何谓意派

“意派”非风格之意，乃思维模式之谓。“意”乃“理、识、形”之契合，与再现、分离迥异。

“意派”非派，因“派”有流派之嫌。而流派系古典师承之概念。取“意派”之“派”，实欲有别于西方“现代派”或东方“物派”。走出现代性藩篱，树“世纪新思维”。

“子谓韶尽美矣，又尽善也。”。因知古人不谈“真”，只谈善与美，艺术并非模拟或再现真实。然西方艺术始终以“再现”为真，以替代为本。替代者，以艺术表征现实、观念或逻辑。于是乎，写实、观念及抽象遂主导二十世纪全部艺术之历史叙事，中国亦不例外。

“意派”试图树立非再现、非替代与反分离之思维模式。谋求自由、契合与整一。艺术与人生不可互相替代；理、识、形不可分离；言、义、象必须共生。

在言外、理外、象外求“是”，然其途径非“是中之是”，实乃意在言外，“不是之是”。

意派展分为三部。一为“人”，人之本为“思”，故曰“意思”；二为“物”，见物方可感物咏志，故曰“意见”。三为“场”，意之驻所谓之场，故曰“意在”，境界之谓也。

七十八位艺术家来自五湖四海，携二百余件作品参加“意派”展览。论年龄，既有二十俊杰，亦有古稀之年，熙攘切磋，共襄盛举，何其壮观！论作品，则横贯文革后三十余载。论风格，则不拘媒介手段，或严谨，或散漫，或开张，竞相标举意派之我见。

“意派”者，理之悠远，识之广博，形之浩荡也！有朋自远方来，若吾等能将“可思、可见、可在”献与诸位及雅集，不亦悦乎！

高名潞

己丑年四月廿九日于酒仙桥

Preface

What is Yi Pai, or the School of Yi (Mind)?

Yi Pai, ‘Yi School’, is not a stylistic notion, but a mode of thinking instead. Yi is the synthesis of li, principle, shi, concept, and xing, form. This is entirely different from representation or separation.

Yi Pai is not a school, as this has the unfortunate connotation of ‘faction’ or ‘sect’ and of the concept of the classical transmission from master to disciple. The choice of Pai in the name was motivated by a desire to distinguish Yi Pai from Western Modernism, xiandai pai, and Eastern Monoha, wu pai, and thus to escape from the barriers of Modernism and establish a new way of thinking for the 21st century.

Confucius said: ‘[The music of] Shao is most virtuous and also most beautiful.’ Thus we know that the ancient Chinese did not talk of truth but of goodness and beauty. Art did not imitate or represent truth. Western art on the other hand has, since its beginning, taken ‘representation’ as truth, and substitution as the fundamental nature of art. ‘Substitution’ means using art to present reality, concepts and logic. Accordingly, the realistic, the conceptual and the abstract have dominated the historical narrative of all twentieth-century art, not excluding that of China.

Yi Pai attempts to establish a non-representational, non-substitutional and anti-separation mode of thinking, in a quest for freedom, synthesis and wholeness. Neither art nor human life can be substituted one for the other. 

Principle, concept and form cannot be separated. Word, meaning and image must live and be generated symbiotically.

The approach of seeking truth outside words, outside principle, and outside images does not seek truth in facts, but rather seeks the meaning not contained in the words, and the truth not contained in the facts.

The Yi Pai Exhibition is divided into three sections. The first is Ren, Man. The fundamental nature of man is si, cogitation, and the section is called Yisi, ‘Mind Moving’. The second is Wu, Thing. Only when one perceives things can one feel them and give artistic expression to one’s will. The section is called Yijian, ‘Mind Perceiving’. Third is Chang, Locus. This is the locus where the mind resides, and the section is accordingly called Yizai, ‘Mind Being Present’ – referring to the spiritual realm.

Seventy-eight artists from all over China take part in the Yi Pai Exhibition, bringing with them more than two hundred artworks. In age, they range from artists in their heroic twenties up to seventy-year-olds, all eager to learn by exchanging ideas and to help promote this worthy undertaking. The works span the thirty-odd years since the Cultural Revolution, and in their various styles, regardless of media and techniques, whether strict, easy or grand, the artists all strive to express their own understanding of Yi Pai.

Yi Pai is longstanding in principle, unlimited in its concepts, and expansive in its forms. If we can offer all our distinguished and cultured assembly our mind ‘in motion, in perception and in being present’, then is it not truly a joy when a friend comes from afar?

Gao Minglu

Jiuxian Qiao, Beijing, Twenty-Ninth Day of the Fourth Month, Jichou Year.

Translation 25 May 2009 version.

ay 2009 version.