这篇短文我之所以称之为“程亚杰印象”，是因为我只是在近期才得以认识他，不敢说对他有全面而本质的了解；但我与他两次单独深谈之后所获得印象却又是深刻的：他是一位在艺术上追求尽量完美的新加坡新锐画家。所以，我用了这个题目。

　　程亚杰年富力强，性格内敛沉稳，在艺术上既勤于思考又勤于实践，心中有很高远的理想，充满生气勃勃的发展势头。程亚杰出生成长在中国北京，他刻苦求学和实践探索的过程经历了五个国家：中国、日本、俄罗斯、奥地利，最后落脚新加坡。他在中国期间已经打了扎实的表现视觉生存世界的绘画能力，随后他在出国阶段遍访世界各大博物馆和美术馆，近距离体悟世界经典名作，对比研究东西美术史，探求人类绘画艺术规律的奥秘，大大提高了他的艺术视野和绘画功力，这为他后来专事“幻想现实主义”理念的创作奠定了坚实的基础。

　　程亚杰从初学绘画一直到今天虽已成为了一个具有跨国影响的著名画家，但仍始终坚持绘画基本功的不断磨砺。作为一个画家，他始终不忘“利其器”，不忘对看家本领的反复锤炼和日臻完善。其实画家也如同其他任何社会职业一样，并无任何神秘之处，他也有一个从业的基本专业技能的问题。程亚杰对此很清醒，他认为，作为一个画家，不管你打什么旗号自称何宗何派，你首先必须是一个“武功高强”的行家里手，然后你才有资格去高谈阔论别的什么什么，否则难避江湖骗子之嫌。我曾经说过一句在中国大陆很流行的大实话：“画家的天职就是画好画。”我以为当代世界绘画之所以大幅度衰落，很重要的一点就是忽视了绘画的职业技能。我在与程亚杰交流过程中，深感他这种“画家职业意识”的强烈和执著。我认为这种强烈执著的“画家职业意识”，正是程亚杰不断在画坛上取得成功并昭示着宽广前景的可靠依托和基本底力。世界绘画史告诉我们，凡是能够成就艺术伟业的画家，如鲁本斯、委拉斯开兹、伦勃朗、德拉克洛瓦、列宾、苏里柯夫等等大师，无不是个个终身重视基本功的勤学苦练，这正如同武侠小说中那些武林高手，虽然已经名震遐迩，但为了保持和提高自己的盖世武功，仍需每天起早贪黑苦习日课。程亚杰这种忠于画家职业的道德操守，和他内敛稳健、诚笃待人的性格是协调一致的，这种为人从艺的敬诚态度，正是一个画家成就绘画大业必备的精神素质。程亚杰在奥地利维也纳应用美术学院学习时，接受了他的老师沃尔夫冈·胡特的“幻想现实主义”作方法，这是他在创作生涯上的一个重大转折。从宏观的大脉络来看，人类艺术从古至今只有现实主义与浪漫主义两大创作思路（创作方法）和写实与变实两大表现手法，人类艺术史上曾经层出不穷的流派和主义，无非都是这两大创作方法和两大表现手法在不同程度上的衍生物、综合物和变异物。这两大创作方法和两大表现手法就像一只艺术如来佛具有无限伸缩弹性的博大手掌，可以容纳世界各国各族、历朝历代富有艺术创造个性的孙悟空们在里面自由驰骋、大展鸿图，演化出人类艺术史无限丰富多彩的篇篇章章。程亚杰从他维也纳老师胡特那里承继过来的“想现实主义”严格地讲，更倾向于浪漫主义的创作方法，它虽然有现实的意义根据，但创作主体有更大的物象选择和组合的自由，画面背后的意图更多的是通过象征、隐喻和幽默的营构来反映；在表现手法上则是重视细节刻画的写实和整体构成的变实，这种写实和变实的交错使用给幻想留下了超时空自由组合的广阔空间。胡特和程亚杰这种风格无疑是一种很有个性追求的独创，但就其基本方法而言并不乏先行者，达利和马格里特的“现实主义”有类似的运用。但是程亚杰的“想现实主义”他们的“现实主义”幻想的情感指归上有很大的不同，达利的幻想把人们带入一个充满焦虑、恐惧和荒诞的世界，马格里特的幻想把人们带入一个遍布空虚、冷酷和凶险的世界，而程亚杰幻想的基调则是要把我们带入一个富有童趣、嬉戏、充满生命活力的童话世界。然而这个童话世界并不是一个幼稚儿童的纯真之作，而是一个有人生磨砺和阅世经验的大人的略带苦涩之作，程亚杰在追忆童年的美好纯真的同时也在抒发着复杂现实人生带给他的诸多感悟，他试图在现实和梦想之间构筑着精致的艺术桥梁，乐观地期盼着这个实利的世界明天会变得更人性一些。程亚杰的幻想绘画到有点像夏加尔那种追忆俄罗斯童年和青春的梦幻，但程亚杰在表现手法上则更重视油画的专业技巧。在当今万花筒似的无穷变幻的世界艺坛面前，程亚杰不是那种人云亦云、随波逐流的庸碌之辈，他始终是一个很有理性很有主见的艺术家。程亚杰对绘画这种经历人类千百年考验仍挚爱如故的典型艺术品种的无穷魅力和无穷潜能充满坚定的信心，他仍相信绘画是处理人的思想情感和外在视觉生命世界之间无限丰富关联的最佳艺术形式。人类艺术始终并行着两条缺一不可的发展线索，一条是与日常生活密切相关的实用艺术，一条是纯审美纯欣赏的精神艺术，它们按各自不同的特殊规律发展着，共同丰富着提高着人类社会生活的质量。但我们也不能不坦诚地指出，在当今世界经济大发展的情势下，物质与精神的发展并不平衡，实用艺术和精神艺术的发展也不平衡，人类钟爱的绘画这种典型艺术在地球许多地方被边缘化和平庸化就是一个明证。还有一个现象值得一提，在20世纪后期，在越来越机械化科学化的实用艺术和精神艺术之间演生出许多还需人类长期试用检验的非典型的亚艺术形式，它们也在挤压着纯审美、纯欣赏、纯精神的绘画艺术的生存空间。我认为这类新生的非典型的亚艺术和绘画这种经过人类千百年检验的典型艺术都应该有自由发展和自由竞争的空间，那种认为前者必然取代后者的武断结论是缺乏人性审美根据的。程亚杰和世界上许多画家今天仍毫不动摇地执着地坚持用绘画这种典型艺术来抒发和表达自己的思想情感和审美理想，并赢得广大受众的共鸣和喜爱，这说明绘画是充满生命力的。

