冷卻形成的化合物。在西方人眼里，玻璃是上帝賜予人類的最美麗的禮物。武明中將這樣一種既堅(jiān)硬又易碎、充滿矛盾的神奇物質(zhì)，作為貌似堅(jiān)強(qiáng)實(shí)則脆弱的人類生命的象征，真是再貼切不過了。經(jīng)過反復(fù)試驗(yàn)，武明中終于創(chuàng)作出了第一幅成功的玻璃人像，其標(biāo)題為《嘿嘿！》，畫面描繪的是意大利著名光頭裁判皮耶爾路易吉•科利納（Pierluigi Collina）。這個(gè)意大利人仿佛被施了魔法，一個(gè)血肉之軀煥然變成了玻璃制品，并且在這個(gè)玻璃人的體內(nèi)還裝滿了橘紅色的XO威士忌。在玻璃人像繪畫的試驗(yàn)中，武明中發(fā)現(xiàn)，僅僅單純地畫出一個(gè)無色而又透明的玻璃人像，給人的視覺刺激是很微弱的，因此，在畫出玻璃人像的同時(shí)，武明中就將玻璃人像裝上了XO威士忌，有了這種液體，既強(qiáng)化了玻璃的質(zhì)感，又增加了畫面的色彩和視覺沖擊力。由于找到了可行的辦法，藝術(shù)家一發(fā)而不可收，接著創(chuàng)作了“朋友，小心輕放！”、“嗨，小心！”、“拍吧！”和“愛能持續(xù)多久？”等大量作品。這些玻璃人既有頭像，又有胸像，還有立像；有單人像，也有人物眾多的群像；有靜止的姿態(tài)，更有活動(dòng)的身影。許多頭像和胸像有著高腳玻璃杯的底座，那纖細(xì)的支柱仿佛一觸即碎，而那些在基座上傾倒的人像更是即將墜地，瞬間化為碎片。雖然肉體變成了玻璃，但這是一種高度寫實(shí)的人物畫，畫中每個(gè)人物的相貌、神情乃至汗珠仍一如常態(tài)、逼肖真人。
從2005年開始，武明中迷戀上丙烯顏料中的熒光桃紅，與此同時(shí)，他還將他的玻璃人容器中的液體換成了紅葡萄酒，由熒光桃紅、永固紅和深紅色畫成的葡萄酒更加絢麗奪目，為了突出主體形象，畫面的背景更多地采用了灰白色。色彩學(xué)和視覺心理學(xué)告訴我們，紅色是光波最長、穿透力最強(qiáng)、感知度最高的顏色，它往往使人聯(lián)想到太陽、火焰和鮮血等物象，常常使人產(chǎn)生歡快、激動(dòng)和亢奮的心理反應(yīng)。紅色既象征喜慶和希望，又代表暴力和危險(xiǎn)。在武明中的繪畫中，紅色無疑具有危險(xiǎn)、警告和禁止的象征含義。雖然從形式上看，武明中的這種玻璃人像屬于單色畫，但由于其獨(dú)特的語言、奇異的形象和強(qiáng)烈的紅色，作品有著巨大的視覺沖擊力，令人過目難忘。
武明中的繪畫素材基本上來自報(bào)紙、雜志和網(wǎng)絡(luò)等大眾傳播媒體，他以圖片為藍(lán)本，通過想象將其轉(zhuǎn)化為玻璃人像。實(shí)際上，武明中描繪的是一種虛擬的玻璃制品，制造的是一種超現(xiàn)實(shí)主義的幻覺。由于沒有真實(shí)的玻璃人可供寫生，一個(gè)裝有威士忌的玻璃瓶成了武明中忠實(shí)的模特兒。可以說，武明中作品中的所有玻璃人像都是從這個(gè)玻璃瓶蛻變而成的。
由于武明中的玻璃人像繪畫是如此新穎、如此獨(dú)特，以致長期以來評論家始終難以將其歸類。從風(fēng)格學(xué)上看，武明中的這類作品具有顯而易見的象征主義（Symbolism）特征，武明中采用的藝術(shù)語言符合象征主義的定義，即“用具體的人們可以感知的物象來暗指某種抽象的不可感知的人類情感或觀念”。在西方傳統(tǒng)的象征主義繪畫作品中，在人物形象之外，畫家往往利用某種特定的道具來表達(dá)某種特定的寓意，例如，鴿子象征和平，玫瑰代表愛情，百合表示純潔，骷髏暗示死亡。西方象征主義繪畫中的物象或道具所具有的象征含義有些是全人類公認(rèn)的，有些只有在特定的文化語境中才能成立。例如，在基督教文化中，紅葡萄酒象征基督的血液，面包代表基督的肉體，這樣的類比關(guān)系和象征意義就是非基督教文化圈的人所不熟悉的。武明中將人像畫成玻璃制品，用玻璃來象征人的脆弱，而玻璃的脆弱性又是人所共知的；包裝箱上的玻璃杯圖形表示“易碎物品，小心輕放”，是一個(gè)世界通行的標(biāo)識。紅色代表危險(xiǎn)和警告也是人類普遍認(rèn)同的，“綠燈行，紅燈停”是全球統(tǒng)一的交通信號。不過，傳統(tǒng)的象征主義繪畫多取材于文學(xué)作品，而武明中的玻璃人像則完全取自當(dāng)代世界中的真實(shí)人物，作品具有更強(qiáng)烈的現(xiàn)實(shí)主義精神。因此，如果一定要我給武明中的玻璃人像繪畫貼上風(fēng)格的標(biāo)簽，我愿意將其稱為“象征現(xiàn)實(shí)主義”（Symbolist realism）。
