《苹果熟了》

庞茂琨以一张彝族老人的肖像而获得社会激赏，这就是画于1983年的油画《苹果熟了》。随后几年，因为他一直在同类题材上创作，给人以强烈印象，以为庞茂琨在影响中国的乡土绘画的艺术运动中，引领着对边地民族的独特描绘。其实，人们很少关注，就在庞茂琨这张成名的作品中，已经显露了一种与众不同的观看意识：画中老人半蹲着，两只手举在眉梢，遮住过度刺眼的强烈阳光，平静地注目着远处。当年人们解读这一作品，无不对艺术家所选取的遮阳动作予以肯定，以为体现了一种对细节的把握。但是，当今天我们认真审视这一作品，对庞茂琨所描绘的动作进行深入思考时，一个涉及到艺术家的观看问题，才从作品中显现了出来：与其说艺术家在现实生活中注意到这样一个典型的细节，不如说他就是这样去观看的。我的意思是说，不是画中人遮阳这个动作给画家捕捉到，然后以如此传神的手法表现了出来，而是画家本人就是常常这样去关注世界的。庞茂琨不是那种喜欢热闹与张扬的人，他内敛，说话不多，两眼明亮有神，有一种收藏起来的尖锐，以至形成一种假象。我怀疑庞茂琨在自我的想象当中，不时会举起一双隐形的手，遮住现实世界过度刺眼而喧嚣的光线，去探查人性的隐蔽思绪。我看他的作品，久了以后，突然有一天冒出了“不动声色”这样一个关键词。把这一关键词和凝视联结起来，就形成了一种立场，一种视觉方向，一种洞察人性的习惯。

不动声色不是无动于衷，恰恰相反，是体会日深了以后的一种重归静止的状态，就像那个彝族老人，遥望着远方，但却用双手遮着。表面上看是在挡住刺眼的阳光，实际上是在把一种尖锐放在内心，而让凝视变得日常。

庞茂琨有一张女性油画肖像，叫《彩虹悄然当空》，画中一年轻女子蹲伏在大山之中，屈卷着身子，头埋在双臂中，眼睛却悄然上升，默默地注视着前方。我相信这幅作品对于庞茂琨来说，大概算不上是严格意义的创作。表面看来，庞茂琨仅仅想传达一种羞涩，一种内敛，一种隐藏起来的对外界的凝视。但正因为这样一种经意与不经意之间的状态，反而透露了艺术家的心迹，那种默然面对世界动荡的边缘。与此形成对比的是《红门内端坐的女子》，艺术家把所画对象置于房间之中，表面看是在描绘一种安静，但如果从观看的角度出发，我们就立时发现了一种独特的视角，画家的视角，他是站在门外往里看的，他画他所看到的，这个“看到的角度”，我称之为凝视，就是庞茂琨要表达的主题。他不是在画一个端坐在室内红色沙发上的安静女子，他是在画一种凝视方式。有相同旨趣的是另外两张显然画于同一时期的作品《室内悠趣》之一与之二，那种晃悠在室内的不经意，那种随时往外寻找的偶然性，突显了对凝视本身的凝视。

与《苹果熟了》不一样，与《彩虹悄然当空》更不一样，以室内女子为题材的作品，表现的是一种从外向内的关注，主题是在画外，而不是在画中。双手遮阳与头埋在双臂中，是一种由内向外的探寻，庞茂琨刻意隐藏这一探寻，好让画面产生一种令人意味深长的暧昧，并籍此传达出来。以室内女子为题材的作品表达的先是艺术家的感受，然后才是观者的感受，对艺术家感受的感受。检索庞茂琨这一时期的作品，我发现他画了不止一张，而是一批，已经形成了一个系列，姑且称之为“室内系列”。如此频繁地就一个类似的主题做反复的探索，证明庞茂琨对于观看角度的迷恋。那是一种不由分说的凝视，一种透过封闭的墙对另一种空间的反省。我甚至怀疑庞茂琨着迷于那些没有画出来的部分，那些被遮掩的内容。他把视线局限在无法观看的边界，坚决阻挡视线的延伸，用以质疑观看的意义。这里显示了画家的一种发自本能的思考，一种无法排遣的怀疑。

