序言

从历史走到当下的漫长过程中，“水墨”，这一承载着国人无数情结与理想的词汇，注定是一个不能被完全定义的词语。当置身于当代社会文化的场域中时，是要遵循传统文人笔墨还是拉开距离大胆革新？在全球数字化浪潮的语境中，被频繁提及、探讨的水墨“当代性”到底指什么？水墨画的精神如何在传承中发展？关于这一切的问题，任重和他的作品从一个侧面给了我们很好的解答。

作为在传统和现代里辗转探寻的艺术家，幼承家学的任重身上有一种亦古亦今的气质，他对晋唐宋元的学习和继承，与其说是复古，不如说是他对根植于基因的记忆描摹。他如同一位耐心的观察者和测绘师，沉静但不冷漠，铺叙但不判断，他在古今之中穿行，走走停停，没有设定的方向，也不沉溺于单一的物象，但却在当代与传统、出世与入世之间，达到一种微妙又和谐的美感。

当我们回归到画面本身，除了任重扎实的绘画功底和对于传统技法、内容与创作媒材的继承与探索之外，更多的是对中国传统审美、古典意象的一种超然又自我的表达，成就了他作品介于高古与当下之间的气息。近在咫尺的雪竹，如幻境中矗立的苍松，以及凝冻在眼前的禽鸟……这些宛如新生又充满了生命力的美妙事物，共同构成了画家洪荒宇宙的风景。对于任重来说，创作是自己与作品、时间之间的互动，绘画的目的并不是为了将可见之物再现，而是要把不可见却又应当呈现的东西变为可见。

东晋吴隐之云：“试使夷齐饮, 终当不易心”。在任重水墨丹青营造的大千世界，传统不再是保守的代名词，而是从中走出的“当代”。当我们同任重一起回向传统的精神深处重新找寻出发的起点，就不难发现传统中所蕴含的创造性启示，而如何将之与最前沿的当代问题相沟通，也同样成就了传统之于当代不断焕发新生的可能。就如同任重的作品《嵇叔夜服散图》中的魏晋名士嵇康，隐逸高蹈、出世不群。

“寒不易心——任重水墨丹青艺术展”是任重与苏博的初次邂逅，我们主要挑选了任重近年的新作，呈现其在创作中的坚守与新变。面对“水墨”这一古老又充满活力的命题，当一时不知道要再如何变革时，不妨坐下来，以中正平和的心态，干干细细研墨的活儿，回归到水墨创作的本体语言，回归到经典传统的艺术命题，重新思考创作的意义，再尝试给出一种应变的可能。这或许就是本次展览的意义。

苏州博物馆馆长

谢晓婷

Preface

In the long process of walking from history to the present, “ink”, a word that carries countless complexes and ideals of the Chinese people, is destined to be a word that cannot be completely defined. When we are in the field of contemporary social culture, should we follow the style of traditional ink painting or should we boldly innovate? In the context of the global digitalisation, what does the “contemporaneity” of ink painting, which has been frequently mentioned and discussed, actually mean? How to develop the spirit of ink painting in the process of inheritance? Ren Zhong and his works give us good answers to all these questions from one side.

As an artist exploring between tradition and modern times, Ren Zhong, who learned from his family at an early age, has a temperament that is both ancient and modern. His study and inheritance of the culture of Jin, Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties is not so much a return to the ancients, but rather a portrayal of the memories that are rooted in his genes. He is like a patient observer and mapper, calm but not indifferent, narrative but not judgemental. He walks among the ancient and the modern, stopping and going, without setting a direction or indulging in a single object, but achieving a subtle yet harmonious beauty between the contemporary and the traditional, the unworldly and the worldly.

When we return to the painting itself, in addition to Ren Zhong’s solid painting skills and his inheritance and exploration of traditional techniques, contents and creative media, it is more of a transcendent and self-centered expression of traditional Chinese aesthetics and classical imagery, which achieves the style of his works between the ancient and the modern. The snow bamboo near at hand, the green pine standing in the fantasy, and the birds frozen in the painting, which are like new born and full of vitality, together constitute the landscape of the artist’s art world. For Ren Zhong, creation is an interaction between himself and his work as well as time. The purpose of painting is not to reproduce the visible, but to make what is invisible but should be presented visible.

Wu Yinzhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty said, “If a man of noble character like Boyi and Shuqi drank water from the Greed Spring, he would never change his honest heart.” In the world created by Ren Zhong’s ink paintings, tradition is no longer synonymous with conservatism, but is the “contemporary” that emerges from it. When we, together with Ren Zhong, go back to the depths of the spirit of tradition to rediscover the starting point, it is not difficult to find the creative inspiration contained in tradition, and how to communicate the inspiration with the most cutting-edge contemporary issues also makes it possible for the tradition to be constantly revitalised in the present day. Just like Ji Kang, a famous scholar of Wei and Jin Dynasty in Ren Zhong’s work “Painting of Ji Shuye Resting and Eating”, he is reclusive and unworldly.

The exhibition “Staying True to Original Aspiration--Ren Zhong’s Ink Paintings Exhibition” is the first encounter between Ren Zhong and Suzhou Museum, and we mainly select Ren Zhong’s new works in recent years, presenting his perseverance and new changes in his creation. In the face of the ancient and dynamic proposition of “ink”, when one does not know how to make innovation, one may as well sit down, grind some ink with a neutral and calm mind, return to the ontology language of ink creation, return to the classic and traditional artistic propositions, rethink the significance of creation, and then try to give a possibility to change. This may be the meaning of this exhibition.

Director of Suzhou Museum

Xie Xiaoting