作者：克里斯蒂安娜·科鲁

肖像画作为一种艺术形式和一种意义表达手段，始终在探讨自我与他者之间的关系。让-吕克·南希 (Jean-Luc Nancy) 在其哲学思考中对肖像画进行了独到的解读：肖像画是一个阈限空间，身份在与他者的对抗中得以揭示。肖像从来不仅仅是对主体的简单再现，而是对不可见之物的一种解读，是存在与缺席、可见与不可见之间的游戏。他深入探索了这种被描绘的主体和观察对象之间的张力，试图重新定义当代肖像画的界限，摒弃任何对相似性或模仿的简单定义。

在《肖像画的凝视》（Le regard du portrait）中，南希将肖像画描述为一个目光向世界敞开的地方，同时又被世界所吸入。图像并不能完整捕捉到人脸，而是揭示了那些不断从脸部消失的部分，即除其本身之外剩下的部分。肖像画所展现的正是他者的维度，而这作为当代美学的核心，在童雁汝南的作品中得到了不同寻常的体现。

童雁汝南的肖像画从来不是对相似性的简单记录，而是一种哲学和现象学的探究——南希将其描述为一个“显现过程”：其中，主体并未完全展现自己，而是在其对捕捉的退缩和抵抗中被揭示出来。从这个角度看，肖像从来不是一个静态的表面，而是一个动态的场域，一个无休止的追问，挑战观众去面对谜一样的面孔。或者用文字游戏来说，他者的肖像并不是一面简单的镜子，而是一面折射出存在多种可能性的棱镜。正如南希所言，肖像画的“他者”不仅是被表现的主体，也是将图像与观者分隔开的空白，是存在与缺席之间的相互作用，使肖像画成为一种视觉和本体论的双重体验。

童雁汝南以其激进的创作方法脱颖而出。在其简洁的肖像画中，他放弃了任何多余的细节，捕捉一种即时而又难以捉摸的存在形式。他的画布体现了捕捉肖像瞬间所必需的速度和果断，似乎体现了南希对肖像画是一种“外观的中断”的理念。该图像远非脸部的忠实再现，而是一个充满张力的场域，主体在这里以线索、阴影、可能性的形式出现。

童雁汝南摆脱了肖像画的学院派传统，趋向于更为古老和精神的维度。他作品中的面孔既无叙事，也未显示身份；相反，它们是集体记忆的片段，是唤起共识的人物原型。在寻找本质的过程中，童先生诠释了一种当代情感，即人的面孔不是一种稳定的身份，而是一个充满张力的场域和转变的过程。

肖像画从来不能完全表现主体，因为主体往往在别处，总是已经处于他者之中。在童雁汝南的肖像画中，这种“别处”是显而易见的：面部呈现为一个无法实现的整体的碎片，是一个永远无法完全掌握的存在的回声。因此，绘画成为一种揭示的行为，同时也是一种隐藏的行为，一种表达的方式，同时也是一种保持沉默的方式。

让-吕克·南希坚持认为，肖像画不仅表现了一张脸，还表达了一张脸的概念。这一概念对于理解童雁汝南的作品并将其置于当代美学的更广阔背景中至关重要。在他的肖像画中，脸部的概念以问题的形式出现，向他人敞开，但永远不会以明确的答案结束。对于童来说，脸是一个事件，而不是一个图像：一个在绘画和凝视中发生的事件。南希将脸描述为“存在的门槛”，是存在显现和消退的地方。这种表现和撤退的运动是肖像画的核心，它绝不能沦为单纯的表现形式。在童雁汝南的肖像画中，这个门槛尤为明显：面孔仿佛幽灵般从画布中浮现出来，仿佛在挑战观者去面对他者的不可简化性。

肖像画中的他者不仅是所表现的主体，也是观者自己，被要求在图像中认出自己，却永远无法找到完全的对应关系。正如南希所观察到的：“肖像画总是注视着观看它的人”。在童的肖像画中，这种对视通过简单的线条被放大，给观者留下了想象的空间。面部永远不会完整，但一直在进步，总是对新的意义的可能性持开放态度。