让我们注意一下《书桌上的灯光》这幅静物画。在我看来，这并不是静物画，而是人物画，有人在其中。画中书桌上的两面镜子就透露了艺术家的意图。镜像是凝视的结果，但又是被凝视的开始，镜像的意义在于其双重的凝视，是观看的对象，更是被观看的结果，并因此而证明视觉悖论的存在，成为文化批判的关键词。庞茂琨仔细而坚定地描绘了镜子的质感，用以突出镜中物像，但这镜中的像却又因为镜框的限定而显得残缺不全，让人无法准确辨认。恰恰这一特征，决定了画面所表达的意义具有多重性，从而成功地抹去了过于简单的一目了然。

《镜前》和《窗外晨光》是普通的女性肖像，画中人在照镜子，镜中形象是完整的，镜前人侧着身子认真地注视着自己，结果只把一个侧影留给了观者我们。在绘画中探讨这一类观看与被观看的关系倒是一个传统。17世纪委拉斯贵兹的著名作品《宫娥》，按照福柯的分析，就是通过形象对观看与被观看作一视觉说明。委拉斯贵兹想象他面对着一面巨大的镜子，他正在描绘镜子中的物象，包括他自己，他的描绘对象，以及在旁边玩耍的宫娥和仆人。直到福柯从观看政治的角度予以探讨之前，人们总是把委拉斯贵兹的这幅作品看成是一幅普通意义的自画像，就像是在写日记一样，试图留下自己的工作状态。但是，在福柯看来，这幅作品不是画家的自我记录那么简单，画中一目了然的观看与被观看，代表着一种权力的凝视，不管是凝视者还是被凝视者，都无一例外地指向权力不变的层级关系。这一关系如此现实，以至于画家生活其间也觉得艰于呼吸。同样的凝视又出现在19世纪初法国古典主义画家大卫的《萨宾妇女呼吁和平》的巨幅作品上。人们关注的中心一般而言是画中张开双臂制止冲突与战争的那个健硕的女性，但人们的视线很快就被画家别有用心地画在下方的一个注视着观者的男孩所吸引。显然，画家正是通过这一凝视，把画中情景延伸到现实中去，从而使一幅表面看来是古典主义题材的绘画，转变成为为现实政治服务的宣传作品。

关键是凝视，那是一种发自内心的审视，一种自我反省，一种向外探求。有趣的是，在这凝视的目标下，庞茂琨着重表达的是一系列的女性。在他的大量作品中，女性占据了显著的位置，从早期描绘彝族女性到后期描绘城市女性，尽管对象的身份有了重大变化，但隐含其间的一种观望，一种凝视，一种反省，却一直主宰着艺术家的思维。我从来不认为庞茂琨可以简单归入中国的写实主义油画的风格中，我甚至认为，庞茂琨就其趣味方向与探求深度来说，和那种过度注意描绘的表面细节，尤其和那种美女风格毫无相同之处。的确，出现在庞茂琨作品的女性总是那么妖娆多姿，总是散发着一种迷人的光泽，但是，真正引发我们兴趣的，或者说，真正让庞茂琨笔下的女性具有意义的，表面看是一种无处不在的气质，一种让人一看就不想忘掉的品相，但内里却是一种思考，一种关于凝视，以及隐藏在这凝视背后的对立的思考，否则我们无法理解他去年在上海所创作的被鲁虹称之为《今日之神话》的系列，为什么具有那么大的奇异与诡诈。不能说庞茂琨突然迷上了电脑的流行图像，突然赶起了“时尚”，要在趣味上来一个颠覆。相反，骨子里庞茂琨并没有任何改变。呈现在他的这一批作品中的诡异，却丝毫也没有掩盖其中的与以往风格一脉相承的表情。那是一种什么样的表情？一种漠然伪装下的凝视。画中人显然是被观看的，但这只是观赏庞茂琨这一批作品的初始印象。很少人意识到，我们，也说是徘徊在庞茂琨作品前的观者，才是被凝视的对象。被谁凝视？当然是画中人。画中人以一种被观看的方式在凝视着你，继而盯视着你，让你无所遁逃。但是，再想深一点看，究竟是谁在凝视和盯视着你？其实，只有一个人在这样做，那就是艺术家庞茂琨，他躲在精致的描绘后面，躲在写实的圈套里，躲在气质非凡的女性的双眸之中，正安静而不动声色地凝视着你，凝视着你所代表的一个世界，一个异我的世界，一个荒唐的世界，一个欢快到不知结局的世界。

