岳镇川灵，海涵地负，至於造化之神秀、阴阳之明晦，万里之远，可得之於咫尺间， 其非胸中自有丘壑，发而见诸形容，未必知此。—《宣和画谱》卷十《山水叙论》
从“八五”美术新潮以来，已经二十年过去，新潮固然仍然继续向前走着，曾经被新潮不屑一顾的传统却渐次地渍染着画坛，因为从传统艺术中散发出来的诱人之美，使许多人不能不被传统的魅力所感召因而又重新回到传统之中。如果我把前者叫做“後现代”，那麽，我愿意把後者叫做“後传统”—“後现代”因有许多不同的特徵而不易界定，而我眼中的“後传统”，则是在现代文化语境下，不仅从笔墨图像上而且从精神意味上将传统加以重新组合与释读，以逼近传统艺术经典为主要标志。
在这种倾向里，刘彦水的画风是突出的。
艺术史家贡布里希在其不朽的名著《艺术与错觉》中试图证明，没有一个艺术家能摒弃一切程式“画其所见”，因此即使再富有独创性的艺术家，也无法绕开传统的图式化程式，艺术家靠近传统或者远离传统，都无法离开传统程式。这说明视觉杂性的再现的发现，贯穿在号称以“创新”为主要特色的西方艺术史之中。而对既成图式的依赖，同样也贯穿在中国的艺术史传统之中，虽然它曾经被视为因循守旧。
回顾中国绘画发展史，至少从元代始，中国画就明显地具备了以下两种主要特徵：
一、作为一位画家，在某种审美取向的主导下，将前人的艺术遗产编排成有序的传递谱系；
二、将抽象的笔墨意味的表现质量作为主要衡量标之一。
因此，一部从十四世纪以後的中国画史，在某种意义上就成为“艺术史的绘画”与笔墨的表现史，被写进艺术史的画家也面临着一个大致相同的艺术问题——以笔墨表现渊源於古典的艺术世界—像十四世纪以後出现於沈周、文徵明、董其昌、清初四王等人笔下的“艺术经典”，大多是在此两根轴线中沉淀与淘洗而成的。
理清了这样的线索，能有效地读解山水画家刘彦水和他的作品。
在刘彦水的作品中，我们可以发现一个轨迹：他站在现代的立场上力求最为纯粹地回到古典，这种回到古典的“重返”过程虽然与时下所提倡的“表现自我”的“艺术个性”有方凿圆枘之嫌，但却体现了他执著的精神追求—於是，我们在他的画中也看到了古典绘画及其笔墨境象的神圣感。为此，刘彦水长年孜孜不倦地把从古典艺术世界中领悟出来的山水树石以及笔墨形态被分解後又重新加以组合。
传统图式以及由此而来的笔墨，在刘彦水那里是富有活力的，因为它首先是文化的、美学的，是特定形式中的精神取向和文化内涵的折射。虽然我们现在可以从刘彦水的作品中看出他的取法之所在，但刘彦水的作品及表现方式要告诉我们的，正是传统山水曾经是什麽和可能是什麽—这里体现着他对中国艺术本质和艺术规律的理解与把握。
刘彦水以灵敏的技术以及悟性，将古人的山水意象置於当下的文化语境中以便进行不同空间的对话，仿如一个现代人对另一个现代人讲述着古老的故事，《云去云来》《幽谷图》《湖山碧树图》《林峦清幽图》《溪山无尽》《游林泉爱湖山》等等作品都是如此。借助於古典图式然而却是以意取象的山川流水、林木烟云、曲径庭院等，都在画家的笔下释放出特有的灵性与诗意，也无不使我们生发出思古幽情。因为他满足的是久已潜在於我们内心的审美需求，作品中的山川流水、林木烟云、曲径庭院，以及精的用笔、平和的墨趣等，无不弥漫着浓的文化气息、自然情怀和内在意绪，他的作品让我们再次从容地体验虽然已经发生但久久被遗忘的审美过程。
我们可以惊奇地发现，刘彦水就像一个魔术师，将古人的各种笔法与图像聚合在一起，岁月的沧桑、艺术的灵性、自我的感悟被体现得淋漓尽致。而由此构成的作品不仅技巧老到精湛，而且对贯穿在绘画中的古典人文精神的承载也到达了相当的层面，古典情怀和现代视觉方式的绝妙融合，使他的绘画在古典式的理想主义精神中创造了令人悠然远思的意境。其极富个性的独特的笔墨意象，丰富了当代山水画创作的美感疆域，更显示出古今相通的艺术文脉。
无疑，对传统与当代文化语境的深刻认知，拓宽了刘彦水的视野，他在高古、雅洁的审美选择中显示出文思跳荡、灵心飞动与敏锐感受的性情本色。而流露在作品中的散淡、冲和、空明、含蓄，或者是雄浑、深远、厚重、绚丽，无不是古典心境的现代重现。它是超越当今画坛市俗浮尘的一个通道，在这个通道里，人们的心灵可以获得一种精神的超越与慰藉，而这可能正是刘彦水绘画中迷人的光彩之所在。
然而更可贵的在於，刘彦水又能够从古典回到当代。
在刘彦水的近作中，还明显地表现出他在直面生活、直面对象时把传统融入创作之中的努力。像他创作的一系列以太行山为主题的作品，就充分地展现出他使传统融入自身独特的生活思考和生命体验之中的努力。