雖然武明中的玻璃人像是在畫布上完成的，但它帶有強(qiáng)烈的觀念主義特征，我們甚至可以說，武明中的玻璃人像是架上繪畫和觀念主義的混合體，而這樣的綜合性也正是中國當(dāng)代藝術(shù)的普遍特征。在武明中的作品中，既有關(guān)注人生的現(xiàn)實(shí)主義精神，又有幻想虛擬的超現(xiàn)實(shí)主義品質(zhì)；既有托物表意的象征主義手法，又有圖像挪用的波普藝術(shù)策略。武明中自己也說：“畫玻璃人像的時(shí)候，我把自己找全了，體驗(yàn)、觀念和技法，所有的知識和思想都用上了。”在我看來，高超的寫實(shí)功力是武明中獲得成功的重要基礎(chǔ)，純粹的繪畫性使得這些玻璃人像作品更具獨(dú)特性。武明中的繪畫告訴我們，“繪畫沒有死亡”，它有著巨大的生命力和無窮的可能性。
2008年，武明中又將它的創(chuàng)作擴(kuò)展到了裝置藝術(shù)和數(shù)碼影像藝術(shù)領(lǐng)域。在“第七屆上海雙年展”（7th Shanghai Biennial）中，武明中展出了繪畫、裝置和影像三合為一的作品《國際飯店501》，其中的影像作品，讓觀眾通過晃動(dòng)的紅葡萄酒透視上海人民廣場的人群和建筑，讓人產(chǎn)生一種既華麗又虛幻的心理感受，真是妙不可言。在“第三屆西班牙塞維利亞國際當(dāng)代藝術(shù)雙年展”（3rd International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Sevilla, Spain）上，武明中展出的是影像作品《城市》，同樣表現(xiàn)的是通過裝有紅色葡萄酒杯看到的扭曲而又浮華的當(dāng)代物質(zhì)世界。
武明中的玻璃人像形式新穎、風(fēng)格獨(dú)特，但它們的意義還不在于風(fēng)格學(xué)層面，換一句話說，如果僅僅從風(fēng)格學(xué)的角度來讀解武明中的玻璃人像，我們就會(huì)錯(cuò)失這些作品的真正價(jià)值。因此，我更愿意從作品的內(nèi)在含義和中國當(dāng)代藝術(shù)發(fā)展的角度來解讀武明中的作品。
我們知道，堅(jiān)強(qiáng)和偉大是人類追求的目標(biāo)，也是人類文明發(fā)展的動(dòng)力，從某種意義上說，一部人類文明史就是人類努力征服自然、不斷走向強(qiáng)大的歷史，尤其是進(jìn)入工業(yè)文明時(shí)代，人類更是創(chuàng)造了空前強(qiáng)大的物質(zhì)文明。有人說，地球上的人類從來沒有像工業(yè)文明時(shí)代這樣活得如此高貴。但是，具有諷刺意味的是，人類創(chuàng)造了強(qiáng)大的物質(zhì)文明，人類自身卻越來越脆弱；在工業(yè)文明時(shí)代，人類的精神性日益喪失，對于物質(zhì)的依附，導(dǎo)致人類自身也被物質(zhì)化了。我們看到，隨著時(shí)間的推移，出現(xiàn)在武明中玻璃人像行列中的人物越來越多，除了不知名的普通人之外，還有各國元首、世界明星、商業(yè)巨人、社會(huì)名流和大眾偶像，武明中甚至將世界藝術(shù)史上的經(jīng)典作品也變成了玻璃制品。在許多作品中，武明中還將眾多人物和盛大場面布置在箱子里，意在諷喻人們身處危險(xiǎn)而毫不自知，也是對樂觀主義者的提醒。實(shí)際上，武明中揭示的不僅是人類生命的脆弱性，還包括人與人之間的關(guān)系、自然環(huán)境的脆弱性。在武明中眼里，除了永恒的時(shí)間，這個(gè)星球上幾乎沒有堅(jiān)實(shí)的東西。生命、愛情、友誼、權(quán)力、政治、文明、信仰乃至精神，一切都不是堅(jiān)不可摧永遠(yuǎn)不變的。至此，武明中似乎進(jìn)入了“看破紅塵”的佛教境界，但實(shí)際上，武明中并不是一個(gè)悲觀主義者，他只是比常人多了一份理性、多了一份清醒，他的作品帶給我們的是哲理和警醒，而不是恐懼和絕望。