让-吕克·南希思考的另一个重要主题是“自画像”。肖像画不仅仅是他人的形象，更是自己的形象。从某种意义上说，每一幅肖像画都是一幅自画像，因为它带有艺术家目光的痕迹，以及他看待和存在于世界的方式。在童雁汝南的肖像画中，这一维度尤为明显：每一张脸既是与另一张脸的相遇，又是对绘画行为本身的反思。但肖像永远不可能完全脱离与创作它的主体。艺术家在创作肖像画时，冒着将自身存在置于其中的风险，在再现他者的过程中暴露自身的某些方面。面孔是艺术家存在的标志，他的手势痕迹也是通向超越他视线的世界的大门。

童雁汝南的肖像画，以其本质性和神秘性，体现了肖像作为他者和自我反思空间的理念。它提醒我们，面孔从来都不完全属于我们，也始终属于他者，每一个图像最终都是一种面对无形事物的方式。从这个意义上来说，肖像画不仅是一种艺术流派，更是一种哲学、一种思维方式和存在方式，引导我们透过表面去观察隐藏的东西。

童雁汝南的作品并不是简单地描绘一个可识别的主体；相反，它们似乎消解了主体本身，但又保留了可见的痕迹和回响。这种张力使他的研究与卢西安·弗洛伊德 (Lucian Freud) 、马琳·杜马斯 (Marlene Dumas) 和弗朗西斯·培根 (Francis Bacon) 等现代和当代绘画的关键人物展开对话，他们都具备解构具象以揭示其内在张力的能力。在这些实践中，形象逐渐消解，让脸部的他者性浮现出其脆弱、黑暗、不可言说的一面。

培根作品

弗洛伊德以其充满肉欲和野蛮的肖像画，揭示了人体作为生命物质，承受着肉体的负担。另一方面，马琳·杜马斯的作品则处于模糊的边缘，描绘那些在情感上消解的人物形象，如同身体或记忆的阴影。弗朗西斯·培根将这种消解发挥到了极致：他的面孔从来都不是纯粹的人性化的，而是变形的、无声的呐喊、以及被痛苦和欲望扭曲的身体。同样的，童雁汝南的肖像画也不寻求建立一种稳定的身份，而是似乎在唤起主体中那种抵抗再现的东西，那种始终在逃避的东西。

这种动态在巴尔扎克 (Honoré de Balzac) 著作《不为人知的杰作》中得到了深刻呼应。故事中的画家弗朗霍费 (Frenhofer) 试图创作出一幅终极作品——不仅能揭示形式，还能揭示主体灵魂的画作。然而，他的尝试却导致了具象的彻底消解：画布上残留的是混乱的色彩和形状，是一种由于过度研究而毁灭了主体的无形态状态。这个故事深刻影响了西方艺术家和艺术评论家，预见了许多当代绘画的核心困境：对不可再现之物的表现。而在童的肖像画中，消解是一种开放：脸部消散，暴露它的脆弱性和短暂性。从这个角度来看，童将自己置身于这样一种传统之中，并不试图将身份描绘成某种稳定的东西，而是将其视为一个过程，一种在存在与缺席之间摇摆不定的东西。因此，他的绘画不是描绘面孔，而是绘画进行中出现和消退的存在。

梅达多·罗索作品

童雁汝南作品的另一个重要方面是其材质。他画作中浓密厚重的笔触，让人联想到粘土或蜡的形式，使其绘画实践更接近于雕塑。从这个意义上来说，与梅达多·罗索 (Medardo Rosso) 的比较尤其具有启发意义。罗索是十九世纪末最具创新精神的雕塑家之一，他探索了形式与消解之间的界限，创作了仿佛蒸发在光线中的蜡和石膏作品。他的雕塑并没有固定的人物形象，而是捕捉一个稍纵即逝的瞬间。在他的肖像画如《笑的女孩》或《瞧！孩子》中 ，人物脸部呈现出一种不确定的幻象，仿佛在观者的注视中会逐渐消失。同样的，童雁汝南的绘画也不定义面部的轮廓，而是通过光线和物质暗示并塑造它们。

这种绘画与雕塑之间、表面与体积之间的张力，引发了对艺术中物质意义的反思。绘画与雕塑一样，是一种涉及操纵物质的创造行为。在童的创作中，绘画几乎成为一种二维的雕塑形式：面孔如浮雕一样从画布中浮现出来，由艺术家的手势塑造而成。绘画的这一造型特质指向一种将艺术视为有形的、物理性的过程，艺术家的手在其中切实可见。