在由古典向现实靠拢的诸多新作之中，笔墨符号的现实化与盎然生机，都表现出画家在传统文化与现代文明之间的综合性把握能力，以及向现实生活靠拢所作出的巨大努力，太行山在他笔下成为一种载体或象徵，寄寓着中国人对山川自然所特有的乡情、乡恋、乡思的情感与精神的意蕴。
在“幽幽太行”系列作品中，画家以茂密之笔呈露清明的心源之美，既展示了大自然的鲜活生动，又展示了有古典艺术世界有的清幽安详之美。史书记荆浩隐於太行之洪谷，自号洪谷子，善为云中山顶，四面峻厚—也许这些历史记忆都给了刘彦水以灵感。在他的眼中，现实中的太行山水的一山一石、一草一木固然都饱含着造化的神奇与自然的形态，但还有一种来自於历史的人文记忆，重峦叠嶂、烟雨空、屋宇小径、霜林落叶……都浸透着乡情，弥漫着诗意，历史画面与自然山水给他以艺术激情和创作灵感。
“幽幽太行”系列来自於现实，却流露出心灵迹化的特点：因为作品中层林叠嶂、烟水迷离的景象，正是画家特意强调的意味与情趣。因此说刘彦水会靠摹古进行创作，那并没有看到刘彦水的真正用心之处，他把从古人那里领悟出来的审美意味通过画笔注入画面之中，我们不难找到乡村的生活气息：深山村落的袅袅炊烟、树林掩映的红顶新房、山间瀑布与蜿蜒的小径……都在烟云空灵之中与人的精神相连接，使有限的意象导向若隐若现的无限存在。在无限的存在中生发出心灵的远游、乡关的梦寐。於是，他的画就和古人的画息息相通了—能够在造化与人的心灵之间透出艺术精神，表达的正是千馀年来绳绳相续的天人合一的生命体验。因此更重要的，是画家把自己的艺术从古典模式的萧疏荒寒与幽寂冷清之中解放出来，注入了生活的现实气息与情趣意味。笔墨之间、意象之间，带着生命中的感性因素，太行山水的现实之美变成富於生命色彩的意象图景。
无论是来自於现实山川，还是来自於古典山水，画家都力求能够营造出一种或水墨或浅绛或青绿所特有的既坚实凝重又清空透明的美质。於是，我们就看到了他自己的鉴古开新的成就。
重要的是，文人绘画传统的滋养与浸润，使刘彦水在艺术求索中获益匪浅，他通过古人的艺术图像承继了“诗心”与“文脉”，从而也使自己在创作中从对物抒情转为对心性、心境的寻找、发现与书写。回归古典，叩问经典，这是刘彦水在进行艺术实践和体悟艺术精神的过程中最为实在的行动。他的根扎在传统文化的土壤里，枝叶却已尽情地伸向现代文明的空间。
The Modern Intrigue of Classical Forms
— A description of Liu Yanshui’s painting
Liu Mo
Already twenty years have passed since the 85 Art Movement, but the Movement still presses on. Traditions that once went unnoticed by the movement, are now gradually seeping into the art world. With the alluring beauty that traditional art exudes, many cannot resist its fascination, and are once again returning to the tradition. If we call the former the “post-modern” , then I would like to call this later trend “post-tradition” – “post-modern” is difficult to categorise because of its various characteristic. So to me “post-tradition” is rebuilding and reinterpreting of Chinese tradition in the context of modern culture, not only from the brush strokes of the picture, but from mental meaning , by taking traditional classic artwork as the main symbols.
