蔡小华，生于长安的艺术世家，其父辈为岭南画派大家“蔡氏兄弟”，自幼深受中国传统绘画精神之影响。20世纪80年代，出于青年人对传统的共有“叛逆”和对西方艺术与哲学的强烈兴趣，蔡小华开始学习接触西方现代主义绘画，投身油画的创作实验。这期间蔡小华的油画作品，极其强调画面的肌理感，张扬的色彩和严谨的构图，具有极强的外在形式感，充溢着不可遏抑的张力，画风明显有着抽象表现主义影响的痕迹。源自西方的“抽象”仅仅是蔡小华艺术创作之“外形”，其内在精神仍然是传统的中国东方志趣。创作日益成熟的蔡小华，绘画布局之气韵生动，绘画线条之灵性飘逸，都向观众强烈地传达出中国传统艺术创作的画外意境。画风成熟期的蔡小华，以色彩的平面变幻表达广阔无限的联想空间，东方神秘主义的意境耐人寻味。在近期的作品中，我们发现了蔡小华创作的崭新变化，他的作品，开始有意识地消解绘画的符号，图式、线条、肌理都已不再被关注，蔡小华成功的超越了技术与结构的限制，进入了“大色域绘画”的创作时代。通过大面积的色彩与极限制的形状运用，令人感动的中国精神从画面中从容弥漫而出。蔡小华的现下作品中，透露出强烈的中国禅宗精神，在抽象油画的中国精神表现上，蔡小华的个体创作已渐入化境。中西方绘画传统的影响已全然隐于画面之下，其内在精神在画面上恣意驰骋，在中国当代抽象油画创作中，蔡小华具有不可动摇的重要地位。面对蔡小华的新作，我们看到了智者的生命感悟，看到了一个超越“合纵中西”的蔡小华。

上海正午文化艺术中心

张熹

Cai Xiaohua, The Master Who Outdoes

The Vertical Integration of Chinese and Western

　　Cai Xiaohua was born in an old and well-known artistic family in Chang An. His elders, renowned as 'The Chai Brothers‘,were the great masters of the Lingnan school of painters. Chai Xiaohua came under the deep influence of the spirit of Chinese traditional painting from a child. In 80 years of the 20th century,out of the rebelling at tradition like many youths and the strong interests in western art and philosophy,he started trying his hands at western modernistic oil painting. Chai Xiaohua's works painted in this period laid great weight on the texture of image,aggressive color and rigorous composition. They were with keen sense of external form and imbued with overwhelming tension. One can easily find the sign of the impact of abstract expressionism in his style.

　　Abstract with western root is not all. It is merely the figure of Chai Xiaohua's creations,deep down,the soul of them is still the Chinese traditional inclination of East. When headed to the maximum excellence step by step,Chai Xiaohua strongly conveyed to people the artistic conception extended from the tranditional Chinese paintings using the vivid layout and etherial lines. When stylistically matured,the changeful color using in his works gives our imagination a full play,and his thought-provoking artistic conception of estern mysticism is fully developed.

　　We find something new in Chai Xiaohua's recent works. He begins on purpose attaching no importance to the elements of his paintings such as symbols,graphics modes,lines and texture.

　　He breaks out of the technical and structural limitation thus forming an epoch in Broad Color Coverage. Bepainting large colorful areas and using very limited shapes,the sensational Chinese spirit is diffused out of the paintings with ease. The spirit of Zen can be traced everywhere in his recent works. Chai Xiaohua excels gradually at the expression of Chinese spirit using abstract oil paintings. The inpact of both Chinese and West traditional painting is hidden completely behind the canvas,instead,over which the unbridled inner spirit is widely spreaded. Among the abstract works of art of the contemporary era in China,Chai Xiaohua's works gain an unshakable footing,from which,we find a sage's sentiment and savvy in life,and know Chai Xiaohua for a master who outdoes the vertical integration of Chinese and Western.

Original in Chinese by Zhangxi from Shanghai High Noon Art & Culture Center

Translated into English by Alan Lam