夏之宁：谜一般的画境

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夏之宁

Xia Zhining

1961年生于重庆，1995年获得哥本哈根大学博士学位，重庆大学教授，博士生导师，校长助理，第十届、第十一届全国人大代表，中国色谱学会常务理事，重庆市色谱学会理事长，重庆市分析测试学会副理事长，中国药学会高级会员。

Born in Chongqing in 1961,he received a doctorate from Copenhagen University in 1995, a professor, a doctoral supervisor, an assistant to the president at Chongqing University, a deputy to the 10th and 11th National People's Congress, an executive director of the China Chromatography Association, council president of Chongqing Chromatography Association, a vice council president of the Chongqing Association for Instrumental Analysis, and a senior member of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

在夏之宁的“颂”美术中心转悠，在“颂美”那虚幻、斑斓、迷蒙的近100幅画阵里徘徊，有种穿行在梦境里的恍然。

那些悬浮在画框里的穿越时间的碎片或某个生活片段里的记忆，让人有种说不清的感觉，几分迷离，几分回味。

现实中，夏之宁研究的是化学，无论官方还是民间若干耀眼的头衔，似乎都与绘画风马牛不相及。

As you saunter around Xia Zhining’s “Ode” Art Center and wander among its nearly 100 illusory, colorful and misty paintings, you might feel, for a moment, strayed in some one's dreamland.

Those fragments of timetraveling or a passage memory in life, floating among the picture frames, present you with an inexplicable feeling,somewhat blurred or some food for thought.

But in fact, Xia Zhining is specialized in chemistry,regardless of his dazzling titles, either official or private,seemingly has nothing to do with painting.

野生涂鸦播下艺术种子

The Seed of Art Disguised in Amateur Doodles

说起自己的绘画之路，夏之宁说，这并不是突如其来的心血来潮，其实可以追溯到小学时期。当时，他先后跟多位毕业于四川美术学院的老师学画画。一位曾在电影院画海报的老师，教会他如何画幅面宽阔、场景宏大的画；比例、透视、解剖、构图等绘画基础，则受益于一位素描老师；最令他难忘的骆老师，则教他在街道向阳院的墙上绘画。

正是当年在杨公桥、童家桥一带向阳院墙上的“野生涂鸦”作品，为夏之宁的绘画艺术播下了种子。

虽然，大学以后夏之宁几乎再没碰过画笔。但儿时的学画经历，早已在他心中播下艺术的种子，对绘画的爱好一直保持着。无论是在岳麓山下的湖南大学，还是丹麦哥本哈根大学，当地美术馆、博物馆、画廊都是他最爱去的地方。

直到有一天，这颗艺术的种子突然被唤醒，萌发。

2011年初春的某一天，已经任职于重庆大学化学化工学院的夏之宁，被一幅画报上的摄影作品吸引：那一片从极低角度仰视的天空，一下子激起了夏之宁儿时的记忆——那也是他曾在树丛中、花丛下仰望过的苍穹。

激动之余，他决定把这种感受画下来，把这种回忆艺术化地呈现于画布上，让观者仰视天空，感受一只飞翔的鹰带来的自由、豁达、空旷与无限。

这幅题为《仰望》的画，受到各方好评。小试牛刀，便让夏之宁欲罢不能。八年间，他创作了大约300幅作品。作为色谱专家，夏之宁说，看着各种溶剂就着颜料在画布上流淌、撞色、挥发，凝聚成各种肌理，继而形成一种非自然的图像，那种艺术快感无以言表。

Speaking of his drive to painting, Xia Zhining said that it was not suddenly seized by a whim, but could be traced back to his primary school. At that time, he learned painting from several teachers who graduated from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. A teacher who used to draw posters in the cinema taught him how to draw a picture with a wide face and a large scene; the painting basics, such as proportion,perspective, anatomy and composition, were taught by a sketch teacher; while the most unforgettable teacher for him was Luo, who taught him how to paint on the street wall facing the sun.

