美国艺评家Bridget R. Cooks解读冯斌及《起舞弄红影》

冯斌，《起舞弄红影》

布面丙烯，140cm×180cm×4，2010

冯斌：邂逅

Feng Bin: The Encounter

文/Bridget R. Cooks

图/冯斌

邂逅时，我对自己找到某人感到惊奇，通过相继接触，每个人都如愿以偿，不会出错，完成了我幻想中的图画；我就象是一个手气不坏的赌徒，手落在一张小图块上，立刻就让欲望的拼图圆满了。这是对于喜爱、共谋和亲暱行为的逐步发现过程（及某种印证），最终我会（想象）同他者一同维系，而那人也由此成为「我的他者」：我完全沉浸在这样的发现中（我在其中战栗），以至于与某人的邂逅抱着强烈的好奇心，而这多少就等同于爱。

——罗兰·巴特，《恋人絮语》（1978年）

In the encounter, I marvel that I have found someone who, by successive touches, each one successful, unfailing, completes the painting of my hallucination; I am like a gambler whose luck cannot fail, so that his hand unfailingly lands on the little piece which immediately completes the puzzle of his desire. This is a gradual discovery (and a kind of verification) of affinities, complicities, and intimacies which I shall (I imagine) eternally sustain with the other, who is thereby becoming “my other”: I am totally given over to this discovery (I tremble within it), to the point where any intense curiosity for someone encountered is more or less equivalent to love.

— Roland Barthes, A Lover’s Discourse (1978)

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在《恋人絮语》中，哲学家罗兰·巴特把与爱纠结在一起的快感、焦虑、失望和渴望作为自己的主题。他参考了文学文本和个人告白，阐释了吸引和幻想的不同阶段，同时还保持了对于他者而言自我的内在孤独与绝望的潜台词。看到艺术家冯斌《舞影》系列的绘画作品，巴特话语的复杂性便很容易想象了。冯斌在这些画作中着眼于自我与他者的关系，审视了每个人对舞伴的一连串预期与盼望。通过这些描绘男人和女人在跳舞时相互触碰的画作，冯斌追念那些通常会被视为转瞬即逝的邂逅。他将影子般的人物描绘在不明确的背景上，强化了这类个人瞬间的短暂，邀请观众思索陌生人的爱恨情仇。

In the book A Lover’s Discourse, philosopher Roland Barthes takes as his subject the variety of pleasures, anxieties, disappointments, and longings entangled with love.  His references to literary texts and personal confessions elucidate stages of attraction and fantasy while maintaining an underlying narrative of loneliness and desperation within the self for the other.  It is easy to imagine the intricacies of Barthes discourse while looking at artist Feng Bin’s most recent body of paintings from his Dancing Series. Within it, Feng focuses on the relationship between self and other in a way that contemplates a range of expectations and hopes that each person brings to the coupling. Through paintings of men and women touching in dance, Feng memorializes encounters that would normally be observed as quickly passing movements. His depictions of shadowy figures in undefined backgrounds intensify the volatility of these personal moments and invites viewers to meditate on the affection of strangers. 

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冯斌刻划的大部分舞伴都被裁切了，并且置于画面前景中，让观众感觉实际上也在附近跳舞。这种构图手法营造出与跳舞者产生一定程度的熟识感，彷彿观众也身临其境，与作品中的其他人联系起来。黑色背景中的轨道灯暗示了从我们当下的世界迁移到一个遥远的地方，也暗示了舞蹈在跳舞者的想象下产生了同样令人心旷神怡的效果。包房装饰灯那种矫揉造作的橙色和红色灯光，也有助于构建一种具有性暗示的氛围以及跳舞者之间强烈感情的外现。头顶上闪光灯球在房子周围形成的反光，呈现出行星般的排列，跳舞者彷彿滑向地球的边缘。衬衫、礼服和席地长裙十分合体，又或者随意地搭在宽松的长裤上，暗示了跳舞者及其对舞蹈渴求的多样性。在冯斌的画作中，欲望以一种模糊如梦境般的水彩画方式呈现出来。他把颜料及绵绸的结合为跳舞的场景赋予了一种内在结构上的精美微妙。

