朱屺瞻先生(1892-1996)是我国20世纪美术史上有重要贡献和有广泛影响的大艺术家，他在绘画上贯通古今，融合中西，油画、国画均有很深造诣，并在国画领域自立门户，别开生面，成为一代宗师。

　　朱屺瞻先生自幼受传统文化熏陶，临摹古画。中年时期两次负笈东瀛，学习和研究油画，但他一直情系国画，坚持在两个领域内进行创作。上世纪50年代，他把自己的精力主要用于中国画创作，花鸟、山水均佳，尤擅长兰、梅、竹、石。由于他在海派基础上广泛研究各家之长和从中吸收营养，又深入观察自然，学传统而不拘于成规，敢于探索和创新，终于形成个性鲜明的风格面貌。由于朱屺瞻先生是中国以至世界绘画史上少有的长寿艺术家，晚年作品更承载了他丰厚的人生体验和艺术修养，具有深刻的精神内涵，备受人们的赞赏。

　　朱屺瞻先生的油画造型功底深厚，在吸收了印象派、后印象派和表现派技巧的基础上，渗入了中国画的写意精神，讲究笔触和肌理美感，色调丰富、浑厚，气势宏大，意境开阔，早在30年代即受到艺坛的关注。他在学习和研究油画艺术的过程中，始终有传统中国画作参照、作比较。他早年特别喜爱塞尚、凡•高和马蒂斯的艺术，因为在这些现代艺术大师作品中，他感受到与中国艺术相通的神韵和情趣。而这种神韵和情趣的造成，在于绘画形式语言本身，如他看重凡•高的线条、塞尚的块面和马蒂斯色彩的内在气质和传达出的文化意味，而非绘画的题材内容。他在比较中认识到西画中的点、线、面的造型与空间构成，不同于中国画笔墨在平面上的勾、勒、点、擦、皴、染，但其中蕴涵的审美旨趣彼此相通。他敏感地发现，欧洲印象派及早期现代派绘画从包括中国画在内的东方艺术中，吸收了不少有益的养分。总之，西方现代艺术家们的革新勇气和他们在形式语言现代感方面的追求，无疑对朱屺瞻先生的中国画创新有所启发和帮助。正如他说：“我学西画三十多年，动机不限于好奇，目的是求中西法的汇合。”

　　但是，朱屺瞻先生之所以能在中国画领域纵横驰骋并获得巨大成就，还主要得益于他热爱自然、热爱人类、热爱艺术的博大胸襟，得益于他深厚的传统文化修养和他对国画的深刻理解。也正因为有这样的胸怀和知识储备，他才能深入领会西画的奥妙和得心应手地将其有用元素运用到中国画的创造之中。例如，他心中铭记着的早年国学家唐文治“习字作画，点划皆须着力，切忌浮滑”的教诲，使他青年时期就初步确立了品评绘画的标准。他用此标准去观察西画各家，必然有清晰的认识和正确的选择。与此同时，他也很自然地将优秀西画家重视语言力度的经验融化在自己的中国画的创造之中了。

　　以线为基本元素的中国画创造，要达到应有的高度，艺术家必须要有深厚的书法修养。朱屺瞻先生早年打下了颜真卿书体的坚实功底，继而学魏碑，转而习米襄阳，再回过头来参合颜体，终于形成酣畅而雄健、沉稳而活泼的书法风格，这对他中国画风格的形成有很大的影响。他在《癖斯居画谭》里说：“多年来，余总以‘独’，‘力’，‘简’三字自求。”所谓“独”，即特立独行，忠于自己的个性，不依门户;所谓“力”，既是作画的凝神静气和奋笔挥洒的力度，更是一种出自内心的感情倾注即“心力”的表现;所谓“简”，即语言的精炼和高度的艺术概括。他的“独、力、简”艺术风格，是他在艺术上广采博纳和对艺术创造规律深刻领悟的结果。他远师石涛、八大、徐青藤，近取齐白石、吴昌硕，但善于融汇各家而不留痕迹，主张各种技巧都可灵活运用，不拘于一法，重在表现自己的真切感受。他的许多见解看似技法问题，实质涉及到绘画的创造原理，如“笔整无画，要邋遢三分”;又说落笔时最忌拘谨，“一须不见有笔，二须浑忘有法，然后才能自在自如”，便是道出了作画时不要立刻求尽善尽美，可以从“破坏”着手，再求“完美”，从“乱”中求“齐”、求“和谐”，从而不落前人窠穴;又如他说他画画是“白相相，瞎搨搨”，便说出了艺术家作画时需要犹如游戏般的自由心境。诚然，绘画创作是严肃的艺术劳动，但对艺术家来说，它的创作过程应该是轻松、愉悦，而不应该有任何心理阻碍。尤其是中国画，情感诉诸于笔墨和色彩，是作者心灵世界的自然流露，来不得半点虚假和造作，也不需有任何外在压力。可是在有一段时期，由于我们过分强调艺术为政治服务，艺术家不得不背负着沉重的意识形态包袱，思想不解放，行动拘谨，不敢充分发挥艺术个性。在这种情况下，朱屺瞻先生敢于打破禁忌，提倡大家以自由的审美心境面对艺术创作，无疑具有反潮流精神，并以自己的言论与实践，对艺术同行们起了示范作用。

