大约在2008年年初，与哈尔滨的友人通电话，被告知颜仲先生在新年伊始不幸离世。记得听到消息的不久前还收到颜仲先生寄来的关于同意牛津阿什莫林博物馆刊用其作品的一纸表格。闻此噩耗不禁扼腕叹息: 一个未被世界充分认识到的，有杰出才能的艺术家，一个顽强与病魔抗争十余年的艺术家走了，随他而去的还有几乎一个领域——中外文化名人黑白木刻肖像。
记得在八十年代中叶对颜仲先生的作品就已经熟悉，购买的第一本木刻技法书上就有一页颜仲先生作的鲁迅木刻肖像〔1〕。但当时并不知道颜仲先生是一位身居黑龙江的版画家。虽然同样是木刻，他的作品似乎与北大荒版画以及这片北方沃土并没有直接的关联，在有关黑龙江版画的诸多画册上也鲜见他的作品。
最初见到颜仲先生是1998年一次庆祝黑龙江版画四十周年的研讨会上。全省的新老版画家以及邀请到的国内版画理论家在农垦大厦聚集一堂。在会议进行到一半时，我注意到对面座位多出一位面孔瘦削，皮肤黝黑的老者，穿着朴实得有些寒酸，稍显木纳的神情跟其他与会者的精神气质很有些格格不入。心想这是不是哪位版画作者的父亲，或是误闯进会场的不相关人员？后来得知，这位其貌不扬的老人就是以肖像版画闻名的颜钟先生。在那次研讨会上，与会者多侃侃而谈，颜仲先生则一直沉默地坐在那里。出于好奇，我向他提了一个问题，亦即他对北大荒版画的未来发展有什么看法。老人似乎是所问非所答，滔滔不绝地讲了他自己的一些学画经历。
后来得知颜先生在此前不久做过脑开颅手术，而手术的成功，与欧洲木版基金会（现为木版教育信托）的慷慨资助有很大关系〔2〕。自第一次与颜仲先生接触之后，后来多次拜访颜先生。颜仲先生的家在哈尔滨道里区安丰街的一栋破旧公寓楼里。印象中，简朴的“工作室”（实际是不大的一个客厅）桌子上的墨台和油墨滚筒永远是不干的。每一次见到颜先生，他谈的最多的并不是版画，而是他正在读的书籍。他似乎对外界的艺术动向丝毫不感兴趣。偶尔他也会提到卖画的问题，说他的作品以五十元一幅的价格被收藏过，或是可以得到几十元的稿费，而当时的北大荒版画家的作品已经可以销售数十倍于这个价格了。开颅手术之后，他虽然酝酿刻制的版画多幅，但可惜再没能产生新作，甚至连印版画都有些力不从心。出于对这样一位执著艺术家及其艺术的尊崇，自己提出可予协助印画，并有幸成为颜仲先生在世时（除艺术家本人外）唯一一个印制过先生版画的人。
那次印画经历使得自己得以近距离地了解他的版画中的奥妙。记得小心翼翼地将先生的《萧红》原版带回自己画室，并对他的原版进行了仔细的研究。印象中那只是一块很普通的胶合板，甚至背面还有裂痕，大多版画家会不屑在上面刻制版画。
人们熟知的木刻是版画家族中凸版画的代表，颜仲的版画以其独特的刻印手法超越了凸版范畴。通常的木刻原版只有两个空间，即一凸一凹，印制只印刷凸起的平面部分。例如在白纸上以黑墨印刷，木板的凹处为白，凸出为黑。所以黑白版画多以强烈的黑白对比见长。西方版画靠线条的粗细和疏密排列形成不同灰度的调子，线条的排列方向随物体而转动。丢勒（1471-1528）的版画可谓典型代表。但“灰色”的调子实际是由不同粗细与疏密线条排列后的经过视觉混合而形成，近看仍是条条黑线。这种明暗变化是在刻制的时候做出的，不同的人印制同一块版不会有太大差别，而且这种版可以通过印刷机来印制。中国传统水印木版以及日本浮世绘木刻则主要靠印刷时刷色的浓淡以及压力的大小而产生明暗变化，比如明代《十竹斋画谱》的制作，讲求三分刻七分印。所以是只能手工印刷。颜仲先生的版画，是在刻与印两个方面并重。颜先生所用最多的是单刃刀，亦即斜口与平口刀，单刃刀的最大优点就是刀法可以自由变换。细观其木刻版，版面的凹凸层次极为丰富，这些层次，可以说并不是简单刻出来的，而是如浮雕般雕刻出来的，例如《萧红》像的木刻版，脸颊以直刻法干净利落地的刻出亮部轮廓；鼻梁，眼皮以及脸部明暗交接处以刀尖顺木纹挑出铅笔素描般的丝丝细线，围巾则是大刀阔斧劈出的宽阔刀痕，仿佛油画布上自由挥洒堆涂的大笔触，并与脸部的细腻微妙层次形成对比。头发以轻重分明的挑刀简练地刻划出光的变化，而背景则是斑驳而显抒情的晕刀。不同刀法在画面上如交响乐的不同乐器声部，交相辉映，使画面产生动与静，疏与密，重与轻，虚与实等无限丰富的变化，极具感染力，然而一切都是为刻画人物的表情和烘托气氛，丝毫没有炫耀技法之嫌。
