与广明先生再次见面，要感谢鹿林先生的善缘，不久前到李广明工作室欣赏了他近年创作的新水墨系列作品。彼此畅谈了许久。谈话间，我始终在思考和揣度广明的艺术思想境界。他的这批新水墨系列作品，主要是根据需要把冷冻的冰块（墨冰）置放在宣纸上使之自然渗化，在一定的技术操控下和意想下，让时间和温度消解它，融化沁润在宣纸上完成一种艺术创作过程。广明先生的新水墨系列作品，与我的水墨探索有异曲同工之妙，所以大家聊得很投机，彼此相见恨晚。
如今，在这个艺术被工具化和被奴化了的时代，许多画家在名利场上使出浑身解数，疯狂地复制自己的成熟的“图示”，哪儿还有几个在思考、谈论艺术？还有几人思考中国水墨艺术的未来？这种现象已直接导致中国画的毁灭。现在的中国画已经成了工艺品，因为它远离了艺术的本质。它如何还能高贵？如何还能纯粹呢？然而李广明先生能果断地放弃自己成熟的绘画形式，走入水墨的艺术本质上来探索，这种勇气本应是艺术家固有的，但却是平凡的画家不具备的。这种勇气成就了李广明先生的水墨艺术实践和创作。艺术家不视创造为艺术最高追求，不以创作为人生之终极价值，其艺术人生就失去其意义。
中国在21世纪上半叶将逐渐步出农业时代，同时全面进入工业时代，并逐渐进入后工业时代。我们可以相信，中国必将逐渐与世界的经济发展和文化发展同步。高速的经济成长逐渐影响着中国文化的变革，当下的中国也正处在一个前所未有的异常复杂的文化交汇期。
如何秉承水墨的艺术精神而探索？改革开放的30年来，出现了多种多样的实验，特别是抽象水墨给人们的视觉和惯性思维冲击最大。纯粹的抽象水墨只是近几年才真正出现，以前的有些抽象型和抽象性的水墨作品因还有传统意象美学的意境，所以不是纯粹意义的抽象水墨。我认为抽象水墨应是抛开一切传统笔墨束缚，但以追求水墨精神为内指的，是无具象也无意象的水墨艺术。意象与“境界”，是具象与抽象的在彼此追求上的最大区别。抽象水墨在视觉形式上似乎是对水墨材料美感的探索，是找寻水墨自身韵律美的探索，但实际上是在精神层面和哲学命题上的探索。一切带有形象或形象暗示的水墨，都不是纯粹的抽象水墨。就哲学层面而言，抽象水墨是超越主客二分的，超越时间与空间的。抽象水墨不是对客观世界的再现，也非主观意识的表现，它是“后哲学”（After Philosophy）时代的超越主客关系的精神追求。抽象水墨艺术力求偏离三度空间的视觉形式返回二度平面的心理空间，它通过追求画面的形式与构成进而完成对水墨精神的追求。
西方现当代哲学家在20世纪70年代提出了哲学的新概念，即超越传统哲学，扬弃传统哲学理念（并非抛弃），其实马克思在晚年也说过哲学应当终结的话，特别是在《黑格尔法哲学批判导言》中谈到他赞成“消灭哲学”、“否定哲学”，这里的哲学显然是传统概念的哲学。“后哲学”的理念是反对主体和客体二分，强调人与世界合一、物我交融的生活世界，这种超越主客关系的合一与中国道家的天人合一是相符的。
广明先生的新水墨系列作品，在画面上体现为水墨的莹润和张力，但呈现的是“道”之自然。人类如何对待自然，不仅仅是哲学家的命题，有思想的艺术家也在思考，广明也在思考。谈话中，他谈到了“道法自然”这一哲学理念。艺术家不是普通的画家，他要有哲学的反思。广明先生说要尊重自然，艺术家该如何用作品“述道”，这是他多年的思考和实践。广明先生秉承的另一哲学理念，就是沿倚抽象符号的不确定性和语言的不及物性，以自然的艺术手法创造“第二自然”，显现自然，使完成的画面更接近“第一自然”的美，其在创作上也是反对主题先行的。
人类工业化社会全面到来，面对人与自然对立相分日益严重的事实，20世纪后半叶起，生态哲学和生态美学相继出现。生态哲学与生态美学完全颠覆了传统哲学观与价值观关于自然的基本范式，认为传统哲学的主客二分论是必须要超越的，并反对人类中心主义而呼唤一种崭新的生态整体观。生态整体观认为人就是自然的组成部分，大自然是一个相互依赖、相互编织在一起的存在之网和生命条链，没有任何部分能够单独抽出又不改变其特征的。生态整体观摒弃了人类“自以为是”的高贵，人与自然的关系被重新审视。自然不再是被人类改造、役使、敌对的对象，而代之以一种平等和被尊重的面貌出现。生态美学把人与自然的审美关系看做主体性的审美关系，把自然看做自由存在的生命主体，还蕴含自然有内在价值（包括内在的审美价值）的思想。生态美学认为自然事物有自己的内在价值，把其他物种看成是具有其自身的经验、价值和目的的存在。即使一粒花粉，微小得几乎不为人类所察觉，依然有其高贵的存在理由。它落归尘土，顽强地、倔强地开出小小的花朵，就实现了自己的价值。这恰恰回到了道家的哲学和禅学境界里来了。“一花一世界，一叶一如来。”
广明先生的新水墨作品恰恰体现着生态美学的价值观。在作品中首先要思考的是如何去掉具体的形与色，甚至是“去掉绘画性”，将物质世界最本质的规律抽取出来，加以呈现或使之呈现。这就是禅家讲的“去执著”。真正的抽象艺术家不是无道理无意义地抽掉绘画性语汇和元素，他先源于哲学和美学的修为与修养，即抽掉了内容只注重形式。西方较早认识到这一问题的是波德莱尔，他的审美性思想包括了审美的自律意识和审美的创新意识。审美的自律意识主要体现在其美学观上，他打破了西方长期以来的真善美相统一的论断，认为艺术是自在自为的。他在写给母亲的信中说：“我一贯认为文学和艺术追求一种与道德无涉的目的，构思和风格的美对于我已足矣。”