　　朱屺瞻先生在色彩上营造的新境，是对现代中国画的另一重要贡献。在处理笔力与色彩的关系上，他善于用浓重的色彩如重绿、大青、浅绛、繁紫与老练的笔线、笔触相结合，组成色墨交相辉映的画面。他有时先涂大块色，再勾线条，有时先勾线条，后加色块，有时两种方法混合采用。总之，他的作品色调强烈而鲜丽，浑厚而丰富，含蓄而大气，充分发挥了墨与色结合的艺术感染力。

　　朱屺瞻先生是写意大家，他的花卉、山水，有形在，但不求形似，而求神韵，求精神。他用笔近书法，意境近音乐，全在笔墨与色彩的轻重、虚实、浓淡中表现节奏与韵律，在静与动中寻找平衡，反映出他书法、音乐、舞蹈的全面艺术修养。

　　朱屺瞻先生是杰出的艺术教育家，他热心于美术教育，并有远大的抱负。早在1928年，他便与王济远、江小鹣等创办了“艺苑绘画研究所”，力倡开展艺术研究和不搞门户之见的治学主张，受到蔡元培先生的重视。不久，他又被上海新华艺专邀请出任校董兼教授，并担任该校研究班指导教师。他于1933年先后组织“洋画实习研究所”和“新华艺专绘画研究所”。他一生培养了不少优秀的绘画人材，至于受他艺术主张和创新勇气影响的艺术家，更是不计其数。

　　朱屺瞻先生充满人文精神和具有高深境界的艺术创造，不仅丰富了我国艺术宝库，而且也在20世纪世界绘画史上占有自己独特的位置，他是我们民族和时代的骄傲。

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　2011年4月22日于北京，中央美术学院

　　Mr. Zhu Qizhan (1892-1996) was a great artist with important contribution and extensive influence on the history of fine arts in the 20th century in China. By linking up the ancient and modern and combining the Western and Eastern, he has made great accomplishments in oil paintings and traditional Chinese paintings and has created his own style in the traditional Chinese paintings as a master.

　　Nurtured in an environment of traditional Chinese culture since childhood, Mr. Zhu Qizhan was good at copying ancient paintings. At middle age, he travelled to Japan twice to study oil paintings, while at the same time he had always loved traditional Chinese paintings, and sticking to work in both fields. After the 1950s, he mainly focused on the creation of traditional Chinese paintings of flowers, birds, and landscape; especially was he good at the traditional Chinese paintings of orchid, plum, bamboo, and rockery. With his Shanghai painting school basis, by learning extensively from different schools, observing the nature deeply, learning from the traditions without being confined by established conventions, and daring to explore and innovate, he has established his unique and outstanding style. As an artist of long creative longevity, which is rare in the painting history of China and even of the world, he embedded his profound life experience, artistic accomplishments, and deep spiritual connotations in his works of late years in life, winning the recognition of people.

　　Mr. Zhu Qizhan was especially good at oil paintings. By combining the freehand brushwork in traditional Chinese paintings with the skills of impressionism, post-impressionism, and expressionism, paying attention to brushwork and texture, his paintings feature rich and profound color tones, a majestic style, and broad artistic conception, winning attention of the artistic field early in the 1930s. During his study of oil paintings, he has consistently referred to traditional Chinese paintings for comparison. In his early age, Zhu Qizhan was very fond of the artistic works by Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Matisse, for in their works he could perceive the charm and flavor that is similar to that of Chinese art. And the accomplishment of such charm and flavor lies in the formal language of the painting itself rather than the theme or content of the painting. Through such comparison, he realized that although the point, line, surface, and spatial composition in Western paintings differ from the hook, pointing, wiping, cracking and staining in traditional Chinese paintings, but their embedded esthetic value is similar. Zhu Qizhan sensitively discovered that European impressionism and early modernism paintings have absorbed much nutrition from Oriental art, including Chinese paintings. In a word, the innovative courage of modern Western artists and their pursuit of modernism of formal language have inspired and stimulated Zhu Qizhan’s innovation of Chinese paintings. Just as he said, “I have studied Western paintings for more than thirty years, not because of curiosity, but for a combination of the Western and Chinese art.”

