纵观祁海峰的艺术历程，我们并不难发现，虽然他是一个多变的艺术家，但以农民为表现对象始终是他的创作主线。在创作的第一阶段，也就是从20世纪80年代末至90年代中期，因受美术界大环境的影响，他更多是以“乡土写实主义”的模式去表现太行风情。在这批作品中，他的主题似乎有两个：第一是着意突出对自然的由衷赞美，同时强调人与自然亲密无间的关系——如作品《春风又绿江南岸》、《太行之春》、《中午》等；第二是热情讴歌农民那朴实无华、充满亲情关系的生活状态——如作品《暖冬》、《闹春》、《迎亲》、《踩高跷》等。但无论是前者，还是后者，都反映出艺术家身在都市却不满足于都市生活的怀旧心态。按我的理解，他那时画中的一些情景不过是他的欲望对象而已，所以我认为实际上他是在用一种想像性的方式处理所谓的农村题材绘画。而在祁海峰的第二个创作阶段，也就是从20世纪90年代中期至20世纪90年代末，他显然更多是用“乡土超现实主义”的模式进行艺术创作。应该说明的是，这种变化在第一阶段的后期已有某种显示。我猜想引至变化的原因，一方面表明他再也不能满足于用传统写实性与文学性的创作模式去表现他的一些新想法；另一方面他也许深切地感受到“乡土写实主义”的创作方法在完成对“文革”创作模式的反叛后，竟至走向行画的范畴。从艺术史的角度看，祁海峰在第二阶段创作的作品无疑深受西方超现实主义大师——如达利、恩斯特和唐吉等人的影响，毫无疑问，没有西方超现实主义大师们所形成的特殊艺术语境，他绝对不可能走到新的一步。但难能可贵的是，与国内其他年青艺术家不同，他并不是简单地移植西方超现实主义大师的作品，而是创造性地将他已往十分熟悉的生活元素——如农民、黄土高坡、太行民居、北方植物等等进行了超自然与超常规的处理，这当然在更大程度上表现了他虚构的农村，我觉得有时是一种象征，有时则是一种向往。那在空中与民居中飞翔的人与马——如作品《59梦庄纪事》、《60梦庄纪事》等——暗示了在改革开放的背景下，农民们希望超越陈规陋习，寻求新生活的价值追求。我记得另一位河北版画家张敏杰也用相同的方式处理过类似作品。这里面的内在联系是十分有意味的；那相互挤压的人体——如作品《61梦庄纪事》、《62梦庄纪事》等——暗示了消费社会对正常人际关系的破坏并导致了相互倾轧的现象；那漫天飞舞的红旗、傩戏等传统符号与黄土高坡，还有农民的并置、叠印，暗示了历史与大西北现实的特殊关系……再往后走，他作品中的符号越来越抽象，风格也越来越表现，这就使他步入了自己创作的第三阶段，时间大约从20世纪90年代末至今。在我看来，这也是他真正形成个人特点的阶段。这一阶段里，他的艺术视野更加宽阔，艺术风格也更加成熟。在观念的表现上，他有意识地将中国农民问题与城市化问题、全球化问题等有机联系在了一起。而且，作为一个现代知识分子，他清楚地表达了他的批判立场，这与第一阶段的作品有本质上的区别，也是非常可贵的。比如，在作品《逝去的风景》中，通过绿色山水演变为城市化的水泥森林或没有树木、河水的荒地就表现了他对现代化的无比忧思；而在作品《黑色域》中，通过被轰炸的城市则表现了他对战争的反对之情……我当然还可以举出更多的例子，但仅是这些便足以说明问题。在艺术表现上，祁海峰以相当成熟的写意化方式——包括造型、用笔用色等——完美地创作了他的作品。可以说是东方与西方、具象与抽象、写实与表现的成功结合。
祁海峰的风格多变表明了他不断探索真理的过程，艺术的历史早已表明，每一种风格都代表了一种独特观看的方式或一种独特的世界观。从这样的角度出发，我特别欣赏他永不满足的性格。不过，我也要借此机会强调一下，从一个艺术家的人生过程来看，多变肯定是好的，但在相对短的时间里，过于频繁地变换题材与艺术手法，并不利于艺术家的发展与宣传。以艺术大师毕加索为例，人们对他多变的评价常常是就一生而言的，在他自身的某一阶段，总还处在对某一题材与风格的探索之内。希望祁海峰在今后的创作中对这一点给予足够的注意。
2005年8月于深圳美术馆
鲁虹 博士、艺术评论家、深圳美术院研究员
Expression and Standpoint---On Qi Haifeng’s Art
If we take a panoramic view of Qi Haifeng’s creating process, it is not difficult to find that the farmers have always been his creating subjects though he is an artist with varied styles. The first stage of his creating is from the end of the 80s to the middle of the 90s. Influenced by the overall atmosphere of the art field, he painted Taihang lifestyle with “local realistic” techniques. There seems to be two themes in those works: one is the praising for the nature, and at the same time, emphasizing the close relationship between man and the nature, such as “Green Bank of the Yellow River” , “Spring of Taihang Mountain”, “Midday” etc; the other is the enthusiastic praise for the farmers’ simple life style which is full of affections, such as “Warm Winter”, “Spring Festival”, “Meeting the Bride”, “Walking on Stilts”, etc. Both of them reflect the painter’s dissatisfaction with the urban life and his nostalgia for the past. In my opinion, some scenes in his paintings are nothing but his desire objects. He handles the rural subjects in an imaginary method. His second stage is from the middle of the 90s to the end of the 90s. Obviously, he employs the “local surrealistic” techniques. We can see this in the later period of his fist stage. I guess there are two reasons leading to his changes: on the one hand, he was not satisfied about expressing some of his new ideas in the traditional realism and the literal creating patterns; on the other hand, perhaps he found his works falling into the mould picture after employing the “local realistic” creating method to rebel against the creating patterns popular in “the Great Revolution”. From the angle