中国的主流艺术界始终不明白抽象艺术为什么要“抽象”，并始终打压抽象艺术，这当然是有多种原因的，其中哲学与美学的学术上的断代是重要的一点。西方美术界普遍认为，抽象主义的美学观念最早见于W.沃林格的著作《抽象与移情》。他认为在艺术创造中，除了移情的冲动以外，还有一种与之相反的冲动支配着，这便是“抽象的趋势”。产生抽象的原因是因为人与自然环境之间存在冲突，人们感受到的广大与现象的紊乱，在心理上对空间产生恐惧，在激烈的社会竞争中感到难以安身立命。人们的心灵既然不能在变化无常的外界现象中求得宁静，只有到艺术的形式里寻找慰藉。人们既然不能从外界客观事物中得到美感享受，只得希望将客观物象从其变化无常的偶然性中解放出来，用抽象的艺术形式使其具有永久的价值。
广明先生认识到，水墨若要求得发展，就不能背离水墨的精神，不能背弃中国式的道哲学之精神。水墨要表现的新墨象，必须通过用水的形式来变化，所产生的不同墨象和色阶，必然能丰富水墨的语汇。他把墨冻成块，水冻成冰块，墨块做成不同形状有圆有方，放置在一张宣纸上渗化，有时是多张宣纸，这本身也是过程艺术或水墨行为艺术。广明同时认识到，水墨要发展，必然要从水墨艺术的源头和内在的根性中寻找答案。充分利用材料的自律性，墨的透明度和细腻层次、生宣的绵绸和渗透性；在水的作用下，产生墨象和色阶变化，并在渗化的过程中感受水墨交融的易变。这个过程本身对中华民族特有的道家哲学有不可言喻的阐释。水墨画借助的媒介材料本身，即已深嵌着中华民族特有的文化印痕。细腻的墨通过不同量的水分稀释，在生宣上自然渗化，产生的水墨氤氲的流动感和气韵节律，是水墨艺术区别于其他画种的独特之处。
现代艺术家都是根据传统哲学的某些观念来构思与创作，这些构图依然受现实物象的影响和“暗示”，但这种“暗示”最终是被拆毁和瓦解并另行创设表现性的结构。这种再造的结构，是依照艺术表现的内在需要而意指艺术家的自身主观，而非意指物之外象。后现代抽象艺术，某种意义上说也延续着这一美学研究，提出表象的概念，认为表象是物之呈现方式，自在之物呈现给我们的东西才叫“表象”，它自在的状态不叫表象，只是物自身，其本质和本性需要使之“呈现”。非写实而有传神作用的“呈现自然”，被称为纯粹的抽象艺术作品，即艺术家为精神境界的自由而创作出非主题叙述的非写实或非具象的艺术。
传统绘画是“再现客观”，现代艺术是“表现主观”，后现代艺术的主旨是“呈现自然”，“呈现本真”。广明先生的做法就是让水与墨自然交融而“呈现自然”，再造“第二自然”，这本身就不同于传统绘画和一般的现代艺术创作形式及理念。“第二自然”是美学、文艺学研究领域的一个重要概念。“第二自然”借用于西方美学的术语。我们在这里所说的“第二自然”，是对奥德布李特“第二的新的对象”、庄子的艺术精神、中国传统文论中的“情景融合”、禅宗富有精神性内涵的“境界说”等内容进行熔铸和提炼而形成的。我们认为的这个“第二自然”，也是超越主客二分、“主客合一”思想的结晶，是对今人具有突出意义的方法论。在这里，“第二自然”是画家对自然界之规律先存之心然后表之于手的艺术展示，这要求细致观察大自然、研究透视学、掌握光和影的技术、应用色彩原理，通过对这些科学手段的使用，并以自然的真实性规律的掌握来呈现大自然，力图获得如同自然本身的艺术效果。
以海德格尔为代表的现当代“显隐说”就是传统美学观点的主要对立面。“显隐说”主张美不在于超越感性，以感性世界的东西显现超感性的概念世界，而在于超越在场的、具体的东西，从而以在场的具体东西“显现”那“不在场”的东西。这种超越不是超越到概念中去，而是从具体的东西超越到具体的东西中去，只不过是前者出场，后者未出场（不在场）而已，也就是说这种超越是对非当前的东西的一种追寻。这种观念带到艺术创作中来就产生了艺术形式本体和艺术自律等概念的探索。我认为广明先生也是受这一哲学观念影响。广明先生试图通过这样的艺术创作手法去“呈现”那“不在场”的东西，这个东西就是“道”，是艺术的本质。所以我对广明说：你在“寻道”和“述道”。
其实我们的祖先和前辈在水墨创作形式上就不保守，也都用过不同形式来探索新的方法，甚至有今人看来都咋舌的做法。史载，米芾曾以纸筋、蔗渣或莲房代替毛笔作画，亦曾将绢上的墨洗褪后，再从中捕捉山水的痕迹；而米友仁曾利用破旧的纸，渗透积墨成图。这些探索替代纸材制造出新鲜表现意象的做法，似乎开拓了前所未有的新局面，可惜南宋院画流于安逸怡情的写实小品，文人一味追求个人的自娱与寄情，或受儒家文化的影响而忽略了“材料的自律性”的延续开拓。唐代王恰（王墨）用头发沾墨激情挥洒。他擅长泼墨，当时人都称他为“王墨”。王墨多数时间都在江湖上游走。他性情疏懒狂野，喜好饮酒。每当他要作画，酒须喝到兴奋，将墨泼在画布（或纸）上。或者大声吼叫，或者浅吟低唱。这时候，他手脚并用，又拂又抹，又蹭又踹。出现的物象，或山或石，或水或树，随着心意涂抹。这些景物，仿佛是转瞬间自然生出来的一般。成画后，整幅画就像让云霞淡淡地浸染过、让风雨涤荡过似的，不见些许的墨污痕迹。可惜，这只有史书记载，未见作品传世。
广明先生能抛弃传统水墨程式的束缚，以水墨自主的沁润和过程来创造，进而使之成为绘画形式，来表达自己的思想，这本身就是艺术的升华。他通过抽象的形式来表述一种哲理的反思。它通过墨的张力的动来取静，以传达出更深层次的精神内涵。其实所有绘画都是造型的，西方当下把抽象称为“绝对造型”，而这种造型不是为了再现生活，也不是为了表现主观。“相对造型”包括对客体对象的模拟，但艺术的造型首先应是一种创造，是独特的创造，它依靠视觉、想象、情感、潜意识和理性的综合作用。抽象水墨的最高追求是使它成为一种传递心灵信息的语言。抽象水墨逐渐走向非物质化和纯粹化，它的画面之态完全是非特指的、“臆造的”，完全是天人合一的，对真理的“呈现”。
广明先生的新水墨渗化产生的虚静淡雅的意境和虚无缥缈、空灵、恍惚、神秘悠远的效果，与道家追求的天人合一思想是相通的。墨色其实就是对色彩的抽象，体现着道家归于朴素平淡的哲学观念。艺术创造的主旨从日常世界转至心灵秘境，并最终转向本真，也是符合道家思想的。广明先生通过控制冰（水）和墨的交融，使其在载体上淋漓氤氲，这看似是水与墨的游戏，其实涵泳水墨之精神，其纯洁性有其高度的存在价值，其自律、自主的意味是别的艺术表现手法无法取代的独特感觉。广明的新水墨试图通过画面的穿透力和水墨的张力，向人们表达形而上的意识和揭示宇宙本源的精神。
