ZAO WOU-KI: PIONEER OF THE 21ST CENTURY

趙無極：二十一世紀的先鋒

Dominique de Villepin?

（多米尼克?德?維爾潘）

General Advisor of Centennial Retrospective Exhibition of Zao Wou-Ki

Former Prime Minister of France,?Honorary Chairman of the Foundation for Art and Culture

The lessons of a lifetime畢生的學問

In Zao Wou-Ki’s highly personal journey, what did he draw from the depths of himself? What lessons could he learn? I will personally remember six of them:
在趙無極個人獨特的藝術生涯中，他汲取了什么樣的教訓或者獲取了什么的經驗，我覺得一共有六點：
The first one, the importance of work and example which is embodied in the high figure of the Scholar, transmitted through his family heritage via his Song ancestors and the image of his grandfather and father. He knows that Chinese painting owes its status, its originality and contemplative depth, to its central place within society. Unlike the West where it became the monopoly of virtuoso craftsmen, painting remains the business of thinkers, of scholars painting with and for other scholars, in a daily practice of the great classics of poetry and thought.

第一，職責和榜樣的重要性。學者的崇高形象讓我們認識到職責和榜樣的重要性。趙無極的宋代先祖、他的祖父和父親作為家族中的前輩以身作則，樹立典范，讓這種重要性代代相傳。他深知中國畫的地位、原創(chuàng)性和立意深度都歸功于中國畫本身在社會中的核心地位。與西方不同，繪畫在中國并未成為技藝高超的工匠們的專利，而依然是思想家們、學者們的一種工具，他們會在日常創(chuàng)作中積極吸納、實踐、傳承詩歌和思想經典。

The second lesson is openness to others, because Zao Wou-Ki is convinced of the creative force of friendship, sharing and exchange. His approach is one of trust in man, trust in nature and in the world. Although he does experience doubts and worries of betrayal, trust always prevails. In his Self-portrait written with the great complicity of his wife Fran?oise that we are so honored and pleased to have with us tonight, he will be able to say “I love my friends just as I tend the bonsai trees, orange trees and orchids in my dining room every morning at breakfast time, while drinking .(tea)”

第二，包容他人。趙無極深信友誼、分享和溝通能夠賦予人創(chuàng)作靈感。他相信人類、相信自然、相信世界。盡管他常常為懷疑和背叛所困擾，但信任始終占據(jù)上風。就像我們今天看到的趙無極與妻子弗朗索瓦共同創(chuàng)作的《自畫像》，他通過《自畫像》傳達了這樣一種理念：“每天早晨我會一邊品茶，一邊細心照料飯廳里的盆景、橘樹和蘭花，就像我照顧自己的朋友一樣”。

It is therefore not surprising that Zao Wou-Ki knew most of the great artists of his time, not only to share but also to debate, to confront points of view on art and on the world, to overcome the obstacles that lay in front of him, on canvas and in life. And this debate, he pursues it until the end with living artists, those intercessors who mean so much to him, whether they are called Rembrandt, Cézanne, Matisse or Picasso, who help him to overcome the obstacles, to move forward along the path he has chosen.

因此，趙無極熟悉他那個時代大部分偉大的藝術家，這點并不令人驚訝，這不僅是為了與他人分享自己的觀點，也是為了就不同的藝術和世界觀開展辯論，希冀克服創(chuàng)作和生活中的困難。趙無極和倫勃朗、塞尚、馬蒂斯、畢加索等偉大藝術家之間的這場辯論一直持續(xù)到最后一刻，他在這些藝術家的指引下克服障礙，沿著所選擇的道路前行。

The third lesson is the conviction that all the arts are linked and work towards the same goals of beauty and truth. He believes in a necessary dialogue between all the arts and especially between painting and poetry. All his life, he sought the company of poets and engaged with them to create wonderful art books. He turned to Henri Michaux, René Char, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Yves Bonnefoy and so many others. But his dialogue with poetry also applies to other arts, such as music with composers like Edgar Varèse or Pierre Boulez, or even architecture with Ieoh Ming Pei. And to each of them, he will want to express his gratitude through dedicated works, Tributes to those who, friends and artists, have inspired him. Without doubt, he experienced the last glimmerings of a fraternity of the arts, before the fragmentation and isolation, which won contemporary art in the last decades.