中国画讲求墨分五色。颜仲先生晚期的木刻版画，可以称用黑白创造出了层次丰富的色彩变化。所以在印法上，印制颜仲的版画与印寻常木刻版更有不同。首先是要用有弹性的大墨滚将极薄的油墨均匀滚满整个版面，滚筒的弹性使其可以将墨滚到版面各个层次上，分寸的掌握需要恰到好处，因为如果用稍厚一点的油墨就会把木版最细微之处掩盖掉，而过薄的油墨又达不到纯黑部分的效果。每一个部位的印制，通常需要多次重复施压而成，以达到丰富细腻的变化效果。宣纸并不只是接触木版的最表层，而是多层次的接触。所以在印刷的过程中，需要的是全神贯注和极大耐心，因为每一点轻重的变化，都可能导致全画面貌的改变。尤其眼睛的印制，压力不到位，则眼睛的神采出不来，用力稍大，则画面有失含蓄。那种恰到好处是靠心手相应和对人物表情的理解。每拓印一幅作品，都是对人物再表现的过程，都是再绘画一次，都是一次再创作，所以他的版画是最难印的。他九十年代以后作品中灰色层次的微妙变化，受到中国水墨画法影响，其效果堪与石版画或铜版画的细微变化媲美，又不失木刻的刀痕之美〔3〕。可以说，这是在木刻的刻与印上前无古人的一个创造。
那次印制出来的大约十来幅《萧红》版画，自己毁掉了所有不满意的作品〔4〕，将剩下的四、五幅交给颜仲先生，然而颜先生并没有客套地赞赏，而是表示画面总体略微重了些。后来得知，自己将萧红木刻版带走的那段时间，颜仲先生一直牵挂那块木板，生怕有所闪失。据颜仲先生生前同事官厚生介绍，颜仲先生自己印制那些层次丰富的木刻版，大约需要一天的时间才能完成一幅的印制，而当时自己大约每幅作品只用数小时，当时自己已经觉得是极其认真了，最终仍然未能让颜仲先生满意。实际上，现在悟出，这种拓印的差距并不是在技术上，而是对作品的虔诚态度（即他个人所说的“认真癖”）以及对他所刻划人物的精准理解上。
自1999年出国后，多次给颜仲先生打越洋电话，每次颜仲先生仍念念不忘讨求文化名人图像资料，记得在奥斯特大学图书馆中找到一些英国作家肖像照片的资料，给先生寄去，尽管当时清楚他的健康已经不允许他再做新作品，但仍然乞盼奇迹能够出现。
不久前痴心于中国版画的巴大玮教授（David Barker）曾问过我，为什么在木版教育信托所藏的大量中国版画画册里，无论是黑龙江版画集还是中国历届版画展画册，都很少见到颜仲先生版画的影子。他疑惑，是颜仲先生作品不被官方认可还是颜仲先生不愿意让自己的作品曝光？ 这是个很有趣的问题。其实，颜仲先生可以被称为“漏网之鱼”，因为在群体版画中找不到他，在自视正宗的学院版画也中不见他的踪影；他的作品不时髦，所以在喧嚣的“在野”画家集群里，同样找不到他。美术史家们倾向于把文化现象归类，所谓批评家们，更多关注那些表面的艺术现象，炒作那些艺坛新秀。而颜仲的作品则很难与任何艺术流派和趋势共同归类，他不属于某家某派，不与任何人为伍，他孤独而执着地在他自己开垦的田地里耕耘和收获着。他其实并不孤独，一方面他曾经工作过的文学出版社为他提供了一个一展身手的窗口,更重要的是他遍览群书，徜徉于中外古今的文学艺术海洋中，他笔底利刃下的每一个人物，都仿如知己。