武明中的玻璃人像是全球化、信息化時(shí)代特有的產(chǎn)物，它不僅具有當(dāng)代性，而且具有國際性。必須承認(rèn)，武明中透明玻璃人像是對人性的探尋和質(zhì)疑，脆弱性具有人類普適性（universalism）。不分民族和種族，無論男女老幼，脆弱是當(dāng)今世界所有生命的共同感受。武明中說：“我認(rèn)為，中國藝術(shù)家不必彰顯自己的民族身份或民族符號，應(yīng)該凸現(xiàn)個(gè)性化色彩，個(gè)人體內(nèi)流動(dòng)著民族的血液，不必加以強(qiáng)調(diào)，藝術(shù)家應(yīng)該具有國際的胸懷和個(gè)人的視角。”藝術(shù)家將所有的人物都畫成玻璃人，還有另一層涵義，這就是人是簡單的、同質(zhì)的（homogeneous），不僅每個(gè)人的物質(zhì)構(gòu)造沒有區(qū)別，每個(gè)人的需要和欲望也都是相同的。簡而言之，武明中的玻璃人像是工業(yè)文明時(shí)代消費(fèi)社會(huì)中脆弱化、物質(zhì)化和同質(zhì)化的人類生命的寫照。這些作品既是對人類的諷喻，又是對生命的警示。
武明中的繪畫意味著， 21世紀(jì)的中國當(dāng)代藝術(shù)已經(jīng)走出了對西方藝術(shù)的模仿，超越了狹隘的社會(huì)學(xué)價(jià)值觀和民族意識；中國當(dāng)代藝術(shù)家已經(jīng)有能力與西方藝術(shù)家平等地進(jìn)行藝術(shù)創(chuàng)造，能夠自覺地與世界藝術(shù)家同步思考和探究世界和人類共同面臨的問題。
王端廷 中國藝術(shù)研究院研究員
2008年8月于北京
The Warning of Life
Impressions on Wu Mingzhong’s art work
Wang Duanting
French thinker Blaise Pascal’s writing (1623-1662) in the < Pensées >: "Man is only a reed, is nature's most fragile thing, but the reed can think." however, the recognition of fragility apparently is not human’s leading idea and especially not in the Western, the Westerner with "humanist" worldview is always willing to flaunt the mightiness of humanity as a superior power. In ancient Greek, the great tragedy writer Sophoclēs, (496-406 BC) said: "even the great power in nature, that less than the power of people." Although the fragility is the objective attribute of human life, people always slide over and cover it up intentionally or unintentionally, we may even desire to conquer the fragility of human. Survey human’s art history, we can see the countless masterpieces that extol human’s greatness and toughness, Helacles in ancient Greek myth is also a favorite subject of Western artists, we barely find any artwork that indicates human’s fragility. The Western modernism and post-modernism art excavate shortcomings of human nature in depth, no one has clearly demonstrated the fragility of life yet. Therefore, as Wu Mingzhong commits himself to convey the fragility of life through painting, he has undoubtedly revealed the new latitude of humanity and opened up a new field of art.