　　我不仅欣赏程亚杰对绘画的坚守信念，更欣赏程亚杰对绘画辩证规律的敬诚态度。对世界画坛那种漠视客观视觉制约一味张扬主观自由妄为的浮躁倾向，程亚杰是持审慎态度的。绘画的历史经验告诉他，绘画活动是在主观与客观、自由与制约的不断统一的过程中前行的，他懂得只有不断克服绘画创作过程中的高难制约才是达到艺术更高境界的必经之路，才是通向真正出神入化大师的必由之途。所以，他始终保持着对艺术辩证规律敬诚的态度去进行孜孜不倦的探求，不敢有丝毫松懈和怠慢。因此，看他的作品，很少见到故作狂放和佯装疯癫的草率之作，每幅作品都是真实功夫的竭诚之作，每幅作品都是以兢兢业业、力求尽可能完美的态度创作出来的。当他在国际艺坛频频获得好评，在艺术市场频频取得佳绩的时候，他没有陶醉，他仍然保持着庄敬自强的态度去从事创作，他深知艺途如逆水行舟不进则退，何况他心目中还有更高的追求目标。他一再强调说：“没有高超的艺术绝技，其艺术不会精彩；没有深刻的思想内涵，其艺术不会感人。”他追求的正是古今中外一切绘画大师的共同目标：高超的专业技能和深刻的思想情感尽可能的完美统一。

　　新加坡有深厚的文化背景，近代以来在艺术上也有不菲的业绩，近闻新加坡在经济腾飞的基础上，欲投大力来建树文化艺术，这对东南亚乃至亚洲来讲无疑是一个福音，这将在世界文化格局上保持东西方文化平衡健康发展而为亚洲提供有力的支点。程亚杰在遍览世界艺术之后落驻新加坡发展，而新加坡对他又有殷切的期望，这是难得的心灵之遇。我将以兄弟般的愉悦心情，注视着程亚杰以及更多的各具个性的程亚杰们在新加坡的“文艺复兴”中大有作为。

　　中国美协《美术》主编、中国美协理论委员会副主任 王仲


　　An Artist in Pursuit of Perfection
　　My Impression on Singapore-based Young Pioneering Artist Cheng Yajie


　　The title of this article has been “impression on Cheng Yajie” because I got to know him only recently. I dare not say that I know him completely, but I was very much impressed after I had two long conversations with him. He is a young pioneering artist from Singapore and he is pursuing the perfection.

　　Cheng Yajie is good at both thinking and practices. He has great ideals, and he is bubbling with vitality. Born in Beijing, he studied art in China, Japan, Russia and Austria, and settled down in Singapore. He has mastered skills of depicting our world during his years in China, and in his visits to the major museums in the world, he studied the classics, compared the Eastern and Western art histories, and reaped a broad scope of view as well as wonderful skills. In this way he was able to focus on his “Fantastic Realism” creations.