他生活在他的王国，这个王国里聚集了中国新文化的脊梁：鲁迅、蔡元培、陈独秀、林语堂、茅盾、老舍、冰心、巴金……；这个王国里也有世界文化的巨擎莎士比亚、歌德、黑格尔、司汤达、巴尔扎克、易卜生、马克·吐温、列夫·托尔斯泰、罗曼·罗兰、海明威、爱因斯坦……。上世纪的八九十年代，正是中国艺术流派此起彼伏频繁更替的时候，在众人向上奋力争夺金牌银牌的时候，在大家为了市场利益而竟攀画价的时候，颜仲先生则沉浸在他的世界，让那些文化巨擎汇聚在自己的田园里，与他们共同享受精神的盛宴。生活清苦，形容枯蒿，身居陋室的他，其实有着怎样一个让人倾慕向往的丰厚的精神田园？颜仲之乐，对他周围绝大多数人来说，是难以理解和想象的。
值得庆幸的是，人民文学出版社给他提供了一个可以一展身手的空间，一点点微薄的稿酬就足以让他的创造之火愈燃愈旺。颜仲先生遗留下来的珍贵艺术遗产留给世人很多思考与启示。让人想到贡布里希惊世骇俗的名言：“没有艺术，只有艺术家”。自己的思考无疑与老生常谈，但或许必要，常谈才不失其意义。思考之一：人与艺的关系。作品即人，艺术家人格，修养，品德，情操等等都会在不自觉中决定艺术的格调。正如古人将艺术分为逸品能品等。艺术是证明，猥琐的人生产不出来崇高的艺术，虚伪的人也生产不出真诚的艺术。颜仲先生有着正直的品格，在现实生活中他是老实人，属于弱势群体，不会拉关系，不会逢场作戏，不会投机取巧，常被欺弄，因为他生活在他的精神王国里，而艺术的创造，是建立在精神王国之上，而非建立在世俗的精明、光耀的头衔或物质的占有上。现实中的颜仲似乎显得有些木纳，究其原因是他将生命中之全部灵气都贯注在了作品中，以致达到痴迷状态。颜仲创作出来的虽然是文化名人肖像，似乎只是一个很窄的领域，但每一幅作品所散发出来的超然的人格力量，都能触及观者心灵，其影响力超越了美术范畴。在题材的选择上，少有亲朋，没有他自己，尤其没有为政治家歌功颂德，由此可以看出一个具有独立人格艺术家的铮铮铁骨与理想主义的超逸品格〔5〕。
思考之二：知与艺的关系。“君子之学，可以美其身”（《荀子·劝学》）古往今来，凡艺事有大成者，莫不有广博深厚的知识。可以说知识如艺术金字塔的地基，决定着一个艺术家成就的高度；知识也是滋养艺术的沃土。颜仲先生无疑是中国知识分子之一员，自幼受江浙文化之熏染，有四十余载北国坎坷之生活阅历，有对中外文学的如醉如痴的研读。这种对知识的贪婪渴求，使得颜仲先生作品具有多数版画家作品所不具备的文化内涵。他每创作一幅作品，都要把这位文学家或哲人的作品通读一遍，在对其生平有透彻的了解之后方动刀刻制。对比他所依据的照片，可以看出他并不直接照搬的人物图片，他的作品，是基于对作者作品的深刻理解，对作者个性的强化与表现，而每一件作品都是惨淡经营后的结果，风格也随着对艺术家的理解而有变化。比如奥斯特洛夫斯基的肖像，已经超越了静态的形象描绘，而画面的每一根线条都充满着暴风骤雨般低沉的怒号。所以他的作品给人的印象是该作家的作品风格与形象的水乳交融。可以说，没有深厚的文学修养做底蕴，没有对中外文学的痴迷与深入研究，就没有颜仲的文化名人肖像。如今很多版画家，苦苦追求但找不到自己风格，或徒在表面制作上下功夫，终日苦恼，而何不退而读书？读书不是灵丹妙药，但长期的积累必会让艺术家脱去胸中俗气，从而在实践中逐步形成自己独特的艺术样式，达到“乘物以游心”之境界。
