光天化日：伍礼个展
策展人：邓彬彬
展期 Duration : 2018.08.25-09.16
开幕 Opening : 2018.08.25 16:00
地点 Venue : 索卡艺术·北京
光天化日
从08年栗宪庭先生为伍礼策划的首个个展《烈酒浓情》到此次个展《光天化日》整好过去十年，这十年，伍礼也从宋庄最年轻的艺术家成长为人父，曾经在《战国的硝烟》中弥漫著的那些浓郁的个人英雄主义、以及《破土之惑》中与泥土融为一体的少年身躯，逐渐散去，取而代之的是《艳阳高照》中的勃勃生机、反复出现的果实和孕育的生命。不过，美好总带有著几分残缺，邪恶也在近期的作品中随之而至，《阴招》、《扭曲的人》、《光天化日》仅从作品的命名即可见端倪，伍礼从直面自我，追溯过往的成长历程，描绘自然与生命的原始张力，开始转向对外部世界的关注，这种关注源自逝去的老者和新生儿，作为伍礼生命中最重要的一部分，他们各处在生命的两端，展览主题同名作品《光天化日》将二者结合到了一起，这种结合在伍礼的预设当中特意表现得格外残酷，旷野被浓烈的紫外线照射出耀眼的金黄色，天空之蓝变得不寻常的深邃，老者恶魔般的狰狞，狠狠的捏住婴儿的脖子，婴儿无助的张开了双臂，躯体在试图翻转，暗红的背景色将婴儿包裹，置于前景中的一株平凡草木也不甘于平静，张牙舞爪似地扑向婴儿。如此光天化日、众目睽睽之下，幼小的生命也难逃厄运。不难让人联想起近期发生的多起恶性事件，毒奶粉、红黄蓝、疫苗事件等等。
艳阳高照 The Sun Rides High In The Sky
布面油画 Oil on Canvas
150x180cm
2018
阴招 Insidious Tricks
布面油画 Oil on Canvas
100x80cm
2018
光天化日 In Broad Daylight
布面油画 Oil on Canvas
220x290cm
2018
GDP的增速显然无法掩盖基础道德的缺失，就像科技进步所驱动艺术家对于新材料、新方法的应用掩盖不了创造力的贫瘠一样，科幻片与电游的酷炫更令人神往，绘画脱离了艺术家的手工劳作感，那基本上也就宣告死亡了，绘画除了观念、技法、形式，最大的魅力在于情感、情绪的表达，那种机器无法替代的人性和精神高度，不是单靠聪明所能触及的，我们参加博览会，看一场当代艺术展览，如果不去深入了解作品的创作者、作品的上下文关系、创作者所处的社会背景和现实语境，仅仅面对一件作品该如何去消解心中的疑惑？
因为它很可能是你原有的知识结构的盲区，也可能是你所不曾见过的新的材料和科技的应用，又或是在世界的另一个角落某位艺术家已经实践过的样式，只是你恰好没有见过。信息化飞速膨胀的时代，艺术紧跟时尚潮流，趣味转变的太快，伍礼是少数坚守阵地的艺术家之一，他真诚面对他成长过程中的现实体验，在全球化的当代艺术浪潮中显得极为冷静，我们的历史语境、我们的文化背景、我们所受的教育、我们所面对的问题都是相对独立的。
没有哪一种文化现象像中国过去四十年一样把西方几百年的艺术史脉络重新实验了一遍，生长了大量的半生不熟的果子，还没来的及成熟又被新一波价值判断标淮和市场潮流所影响，作为八零后艺术家的伍礼，他在启蒙时期接触的是西方后印象到表现主义阶段为主的造型及色彩训练，这在中国近百年的美术史进程中有著特殊的土壤环境，从晚清民国第一波留洋海外的艺术前辈到鲁迅所倡导的新兴木刻运动，以及后89时期绘画性的回归，和中国绘画中笔墨的书写性、画面意境相关的表现性绘画有著特殊的时代意义，而不管是表现主义、抽象表现主义、新表现主义放在西方艺术史当中都属于过去式，绝大部分艺术家都怀疑这样的绘画不适应以西方世界所主导的当代艺术系统，事实证明这种担心是多余的，“当代”在不同的国家背景、地缘政治下的内涵显然是不同的，放在历史当中来看也同样如此，星星美展的先锋性在特定的时空区间内才会如此显现。伍礼的艺术实践恰恰衔接著近百年来中国现代主义艺术进程中的断层部分，以及从入笔即始的东方书写性在西画语言中的变革。
伯乐和马 Bole ( A Good Judge of Talents ) and Horse
水彩 Watercolor
150x120cm
2015
果实 Fruit
布面油画 Oil on Canvas
150x120cm
2017
从2005年离湘入京始，伍礼日复一日的在他北京东郊的工作室里日出而作、日落而息，用极为古典的节奏规律的劳作著，和画面色彩刺激鲜艳、笔触激昂顿挫相比较，伍礼性格沉稳笃定，安安静静地遵循著自己朴素的内心，更像是一种修行，与二十几公里外大北窑的车水马龙、光怪陆离的花花世界形成极大反差。他每下一笔都铿锵有力，对每一笔都极为用心，画面的问题只能通过反复的摸索一点点的去解决，没有丝毫懈怠和回避，没有取巧更没有去追随潮流，他所有的养分都来自对周遭生活的体验和感悟，对消瞬即逝的片段的敏锐捕捉，当然他也不断向艺术史上的中外大师学习，通过与古人对话校淮自己的位置。伍礼强调说他希望站在时代之外去看今天的艺术环境，和现在所处的时代保持距离，潮流是值得警惕的。有一次去伍礼工作室，突然让我想起巴西摄影师萨尔加多用了八年时间拍摄的摄影集《创世纪》，寻找地球的原貌，没有被现代文明所触及的角落。他说，在《创世纪》中，我的相机让我和自然说话，我做到了，这是我的荣幸。他在拍摄他的对象时，他会把自己完全沉浸在被摄者的生活方式和自然状态中，他认为走马观花似拍的照片多数都缺乏应有的深度，这让我们更能理解伍礼所描绘的自然世界和人物关系，他同样把自己浸入到被描述对象的生活状态，或者反过来讲，因为这些自然世界和人物关系无法从他的生活状态中脱离，那是融入他血液和塑造他躯体的自然力量，如果他不去表现他们，带著深情去热爱他们，还有什么更能激发他的表现欲，如果把爱和直觉从绘画的潜意识里剥离，那绘画永远无法触及人类最高维度的精神层面。