庞茂琨就这样，站着，不动声色，凝视着，盯视着你。因为他不需要去动什么声色，他的凝视，继而盯视足以说明一切。

Gaze in Silence

—Observing Consciousness and Subject Organization in Pang Maokun’s Oil Painting

Yang Xiaoyan

Pang Maokun is well-known for the portrait of an old Yi woman. This oil painting is named Apples are ripe, which was painted in 1983. During the following few years, Pang Maokun continued to paint with the same theme. Those paintings were so impressive that people thought of Pang Maokun as one of the leading painters depicting different cultures of the minorities in the rural painting movement throughout China. People hardly noticed the unique observing consciousness that already exists in his first well-known painting: The old woman is squatting, putting her two hands above the eyebrows to shade her eyes from the bright sunlight, staring into the distance peacefully. At that time, the painter’s choice of her motion in this painting was highly praised and was regarded as the proof of his grasp of details. But today, when we look at this piece of art again and try to understand the inner meaning of this motion, we finally get to the question: How does the painter look at the world? Rather than saying that Pang Maokun noticed a typical scene in life, we should say this is actually the way he looks at the world. What I’m trying to say is that it’s not because the painter saw an old woman’s motion and then painted it on canvas, it is because the painter always gaze at the world in that way. Pang Maokun is not that kind of person who loves to be in the crowd, he is quiet and focusing on the inner spirit. However, his eyes are bright and with hidden sharpness, sometimes people get wrong impression about him. I guess in his own imagination, the figure named Pang Maokun would sometimes raise his invisible hands to protect himself from the bright light of chaos from the practical life, while seeking to reach the hidden thoughts of humanity. After appreciating his works for many years, the word “silence” suddenly jumped into my mind one day. By combining this key word with gaze, we find a position, a visual direction, and a habit to observe the humanity.

To remain silence is not to be motionless. On the contrary, it is a tranquil status after complex experiences. Just like that old Yi woman, staring into the distance and raising her two hands to shade her eyes. It seems that she is protecting her eyes from the bright sunlight. In fact, this motion represents the observing consciousness to observe and gaze at each moment of our lives.

There is a another woman’s portrait by Pang Maokun named the rainbow appears silently: A young girl is squatting in the mountain, bending her body, hiding her face in her arms, with her eyes secretly and quietly staring at the front. Perhaps this painting is not really a piece of art from Pang Maokun’s point of view. It looks like the painter depicts a shy and inner self, a secret gaze at the outside world. With or without purpose, however, it reveals the painter’s attitude: Facing the chaos of this world quietly. The painting Woman sitting inside the red door is a sharp contract. The painter put all the objects inside the room, and it seemed that he was depicting quietness. However, as observers, we immediately find a unique angle used in this painting, angle of the painter: He was outside the door, looking inside, painting what he saw there. This unique “visual angle”, I call it gaze. It is the theme of Pang Maokun’s paintings. He was not painting a quiet woman sitting in a red sofa inside a room; he was painting a way of gaze. There are another two paintings with the same theme, Casual time No.1 and No.2. Obviously painted at same period of time. The casual feeling inside the room and the randomness of searching the outside emphasize the gaze at gaze itself.

Different from Apples are ripe and Rainbow appears silently, the indoor women series reveals a concentration on inner world from the outside world. The theme is outside the canvas, rather than inside the painting. Hands shading the eyes and face hiding in arms represent searching for the outside from the inside. Pang Maokun purposely hides the searching attempt to create a meaningful vagueness in these art works. The indoor women series depicts the artist’s feeling first, then the feeling of observer, and then observer’s feeling towards the painter’ feeling. When going through his works of this period of time, I find that Pang Maokun has painted a large number of paintings with the same theme, which I call “indoor series”. The frequently used theme reveals Pang Maokun’s infatuation for the visual angle. It’s a determined gaze to observe the other space through the walls. I even have the idea that Pang Maokun is more interested in those that were not painted, those that were covered and hidden. He is determined to limit our sights inside the frames and would not let us see the hidden world. This is the way the painter questions the meaning of observation. It shows his instinctive thinking and his doubts that cannot be wiped away.