It is the “amateur doodles” on the street walls along Yanggongqiao and Tongjiaqiao that sowed seeds of painting for Xia Zhining.

Although Xia Zhining hardly touched the brush after college, his childhood painting had already sown the seeds of art in his heart, and his love for painting had never abated. Whether in Hunan University at the foot of Yuelu Mountain or University of Copenhagen in Denmark, local art galleries, museums and galleries were his favorite places to hang out.

Until one day, the seed was suddenly awakened and started to germinate.

One day in the early spring of 2011, Xia Zhining,who had already worked in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Chongqing University,was attracted by a photographic work on a pictorial:the piece of sky from an extremely low perspective suddenly brought out Xia Zhining’s childhood memory-that was also the sky he had been looking up to in the trees and under the flowers.

More than excitement, he decided to paint this feeling and present it artistically on the canvas so that viewers can look up at the sky and feel the freedom, openness,emptiness and infinity brought by a flying eagle.

This painting entitledLooking Upwas well received by all viewers. Inspired by this success, Xia Zhining was hooked. Over the following eight years,he created about 300 works. As a chromatographic expert, Xia Zhining said that the art pleasure of watching all kinds of solvents flow, contrast,volatilize on the canvas, condense into various textures, and then form an unnatural image, was beyond words.

创作来源于冥想

Meditation Inspires Creation

夏之宁绘画几乎不外出写生。

一来是因为太忙，二来也与他的另一个爱好——写诗，不无联系。他说，画画就如同写诗一样，几乎所有的构思、构图都来自于冥想。

“早上醒来后，晚上睡着前，闭上眼睛，眼前就会出现许多画面，其中的一幅越来越清晰，而且十分美丽，从构图到色彩，从虚到实，艺术性也逐渐显现。”乘车时，或在飞机上，夏之宁的思维也异常活跃。

夏之宁绘画的主题也多半来源于“3Y”，即“阅读”“阅览”和“音乐”，“读《弘一法师》之后，我脑海里反复出现一个画面，于是就有了《向往》《出家之前》这种臆想出来的画。”

回顾这些年的作画经历，夏之宁将自己的学习探索分成三个阶段：“临摹改造”“追师求道”及“主观表现”。

“临摹改造”并非简单的临摹，类似于基于前人的科学原理、研究方法和技术，应用于一个新的方向或对象。

经过三年的“临摹改造”，夏之宁的绘画深化为“追师求道”。夏之宁喜欢朱德群、赵无极、曹俊的表现形式，也喜欢梵高、莫奈绘画的那种视觉冲击，还喜欢蒙德里安、波洛克以点线面来表现的手法。

而“主观表现”则是经过“临摹改造”的学习、“追师问道”的练习后的纯意识阶段，把自己的经历、回忆、认识、向往、梦想通过绘画展现出来。

Xia Zhining rarely went out to sketch.

On the one hand, he was too busy, on the other hand, it related to his another hobby, writing poetry.He said that painting was like writing poetry, and almost all the ideas and compositions came from meditation.

“When I close my eyes after waking up in the morning or before falling asleep at night, many pictures would appear in front of me, and one of them would become more and more clear and beautiful,from composition to color, from virtual to real world, artistry would also gradually manifest.” Xia Zhining’s thinking was also very active when he was riding or on the plane.

The themes of Xia Zhining's painting also mostly came from “RBM”, i.e. “reading”, “browsing”and “music”. “After I readMaster Hong Yi, a picture kept popping up in my mind, so I got ideas for such imaginary paintings asYearningandLife Before Becoming A Monk. ”

Looking back on these paintings in past years,Xia Zhining divided his study and exploration into three stages: “Copying and Reformation”, “Pursuing the Realm of Teachers to Seek Tao (Truth)” and“Subjective Expression”.

“Copying and Reformation” was not simply copying, and it was more of applying to a new orientation or objects based on scientific principles,research methods and techniques of predecessors.

