作为物的绘画
文/ 张晨
叶恒贵默默地画了很多物。在2014年至2024年的作品中，我们可以看到叶恒贵绘画手法的推进和变化，看到形式的逐步精简与高度概括，但不变的是物的主题，是稳定的风格调性与时间的永恒感，以及闪烁在物的缝隙之间光影的微妙节奏。
对于叶恒贵而言，作为动词的绘画是他日常的工作，而作为名词的绘画则是生活中的一件物品，或者说，叶恒贵对待绘画即是对待生活，叶恒贵热爱绘画即是热爱生活，这样的爱不需要高声宣扬，不需要刻意强调，而只需内敛地继续画下去，只需坚定地继续生活。反过来讲，叶恒贵依靠绘画而生活，他在生活中才能坚持绘画，也在绘画中才能坚持生活。正是来自绘画的活力赋予了艺术家生命力，也正是对于绘画的爱让叶恒贵永远保持年轻、保持创作的动力。在这样一种人与画的相互激活中，在一种“作为物的绘画”里，通过艺术家与对象之物的遥相对望，通过观众与绘画图像的彼此相遇，叶恒贵在他的生活与创作中隐隐发问：人在这样一个物的世界中到底算什么东西？
叶恒贵的物极具形式感，在这些画布上，物的功能和意义被消匿，可以说，叶恒贵所画的不是有关物的知识，而是关于物的形式，以及藏身于形式内部的情感张力。这些物往往处在节制的色彩与硬边的结构之中，也往往被置于色域绘画般平涂的背景，这显然来自现代主义的赠予。但在叶恒贵那里，物品并没有被形式主义地加以分解，没有过多理性的设计与分析的综合，他对这些物的处理反而极为现实，它们都来自艺术家日常的定睛观看，来自绘画之眼的选择和考量，来自“观察者的技术”，这是一种现实观看与现代风格的结合，是并不激进的属于叶恒贵的绘画思考。
同时我们注意到，叶恒贵所描绘的大多是日常之物，它们极为普通，它们在生活中如此琐碎、细小而不起眼：一块香蕉皮或一角蛋糕，一团塑料袋或一叠餐巾纸，但它们却享有着自身在现实中不曾享有的空间尺幅，坦然地占据着我们视线的焦点与展厅的墙面：这又是回应波普艺术的影响，回应平凡与崇高边界的抹除，但所不同的是，相比波普艺术对于原创与笔触的轻视，叶恒贵的作品始终保有明晰的绘画性，始终笃定地展示着属于绘画的创作过程及其神圣，他提醒我们绘画痕迹的物质性，他用这样的绘画过程抵抗波普式图像与生活的平滑。
这样的物在叶恒贵那里最终化作了近乎抽象的图像，它们因此既是物的形式也是物本身，一面墙可以既是艺术家眼中的风景也是一幅抽象画，一扇打开的窗户可以同时成为一张画布（绘画即窗户，这又是出自古典艺术与透视法则的比喻）。这些物在形式的挤压下来到了画布的平面，而一张画布便已足够称得上是“一张画”——对于绘画媒介特性的强调，对于形式语言的重视，是来自“现代主义-形式主义”的经典阐释；但更进一步的，叶恒贵的绘画对象被还原至画布的同时，也寻回了物自身的本性，也就是说，是物的身影穿透了纯粹的形式，是绘画之物唤起了绘画本身的物质性：这是福柯在论马奈时所说的“实物-画”（the painting-object），[1]是“作为物的绘画”。一幅画何以成为一个物呢？我们看到，倘若绘画不再仅是对于物的描绘，不再局限在视觉层面的再现，而是去思考物、捕获物，是艺术家的主体与物一起体察、生活与变化，那么绘画便与画布上之物处在了平等的状态，绘画的物质性便在其自身的实体与工作的痕迹中同时得到凸显，也因古典秩序的解体而与其对象一起成为了一种“物件”、“一个东西”，在这样的绘画里，在绘画与它的客体之间，再现的关系被另一种物的关系所取代：用另一位艺术家里希特的说法，则绘画不是去描绘一个实物、一个客体，而是绘画和其他所有事物一样，本身就是它自己的客体，本身就是与树木、水果、生活无异的东西，因此绘画可以没有内容的再现，没有象征的意义，没有任何理由、目的和功能，这是在里希特看来当下绘画的重要品质——但是，里希特继续说，一幅画终究还是有好坏的。[2]一幅画即便可作为一件物品，围绕绘画的生活即便再寻常，绘画仍是一份有关审美、判断与创造性的工作。
这样我们亦可理解叶恒贵作品中相当模糊的时间感与历史感，这些绘画既在不同的时期内缺乏明显的风格变化，既无法让观者由此猜测创作者的年龄，无法对作品进行时序的分期，也将各种关于绘画繁杂的历史时间浓缩在一处：我们在这样的绘画中看到物的自主性，物在此不再作为静物的描绘对象与宏大主题的点缀而存在，它们绝不以自身的功能服务于某个物的使用者，它们因此区别于所有的古典绘画；同时我们也看到物极强的审美属性与形式感，这既带有现代主义的直观色彩，也是现实主义与现代绘画的独特交织，是写实与抽象的交织，甚至说，是大卫·霍克尼与爱德华·霍珀的交织。这些物因此同时属于过去与当下，也同时摆脱了现实、超越了现代，它们通过附着在同样作为物的画布表层，而以一种低调地为自身立法和宣言的方式，朝向了当代视野下“物的转向”。[3]
这是今天所谈论的“物导向的本体论”，是在理论家昆汀·梅亚苏或哈曼那里，将物从人之主体与中心主义的体系中解放出来的努力，在“物的转向”之下，思考物不再关涉人本主义，不再首先考量物之使用者的优先权，恰恰相反，正是由于人的高傲自大割裂了生活之中物与物的关联，它既让物依赖于人的主体，也让物失去了自身的语言与声音。就此而言，作为物的绘画之所以重要，绘画的动力之所以可能成为人生的动力，便在于思考绘画即是思考物，在于绘画以其物质性而与其他事物一起组成了我们整个世界；而在此背景下，在现代生活与社会的割裂状态里，艺术家通过绘画的工作努力将物与物重新连接，将物与人重新连接，也便是重建人之个体与世界的亲密关系。这是属于叶恒贵绘画的建构性，它清晰地显现在画布上每一条明确的线条与每一处落实的色彩，显现在画布之上极具结构感的形式。这样，一种以物为导向的理论谱系被称作“思辨实在论”（speculative realism），而在绘画中，这也显现了一种艺术家充满思辨性与试探式的别样的“现实主义”。
