邓福星
中国艺术研究院研究员、博士生导师
中国艺术研究院学术委员会副主任
我是先读到晚峰的文章，后读他的画作，再后才见到他本人的。
大约在八九年前，他还在延安大学教书，写过一篇批评书画界不良风气的文章寄给《美术观察》（注）。文章的火气大了点，有些话讲得尖刻了一点，但问题抓得很准，剖析得很到位。特别是字里行间流溢着真实的情感，敢说敢议，口无遮拦。读文如见其人，能猜想到作者当是一位爽直而有独立见解 ，并有近乎疾恶如仇的侠义心肠的青年画家。
后来，我见到他的画，是“向日葵系列”。他画的向日葵变形很厉害，有些葵花头重重地低垂着，像是承受了一种超量的负荷，保持着无奈的沉默，有些葵花头都朝向一侧，显然是在期盼什么，似怀着某种希望。晚峰着意于株杆的表现，粗重而干渴的用笔，传达出它们的负重与顽强，还有沧桑感。黄土地上的向日葵，竟是这般地使人沉重甚至压抑，但又显得豪迈而浑厚。画家还把若干株葵花紧紧地画成一簇，经过魔术般的变形，形成一团火焰，热烈地燃烧起来。透过这些作品，读者会发现其背后隐含的深厚意蕴。我相信，唯有生长在陕北的黄土地上，唯有像晚峰这种为人和艺术修养的画家，才画得出这样的作品来。
我见到晚峰是在2002年的初夏，我刚刚经过一场劫难，晚峰听说后专程来看望我。在金台路旁一个小饭馆里，我俩相对而坐，点了菜，边吃边谈。我发现他思想很活跃，性格比我想象的活泼。但在他嬉笑怒骂的谈笑中，其实含有一种冷峻和激励。他那冷峻的一面是对某些小人恶人的鄙夷，是对世俗与矫情的嘲讽。这正是他做人的真实所在。一个人如果没有这些，谁又能相信他对真、善、美的真诚呢？与晚峰的冷峻和激励相比，某些人的甘言笑面，恰恰是虚伪。这次，我把晚峰的为人与他的文章、画作对上了号，我以为是极其吻合的。
他新近的一批山水画作品名为“山音系列”，这是在“向日葵系列”的基础上，拓展了视野与题材，深化了主题与立意，丰富了创作思想和表现手法而画出来的。画家描绘了家乡的山川风貌，时隐时现的丘壑，弯弯曲曲的山路，层层排排的窑洞，稀稀落落的林木，既无山泉流水，更无舟楫亭台，这就是陕北的黄土高坡。所谓“山音”，不正是回荡在画中的那高亢、旷远、激越、悠长的信天游的旋律吗？令人发生兴趣的是，广袤厚重的西北大地在画家的笔下竟如行云般地游动着。黄土地并不干涸，却是气象氤氲，充满了跃动和勃勃生机。画家以自己特有的表现样式，以行草的笔法，书写了一种情绪，一种如诉如歌却又飘忽不定的情绪。正如在文章中和他谈笑中所流露的那种很真挚很自然的情绪。我突出的感觉，他的画和他的为人那么统一，统一得几乎不好区分。画中那种不加掩饰的情绪 ，那种悲天悯人的济世情怀，那种恣意任性的洒脱，正如其人。
我想他作画的时候可能并不轻松，但会很惬意，他从投入中获得愉悦。正如他的人生，耿介，侠义有时使他感到疲惫，但他从严肃的投入和辛勤的奔波中享得乐趣。也许他并不在意于其意义和价值，因为他自己并不能改变自己。

（注）：文见《美术观察》1996年11期《“危机”之后的危机》

丙戌 端午后三日
A Cataract of Personality (Preface)
By Deng Fuxing
I saw Wanfeng’s paintings before I read his articles and thereafter I met him in person.
About 8 or 9 years ago, when he was still teaching in Yan’an University, Wanfeng wrote an article for the magazine Art Observation 〔NOTE〕 , criticizing the bad ways among the painters and calligraphers. The article expressed his furious anger which was a bit too sharp, but right to the point. It was a cataract of authentic feelings. As the style of writing is the man himself, I could see his personality from his words. I realized that the writer should be a straight and insightful man or even a young artist of hatred toward badness and chivalry.
Afterwards I saw his paintings—the Collection of Sunflowers. His sunflowers are rather distorted ones — some of them are drooping the heads as if suffering from overweight and powerlessness, and some are facing all the same way, obviously expecting something with hope. Wanfeng concentrates on the stalks with heavy and dry strokes, expressing their burdens, tenacity with a tint of suffering. The sunflowers on the loess plateau make one feel ponderous and depressed, but at the same time bold and ignorant. The painter manages to present the sunflowers closely nit interlocking with each other, as done by a magician, burning fervently like a fume. Through the paintings, the viewers can see the implied meanings. I believe that only those who live there on the loess plateau in northern Shensi, and those artists who have the personality and training can produce such great paintings.
I got to know him in the summer 2002 when he came to see me after I survived a disaster. In a small restaurant we talked face-to-face over some dishes. Soon I found a man of new ideas and activity more than I had expected. From his casual talk, I sensed as touch of severity and sharpness. His severity was directed at the contemptibility of those flunkies and hellions—a satire of mundane and artificial customs. This is his personality. Without this, can we believe that he is pursuing the truth, goodness and beauty? In opposition his severity and sharpness, there are false smiles and untrue words — just hypocrisy! Now I have seen a consistency in his articles, personalities and paintings.
His recent collection of landscape paintings is named Collection of the Sounds of the Mountains which is an expansion of The Sunflowers in the vision, motif, a deepening effort in themes and concepts. It is after all the enriched creative ideas and means of expression. The painter presents in the new collection the styles and features of his hometown: hazy gullies, zigzagging paths in the mountains, rows of cave-houses, sparsely planted trees, but without gurgling streams or boats or pavilions—a real picture of the loess plateau in northern Shensi. “The sounds of the mountains” are the local songs ringing with resounding, vehement and long rhythms that you can feel from the paintings. Interestingly, the vast land in the northwest l\of China is moving like the clouds in the sky. The land is no longer dry but full of rigor, movement and vitality. The painter, in his own manner—bold strokes of the brush, depicts a sensation, a plaintive but roving emotion. The motion is identical to that felt from his talks and articles. My obvious impression is that his character is so consistent in his paintings that you cannot tell the difference. The uncovered motion — depress, undauntedness and freedom—is a mirror of his personality.
I guess he cannot have any ease when he is at work on the painting, but agreeably because he gets pleasure from his devotion to his work.  As he feels fatigue, straightness and chivalry from real life, he is rewarded with pleasure for his sincere effort and toil during work. Perhaps he does not at all any meaning or value he can get from his work, because he cannot change anything in himself.
　　
(NOTE: See Art Observation Vol. 11, 1996 for the article A Crisis after the “Crisis” by Zhou Wanfeng.)
June 3, 2006