策展人 邓彬彬
2018/7/26
于上海嘉定寓所
In Broad Daylight
From his first solo exhibition “Passion Strong Like Liquor” curated by Li Xiantingin 2008 to the present solo exhibition “In Broad Daylight”, over the pastdecade, Wu Li, the formerly youngest artist in Songzhuang, became a father. Allof the individual heroism manifested in “The Smoke of War” in addition to theyouth’s muddy body in the “Breaking Through the Soil” have been dissipated andrevitalized by the recurring vigorous fruits, breeds and other living creaturesin the “Bright and Shining Sun”. However, beauty usually comes along with atouch of defect, in his recent works there is a kind of evilness, which isimplied through a glimpse of the titles such as “Deceitful Tactics”, “DistortedMan”, and “In Broad Daylight”. Consequently, unlike his maturing days full ofintrospection, retrospection and depictions of the originality of nature andlife, Wu Li has started to concentrate on the external world, such an ideaoriginates from his attention to the aged and newborns which simply suggest thetwo ends of life. In the work with a same title of the exhibition namely “InBroad Daylight”, the artist integrated the two aspects of life, however, such anintegration happened to be roughly depicted as Wu Li had assumed. Specifically,the wilderness was illuminated as bright as gold by the strong ultravioletrays, the blue sky deepened its singular profundity, the aged looked as hideousas a demon and cruelly tried to strangle the infant who helplessly opened thearms, as a result, the infant’s body turned over and seemed to be wrapped bythe crimson background in the picture. In the foreground, a lone, ordinaryplant also cannot hide its eagerness to attack the infant in a furious manner.In such a broad daylight, the newly-born infant was doomed in the public eye.All of this manifestly reminds us of a series of disappointing incidents, suchas the poisonous milk power, the RYB kindergarten abuse, and the recent vaccinescandal.