如果借用海德格尔的说法，人之主体对于物的决定性凌驾，使得世界从鲜活的自然退化为世界的图像，它让一切取决于人的利益，让人的尺度成为万物的标准，也使人在高高在上的地位中漠然了生活的情感，而叶恒贵的绘画则是通过重新创造一种有关物的图像学来拒斥世界的图像化，他用自己反复重申的绘画及其物质性揭露世界图像的虚假，他希望重新找回人与物已然远去的真实关系；进而，海德格尔呼唤物的精神与灵性，在他看来，物的本性应是聚集而非分散，是连接而非割裂，物的角色仿佛一个壶的角色，它既独立自在，也将其他物容纳于自身[4]——正如在叶恒贵那里同时作为容器的杯子和画布，正如一场有关物之绘画的展览所展示的便是容纳和聚集——海德格尔的物通过容纳自身，通过物与人的彼此栖居，而实现了主客体的另一种统一，这是一种杂合的统一，是对人与物等级制度的打破，是我们与所有的物共享同一具身体，共处同一个世界、同一片风景、同一张画布。这样，物、包括绘画之物，便不再是纯然的客体也非人一般的主体，而是如拉图尔或塞尔所说的“拟客体”（“准客体”，quasi-object），[5]它在我们与世界的关系里画出了新的路径方位，作为“准客体”的绘画也在艺术与现实之间打通了固有的边界——在其中，艺术便是现实，绘画便是现实之物，而非对于现实物的再现、虚构和摹仿，而每一张有关自我的画像也都“是我”——绘画因此扮演了在社会生活各个分离环节的弥合剂，它因此在艺术创作的个人视角里同时兼备了集体行动的潜能。就此而言，叶恒贵的绘画虽然氛围疏离但却具有力量感，这样的绘画既出自现代主义又超越现代，既是对于当下物之世界的重新建设，也促使我们从艺术史的角度再次思考“我们从未现代过”[6]的矛盾命题。
对于作为物的绘画来说，也对物与人的再度统一而言，在叶恒贵的作品中，物的主题便与风景、肖像难以区分，我们看到风景的形状如物一般凝固，人的身体也摆出了拟仿物的姿态。而在其中，虽然叶恒贵画面的温度始终处在一种清冷的平淡，艺术家在创作时显示出零度的寂静，但实际上，来自叶恒贵眼睛观察的线索、他在户外写生的身体运动、艺术家的细腻情感与深思熟虑，仍以各种各样的方式在画面上无声地存在着。可以感受到的是，在不同体裁的作品里，叶恒贵不是通过绘画表现对某个具体人物的爱，不是爱着他所描绘的特定对象，叶恒贵终究爱的是绘画本身。这种对于绘画之爱并非作为情感的直接结果，而以流动的过程隐匿在每一个绘画的工序，透露在每一次起笔与落笔的时刻。
Painting as a Thing
By Zhang Chen
Ye Henggui has quietly painted numerous objects. In his works from 2014 to 2024, we witness the evolution and transformation of his painting techniques, observing a gradual simplification and heightened summarization of form. Yet, the theme of objects remains constant, as does the stable stylistic tone and the sense of timelessness, along with the subtle rhythm of light and shadow that flickers between the crevices of objects.
For Ye Henggui, painting as a verb is his daily work, while painting as a noun is an item in life. In other words, Ye Henggui treats painting as he does life. His love for painting is synonymous with his love for life. Such love does not need to be loudly proclaimed or deliberately emphasized; it only requires a restrained continuation of painting and a steadfast continuation of living. Conversely, Ye Henggui relies on painting to live, and it is in life that he can persist in painting, and in painting that he can persist in life. It is the vitality from painting that endows the artist with life force, and it is the love for painting