Beyond Realism: The Life aesthetics and Lyricism in Lin Hao-Bai’s Paintings.
Associate Professor, Department of English National Taiwan Normal University | Text by Jung Su

The experience of looking at Lin Hao-Bai’s Paintings strikes one as something unique. The paintings, at the first glimpse, unequivocally evokes the thought of the sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” written by the British Romantic poet John Keats:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific—and all his men
Look’d at each other with a wild surmise— Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
Lin’s exquisite skills in realistic oil painting, the apparent “realism,” undoubtedly attracts many viewers to stop. However, what makes viewers linger on is actually not the ostensible realistic form of the paintings but the exquisiteness, the impeccable beauty, and the aura of urban literati these paintings exude. Even though galleries and art exhibitions have always labelled him as a painter of realistic art,1 such labelling only manifests the undeniable fact that Lin belongs to the long tradition of realism and is acknowledged as one of the best among the new generation painters in Taiwan. The labelling, however, obscures other valuable aspects of his art that deserve attention, namely, the life aesthetics and restrained lyricism his artworks radiate. If understood in light of the nineteenth-century realism, the term “realism” denotes the “objective, calm, and faithful” depiction of life. Even though Lin’s works is labelled as realistic, the interest of his paintings actually does not reside in “objective, calm, and faithful” depiction of the details of real life; rather, the still lifes or urban landscapes in his paintings are carefully arranged and painted to reflect his inner state of mind, emotions, lifestyle, dialogues with the surroundings, and most importantly, his extreme pursuit of beauty.
Taking a closer look, one may find with no effort that although his adroit skills in “subtle realism” may seem eye-catching, the charm of his paintings does not lie in “realism” or “photographing” but the refined taste of life emitted from the “performance” of the delicately arranged vase flowers or potted plants. Just as the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has put it: “Habitus is a system of dispositions, that is of permanent manners of being, seeing, acting and thinking.

In Radiance | Oil on linen mounted on panel | 53 x 45.5 cm | 2015

Or a system of long-lasting (rather than permanent) schemes or schemata or structures of perception, conception and action,”which precipitates in histories and daily life (“Habitus” 27-28). When habitus is infused into the painter’s artistic creation, the afore-said schemes will manifest themselves as the style and manner of artworks. Judging from this perspective, one may regard Lin’s paintings as the accumulation and manifestation of his life experience and taste, namely, his implicit attitude toward life—his “habitus.” Thus, watching his artworks evokes the feelings of facing up close a silent dazzling stage performance. The “Still Life” series seem to adopt multiple light sources. The objects in the paintings are illuminated by the natural light through the window, but there are also spotlighted parts breathtakingly displaying the silhouette of petals, creating fabulous, dramatic effects: all kinds of flowers, plants, and glassware are in their best posture, standing on the fashion stage irradiated by strong light. Stripped off their ordinary images and materiality in daily life, these objects have been reborn and miraculously transformed into bright and transparent porcelain-like metrosexuals and urban goddesses.

Posing like the 19th-century “dandy,” they serenely and elegantly show their gorgeous appearance after full makeup, as if they dress up purely for the audience’s gaze and gasp in admiration. Even though ever since 2017, Lin has extended the theme of his creation from interior still lifes to the urban landscape peeped through the window, his works still show consistent characteristics—a rare sense of purity, calmness, refinement, lucidity, tranquility, and peace. While his paintings may be reminiscent of techniques such as photorealistic rendering, they are not the same. Objects or sceneries in his paintings are in fact lyrical reality carefully designed and arranged. For instance, the composition and layout of his artworks—be it is a still life or a landscape, remain symmetrical. This can also be found in the subtle symmetrical stretch of flowers or vegetation in gestures, or the delicate balance between objects and the space arrangement of the paintings. It all reveals that what he paints is not reality, but a settled state of mind expressed through the depiction of objects. Therefore, we may assume that “faithful” reproduction is not the artist’s goal; on the contrary, through painting, the artist implicitly expresses the mood, feelings, and interest of life. This makes Lin’s paintings cross the boundaries of realism.

