序言
“我对绘画,从小就欢喜。”贺友直的艺术情愫,始于床边日日相伴的戏文装饰以及乡间关帝庙中雕刻的三国故事。
青少岁月里,贺友直于流年中为生活所困。待时代新启,社会需求的转变为他指引了全新的方向。1949年,他绘就首部连环画作品《福贵》。此后,在从事连环画创作的五十多年里,留有百余本连环画作品,总数逾万幅。从商业美术步入专业创作领域的贺友直,从未停下发现与思考的进程,最初谋生的技艺也在自我探索中转化为艺术创作的思辨。1980年,贺友直受聘为中央美术学院年画连环画系首届专业教师,在高等院校中一展艺术实践与理论的高度融合。晚年,他专注于沪甬风情画的创作,世相百态和市井风情皆在笔下起幕上演。
在彼时文艺政策的引领下,连环画蓬勃产出,钢笔画和毛笔明暗画充盈着创作环境。贺友直于传统书画和明清木刻版画中探寻出白描技法的运用,为连环画创作带来全新的视觉传统。而后,改编自鲁迅小说的作品《白光》则一跃风格界限,白描的写实线条化为水墨写意的洗练含蓄。从确立风格到打破风格,这是贺友直一往无前的步伐和创作不止的决心。
贺友直将潜心五十载的连环画创作之特点和艺术面貌延伸至漫画和风俗画的创作中。不同于受文字题材限制的创作,贺友直在其中尽情释放着自己独到的幽默品味和审美取向。他以娴熟的“做戏”本领重现了旧时生活的一颦一笑,凭借笔下的温情和意趣,再现了历史画卷的点滴回眸,在或是利落或是婉转的线条间,演绎着生活体验的记忆画像。
本次展览是苏州博物馆与北京画院的再度携手之作,共展出贺友直的连环画、文学插图、漫画和随笔等各类手稿达160余件。在此,我们既可见“贺氏白描手法”的经典之作,于流畅清丽的线条中感受连环画辉煌时代的回响;亦可见水墨与线描共同搭建场景、制造情节,领略一位学者型画家以形象符号阐释文学意涵的过程。
黄永玉曾评贺友直对连环画“有一种类似宗教的虔诚”。这位笔底有戏的艺术大家,将连环画的表演性注入其一生的艺术脉络之中。于此,尽是可读、可听、可赏的故事,我们且一同纸上观戏。
苏州博物馆馆长
谢晓婷
Foreword
“I’ve been fond of painting since childhood”. The special bond of He Youzhi with art started with opera decorations beside his bed and stories of the Three Kingdoms engraved in the folk Temple of Guandi.
In his youth, He Youzhi was living in poverty during the tumultuous years. And when the new era began, he found his way guided by the changed needs of society. In 1949, he finished his first comic strip Fu Gui. And in the following more than fifty years, he created over a hundred of comic books including ten of thousand and more paintings. He Youzhi, who turned the direction of his art career from commercial field towards professional creation, never ceased discovering and thinking in which way his skills developed for a living also transformed into foundation of art creation in the process of self-exploring. In 1980, He Youzhi was appointed as one of first batch of professional teachers of Department of New Year’s Paintings and Comics Strips in Central Academy of Fine Arts, achieving the integration of art practice and theory at a high level in higher education. In his later years, he focused on painting Shanghai and Ningbo in which social customs and urban culture were vividly unfolded.
Encouraged by the art policies of that time, comic strips thrived with an inclusive atmosphere full of pen drawings and brush drawings using the technique of chiaroscuro. As for He Youzhi, he found out the application of plain drawing out of traditional paintings and calligraphy and woodblock prints of Ming and Qing Dynasties, bringing a fresh visual effect for the creation of comic strips. Later, his work White Light adapted from Lu Xun’s novel of the same name broke the limit of style turning the real lines of plain drawing into the freehand brushwork of ink painting which were more succinct and implicit. The establishment of his artistic style and the subsequent innovation both demonstrated his steps taken forward bravely and resolution for never-ending creation.
