大道无极——赵无极的艺术世界|扬·亨德根：赵无极的旅程，超越表象的探索（中）

Zao Wou-Ki’s travels. A Quest beyond Appearances

赵无极的旅程，超越表象的探索

Yann Hendgen

扬·亨德根

Art Director of the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation, Co-Curator of Centennial Retrospective Exhibition of Zao Wou-Ki

赵无极基金会艺术总监、赵无极百年回顾特展策展人

Installation in Paris and discovery of Europe. From figuration to abstraction. 1948-1956

安顿巴黎、发现欧洲 / 从具象到抽象 / 1948-1956

In February 1948, Zao Wou-Ki succeeded in leaving for Paris on a boat, with his wife Lalan. After 36 days of travel, he arrived in Marseille, south of France, and then just immediately, he went to Paris. He settled in Paris with Lalan in April 1948, and one of his very first visits was at the Louvre Museum. There, he discovered a lot of paintings he had only seen in books and he made drawings and copies, as with this ink by Rembrandt, circa 1654-1655. It was a very deep inspiration as Rembrandt was a big master using ink, and for a Chinese painter, it is quite normal to admire and to want to make something about Rembrandt.

1948年2月，赵无极与妻子谢景兰一同登船前往法国，舟车劳顿36天后到达法国南部城市马赛，随后立即动身前往巴黎。1948年4月，赵无极和谢景兰定居法国巴黎，而他参观的第一个地方便是卢浮宫。在那里，他看到了许多原本只在书上见到过的画作并在此期间创作了许多绘画和临摹作品，比如临摹伦勃朗用墨水绘制的画作（大约创作于1654年至1655年）。伦勃朗是一位擅长使用墨水的绘画大师，他也对赵无极产生了深刻的影响。对于中国画家而言，欣赏伦勃朗，想要临摹他的作品，这很正常。

He also went to the Alliance française to learn French and to the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière, where he wanted to improve and to make some nudes.

此外，赵无极还在法语联盟学习法语，前往大茅舍艺术学院学习深造并创作了一些人体绘画作品。

《亨利·米修解读赵无极的八幅石版画》

1950年，45 × 65 cm

摄影：Antoine Mercier

Lecture par Henri Michaux de huit lithographies de Zao Wou-Ki, 1950, 45 × 65 cm

Photo: Antoine Mercier

Zao Wou-Ki did his best to be integrated to the Parisian art scene. When he arrived, there were so many foreign artists in Paris. He did not want to be considered as a Chinese artist, but just as an artist like the others. He visited a lot of galleries and museums. He also decided to join the print studio of Edmond Desjobert, because he wanted to discover and practice the lithograph technique. There he made his first lithographs, which have been shown to the French poet Henri Michaux. The latter spontaneously decided to write some text upon it, which have been edited in the now famous book, Lecture par Henri Michauxde huit lithographies de Zao Wou-Ki. This was for him a very great help, because thanks to Henri Michaux, he could meet a lot of artists, but also some gallerists, as Pierre Loeb, who will be the first gallerist of Zao Wou-Ki in Paris in 1951.

赵无极竭尽全力想要融入巴黎艺术圈。当时，巴黎有许多外国艺术家，但赵无极不希望自己在他人眼中只是一个中国艺术家。他参观了很多画廊和博物馆，并决定加入埃德蒙·德约贝尔的工作室，学习和实践石版画技术。在那里，他创作出了第一批石版画作品。法国诗人亨利·米修欣赏了这批石版画之后，便自发为其撰写配文。后来这些文字作品和赵无极的石版画一同被收录于这本著名的《亨利·米修解读赵无极的八幅石版画》书中。亨利·米修给赵无极带来了极大帮助，他因此结识了不少艺术家和画廊经营者。其中皮埃尔·勒布在1951年成为了赵无极在巴黎的第一位画廊主。

The contract with Pierre Loeb was for Zao Wou-Ki the beginning of a long story, and his very first steps for being integrated in Paris. At Pierre Loeb’s gallery, he will find some very deep friends, like Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, and the Canadian painter Jean-Paul Riopelle, friendships that would last all his life. As the picture taken at the Desjobert studio shows, he met a lot of other painters there.