思考之三：道与艺的关系，亦即道与技的关系。“技以载道”，艺术的终极并非技术手段的进步，版画虽为技术性很强的画种，毕竟载道之载体而已。所谓“道”，不同时代以及不同的人对其有不同理解。我理解的“道”是形而上的，是精神，是灵魂。为艺、为文、为人统一于“道”，尽管其形式不尽相同。或许有人以为颜仲先生的艺术不过为插图小技，是早已过时的现实主义写实风格，类似素描的木刻而已。但真正的艺术经得住时间的冲刷，愈久愈会显示出其独有的艺术魅力。当人们面对文学青年柔石之聪慧善良之眼神、哲人黑格尔具有穿透力的深邃目光、作家托尔斯泰的史诗般的面庞，人们会感受到一种精神的洗礼。颜仲先生在一条寻常艺术家认为无路可走的路上凭借一些残破胶合板和几把刻刀走出了一条自己的道路，由此给人启发：艺术之路有千万条，艺术之路没有穷尽。版画艺术与其它艺术门类一样，是为了传达和表现某种东西，只不过音乐家用音符，作家诗人用文字。艺术的发展并非是从具象到抽象，从平面到立体，从架上到行为这样简单的直线关系。艺术手法也无所谓新旧，无论用什么形式表达，版画国画，装置影像，也不论是前卫后卫，最重要的是通过表面形式传达出所要表现的东西，即精神，即风骨，即魂灵，即道。随波逐流的艺术，表面时尚的艺术很快会在艺术史的激浪中被涤荡。正如达芬奇所说的：精神与手如果不能一起工作的画，那就没有艺术。
艺无坦途。颜仲作品的启示还在，无大弃大舍则无大成；无痴无迷则艺必不精。刚刚又与哈尔滨的友人通过电话，友人与其共事多年，一同感叹，颜仲先生这样的艺术家在世的时候，我们都没能对他及其艺术予以足够的关注。斯人已去，值得欣慰的是，他的木刻原版已经为黑龙江省美术馆收藏整理，作品得到系统整理与研究，颜仲先生的艺术也得到越来越多的认可与研究。艺术家总要走到生命尽头，但其富有生命力的作品会存活下来，伴随着艺术家的风骨。
何为民
博士
英国牛津大学驻校艺术家
黑龙江省版画院专业画家
2010年3月8日完稿于英国牛津
注释：
〔1〕鲁迅木刻像前后刻制过两次，第一次是在1959年，第二次则是在1981年。电话询问过颜仲先生遗孀关于第一块鲁迅木刻版的下落。被告知，第一块鲁迅木刻版（胶合板刻制）曾被家人用作盖酱缸，日久版子曲翘爆裂，而不可用，终投入火炉中。
〔2〕1997年，通过李允经等在京版画理论家的介绍，木版基金会（现更名为木版教育信托）的博琳德女士与冯德堡先生向病重而困窘的颜仲先生捐赠了六千美元，使颜仲先生手术得以顺利进行。1998年秋天博琳德女士与冯德堡先生到哈尔滨见到颜仲先生后，颜仲先生赠送给木版基金会数十幅作品并一块莎士比亚肖像木刻原版。木版基金会又善意地回赠给颜仲先生数千美元。该木版一直悬挂在木版基金会的伦敦总部。
〔3〕1997年的作品，似乎显出艺术家有些力不从心，失去了作者以往作品对人物的敏锐把握，而画面近似于照片，不知是否与脑恙有关。
〔4〕当时也生恻隐之心，希望自己留下至少一两幅自己喜爱的《萧红像》作为纪念，但想到颜仲先生对作品质量的苛求，他不会希望不完美的作品存在世上，最后还是把稍有瑕疵的作品全部毁掉，至今更觉无憾。笔者以为没有必要去把这些版子重新印制出来，因为不适当的用力，清洗油墨的不经意，都会对其精致的木刻版有致命损坏。他的版画甚至可以称为绝响，因为他人几乎不可能达到颜仲先生所要求的印刷效果。以现有的现代技术手段，可以把先生自己拓印的作品复制出来，而应当让这些木刻版原封不动地保存下来，以为后来者研究之用
〔5〕在颜仲先生的作品中，只有一幅周恩来的肖像，可以说是政治家。这是他发自内心的对周恩来作为值得尊敬的人的肯定。他作品中也没有古代名人，曾经问过他，为什么不刻一些中国古代圣哲的画像，先生的回答是，他不希望杜撰，他一定要有可信图像的依据，这些图片就成为了他的“模特”。对题材的选择，颜仲先生还有过一次例外，那就是打算为他的原本素不相识的两位异国救命恩人分别刻制肖像，并要来图片。但后来因为身体原因，也仅止于愿望而已。
参考文献：
《颜仲木刻-中外文化名人肖像选集》王观泉，李允经，王世家 编，河南大学出版社，2007
A Sharp Gouge Incises the Spiritual Strength--My recollections of Yan Zhong and his prints.
