乌托邦与洛神
数年来，唐伟民在大部分的创作中反复描画着一个不存在的女人。
这个女人有着符合中国宋代审美的外表：消瘦的身材，鹅蛋脸，单眼皮，皮肤光洁，略带忧伤的目光。她似乎是穿着唐代贵族的衣服，有时又成为一个藏族女人的形象。她戴着有长长触角的帽子，衣服上镶嵌着贵重的宝石。她在黑暗中站着，全身笼罩着微弱的烛光，像冬夜里的一盏灯，有着古典式的温暖感。她的身后一般没有背景，若有也是一扇斑驳的门。偶尔，她也会变成一个身着白衣的江南女子，皮肤白皙，指尖冰冷，神情淡然。
人们定会疑惑，不断重复出现在大多数作品中的这位女人，她是谁?
然而画家说，世间并没有这样一个人。
不存在的洛神
唐伟民反复描画这位不存在的女子，仿佛是曹植遇到了洛神。据《昭明文选》记载，曹植一直喜欢哥哥曹丕的妃子甄宓。有一年，他从封地入京拜见曹丕。曹丕告诉弟弟，甄宓已经离世，并将她曾用过的玉缕金带枕送给了曹植。曹植失魂落魄，归来时经过洛水，竟看见江面上升起貌似甄宓的女神。
翩若惊鸿，婉若游龙，荣耀秋菊，华茂春风。曹植用尽了各种美好的词句去描述她的美貌，并且讲述了他们之间的一段缠绵悱恻的人神之恋。
然而，旁人却连个洛神的影子也看不见。
又仿佛是卡尔维诺走过的不存在的城市。在他著名的小说《看不见的城市》中，马可波罗向忽必烈描述一生中经过的许多城市，然而那些城市并不真实存在。卡尔维诺写道：迪奥米拉城有黄昏露台传来女子的叫声，伊西多拉城有广场上安静看着年轻人走过的老人，朵洛茜雅城的妇女都有好看的牙齿并且坦率望进你的眼睛，安娜斯塔西亚城则为欲望雕刻出了形状……这些城市不曾存在，却有着清晰的细节，直入内心深处。
唐伟民笔下描绘的女子，就是这样一个美好的不存在。
迷人旧时光
旧时光是一个令人着迷的词语，令人想起泛黄却不褪色的记忆，古老精致的文明，那柔和光线笼罩的时空，也似乎是这女子的来处。她不似洛神般曹衣出水吴带当风，不似卡尔维诺的城市一样诡谲神秘，而是带着一种清冷却又温暖的气质，仿佛冬日房间里的一盆水仙。她安静又寂寞，温暖却庄严，她是静止的，若是行动起来，也必然是缓慢而高贵的。
“这是对现代匆忙生活的一种安抚。”唐伟民说。
他的工作室里摆着各种淘来的古董老货，带着时间所赐的包浆，在柔和光线中发出温润迷人的色彩。它们陪着唐伟民，安安静静地喝一壶好茶。那些陶陶罐罐经历过什么无人得知，就像唐伟民笔下的女人，背后的故事早已无从寻觅，但却何其美也。
岁月参与塑造了古物的美，时光仿佛存在于过去，却在古物上穿越至现在的辰光;时光又像流沙，沉积在这些物品内部，经历过一个个主人的注视与摩挲;然而时光总在流逝，人去物尚在。你很难说，是人收藏了物，还是物收藏了人。
对旧时光的爱好，可以说是唐伟民作品中的文化内涵来源之一。他在画一个女人，更在画一种属于旧时光的文化品格。这位女子穿着打扮貌似是藏民，却又不是纯正的藏民，因为唐伟民并不是在描绘一幅肖像。这是一个他一直以来不断找寻的旧时光和现代生活连接点——藏民是存在于现代的人物，但特殊的服饰和生活习惯仿佛还停留在古代。唐伟民从这里，找到了属于自己艺术的切入点，以心中的幻想进行再次塑造。他并不是在单纯画藏民本身，藏民只是一个躯壳，借以还魂的躯壳，这个魂有着千百年来在文化上的找寻，以及对来时漫漫长路的回望。
幻想乌托邦
艺术家在纸上创造一个不同于现实的世界，有人创造自己熟悉的，有人创造完全陌生的。
唐伟民在创造自己的幻想。
幻想是游戏的变形。孩子在游戏中，会专注地用积木搭出一个理想世界，用泥土捏出一顿饭菜，用蜡笔画出长翅膀的小狗，并坚定地认为这些幻想可以是真的。当我们渐渐长大，这些实现心中幻想的游戏，连同专注和坚定，都渐渐消失了。
然而幻想并未消失，我们只是羞于启齿。人们总在谈论项目、房子、钱、速度、欲望以及欲望的变形，人们认为自己小时候的游戏，心中的幻想并不宏大，不值一提。然而，那些内心最深处的东西，根深蒂固，在午夜梦回时，总会挥之不去。
比如，我们并不需要成功，我们只需要温暖;比如我们并不真的需要项目和投资，我们需要家庭的快乐，比如我们并不需要凌晨两点回复电子邮件，我们需要在海边吹吹风。但很多人都忘了游戏的快乐，忘了自己心中对生命的幻想。
唐伟民没有，他并不着意于用作品提醒大家找回初心，而是坚持用画笔描绘自己的初心。这个不存在的女人，是他心灵上的乌托邦。
乌托邦就是桃花源，是想象中的存在，那里集所有美好于一身。现代的生活，对于唐伟民来说，心灵上并不舒适。他总是担心生活太忙，太快，太乱。
唐伟民选择了藏民题材，然而又不是写实的藏民。“我其实并没有去过西藏，画西藏，是因为它很远。”
尽管有了青藏铁路，西藏仍然是一个山高水远的所在。在那遥远自由而偏僻的地方，存在着迥异于日常生活的族群。在蓝天白云日日可见的高原，人们驱赶着牛马，追逐着水草丰美的地方，离苍天最近，靠天时为生。生存艰难，却有坚定的信仰，和最少的物质欲望。
这种品格是都市人所缺乏的一种力量，仿佛是古典文化的一种魂灵。这种精神上的魂灵，在唐伟民看来，是思想上的回望，能够安抚现代人迷乱的心灵，这也是人们纷纷去藏区洗涤心灵的目的所在。
