最近，在中国的不同城市举办了各种当代艺术的研讨会，深圳有“格林伯格在中国”研讨会、北京有“第二届中国当代艺术理论与批评国际研讨会”、杭州有“方法之维——批评与实践”首届青年批评家论坛、中央美院有“艺术的边界”学术研讨会等等。这么密集的艺术研讨会说明了什么?说明了中国今天的艺术到了非常的关口，各种不同的话语都在介入当代艺术的批评中，都希望从不同的语境来观察、研究、思考中国的当代艺术，不仅仅是理解它，更主要是将之放在中国与世界的大背景之下来认识它。只有在这样的语境下，艺术家与艺术及其作品才有了立论的基础，和言说的可能性。
以绘画为例，这些研讨会都或多或少地涉及到这个重要的媒介语言，现在的世界对绘画有了新的态度，更多地期待一种绘画语言的新表现。这是和美国的格林伯格谈论现代主义绘画时的看法是不一样的，那个时代是追求绘画媒介自身的纯粹性、平面性，将绘画引向自我确证已经完结之路。而经过后格林伯格时代几十年的发展，绘画又复苏了它的表意功能和新的价值，形式又重新被植入内涵的表现中。那么，从中国的语境来看，虽然没有经过一场绝对的形式主义绘画时期，但也经过了中国现代主义艺术思想与前卫艺术的洗礼，如果我们把绘画放到今天这个大众文化与后社会主义的时代中，可以说我们对绘画的认识已经大大地向前迈进了。
邓新黎的绘画可以放到这样的背景中来看。这是一批新型绘画类别，它们来自于这个时代艺术家看待世界的变化，邓新黎是这批艺术家中的一个代表，他的艺术历程正好说明了这样的变化。为什么文章开头要说到中国艺术的学术关切点和绘画的理论问题呢，因为这是一个非常具有挑战性的议题，而不仅仅是艺术家拿起画笔去创作那么简单。它牵涉到一系列艺术问题和艺术史问题。如中国的学院教育都是非常强调造型的基础以及形式把握能力，这在邓新黎就读中央美术学院时创作的作品中可以看出，显示了他具有完备的艺术造型能力，甚至在他的毕业创作中不乏充沛的想象力。但邓新黎并没有满足于此，因此他留学新西兰，希望在异域的不同文化环境里获得多种艺术的感受，特别对于当代的一些新视觉语言情有独钟。正是在不同的文化语境里，他对于自己的文化身份和历史有了更清楚、更热忱的认识，一种历史的潜意识不断地在他的绘画中生成、出现。当2008年回到北京后，他的画风一变进入到新历史图景的建构中。对于历史和绘画，邓新黎发现它们可以交错在一起，从而既揭示出历史的内涵，也凸显当下的趣味，将一种时间概念重新置换为可视的形象，但这种形象又是自我意识的投射和想象，从而创造着绘画语言的表意功能。
所以，邓新黎基于新的文化观念和绘画语言的表现能力，创造了这一批绘画作品。从创作的角度，这是力求艺术家意图的再现，从绘画语言来讲，邓新黎以形象的突变为主，开始是圆润的写实造型，又进而吸收动漫的夸张，再演变为借鉴设计的明快，创造出一种透明的片状式造型，成为具有多种结构可能性的语言。邓新黎通过自己的绘画塑形，证明了可以汲取其他媒介的启发之处，加以会通变化，来创造新的视觉感。
不仅如此，邓新黎最主要是希望借古开今、在时空交错中复活一种文化记忆，赋予这些衍变自古代的形象具有新的生命、新的象征意义。汉唐人物以飘逸俊美留下千古的赞誉，代表了一种神韵闲适的理想。邓新黎在塑造这些形象时，熔铸了他的各种个人经验和艺术探索的心得，努力发挥一种时间想象力，将沉寂的历史文化转化为清新可视的当代感觉。比如那些风采如仙子的人物既处在青绿山水之间，更主要是作者超想象地赋予它们一种现代身份和语义符号，如钢铁机械的骏马、现代化的武器、新的空间感、立体的平面化，等等，这些都属于一种时间提示，并不是艺术家的主旨。作者意在穿越古今，在文化历史中发现创造的魅力和奇妙，也是作者追问文化记忆来源的视觉答案。
邓新黎的这些绘画作品就是这种追求与渐变的结果，如《嫦娥月夜》系列综合了多种视觉元素，以神秘的太空为背景，创造了神话故事嫦娥新传，凸显了古今对比的风趣;在《大唐奇物志》、《公主出巡图》、《公主踏青图》中，作者将时空错位中的不同的视觉经验结合在一起，使之不再是现实生活的照相反映，而是主观意象的呈现，它们的重点在于展示想象在时间中的流动、观念在空间中的自由。这种绘画方式的产生和成立，正是当代的视觉经验与视觉观念的体现，它突出了艺术的自我意识，增加了绘画表现的主动性与积极性建构。艺术越是充满主体在场，越是强化了其独立价值。
同时，在这些作品中，邓新黎始终突出一个主体形象：神态婀娜的女子，她一会具有华贵的盛唐威仪，一会又具有钢铁骑士的骁健，在某一时刻又成了步履轻盈的仙子，又在不经意间转身成了当代的快乐女孩。实际上，这些百变的女子形象塑造了一种理想，不断从传说、神话中走来，又不断地让视觉图像产生矛盾，进而书写一种历史与想象的新神话叙事。
邓新黎作为新一代的中国年轻艺术家，用自己的艺术实践肯定着绘画的意义和功能，既证明了自身的价值存在，也证明了艺术与世界、与历史、与时间的永恒对话。因此，使艺术富有意义就是要不断回到历史、不断地向现实提问。
2010-5-31 于中央美术学院
Recently, a variety of contemporary art symposiums were held in different cities across China, these included the Greenberg in China symposium in Shenzhen, The Second “China Contemporary Art Forum”, 2010 Beijing International Conference on Art Theory and Criticism, The First Forum of Chinese Young Critics, Method of Criticism and Practice in Hangzhou, Boundary of Arts academic seminar held in Central Academy of Fine Arts, and so on. Art symposiums being organized so intensively is indicative of the fact that Chinese art is currently coming to a critical point, when all kinds of utterances are interposing the criticism of contemporary arts, expecting to observe, research, and think of Chinese contemporary arts from diverse perspectives. Seeking to comprehend them fully within the specific context of China and the world. Only in such context, can the artists, arts, and works have the foundation of argumentation and presentation.