In early 2008, a friend of mine in Harbin informed me by telephone that Yan Zhong had died at the beginning of the New Year. I remember that not long before I heard the bad news, a form signed by Yan Zhong giving his consent to waiving copyright for the Ashmolean Museum to reproduce one of his prints had arrived on my desk. A deeply felt sorrow overwhelmed me after I heard the news of Yan’s death, as I considered that what had disappeared was not merely an accomplished and unrecognized artist who had been struggling in the fight for life for more than a decade, but also a creative field - the field of black and white woodblock printed portraiture of the cultural elite of the world.
Yan Zhong’s name had been familiar to me since the mid 1980s when I was an undergraduate student in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province. The first technical book on woodblock printmaking I ever bought has on one of its pages Yan’s woodblock printed portrait of Lu Xun (1881-1936)〔1〕. I did not realize that Yan was a printmaking artist living in Heilongjiang, because his work showed no direct connections with the well-known Great Northern Wilderness printmaking school nor did it relate to the fertile northern land. His woodblock printed portraits also rarely appeared in Heilongjiang printmaking exhibitions or publications.
It was an unforgettable experience when I first met Yan, we were both attending a symposium celebrating the 40th anniversary of printmaking in Heilongjiang. The provincial printmakers old and young, together with specially invited well-known art critics had gathered at the Agricultural Cultivation Hall in Harbin. About half-way through the symposium, I chanced to notice an elderly man sitting opposite me with a hatchet face, lifeless dark skin and wearing plain, shabby clothes. His bland expression appeared in strong contrast with those of the other participants. I wondered if he was the father of a printmaker or a person who had wandered into the symposium by mistake. When told, I could hardly believe that the old man was Yan Zhong, the creator of the woodblock printed portrait of Lu Xun. During that seminar participants talked interminably, whilst Yan sat silently, seemingly not wishing to join in the discussions. Out of curiosity I asked his opinion on the future development of Great Northern Wilderness printmaking. He failed to answer my question but talked about his own experience of learning to make woodblock printed portraits.
Later I learned that Yan had recently undergone brain craniotomy and the success of the operation was largely due to generous financial support from the Muban Foundation, now The Muban Educational Trust〔2〕. Following my first encounter with Yan, I visited him frequently. Yan lived in an old, run down and wretched flat in Anfeng Street, in the Daoli District, a destitute area. Held in my memory was that he worked in his simple ‘studio’, in actual fact a small living room also used by his family. There was ink on the ink slab and on a roller which was never cleaned so that Yan could grab the roller to ink the block and print at any time. Every time I visited him, what he talked most about was not his prints but the books he was reading. He seemed not to care about the trends in the art field around him or in the outside world. Once in a while he would mention the sale of some of his prints, a dozen of his prints had been purchased at a price of fifty Yuan each 〔3〕, at that time prints by Great Northern Wilderness artists’ were selling at prices at least ten times higher than those being paid for Yan’s work. Although Yan managed to produce some sketches for portraits after the craniotomy, he was, unfortunately, unable to cut any new blocks and even found difficulty in printing his old blocks. Out of respect for such a dedicated artist, I volunteered to print his works and was honoured to be the only artist to print Yan’s work while he was still alive.
The experience of printing Yan’s blocks allowed me to discover the secret of his woodblock prints. I remember carefully carrying the block for Yan’s portrait of Xiao Hong (1911 – 1942) back to my own studio and studied it intently. It was cut on an ordinary piece of plywood with cracks on the back, most artists would not have bothered to use such poor quality plywood to produce prints.
In general, woodblock printmaking belongs to the medium of relief printing. Yan’s work however seems to go beyond the concept of relief printing in his use of unique cutting and printing techniques. A finished woodblock usually has two levels, the original surface of the wood and the level that remains after the cutting is completed, although the cut areas can be of varying depths. Printing ink is only applied to the uncut, original surface. For instance, when printing with black ink on white paper, the areas cut away from the block will appear white, whilst the original surface of the block would show as black. Black and white prints usually contain a stark contrast of black and white. In Western woodblock printmaking, grey tones in general are achieved by the use of fine lines of different thickness and density. In most cases the direction of the lines change according to the form of the object being described. Albrecht Dürer’s (1471 -1528) woodblock prints might be regarded as typical examples. In Dürer’s prints, the so called ‘grey tone’ is formed by a visual blending of the black and white lines. Consistent printings of this kind of work would be relatively easy to make even by different artisans, they can also be printed with a printing press. However, apparent variations of tones are less flexible and it is not a great advantage to seek soft tones in relief printing, these are better achieved in lithography. Traditional Chinese and Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock printmaking with water-soluble colours use different approaches to achieve subtle tones, variations in tone could be accomplished by applying darker, lighter and different saturations of colour to the woodblock, the moisture of the paper and the pressure applied during printing can also be controlled. A typical example from China would be is ‘A Manual of Calligraphy and Painting from the Ten Bamboo Studio’ published in the late-Ming Dynasty, which is said to have required ‘thirty percent effort achieved by cutting and seventy percent through printing’.