Feng depicts most of the couples cropped and in the foreground of his paintings effectively giving the viewer the feeling of also dancing nearby.  This compositional strategy creates a level of familiarity with the dancers as the viewer becomes present as a body relative to the others located in his work. Orbital lights in the black background suggest the translocation from our immediate world to a distant place suggesting the same transport effect of the dance on the imaginations of the dancers. Artificial orange and red colors from the karaoke lights help to construct a sexualized atmosphere and the appearance of passion between the dancers. Reflections spinning around the room from the disco ball above take on planetary formations, and the dancers seem to glide on the edge of the earth. The combination of the dresses, floor length gowns, and shirts fitted and tucked, or loosely hanging over baggy pants suggest the diversity of dancers and their desires at the dance. This weight of desires takes on a blurry, dreamy, watercolor quality in Feng’s paintings.  His saturation of paint on silk brings an inherent structural delicacy to the dancing scenes. 

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中国各个城市广场上晚间舞会随处可见。2006年冯斌从中得到灵感之后，便开始绘画跳舞的人们。冯斌的舞伴浪漫但却并不沉醉于浪漫幻想，诉诸于充满欲念和爱的外表，暂时脱离了都市的疏离感。夜总会灯光发放的热力与跳舞者之间的真实关系形成了对比。虽然他们看起来相爱，跳舞者身体上和象征意义上都是在做着动作，但他们的内心欲望并不是显而易见的，而跳舞的表演也许满足了他们，也许没有。

Feng Bin began painting dancers in 2006 after being inspired by the evening dances that happen in city squares across China. Romantic but not romanticized, Feng’s couples speak to the appearance of lust and love, and the momentary reprieve from urban alienation. The warming effect of the nightclub lights may be in contrast to the actual relationships between the dancers. Though they may appear loving, the dancers are physically and figuratively going through the motions. Their inner desires are not apparent, and their performance through dance may or may not fulfill them. 

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《起舞弄红影》局部

冯斌早期的作品系列，多着眼于西藏的男女和僧侣。例如，《风兮风兮》（1994年）这幅作品，揭示出冯斌对于处在抵御即将来临的风霜雨雪的状态中那些坚强的人物的兴趣，也表现了他在西藏妇女满是大量图案的服装的层次细节上有着高超的技艺。冯斌捕捉到人物的沉重以及他们以这样一种方式前行的决心，这使得他们的旅程充满了英雄主义色彩。

Feng’s earlier painting series focuses on Tibetan men, women, and monks. Paintings such as Wind, Wind (1994) show Feng’s interest in purposeful bodies in motion working against the elements to arrive, as well as his high level of skill in rendering the details of the dense layers of the Tibetan women’s heavily patterned clothing. In doing so, Feng captures the tension between the heaviness of the figures and their determination to move in such a way that their journeys become heroic. 

冯斌 ,《风兮风兮》

中国画颜料、丙烯，绵绸

138cm×132 cm，1994

（台湾山艺术收藏）

冯斌， 《新寺》（之一）

中国画颜料、丙烯，绵绸

83cm×85 cm，1993

（英国大英博物馆收藏）

2000年，冯斌开始展示表现具有大量几何形体和鲜亮图案风格的西藏建筑画作，往往有一个身披袈裟的人物从建筑物旁匆匆走过。这一组合突出了历史悠久的建筑物——大部分是庙宇——朦胧地刻划出人物那种软弱孤单，这也让人想到人生的无常。在这两个系列中，冯斌刻划了在过去几个世纪中都可以看到的主题，不过，他对色彩和动作刻划风格的选择，使得这些作品更显当代性。

In a later series from around 2000, Feng began presenting paintings of Tibetan architecture in a heavily geometric and bright graphic style often with a single cloaked figure hastily rushing by.  The combination highlights the long historical past of the structures, most of which are temples, and the timid isolation of the single figure, which, depicted vaporously, is a reminder of the transience of life. In both series, Feng depicts subject matter that could be observed throughout the past several centuries, however, his selection of colors and style of depicting movement make the paintings quite contemporary. 