第三，所有的藝術都是相互聯(lián)系的，都致力于追求美和真理。他堅信各種藝術間需要進行必要的對話，尤其是繪畫和詩歌之間的對話。他一生都在尋求與詩人為伴，與他們合力創(chuàng)作精彩的藝術書籍。他向亨利·米修、勒內·夏爾、利奧波德·塞達爾·桑戈爾、博納富瓦等人求教。但他與詩歌的對話同樣適用于其他的藝術，例如與埃德加?瓦雷茲或皮埃爾·布列茲等作曲家的音樂對話，甚至與貝聿銘的建筑對話。他希望通過特定的作品向每個人表達感激之情，向那些啟發(fā)他的朋友和藝術家致敬。毫無疑問，在過去幾十年中，當代藝術經歷了分裂和孤立，但他親身經歷了藝術團結的最后閃光時刻。

The fourth lesson is the pursuit of an ideal of reconciliation. There is a powerful mystery here: how did this Chinese painter, in love with the world and with all cultures, far from home, managed in the solitude of his studio to clear a path for a possible encounter between the East and the West? What secrets does he hold? The first requirement of his art is to remain alive, that is to say capable of movement and of change. It is at this price that art, he thinks, can be beneficial. But being alive is not enough, it is still necessary, according to the Taoist tradition, to be capable of withdrawing into oneself, from which it becomes possible to unite and gather forces. Its point of balance is not that of compromise, but of a challenge pushed ever further, of reconciliation between reality and art, beauty and truth, to enable painting to become a work of peace of mind, allowing man to be reconciled with himself.

第四，尋求和解。我們需要思考，這位熱愛世界和多元文化的中國藝術家，遠離家鄉(xiāng)，如何在異國他鄉(xiāng)獨自一人努力為貫通東西方文化而奮斗？他到底藏著什么樣的秘密？他對藝術的首要要求是保持活力，即藝術需要適應環(huán)境的變化。他認為，只有這樣藝術才得以傳承下去。然而，僅僅保持活力還不夠，根據(jù)道家傳統(tǒng)，我們還必須回歸本心，只有這樣，我們才能堅定內心想法。在追求平衡的過程中，不滿足于妥協(xié)，不斷挑戰(zhàn)自我，在現(xiàn)實和藝術、美和真理之間找到和解的平衡點，讓畫作成為能夠給人帶來內心平靜的作品，讓人能夠與自己和解。

The fifth lesson, the commitment to metamorphoses, because to stay alive, you have to Keep questionning yourself. Zao Wou-Ki will never cease to apply this rule to his art. On the question of color, by constantly broadening his palette to reach the vibration of being. On the question of space, in the place to be given to the void, in the format of his paintings, in the creation of refuges or suspended territories. On the question of time, inseparable from rhythm and breath, which contribute to the formation of meaning, a decisive factor for him as he intends to go ever further.

第五，努力蛻變。為了保持活力，必須不斷地質疑自我。趙無極在創(chuàng)作時始終秉持這一理念。在色彩運用方面，他不斷拓寬調色板來表現(xiàn)沖突。在空間結構方面，他堅持留白，通過繪畫作品創(chuàng)造出的一種特殊空間。在時間方面，他認為節(jié)奏和呼吸密不可分，時間、節(jié)奏和呼吸三者相互作用，賦予更深層次的意義，推動他不斷前進。

It is therefore important for him to distinguish between two different conception of time, the one which passes and the other one which lasts, as well as to distinguish two conception of space, the visible and the invisible, without ever forgetting what is the basis of the quest: the beautiful, the just, the true.Through metamorphosis, Zao Wou-Ki opposes the great teaching of Chinese philosophy to a Western art still and always captivated by the permanence of the form, by the idea of the being of things that must be captured on canvas, against the sensitive world. On the contrary in China, there are no distinct states, only incessant passages，varied polarizations in a thought of flux and change.