that keeps Ye Henggui forever young and motivated to create. In this mutual activation between man and painting, in a "painting as an object," through the distant gaze of the artist and the object, and through the encounter between the audience and the painted image, Ye Henggui subtly questions in his life and creation: What exactly is man in a world of such objects?
Ye Henggui's objects are highly formalistic. On these canvases, the function and meaning of objects are obscured. It can be said that what Ye Henggui paints is not the knowledge of objects, but the form of objects, and the emotional tension hidden within the form. These objects are often situated within restrained colors and hard-edge structures, and are often placed against backgrounds painted flatly like color field paintings, which clearly comes as a gift from modernism. However, in Ye Henggui's work, objects are not deconstructed formalistically, nor are they excessively rationally designed and analyzed. His treatment of these objects is, instead, very realistic. They all come from the artist's daily focused observation, from the choices and considerations of the painting eye, from the "technique of the observer." This is a combination of realistic observation and modern style, a painting contemplation that is not radical and belongs to Ye Henggui.
At the same time, we notice that most of what Ye Henggui depicts are everyday objects. They are extremely ordinary, so trivial, small, and inconspicuous in life: a piece of banana peel or a corner of a cake, a bunch of plastic bags or a stack of napkins. Yet, they enjoy the spatial scale that they never had in reality, confidently occupying the focus of our gaze and the walls of the exhibition hall: this is a response to the influence of pop art, a response to the erasure of the boundary between the ordinary and the sublime. However, what is different is that, compared with pop art's disregard for originality and brushwork, Ye Henggui's works always maintain a clear sense of painting, always firmly displaying the creative process and sanctity that belong to painting. He reminds us of the materiality of the traces of painting, using such a process to resist the slick images of pop art and the slipperiness of life.