In this trend, Liu Yanshui’s painting style is outstanding.
The immortal work of art historian Gombrich Art and Illusion, attempts to show that there is no artist who can completely relinquish patterns, and “paint what he sees”. Therefore, even the more original artists cannot avoid the patterns of traditional formation. Whether their style approaches the traditional or is far removed from it, no artist can leave behind the evolution of tradition altogether. This explains how Western art history, whose major characteristic is reputed to be “innovation”, comes to have a repeated rediscovery of the complexity of vision running through it. In what has become the reliable formula, the same also runs through the traditions of Chinese art history, although this conservatism was once considered a hindrance to progress. Looking back at the historical development of painting in China, from the Yuan Dynasty, the two following distinctive features were already obvious in Chinese painting:
1. Leading by a certain aesthetics orientation, a painter arranged art heritages of predecessors into a kind of order of testimonial hierarchy.
2. The quality manifest in abstract brushwork was considered one of the most important standards for evaluation.
Because of this, one part of the history of Chinese painting since the fourteenth century has, in a sense, become “the painting of art history” and the history of manifestation of brushwork; it is almost the same artistic problem now faced by painters who were recorded in art history, that the origin manifest in the brushwork is in the classic art world. Like those that emerged after the fourteenth century–the " art classics" painted by Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Dong Qichang, the “Four Wangs”(Wang Hui, Wang Shimin, Wang Jian and Wang Yuanqi) of the early Qing – the vast majority come about through precipitation and refinement around these two axes.
Only with this trail of clues clarified, can we effectively interpret landscape painter Liu Yanshui and his work.
In Liu Yanshui's works , we see a trajectory: He stands in a modern position striving for the purest way to reach the classics. Although it discords with the "artistic individualism" of "self-expression" advocated today, this process of the "return journey" back to the classics embodies his spiritual pursuit, thus we can see the sense of sacredness of classics and their strokes in his paintings. Therefore, Liu Yanshui worked assiduously to break down and then bring together the trees and stone of the landscapes with the patterns of the brushwork he conceived from the classic art world.
Traditional forms and the brushwork therein are very alive in Liu Yanshui because they are first and foremost cultural, aesthetic; they are the refraction of spiritual orientation and cultural connotation in a specific form. Although we can now see the source of his technique in his works, Liu Yanshui's work and methods of expression tell us just what traditional landscape painting once was and what it can be. This embodies his nature with regard to Chinese art and his grasp and understanding of the laws of art.
Liu Yanshui, with his keen technical skill and savvy, places the landscape imagery of the ancients in the contemporary cultural context in order to conduct dialogue in a different space, just like a modern day person narrating for another a story of ancient times. Clouds Go, Clouds Come; Secluded Valley Scene; Picture of Jade Tree on Mountain; Peaceful Mountain Forest Scene; Brook and Mountain are Endless; Play in Forest Spring, Love of Lake and Mountain – these works are all like this. They borrow from classic forms and yet the image is a product of his own mind: water flowing in mountains and valleys, misty forests, winding gardens paths, all are released by the painter's brush and are strongly spiritual and poetic. All instill an exquisite sense of ancient times. Because they satisfy a primordial private longing in our hearts for aesthetics, the scenes in these paintings of water flowing in mountains and valleys, misty forests, winding gardens paths as well as his fine use of the brush, gentle interesting ink work, they are therefore saturated with cultural flavour, natural mood and intrinsic intention. His works allow us once again to leisurely experience for ourselves the aesthetic process, now long since present, but long-forgotten.
We may discover with amazement that Liu Yanshui is like a magician, bringing every kind of technique and form of painting of the ancients together as one: the changes over time, the spiritualism of art, the vivid and incisive embodiment of self-inspiration. Works formed in this way are not only skillful and exquisite, they reach such a level carrying the weight of the classic culture within the paintings that are formed. The classic mood and modern visual methods come together in a wonderful fusion, so that Liu Yanshui’s paintings form a soft distant artistic conception in the spirit of idealism of the classic form, enriching the realm of aesthetic sense created in the landscape paintings of our age and further revealing the close link between the ancient and the modern art.