　　Zhu Qizhan’s great accomplishments in the field of Chinese paintings was also mainly attributed to his passion for the nature, for humankind, and for art, his profound traditional cultural achievements, and his deep understanding of the traditional Chinese paintings. It was because of such that he could deeply explore the secret of Western paintings and skillfully applied their useful elements into his creation of Chinese paintings. For instance, keeping in mind the teaching by sinologist Tang Wenzhi that “for writing Chinese characters and painting, each point and stroke must have its strength, rather than slide feebly”, which helped him establish his early standards of assessing paintings in his youth. Using this standard to evaluate Western paintings, he has had clear understandings and correct judgment. In the meanwhile, he also injected in his creation of Chinese paintings the importance attached to language strength by excellent Western painters.

　　In order for the Chinese paintings, which use lines as basic elements, to reach their due height, an artist must have profound achievements in calligraphy. Zhu Qizhan had solid foundations of the calligraphically style of Yan Zhenqing, Wei Dynasty stele, and Mi Xiangyang, combining these styles and establishing his own powerful, smooth, steadfast, and lively calligraphic style, which has great influence on the establishment of his Chinese painting style.

　　In his Pisiju Huatan, Zhu Qizhan wrote that for many years, he had been seeking uniqueness, strength, and simplicity. Uniqueness means the unique style and sticking to his own personality instead of being affiliated to any school. Strength means focusing attention while painting and the strength of the brushwork; it is also an expression of the emotions. Simplicity means the brevity of language and highly concise artistic summarization. His “uniqueness-strength-simplicity” artistic style was the result of his extensive learning and profound understanding of the rules of artistic creation. Learning from ancient artists of Shi Tao, Zhu Da, and Xu Qingteng and modern artists of Qi Baishi and Wu Changshuo, Zhu Qizhan combined their artistic styles innovatively and naturally, believing that all skills can be used flexibly for the purpose of expressing the artist’s true feelings. Many of his ideas, seemly related to the matter of skills, are in fact the creation theory of paintings. For instance, he believed that the too organized brushwork leads to no painting and that the end of the brush shall be somewhat random and flexible, that the end of brush must not be too rigid while painting, the artist must not focus too much on the brush or the skills in order to be flexible and free. This means that an artist must not deliberately seek perfection while painting but can start from “destruction” and then seek “perfection”, achieving “tidiness” and “harmony” out of “untidiness”, instead of simply following the suit of predecessors. He also joked that his paintings were playful work, which demonstrated the gamelike, carefree mood of an artistic when creating a painting. Truly, painting is a solemn artistic labor; but for artists, the process of painting should be free and pleasant, rather than a burden. Especially the Chinese paintings, where emotions are expressed by the brush, ink, and colors, are the free exposure of the spiritual world of the artist and do not allow any falsification, manipulation, or external pressure.

　　However, for some time, due to over-emphasis that art should serve politics, artists had to work under the heavy ideological burden; their minds confined, their actions rigid, were afraid to give full expression to their artistic personality. Under such a background, Zhu Qizhan was courageous to break through such confinements by advocating that artists should create their artistic works with a free esthetic heart; his words and practice set up a good example for the counterparts in the artistic field.

　　Zhu’s achievements in the employment of colors were yet another important contribution to modern Chinese paintings. When handling the relationship between stroke and color, he was good at combining the heavy colors of dark green, dark blue, light purple-red, and dark purple with the mature and sophisticated lines and brushwork, composing a painting of colors and ink. Sometimes he would paint large blocks of color before depicting lines, sometimes he would depict the lines before painting color blocks, and sometimes he would mix the two methods. In a word, his works featured strong and florid, profound and rich, reserved and majestic color tones, exerting full artistic infectivity of ink and colors combined.

　　Zhu Qizhan was a master of freehand brushwork in traditional Chinese paintings. His flower and landscape paintings had the forms, but he didn't seek the similarity in form but the soul and spirit. His brushwork in paintings was similar to that of calligraphy and his realm to music, focusing on the heaviness and lightness, void and actuality, and shades of ink and colors to express the rhyme and rhythm, seeking the balance between the dynamic and the static, reflecting his all-rounded artistic achievements in calligraphy, music, and dancing.

　　Zhu Qizhan was also an outstanding art educationist. He was passionate in fine arts education and had great ambitions. Back in 1928, he founded the Yi Yuan Painting Research Institute with Wang Jiyuan and Jiang Xiaojian, promoting his education idea of artistic research and non-bias against any schools, thereby winning the recognition of Mr. Cai Yuanpei. Before long, he was invited by Shanghai Xinhua Art School to be the director of the board and professor and also worked as an instructor at the school research class. After the dissolution of Xinhua Art School, he founded Western Painting Art Practice Institute and Xinhua Art School Painting Institute in succession in 1933. Throughout his life, he had cultivated quite a lot of excellent painting talents; and numerous artists have been influenced by his artistic advocacy and innovative spirit.

　　Mr. Zhu Qizhan is full of humanity spirit and has profound artistic achievements. He had enriched the artistic treasure of our country and taken up his unique position in the world’s painting history in the 20th century. He was truly the pride of the nation and the time!

　　　　　　　　　　　　April 22nd, 2011, in Beijing, Central Academy of Fine Arts