An Ordinary Morning | Oil on linen mounted on panel | 65 x 60 cm | 2020

Tina Pang interviewed Lin in 2018. 2 The photos taken in Lin’s studio record his creative life. The concentrated figure of Lin painting in his clean and well-ordered studio reveals his daily practice of life aesthetics. His studio is clean and bright, orderly, lush with flowers and trees, and full of greeneries, just like his elegant and calm exterior and the meaning of his name, Hao-Bai, “a vast expanse of whiteness.” The unexpected neatness and clarity of his studio subvert the stereotypical impression of a painter’s chaotic studio. (Just imagine the twentieth-century Irish-British painter Francis Bacon’s studio!) This also in turn confirms that his creative concept is derived from his attitude towards life. No support or endorsement of too much art theory or academic discourse is required: what he requires is tranquility and restraint, but he also advocates elegance and delicacy. The most important thing is an emphasis on the beauty of life in the painter’s inner world. The kind of life aesthetics makes him render the soft falling petals with meticulous care and accuracy. With splendid skills, he presents these smooth delicate petals as something snowy and feathery, silky and satin, turning them into immaculate art creations worked with great precision. With such an aesthetic standard, Lin paints his mood in a minimizing style and pursues the upscale taste. All these are shown through the painter’s soft whispers to the greeneries and flowers in the paintings.

Sanyu, a Chinese-French modernist painter, once stated his creative views: “I am just a painter. Regarding my works, I don’t think there is any need to give any explanation. When viewing my works, you should clearly understand what I want to express . . . just a simple concept.” Although it is difficult to compare the two for the moment, Sanyu’s life, artistic taste, and his gradual alienation from the galleries in his contemporary time shows that art creators may not be necessarily regulated by tradition, genre, art theory, ideology, or the art market. The artist’s desire to pursue creative freedom and creativity often transcends the boundaries of tradition and genre. Therefore, when the exhibition labels Lin’s works as “subtle realism,” viewers may want to further ask: Does his work pursue a kind of “photorealism”? Lin’s drawing notes indirectly responded to this question: “I never pursue the texture of the work like a photo. Although it is a concrete picture, I hope that the picture has a human temperature, and traces of painting can be found in it. Therefore, I kept the brush strokes in the painting, but still follow the “dark/thin, bright/thick” principle to apply the media. Although I preserved the brush strokes, I tried to weaken them as much as possible to express the sense of purity I wanted.” If so, the viewer can’t help but ask again: What is the significance of engaging in realistic painting in contemporary times? Is it because the painter intends to draw the collector’s attention with exquisite techniques? Or does he prefer drawing on his remarkable aesthetic taste and personal charm to attract the viewer?
The famous French poet/art critic Charles Baudelaire once defined the attributes of beauty dialectically in his famous art criticism “The Painter of Modern Life,” in which he opined that the composition of beauty must contain two elements: the first is “ invariable element,” and the second is “ an eternal, a relative, circumstantial element which will be . . . whether severally or all at once, the age, its fashions, its morals, its emotions” (3). ,” “ Both of them are, in his judgement, indispensable. In the same vein, he further defined the term “modernity” that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century, stating that “[B]y ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and the immutable. (12) This discussion shows that if a work of art is to stand the test of time and history, it must have the qualities of permanence, as well as the creativity and ability to accurately capture, describe, and express contemporaneity, which was called “modernity” in Baudelaire’s time). This is indeed the greatest challenge faced by all artistic creators. Lin’s paintings have such potential because his paintings can exhibit a precipitated, eternal beauty. This is mainly due to his capability of limning with refined taste the perfect mental image of the flowers and sceneries in his daily life. The kind of creative potential also won him the affirmation of many domestic awards. Like many contemporary artists of oil painting, he experimented with techniques in many ways and finally figured out the technique of spreading calcium carbonate onto the surface of linen as a base, and then applying oil paint layer by ‘modernity’ I mean the layer. In this way, the painting can avoid the sense of heavy stacking in traditional oil painting. The surface of the artwork thus may look smooth and flat and present a sense of delicacy and purity. By doing so, Lin carves out a niche for himself in oil painting. However, as far as painting ideas and theories are concerned, his paintings tend to be introspective and slightly secluded, without the intervention of too many external theories. Interestingly, precisely because he focuses on the inner world and is not disturbed by theories, this characteristic makes him the avatar of the unique humanistic spirit and lifestyle of the generation born in the 1980s. His life aesthetics and taste coincidentally demonstrate the contemporariness of this generation of Taiwanese painters nurtured by Taiwan’s economic prosperity and opens up a new possibility for Taiwanese literati paintings. This contemporaneity makes possible the eternity of his artworks, enabling them to stand the test of time. The kind of quality might also make his works more enduring when compared with other popular attempts to promote artistic conceptions or local symbols. This is the “ circumstantial element” claimed by Baudelaire—the singularity of style taking shape in the interactions between the painter’s artwork and his contemporary condition.
Since he started to engage in creative art until now, Lin has been trying to break away from the singularity of the theme in his paintings. As yet, the themes of his paintings have expanded from the “Still Life series” that began in 2009 to the “Urban Landscape series” that appeared in 2017. During his several trips to major European relative, cities, he began to build up a relation between the interior and the exterior with the aid of window images, thereby extending the focus of his creation from indoor still life to the outdoor sceneries overlooked from the window and the streetscape observed in roaming. To some extent, depicting exotic urban landscapes outside the window implies an attempt to step out of the familiar comfort zone, explore the unknown, and take risks in foreign cities. This virtually reflects the artist’s inner state of mind: “Part of the window represents the artist’s vision, my persistence, my framing, and my observation of the city; the other part also represents me as a traveler, I am in this city, although I am very close to her, but there is always an insurmountable gap between this city and me, so I use a darker window, which gives me a feeling of peeking.” From still lifes to window scenes, what remains consistent is the style of expressing emotions in the works. Lin hopes: “I want to let the appearance of the works be closer to my inner state. . . . I want to express the relationship between indoors and outdoors, not just the outdoor scenery. This idea comes from my previous series. Now I want to let the outdoors become the protagonist of the picture. What constitutes the picture is the window view from which I look out from the indoors, and the indoor elements represent my personal private space and line of sight. I become an observer, and the city is the object of my observation.”