唐伟民对都市生活感到迷惑，和我们大多数人一样。一方面，我们离不开都市的方便快捷，但每时每刻，总觉得在高速的旋转中，再也找不到古典生活方式中那种时间的安静和完整，以及精神上的单纯和专注。现在的时代越来越成为大规模、成批量的机器时代，无处不在的碎片化和瞬息万变，让人心缺了一块恒定感。
于是，他在创作中竭力寻找一种安静的氛围，以及经典的永恒。无论是藏民也好，仕女也好，群像也好，都有这种力量。画中厚重的衣服，恬淡的表情，昏暗的光线，仿佛伦勃朗的油画，能让你迅速安静下来。这种令人安静的力量，也来自于画中人物所代表的的文化品格，那是一种向时光深处的凝视。
不管世界多么大，不管时间多么快，总有一种东西留在那里，像一盏回家的路灯。
生命本质是孤独
画人的艺术家很多，画藏民的艺术家亦不少，在一些艺术家的笔下，藏民们热烈而富有生命力，而在唐伟民笔下，他幻想的西藏，有一种内心深处的孤独。这种寂寞的，安静的，孤独而神秘的气质，来自远古，来自生命的深处。
孤独是创造艺术的必要品质之一。上帝给每个人的能量总是均衡的，如果一个人非常善于社交，大抵就无法深入内心深处钻研。而好的艺术家，则多半不善言辞，成日在内心世界游走，因而无法很好地完成人的社会属性。
唐伟民不善言辞，性格内向，在父母影响下拥有真诚朴素的传统的价值观。想必他的内心和他的画笔一样，孤独而有追求。
孤独和寂寞不一样，寂寞是发慌的，孤独是饱满的。庄子说，“独与天地精神往来”，是在表达生命和宇宙之间的对话，已经完满。
这种完满很少有人能够理解，我们通常所理解的完满生活，无非是事业成功，物质丰裕，爱情圆满，家人健康，儿孙围绕。这些都是和外界互动，关系中的完满。而内心的完满，则是一种和宇宙通达的孤独。
唐伟民将这种完满的孤独注入画中不存在的女孩，成为她独特的气质。对于艺术家来说，这是一种创造，对于唐伟民来说，这未尝不是一种心灵上的寻找——寻找一个可以避世，可以安放心灵的桃花源。只是，他的桃花源，看起来和通常意义上的不太一样。
轻盈和厚重
中国的创世神话里讲到，盘古开天地之前，天地混沌一片。盘古用斧子砍了一万八千年，终于撑开了混沌，阳清上升为天，阴浊下降为地，组成了世界。
于是你会发现一种很神奇的现象：世界上的生命，都有这两面，阳清和阴浊，轻盈和厚重，个人和国家，灵性和技术。所有的文化艺术，也都会对应于这两种不同的品格。厚重的人生羡慕轻灵的表达，简洁的风格承担不了历史的厚重。我们的生命就在两个极端里纠结着，或者互相羡慕，或者互相鄙夷。
唐伟民的心灵是孤独的，但他在艺术上选择了写实。他的作品，有学院派的影子。写实，是厚重的，是技术的，是非个人的，但在笔触之间，在恒定之外，他在努力表达一种个人的悠扬和灵性的意境。
这是教育习惯和人性审美的综合作用。写实是历史替他做出的选择，但在这样的背景下，他选择给作品中加入一些个人的笔意。“那是能够体现情绪和精神性的东西。”唐伟民的作品，有些地方画的非常厚，有些地方又异常薄。那些细小的、用力刻画的、有劲道的笔意，让整幅画面在厚重之余更加有灵动性。正如他所喜爱的西方古典油画大师，维米尔和伦勃朗，他爱维米尔的安静和永恒，又爱伦勃朗的灵动和人性。“我爱他们对光线的表达，对画面肌理的处理，和对人性的描述。”
唐伟民找到了自己的画画方式，这是件幸运的事。他在历史与现在的接口中，结合了灵性和厚重，创造一个心灵上的圆满桃花源，这是属于他的精神世界。不论我们懂或不懂，爱或不爱，当一个人专注画画，心无挂碍的时候，就是人间好时节。
Utopia and Nymph of the Luo River
——Reading Tang Weimin’s Painting
Ma Jing
For many years, Tang Weimin is depicting an inexistent woman in most of his works.
This woman owns an appearance that matches the aesthetics of Song dynasty: slim body shape, oval face, single lip eyes, with bright and clean skin and slightly sorrowful expression in her eyes, who sometimes becomes an image of a Tibetan woman. She wears hat with long antennas, her clothes decorated with heavy precious stones. She stands in the dark, with her whole body enveloped with dim candle’s light, as a lamp in a winter night, possessing a classic feeling of warmth. There is usually no background in her back. If there is a background, it is a mottled gate. Occasionally, she would be staged as a Southern lady in white, with pale skin, cold fingertips as well as indifferent face.