of the art history, Qi’s works at the 2nd stage undoubtedly were influenced by some western surrealism masters, such as Salvador Dali and Max Ernst. Without the special artistic discourse created by the masters, these breakthroughs would have never occured to him. Different from the other young domestic artists, he doesn’t simply borrow and transfer their works. Instead, he adds his familiar life elements, such as farmers, loess plateau, Taihang residential houses, and northern plants to them, and handles creatively in a supernatural and supernormal method. His dream villages, to the greater extent, sometimes are symbols, sometimes a yearning. The flying men and horses in the sky and the houses in his “59 Dream Village”, “60 Dream Village” imply the farmers want to do away with the outdated conventions and practices and are eager for the new life. I remember Zhang Minjie, an engraver in Hebei Province handles the similar subjects in the same way. The inner link between them is very interesting. The squeezing human bodies in “61 Dream Village” and “62 Dream Village” indicate the damage brought by the consumer society to the normal human relationship, and even lead to people’s fighting. The juxtaposition and overlapping of the traditional symbols such as the fluttering red flag, Nuo Opera (one of the Chinese local operas popular in the western hilly regions) and the loess plateau and the farmers show the special relationships between history and the reality of the northwest China .... Later, the signs in his works have become more and more abstract and the style has become more and more expressive, which leads him onto the third stage of creating. It begins from the end of the 90s to the present. I believe his individual style is formed at this stage. He has a more broaden horizon and more mature style. When expressing ideas, he intentionally links the issues of Chinese farmers with the problems of urbanization and globalization. As a contemporary intellectual, he clearly expresses his criticism, which in essence is different from that of the first stage. For example, in “The Lost Scene” he expresses his worries about the modernization. During that process the green mountains and clean rivers have been replaced by the urban cement forests and wasteland. In “Black Domain” he expresses his opposing to the war by painting a bombed city. ... In the artistic expression, Qi creates his works perfectly in a mature freehand brushwork method. They can be regarded as the successful integration between the Orient and the West, the specific and the abstract, realism and expressionism.
Qi Haifeng’s various styles show his constant exploration for the truth. The history of art has indicated that each style represents a different worldview. I appreciate his never-ending exploring spirit. However, I’d like to stress in this article that although employing various styles in one’s painting is not bad for an artist, it is not good for his publicizing and development if he changes a lot in a relatively short period of time. Take Picasso as an example, though people appreciate his varieties of painting styles, his subjects and styles remain constant in some period of time. I sincerely hope our artist will be aware of this in his future painting.
August, 2005 in Shenzhen Art Gallery
Lu Hong: Doctor, Art Critic, Researcher of Shenzhen Instute of Fine Arts