惊奇的房间——张观鹿个展

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空间站即将呈现“惊奇的房间”张观鹿在空间站的首个个展。展览主要呈现艺术家近三年的《惊奇的房间》、《对偶，抑或镜子》、《集锦》、《广场》、《苹果》及纸本等系列的三十余幅作品。

 

张观鹿（曾用名康学儒）他不仅是艺术家，也是艺术评论者与策展人，也曾运营一间实验艺术空间。2013年从为《艺术时代》杂志画发刊词开始到近年来全身心投入创作，对于张观鹿来说这种身份的转变需要重新审视自己的存在状态和价值观念，并发现更多的可能性和意义。

 

《惊奇的房间》是张观鹿最新创作的与艺术家工作室有关的系列作品。工作室对于艺术家来说有着非常重要的意义，这与艺术家个人经历和喜好有所不同，也是个人成就和身份的象征。在张观鹿的“工作室”中，有经过他精心编排的保罗·塞尚、一生画瓶子的求索者莫兰迪、墨西哥传奇女艺术家弗里达、图伊曼斯和米罗......张观鹿从他们的作品中窥探出线索创造了“惊奇”的工作室房间。这并不是模仿，这全然来自于艺术史和知识系统，“适当引用，恰当用典”。就像张观鹿所说：“古今中外的美学并置，雨伞和缝纫机在手术台上相遇，一种真正的审美平等，一种百科全书式的绘画。”

 

“惊奇的房间”的历史意义在于，它展示了人类对自然和世界的探索欲望，以及将各种知识和物品整合在一起的智慧和创造力。随着时间的推移，它的概念也在不断地演变和发展。现代社会中充满各种高科技设备、令人眼花缭乱的娱乐设施、信息爆炸的网络环境或是充满挑战和机遇的未知领域。当我们面对这样的“房间”应该如何在海量的信息中筛选出有价值的艺术内容？又将如何影响我们的生活方式和价值观呢？

 

在张观鹿的绘画中，如何将那些经典的、流行的、大众的图像符号从其固有的说辞和固化的形象当中解放出来，并构建成一种恰到好处的图像关系，是他所神往的。《集锦》系列中他遵循建筑规律和美学结构的基础，对图像符号重新解读，进行解构与重构，创造了全新的视觉体验和感受。中国人讲究“居有所宜”，喜欢在家中摆放一些静物，以寄托对美好生活的向往和追求。如花瓶、小动物瓷器、太湖石、葫芦、小座钟等。在《中国静物》这幅绘画中，张观鹿用一种新的语法和中国壁画中经典的平行结构，将内容相互呼应，平行展开，构成一幅完整的画面，这种独特的构图方式是张观鹿所喜爱的。

 

《苹果》系列也是张观鹿重要的系列绘画作品。说到苹果，我们常常联想到塞尚，苹果是塞尚画作中对于生命力最好的表达，凝结最真挚，最热烈而又最冷静的情感。他画出苹果的结构、浑圆、明亮，甚至能闻出香气。美国艺术史家夏皮罗的研究，苹果在塞尚的作品中不仅是一个具体的物体，也相当于人体。一方面，苹果代表性渴望，另一方面也显示出性压抑。对于塞尚的“苹果”，张观鹿明白不能光将塞尚理解成只按照圆球体画画的笨拙老头。苹果在中国文化中又如何理解呢？难道它在艺术中的出现仅仅是一个静物吗？《现代启示录（之一）》中，画面中有魔鬼崇拜的羊驼面具，左右摆放着对称的陶罐，以及中间陶器中叠摞的祭品苹果，构建出一个神圣的祭祀空间。在非洲，面具被视为与神灵、祖先灵魂和超自然力量相连接的媒介。在中国，苹果被视为象征平安与幸福的吉祥物。这些内容的碰撞和交融，组合和重构的绘画，对观众的艺术理解和审美期待有何影响？又如何解读这种跨时代的艺术表达？

 

基里柯广场是意大利维罗纳市中心一个著名的景点，张观鹿将这些具有特色的房子放在一起，就像“盲目购买，开启惊喜”的盲盒。消费者购买盲盒，并不知道里面具体是什么，过程的刺激和期待感，使消费者想要凑齐全部的盲盒。张观鹿的“盲盒美学”就此展开。

 

1902年德国阿比瓦尔堡提出了“图像学”的研究方法，认为艺术作品的意义不仅在于它所表现的对象，更在于它所传达的观念和象征意义。绘画对于张观鹿来说就是潜伏在色彩里、画布上和构图中，它诱惑你、缠绕你、鼓励你。每个艺术家都在与前辈艺术家的对话中创作，张观鹿亦是如此，他将过往图像从石化的固有的艺术史语境中“拉扯”出来，再置于新的语境，使其焕然一新，生发出新的意义。

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The Cabinet of Wonder: Zhang Guanlu’s Solo Exhibition

 

The Space Station will soon present Cabinet of Wonder, Zhang Guanlu’s first solo exhibition. The exhibition consists of more than thirty works from the artist’s series of The Cabinet of Wonder, Dual, or Mirror, An Outstanding Collection, Square, Apples and paper scrolls in the past three years.

