赵晓东画农民工，的确很有西南艺术师承的传统，四川美院八十年代的乡土绘画就源自对底层的人文关怀。为表达对劳动者的尊重，赵晓东在画面上常常压低视点使对象显得更高大，这种久违的英雄化构图，在今天的艺术语境中反而显得很有个性。其实赵晓东作品的价值，不在于描绘农民工的劳动场面和生存境遇，而是致力于用形体塑造、色彩感受和有力的笔触肌理，去揭示下层劳动者的精神状态；不是以悲苦的面容、褴褛的衣衫、疲惫的劳作来博取廉价的同情，而是呈现自在、自为同时也就是自生自灭的自我生存，通过呈现而记录在案。正如库尔贝所说的那样，记录普通和平凡，就是记录历史并揭示历史。

    ——王   林

    The migrant worker painted by Zhao Xiaodong highlights on artistic style typical in the Southwest. The countryside painting style originating at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in the 80s, illustrates the artists  empathy for those suffering poverty. In order to show the respect for the laborers, Zhao Xiaodong usually alters his perspective and looks at the subjects of his paintings from below. This old-fashioned heroic construction of images is rather unique in a contemporary artistic context. The value of Zhao Xiaodong’s works does not lie in the labor-class scenario or the living situation of the migrant workers rather, what he pays attention to is the molding of human form, the emotion given through colors and the vibrant texture, instead of inviting cheap sympathy by depicting sad expressions, ragged clothes and exhausting labor, the artist provides a portrait of a migrant worker’s personality and a record of their free, independent and self-sufficient existence. As Courbet suggests, to record the ordinary and the simple is to record and reveal history. 

     ——Wong Lin

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