沈揆一为“以“国画”的名义：改头换面”（2003年12月，美国俄亥俄州Adleta Galleries画廊）展览画册所写的前言
冯斌1985年毕业于四川美术学院中国画系，之后有数次赴欧洲学习和讲学的经历。对传统国画，冯斌有着扎实的训练，但他从不满足于仅仅做一个传统风格和范式的守护者。一直以来，通过材料、技巧和构图的革新，他试图创造一种更具现代性的中国画。他坚信，应该克服许多传统国画家都有的那种自我满足感，中国画要发展，就一定要为它注入当代的意义。只有以开放的心态博采众长，中国画才能成为当代文化的有建设性的参与者，才能在关于当代文化的对话中发出有意义的声音。冯斌是一位勤于思考的艺术家，不论是在他的画作中，还是在他的理论著述中，他对国际艺术圈的熟识和不断介入都促使他不断反思和重估中国自身的绘画传统。
1990年代初，冯斌以西藏寺庙建筑和喇嘛为题材创作了一系列作品。西藏题材多年来是中国艺术家钟爱的主题，但是冯斌的系列并未着眼于猎奇。古老的建筑和现代的喇嘛只是形象载体，阐释着艺术家个人的对于宗教、历史和当代文化间的互动关系的理解。在他的画作中，现世的喇嘛模糊晃动的身形与静止的、轮廓清晰、色彩强烈的古代庙宇形成鲜明的对比，这对比表达了一种希望：尽管当代的生活变幻莫测，但文化、宗教、历史都自有其牢固的基础。在此，运动和静止、模糊和清晰、过去和现在，加之构图上明显的对比，使传统中国画全然地面貌一新。这些特质使冯斌成为众多以西藏为题材的画家中最具独创性的艺术家之一。
冯斌的新作转向都市场景及其中的个体。在这些画作中，他早期的更有传统中国画倾向的作品中的线性因素几乎消失殆尽，模糊的形象取代了轮廓清晰的造型，构图也更简洁，更强调画面的平面感。冯斌也许用这样的二维形式暗示他对单调的当代都市生活的批判。
的确，自1990年代，商业化大规模地消除了中国地区文化间的差异。中国每一个城市的市政规划、建筑风格、商业中心看上去都千篇一律，以手机、电脑、酒吧、电视剧、游戏、漫画、流行音乐、网吧为主导的新兴的城市文化在中国各地也大致无差，甚至在全球范围内也没有太大的区别。
文章发表于展览画册《以“国画”的名义：改头换面》（2003），美国俄亥俄州Adleta Galleries画廊
沈揆一
美国圣地亚哥大学教授
美术批评家、中国美术史专家
美国纽约古根汉博物馆、西班牙毕尔巴鄂古根海姆博物馆大展“中华五千年”策展人之一
Feng Bin graduated from the Chinese Painting Department of the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 1985 and subsequently travelled to Europe several times to study and lecture. His training in traditional Chinese painting techniques is very solid, but he has never been satisfied with simply maintaining traditional styles and conventions. Instead, he has tried to create a more modern kind of Chinese painting through innovations in use of materials, techniques, and composition. He believes, indeed, that the complacent self-satisfaction of many artists who work in traditional styles must be overcome, and that development of Chinese painting requires filling it with contemporary meaning. By adopting an open-minded and more expansive attitude, Chinese painting can and must become a constructive participant and significant voice in the ongoing conversation about current culture. Feng Bin is a very thoughtful artist, and in his theoretical writings as well as his painting, his constant engagement with the international art community has led him to constantly reflect upon and reevaluate China's own painting traditions.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, Feng Bin has produced a series of paintings about Tibet that focus on temple architecture and Buddhist lamas. The theme of Tibetan life has been for many years a favorite subject for Chinese artists. Feng Bin's series, however, does not merely seek exoticism, but the images of old buildings and modern priests are vehicles for the artist's personal interpretation of the interaction between the religion's history and recent culture. In his painting, the blurry moving forms of the contemporary Tibetan lamas strongly contrast with the stillness of the clearly contoured and brightly colored ancient temples. Feng Bin's contrasts present a basically hopeful picture; although contemporary life is in constant motion, there is a lasting foundation to the culture, the religion, and the history his work represents. Here, movement and stillness, fuzziness and clarity, the past and the present, as well as the obvious compositional contrasts, give traditional ink painting a completely new face. These characteristics make Feng Bin one of the most original artists of the many who focus on Tibetan subject matter.
Feng Bin's recent work has turned to urban scenes and individuals, and in these paintings the linear quality of his earlier more traditional Chinese painting has almost disappeared. The clear contours of forms in the paintings have been replaced by blurry images, and the composition is even more simplified, with greater emphasis on the flatness of the painted surface. Here, two-dimensionality may imply Feng Bin's critical attitude toward the monotony of urban life.
The 1990s, in fact, was a period when commercialism largely obliterated the distinctions between China's regional cultures. Every Chinese city's urban planning, architectural styles, and commercial centers looked similar to all others. The new urban culture, dominated by cell phones, computers, bars, TV dramas, video games, comics, pop music, and internet cafes, is generally the same everywhere in China, and perhaps similar to urban centers all over the globe.
Kuiyi Shen
Kuiyi Shen
Professor of San Diego University, U. S. A.
Art critic, expert of Chinese art history
One of the curators of China 5000 in Guggenheim Museum in New York, U.S.A. and in Bilbao, Spain