 

Zhang Guanlu (formerly known as Kang Xueru) is not only an artist, but also an art critic and curator, as well as a former operator of an experimental art space. In 2013, he drew a release for the Art Times magazine, and from then to recent years he had devoted himself to creation, a change in his identity that requires him to re-examine his own state of being and his own values, as well as discovering more possibilities and meanings.

 

The Cabinet of Wonder is the latest series of works created by Zhang Guanlu, which is related to the artist’s studio. The studio has a very important meaning for the artist, which is different from the artist’s experience and preference, and is also a symbol of personal achievement and identity. In Zhang’s “studio”, there are Paul Cézanne, Morandi, a lifelong bottle-painting seeker, the legendary Mexican female artists Frida, Luc Tuymans and Miro, which he has carefully arranged ... By sniffing out clues from their work Zhang creates the “wonder” studio room. That is not an imitation, but comes from the history of art and the system of knowledge, “an appropriate reference and allusion”. As Zhang said, “The juxtaposition of ancient and modern aesthetics, like the meeting of the umbrella and the sewing machine on an operating table, means a genuine aesthetic equality, an encyclopedic painting.”

 

The historical significance of The Cabinet of Wonder is that it demonstrates the human desire to explore nature and the world, as well as the ingenuity and creativity to bring together a variety of knowledge and objects. This concept has evolved and developed over time. Modern society is full of high-tech equipment, dazzling entertainment facilities, information-exploding network environments or uncharted territories of challenges and opportunities. When we face such a “room”, how should we sift through the vast amount of information to find valuable artistic content? And how will it affect our life form and values?

 

In his paintings, to liberate those classic and popular symbols from their inherent rhetoric and solidified image, and to construct an appropriate image relationship is what he aspires to. In the series An Outstanding Collection, he, following the laws of architecture and the basis of aesthetic structure, reinterprets the image symbols, deconstructs and reconstructs them, and creates a brand-new visual experience and feeling. Chinese people pay attention to “living in the right place”, and like to put some knick-knacks at home, such as vases, small animal porcelains, Taihu Lake stones, gourds, small clocks, on which they pin the desire and pursuit of a better life. In the painting Chinese Still Life, Zhang uses a new syntax and the classic parallel structure of Chinese frescoes to echo each other’s contents, unfolding them to form a complete picture, which is a unique composition that Zhang adores.

 

The Apples series is also an important series of Zhang’s paintings. When we talk about apples, we often associate them with Cézanne. Apples are the best expression of life force in Cézanne’s paintings, condensing the most sincere, passionate and calm emotions. He painted apples with structure, roundness, brightness, and even one could smell their fragrance. According to the research of American art historian Shapiro, the apple is not only a concrete object in Cézanne's works, but also equivalent to the human body. On the one hand, the apple represents sexual longing, and on the other hand, it shows sexual repression. Zhang realizes that Cézanne’s apple cannot be understood as a clumsy old man who paints according to a round object. What about apple in Chinese culture? Does it appear in art only as an object of still life? In Apocalypse Now (Part I), there are devil-worshipping alpaca masks, symmetrically placed pots on the left and the right, and sacrificial apples stacked on the middle pot, creating a sacred ritual space. In Africa, masks are seen as a medium connecting with the gods, ancestral spirits, and supernatural forces. In China, the apple is seen as an auspicious symbol of peace and happiness. How does the collision and intermingling of these contents affect the audience’s artistic understanding and aesthetic expectations? And how can we interpret this cross-generational artistic expression?

 

Piazza Quirico is a famous attraction in the center of Verona, and Zhang puts those characteristic houses together like a blind box that “be opened up with surprises when you buy it blindly”. Buying a blind box, consumers do not know exactly what is inside, and the process of stimulation and a sense of anticipation make consumers want to get together all the blind boxes. This is how Zhang’s “blind box aesthetics” unfolds.

 

The British art historian Gombrich put forward a research methodology of “iconology”, believing that the significance of a work of art lies not only in the objects it represents, but also in the concepts and symbolism it conveys. Painting, for Zhang, lurks in the colors, on the canvas, and in the composition, which tempts you, haunts you, and encourages you. Every artist creates in dialogue with his predecessors, and so does Zhang, who “pulls” past images out of their petrified and established art historical contexts; and places them in a different context, refreshing them with new meanings.