南希在《不许碰我》 (Noli me tangere) 中再次反思了视觉的触觉维度，强调视觉艺术不仅是纯粹的视觉艺术，也是感官艺术。在童的肖像画中，这一维度尤为明显：脸部不仅仅是用来观看，更是用目光去“触摸”的。绘画材料化为皮肤，一种承载其塑造痕迹的活生生的表面。从这个意义上来说，绘画不仅是一种表现手段，也是一种化身的形式，一种使身体性可见的方式。

物质从来不仅仅是一种支撑：它是意义显现的地方，是可见之物变得可感的地方。在童的肖像画中，绘画材料同时是存在与缺席、身体与痕迹。绘画并不只是简单地表现脸部，而是塑造它，使其在转瞬即逝中清晰可见。

这种物质性指向一种将艺术视为事件的观念，即艺术家的手势与材料抵抗之间的碰撞。在童的肖像画中，绘画变成了一个动态空间，主体在其中同时出现又消散。这正是他画作如此有力的原因：它们不仅仅是图像，而是过程与运动。绘画与雕塑、可见与可触之间的联系提醒我们，艺术始终是一种完整的、涉及视觉和身体的感官体验。在童雁汝南的肖像画中，这种体验通过绘画的材质被放大，使得面部表情变得可触、鲜活、存在。童邀请我们透过表面看向艺术的本质，使可见之物成为可感体验。他在肖像画中解构主体的束缚以揭示其短暂的本质，向我们展示艺术从来不是一个确定的答案，而是一个向无限敞开的姿态。

Face to Face -- Portrait and Self-portrait. The Other and the Self

--On the Portrait of Tong Yanrunan

The question of portrait, as an art form and as a means of significance, has always questioned the relationship between the self and the other. Jean-Luc Nancy, in his philosophical reflections, offered an original reading of the portrait as a liminal space, where identity opens up in comparison with otherness. Portrait is never simply a representation of a subject: it is, rather, an opening to the indecipherable, a game of presence and absence, of visible and invisible. This tension between the portrait subject and the observing subject was explored in extraordinary depth to try to redefine the boundaries of the contemporary portrait, avoiding any easy definition of similarity or mimesis.

Nancy, in his Le regard du portrait, describes the portrait as a place where he sees the world and, at the same time, is sucked into it. The image does not capture the face in its entirety, but returns what the face escapes all the time, what is left of itself. It is this dimension of the other that the portrait plays, a question that lies at the heart of contemporary aesthetics and finds an extraordinary twist in Tong Yanrunan's works.

Tong Yanrunan's portrait is never a simple record of likeness, but rather a kind of philosophical and phenomenological investigation. Nancy himself has described the portrait as a remarkable “process of exposure,” in which the subject never fully offers itself but is revealed in his recantation, in its resistance to capture. From this perspective, the portrait is never a static surface, but a dynamic field, an incessant question that challenges the viewer to confront the face as an enigma. The portrait of the other--or with a play of words, the other portrait is not just a simple mirror, but a prism that shatters multiple possibilities of being. As Nancy suggests, staging the “other” of portrait is not only the represented subject, but also the void that separates the image from the observer, the play between presence and absence that makes the portrait a visual and ontological experience.

Tong Yanrunan stands out for the radicality of his approach. In its essential portraits, Tong gives up all unnecessary details to capture a form of presence that is both immediate and elusive. His canvases, which suggest both  rapidity and decisiveness--necessary to seize the moment of the portrait, seem to embody Nancy’s idea of the portrait as an interruption of appearance. The image, far from being a faithful representation of the face, is a place of emergency, where the subject appears as a trace, a shadow, a possibility.

Tong Yanrunan moves away from the academic traditions of the portrait and approaches a more archaic and spiritual dimension. His faces do not tell stories or present recognizable identities; rather, they are fragments of a collective memory, archetypal figures evoking a sense of universality. In this quest for essentiality, Tong expresses a contemporary sensitivity that recognizes the human face not as a stable identity, but a field of tension and a process of transformation.

The portrait never fully represents the subject, because the subject is always elsewhere, always in otherness. In Tong Yanrunan’s portrait, this “elsewhere” is palpable: the face presents itself as a fragment of an unattainable whole, an echo of a presence that you never fully allow itself to be grasped. Painting thus becomes an act of revelation, but also of concealment, a way of saying and remaining silent at the same time.

