Qin Qi (b.1975)
Painting Brushes against a Blue Background(Painted in 2012)
Oil on canvas
200 × 160 cm. 78 3/4 × 63 in.
Signed in pinyin and dated on bottom right
The "Thorny" Brush, the Spark of Adventure
Qin Qi's Artistic Allegory Painting Brushes against a Blue Background
As a pioneering representative of Chinese artists born in the 1970s, Qin Qi has developed an avant-garde, dynamic and metaphorical visual expression based on inheriting the solid shaping technique learned from Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts and established a bold and outstanding "heterotopia world". After holding a large solo exhibition in Shanghai Minsheng Museum in 2010, he became a leading figure in Chinese new painting. In 2014, he had a solo exhibition at Platform China Contemporary Art Institute, which brought him wide attention. This time, we present a rare masterpiece, Painting Brushes against a Blue Background , from this exhibition.
Classic "Brush" Metaphor, Reconstruction of the Art World
Since 2010, Qin Qi has carried out a new exploration of the context of objects and images. He transfers the familiar things around him, such as meat, fruit, painting materials and tools, from the original environment to the canvas world outside of everyday experience and breaks common sense with metaphor to present incredibly profound artistic thinking.
As the most important tool for artists to create, the element of "brush" has been heavily presented in Qin Qi's works since 2010, regarded as "the self-figurative existence of the painter's identity". In the painting Painting Brushes against a Blue Background, he inserted the elements of "brushes" into the cactus in the pot. Qin Qi fully exaggerated the features of the cactus utilizing the appearance of brushes. As he said, "This kind of non-inevitable association produced a non-visual abstract form." The deconstructed objects establish a new image language in the connection like an adventure, thus introducing internal thinking with symbolic meaning.
Wonderland, the Energy of the Essence of Life
Similar to the conception in his paintings Cactus and Stabbed Paintbrushes painted in 2010, in Painting Brushes against a Blue Background painted in 2012, Qin Qi again put the cactus pot with paintbrushes in the centre. However, the background is covered by contrasting colours of interweaved sapphire blue and orange instead of the previously empty pale grey. These two colours are borrowed from the hues of the sky and the earth, creating a world of visual tension in the broad painting. Following the growth direction of the paintbrushes on the cactus, the impressionistic multilayered kinetic strokes jump from the ground to the sky, just like fireworks. They intensify the turbulence of colours and create an intense conversation between the surface and the inside. The cactus pot glows with a sense of life as if it is lit. The space in the painting seems to be in the process of being created all the time. The energetic overlay of paint and the unfolding image of the brushes complement each other, and a strong breath of life emerges.
The Dominant Brush of Art, the Painter's Creative Heart
Qin Qi's practice of using paintbrushes imitating cactus is closely related to his painting experience. In this work, the form of cactus, derived from the way of splicing, reflects the key leading role played by brushes in the development of art history. The cactus in the painting comes from artistic inspiration and exists on the actual canvas because of the creative imagination. The brushes are grafted with the context of the cactus to create a unique symbolic expression. The poem on the flowerpot is: "People have eternal drunkness, and poetry has an everlasting life", which seems to be the footnote intentionally left by the painter. How to make art like poetry has become the topic of his concern. Just like Qin Qi's actual situation: "being defined" at all times but constantly "breaking away from the definition". The artistic imagination and the colour of life, only in the hands of the artist's fantastic encounter, can flash bright sparks of colourful inspiration!
秦琦 (b.1975)
藍色背景下的畫筆(二〇一二年作)
油彩 畫布
200 × 160 cm. 78 3/4 × 63 in.