Wu Mingzhong is not the philosopher, but he has realized the fragility of life from the contemporary world and real-life experience. In order to deliver such a sense of fragility, on canvas the artist has created the transparent glass portrait that contains the red wine. Such a singular and unique art image looks like a erupting inspiration or a random outcome, but the accomplishment comes from his deliberation and repeated exploration; the glass portrait is transparent, but the meaning of these images may not be totally seen; the transparent glass portrait also contains a richer and intricate meaning of art history besides the warning of life fragility.
The first group of mature works by Wu Mingzhong had finished in the late 90’s of 20th century, the time in China's art scene, Political Pop, Cynical Realism and gaudy Art were very popular, he followed the trend of the times and demonstrated his active position in contemporary art by a group of Pop Art works. I classify this group works to Pop Art, since Wu Mingzhong had adopted the image appropriation practice that has been commonly used in Pop Art, but the work in fact has the essential distinction to the Political Pop Art of the time, the images Wu Mingzhong had appropriated in works were not the symbols of political leaders, but famous images with bar codes in Western art history, he has also adopted the form of triptych, and in the way of juxtaposition to portray a yawning face. Therefore, this type of work has the character of new impressionism besides the trait of pop art. As Wu Mingzhong said, these works expressed the perplexity towards consumer society. In my view, the true meaning of these works is tending to go beyond the nation’s political, concerning about the living condition of mankind, to subvert the political pop in China’s contemporary art.
Since 2000, Wu Mingzhong created a sort of oval head portrait, that is a body with highly realistic limbs and clothing, but the head is simplified into an egg-shaped. Wu Minzhong has noticed such a phenomenon in reality, that is, in official and diplomatic occasions, various people, especially the politician’s expression and facial features are not people’s concern, more important is their identity, moreover, their gesture and action often represent the role of character, it is better to incarnate an event’s nature, process and result , although these movements are usually formulated, they have a conventional and clear symbolic meaning. Based on such characters, Wu Mingzhong created a series works of realistic subjects entitled <meeting>, <negotiation>, <vote> and <oath> and so on. Although we cannot see the characters appearance in these works, they shook hands and applauded, raised their hands and toasted, their movements have already narrated the characters and the story clearly. The material of these works mainly came from the mass media, the choice of theme once again broke through the narrow-minded nationalism, showing that the artist’s keen and broad cosmopolitism vision.
In 2002, a new page had opened in Wu Mingzhong’s art history, the new image suddenly had appeared on canvas that people have never seen – the transparent glass portrait that contains XO whiskey, through the portrait, the artist hoped to express the fragility of life that he realized from personal experience, the toughest thing in the world is actually fragile. More than a sigh, Wu Mingzhong was eager to express such fragility in his painting, that impulse was the motif to turn the fragility into a visual image. As symbolist said, "any kind of concept, it can be conveyed by a visual image". However, what kind of thing can express the fragility that is abstract sense and psychological feeling? Artist started his hard search and experiments, finally, the glass appeared in his painting. Since then, a new art world suddenly opened up to him.