Such objects in Ye Henggui's work ultimately become almost abstract images. They are thus both the form of objects and the objects themselves. A wall can be both a landscape in the artist's eyes and an abstract painting, and an open window can become a canvas at the same time (painting is a window, which is a metaphor from classical art and the rules of perspective). These objects, under the pressure of form, arrive on the plane of the canvas, and a canvas is enough to be called "a painting" – emphasizing the characteristics of the painting medium and the importance of formal language, is a classic interpretation from "modernism-formalism"; but more importantly, as Ye Henggui's painting objects are reduced to the canvas, they also regain the nature of the object itself. That is to say, the shadow of the object penetrates the pure form, and the object of painting awakens the materiality of painting itself: this is what Foucault said about Manet's "real-object painting" (the painting-object), is "painting as an object."How can a painting become an object? We see that if painting is no longer just a depiction of an object, no longer confined to the visual level of reproduction, but thinks about the object, captures the object, the artist's subject and the object experience and change together, then painting is on an equal footing with the object on the canvas. The materiality of painting is highlighted in its own entity and the traces of its work, and because of the disintegration of the classical order, it becomes a "thing" or "an object" together with its object. In such painting, between painting and its object, the relationship of reproduction is replaced by another relationship of objects: in the words of another artist, Richter, painting is not about depicting a physical object, an object, but painting, like all other things, is its own object, it is a thing like trees, fruits, life, so painting can have no content reproduction, no symbolic meaning, no reason, purpose, and function. This is the important quality of painting in Richter's view at present – but Richter continues to say that a painting still has good and bad. Even if a painting can be an object, even if the life around painting is ordinary, painting is still a job about aesthetics, judgment, and creativity.
In this way, we can also understand the very vague sense of time and history in Ye Henggui's works. These paintings lack obvious stylistic changes in different periods, and they cannot let the viewer guess the age of the creator, nor can they divide the works chronologically, and they also condense all kinds of complicated historical time of painting in one place: we see the autonomy of objects in such painting, objects are no longer as still life depiction objects and embellishments of grand themes, they do not serve a user of an object with their own function, so they are different from all classical paintings; at the same time, we also see the strong aesthetic attributes and formal sense of objects, which is both intuitively modern and a unique combination of realism and modern painting, a combination of realism and abstraction, even saying, it is a combination of David Hockney and Edward Hopper. Therefore, these objects belong to both the past and the present, and they also get rid of reality and transcend modernity. They attach to the surface of the canvas as an object, and in a low-key way, they legislate and declare for themselves, towards the "turn to objects" in the contemporary perspective.
This is the "object-oriented ontology" discussed today, which is an effort to liberate objects from the human subject and centralism system in theorists like Quentin Meillassoux or Harman. Under the "turn to objects," thinking about objects is no longer about humanism, and it is no longer about considering the priority of the user of the object first, but on the contrary, it is precisely because of the arrogance of humans that has cut off the relationship between objects and objects in life. It makes the object dependent on the human subject and also makes the object lose its own language and voice. In this regard, the importance of painting as an object, the possibility of the momentum of painting becoming the momentum of life, lies in thinking about painting is thinking about objects, in painting with its materiality and other things together to form our whole world; and in this context, in the fragmented state of modern life and society, the artist through the work of painting strives to reconnect objects with objects, reconnect objects with people, and it is also to rebuild the intimate relationship between individuals and the world. This is the constructiveness of Ye Henggui's painting, which is clearly displayed on the canvas, every clear line and every color that is implemented, displayed in the form of a strong sense of structure on the canvas. In this way, a theory system oriented by objects is called "speculative realism," and in painting, this also shows a different "realism" full of speculative and tentative by the artist.