款識
qinqi 2012（右下）
「棘手」的畫筆，奇遇的火花
秦琦藝術寓言力作《藍色背景下的畫筆》
「這是一個『異托邦』的空間：它真實地存在著，但這真實具備夢幻的語法⋯⋯具體的寫實，讓繪畫擁有確切無疑的內容；夢幻的語法，則讓這些確實的內容不可思議。」
――藝評人汪民安
作為中國70後藝術家中的先鋒代表，秦琦以多變的圖像語言、豐富的主題創造、「不被定義」的藝術風格獨步藝壇。在繼承魯迅美術學院紮實的造型風格之上，他發展出一種前衛的、深具動勢和隱喻思想的視覺表達：以現實物件作為發想源，由個人經驗、藝術史的視野、超脫的想像交織導入，建立起一個別開生面的「異托邦世界」，形成大膽卓絕的新風。自2010年上海民生現代美術館舉辦大型個展後，他一躍成為中國新繪畫的領軍人物，而2014年於站台中國舉辦個展，更令他廣獲關注，是次呈現《藍色背景下的畫筆》，便為亮相於站台中國「秦琦個展」中的一件不可多得的力作。
經典「畫筆」隱喻，重構的藝術世界
自2010年起，秦琦開始針對物像語境展開全新的探索，他以身邊常見的物品，如肉類、水果、繪畫材料和工具，將之從原本熟悉的語境裡打撈出來，在重構的畫布空間裡，化為自我視角下的「異質存在」。原本的日常之物，在畫作語義與情景、理性與感性的衝突中，存在於一個超越經驗之外的生命世界，以隱喻的象徵意味打破常理，呈現出極為深刻的藝術思考。完成於2012年的《藍色背景下的畫筆》即為此階段極具代表性的生動一例。
作為藝術家創作最重要的工具，「畫筆」這一元素，在秦琦2010年後的作品中多有著重呈現，被視為「畫家身份的自喻性存在」。如其2014年的《生氣的章魚》裡，章魚的八隻觸角皆肆意揮舞畫筆，彷彿一切題材風格都可為其所用，卻因彼此間的矛盾而令其感到無從下手的憤懣，充滿詼諧的自況。秦琦十分擅於在尋常之物中呈現不尋常的因子，架構於現實實物，而精準捕捉其特徵點，加入合理想象，最終呈現一個既真實又荒誕不經、既可會心一笑又發人深省的思想空間。於是，在此《藍色背景下的畫筆》中，他將「畫筆」這一元素，化作一根根長刺，插入仙人掌的盆景中，藉由畫筆的外型，充分誇大仙人掌的特徵。天然帶刺的軀體，在畫筆的裝飾下，呈現出一種具不安感的誇張狀態。如秦琦所言，「這種不必然的關聯產生了一種非視覺的抽象形式」，被解構的物像，在奇遇般的接連中建立了新的形象語言，從而將觀者引入更具象徵意義的內在思考。
幻彩奇境，生命本質的能量
「畫面中看上去隨意堆積的顏料和勾畫的筆觸更接近『實物擬像』的還原，帶有濃厚的直接審美感受，從而呈現出了一種特殊的景觀和情境的絕佳融合。」
――知名策展人董冰峰
與其2010年《仙人掌》、《帶刺的畫筆》中的構思一脈相承，秦琦在2012年再作《藍色背景下的畫筆》，仍將插滿畫筆的仙人掌盆栽置於中心，背景中卻以寶藍和橙黃對比色交織而成的空間取代此前空淡的灰色背景，如同天空與大地之色的轉借，在廣大的畫幅上，造就一方世界的視覺張力。跟隨仙人掌畫筆生長的方向，反覆堆疊的筆觸由地入天，如同向上攛動的焰火，躍然攀升，加劇畫面中色彩的動盪性。仙人掌盆栽則如同被點燃般，煥發生命之象。藉由印象派般層層疊加的動勢筆觸，秦琦以超現實的空間表達，造就物象表層的視覺張力和深入內在的激烈話語。畫中的空間似正時刻處於被創造的變化之中，顏料充滿能量感的飽滿疊加，與畫筆正張開的形象互為表裡，湧現一股強烈的生命氣息，在相互的指涉中，展現出關乎藝術本質的深意。
藝術的主導之筆，畫家的創作本心
而以畫筆仿擬仙人掌的畫作，正與秦琦的繪畫經驗有著密不可分的關聯，對比其近年所作的《仙人掌》，以手抓三色畫筆的造型，將畫筆還給了藝術家本人，卻仍自詡為仙人掌，意在延續《藍色背景下的畫筆》中，那由藝術家之手所創造的格局。在此作中，仙人掌的型態，自拼接的方式中而來，正映射了藝術史發展中，畫筆所起到的關鍵主導作用。畫中的仙人掌，來自藝術的想像，也正因想像的創造力，而存在於現實的畫布之上。花盆上所書「人有千古醉，詩有萬世芳」的詩句，似畫家有意留下的註腳，如何令藝術像詩歌般「萬世流芳」，成為其關切的思考議題。策展人孫冬冬解讀道：「畫筆棘手的原因，是因為對於畫家而言，繪畫史所對應的是造型方法的歷史」。秦琦所呈現的，正是在這破除傳統概念的畫布上，以顏料和畫筆構建一個書寫現實的嶄新藝術世界。在這個世界中，畫筆與仙人掌的語境嫁接，造就一種獨特的象徵表達，他所展現的，是藝術家時刻「在被定義」卻不斷「掙脫定義」的本心，是在藝術史的長河中找尋獨我的思維和視角，更是藝術的想像和生命的色彩，在畫布上奇妙相遇，在激烈的碰撞中，閃現繽紛靈感的璀璨火花！