According to the record in <Historia naturalis> by ancient Roman writer Pliny the Elder / Gaius Plinius Secundus ,(23-79), the glass was invented in 3500 BC by the Phoenician, It is the quartz sand and sodium carbonate melts at high temperature, cooling to form compounds. In Western eyes, the glass is the most beautiful gift from God. Wu Mingzhong picks such a hard, brittle and magical material that is very contradictive, yet it is closely relevant to indicate the fragility of human beings, the seemingly tough but fragile indeed. After the experiments, finally Wu Mingzhong successfully produced his first painting of glass portrait, entitled <Hey hey!>, the painting depicts the renowned bald Italian referee Pierluigi Collina. As if the Italian has been bewitched, the flesh and blood became a glasswork, and the glass body was filled with the jacinth XO whiskey. Wu Mingzhong has found out in the experiments that the visual stimulation is very weak to the audience if draw a colorless and transparent glass portrait on canvas, therefore, he added XO Whiskey to the glass portrait when he created the painting, the liquid not only strengthened the quality of glass, but also enhanced the painting’s hue and visual impact. Since the feasible solution he has found, the artist produced a large number of works include <Friend, Handle with Care!>, <Hey, Careful!>, <Shoot it!> and <how long does love last?>. These glass portraits have head, bust as standing portrait; single portrait and group portraits; static posture and moving form. Many heads and busts have a high-foot glass pedestal, and the thin pillar looks so fragile, and the portrait on the pedestal is about to fall and smash to pieces. Although the flesh turns into glass, this sort of highly realistic portraits, their appearances and expressions of each character played as usual, and even the lifelike sweat drops.
Started in 2005, Wu Mingzhong was stuck on the fluorescent pink of propylene, at the same time, he had also replaced the liquid in glass container by red wine, the wine is more eye-catching with the paint of fluorescent pink, solid red and dark red, and the background in painting is off-white to highlight the main image. Chromatics and visual psychology tell us that red has the longest light wave, the strongest penetrating power and the highest degree of sensibility, it is reminiscent of the sun, fire and blood and other things,red brings people the psychological reaction of joy, excitement and agitation. Red is a symbol of celebration and hope, also represents violence and danger. Red has undoubtedly symbolic meaning of danger, warning and prohibition in Wu Mingzhong’s works. Although the glass portrait paintings are monochrome in form, the works have great visual impact with unique language, singular image and striking red, extremely impressive.
Basically, the material in Wu Mingzhong’s paintings come from the mass media, such as newspapers, magazines and internet, he has translated these pictures into the glass portraits with imagination. In fact, Wu Mingzhong has depicted a sort of fictitious glasswork to create a surreal illusion. A whiskey bottle becomes his loyal model because there is no real glass man at all. The truth is, Wu Mingzhong has transformed the whiskey bottle into all glass portraits in works.
Because Wu Mingzhong’s glass portrait painting is so novel, so unique that the critic has always been difficult to classify. His works have obvious symbolism features on the stylistic view, the artistic language he used in line with the definition of symbolism, that is, "imply some kind of abstract unperceptive human emotion or concept with specific objects that people can perceive". In Western traditional symbolism painting, the artists often take advantage of some particular props to express specific meanings beyond the characters, for example, dove signifies the peace, rose means love, Lily indicates the purity, skeleton implies the death. Some symbolic meanings of objects or props in Western symbolism painting have been recognized in the world, and some objects can only be acknowledged in a specific cultural context. For instance, in Christian culture, red wine symbolizes the blood of Christ, bread stands for the body of Christ, people are not familiar with such symbolic significance for those are not Christian. Wu Mingzhong creates glass portrait to symbolize the fragility of human beings, the fragility of glass is well known; the glass graphic on the package means "Fragile Items, Handle with Care" that is a universal logo. Red stands for danger and warning, as well as the traffic light. However, the material in traditional symbolism paintings were based on the literary works, while Wu Mingzhong’s entire glass portraits come from the real people in the world, because of that the works have posed the consuming spirit of realism. Accordingly, if I have to paste a style label on painting of Wu Mingzhong, I would like to label it the "symbolic realism".