Chance Encommter | Oil on linen mounted on panel | 90 x 124 cm | 2018

The composition of the “Urban Landscape series,” which indicates the painter’s intention to peek at the outside world from the window, is reminiscent of the Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte, for example, The Human Condition (1933) and The Promenades of Euclid (1955). Both paintings feature the scenery observed from the window, although the painter has a different intention——forcing the viewer to understand the image itself is not real. In the two window image paintings, Magritte expressed his artistic conception by confusing the boundaries between reality and representation: “ The problem of the window led to La Condition humaine. . . . For the viewer, the tree was simultaneously in the room in the picture and outside in the real landscape. That existence in two different spaces at once is like the moment existing simultaneously in the past and the present as in déjà vu” (“Life Line”).

Simply put, he considers that the real world is just a representation of the mind. Lin seems to have been inspired by the kind of composition when he depicts the urban landscapes peeped through the window. This new attempt indicates that the painter began to ponder the relations between other cultures and his situatedness during his travels. Perhaps he might also start to think about how to keep a safe and appropriate viewing distance from the outside world through some kind of intermediary. When Lin was preparing to exhibit the “Urban Landscape series”—Beyond in 2017, he mentioned that he could accurately control the details of the objects in painting indoor still lifes. However, when painting Beyond, his newest work at that time, he realized that the complexity of the distant cityscape was beyond the scope of his control, so some details were simplified. This also reflects that there is an unbridgeable gap between the city and him. This “epiphany” to some extent responds to Magritte’s surrealist thought; that is, the painter’s grasp of the external world depends on the representation of his inner state of mind or his consciousness; in other words, the reality exists as a reproduction of inner state or consciousness that goes beyond “reality.” As for Lin’s paintings, reality for him is the display of life aesthetics and emotions. Taken as a whole, the sedimentary thoughts, the lifestyle, the minimized lyrical undertone, the spiritual dialogue between the painter and his life situation may be regarded as the soul of Lin’s two series. Nonetheless, the kernel of these values is often obscured by his stunning realistic renderings. How the artist explores new directions after his urban adventures will unequivocally depend on how he distills deep thoughts from everyday life.