哲学家斯宾诺莎说“一切规定都是否定”。在当下中国水墨发展必将面临一场真正意义的变革，所有传统的水墨定义、程式、技法、语汇等都将被打破。水墨艺术必将以全新的形式得以发展，特别是多元文化的今天，水墨艺术必然发展到有极强的思想表现形式和有深度的哲学范畴上来，而非对物象之描绘和简单地对现实的写照。随着当今社会知识化和信息化的高度发展，传统水墨艺术的表现形式和意境也应跟上时代的节奏，满足人们的视觉需要和精神需求。水墨艺术应向人们展示的是人类精神、情感、哲思、艺术家个人的心悟和想象，让人们感受它的生命形式和艺术的真谛。我们也期待着广明先生的新水墨艺术走得更远、更高。
2010年10月于北京
Reproducing the Nature
by Zhu Yuze
Appreciate Mr. Lu Lin’s introducing, I met Mr. Li Guangming again. Few months ago, I came to his studio and found his new water and ink series created in recent years. This time, we had a long talk. In the conversations I always thinked and tried to speculate the wide art realm of Mr.Li Guangming. This new water and ink series are mainly based on the creation process of melting inky ice sculpture. Our exploration of Chinese ink has similar direction, so we talked freely and flowingly. We both felt it was so late for us to meet each other.
Today, art has been enslaved. So many artists are trying their best to copy their established works. Is there anyone who still thinks about art, and even the future of Chinese ink? No. This phenomenon has directly contributed to the destruction of Chinese painting. Now Chinese paintings have become craft, because it lost the essence of art. So there is no reason to reach noble and pure again. However, Mr. Li Guangming gave up his adept art style to explore the essence of ink paintings. This is brave that should be inherent in all artists, but not the characterless one. Just the braveness helps him to achieve his creation on Chinese ink art. The meaning of art life for artists is to create, it is not only the highest pursuit but also the ultimate value.
In the 21st century China will gradually farewell the age of agriculture, and move to industrial and post-industrial age sequentially. We could believe China will step with the world on economy and culture. By the influence of high speed development on economy, Chinese culture is on the process of revolution. Today’s China is undergoing a very complicated phase that never happens before. Now, it is the Cultural interchange period.