Let us have a look at the still life painting Lamplight on the desk. To me, this is not a still life painting. It is a figure painting, because there is a human figure in it. Painter’s intention is revealed by the two mirrors on the desk. The image in the mirror is the result of gaze, yet the beginning of gaze. The gaze is dual, being the object and the result at the same time. It represents the paradox of observation and becomes a key word for culture criticizing. Pang Maokun depicted the mirror carefully and firmly to emphasize the reflection. However, the reflection is limited by the frame of mirror and appears to be incomplete. It is difficult to tell what it really is. This unique character determines that ideas expressed in this painting are sophisticated and complicated, and it successfully beats those simple scenes in former paintings.

In front of the mirror and Morning light from the window are two typical women portraits. In these pictures, reflection in the mirror is complete, but the woman who is looking at herself in the mirror is just a profile on canvas. In art history, it is actually a custom for the painters to discuss the relationship between observer and the observed. According to Michel Foucault, Diego VELAZQUEZ’s masterpiece Las Meninas of the 17th century is actually a visual explanation for observer and the observed. The artist imagined that he was facing a big mirror and he was painting the reflection. That included himself, his model, maids and servants who were playing around. Until Michel Foucault discussed the ideas of this painting from a political angle, people used to think of this work simply as a portrait, like a diary recording painter’s working status. But from Michel Foucault’s point of view, it is more than just a portrait. The relationship between observer and the observed represented the gaze of governing power. Social classes were represented by the observer and the observed. This kind of relationship was so real and so cruel that even the painter who lived in it felt hard to breathe. Same kind of gaze appeared in The Sabine Women, 1799, large painting of French classical painter Jacques Louis David. Generally speaking, our eyes would be attracted by the woman in the center who raises her arms to stop the conflicts and war. But soon, our attention would be drawn away from her and to the little boy particularly placed at the lower part of the picture. He is staring at the observers. Obviously, the artist tried to expand the scene from the painting to the real life with the boy’s observation. And this turns a seemingly classical painting into a method of political propaganda.

The key is gaze. It is an inner observation, a self-reflection, an attempt to reach and discover the outside world. It is interesting that Pang Maokun has depicted a series of women, aiming at gaze. Female images play an important part in his numerous works. Although his models change from the Yi women in his early works to the modern women in his later works, Pang Maokun always bears in mind the inner observation, gaze and reflection when he paints. I can never agree that Pang Maokun should simply be classified into the realistic style of Chinese oil painting. Moreover, I find his interest and depth in paintings are totally different from those of excess hollow details, especially different from paintings with merely pretty girl. True, women in Pang Maokun’s works are always charming and adorable. But what really arouses our interest, what gives actual meaning to those female images, is an everlasting character, an unforgettable visual impression, and below the surface, a meditation. It is a meditation on gaze and the hidden thoughts behind the gaze. Otherwise it is impossible for us to understand why Mythology of today series named by Lu Hong, which Pang Maokun painted in Shanghai last year, appears so strange and weird. It is not rational to say that Pang Maokun suddenly gets mad about the images on internet, so that he has totally changed his interest to become “fashionable”. On the contrary, the true Pang Maokun never changes. The weirdness in this series cannot cover an expression that always exists in his works of art. What kind of expression? Gaze under the mask of coolness. Figures in his paintings are the observed for sure, but this is only the first impression. Few people realize that we, observers wandering in front of Pang Maokun’s paintings, are the ones being gazed. Gazed by whom? Those figures in his paintings, of course. They are gazing and staring at you in a way of being observed. They look straight into your eyes, and you have no place to hide. But if you think deeper, who is actually gazing and staring at you? There is only one man, the artist Pang Maokun. He is hiding behind the exquisite depiction, behind the trap of realism, behind the eyes of adorable women, gazing at you quietly, gazing at the world you represent. It is a world different from his, a world full of nonsense, a world with endless joy.

Pang Maokun is there, standing, silently, gazing at you, staring at you. He doesn’t have to do anything else. His gaze, followed by his stare explains everything.