夏阳 Hsia Yan

番鸭用冲的，过荷塘 The Dashing Muscovy Ducks, Rushing through the Lotus Pond

丙烯‧剪贴‧布 Acrylic, collage on canvas   245 x 366 cm   2013 - 2014

　　夏阳：观‧游‧趣

　　HSIA YAN：Journey to Art

　　展期 Date|2018.8.25 - 10.21

　　地点 Venue|台北市立美术馆2楼2A-2B TFAM Gallery 2A&2B

　　开幕 Reception|2018.8.25 16:30 台北市立美术馆206展览室 TFAM Gallery 206

　　夏阳(1932~)是现代艺术家，他将生命观察的况味化为毛毛人符码，创作历程丰富而视觉语言多变。夏阳个性里有坚毅和睦、宽容、机巧、童趣、淳朴之特质。其创作态度介于认真与游戏之间，往往作品显现出画别人故事讲自己人生的真挚，却欲言又止，言在意外，作品常使人观赏后，颇能心领神会且寓意无限缭绕深远。

　　1951年夏阳向李仲生研习艺术，之后和七位画友成立东方画会。1963年夏阳初访欧洲，后定居巴黎五年，1968年移居纽约，直至1992年返回台北定居，2002年后移居上海创作生活至今，艺术阅历极为丰富。本展「夏阳:观•游•趣」的创作脉络依时序论述:观写线描勾勒人形、幻影飘渺游移动势、雕刻强化绘画语境以及穿游时空浮生逸趣。

　　夏阳绘画的题材内容，取自于民间宗教、神话、寓言故事及传奇人物，他以颤动的线构成人形在空间穿梭，画面中的毛毛人以寓言象征现实的意境，既摆脱物像原本的含意，同时亦象征人处于都市丛林之不安与疏离感，毛毛笔触转变成似是而非的物象，鲜明的动势牵引出敏感机智的图像语言。七○年代时期，夏阳旅居纽约期间，适逢照相写实形成风潮，他的绘画有不同的转变，其描写取景于人在都会景观游移，细腻刻划场景以及快速局部模糊图像，如同影像突然停格般的视觉效果，或可视为毛毛笔触的延伸与变奏。

　　在九○年中期以后，夏阳的绘写〈百颜联作〉(1994~1996)与〈36人像联作〉(2002)堪称将毛毛人语言发挥得最为淋漓尽致之精湛力作。1999年之后夏阳同时也创作发展为雕刻，用金属形塑立体的毛毛系列作品，表现手法仍是绘画语言的转变演化。2002年以来，夏阳以剪纸拼贴绘画，他的打油诗意境时而入画;尤其经常以巨碑式的山水图景结合当代都会与浮生闲情，绘画更多机锋以及幽默、诙谐，同时色彩清新鲜活而又时尚节奏感，显示艺术家淬炼智能已臻随心所欲的艺术境界。本次展品来自台湾及大陆上海各个美术馆、画廊、收藏家以及艺术家自藏品包括：素描、绘画、雕刻以及复合媒材作品上百件精彩作品，从五○年代初跨越至今，完整呈现其艺术风貌。

　　Born in 1932, the modern artist Hsia Yang paints “fuzzy” figures to represent his observations of life. Over the course of his long and varied career, Hsia has pursued a wide range of visual languages. His qualities include perseverance, harmony, tolerance, ingenuity, delight, and simplicity. He blends seriousness and play into his work, and presents stories of others that suggest his own life. Admiring his paintings, one can sense their profundity.

　　In 1951, Hsia studied art with Lee Chun-Shan and then started the Ton Fan Group with seven other artists. In 1963, he went to Europe for the first time and settled in Paris for five years. In 1968, he moved to New York, and then in 1992, returned to Taipei. After 2002, Hsia moved to Shanghai and has lived there since. His experience in the art world has been exceedingly rich and varied. Works in the exhibition Hsia Yan: Journey to Art are presented in chronological order under the themes Line Figures ; Momentum Shadows ; Sculpture Strengthening the Painterly Context; and Leisurely Drifting through Time and Space.

　　Subject matter in Hsia's work includes folk religion, myths, allegories, and legendary figures. By creating rushing figures composed of quivering lines, he intends to suggest allegorical meanings. With his fuzzy people, he dispenses with the meanings or likenesses originally associated with specific objects and instead explores the restlessness and alienation of life in the urban jungle. Variations in blurry brush strokes seem to form objects but actually do not, yet the clear momentum of his figures demonstrates the artist's clever pictorial language. Hsia happened to be living in New York in the 1970s when photorealism was becoming popular, and this influenced his painting style. He started depicting scenes of people moving in cityscapes, paying close attention to the details in these scenes and simulating rushing movement by blurring these parts. This creates a visual effect of an abruptly frozen moment, or can be seen as the extension of or variations on his fuzzy brushwork.

　　In the latter half of the 1990s, Hsia continued his fuzzy people series with 100 Faces (1994 - 1996) and Thirty-Six Portraits (2002), which are regarded as the most vivid expressions of his formal blurring technique. After 1999, Hsia developed a series of iron sculptures based on the same theme, exploring and transforming his painting language with a new medium. Since 2002, Hsia has been using paper cutting collage techniques and introducing witty verse into his paintings, especially in his monumental landscapes that include contemporary scenes of urban leisure. The paintings are incisive and humorous with fresh and lively colors and a fashionable rhythm. Overall, the series presents the artist’s wisdom and his high attainment of artistic freedom.Work for this exhibition was borrowed from museums, galleries, collectors, and the artist’s personal collection in Taiwan and Shanghai, and includes more than one-hundred splendid drawings, paintings, sculptures, and mixed media works spanning the period from the early 1950s to the present, and comprehensively featuring the artist’s oeuvre.