However, Yan’s works emphasized both cutting and printing. He primarily used single blade oblique-edged and flat-edged gouges, their biggest advantage being the freedom to cut a variety of lines and dots. If one examines his woodblocks closely, there are a multitude of layers between the original and cut areas akin to that of a mold for low relief sculpture. For example, in the woodblock printed portrait of Xiao Hong, the artist has used an oblique-edged gouge to cut a clean outline of her cheek that is in highlight. Following the grain of the wood, the point of the gouge has been used to single out the fine lines of the bridge of the nose, the eyelids and the junction of the facial shading to create a pencil-like soft effect. The sitter’s scarf has been cut with bold and broad strokes, resembling the thick and free brush strokes found in oil painting on canvas, contrasting the delicate and subtle touch of the cheek. The hair of the sitter was picked out to achieve a clear distinction between light and shade with succinctly cut marks, while the background was printed with immaculate and expressive soft tones. Different ways of cutting are like different instruments in a symphony complimenting each other with poignant appeal: dynamic and static, sparse and dense, heavy and light, solid and void, nonetheless, everything works to characterize the facial expression and heighten the atmosphere without extravagance or ostentation.
In Chinese painting, sophistication requires the black ink to be divided into five different tones to resemble colours. Yan’s late work create that suggestion of chromatic range with black and white by cutting to various depths on the block, printing Yan’s blocks are thus different from those cut by more conventional woodblock printmakers.
First of all one needed a larger rubber roller to roll a thin layer of ink evenly over the entire block, the flexibility of a rubber roller allowed ink to be applied to the lower levels of the block. The ink on roller could not be too thick otherwise the delicate lines and the wood grain would disappear, however the ink needed to be thick enough to achieve a dense black when printed. Printing with a wooden mushroom, Yan also used the wooden handle of a chisel, was usually carried out repeatedly and gradually to achieve the elaborate greys and blacks. The printing paper did not only make contact with the surface of the block but also with the multi-layers of the cut areas which demanded great concentration and patience during the printing process, any slight change in pressure would ruin the whole print. Particularly with the eyes of a portrait, without sufficient pressure the eyes would appear to be without spirit; with heavy pressure the image would lose its implications. Perfection came from the coordination of one’s hand and heart and an understanding of the sitter’s expression and individuality. Each printing was a process of re-expression, to some extent a re-drawing and recreation which is why Yan’s prints were known to be very difficult to print.
The cutting approach in Yan’s woodblock prints was largely inspired by the various expressive strokes in Chinese ink painting, especially in his works created after the 1990s. The richness and subtle changes his blocks realize are comparable with not only Chinese free hand painting but also those obtainable from lithographs and soft ground etchings. Yet he never loses the unique character of the woodblock print, an unprecedented innovation in woodblock printmaking.〔4〕
Of the ten or so copies I printed of Yan’s portrait of Xiao Hong only four or five were kept and the rest were destroyed.v The better ones were returned to Yan Zhong along with his woodblock. However, to my surprise, he did not compliment me politely but commented that overall the printed images were slightly heavier than they should have been. I later learned that he had been concerned about his woodblock ever since I had taken it away. According to Guan Housheng (b.1948) Yan’s former colleague, it was common for Yan to spend an entire day printing just one copy. I had spent a few hours on each copy and thought I had been extremely patient but the outcome still failed to impress Yan. Now I understand the defects of my printing lay not in technique but in my attitude towards perfection and how profound one understands the characteristics of a portrait. No one knows a child better than the mother who gave them birth and brought them up.
After I left China in 1999, I talked several times with Yan by telephone. Whenever I asked what I could do for him his response was always the same, to find good quality portrait photographs of writers and poets for him. I remember that I send him some photographs of British writers I had found in the Library of the University of Ulster. Although aware of his poor health which was preventing him from cutting blocks, I still hoped that I would see new works.