How to explore under upholding the spirit of Chinese ink art, it appeared various experiments around the 30 years after reform and openness. Especially abstract ink painting, it presents greatest impact on one’s visual and inertia mental. However, true abstract ink art has been achieved just in the past few years, which gets rid of traditional artistic conception. I think the abstract ink should be put aside the entire traditional bound of brush and ink, but in pursuit of ink spirit. Abstract ink seems to explore the beauty of ink material in the visual form and to find its own rhythm of water and ink. In fact, it is the exploration in spiritual and philosophical propositions. All with a hint of form are not pure abstract ink. On philosophical field, abstract ink is beyond subject-object dichotomy, beyond time and space. Differently, Abstract ink is neither to represent objective world, nor to performance subjective consciousness, it is "post-philosophy" which means pursuit of spirit that can go beyond subject and object. Abstract ink art should return to psychological space and deviate from visual forms, it goes through the pursuit of the screen form and composition to reach the pursuit of spirit of ink.
Western philosophers came up with a new definition of philosophy in 1970s, which surpasses rather than abandons traditional philosophy. In fact Karl Marx said that philosophy should be culminated during his last years. Particularly in his Introduction to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy, Karl Marx declared his siding with "di-philosophy". Obviously what he disapproved of was the philosophy in traditional definition. Against dividing subjects from objects, "Post-philosophy" fortifies the idea of integrating man with the world, which accords with the philosophy of unity of heaven and man in Daoism.
Mr. Li Guangming’s latest Ink series is bright, smooth and tense, expressing the naturalness of "Dao". In what manner should man treat nature concerns not only philosophers but also minded artists including Mr. Li. He talked about Taoistic Thought Emulates Nature, so an artist reflects on philosophy, while a painter would not necessarily do so. Mr. Li said that he is appealing for respect for nature and has spent many years to explore his artistic way of expressing Dao. At the meantime, he is confident in applying uncertainty of symbols, intransitiveness of language and natural artistic strokes to creating "Second Nature", which resembles the beauty of "First Nature" more than otherwise. So he is against setting subject before creating.