与皮埃尔·勒布签约是赵无极漫长旅居艺术生涯的开始，也是他融入巴黎的第一步。在皮埃尔·勒布的画廊，赵无极结识了不少亲密无间的朋友。其中玛丽亚·埃伦娜·维埃拉·达席尔瓦和加拿大籍画家的让-保罗·利奥佩尔都和他建立了毕生的友谊。

The picture of Zao Wou-Ki and Lalan taken by Dimitri Kessel in the studio of the rue du Moulin-Vert in 1953 shows a lot of paintings hanging on the walls. As you can see that it is a very, very small place. The studio was quite tiny, and that prevented Zao Wou-Ki to make huge paintings at that time. But during some 10 years, he has been the neighbor of Alberto Giacometti, who became a friend. Zao Wou-Ki has been inspired by the sculptures he saw in Giacometti’s studio or the figures you can see on a drawing that Giacometti gave to Zao Wou-Ki. This influence can clearly be seen in the detail of some lithographs, when comparing the bodies. As a matter of fact, Giacometti once gave to Zao Wou-Ki the advice not to become abstract but to remain figurative.

赵无极绿磨坊路工作室的墙上挂满了画作。工作室的空间非常局促，这使得赵无极在当时无法创作出规格较大的画作。不过在这里的大约10年时光，他一直是阿尔贝托·贾科梅蒂的邻居，两人还成为了朋友。赵无极在贾科梅蒂工作室中看到的雕塑，或是那些贾科梅蒂送给他的画作上的人物，都给予了赵无极灵感。这种影响可以在赵无极的石版画细节中清楚地看到。而且事实上，贾科梅蒂还曾建议赵无极不要变得抽象，而是继续保持具象的风格。

After 1950, Zao Wou-Ki traveled a lot and tried to discover Europe. He made, in a sense, his Grand tour. He went to the French Alps with his friend the painter Johnny Friedlaender. He, of course, went to Italy, as all the painters did in the previous centuries. He also went to Spain. During these trips, he discovered a lot of things. He always had sketchbooks with him, in which he created watercolors just to remember what he saw. This would be a reserve of motifs for his paintings when back in the studio.

1950年之后，赵无极开始四处游历、探索欧洲。从某种意义上来说，他进行了一次伟大的旅行。他和他的画家朋友约翰尼·弗里德兰德一起去了法国阿尔卑斯山。当然，就像其他所有的画家一样，他也去了意大利，还有西班牙。这些旅行让他收获良多。每一次旅行他都随身携带速写本，在上面创作水彩画以记录下自己的所见所闻。这些将为他之后回到工作室绘画作主题储备。

During his travel in Italy in 1951, he went to Roma, Florence, Siena, Arezzo, Naples, Venice. Here you can see a page of this Italian sketchbook showing the Roman Coliseum. He has been deeply impressed by the Italian cities: he discovered that the church is in the center of each Italian city, and that the city is organized around it. In Italy he also discovered the Renaissance perspective. That’s what you can see in Venise (Piazza), a 1951 painting now in the Centre Pompidou. When he was in the French Alps but also in Tuscany, he said that viewing that kind of landscapes reminded him about Chinese landscapes. China was still in his mind.

1951年，赵无极在意大利旅行。他去了罗马、佛罗伦萨、锡耶纳、阿雷佐、那不勒斯、威尼斯等地。这里展示的是赵无极意大利写生本中的一页，上面画的是罗马竞技场。意大利的城市给赵无极留下了深刻的印象：他发现每个意大利的市中心都是教堂，而城市则围绕着教堂建造。在意大利，他还汲取了文艺复兴时期的思想。创作于1951年的《威尼斯（广场）》画作，就印证了这一点。这幅画目前正在蓬皮杜艺术中心展出。赵无极还曾说过，法国阿尔卑斯山和托斯卡纳的美景让他不由地想起了中国的山水。所以对他而言，中国一直在他的心中。

赵无极，《20.01.50》

1950年，布面油画，64 × 50 cm

摄影 © 中国美术学院

Zao Wou-Ki,20.01.50, 1950, oil on canvas, 64 × 50 cm

Photo © China Academy of Art

In 1951, he traveled to Switzerland for an exhibition of his engravings and visited some museums in Bern. This trip would be a very important one as he discovered in real for the first time works by Paul Klee. He already knew works by Paul Klee because he studied it in Hangzhou. In21.09.50, part of the Hangzhou exhibition, you can see a very strong connection with Klee as it is based on his work Ad Marginem dated 1930.