《起舞弄红影》草图

冯斌的作品有赖于他在中国和欧洲传统绘画方面所接受的正统训练。他利用了这些传统，将他们用来表现当代处于动感中的人物上。就冯斌当下艺术生涯的轨迹而言，《舞影》系列既是起点也是延续。新作的空间语境跟早期的不同，而他对人物动感和心理状态的描绘则更加得以发展。

Feng’s work is informed by his classical training in traditional Chinese and European painting. He takes these traditions and frees them into renditions of the contemporary body in motion. Given the iconographic trajectory of Feng’s recent career, the Dancing Series is both a departure and a continuum. The spatial context differs from his earlier work, and his interest in the movement of the figure and his or her psychological state has become more developed.

在《舞 十六》（2008年）中，一对舞伴在冷热混合光下跳舞。背景的颜色好像可被随意洗掉，并不具体指向哪里。他的右手温暖着她的纤腰，左手伸出，触碰着她的秀发。他的视线并没有跟其温柔的举动逹成一致，似乎若有所思。至于她，右手或许刚把他放开，放置于半空中。冯斌绘画技巧中那种真实的效果超乎寻常。很难不想象跳舞的人是谁，每一对翩翩起舞的舞伴又有什么故事。他们彼此间究竟是什么关系？他们是陌生人还是长期的恋人？他们彼此说话还是仅仅享受他人身体的温暖？因为舞伴、乐声和灯光而显得心旷神怡，他们可又曾想到别人？冯斌的作品无疑将观众的记忆勾起——一种情绪，一段对话，一个瞬间，一个夜晚——使每个观众与画作联系起来。

In Dance 16 (2008) a couple dances under a mix of hot and cold lights. The background is a loose wash of colors locating them anywhere and nowhere in particular. His right hand warms the small of her back while his left reaches up to touch her hair. He looks away from his tender gesture as if distracted by his thoughts.  Her right hand reaches mid-gesture beside him perhaps just let go from his own. The reality effect of Feng’s painting technique is uncanny. It is difficult not to imagine who the dancers are and what the story is for each swaying couple. What are their relationships to each other? Are they strangers or longtime lovers? Do they speak to each other or merely enjoy the heat of the other’s body? Transported by their dance partner, the sound of the music, and the lights, do they think of someone else? Certainly Feng’s work conjures memories for viewers—a feeling, a conversation, a moment, a night—that makes personal connections with the paintings. 

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《舞 之四》（2010年）中的全白背景让视觉趣味集中在跳舞者的构图上。特别值得注意的是男子向前倾以及年轻女子暴露出来的肩膀和脸部的侧影。这一对与世隔绝的舞伴——在缺乏其他人物的衬托以及黑暗让投射在他们身上的桃红色灯影得以进入眼帘的情况下表现出来——突出了他们之间的温情。她的双眼轻轻闭着，看起来像在沉思，显得非常平静。浓重的红色颜料勾划出她的颈项和后背，暗示了她拢着舞伴肩膀、微微向后侧去时的快感和激情。冯斌对色彩的运用近乎表现主义，表现了夜总会舞池的照明设计的同时，也揭示了人物的内在情绪。

The stark white background on Dance 4 (2010) helps to concentrate visual interest on the composition of dancers. Of particular notice is the forward lean of the man and the exposed shoulder and profile of the young woman’s face. The isolation of the couple—shown in the absence of other figures and the darkness that allows the illumination of their pinkish cast to be seen—highlights the warmth between them. With her eyes gently closed she looks thoughtful and calm. The thick red paint that outlines her neck and back suggest both pleasure and heat as she cups her partner’s shoulder and tips slightly backward. Feng’s use of color is nearly expressionist here as it simultaneously represents the lighting design of the club dance floor and reveals the inner emotions of his subjects.