Take painting for example; it is a significant medium language, which these symposiums refer to at some length. Nowadays the world holds a new attitude towards painting, anticipating an original expression of painting language. This approach differs from Greenberg’s (U.S.) view on modernism painting which was to pursue the purity and planarity of the painting medium itself, leading painting to the road of self-confirming and completing. While with the development in the past decades during the Post-Greenburg period, ideographic function and new value of painting are resuscitated, and form is embedded into the expression of connotation as well. Thus, in the case of China, even though it did not experience an absolute formalism painting period, it has nonetheless been through Chinese modernism art ideology and avant-garde. Within the context of the current age of mass culture and post-socialism, we can say that our cognition of painting has been advanced greatly. Deng Xinli’s works can be viewed with this backdrop.
Deng Xinli’s works can be placed within a brand new painting category, one which issues from the transformation of artists’ views towards the world in the current age. Deng Xinli is the representative of a new breed of artists, whose artistic experience precisely reflects this transformation. The reason why the academic focus-points of Chinese arts and painting theory were mentioned at the beginning of this article is that the topic is an extremely challenging one, far more complex than artist creating with brush. It involves a series of art and art history issues. For example, Chinese academic education puts great emphasis on the basic skill of modeling and the capacity for mastering form. This is clearly evidenced in the works which Deng Xinli created when he studied in Central Arts Academy, signifying that he had complete capacity for art modeling, not to mention abundant imagination shown in his graduate creation. However, Deng Xinli was not satisfied with this level of artistic education. Therefore, the artist studied abroad in New Zealand, hoping to obtain diverse art experience in a distinct foreign culture, he especially showed preference towards some new contemporary visual language. It was through this different cultural context that he had a clearer and more enthusiastic cognition of his cultural identity and history. A historic sub-consciousness was gradually generated and emerged in his painting. After he returned to Beijing in 2008, his painting style altered to the construction of a new historic prospect. Deng Xinli found that history and painting can be interlaced together, consequently revealing the connotation of history, as well as the interest at present, substituting time concept for a visible image, which is the projection and imagination of self-consciousness, therefore creating the ideographic function of painting language.
Consequently, Deng Xinli created this series of works based on a fresh cultural perception and painting language of expression. From the aspect of creation, this is the recurrence of the artist’s intention. From the aspect of painting language, Deng Xinli made an abrupt change to his principal image. Starting with a mellow realistic model, and absorbing exaggeration from comic and animation and finally employing vibrancy from design, he created a transparent flaky model, a language which possesses multiple structural possibilities. Deng Xinli proves it is feasible to absorb the enlightenments of other mediums, to integrate and transform them to create a new visual impression.
In addition, Deng Xinli’s primary purpose is to combine tradition with the current state, revive a cultural memory in time and space crisscross, endowing these images evolved from ancient times with new life and symbolism. Characters of Hang & Tang Dynasties are recognized through the ages for their elegancy and beauty, representing an ideal of verve and idleness. Deng Xinli integrated his various personal experiences and achievements in art exploration into the images he created. He endeavored to visualize time, transforming quiescent history and culture into fresh and visible contemporary sense. For instance, those elegant characters like fairies were located in the green landscape. What is more, the painter essentially endowed them with a modern identity and semantic symbolism beyond imagination, such as a steel machinery horse, a modern weapon, a new sense of space, planarity of three dimensions, and the like. All of these are time indications, yet this is not the artist’s intention. The artist aims at getting through the past and present, discovering the charisma and fantasy of creation, and pursuing the visual answer to the source of culture memory.
These works from Deng Xinli are the outcome of such a pursuit and gradual change. For example, the Lady of the Moon series compounds multiple visual elements. With the mysterious outer space as the background, it creates the fairytale, the new story of Chang E, emphasizing the fun of comparing past with present. While in Rare Treasure of Great Tang, Princess Travel, Princess in Landscape, the artist combines distinct visual experiences in time and space crisscross, making it an expression of subjective imagery instead of a reflection of reality. The emphasis lies in expressing the imagination flowing in time, concept freedom in space. The generation and establishment of this painting method reflect contemporary visual experience and visual concept. It highlights the self-consciousness of art, enhances the construction of painting expression’s initiative and enthusiasm. The more subject exists, the more independent value art shows.
In the mean time, within these works, Deng Xinli highlights a principal image; that of a graceful lady. Sometimes she presents magnificent Tang Dynasty style with dignity, sometimes she is vigorous as a steely knight, at some moment she changes to a fairy, while inadvertently turning into a contemporary joyful girl. Actually these ever-changing female images build up idealism, continually borrow from legend and myth, while constantly generating contradiction among visual images, subsequently composing a new myth narration of history and imagination.
As a young Chinese artist of the new generation, Deng Xinli affirms the significance and functionality of painting with his art practice, improving not only his own value but also the eternal dialogue between art and the world, history, and time. Thus, to make art meaningful is to retrospect to history and question reality constantly.
May 31, 2010, In Central Academy of Fine Arts
【编辑：singer】