After three years of “Copying and Reformation”,Xia Zhining’s painting was improved further into“Pursuing the Realm of Teachers to Seek Dao (Truth)”.Xia Zhining like the expressions of Zhu Dequn, Zhao Wuji and Caojun, the visual impact of Vincent van Gogh and Monet’s paintings, and the drip painting of Mondrian and Pollock.

While the “Subjective Expression” was the pure consciousness stage after he studied “Copying and Reformation” and practiced “Pursuing the Realm of Teachers to Seek Dao (Truth)”, the painter managed to show his own experiences, memories,understandings, aspirations and dreams through painting.

诗意作画天马行空

Poetic Painting Is A Powerful and Unconstrained Style

在夏之宁的作品里，经常会出现一个孤立的背影，或站或坐，与天地融为一体，讲述着一个“孤独者”或悲或喜的内心。

其实，倘若仔细审视夏之宁的作品，就会发现生命中历历在目的情感，比如执着、矛盾、冷静、悲悯、甜蜜等，各种纠结的情绪蛰伏在潜意识与显意识之间。夏之宁意图将这些情感找到一个平衡的出口，率真诚挚地呈现灵魂深处与自我生命的对话。

夏之宁创作时，并不在意绘画的技法，而是让色彩在画布上任意流淌，各种颜色、线条在变化运动中产生奇妙的化学反应，他自称为“无束画法”。

所以，在他的绘画中，可以看到各种“撞色”，各种线条在变化与交错。如2014年创作的油画《梵音》，画面以深褐色调营造出一种略显荒凉的虚无感。

夏之宁将艺术视为感情的放任，心灵的幻象，一种在精神世界中超越现实的理想。正如他的油画《云开远方》，以充满活力的画面向我们展示那个丰富多彩的心灵世界。

夏之宁坦言，当他拿起画笔时，“画是随着心走的”。“开始的时候与动笔前构思无二，可是绘画过程中，当进入一种忘我境地时，思维就发散开来，直至很远、很开……”

夏之宁说，绘画是很浪漫的事。“就像平日里，交流用的是白话，但文字之美还在于诗词与歌。把绘画提升至充满诗意的表达，让观众的心情也跟随我的心情浪漫起来，愉悦起来。”

这也是近几年来，夏之宁以“无求”的心态，“无束”的手法，展现因为浪漫而充满诗意的“无形”的愉悦。

In Xia Zhining’s works, there often appears a lone figure, standing or sitting, blending with sky and earth and telling the sad or joyful inner story of a“lonely person”.

In fact, if we examine Xia Zhining’s works carefully, we will find vivid sentiments in life,such as persistence, contradiction, calmness,compassion, sweetness and so on, as well as all the tangled sentiments lurking somewhere between the subconscious and the consciousness. Xia Zhining intended to find a balanced outlet for these sentiments, and to present a sincere dialog between the innermost of soul and self.

Xia Zhining didn’t care much about techniques when he was painting, but let colors flow freely on the canvas. Various colors, shapes and lines had wonderful chemical reactions in the changing movement, which he claimed as “No-boundary painting”.

So in his paintings, you can see various“contrasting colors” and changing and intertwining of various lines. For example, the paintingBuddhist Soundcreated in 2014 manifests a slightly desolate nihilistic feeling in a dark brown tone.

Xia Zhining regarded the art as outlet of his sentiments, the illusion of his mind, an ideal that transcends reality in a spiritual world, just as his oil paintingClouds Parting Afarshows us the colorful spiritual world with a vibrant picture.

Xia Zhining said frankly that “the painting followed his heart” when he picked up the brush. “In the beginning, I drew as my prior conception, but as I was painting and entering a state of ecstasy, my thinking spread out until it went far and wide...”

Xia Zhining said painting is very romantic. “Just like in daily life, we speak in plain words, but the beauty of words lies in poetry and songs. (I want to)sublimate painting to a poetic expression, and let the audience also feel the romantic mood of myself and enjoy it.”

This is also Xia Zhining’s mental state of no pursuit and techniques of “no boundaries” in recent years, showing his romantic, poetic and “intangible”delights.