David Barker, who is knowledgeable about Chinese prints, once asked me why so few of Yan’s works can be found in the catalogues of Chinese print exhibition, or in the many publications showing collections of Heilongjiang printmakers’ works. He wished to understand why his work was rarely shown in national or provincial exhibitions of prints or was it that Yan was unwilling to display his work to the public. This is a very interesting question. In fact, Yan Zhong could be called ‘the fish who slipped through the net,’ as he was not in the circle of the famous Heilongjiang school of printmakers, nor among the orthodox printmakers based in the art colleges. Nor could his works be found within the groups of the trendy popular artists.
Art historians tend to classify the phenomena of art into different categories and many art critics pay more attention to the more ‘contemporary’ phenomena, busy in their promotion of the up-and-coming stars. Yan"s works were difficult to categorize into any school or trend, as a consequence he was often neglected. He was not associated with anyone in any field of art, he just quietly cultivated and harvested in his own field.
But he was not alone, from the 1980s The People’s Literature Press in Beijing opened a window for him in regularly publishing his woodblock printed portraits, moreover, he read a great many books, enjoying the realms of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign literature. Each of the persons he cut portraits of with his gouge was like a confidant. He lived in an world not just his own, there were the pillars of China"s new culture gathered around him: Lu Xun, Cai Yuanpei, Chen Duxiu, Lin Yutang, Mao Dun, Lao She, Bing Xin, Ba Jin.......his realm was also populated with the world"s literary giants: Shakespeare, Goethe, Hegel, Stendhal, Balzac, Ibsen, Mark Twain, Leon Tolstoy, Romain Rolland, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Einstein and many others. In the 1980s to 1990s when frequent changes occurred in the various schools of Chinese art like shooting stars and most artists strove for gold and silver medals and competed for ever higher prices in the art market, Yan Zhong remained immersed in his world sharing a spiritual feast with these cultural giants.
Physically he had endured a seemingly unsuccessful life, he had suffered from poverty and illness, wore shabby clothes and slept in a wretched flat. However he had excluded himself from the realities of the world, which in a way has given him almost undisturbed freedom to concentrate on the making of this series of astonishing printed portraits. In this way, he had enjoyed a rich pastoral life which most would yearn for. Yan Zhong’s joy was difficult to imagine or to understand by the majority of people around him.
The valuable artistic legacy that Yan Zhong has left to the world makes one think and be inspired. My thinking, though clichéd, does seem worthy of sharing.
My first thought is of the relationship between the artist and his art: art is often a reflection of an artist’s inner world, the quality of the artist’s inner world decides the appearance of his outward creativeness, the creation of art is built upon one’s spiritual world, not by glorious statues, nor material possessions in the secular world. However, in reality, many artists are seduced by tangible things. Though Yan’s subject matter seems limited due to the fact that he focused solely on portraits of the cultural elite, his portraits could engage viewers, touch viewers, because there is a kind of inner power in each of his images. On selecting his subjects, there were no friends, apart from a portrait of his grandmother nothing of himself, apart from Zhou Enlai no politicians, which showed his persistent personality and idealistic pursuits, an unusual phenomenon in the political climate of his life time.〔5〕
My second thought concerns the relationship between intellectualism and art. Looking back over the history of Chinese art, almost exclusively artists would be scholars first. Yan was educated in Zhejiang province which celebrates its long tradition of a flourishing culture. Yan’s eagerness for knowledge and truth made Yan’s prints unique from those of his contemporaries. Before starting a portrait, Yan would always read the writer or philosopher’s work to gather a comprehensive knowledge of the author’s thoughts. Compared with the photographs he used as reference for his prints, one can see that he did not simply copy an image. His work was based on a profound and thorough understanding of the author’s inner world which greatly benefited his portraiture. When he was engaged in the precise cutting of the portrait woodblock, he also let his sentiments flow into his image. Each cultural giant exuded a different character and style, Yan clearly understood the differences between each individual and their work. Among the more than one hundred portraits he cut and printed, none feels repetitive. In his woodblock printed portrait of the Russian writer Ostrovsky created from a static copy of Ostrovsky’s face, each line is dynamic, reminiscent of the style and content of the author so one can feel a stormy roar from the facial depiction. Yan’s work always give one the impression that in his portraits of writers, poets or philosophers, the image is a mixture of the writer’s and the artist’s work.