1951年，赵无极赴瑞士参加作品展并参观了伯尔尼市内的一些博物馆。这是一次非常重要的旅行。因为尽管在杭州读书时他就接触过保罗·克利的作品，但这次是他第一次看到克利的真迹。从赵无极名为《21.09.50》的作品中，可以看出与保罗·克利风格的明显关联。这幅目前正在展厅中展出的画，是赵无极在克利于1930年创作的《走向空白边界》画作基础上所作的进一步发展与延续。

赵无极，《玫瑰》

1954-1955年，布面油画，46 × 55 cm

摄影 © 中国美术学院

Zao Wou-Ki,Rose,1954-1955, oil on canvas, 46 × 55 cm.

Photo © China Academy of Art

You can see how deep this influence is in this work. Seeing Paul Klee’s works in real made him realize that another way was possible in painting. You are not only forced to reproduce reality, but you can make something different. You can use signs, you can use different patterns that are not reality. You can invent a language that escapes the confines of the subject. Speaking about the influence of Paul Klee, he said: " In a way, my painting became unreadable. Still lifes, flowers and animals disappeared. I tried to find, with signs, something imaginary that would appear on almost monochrome backgrounds. (…) Then, little by little, the signs became shapes, the backgrounds became space. "

我们可以从这幅画中看出保罗·克利对赵无极的深刻影响。保罗·克利的真迹让赵无极看到了绘画创作的另一种可能，意识到艺术家能做的不仅是复制现实，还能进行多样化的尝试——可以使用符号，可以用与现实无关的图案，还可以发明一种不受主题限制的语言。当谈到保罗·克利对他的影响时，赵无极说：“在某种程度上，我的画变得晦涩难懂。静物、花卉与动物不复存在。我试图通过符号，描绘某种可以在几近单色的背景上呈现的想象之物......然后，逐渐地，符号变为形体，背景成为空间。”

赵无极，《无题（珍珠城）》

1952年，布面油画，46 × 55.2 cm

摄影 © 中国美术学院

Zao Wou-Ki, Untitled (City of Pearl), 1952, oil on canvas, 46 × 55.2 cm.

Photo © China Academy of Art

You can see that there is a deep connection and influence when comparing the small 1919 watercolor by Paul Klee that Zao Wou-Ki bought for his private collection and the painting Untitled (City of Pearl), created in 1952, also exhibited in Hangzhou. If Paul Klee used some western signs and western letters, Zao Wou-Ki decided to make it his own. He decided to draw inspiration from Chinese archaic characters from the divinatory engravings of the oracle bones of the Shang Dynasty, or from Chinese antique bronzes. But he did not want them to be readable. He invented signs and used it as a pattern without any sense, just for the design.

这里有一幅保罗·克利创作于1919年的小幅水彩画，这是赵无极购买的私人收藏，与他自己这幅创作于1952年的《无题（珍珠城）》放在一起，可以看出两者之间的紧密关联和影响。后者在此次展览中也有展出。如果说保罗·克利使用的是西方符号和字母，赵无极则决定创造自己的语言。他下决心要从中国古汉字中汲取灵感，在画作中融入商代甲骨文和青铜器的颂词，同时又不赋予这些符号以意义。他创造了这些符号，并把它们当做一种没有任何含义的图案，仅仅作为一种设计在画中使用。

The paintingVent (Wind), dated 1954, is considered as his first abstract painting. Zao Wou-Ki described it as « the first painting that would not tell any story, but the evocation of the rustling of the leaves, or the mottling of the surface of the water under a passing breeze ». As his friend, François Cheng rightly pointed out, « abstraction, in Zao Wou-Ki’s work, does not mean “rejection of concrete reality” ».

《风》创作于1954年，被认为是赵无极的第一幅抽象画。赵无极自己是这样表述的：“这是我的第一幅非叙事性绘画，它只是希望唤起人们的想象，让人想起树叶在风中摇曳的沙沙声以及微风吹过水面泛起的涟漪”。正如赵无极的朋友程抱一所说：“赵无极作品中的抽象概念，并不意味着他‘排斥具体现实’”。

In a way, he did not want to reject the reality, he just wanted to give his own reality, as well as he did not like to use the term of landscapes for his painting, but he would rather say that he painted something linked to nature. The reality is not put aside, it is just another kind of reality.

