学文网第一次看到单凡的作品，是多年前在杭州世贸中心一个曲折逼仄的空间里，如今虽然已经无法准确用语言追记画面的构成，但仍然记得作品透过昏暗直抵心灵的那种力量；第二次看到单凡的作品，是印在画册里的那“记忆的回望”――一页页空灵的水墨竹叶，让人感到画家似乎不是在画自然中的修篁清风而是记录一种心路历程；第三次看到单凡的作品则是一种沉重，他选择的题材是德国鲁尔区中那些上世纪工业***后被现代化社会废弃的“物”所构筑的工业风景，使得看惯了“自然”风景的眼睛一下子难以承受这种异化之重。
飘逸与沉重如此充满张力地集于一身，使我对单凡，对这位德籍华人艺术家充满了探究的欲望。于是，在他获得了德国***府授予的“艺术与学术勋章”之后不久，在杭州西湖一个诗意墨韵的空间里，我们作了一次对话。
他的根在杭州
单凡，汉堡国立美术学院文科硕士、德国汉堡国际传媒艺术及新媒体设计学院院长、德国柏林设计学院副院长，在德国乃至欧洲都受到普遍承认和重视的国际艺术家。尽管罩着光环，但单凡的根却在杭州，坐在西湖边的单凡，更容易回到童年的记忆中。
他出生在杭州，从小跟随祖母在浙江安吉一个叫塔山岭的小村里长大，安吉满目的修竹早已经化作他童年的背景，至今他仍然对在浙江美术学院学习的5年感恩在心，在这儿他开始了自己的艺术生涯。上世纪80年代涉重洋赴德之前，他所学的都是中国传统的山水画法，对西方绘画和传统知之甚少，以至于初抵德国后，发觉自己完全处在一种最典型的身份消失的迷惘之中。
此后五年，单凡身处“德国文化的后花园”静心品尝德国文化的精髓，终于在一个新的人文环境中重新找到自己的身份。他称自己的这一新身份是一种处在东西两大文化板块之间的非常不确定的身份，既有很典型的中国传统文化的基因，又具有明显的德国元素。然而正是这种东西方不同的教育背景，赋予了单凡重要的艺术观念，使他在精神高度把握两种文化的相同之处的同时，又能在两者之间踯躅求索。因此他得以超越藩篱，获得内心的自由，他以简约、虚静的抽象艺术获得了成功。
安吉竹的延伸
单凡在德国接触到了塔皮埃斯的作品，这位在西方艺术领域最具影响力的艺术家作品中所散发的浓厚的宗教神秘主义气氛和他作为艺术家所具有的气质吸引了他。在他的身上，单凡似乎又重新找回了童年时代对神秘主义的向往和对自身人格、气质修炼的追求。于是，单凡像在修行一样，在业余时间一遍遍画着童年的记忆：毛竹。竹是安吉的，但也不仅仅是安吉的，它是中国传统文化中一个具有标志意义的***腾，是中国文人精神世界里的支柱。在单凡看来，在如今一个技法创新和流派现象枯绝的时代，艺术家只有具有***的人格才能创造出***的艺术。因此他笔下的毛竹，在刻意流露的东方禅意背后隐藏着作者在西方文化后园里寻求自身文化身份和精神归宿的企***。单凡的毛竹不是雨打芭蕉时的点缀，也不是风过窗棂时的背景，而是精神探寻的轨迹。2006年11月11日，单凡携他的竹画和意趣相投的塔皮埃斯在北京798艺术区“空间画廊”举行联合画展，这场对“画”，中西方艺术的高点在这里有一次精彩的碰撞和交融。
现代文明废墟的蓝本
单凡在进行了近15年的抽象绘画的实验以后，他出人意料地把画笔和观念转向工业风景。他生活在德国汉堡附近一个世外桃源似的自然保护区之内，天天亲身体验的是一些“一尘不染”的自然风景。有一次他偶然在电视上看到了倒塌的铁塔，画面的构成非常美，这给他一个启发：任何工业的元素在它功能尚存时，让人有一种畏惧感，而一旦丧失，却成为了审美对象。他继而在空中俯视鲁尔工业区，居然仿佛看到了计算机主板上的芯片、电路布局***，这又让他联想到，自然保护区外的环境正在不断地被人工合成，而“人们却生活在对新技术、新材料与异化的惶惶然中”。于是，单凡以工业区的那些经典的现代文明的废墟为蓝本，创作了一幅让人震撼的画面。画面没有透视，没有具体的景物情境，甚至没有人，所谓“工业风景”是一些简化成直而长的线状几何结构，宽窄不同，走向不同，反复重叠、交错一起。那些线状几何结构，正是单凡以一种审美心态，把简约、冷静、机械等典型的工业化审美元素直接抽离、简化的结果。单凡“真”的把这些废墟当作风景，而这些风景的谜底就是画家想要对人本身提出的质问：人为什么活着？工业的精化为了什么？正是人充满希望的工作，才使得社会朝着智能和精简发展。但随着人工智能进步，人本身却越来越沦落惶然之中。单凡的工业风景，不是怀旧，而是时空，是画家面对自然和谐与社会异化的对比张力所选择的绘画态度。
多棱的艺术角色
单凡的艺术角色是多棱的，它不仅仅是一个艺术家，而且还是艺术策展人、艺术教育家。1995年，由单凡策展的“从国家形态走出去”已经成为中国当代艺术史上一次重要的事件，参展的12位中国艺术家目前已经成为领导中国当代艺术的翘楚。近几年来，单凡积极推动中德文化交流。如今，单凡已是北师大珠海分校国际传媒设计学院德方理事长、清华大学-DFI国际传媒设计高级研修项目德方***，他大力推行启发式教育、精英教育、个性化教育，强调在全球一体化的文化语境中，艺术设计者应该是国际大都市的游牧者，必须具有在全球范围工作的能力。单凡还是今年德国“中国时代”文化年活动的艺术总监。为了表彰单凡先生作为艺术家在自由艺术领域里所取得的成就和在中德两国文化交流中所作出的杰出贡献，2006年8月29日，德国汉堡市授予单凡“艺术与学术”勋章。这一勋章由德国***府在1956年设立，用以表彰在艺术研究和科学领域里具有杰出成就和贡献的人物。勋章正面铸有两头守护着汉堡市市徽的雄狮，反面铸有铭文：“我们从无中来，却要探寻所有（Wir sind nichts,was wir suchen ist alles.）”这句话正是单凡艺术之旅的写照。
Shan Fan's Art Career
By Bei Chen
I remember the three times I saw Shan Fan’s artworks. The first time, they were displayed in a narrow space at the Zhejiang World Trade Center Hotel. I can’t accurately describe what I saw there, but I still can feel the penetrating power of the images he created. The second time, it was an art album. His paintings in it were about nature. The third time I saw his works, they were industrial scenes, created by the industrial revolution and dumped by the modern society. The ethereal part and the desolate part in Shan’s art motivated me to know about the Chinese artist who resides in Germany. Shortly after he was awarded a German Government Art and Science Medal, Shan Fan and I met in a poetic place on the West Lake in Hangzhou. We chatted and the following is an excerption of our conversation.
