阅读、讨论田卫作品，不谈“水墨”、“抽象”几乎是不可能的，尽管他从未置身于上世纪90年代中期开始的“抽象水墨”运动中，也未曾受到过这些艺术现象的直接影响，但这依然构成了讨论其作品的逻辑起点之一。“水墨”与“抽象”的问题同“水墨”与“写实”的问题一样复杂，且具有一个历时性的过程。自20世纪以来，所谓“水墨”便不断地纠结于各种流行的现代艺术概念，“写实”如此，“抽象”同样如此。这也使得我们在讨论田卫的作品时，具有了一个基本的现实语境。
近代中国画的改造自康有为等以来，引入“科学”、“写实”方法成为主潮，这种改造又因上世纪30年代后苏联现实主义艺术的引入、建国后社会主义现实主义的标准化而成为推动中国画发展的唯一力量。然而，在这一长达数十年的艺术改造过程中，中国画，尤其是水墨，其自身的规律性却总是处于被压抑的状态。皴、擦、点、染等传统水墨技法，在高度程式化的情景下，只适合于表现特定的对象，譬如，斧劈皴、披麻皴对特定类型山的表现。那么，用写实技法，或者折中的技法来表现传统对象，或用传统方法来表现现代景物、人物，便难实现传统水墨画的审美目的。因此，在上世纪70年代末、80年代初以来的艺术革新运动中，富于改革精神的现代水墨画家便潜在地将利用写实技法创作水墨画的方式看作不成功的案例，也正是在这样的语境下，如何发挥、发展水墨画自身特点来实现形式语言和表现对象更新，便成为推动当代水墨画发展的基本动力。
与很多致力于水墨艺术创新的同行一样，田卫在创作今天我们看到的这些成熟的、具有个人特点的作品前，他同样经历了不同的探索阶段和痛苦的蜕变经历。从学生时代开始，田卫就接受了严格的学院派教育，至2000年，他的创作依然企图在传统的水墨道路上继承、创新。但是，他并没有沿着前辈大师的道路亦步亦趋，而是一直在思考水墨发展的可能、自己艺术创作的方向，正如艺术家所言，“我一直觉得再按照元、明的路子画下去属于非物质文化遗产，而且一代不如一代，你画的过倪云林黄子久吗?我一直觉得到了黄宾虹已经是绝唱了。”正是因为这样的思考，带来了田卫新世纪后新的创作气象。
《曼陀罗》系列是田卫创作的转折，也标志着他利用水墨进行抽象艺术创作的开始。这些灵感最初来源于佛教寺庙，但却被处理成几乎是几何抽象的形态，加以积墨。当然，这些作品只是他探索的一个过程，远非终点。在这一系列的绘画中，他所必须面对的问题是，借曲线、墨色以表现意象的水墨，如何表现直线与方块的抽象几何协调起来——这个问题似乎是与前文所述“水墨”、“写实”矛盾同样的问题。沿着这条道路，他继续创作一些以线为主要元素的抽象绘画，并创作了一批新的作品。在这些作品中，田卫力图去解决自己所遇到的问题。在接下来的《佛塔》系列中，他似乎向前迈进了一步，《牛货》、《瞿耶尼》、《俱耶尼》等作品中，画面变得更为协调，直线和方块地处理也并不显得与水墨的方式抵触。留出的线条也显得更具有光感，这为其后来的纯抽象作品埋下了重要的伏笔。
而最近两年田卫的创作则显得成熟了许多，具有了自己独特的个人面貌。而且，对于“艺术”、“绘画”、“水墨”等概念也有了更进一层的认识和思考。在新的创作中，形式开始被简化，直至一条线、一个点。然而，这些作品并不是极简主义的创作，如果近距离观看，便会发现这些类似光线、光点的形象实际上是数遍积墨后所留下的形象。而且，正是由于数遍面积不一、深度有异的积墨，也使得留出的形象显得自然，丝毫没有刻意的经营、安排。
更重要的是，最多可达七十余遍的积墨并非仅仅是服务于形象、形式的创造，而同时也是一种行动。因为，艺术家并不将绘画看作一种工作，而是将它视为自我生活的一部分，这并不是说他希望用绘画来表现自己的生活，而是说，绘画和绘画这种行为已经是构成其生活的重要元素。他也不将水墨看作一种纯粹的形式创造，而同时包含着一种精神性的诉求，水墨即是精神。如他所言，“宣纸不同于亚麻布，它可以更有趣的记录很多重复的轨迹”，记录这些重复轨迹却是“反智主义”的，不问“知”、先问“行”。其目的亦聚焦于“在匆忙的生活中我想忘却很多记忆”。与盛行的观念艺术相反，这样的创作恰恰是企图剔除艺术创作中的智慧和明确的想法，以“行动”本身来说明艺术的当代意义。或许，这就是绘画作为一种“行为”对现代人浮躁焦虑心灵的净化；而画面中闪耀的一线一点，恰似生命与精神的原点。
The accumulation of spirit---Reading Tian Wei’s abstract art of Chinese ink and wash
Sheng Wei
It is almost impossible not to talk about "ink and wash", "Abstract Art" when we Read and discuss Tian Wei’s works, even though he never immersed himself in "Abstract Art Movement of ink and wash painting" in the mid 1990s, never received the direct infection of these artistic phenomena too, it still constituted one of the logic starting points of discussing about his works. The problem of " ink and wash " and "abstract" is as complex as that of " Ink and wash " and "realistic", and it has a diachronic process. Since the 20th century, the so-called " ink and wash " has been constantly entangled with various popular ideas of modern art, "realistic" was in this way, so did "abstract". It also make us has a fundamental real context to discuss Tian Wei’s works.
