曾梵志爲什麼能一直這麼貴(上)

BEIJING — At the gallery opening of China’s hottest-selling Artist, Zeng Fanzhi, in Manhattan a year ago, Chinese billionaires mingled with the upper crust of New York’s art world. Mr. Zeng had flown in with his well-to-do pals, and after dinner at a clubby Chelsea restaurant, the Chinese crew retired to the Park Hyatt for late-night drinks in the lobby bar.

北京——一年前在曼哈頓，中國最熱賣藝術家曾梵志的畫展開幕式上，中國億萬富翁與紐約藝術界精英們共聚一堂。曾梵志和他那些富有的朋友們一道坐飛機趕來，在切爾西一家會所性質的餐廳用餐後，這羣中國夥伴深夜又去往柏悅酒店的大堂酒吧喝了一杯。

Here at home, an even larger banquet for 500 guests, including the granddaughter of Mao Zedong, celebrated Mr. Zeng’s 25-year painting career, at the September opening of the first retrospective in his own country.

今年，爲慶祝他的繪畫生涯25週年，曾梵志在自己的祖國舉辦了第一次回顧展，9月的開幕式舉行了一場更加盛大的宴會，有500位嘉賓出席，其中包括毛澤東的外孫女。

His works hang in American museums and palatial Hong Kong apartments, and over the fireplace in the London living room of the art baron François Pinault, the owner of Christie’s. At the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, record crowds have poured through his current show, which includes two 33-foot-long, fiercely colored landscapes.

他的作品掛在美國的博物館和富麗堂皇的香港公寓裏，還掛在佳士得(Christie’s)拍賣行的主人、藝術巨頭弗朗索瓦•皮諾(François Pinault)的倫敦住所的起居室壁爐上。這次展覽在北京尤倫斯當代藝術中心(Ullens Center for Contemporary Art)舉行，展品包括兩幅33英尺（約合10米）長、色彩鮮豔的風景畫，蜂擁而至的觀衆創下了紀錄。

Chinese artists roared onto the international art scene about 10 years ago, but few have exhibited the staying power of Mr. Zeng, and none have fetched $23.3 million for a painting at auction, the price paid for his version of “The Last Supper” in 2013.

大約十年前，中國藝術家們大舉進軍國際藝術界，但很少有人像曾梵志這樣長盛不衰，2013年，他創作的《最後的晚餐》在拍賣會上拍出了2330萬美元，這個成績更是無人能及。

How has he managed to stay at the top? “You might say I am very cunning,” he said, a small cheeky smile across his broad, smooth face. “I only sell my paintings to those who really like them. Then those people will help me promote my works.”

他是怎樣一直保持在頂峯的？“你肯定會說我很狡猾，”他說，寬闊、光滑的臉上露出略顯放肆的微笑。“但我只把我的畫賣給欣賞它們的人，然後這些人會幫我推廣我的作品。”

It is this approach of cultivating collectors who cherish his art, combined with indisputable painting skills, that has propelled him to the fore, said Philip Tinari, the director of the Ullens Center.

尤倫斯當代藝術中心館長田霏宇(Philip Tinari)說，結交能賞識他的作品的收藏家，再加上無可爭議的繪畫技巧，把曾梵志推向了重要地位。

“China needs a great artist, and the way he has gone about it is very intelligent,” Mr. Tinari said. “He understands the milieu his works circulate in, the actual collectors’ homes, cultural institutions and galleries. He invites these key people to be part of his success, and as he achieves higher degrees of validation it’s something everyone feels good about.”

“中國需要一個偉大的藝術家，他處理的方式是非常聰明的，”田霏宇說。“他清楚自己的作品是在什麼樣的環境裏流傳的，在真正的收藏家的家中，在文化機構和畫廊裏。他邀請這些關鍵人物和他分享自己的成功，一旦他獲得更高的認可後，所有人都會感到開心。”

Mr. Zeng, 52, is a compact figure, his cropped hair flecked with a few grays, a Cuban cigar never far from his fingers as he sits in a well-worn red leather chair in his studio. To his usual attire of understated jeans and sneakers, he adds a black gabardine coat for warmth in his chilly space. A retinue of research assistants works at his gray brick complex in an artist enclave not far from the city center.

體格健壯的曾梵志今年52歲，短短的頭髮上有幾處花白，他坐在自己工作室裏一張破舊的紅色皮革椅子上，一支古巴雪茄不離手。和平時一樣，他穿着低調的牛仔褲和運動鞋，因爲工作室裏有些冷，又添了一件黑色的華達呢外套。這棟灰磚建築在距離市中心不遠的一個藝術家聚居區裏，他的研究助理們正忙碌着。

He has come to enjoy the good things in life. An Hermès leather-topped desk sits at one end of his studio, and an eclectic art collection decorates the double storied space that looks onto a manicured garden of graceful trees, two Harry Bertoia steel sculptures and a sprawling goldfish pond.

他已經進入享受生命中美好事物的階段。工作室的一端是一張皮革檯面的愛馬仕寫字檯，龐雜的藝術收藏裝點着這個雙層空間，向外看去是一個精心打理的花園，有優美的樹木，兩個哈里•貝爾託亞(Harry Bertoia)的鋼鐵雕塑和一個大大的金魚池。

The emerald green lawn appears fresh on a crisp fall day. “It’s not real,” he said sheepishly. Fastidious about things being neat, he grew weary of Beijing’s messy brown grass.

碧綠的草坪在清爽的秋日裏顯得格外清新。“不是真草，”他難爲情地說。他非常講究整潔，已經厭倦了北京凌亂的棕色草地。

From his early days as a poor art student in Wuhan, a gritty city along the Yangtze River, he caught the attention of teachers and critics who admired his rebellion against the standard fare of Communist-approved social realism.

他來自武漢，那是長江邊一個粗糲的城市。還是個藝術學院窮學生的時候，他就引起了教師與評論家的關注，他們紛紛讚美他對共產黨認可的社會現實主義美學標準的反叛。

“The head of the library at my school said if I wanted to see better art books, I should go to the library in Zhejiang Province,” he said of the austere days in the mid-1980s. “I took a leave and traveled three days and nights by train to Shanghai, and then another three hours to Hangzhou.” There, and later at the art institute in Wuhan, he discovered the German artist Max Beckmann and admired the work of Willem de Kooning.

“我們學校管圖書館的館長告訴我說，如果我想要看更好的畫冊，我應該去浙江，”他回憶80年代中期那些物質匱乏的日子。“然後我就坐了三天三夜的火車到上海，然後又坐了三個小時的車到杭州。”在那裏，以及後來在武漢的那所美術學院，他發現了德國藝術家馬克斯•貝克曼(Max Beckmann)，也開始欣賞威廉•德庫寧(Willem de Kooning)的作品。