寫實之外:林浩白畫作的生活美學和抒情風格
國立台灣師範大學英語系副教授 | 蘇榕

觀看林浩白的畫作是一種特殊的視覺經驗。乍見其畫作,不由得想起英國浪 漫主義詩人濟慈(John Keats)的〈初讀查普曼譯荷馬有感〉(“On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”):
我感覺如同一浩浩太空的凝望者,
當一顆全新的星球泅入他的視野;
或者就像那果敢的戈奧迭,以他
蒼鷹之眼注視太平洋——當所有水手
都面面相覷,帶著荒忽的設想——
屏息於大雷岩之巔。(楊牧譯,《一首詩的完成》)
他精妙的油畫寫實技法,或其顯而易見的「寫實主義」(Realism;或譯為「現實主義」),毫無意外地會吸引眾多觀者駐足;然而,令觀者流連忘返的,卻在寫實之外,那是畫作無懈可擊的精緻美,和作品散發的都會文人氣息。雖然林浩白的傳統,且被肯定為台灣新興一代畫家中的佼佼者,卻遮蔽了其畫作另一個值得 重視的面向,亦即其作品蘊含的生活美學和內斂的抒情基調。若依十九世紀中葉興起的寫實主義觀點詮釋,寫實主義乃是「客觀、冷靜、忠實」地描繪生活。 但是林浩白作品的意趣並不在於「客觀、冷靜、忠實」地描繪現實生活細節;相反地,他筆下的靜物或風景是精心安排過的物件,它們低調地反映了畫家的心境、情緒、生活品味、與周遭環境的對話,以及對美的極度講求。仔細探究不難發現,他的「精微寫實」技法雖然吸睛,但是其畫作散發的魅力並不在於「寫實」或「寫真」,而是精準設計下的瓶花或盆栽在展演中所散發的精緻生 活品味。

輕柔舞衣 | 油彩木板裱麻 | 65 x 60 cm | 2018

就如同法國社會學者布迪厄(Pierre Bourdieu)所說的:「『習性』(habitus)是一種性情傾向(disposition)系統,一種永久的存在、觀看、行動,和思考的習慣。或者說,是一種持久(但非永恆)的感覺、概念,和行動的結構或輪廓」, 在歷史、日常生活中沈澱(27-28)。當畫家的「習性」溶注於藝術創作,則展 現為畫作的風格與面貌。從這個觀點來看,林浩白的畫作可視為他生活點滴和品 味的蓄積和外展,一種含蓄的生活態度,即其「習性」。觀賞他的作品,彷彿近 距離面對一場精美絕倫、目不暇給的沈默舞台秀。「靜物系列」似乎採取多元光 源,畫中的室內靜物處於天光下,卻有聚光燈照射般輪廓鮮明的花瓣等局部亮面, 創造出戲劇性效果:各色花卉、植物、玻璃器皿擺出最佳姿態,在強光照射的時 尚舞台上,脫離了日常生活的平凡形象和物質性,化身薄瓷般光亮透晰的都會男 女,以十九世紀「佳公子」(dandy)的優雅姿態,從容優雅地展示盛妝後的絕 色,一身裝束彷彿純粹為了台下的凝視和讚嘆。

即便自從 2017 年後,林浩白的創作主題已經從室內靜物延伸至窗外風景,他的作品依然表現了上述的一貫特質, 散發出稀有的純粹、冷靜、優美、明晰、寧謐,與平和感。雖然他的畫作易於令人聯想到「照片真實感渲染」這類技術,但兩者並不相同。畫中的物件或風景卻 是經過設計、布置的抒情化現實,畫面的構圖無論是靜物或風景,都維持了佈局的對稱性,無論是花卉或草木在姿態上的含蓄對稱伸展,或物件和空間布置間維 持的微妙平衡關係,都透露了他描繪的並非現實,而是藉由描繪物件抒發沈澱後的心境。因此,我們或許可以假設「忠實」再現並非畫家的目的;相反地,透過 繪畫,畫家含蓄表達的是生活的心情、感受,和意趣。這使林浩白的畫跨越了寫實主義的界限。