2010年5月冯斌个展“起舞弄红影”现场

纽约Greenberg Van Doren画廊

第四届香港国际艺术展，香港会展中心

冯斌一幅巨型的作品《起舞弄红影》（2010年），邀请观众当经过画作前，成为这段舞蹈的组成部分，完整地感受这幅作品。这幅巨大的画作以电影蒙太奇的手法表现了七对舞伴，每一对都处于紧张而亲密的时刻。从左向右缓缓走过，观众可以如同窥探隐私般地看到每一对跳舞者，有些表现得很亲密，而有些又保持着距离。冯斌一丝不苟的绵绸丙烯画技巧营造出一种朦胧的照片写实般效果，诱惑观众耐心观看，期望看清舞伴面部表情的细节，以求得到可以窥见各种关系的线索。照片写实般的特质提供了真实的细节；它提高了观众观看一个人物身体在哪里完结及从哪里开始的欲望。不过，观看画作越久越只是强化了所描绘的场景的诱惑力而并没有使人明暸冯斌画中舞伴耐人寻味的关系。画面左边慢舞者的高雅，似乎随着观众走向另一边而渐渐加快。冯斌对舞伴的刻划驱使我们想象音乐从一首歌到另一首歌的节奏变化。他为慢歌中的舞者描绘了黑暗神秘的氛围，画面右边的欢快舞蹈则用上较模糊的明亮光线。两侧之间，是一对舞伴，标志了这种节奏变化间的过渡。高大男人的身体从画布顶端延伸到底边。他模糊的双臂强调了他为跟上音乐的节奏而作出快速的移动。个子细小的舞伴几乎静止地站立着，向上凝视着他。也许是从慢舞那种已逝的、撩拨人的梦境状态中清醒过来，她充满渴望地注视着他的脸，但他似乎并没有注意到。

The monumental size of one of Feng’s most recent works Dancing in Red Shadows (2010) invites viewers to become part of the dance as they move across the painting to experience it in its entirety. This grand painting presents seven couples each in intense and intimate moments in the manner of a cinematic montage.  Walking slowly from left to right, the viewer can look voyeuristically at each couple, some presented close, and others at a distance. Feng’s meticulous technique of acrylic on silk creates a blurred photorealistic effect which entices viewers to look longer in the hope of seeing details of facial expressions and gathering information that may give insight into the nature of each relationship. The photorealistic quality offers the promise of truth in the details; it heightens viewers’ desire to see where one body ends and the other begins. However, time spent looking at the paintings only reinforces the seduction of the scenes depicted. It does not bring clarity to questions about the brief relationships that Feng has stained so intriguingly. The elegance of the slower dancing from the left edge of the painting seems to speed up as the viewer walks along to the opposite end. Feng’s depictions of the couples compel us to imagine the tempo of the music changing from one song to another. He paints the dark mysterious atmosphere for the dances to the slow songs, and brighter lights on the right side of the painting with a stronger blurred effect for the upbeat dancing. Between the two sides is a couple that mark the transition between this rhythmic change. The tall man’s body reaches from the top to the bottom edge of the canvas. His blurred arm emphasizes the quick motions he makes to the beat of the music. His petite partner nearly stands still as she stares up at him. Perhaps jarred from a lost, sensual dreamlike state of the slow dance, she looks longingly at his face, but he does not seem to notice. 

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描绘不同情绪的微妙细处，贯彻出现于每一张跳舞的画作。大幅的画作驱使观众徘徊在舞者的身边，体验着他们永远舞动的时刻。他们静止的动作，体现了潜在的满足感和失去的联系性。正如冯斌解释：「城市中男人和女人在摇曳迷人的灯光下，在为自己编织的旋律中起舞。他们彼此如此亲密，却又如此疏离。这就是现代都市生活中人类灵魂飘曳虚幻的反映。」

Consistent throughout each of the dancing paintings are nuances that offer different moods. The large scale of the paintings compels the viewer to linger with the dancers and experience the moments of their perpetual dance.  Their movement made still embodies the potential of fulfillment and missed connections. As Feng explains, “Men and women in cities dance in the melodies they make up for themselves under flittering and glamorous light. They are so close to each other yet so detached. It is just a reflection of the drifting and illusory human souls in modern urban life.”