As industrializing goes on, the antagonism between man and nature becomes severer. Since the second half of the 20th century, ecology philosophy and ecology aesthetics have emerged one after another. They have overturned the basic paradigm of nature defined by traditional philosophy. In their view, separating subject from object is doomed to die. They are against man-oriented values and calls for a brand-new ecological value system. In such system, man is a part of nature, which is a net of existence and life chain formed by interdependent parts, so nothing can be extracted intact from within. Pretentiously self-important man reconsiders his relationship with man. Nature is no longer reduced to an object to be recreated, harnessed or fought against; instead it is fairly treated with respect. Ecology aesthetics takes the relationship between man and nature as its subject, and nature is regarded as a free living being with its own values including aesthetic value, so does every part of nature. And even tiny as pollen has its noble reasons for existence, for after falling into soil, it will grow indomitably and come into flower. That coheres with philosophy of Daoism and Chan Buddhism. A Buddhist term goes, “a flower is a world, and a leaf is a Bodhi.”
Mr. Li’s latest Ink work just represents the value system of ecology aesthetics. He began with contemplating how to remove form and color of a subject and extract the essential regulation of material world. True Abstraction artists would build up his knowledge and taste through philosophical and aesthetic study first, rather than randomly withdrawing nonsense. French artist Charles Pierre Baudelaire who recognized that point early concluded that an aesthetic mind consists of self-discipline and innovating ability. He culminated previous proposition that virtue and beauty go hand in hand, and freed esthetics from moral standards. In a letter to his mother, he wrote that he had been insisting that pursue of literature and art has nothing to do with morality, for the beauty of composition and style would have fulfilled him.
The mainstream in China never quite understands why abstract art has to go abstract yet keeps on striking at abstraction. Reasons are many, and the most significant one is academic division in philosophy and aesthetics. It is acknowledged that the earliest abstraction blow on western esthetics was made by Wilhelm Worringer, a German art historian who is best known for his doctoral thesis, Abstraction and Empathy. In it he argued that there were two main kinds of art impulse: "empathy" and "abstraction". He wrote, "The original artistic impulse has nothing to do with imitation of nature. This impulse is in search of pure abstraction as the sole possibility of finding rest amidst the confusion and obscurity of the image of the world, and it creates a geometric abstraction starting with itself, in a purely instinctive manner. It is the realized expression, and the sole expression conceivable for man, of the emancipation from any arbitrariness and any temporality of the image of the world."
Mr. Li realizes that sticking to "Spirit of Ink" and Chinese Daoism is a necessity for improving Ink art. He manages to bring a new look to Ink art by changing the state of water, enriching color gradation and language of Ink. He freezes Ink into ice chunks of various shapes, lays them on one or several Xuan papers. Ices are left to melt naturally and patterns are formed. Also he performs the process as an art. He believes that he will find the way to improve Ink art from its origin. Ink is fine and smooth, also rich in gradation. And Xuan paper is pervious. Water helps to enlarge the gradation of Ink color. When dissolving Ink into water, you can observe delicate changes, which illustrates our nation’s unique philosophy. The media of Ink art represents Chinese culture. After dissolved into water, Ink is painted on Xuan paper, so as to produce an artwork of vitality and unique state that no other art forms resemble.
Artists are still composing and creating according to traditional philosophy, thus their works are bound by image of reality. But I am sure that restriction will be broken and new forms of expression will be erected according to artist’s subjective. In a way abstract art of Post-modernism continues that aesthetic study, which believes that image of an item is just its appearance, yet its free existence is the true meaning. According to that theory, pure abstract art is defined as non-figurative, life-like, natural reimaging of an object.
Traditional painting is "to reproduce a substance", and modern art is "expressionistic", while post-modern art aims to "reproduce nature and truth". Mr. Li initiates a new way of artistic form and idea of creating by presenting nature and generating "second nature" in his Ink work. "Second nature" is an important concept in esthetic and literature studies. Here we borrow it from the west to include Odebrecht’s “second new object” (1883—1945), Zhuangzi’s spirit of art (a great Chinese philosopher, 369BC. — 286 BC.), Chinese traditional theory of combining sensation with scenery, and so on. I think "second nature", which is also against dividing subjects from objects, has methodical significance. A painter needs to bear the rule of nature in mind, and then apply artistic performance. To reproduce nature he must observe scrupulously and study perspective, technique of light and shadow, and color theory and applications.(文：朱雨泽/摄影：/责任编辑：CF)
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