藍天與先賢祠 | 油彩木板裱麻 | 60 x 85 cm | 2019

Tina Pang 於 2018 年採訪林浩白工作室拍攝的照片2紀錄了他的創作生活。林 浩白在窗明几淨、井然有序的畫室執筆的專注身影,揭露了其生活美學的日常實 踐。他的畫室潔白明亮,有條不紊,花木扶疏,綠意盎然,正像他幽雅沈穩的外 表和名字,潔淨明亮得出人意料,顛覆了一般人對畫室雜亂無章的刻板印象(試 想二十世紀愛爾蘭裔英國畫家法蘭西斯.培根[Francis Bacon]的「馬廄」工作室!)。 這也間接印證他的創作理念源自於生活態度,無需太多藝術理論或學術論述的加 持或背書:既要求寧靜內斂,又崇尚雅緻精美;既不必標舉議題,亦毋須宣示理 論,畫家表現的就是個人內心世界對於生活美感的講求。這種生活美學使他在精 雕細琢的創作過程中,將花瓣的輕柔飄墜和光滑細嫩,處理得如雪如羽、如絲如 緞,潔淨得纖塵不染、精確到分毫不差。用這樣的美感尺度,林浩白低調地描繪 心情,追求極致品味。這些都在畫作的草吟花語中展現。用畫家自己的話來說, 就是「藉由單純的花卉、植物呈現出圓潤與寧靜的氛圍,並以這樣的畫面述 說自己對於生活、人際關係、生命更迭的看法」。

法國華裔畫家常玉曾經如此陳述自己的創作觀:「我只是一個畫家。關於我 的作品,我認為毋須賦予任何解釋,當觀賞我的作品時,應清楚了解我所要表達 的......只是一個簡單的概念」。雖然兩者一時難以相比,但常玉的生活、藝術品 味,以及當時他和畫廊的逐漸疏離,說明了藝術創作者不必然受傳統、流派、藝 術理論、意識形態,或藝術市場所框限,藝術家追求創作自由和創意的欲望,也 常跨越了傳統和流派的分野。因此當畫展以「精微寫實」標示林浩白的作品時, 觀者或許會進一步追問:他的作品是否追求一種「照相寫實」?林浩白的創作筆 記間接回應了這個提問:「 我從不追求作品的質地如相片,雖是一個具象的畫面,我希望畫面是有人為溫度的,在其中可以找到繪畫痕跡,所以在畫作中我保留了筆觸,還是保有暗薄亮厚的媒材操作手法。雖然我保留筆觸,但儘可能將其弱化,以表現我所希望的純粹感。」若然,觀者不免又問:在當代從事寫實繪畫的意義 在哪裏?是因為畫家的精妙技巧吸引藏家眼光,還是他以超凡美感和個人魅力吸引觀者?
著名的法國詩人/藝評家波特萊爾(Charles Baudelaire)在〈現代生活的畫家〉 (“The Painter of Modern Life”)這篇著名的藝評中,曾以二元對立的辯證界定美 的特質,認為美的構成必須包含兩項要素:第一是永恆不變:第二是相對的、情 境的、隨機的變數,兩者缺一不可(3)。他並以此進一步界定十九世紀中期出 現的「現代性」(modernity),認為偉大的藝術必須有一半包含「永恆、不變 的」成分,另一半則須具備「短暫的、易逝的、偶然的」特質(12)。這段論述 說明了藝術作品若要經得起時間和歷史的考驗,必須具有恆久性的特質,和精確 捕捉、描述、表現當代性的創意和能力,後者在波特萊爾的時代被稱做「現代性」。 這也正是所有藝術創作者面臨的最大挑戰。林浩白的畫作具有這樣的潛力,是因 為他的畫作能表現出一種沈澱的、永恆的美感,使他將日常生活的花卉、風景, 透過個人品味的提煉,描繪成心目中的完美形象,並獲得國內眾多獎項的肯定。 像當代許多從事油畫創作的畫家一樣,他也曾在技法上多方實驗,最後琢磨出以 碳酸鈣在亞麻布上打底,再層層薄塗油彩的畫法,使油畫跳脫原本厚重堆疊的傳 統技法,讓作品表面光滑平整,呈現精緻純粹之感,開闢了新的創作方向。然而, 就繪畫思想和理論而言,他的畫作卻傾向於內省而略帶封閉性,沒有太多外來理 論的介入;正因為專注於內心世界,不受理論干擾,這種特質反而濃縮了台灣經 濟繁榮育養下的八零世代特有的人文精神和生活品味,彰顯了這個世代的台灣畫 家的當代性,開啟了另一種台灣文人畫的可能。這樣的當代性,相較於標舉藝術 概念或在地象徵,或者更具有抵抗時間的耐蝕性。這是波特萊爾主張的「相對的、 情境的」、隨機的變數——當代情境和畫作相互作用下散發的獨特風格。
一路走來,林浩白不斷嘗試走出畫作主題的單一性。目前他的創作主題由 2009 年開始的「靜物系列」逐漸拓展到 2017 年起出現的「城市系列」。在數度 走訪歐洲各大城市的行旅中,他開始以「窗」的中介形象銜接室內與室外,將創 作的焦點由室內靜物延伸到窗外遠眺的風景和漫遊中的街景。描繪異國窗景某種 程度暗示了跨出熟悉的舒適圈,探索陌生城市的未知和承受風險。這反映了畫家的內心狀態:「窗戶一部分代表藝術家的視野,我的堅持,我的取景,我對這個 城市的觀察;另外一部分也代表了我身為一個旅人,我在這個城市,雖然我很靠 近她,但是我跟這個城市始終有一種無法跨越的鴻溝,所以我用一個比較暗的窗 戶,有一種窺探的感覺」。從靜物到窗景,維持一致的是作品抒發情感的風格, 林浩白希望:「讓作品的面貌更貼近自己內心的狀態......我想表現的是室內與室 外的關係,而非單純的室外風景,這個想法來自於我之前的系列。現在讓室外成 為畫面的主角,構成畫面的是室內往外觀看的窗景,而室內的元素代表了我個人 私密的空間與視線,我成為一個觀察者,城市則是我的觀察對象」。