The transformation of modern Chinese paintings has become the primary tide due to the introducing of the "scientific" and "realistic" method since kang Youwei etc, and because of the introducing of Soviet realistic art in 1930s and the enforcing of the standardization of the socialist realism after the founding of the PRC, it has become the unique impetus of the development of Chinese painting. However, in the period of decades of artistic transformation, the own law of Chinese painting, especially the ink and wash painting, have always been in the state of being repressed. Cuning, rubbing, doting, and dying, the traditional techniques, in highly stylized situation, are only suitable for the expression to the specific objects, for example, the expression of the Fupi Cun and Pima Cun to the specific types of mountains. Then, it is difficult to achieve the aesthetic intention of traditional ink and wash paintings by using realistic or compromised techniques to perform the traditional objects, or using the traditional methods to express the modern scenery or characters. Therefore, since the artistic innovation movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the modern ink and wash painters full of innovational spirit have treated potentially the method using the realistic way in the creating as unsuccessful case, and it is in this context that how to play and develop the own features of ink and wash to enforce the update of the formal language and the object has become the basic motive of the development of the contemporary ink and wash.
Like many counterparts who devoted themselves to the innovation of the ink and wash art， Tian Wei also went through the different stages of exploration and underwent the painful spallation before he created these works which we saw today are mature and full with personal characteristics. When he was a student, Tian Wei has received the strict education of academism. Till 2000, he still attempted to succeed and innovate in the traditional ink and wash painting way. However, he did not blindly follow the elder master, instead, he has been thinking of the possible of the development, the direction of his own artistic creation all the time. As the artist says, “I always think that if the ink succeed straight in accordance with the way of yuan and Ming dynasty, it would become the intangible cultural heritage, and the artistic level would be lower than past. Would you be better than Ni Yunlin and Huang Zijiu? I always feel that the traditional ink has arrived its peak of poetic perfection in the time of Huang Binhong." It precisely was such thought that brought the new creative apprearance for Tian Wei in the new century .
The series of “Mandala” was a turn in Tian Wei’s artistic creation, which marked the start of his abstract ink. The inspirations were from Buddhist Temple, but were processed to the abstract geometric shapes and accumulated with ink. Of course, the practice of these works was just an exploring process, which was far from the ending. In the series of paintings, the problem he must faced was how can the ink using curve and ink to express the image coordinate with the abstract geometrical shapes representing line and square. The problem seems to be similar to that mentioned above about the contradiction between “ink and wash” and" realistic". Along this road, he continued to write some abstract paintings in which line is the main element, and produced a batch of new works. In these works, Tian Wei tried to solve the problems he encountered. In the following serials of “Pagodas”, he seemed to take a step forward. In the works “Niu Huo”, “Qu Yeni”, “Ju Yeni” etc, the pictures became more harmonious, the dispose of the lines and the squares seems not to contradict the ink way. The lines that were kept out also appears more light, so here has married an important foreshadowing for the future pure abstract works.
However, for the last two years, Tian Wei’s creation has appeared more mature with its own unique personal appearance. And, he has done more recognizing and thinking to the concepts of “art”, “painting”, “ink and wash” etc. In the new writing, the form has been reduced, until into a line, a point. However, these works are not minimalism, if be watched in a close range, it would be found that these images looked like light and dot are actually the images left by the accumulating ink of many times. And, it is the several times of accumulation of ink with different area and depth that makes the images appear to be natural, without deliberate management and arrangement.
More important, accumulating ink up to seventy times not only services for the creating of the image and the form, it is also a kind of action. Because, the artist does not regard painting as a job, but a part of his life. It's not to say that he hopes to show his life by using painting, but it is just to say, the painting and the action of painting, have constituted the important elements in his life. He also does not regard ink as one kind of pure formal creation, but at the same time contains a spiritual demand. Ink is spirit! As he says, “the paper is different from the linen, for it can be more interesting to record many repetitive tracks”. But recording these repeated trajectories is “anti-intellectualism”, not asking “know”, but asking “do”. Its purpose is also focused on “in the rush life I wanted to forget many things”. Opposite to the prevalent conceptual art, this creation is to eliminate the wisdom and clear thinking in artistic process, and use “action” itself to illustrate the significance of the contemporary art. Maybe, this is a sort of spiritual purification to the modern blundering anxiety that painting as a “behavior” is doing. The lines and dots shining in these pictures just like the origin of the life and the spirit.
【编辑：霍春常】
编辑：霍春常