Jean-Luc Nancy stressed that the portrait, rather than representing a face, represents the idea of a face. This concept is crucial for understanding Tong Yanrunan's work and placing it within the broader context of contemporary aesthetics. In his portraits, the idea of face emerges as a question, an opening to each other that never closes into a definitive answer. For Tong, face is an event, not an icon: an event that takes place in the time of painting and the time of gaze. Nancy describes the face as the threshold of being, a place where the being manifests itself and withdraws. This movement of manifestation and retreat is central to the portrait, which can never be reduced to a mere representation. In Tong Yanrunan's portraits, this threshold is particularly evident: faces appear to emerge from the canvas as appearances, as presences that challenge viewers to confront the irreducibility of each other.

The other, in the portrait, is not only the represented subject, but also the viewer himself, called upon to identify with the image without ever finding complete correspondence. As Nancy observes, portraits always look who looks at them. In Tong’s portraits, this glances game is amplified by the simplicity of the brushstroke, which leaves space for the viewer’s imagination. The face is never complete but always in the process of becoming, always open to new possibilities of meaning.

Another fundamental theme that emerges from Jean-Luc Nancy’s reflections is that of the “self-portray” of the portrait. The portrait is never just an image of the other but also an image of the self. Every portrait is, in a sense, a self-portrait, because it carries the traces of the artist’s gaze, their way of seeing and being in the world. In Tong Yanrunan’s portraits, this dimension is particularly evident: each face is simultaneously an encounter with the other and a reflection on the very act of painting. But the portrait can never be completely separated from the body that produces it. The artist, in creating a portrait, exposes themselves to the risk of putting their own being into play, of revealing something of themselves in the act of representing the other. The faces are signs of the artist’s presence, traces of their gesture, but also openings toward a world that extends beyond their gaze.

Tong Yanrunan’s portraits, with their essentiality and mystery, embody this idea of the portrait as a space of otherness and self-reflection. They remind us that the face is never fully ours but always also the other’s, and that every image is, ultimately, a way of confronting the invisible. In this sense, the portrait becomes not only an artistic genre but a philosophy, a way of thinking and being that invites us to look beyond the surface, toward what remains hidden.

Tong Yanrunan’s works do not merely depict a recognizable subject; on the contrary, they seem to dissolve the subject itself while maintaining a visible trace, an echo. This tension places her work in dialogue with key figures of modern and contemporary painting such as Lucian Freud, Marlene Dumas, and Francis Bacon, who share the ability to dismantle figuration to reveal its internal tensions. In these practices, figuration crumbles to let the otherness of the face emerge: its vulnerable, dark, unspeakable side.

Lucian Freud, with his carnal and brutal portraits, unveils the human body as living matter, burdened by its physicality. Marlene Dumas, on the other hand, works on the threshold of indistinctness, painting figures that dissolve in their emotionality, like shadows of bodies or memories. Francis Bacon takes this dissolution to the extreme: his faces are never purely human but rather transfigured, mute screams, bodies deformed by suffering and desire. Similarly, Tong Yanrunan’s portraits do not seek to fix a stable identity but instead evoke what in the subject resists representation, what is always already in flight.

This dynamic finds a profound echo in Honoré de Balzac’s famous The Unknown Masterpiece. In the story, the painter Frenhofer seeks to create the definitive work, a painting that can reveal not only the form but the very soul of the subject. However, his attempt leads to a total dissolution of figuration: what remains on the canvas is a chaos of colors and forms, a formless matter that has annihilated the subject through an excess of searching. This tale, which has deeply influenced artists and critics of Western art, anticipates the dilemma underlying much of modern painting: the representation of the unrepresentable. Tong’s portraits seem to inhabit this space. Their dissolution is an opening: the face unravels to reveal its fragility, its transient nature. In this perspective, Tong aligns herself with a tradition that does not seek to portray identity as something stable but as a process, an oscillation between presence and absence. Her painting, therefore, does not depict faces but existences in the process of becoming, presences that emerge and withdraw.