If we borrow Heidegger's words, the decisive dominance of the human subject over the object makes the world degenerate from a lively nature to the image of the world. It makes everything depend on human interests, makes the human scale the standard of all things, and also makes people indifferent to the emotions of life in a high position, but Ye Henggui's painting is to reject the image of the world by re-creating a kind of iconography of objects. He repeatedly emphasizes his painting and its materiality to expose the falsehood of the world's image, and he hopes to regain the true relationship between people and objects that have long been distant; further, Heidegger calls for the spirit and spirituality of objects. In his view, the nature of objects should be to gather rather than to disperse, to connect rather than to divide. The role of objects is like the role of a pot, which is both independent and also accommodates other objects within itself - just like the cup and canvas as containers in Ye Henggui, just like an exhibition of painting objects that show is to accommodate and gather - Heidegger's objects through accommodation, through the cohabitation of objects and people, and achieve another unity of subject and object, which is a hybrid unity, a break of the hierarchy between people and objects, and we share the same body with all objects, live in the same world, the same scenery, the same canvas. In this way, objects, including the objects of painting, are no longer purely objects or subjects like people, but "quasi-objects" as Latour or Serres said, which draw new paths and directions in our relationship with the world. As a "quasi-object" of painting also breaks through the inherent boundaries between art and reality - in which, art is reality, painting is the reality of things, not a reproduction, fiction, and imitation of real things, and every portrait about oneself is "me" - painting thus plays a role in the social life of each separated link of the healing agent, and it has the potential for collective action in the personal perspective of artistic creation. In this regard, Ye Henggui's painting, although the atmosphere is alienated, has a sense of strength, such painting is both modern and transcendental, both a reconstruction of the current world of objects, and also prompts us to think again from the perspective of art history "we have never been modern" the paradoxical proposition.
For painting as an object, and for the reunification of objects and people, in Ye Henggui's works, the theme of objects is indistinguishable from landscapes and portraits. We see the shape of the landscape solidified like objects, and the human body also poses a posture that imitates objects. In which, although the temperature of Ye Henggui's picture is always in a kind of cool and plain, the artist shows a zero degree of silence when creating, but in fact, the clues from Ye Henggui's eyes observation, his physical movement when sketching outdoors, the artist's delicate emotions and thoughtful consideration, still exist in various ways on the canvas silently. What can be felt is that in different genres of works, Ye Henggui is not expressing love for a specific person through painting, not loving the specific object he depicts, Ye Henggui is ultimately in love with painting itself. This love for painting is not a direct result of emotion, but is hidden in the process of flowing in every painting process, revealed in every moment of starting and falling.
[1] Heidegger, M. "The Thing," in Heidegger's Collected Works: Lectures and Essays, translated by Sun Zhouxing, The Commercial Press, 2018, p. 179.
[2] Latour, B. We Have Never Been Modern: A Symmetrical Anthropology Collection, translated by Liu Peng and Annesi, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 2022, p. 106; Wang Min'an, "The Turn to Things," in Affect, Materiality, and Contemporary Society, Shandong People's Publishing House, 2022, p. 115.
[3] Latour, B. We Have Never Been Modern: A Symmetrical Anthropology Collection, translated by Liu Peng and Annesi, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 2022.
[4] See Wang Min'an, "The Turn to Things," in Affect, Materiality, and Contemporary Society, Shandong People's Publishing House, 2022.
[5] Foucault, M. "Manet's Painting," translated by Xie Qiang and Ma Yue, Henan University Press, 2017, p. 62.
[6] Richter, G. "Notes," 1984.
关于艺术家
About Artist
Ye Henggui, born in 1962 in Anhui Province.Now lives and work in Beijing. Ye Henggui takes what he "sees" in daily life as the subject and content of his paintings. The many "things" in his works are precisely his contact and stay in the world. In his paintings, these "things" have no hierarchy or distinction, accepting each other equally. They nest within the painting in a restrained and solemn manner, standing clean and upright, refusing any symbolism or allegory, making ordinary but extraordinary things a continuous time. we see the autonomy of objects in such painting, objects are no longer as still life depiction objects and embellishments of grand themes, they do not serve a user of an object with their own function. they legislate and declare for themselves, towards the "turn to objects" in the contemporary perspective.
The importance of painting as an object, the possibility of the momentum of painting becoming the momentum of life, lies in thinking about painting is thinking about objects, in painting with its materiality and other things together to form our whole world; and in this context, in the fragmented state of modern life and society, the artist through the work of painting strives to reconnect objects with objects, reconnect objects with people, and it is also to rebuild the intimate relationship between individuals and the world. The "slow and steady" development is a testament to his inner persistence and strength, as well as the precious vitality and enduring momentum in his painting.