Undoubtedly, a profound understanding of the traditional and modern cultural context broadened Liu Yanshui's field of vision. His elevated, elegant aesthetic choices show his far-sweeping ideas and sensitive spirit. And the release of energy, the rushing, the brilliance and the connotation that flow into his works are virile, profound, solid or delicate and ornate, Interpreting the classics in the modern cultural context. They surpass the common channel of drifting dust that is today's painting world; through this channel the human soul can attain a kind of spiritual transcending and consoling. And this perhaps is the splendour of humanity revealed in Lui Yanshui's painting.
However, even more commendable is Liu Yanshui’s ability to return from the classics to the present day.
In Liu Yanshui’s recent works remains a distinct demonstration of his taking life head on, directly facing his subject, blending tradition with a dedication to his creations. Like his Taihang Mountain series, these works fully reveal his devotion to merging tradition into his reflection on his own unique life and his own life experiences.
In the many of his new works that draw the classics together with realism, the actualization and abundant vitality of the strokes’ symbolism show the painter’s mastery of synthesizing traditional culture and modern civilization and the great effort he puts into addressing real life. Under his brush, Taihang Mountain becomes a kind of vehicle or symbol; it conveys the unique collection of nostalgia, sense of home and home-sickness Chinese people hold in regard to nature.
In the Tranquil Street series, the painter reveals through dense brushwork the beauty that resides in his heart; he shows the lively vividness of mother nature, as well as the beauty of tranquil serenity seen only in the classic art world. It is said that Jing Hao hid himself in a flooded valley of Taihang and gave himself the name Hong Guzi. He enjoyed the mountains peeking through the clouds, the towering peaks on all sides – perhaps these historical notes all gave Liu Yanshui inspiration. In his view, Taihang’s every mountain, every rock, tree and blade of grass hold the mystery of creation and nature’s form, but also hold memories of the history of humanity. Endless mountain ranges and cliffs, enveloped by cloud and rain, garden paths, fallen leaves in frosty forests…all are permeated with a sense of home, fill the air with poetic tension. Historical painting and natural landscapes give Liu Yanshui both enthusiasm for art and creative inspiration.
The Tranquil Taihang series comes from realism, yet reveals a special character in the vestiges of the internal spirit: the work’s layers of forest, multiple peaks and hazy, blurred scenes are just the style and sentiment the painter especially wishes to emphasize. Therefore, to say that Liu Yanshui simply imitates the old in his creations ignores where his heart truly lies. He pours the aesthetic significance of insights taken from the ancients into the picture through each stroke of the brush. It is not difficult to find the taste of village life there: smoke curling up from kitchen chimneys in the remote mountain villages, the red eaves of a rooftop against the forest trees, a waterfall on a winding mountain path…all in an intangible mist and all with a connection to the human spirit, allowing these limited images to guide a gleaming limitless existence. In the limitless existence is produced distant journeys of the mind and dreams of a mountain village. Thus, his painting is closely related to ancient painting – it is able to bring to light the artistic spirit between nature and the mind. What is expressed is a string of more than a thousand years of life experience divinely united. Hence, it is even more important for the artist to liberate himself from the desolate, cold and lonesome classic model, and pour himself into the appeal and sentiment of the breath of real life. In the brushwork, in the images, factors of the sensibilities of life are carried. The real beauty of the Taihang landscape becomes rich with the view of life’s color.
No matter whether taken from the real mountains and valleys or from ancient landscape paintings, the painter pursue the ability to construct the characteristic of water-ink colour, light colour or virid colour that is firm and solid yet clear and transparent. Thereby, we will see his own achievements in mirroring the ancients and beginning something new.
What is important is that the nourishment of and immersion in literati painting traditions allowed Liu Yanshui to profit greatly from his searching in art. He has passed through the pictorial art of the ancients, their “poetic heart” and “cultural context”, and thus been able to express himself in his creations through the object and turn this into the search, discovery and writing for his own heart and frame of mind. Returning to the classics, enquiring into the classics, is Liu Yanshui’s most concrete action in art practicing, including experiencing the spirituality of Chinese art. His roots are firmly grounded in traditional culture and his branches have extended out into the space of modern civilization.