因此，他需要區(qū)分流逝的時間和持續(xù)的時間這兩種時間概念，以及可見空間和不可見空間這兩種空間概念，他也始終記得探索的真諦，即美、正義和真實。趙無極通過變革讓中國哲學的偉大教義與西方藝術形式形成鮮明對比。西方藝術始終沉迷于形式的永恒性，通常追求將物體永遠地固定在畫布上，并不注重表達敏感世界的變化。中國藝術則認為事物沒有明確固定的狀態(tài)，而是不斷地變遷和流轉，思維方式通常更加多元和靈活。

Zao Wou-Ki is fully in line with this demand for movement, against a frozen history of art. Painting for him must be in touch with its time, in breath with the evolution of customs and habits, tastes and expectations. He applies this lesson,including to colors, noting that black had been repudiated by the Impressionists, before returning to favor in the era of lyrical abstraction, after 1945. Painting for him is not locking up life in a tomb or produce a bouquet of dried flowers, but it is creating life itself, in a moment of History.
趙無極始終順應變化，反對藝術歷史的僵化。對他而言，繪畫必須與時俱進，必須與人們的習慣、習俗、品位、期望遙相呼應。他將這一原則運用到色彩方面，指出黑色曾為印象派所排斥，但卻在抒情抽象主義時代（1945年后）重新受到青睞。他認為，繪畫不是將生命封存在墳墓中，也不是制作一束干花，而是通過畫布呈現(xiàn)某個時刻生命的活力。
The final lesson perhaps for Zao Wou-Ki is the importance of harmony without which Chinese thought would not even be possible. This harmony is the only law of things, the condition of the intelligibility of the world and of human life in society. In our troubled century, it is our only chance for unity and cooperation around common goods. But this ideal of harmony must sometimes be embodied and expressed in our lives. For Zao Wou-Ki, harmony reveals itself in a chosen place, a place that he inhabits and that inhabits his work. He will never forget the magic of this Hangzhou lake, where he learned for the first time to see, to translate with his brush "this breath of airon the calm of water" that he will pursue all his life. On his paper, as on his canvas, he will want to capture the quivering life that can only be measured when the heart of a being beats at the same rhythm, with the same trembling murmur, as that of nature. At this moment, in this vast undertaking of radiography of reality, the artist understands that he is "alive", to become one with Nature, and as such, he can experience and transmit to us, if only fleetingly, the feeling of eternity.

第六，和諧的重要性。和諧是中國思想的核心。這種和諧是事物存在的唯一法則，是整個世界和社會中的人類被理解的前提條件。在這個混亂的世界中，我們必須秉持和諧的理念，團結合作，實現(xiàn)共同利益。但是我們必須將和諧的理念付諸實際行動并在日常生活中表現(xiàn)出來。對于趙無極而言，和諧不僅顯現(xiàn)于他棲身之所，也顯現(xiàn)于他的作品之中。他永遠都不會忘記西湖給他帶來的非凡體驗，那是他第一次學會用畫筆表現(xiàn)微風吹拂水面的獨特感覺，而這個感覺將伴隨他一生。無論是紙上還是畫布上，他都試圖捕捉并表現(xiàn)出自然與生命之間的共振和共鳴。在這位藝術家探索現(xiàn)實生活、進行藝術創(chuàng)作的過程中，他意識到自己是“活著的”，與自然融為一體。此刻的他能夠體驗永恒的感覺，并通過藝術作品將這種感覺傳達給我們，即使這種感覺可能在觀賞作品的瞬間即刻消失。

Today more than ever, Zao wou-ki is alive with his painting among all of us. And we can make the full measure of his presence, the gift that he had made to us by the very precious exhibition that has happen today at the academy of Arts in Hangzhou. Zao wou-ki is standing in front of us as one of the most imaginative, one of the most creative, one of the most innovative, and certainly the most universal artist of the century. Thank you very much!

如今，趙無極的作品依然充滿生命力，并且比以往任何時候都更加鮮活。通過今天在中國美術學院舉辦的珍貴展覽，我們可以充分感受到他的存在，以及他所帶來的饋贈。透過趙無極的作品，我們能夠感受到他的創(chuàng)造力和藝術貢獻，他是這個世紀最富想象力、最具創(chuàng)造力、最富創(chuàng)新精神的藝術家之一，無疑也是最具全球影響力的藝術家之一。感謝聆聽！

This is the third?part of Dominique de Villepin's keynote speech delivered at the forum, "The Way Is Infinite: Zao Wou-Ki's World of Art", on September 19, 2023.

本文為2023年9月19日，多米尼克·德·維爾潘在“大道無極——趙無極的藝術世界論壇”上的主旨演講的第三部分。

Some illustrations of Zao Wou-Ki's works in this article are slightly different with those in the speaking script due to copyrights.

由于作品圖版權限制，文中配圖與講稿提到的相應作品圖略有出入。

All works by Zao Wou-Ki : ? Zao Wou-Ki-ProLitteris, Zurich.