People must be puzzled that given this repetitive appearance, who is this woman?
However, the artist’s answer is that there is no such woman in this world at all.
The Inexistent Nymph of the Luo River
Tang’s repeated depiction of this inexistent woman resembles the case of Cao Zhi encountering the Nymph of the Luo River. According to Selected works of Zhao Ming, Cao Zhihad long been in love with Zhen Mi, his brother Cao Pi’s concubine. In one year, he paid a formal visit to Cao Pi from his vassalage land. Cao Pi told his brother the Zhen Mi had passed away, and gave her pillow made of jade with golden belts to him as a memorial gift. Cao Zhi was devastated as a dying man. When he passed the Luo River on his way back, he saw a goddess who looked just like Zhen Mi rising up from the river!
She is so graceful as a fragile swan goose, wandering as a swimming dragon. Her face is as bright as the chrysanthemum in fall, and her beauty is growing as the wind in spring. Cao Zhi used up all kinds of beautiful verses to describe her gorgeous appearance. Moreover, he also told a sentimental love story between human and god.
However, other people around could not even see a single shadow of the Nymph of the Luo River.
It is also similar to the inexistent city of Calvino. In his famous novel Le città invisibili, Marco Polo describes the cities he visited on his expeditions to Kublai Khan. Yet they do not exist in reality. Calvino writes: Diomira has the women’s shouting at dusk from the balcony. Isaura has the elderly who watch the young passing by quietly at the plaza. Dorothea’ s women all have bright teeth and frankly look into your eyes. Anastasia carves the shape of desire…these city never exists, but they own clear details that enter directly into our heart deep inside.