His Roots in Hangzhou
Shan was born in Hangzhou and grew up with his grandmother in a small mountainous village in Anji, Zhejiang Province. The bamboo forests in the rural county have long since melted into the memories of his childhood years. The five years he spent at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (today’s China Academy of Fine Arts) mark an important period in his life, for his art career started there. Before he traveled to Germany in the 1980s, he had been fully and exclusively exposed to an art world of Chinese landscape. He had so little knowledge of Western art that he felt totally lost upon his arrival in Germany.
Reproductions of Bamboos in Anji
It was in Germany that Shan Fan first came into contact with the works of Antonio Tapies. The Spanish abstract expressionist’s religious mysticism and artistic temperament deeply influenced Shan Fan. His works seemed to enable Shan to retrieve his own fascination with mysticism in his childhood years and his pursuit for personality and temperament. So Shan Fan began to devote his spare time to drawing bamboos from his memories. For Shan, bamboo is more than a symbol of Anji where he grew up. It is a landmark totem in traditional Chinese culture and a pillar in the spiritual world of the Chinese intelligentsia. In an era, according to Shan, when styles and trends have been exhausted, an artist can stand out only by his outstanding personality. The bamboo images he creates are neither lyrical about raindrops pattering on banana leaves nor invisible about a breeze swishing past a window. His bamboos constitute a trajectory of his spiritual probe. On November 11, 2006, Shan and Tapies held a joint show at the Space Gallery in Beijing 798 art zone.
Records of the Ruins of Modern Civilization
After about 15 years experimenting with abstract expressionism, Shan turned his attention unexpectedly to industrial scenes. He lives in a suburb of Hamburg. It is a paradise-like nature reserve where he can experience pure nature. One day he was touched by a fallen iron tower he saw in a television program and the scene was a cinematic masterpiece. It suddenly occurred to him that industrial elements were awesome when they were in use and that they looked beautiful when they lost their functions. So he began to depict industrial scenes in an abstract way. The ruined landscape under Shan’s brush pen evokes questions: why we live and why industry keeps improving itself.
Multiple Roles
Shan Fan is more than an artist. He is a producer and educator. In 1995 he masterminded an exhibition entitled Out of State Patterns, which has become a landmark event in the history of China’s modern art. The 12 participating Chinese artists have now all become the leading artists in China’s modern art. Shan Fan is director of Hamburg-based International College of Communication Arts and New Media, among other positions he holds. He was the art director of three-week “China Time” in Hamburg.
(Translated by David)