邊際 No.2 | 油彩木板裱麻 | 90 x 103 cm | 2018

「城市系列」透過窗框窺探外在世界的構圖,令人聯想到比利時超現實主義 畫家雷尼.馬格利特(René Magritte)的窗景系列,例如《人類的處境》( The Human Condition,1933)、《 歐幾里德漫遊》( The Promenades of Euclid, 1955)等畫 作。這兩幅畫作都有眺望窗外風景的構圖,只是畫家的意圖不同——他強迫觀者理 解圖像本身不是真的。 “Life Line”這種新的嘗試表明,畫家在 旅行中開始思考異域文化與自身處境的關係。他透過某種中介,和外在世界維持安全而適當的觀察距離。當林浩白在 2017 年準備展出「城 在這兩幅畫中,馬格利特用混淆現實和再現的界限,表達了他的藝術理念:「對窗戶問題的研究促成了《人類的處境》這幅畫......對觀者 而言,那棵樹同時存在於畫中的房間與外在的真實風景。同時存在於兩個不同空間,就像在片刻間同時存在於過去和現在,陷入某種似曾相似的感覺」(Magritte, )。

簡單地說,他認為「現實世界只是內心意識的再現」。林浩白採取由窗框向外窺探風景的構圖,似乎受到某些啟發。 或許也開始思考如何市系列 」-《邊際》時,曾經提到,描繪室內靜物,可以精確掌控物件的細節; 然而在畫《邊際》時,他意識到遠方市景的繁複,已經超出掌控的範圍,因此簡 化了某些細節,這同時也反映了他與這個城市存在著一道不可跨越的鴻溝。這個 「頓悟」(epiphany)某種程度回應了馬格利特的超現實主義思想,亦即畫家對 於外在世界的掌握,取決於內心情境的再現,現實存在於現實之外的內心意識再 現。至於就林浩白的畫作而言,現實則是生活美學和情思的展現。綜觀他的系列 畫作,沈澱的思緒、生活的品味、低調的抒情風格、畫家和生活情境的心靈對話, 是隱藏於精妙寫實技法背後的靈魂。藝術家未來如何從城市探索走出新方向,也 將取決於如何從生活中汲取思想的養分。