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       在西方，肖像画是艺术史中十分成熟的类别。很长一段时间内，特别是还未有照相技术的时代，肖像画具有很强的功用性，由赞助人委托艺术家描绘自己或他人，以此记录容貌，亦是身份与地位的象征。这时，肖像风格往往符合委托人的要求，近乎写实且细致入微。而进入近现代，赋予肖像画的内涵与意义愈加复杂，边界愈加模糊、灵活，融入更多流派主张与个性语言，打破了传统所订立的严谨与和谐。

       单从技法而言，人物画是公认难度较高的，肖像分属其中一类。一则，结构、特征、神情与动作需定格一帧。在一张面孔之上，眉、眼、耳、鼻、嘴看似只占方寸，然稍有差误，便极易察觉。二则，不同于静物，肖像画中的被描绘对象是动态的、生活的，可以瞬息之间变化万千。尤其在面对面时，这种不确定性很考验画者，也使得这个过程充满了刺激与挑战。

      童雁汝南二十六年如一日，用同一尺寸、同一风格创作的肖像，都建构于写生之上。他运用的笔触是显露的、流动的，富于生命节奏的。画者与被画者，提供这一空间存在的两张不同面孔，能够触发自内心向外、再由外在向内的反复映射与自由碰撞……这难道不也是一场别致的行为艺术么？

      童雁汝南常用“庖丁解牛”来解释自己的方法论，下笔如舞刀，刀刀入骨缝。这让我莫名想起了弗朗西斯·培根，一个同样热衷于剖析内里的画者。相比之下，童雁汝南的画风则显得更为平和一些，这与他对东方哲学的经久思辨密不可分。上古的世界观与老庄思想是他的理念来源。通过感性的主观能动去认知、观察、探索“艺”与“道”。同时，仍将具象作为落脚点。由此呈现的“相”，看似虚无，实则具体。最终，悄然回归画者本心，肖像本真。

谢晓婷

  苏州博物馆馆长

策展人语

       在人类发展史中，自希腊哲学家普罗泰戈拉提出“人是万物的尺度”，继而到意大利文艺复兴以人为中心的人文主义精神以来，人与自然，人与宇宙之间多维的互动，已然形成对立矛盾。童雁汝南修行式的创作，是为反思人性的虚无、体悟每个生命个体的执着、实现超越形象身份的认知。童雁汝南用25年的参悟，去回应当代艺术轻佻的观念转换，用不变的创作形式，去解构横向膨胀多变的物化世界。这是童雁汝雁南自我反观的途径，更是一个具有超强察觉力的个体，在体验纯粹的归复。

       在童雁汝南的作品中，笔触的运动，色彩的挥洒所形成的气韵，总给人一种散漫中见精神的感觉。所有人物微妙的细节是用内心的意念在诉说，每一笔都饱含着生命的激情。是他与模特之间的内心情感在画布上自由自在的凝固。他的画面处理已超越了油画的一些技术层面，而是蕴藏着他对于生命的独特理解和心灵感悟。正如黑格尔所说：“艺术也可以说是要把每一个形象的看得见的外表上的每一点都化成眼睛或灵魂的住所，使它把心灵显现出来。”

       童雁汝南的油画创作，似乎都在寻找一窗口，即创造出自己对人性的理解，抒发自己对于人性与宇宙的独特情感，始终让自己保持着一种自由流畅表达情感的创作状态之中，这也就使他的作品呈现出强烈的时代特征。而就其绘画语言而言，他又寻找到了一种人性与宇宙之间多维度的通道，既注重象又超越象，进而使他的作品提升到哲学的高度，营建起一个由他自己创造的精神。而这种精神，是艺术的本质所在，因此更显得他的不同凡响。

                                                                                                                              纪云飞   于二零二三年三月五日凌晨三点零八分

Foreword

In the West, portraiture is a well-established category in art history. For a long time, especially before photography, portraiture was highly functional, with artists commissioned by patrons to depict themselves or others as a record of appearance and as a symbol of status. At that time, the portrait style often meets the client’s requirements, almost realistic and detailed. However, in modern times, the connotation and meaning of portraits have become more complex, the boundary has become more blurred and flexible, and more schools and individual languages have been incorporated, breaking the rigor and harmony established by the tradition.

In terms of technique alone, figure painting is generally acknowledged to be more difficult, and portraiture is one category of it. First, structure, features, expression and action need to be fixed in one frame. In a face, the eyebrows, eyes, ears, nose and mouth seem to take up only a few inches, but the slightest mistake is easy to detect. Second, unlike still life subject, the subject of portrait painting is dynamic and living, which can change rapidly in one second. Especially in face to face, this uncertainty tests the painter and makes the process full of excitement and challenge.

Tong Yanrunan has been creating portraits of the same size and style for 26 years, all of which are based on sketching. His painting is revealing, flowing and full of rhythm of life. The painter and the subject, the two different faces that provide the existence of this space, can trigger the repeated mapping and free collision from the inside out and then from the outside in... Isn’t this also a unique performance art?

Tong Yanrunan often explains his methodology by the story “Pao Ding skillfully dismembering an ox”. He uses his painting brush just like using a knife, and the knife cut deep into the bone. It somehow reminds me of Francis Bacon, a painter who was also keen to dissect the insides. In contrast, Tong Yanrunan’s painting style is more peaceful, which is closely related to his enduring speculation on oriental philosophy. The ancient world view and thoughts of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi are the source of his ideas. Through perceptual subjective initiative, he tries to recognize, observe, explore “art” and “Taoism”. At the same time, he still takes the specific object as the foothold. The “subject” thus presented seems to be void, but in fact it is concrete. Finally, he quietly returned to the painter’s original and portrait’s original.

                                          Xie Xiaoting

Director of Suzhou Museum

Curatorial Words

There has been a contradiction concerning the multidimensional interaction between man and nature, as well as between man and the universe in the history of human development, from the philosopher Protagoras’ saying “Man is the measure of all things” in Greek, to the humanistic spirit centered on human beings in the Italian Renaissance. Tong Yanrunan has remained the same portrait creation all long, reflecting on the nihility of human nature, appreciate the persistence of each individual life and perceive the portrait beyond the image. The unchanging portrait creating style in the past 25 years is an enlightening experience for him to responses to the frivolous concepts of contemporary art transformed, and deconstructs the world of materialization that is laterally expanding and changing. This is the way for Tong Yanrunan to reflect on himself. It is also a symbol of experiencing the pure return with superior perception as an individual.

Throughout the movement of brush strokes and the sprinkling of colors, we feel an invigoration extracted from desultoriness in the portrait paintings created by Tong Yanrunan. The subtle details of all characters are expressed with his inner thoughts, and each stroke is filled with the passion of life. It is the free solidification of the inner emotions between him and the model on the canvas. His techniques of portrait has transcended some that of oil painting, containing his unique understanding of life and spiritual insights. As Hegel said, “Art transforms every detail of the visual appearance in providing a locus for the self-images of the eyes or the mind, and so a place for content.”

Viewing his oil paintings, it seems that Tong Yanrunan is looking for a window to show his own understanding of human nature, and express his unique emotions about human nature and the universe. His maintenance of creative state of free and smooth expression of feelings makes his works show strong characteristics of the times. As for the painting language, he finds out a multi-dimensional channel between human nature and the universe. He emphasizes images and even beyond them, thereby lifts the works to a philosophical level, to express the spirit created by himself. The spirit, as the essence of art, makes him even more remarkable.

By Ji Yunfei, at 3:08 a.m., Mar. 5th, 2023