The women Tang depicts with his brush are exactly these fantastic inexistences.
Charming Old Times
Old times is a term full of enchanting significance, which recalls people of the unfading memories of the past and ancient exquisite civilizations. The time and space bathed by soft lights also seem to be where the woman comes from. Unlike Nymph of the Luo River who performs as “the Cao clothes water leakage, Wu Dai worked as the wind” and the tricky mysterious cities of Calvino, she acts with a mood both cold and warm, as a potted narcissus. She is peaceful and lonely, intimate but dignified. She stays still, and even if she moves, it must be slow and elegant.
“This is a comfort to the rushing modern life.” Tang says.
His studio displays fully with all kinds of antiques. With the wrapped slurry given by time, they shine with soft and charming colors in the soft light. They accompany Tang when he tastes a bottle of sound tea in the silence. It is unknown that what these potteries and jars have been through, which resembles the women painted by Tang, whose stories behind has long been lost and hard to discover, yet, they still possess extreme beauty.
Time has participated into the shaping of the beautiful antique pieces. It seem to be exist in the past, but present on these objects. Moreover, time also likes flowing sands settled in the inner of these pieces, having experienced the gazed and touches of an owner. However, time always flows. As the person is gone, these objects will still remain. You can hardly tell if the person collects objects, or the other way around.
The interest in the past can be described as one of the cultural resource in Tang’s painting. He is painting a woman while working on the quality and personality of the old times. His lady dressed in Tibetan costumes is not exactly a pure Tibetan, since Tang is not working on a portrait. This is the connection point between the past and modern life that he constantly searching for—Tibetan exist in the present, yet, their distinctive costumes and living habits make them as if they stay in the past. Tang found his point of penetration of his own from here and re-shapes them with his fantasy in mind. He is not simply painting the Tibetan itself which is only a shelf to bring back the soul of thousands years of cultural tracing as well as the review of the long way of the past.
Utopia in Fantasy
Artists create a world different from the reality. Some make it from what they are familiar with, while others build up something totally strange.
In this case, Tang creates his own fantasy.
Fantasy is the distortion of games. When a child is focusing on a game, he or she would build an idealized world with toy blocks, pinch a meal with mud or draw a dog with wings using crayons, while firmly believing that these fantasies could come true. As we grow, these games of fulfillment of fantasy in mind, together with that concentration and firmness have all gradually faded away.
However, the fantasies have not disappeared, yet we are just too shy to speak of them. People are always talking about projects, real estates, money, speed, desires as well as the distortion of desires. We believe that the childish games are not worth mentioning since the fantasy is not grand enough in them. Nevertheless, something deep inside has rooted in our heart. When the night comes, we could not stop thinking about them.
For instance, we do not need successes but the warmth of them; we do not really need projects and investments, what we really long for is happiness of families getting together; we do not have to reply an email at 2 o’clock in the morning, we just need a walk by the sea. However, many people have forgotten the joyfulness of games and the fantasies that they dream about life.
But Tang has not forgotten. He is not in a hurry to remind us to find our initial self by his works, but he constantly depicting his own initial self with his brush instead. This inexistent woman is the utopia of his heart.
Utopia is a peach blossom valley, an imaginary existence, which gathers all delightful things in one. The modern life is not comfortable mentally for Tang. He always concerns that life is too busy, too speedy and too messy.
Tang chooses the Tibetan subject but the figures are not realistic Tibetan. “As a matter of fact, I have never been to Tibet and paint Tibet, since it is too far away.” Says Tang.
Despite of the Tibetan railway, Tibet is still a place so distant. In the remote, free and desolated area, there is a minority completely different from our daily life. In the high mountain area, the blue sky and clear clouds could be seen everyday. Grazing the cattle, reaching places full of grasses and waters. The live closest to the sky and survive by fate. Despite of the difficult life, they held firm believes and least desire of materials.
This quality is what the power that urban people lack, as a soul of classic culture. This psychic soul is a review with thoughts to be able to comfort the lost heart of modern people. And this is the reason why they go to Tibet to clean their souls one after another.