He Youzhi applied the characteristics and artistic style of comic strip he drew for fifty years to the creation of cartoon and genre paintings, in which he could freely display his unique taste in humor and aesthetic preference, instead of being limited by the textual theme. He reproduced the appearance of the old time through his adept skill of “making stories”, recreated the details of history through his gentle and vivid brushwork and relived the memory of the experience of life through simple or sophisticated lines.
This exhibition is the second joint effort between Beijing Fine Art Academy and Suzhou Museum, co-exhibiting over 160 pieces of He Youzhi's manuscripts including comic strips, literary illustrations, cartoon paintings and casual drawings. We can appreciate not only the classic work using the technique of plain drawing, feeling the echo of the glorious era of comic strips through those smooth and clear lines, but also the scenes and plots conveyed together by the ink painting and line drawing, figuring out the process in which a scholarly painter interprets the literary implication by pictorial symbols.
Huang Yongyu once said that He Youzhi had an “almost religious devotion” to comic strips. This great artist, who telling stories through his brushwork, paied attention to the story-telling feature of comic strips throughout his lifelong art career. Hence, all of them tell stories for us to read, listen to and enjoy through drawing paper.
序言
转瞬间,贺友直先生离开我们已经八年了。回忆起来,仿佛还有温过的黄酒的味道。用什么字来概括这位前辈呢?恐怕就是一个“小”字。
他个子不高,是个动作敏捷、开口即是满堂彩的小老头儿。这并不是对老先生的不敬,因为他为人爽利,可以和各年龄段的人打成一片,“小老头儿”算是个爱称吧。这么一位“大腕”,他住的房子真叫“小”!一共只有30平米,老人戏称叫“一室四厅”。来客人了就是客厅,摆下餐桌就是餐厅,饭桌上铺块画布就是工作室,帷布一拉就成了卧室。他的好友,上海的学者、艺术家谢春彦先生曾写过一首打油诗,第一句就是:“《山乡巨变》房未变,四十年来守一间。”我想起了陶渊明《归去来兮辞》中的那句:“倚南窗以寄傲,审容膝之易安。”陶渊明虽是隐于乡野,但还是有许多心思的,而贺老居于上海之魔都闹市,竟如此安然,“容膝之安,一肉之味”,他踏踏实实在享受着仿佛大隐于市,实则小民的快乐生活,小菜恰恰,老酒喝喝。说到小酒,对老爷子是件大事,每日必备。他曾刻过一枚闲章,叫“天地一壶宽”。贺老喝的是江南的黄酒,一天喝掉一瓶,一年就是365瓶。当然这个数字还是保守的,如果不受限制,一餐就能喝掉一瓶。这是贺老的女儿贺小珠多次提到的,甚至称之为“老爸的生命口服液。”
关于贺老,最重要的一个“小”字要留给他的艺术。他一生只创作连环画,俗称“小人书”。贺老对自己艺术的总结叫“四小”:小孩子、小动物、小动作、小道具,认为连环画作者必须具备会“演戏”、会“制造”情节的本领。他的作品每帧画幅都跌宕起伏、精彩纷呈,具有很高的艺术性,闪耀着智慧的光芒,读之往往不能释手。《山乡巨变》、《朝阳沟》《小二黑结婚》等作品因此而成为美术史意义的经典,作为“小画种”的连环画一度步入辉煌。可谓即便方寸、咫尺“舞台”,笔底有“戏”,依然能“艳惊四座”。
贺友直先生及其家属、生前好友曾数次向北京画院捐赠作品,如今,北京画院共收藏贺友直的艺术作品700余件,包括《儿时玩耍》《二十四孝》《水浒十丑》等经典作品。此次展览,已经是北京画院和苏州博物馆继于非闇、陈半丁、齐白石、王雪涛、黄永玉、周思聪和卢沉之后的第七次合作,每逢新春佳节,画院的藏品到苏州过年也已成为两家机构的“传统”,在这里要特别感谢苏州博物馆谢晓婷馆长和同仁们的辛勤付出,也愿贺友直先生作品中的幽默、风趣能给苏州观众带来一份生活的闲适和快乐。
北京画院院长
吴洪亮