Although Wu Mingzhong’s glass portrait has been finished on canvas, it has obvious features of conceptualism, we might even say that, his work is a combination of oil painting and conceptualism, and the integration is a common feature of China contemporary art as well. Wu Mingzhong’s works both have the realism spirit towards living concern, and the fictitious surrealism trait; as well as the symbolic technique of symbolism and image appropriation tactic of Pop Art. Wu Mingzhong also said: "I had achieved myself when I produced the glass portraits painting, my experience, concept and skills, I had employed all the knowledge and ideas in practice." In my opinion, his superb skill on realistic depiction is the key to be successful, the pure brushwork makes the glass portraits painting very unique. Wu Mingzhong’s painting sends us a message that "painting will not come to an end", it has great vitality and boundless possibilities.
In 2008, Wu Mingzhong has expanded his art creation to the installation art and digital video art. In the 7th Shanghai Biennale, he has shown his triple artwork < International Hotel 501> that included oil painting, installation and video art, in which the video work was the audience watched the crowd and buildings in Shanghai People's Square through the swaying red wine, it brought people a sort of magnificent and fantastic feeling, that was really wonderful. In the 3rd International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Sevilla, Spain, Wu Mingzhong has presented his video work <Metropolis>, which was to see the distorted and flashy material world through a red wine glass.
Wu Mingzhong’s glass portrait is novel and the style is unique, however, it’s significance does not define on the level of stylistic, In other words, we will miss the importance of these works, if we just observe the works from the perspective of stylistic. Therefore, I prefer to observe his works from the perspective of painting’s connotation and the evolution of Chinese contemporary art.
We know that humanity is in pursuit of toughness and greatness, is also the driving force for the development of human civilization, in a sense, the history of human civilization is the effort to conquer the nature and becoming powerful, especially in the era of industrial civilization, human beings created an unprecedented material world. Some people say that, people have never lived in such a noble era before. Ironically, the humankind became more and more fragile when we created massive material; in the industrial era, human was losing the spirit and sponging on the material, it resulted in the human beings had been materialized. We found that more and more characters appeared in Wu Mingzhong’s glass portraits with time went by, in addition to the unknown people, there are the heads of state, the world stars, business giants, celebrities and public idols , he even fabricated the classic works in the world’s art history. In many works, Wu Mingzhong has arranged the characters and grand scenes in the box, intended to satirize the people in danger but have no awareness, or a reminder of the optimist. In fact, Wu Mingzhong has disclosed the fragility of human life, as well as the human’s connection and the fragility of natural environment. Wu Mingzhong believes that, except the eternal time, nothing is unbreakable and unchangeable, such as Life, love, friendship, power, politics, civilization, faith and spirit. At this point, he seems to reach the Buddhist realm "walk out from the illusions", but in reality, Wu Mingzhong is not a pessimist, he is more rational and conscious than ordinary people, his work brings us the philosophy and warning rather than the fear and despair.
The glass portrait is a specific product in the era of globalization and information, and being contemporary and international. We must recognize that, the transparent glass portrait is the exploration and suspicion of human nature, the fragility is universalism for human. Regardless of the nationality and race, regardless of men, women or children, the fragility is people’s common feeling in today's world. Wu Mingzhong says: "In my opinion, Chinese artists do not need to stress their national identity or symbols, we should demonstrate our personality, there is no need to claim our flowing national blood, the artists should have an international mind and personal perspective." All characters are glass appearance in the works, suggesting another meaning, people are simple and homogeneous, not only the physical structure of each person, but also the demand and desire. In short, the glass portrait is the portrayal of fragility, materialization and homogenization in industrial civilization. These works are satire to humanity, warning of life.
Wu Mingzhong’s painting means that, China’s contemporary art has come out of the imitation of Western art in the 21st century, exceeding the narrow sociological valuation and national consciousness; Chinese contemporary artists are capable to create art as equal as the Western artists, and spontaneously are able to consider and probe into the world with artists around globe, to solve the issues confronting the humankind.
Wang Duanting
Researcher at Chinese Art Research
August 2008, Beijing
【編輯：霍春?！?/p>