It can be said that without Yan’s studious cultivation, without his passion and indulgent study of Chinese and foreign literature, Yan’s woodcut portraits of the cultural elite would not exist. Nowadays many printmakers are struggling to find their own style or just indulging in technique or playing with superficial form. For these artists, the pursuit of knowledge is not a panacea but a long-term acquisition which will help raise the artist’s intellect and awareness and in the end will benefit their making of works of art.
My third thought concerns the relationship between Dao and art, in other words the relationship between Dao and technique which has been a topic of debate for thousands of years in China. Compared to other forms of art, printmaking relies heavily on graphic techniques, however a technique can only become alive if it carries the artists’ spirit, namely Dao. Of Dao, different people have a different understanding at different times. My understanding is that Dao is metaphysical, it is the combination of one’s spirit, soul and natural instinct. Some may regarded Yan’s woodcuts as insignificant illustrations in an outdated realistic medium similar to European chiaroscuro sketches. However, as real art stands the test of time, its appeal will increase as time goes by. One feels a spiritual baptism when facing Yan’s portrait of the young Rou Shi with his intelligent and innocent eyes, the philosopher Hegel shows deep penetrating eyes, Tolstoy"s epic bearded face, these portraits encourage people to seek out more from behind the images.
Yan Zhong set off along his own road with some plywood and a few cutting gouges to create a field to which no one else in the world dedicated his life. His experience shows that the path towards art has no limits. Printmaking is no different from the other disciplines of art. The development of art is not linear, not from realism to abstraction, not from two dimensions to three dimensions, not from painting to performance art. No matter how one uses media, no matter whether it appears traditional or avant-garde, the foremost thing is to convey spirit, Dao, as Leonardo Da Vinci said：’Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art’.
I have just spoken to a friend of mine in Harbin by telephone. He worked with Yan for many years. We all felt it a pity that we did pay enough attention to Yan Zhong and his art when he was alive. Now he has left the world. The things that can comfort us are his original prints and especially those woodblocks acquired and preserved by the Heilongjiang Art Museum and the fact that his work is receiving more and more recognition. Artists’ lives are short but their work lives on for much longer, Yan’s work carries the vitality of his life, along with his spiritual strength.
Dr. He Weimin
Artist-in-Residence, University of Oxford
Former professional artist of the Heilongjiang Provincial Printmaking Institute
March 8, 2010
Notes:
〔1〕 The woodcut portrait of Lu Xun was cut twice, the first was cut in 1959 and the second was in 1981. The portrait of Lu Xun earned him a reputation and became his representative work. After talking to Yan’s widow, I understand that the first woodblock, cut on plywood, was used for a long time as the cover of a jar for making thick soya bean sauce. During the Cultural Revolution period (1966-76), it became curled and cracked and was finally thrown into the stove. The second block survived.
〔2〕 In 1997, the printmaking historian Li Yunjing, a friend of Yan Zhong, mentioned Yan Zhong’s situation to Verena Bolinder-Müller and Christer von der Burg of the Muban Foundation (now The Muban Educational Trust), saying Yan was seriously ill but could not afford an operation. Verena and Christer generously donated six thousand US dollars so securing Yan’s operation. In Autumn 1998 when Verena and Christer went to Harbin they met Yan and his wife. Yan sent dozens of his prints to the Muban Foundation as gifts along with the original woodblock from his portrait of Shakespeare, the Muban Foundation sent him several thousand US dollars in return.
〔3〕 The current rate of exchange is approximately 10Yuan eaquals1GBP.
〔4〕 Few works in1997 revealed some sense of powerlessness and lack of sensitivity on depicting people, the images are more like photographs, this could be a sign of Yan’s brain disease.
v. I wished to keep at least one or two impressions of the portrait of Xiao Hong for memory, however, on thinking of Yan’s meticulousness on the quality of the work and his wishes of leaving no imperfect work to the world, I destroyed the rest in the end and feel I did the right thing. I am not sure what happened to what I printed. To my opinion, his woodblock should be kept for research purpose and any reprint would increase the risk of damaging the woodblocks. With today’s advance technology, Yan’s print could be reproduced as facsimile without printing directly from the woodblock.
〔5〕 Since there were no ancient portraits of saints, poets or writers such as Confucius or Lao Zi, once I asked Yan the reason, he replied me that what he needed was reliable source, he did not like to invent a figure. So in fact Yan treated the photos or oil paintings he used as his reliable ‘models’.
Bibliography:
Li Yunjing The Woodcuts of Yan Zhong Yan Zhong muke Kaifeng 2007
Henan University Press Henan daxue chubanshe