光 Light
布面油画 Oil on Canvas
100x150cm
2018
扭曲的人 A Twisted Man
布面油画 Oil on Canvas
100x80cm
2018
The growth of GDP, utterly, cannot disguisethe decline of morality, just like artists’ application of new materials andnew approaches, as a result of the advancement of technology, cannot cover upthe absence of artists’ creativity. The sci-fi movies and video games aregetting rather fascinating and appealing, however , paintings are deadly dull oncebeing detached from the artists’ craftsmanship. Apart from concepts,techniques, and forms, the prominence of paintings lies in the expression ofemotions and feelings, the humanistic and spiritual qualities cannot be easilyreplaced either by machines nor tricks. At an art fair or an exhibition ofcontemporary art, how should we tackle the doubts in front of a piece ofartwork if we fail to comprehend the artist, the setting, and the artist’ssocial background and context? It is, in all likelihood, beyond your knowledgestructure, or an innovative application of a new material or technology thatyou haven’t encountered, even a pattern that another artist from somewhere elsehas applied but you just haven’t come up with. In the era of rapid progress ofinformation technology, art turns out to keep up with trends in fashion,meanwhile, curiosity doesn’t last, Wu Li is one of the rare artists who standtheir own ground. He is sincerely aware of the realistic experiences in theprocess of growing up, not being disturbed by the waves of globalizedcontemporary art. The historical context, cultural background, education, andproblems in everyday life of each of us are simply independent. There is nocultural phenomenon like what China had experienced in the past 40 years,Chinese artists re-experimented the hundreds of years of artistic movements inthe Western art history, and hatched a great number of semi-mature “fruits”which had been influenced by a new wave of values and market trends beforegetting “ripe”. As an artist of post-1980s, Wu Li in his formative years hadbeen trained for the modelling and coloring in accordance with the Westernpost-impressionism and expressionism. Throughout the art history of the pastone hundred years, from the first bunch of artists returned from overseacountries in the late Qing dynasty and early Republic of China and the NewChinese Woodcut Movement that Lu Xun initiated and the return of painterlinessin the post-1989 period to the writerly qualities of brush and ink in Chinesepaintings as well as the expressionist paintings related to the images ofpictures, all of this manifested a particular significance of the times. Theexpressionism, abstract expressionism, and neo-expressionism had been dated inthe art history of the West, that’s why a vast majority of artists suspectedthat such a way of painting was by no means adapted to the system ofcontemporary art dominated by the Western world, however, such concern turnedout to be superfluous, the connotation of “contemporary” articulately differsin different countries and geopolitics, this is also true in the historicalcontext, the avant-garde quality of the Star Art Exhibition was only manifestedin specific time and space. Wu Li’s artistic practice happened to be preciselypart of the shift of China’s modernist art movement in the past 100 years, hispractice also reflected the transformation of oriental writings throughout the artisticlanguage of Western paintings.