Another fundamental aspect of Tong Yanrunan’s work is its material quality. Her dense, pasty brushstrokes and the tactile sense that permeates her paintings evoke the modeling of clay or wax, bringing her painterly practice closer to sculpture. In this sense, a comparison with Medardo Rosso proves particularly illuminating. Medardo Rosso, one of the most innovative sculptors of the late 19th century, explored the boundary between form and dissolution, creating works in wax and plaster that seem to evaporate in light. His sculptures do not seek to fix a figure but to capture a moment, a fleeting impression. In his portraits, such as Bambina che ride or Ecce Puer, the face emerges as an uncertain vision, an apparition that seems to fade as one observes it. Similarly, Tong Yanrunan’s paintings do not define the contours of the faces but suggest them, modeling them as if they were shaped directly by light and matter.

This tension between painting and sculpture, between surface and volume, invites reflection on the meaning of material in art. Painting, like sculpture, is an act of creation that involves the manipulation of matter. In Tong’s paintings, the paint becomes almost a form of two-dimensional sculpture: the faces seem to emerge from the canvas as reliefs, shaped by the artist’s gesture. This plastic quality of painting refers to a conception of art as a bodily, physical process, where the artist’s hand is tangibly present.

Once again, Jean-Luc Nancy, in his essay Noli me tangere, reflects on the tactile dimension of vision, emphasizing how visual art is never purely optical but always also sensory. In Tong’s portraits, this dimension is particularly evident: the faces are not simply to be looked at but to be “touched” with the gaze. The painterly matter becomes a skin, a living surface that carries the traces of its being shaped. Painting, in this sense, is not only a means of representation but a form of incarnation, a way of making the corporeal visible.

The material is always more than a mere support: it is the place where meaning manifests, where the visible becomes sensible. In Tong’s portraits, the painterly matter is simultaneously presence and absence, body and trace. The painting does not simply represent the face but models it, shapes it, renders it visible in its fleetingness.

This material quality refers to a conception of art as an event, as an encounter between the artist’s gesture and the resistance of matter. In Tong’s portraits, painting becomes a dynamic space where the subject emerges and dissolves at the same time. This is what makes her paintings so powerful: they are never simply images but processes and movements. The connection between painting and sculpture, between the visible and the tactile, reminds us that art is always a total sensory experience, involving not only sight but also the body. In Tong Yanrunan’s portraits, this experience is amplified by the material quality of the painting, which makes the faces palpable, alive, present. Tong invites us to look beyond the surface, toward the very matter of art, toward what makes the visible a sensible experience. In her portraits, she undoes the subject to reveal its transient essence, to show us that art is never a definitive answer but an opening toward the infinite.

​克里斯蒂安娜·科鲁

博物馆学和当代艺术史博士。威尼斯奎里尼·斯坦帕利亚（Querini Stampalia）基金会的馆长。她曾于2015年至2023年担任意大利罗马现代和当代美术馆馆长，2020年担任博尔盖塞美术馆馆长，2012年至2015年担任特伦托和罗韦雷托现代和当代艺术博物馆馆长，1997至2012年担任努奥罗艺术博物馆馆长。曾在罗马萨皮恩扎大学、萨萨里大学、卡利亚里大学、特伦托大学和 LUISS商学院教授博物馆学和艺术史。参加了第58届威尼斯双年展国际评审团、法尔内西纳委员会、巴切利委员会、Tuwaiq国际雕塑研讨会、利雅得艺术专家小组、罗马四年展、TERNA奖委员等。她策划和构思了200多个展览，将她的大部分工作、研究和项目致力于可持续性、性别平等、多样性和包容性。

Cristiana Collu

Cristiana Collu, museum director and independent curator, was appointed Director of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice in September 2024. Among others, she previously directed the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, the MART in Trento and Rovereto, and the MAN in Nuoro. With a Master’s degree in Art History from the University of Cagliari and a PhD from the Complutense University of Madrid, she has taught at La Sapienza University of Rome, the University of Sassari, the University of Cagliari, the University of Trento, and the LUISS Business School in Rome. She has taken part in and continues to serve on prestigious committees, juries, and scientific boards, including the International Jury of the 58th Venice Biennale, the Farnesina Commission, the Tuwaiq International Sculpture Symposium and the Riyadh Art Program in Saudi Arabia, the Quadriennale di Roma, the TERNA Prize, and many others. She has curated and conceived over 200 exhibitions, dedicating much of her work, research, and projects to sustainability, gender equality, diversity, and inclusion.