Bridget R. Cooks（布瑞吉特·库克斯）

Bridget R. Cooks在加州大学欧文分校的艺术史系和非裔美国人研究系任教。她的研究方向是非裔美国人艺术与文化、黑人视觉文化、博物馆批评、电影、女性主义理论和后殖民理论。

2002年，她获得了罗切斯特大学视觉与文化研究项目的博士学位。她的作品获得了许多奖项、资助和奖学金，包括著名的詹姆斯·A·波特和大卫·C·德里斯凯尔非裔美国人艺术史图书奖，以及亨利·卢斯美国艺术学位论文奖学金。

她发表了许多关于艺术的论文，可见诸《美国研究》、《余像》、《曝光》、《美国艺术国际评论》、《非裔美国人评论》、《研究》（华盛顿特区国家美术馆视觉艺术高级研究中心）、《教育》、《媒体和文化政治国际杂志》；

著有《展示黑人：非裔美国人与美国艺术博物馆》（获得首届詹姆斯·波特和大卫·崔斯凯尔非裔美国人艺术史图书奖）、《非裔美国人的历史透视》（选集主编）、《理查德·梅休的艺术》等。

她还策划了一系列艺术展览，包括在旧金山的非洲裔博物馆举办的“理查德·梅休的艺术”（2009-2010）；2012年在阿拉巴马州塔斯卡卢萨的保罗·R·琼斯画廊举办的“波长：保罗·R·琼斯收藏的抽象画选”；在帕萨迪纳加州艺术博物馆举办的“格拉夫顿泰勒布朗:探索加州（2018）”；2019年在加州非裔美国人博物馆（CAAM）举办的厄尼巴恩斯回顾展；2021-2022年在加州大学欧文分校帕洛阿尔托艺术中心、德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校黑人艺术画廊和亨特学院吕布斯多夫画廊举办《黑色指数》。

Bridget R. Cooks teaches in the Art History and African American Studies departments at the University of California, Irvine. Her research focuses on African American art and culture, Black visual culture, museum criticism, film, feminist theory and post-colonial theory. 

In 2002 she earned her doctorate degree in the Visual and Cultural Studies Program at the University of Rochester. She has received a number of awards, grants and fellowships for her work including the prestigious James A. Porter & David C. Driskell Book Award in African American Art History, and the Henry Luce Dissertation Fellowship in American Art. 

Her many published writings on art can be found in American Studies, Afterimage, Exposure, the International Review of American Art, African American Review, Studies (Center for the Advanced Study of the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.), Pedagogy, and the International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics. 

And she is the author of several published books such as 《Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum》｛awarded the inaugural James A. Porter & David C. Driskell Book Award in African American Art History (2013)｝、《A Historical Perspective of African Americans. Anthology Editor》、《The Art of Richard Mayhew》,etc .

She has also curated some art exhibitions including The Art of Richard Mayhew (2009-10) at San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora；Wavelengths: Abstract Selections from the Paul R. Jones Collection, Paul R. Jones Gallery, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 2012 ；Grafton Tyler Brown: Exploring California (2018) at the Pasadena Museum of California Art；Ernie Barnes: A Retrospective (2019) at the California African American Museum (CAAM)；and The Black Index, UC Irvine, Palo Alto Art Center, Black Art Galleries at University of Texas, Austin, and Leubsdorf Gallery, Hunter College, New York 2021—2022.

冯斌

1962年出生于四川省成都市

1981年毕业于四川美术学院附中

1985年毕业于四川美术学院绘画系中国画专业，获学士学位

四川美术学院副教授，中国美术家协会综合材料绘画与美术作品保存修复艺术委员会副主任

现工作/生活于重庆

作品被中国美术馆、英国大英博物馆、加拿大迈克当·斯图尔特艺术中心、台湾山美术馆、澳门艺术博物馆、成都现代艺术馆、上海美术馆、广东美术馆、深圳关山月美术馆、成都麓山美术馆、深圳当代艺术馆等收藏。  

近年个展

2021年

“聚离——冯斌画展”

美仑美术馆·圣之空间， 798艺术区，北京

2017年

“色空墨影——冯斌个展”

深圳e当代美术馆，深圳

2016年

“舞影——冯斌作品展” 

恭王府安善堂，文化部恭王府管理中心，北京