Tang is confused by the urban life as most of us. On the one side, we cannot live without the convenience in urban cities. On the other side, we feel rotated fast every hour and every minute. The peacefulness and entity of time in the old life styles, as well as spiritual simplicity and concentration could not ever be traced. This age has become more and more massive productive mechanically. The fragmentation and rapidly changing, leading to a lack of stability of human heart.
Hence, he endeavors to search for a serene atmosphere as well as the immortal of classics in his creation. This power exists in all his subjects of Tibetan people, court ladies as well as group portraits. The decorous clothes, peaceful expressions and dim lights are similar to Rembrandt’s oil painting, which calm you down quickly. This power of peacefulness is also resulted from the cultural qualities that the figures in his paintings represent, which is a gaze to the depth of time.
No matter how big the world is, how fast time runs, there is always one thing remains as a lighthouse leading home.
The Essence of Life is Loneliness
There are lots of artists who paint people, so are painters working on Tibetan subject. In some of paintings of Tibetan subject, the native inhabitant is enthusiastic and energetic. There is, whereas, a profound loneliness in Tang’s Tibetan fantasy. The isolated, quiet and mysterious mood derives from the ancient times, staying deep inside in life forms.
Loneliness is one of the necessary quality of art making. God is equal to give everyone the same energy. If one person is very good at social communication, he or she is probably unable to go deep inside human heart and make a close observation. But most excellent artists are not skillful in verbal expression, instead, they wander around at the bottom of human heart, thus being unable to accomplish the social quality of a person.
Tang is not good at words with reserved personality. He owns values of sincerity of purity under his parents influence. Supposedly his mind is just as his brush, which is lonely but sill having pursuit.
Loneliness is different from feeling solitude. We would panic when feeling solitude, while loneliness is full and rich. As Zhuang Zi says, “just go with heaven and earth”, which is a fulfilled conversation with the whole universe.
Very few people understand this fulfillment. Since in common sense, the signs of a perfect life are no more than a successful business, material abundance, committed love, a healthy family with several generation gathering together. This is the completion in relation to the outside world, while the completion of heart is loneliness with understanding of the universe.
Tang has brought this fulfillment of loneliness to the inexistent girl in his painting, making them unique in personality. It is a creation to the artist, and for Tang, it might be a spiritual searching—for a peach blossom valley to escape from the world and find a residence for heart. His peach blossom valley is only slight different from that of common sense.
Lightness and Massiness
According to the Chinese myth of the creation of world, the universe is in chaos before Pan Gu created heaven and earth. Chopping for eighteen thousands years, Pan Gu finally break the chaos, with the masculine (yang) rising up as heaven, the feminine (yin) going down as earth, which make up the world.
Therefore, you will eventually discover an interesting phenomenon: all life forms in the world have two sides, one being masculine and light while the other being feminine and massy, which also echoes to the oppositions of individual and nation, genius and craftsmanship. All kinds of cultural arts world fall into those opposite qualities respectively as well. A massy life would envy a light expression. Simple styles could not afford the heaviness of history. Our life is struggling between these two extremes, either envying or despising each other.
Tang’s mind is in loneliness, yet he choses realism in art. His works convey the influence of academic school. Realism itself is massy, technically demanding, impersonal. However, through brushworks and beyond standards, he is striving to express personality and spirituality.
This is the comprehensive function of education habits and human aesthetics. Realism is what a decision that history makes for Tang, yet in this background, he chooses to add some meaningful brushstroke that is personalized, which “is able to embody the emotion and spirit.” Some of Tang’s works are painted thickly while some elsewhere thin and smooth. These tiny, powerfully depicted brushworks add spirituality besides the massiness, just as Vermeer and Rembrandt, who he admires as Old Masters in western classic paintings. He is in love with Vermeer’s and serenity and immortality, while in favor of Rembrandt’s vividness and humanity. “I like their expression towards light, their handling of texture, as well as their depiction of humanity.”
Tang has found his own way of painting, which is quite fortunate indeed. He combines lightness and massiness in the linking point of human nature, creating a spiritual fulfilled peach blossom valley, which belongs to his inner world. When one concentrates on painting with nothing else in his mind, it does not matter if we understand or not, like or dislike, the time is always the best in the world we live.