的确就某种程度上来说，赵无极并不拒绝现实，他只想表达自己对现实的理解。就像他不愿用风景等词汇来描述他的作品那样，他更倾向于说自己的画作与自然有关。现实并没有被撇开，它只是另一种现实。

If you see Stèle pour un ami, dated 1956, you can clearly identify the use of the signs. This painting has been created because he heard his friend Zhuang Huayue disappeared and has been killed - he discovered only years after that that in fact he was not dead. Zao Wou-Ki decided to create the painting in his memory, creating some kind of Chinese stele. This is one example of the very deep roots and very deep connection of Zao Wou-Ki to the Chinese world.

《友人之碑》创作于1956年，从中我们可以清晰地看到赵无极对于符号的运用。这幅画的创作机缘是赵无极得知好友庄华岳不幸去世的消息（事实上若干年后他才知道好友并没有去世）。为了纪念好友，赵无极决定画一幅画，并在画中创造一种中国石碑。从这幅画中我们可以看到中华文化依旧深深根植于赵无极心中，并与他的创作产生着强烈的关联。

TheHommage à Chu-Yun, dated 1955, is another example of the Chinese background of Zao Wou-Ki at this time. Qu Yuan is the first great Chinese poet (around 340-278 BC). We can see that Zao Wou-Ki followed the tradition and the history of Qu Yuan: everything is blue and deeply connected with the Miluo river where Qu Yuan committed suicide. The artist also dated that painting the fifth day or the fifth month of 1955.

创作于1955年的《向屈原致敬》，是赵无极该时期风格的另一个例子。屈原是中国第一位伟大的诗人(约公元前340-278年)。为向屈原表达敬意，赵无极遵循了传统和历史：他使用了大量的蓝色，画面中所有的一切都与屈原投河自尽的汨罗江有着密切的联系。赵无极还把这幅画的创作日期定在了1955年的5月5日。

La Nuit remue (colère), a painting dated 1956, has been given by Zao Wou-Ki’s gallerist Samuel Kootz to the Art Institute of Chicago. This is the year Lalan quit him and this painting is in a way connected to this departure. Zao Wou-Ki said: « My painting became emotional because I displayed feelings and moods without shame. It was no longer necessary to find another subject. » Now he would paint only with what is inside of him.

创作于1956年的《骚动的夜》，是赵无极的画廊经营者塞缪尔·库茨赠予芝加哥艺术学院的。这幅画与赵无极妻子谢景兰的离开有关。因为就在这一年，谢景兰离他而去。正如赵无极所言：“我的画变得情感化，因为我毫不掩饰我的情感和心绪。我无需另寻其他题材。”此后，他只画自己内心所需。

Just before leaving Paris for a while, Zao Wou-Ki signed a new contract with the Galerie de France in Paris. There, he met old friends and found new ones, like the German painter Hans Hartung, or French artists like Alfred Manessier and Pierre Soulages. Here you can see some pictures of works that have been exchanged between these artists and Zao Wou-Ki. Friendship was very important for him.

就在离开巴黎前，赵无极与巴黎的法兰西画廊签订了新的合约。在那里，他与老朋友共叙旧谊，还结交了一帮新朋友比如德国画家汉斯·哈同、法国艺术家阿拉弗·马内斯尔和皮耶·苏拉吉等。这里展示的是这些艺术家与赵无极之间交换的一些作品照片。可以看出，友谊对他十分重要。

This is the second part of the speech Yann Hendgen delivered at the forum, "The Way Is Infinite: Zao Wou-Ki's World of Art", on September 20, 2023. This article is based on the audio record and approved by himself.

本文为2023年9月20日，扬·亨德根在“大道无极——赵无极的艺术世界论坛”上主旨演讲的第二部分。本文根据现场录音整理并经本人审定。

Some illustrations of Zao Wou-Ki's works in this article are slightly different with those in the speaking script due to copyrights.

由于作品图版权限制，文中部分配图与讲稿提到的相应作品图略有出入。

All works by Zao Wou-Ki : ⓒ Zao Wou-Ki-ProLitteris, Zurich.

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