　　As an artist of international influence, Cheng has always been keen on polishing his skills. In his eyes, skills are the only tools to express his mind. Actually, being an artist is one of the many professions in this world and it is no mystery. Like every other profession, it demands basic professional skills. Cheng is aware of this, and he believes that an artist has to be first of all a master of skills before he makes other pursuits. As I used to say, the mission of an artist is to make a good work of art. I think the explanation for the decline of paintings in the art world should be the fact that artists are ignoring the skills. In my conversations with Cheng, I could feel his devotion to the profession, which reveals his great prospects. The world art history told us that any accomplished artist, such as Rubens, Velasquez, Rembrandt, Delacroix, Repin and Suricov all gave a great emphasis to the practice of skills. They are like swordsmen in ancient legends, who would never stop practicing the use of their weapons despite their being established. As a young artist, Cheng has been meeting the basic requirements for an artist, and that is to be honest to art. This paves the way to his great success.

　　During his studies at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna, Cheng became much influenced by the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, of which his professor Wolfgang Hutter was a co-founder. This has been a great turn in the young man’s career of art. In my perspective, human beings have only two broad categories of art – one is realism and the other romanticism. All the other schools of art are nothing but evolutions of the two. The two categories, like the hand of the Buddha described in the Chinese literature masterpiece “Monkey King,” encompass anything in the art world. From his professor in Vienna, Cheng inherited the “Fantastic Realism.” Strictly speaking, it is more of romanticism than realism. Although it is based on reality, the school of art has a broad choice of subjects, a great freedom in composition, and a combined use of symbolism, euphonium and humor in the expression of ideas. As for skills, it gives an emphasis on the realism of details and the romanticism of the whole and in effect provides the audience with an infinite space for imaginations. Hutter and Cheng are innovative, but there are also other pioneers – Dali and Magritte also used some of these skills in their Surrealism art. Anyway, Cheng’s “Fantastic Realism” has a big difference from the Surrealism. While Dali brought the audience into a world of worries and terrors, Magritte conveyed the coldness and emptiness in the human relations, Cheng gives a picture of a fairy-tale world, filled with fun and vitality. Unlike a child, the artist, as an adult of experiences, instills the power of thinking as well as a slice of bitterness into his beautiful pictures. He is building a delicate bridge of art between fantasies and realities, with the expectation that this world of realistic people will become more humane and more fascinating. Cheng’s works look a bit like those of Chagall, who was famous for his depictions of childhood in Russia and dreams of the blossoming youth, but they are more critical of skills.

　　In the contemporary art world, Cheng is not one of those who always follow the fashion – he has his own thinking. He is fully confident of the future of paintings, the most ancient form of art in the history of human beings. He believes that paintings are the best way to deal with the relationship between our emotions and the world in our eyes. Art has developed in two directions in the past millennia: One is the combination of aesthetics and utility in applied arts; the other is the improvement of spirits in fine arts. Together they have upgraded people’s lives. But I have to point out that the applied arts and fine arts are having an unbalanced development while paintings, the typical fine art, are dimming around the globe. I have also to point out that some sub-forms of art, which developed on the border of applied and fine arts in the late 20th century, are cramming the space of paintings. I think these newborn, untypical sub-arts and the millennia-old paintings should both have their space of development, and I denounce the conclusion that the former will take the place of the latter to be totally groundless. Like many other artists in this world, Cheng unswervingly use paintings, the typical art form, to express his emotions and thoughts, and he has won acclaims by doing so. His success shows that painting as a form of art is still filled with vitality.

　　I appreciate not only Cheng’s confidence in the future of paintings, but also his sincerity to art. It has been a trend in the world art scene that the objective side of life is ignored while the subjective side is played with. Cheng is cautious of this trend. History told him that paintings can only improve when the equilibrium is reached between the subjective and the objective, the freedom and the restriction. He understands that it is a must for an artist to overpass the obstacles in creations and to become a master of skills before a master of arts. That’s why he has always been sincere about art and hard working. From his works, one cannot find a slightest trace of carelessness and laziness. He is always pursuing the perfection when he creates. When he wins awards at international art events, when his art keeps hitting new records in the art market, he never gives a pause to his efforts. He is a man of great goals. As he has always said, “an art without good skills shall never be marvelous, and an art without deep thinking shall never be touching.” What has been in his dreams is also in those of master artist in the human history, and that is, the perfect harmony between excellent skills, deep thinking and true emotions.

　　Singapore has its rich cultural heritages and its artists made remarkable achievements in recent years. I am more than happy to hear that the Singaporean government has been investing hard into the art since its economic boom. This is a blessing not only to Southeast Asia, but also the whole Asia. It will be a foundation for the balance between cultural developments of the East and the West. After traveling around the world, Cheng chose to practice art in Singapore, and the Singaporeans also have great expectations for the young artist. Out of pleasure and in the way of a brother, I’d like to eye Cheng and his fellow artists making their great contributions to the Renaissance in Singapore.

　　Wang Zhong
　　The author is the editor-in-chief of the “Art” magazine, which is the journal of the Chinese Artists’ Association, and also the deputy director of the association’s Theoretical Studies Committee.