果木 Fruit Tree
布面油画 Oil on Canvas
220x290cm
2018
果实 Fruit
布面油画 Oil on Canvas
150x120cm
2017
Since leaving Hunan for Beijing in 2005, Wu Li has “risen with the larkand went to bed with the lamb”, working day after day in his studio in theeastern suburb of Beijing. In an extraordinarily old-fashioned manner, unlikethe exhilaratingly vigorous colors and pictures as well as his enthusiasticbrushworks, in view of his personality, he is quite calm and determined andjust peacefully obeys his compassionate inclinations in a way assemblingreligious practice. All of this indicates a defining contrast with the hustleand bustle 20 kilometers away in the neighborhood Dabeiyao. He attempts to makeeach brushwork powerfully impressive and resonant in good faith, and tries hisutmost to manipulate the picture through repeated explorations andinvestigations bit by bit. Without slightest sluggishness or deliberateavoidance, free from cunning actions and independent on prevailing trends, allof his prominence comes from his own experience and perception of everydaylife. Keen on capturing each of the fleeting moments, he is also contented withlearning from masters from all around the world in art history so as to beginagain through the dialogues with them. Wu Li suggested that he would view theart scene of today without being subject to the times, and distance himselffrom the present times, meanwhile, he is quite alert to the trends. A visit toWu Li’s studio reminded me of the Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado’sphotography collection Genesis which is a result of an eight-year surveydrawing together spectacular photographs of landscapes and lands untouched bythe modern civilizations. The photographer said that in the process of workingon the Genesis, he had dialogues with nature through his camera and he feltcontented and pleased. When taking photographs of the subjects, the artistfully immersed himself in the lifestyle and status of the photographed and heviewed most of the instantly-taken photographs quite shallow. This helps uscomprehend the relationship between nature and human beings that Wu Li depictedin a rather explicit way, indeed, he also used to immerse himself in the lifeof the depicted subjects. Conversely, he cannot distance himself from therelationship between the natural world and human beings, which serves as a naturalpower that has integrated into his blood as a part of his body. If the artistdidn’t articulate or value all the subjects affectionately and passionately,what else could inspire him? If affection and intuition were separated from thesubconsciousness as part of painting, painting would never touch upon theultimate spirituality of human beings.
Curator: Deng Binbin
Jiading,Shanghai
July26, 2018
伍礼
1983年 生于湖南湘潭
1995年 从事绘画至今
个展
2018 “光天化日”伍礼个展，索卡艺术中心，北京
2017 “五柿同堂”伍礼个展，谷仓当代艺术中心，深圳
2017 “五柿同堂”伍礼个展，前海壹会，深圳
2013 “岩中花树”伍礼个展，北京art110空间，北京
2008 “烈酒浓情”伍礼个展，和静园艺术馆，北京
联展
2017“湖湘精神”，上上美术馆，北京
“湖湘精神”，皓声艺术馆，长沙
2016 第三届南京国际美术展，南京
2014《触心》，悦美术馆，北京
2014 力波村画廊春季展，北京
2012 宋庄美术馆首届weibo展，北京
2012 当代收藏家推介展，北京
2008 平艺术空间开幕展，台北
2008 “众神与玩偶”，千瞳空间，北京
2008 “笔触”和静园艺术馆，北京
2007 “十年一觉”，和静园艺术馆，北京
2007 “中国当代最具潜力的油画家联展”，柏林，德国
2007 “生活在宋庄”，宋庄美术馆，北京
2004“湖南省优秀美术作品展”，长沙
部分展出作品
儿 Son
水彩 Watercolor
155x155cm
2015-2016
林 Forest
水彩 Watercolor
150x120cm
2015
父与子 Father and Son
水彩 Watercolor
153x123cm
2016
行者 Walker
水彩 Watercolor
145x115cm
2016
果实 Fruit
布面油画 Oil on Canvas
150x120cm
2017
云怒石开 Cloud fury and Stone Open
布面油画 Oil on Canvas
150x130cm
2018
白头翁 Old man with White Hair
布面油画 Oil on Canvas
100x80cm
2018
光天化日 In Broad Daylight
水彩 Watercolor
120x150cm
2015
果实 Fruit
布面油画 Oil on Canvas
150x180cm
2018
楠竹山 Nanzhu Mountain
布面油画 Oil on Canvas
150x200cm
2018
松 Pine
布面油画 Oil on Canvas
150x160cm
2017
文章来源 | 索卡艺术中心
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