我很早就接触过公才的画作，但是没有特别在意，我真正留意他的创作是在他真正留意皖南村落之后。我还记得，我第一次看到公才描绘的这些村落时，立即想起1874年，想起一群法国年轻画家在巴黎卡普辛大街举办的那次展览，想起勒鲁瓦面对莫奈的《日出·印象》所产生的印象："那么自由自在，多么轻易的手艺，糊墙纸也比这漂亮完整些。"作为艺术保守主义者的勒鲁瓦，怎么也想不到，他的嘲讽话语竟然转换成为美术革新的旗帜。印象派以及自由自在的画风从此登上历史舞台，深刻影响了世界美术的发展，以致100多年以后，我们在一个中国年轻画家的作品中仍然看到这种影响的存在。

I came into contact with Gongcai's paintings quite early on, but did not initially pay them special attention. It was only after he began to focus in earnest on the villages of southern Anhui that I truly began to notice his work. I still remember that when I first saw these painted villages of his, I was immediately reminded of the year 1874, and of that exhibition held by a group of young French painters on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris. I thought of Louis Leroy's reaction when he stood before Monet's Impression, Sunrise. As a conservative defender of academic art, Leroy could never have imagined that his mocking words would later be transformed into the banner of artistic revolution. Impressionism, together with its free and unrestrained painterly manner, thus stepped onto the stage of history and profoundly influenced the development of world art.

把印象派风格归于"自由自在"没有错，因为他们不追随任何主流思潮，也不遵从任何既定创作信条。相对于安格尔代表的古典主义，他们放弃了秩序井然的严谨构思；相对于德拉克洛瓦代表的浪漫主义，他们放弃了激情奔放的粗犷笔触；相对于库尔贝代表的写实主义，他们放弃了清晰可辨的造型要素。但"自由自在"决不等同于"轻易的手艺"，而是受到理念和原则的坚强支撑。印象派认为题材和情节内容无关紧要，绘画目的就是逼真记录生活场景，创作主题就是精确记录光色感觅和色调层次，所以热衷于追寻转瞬即逝的真切视觉感受，捕捉光线变化中的丰富色彩关系。反映在作品上，色彩仅仅与瞬间光线效果有关，往往是扑朔迷离的，多变而破碎的；而物象的形体和轮廓不再无法勾洗，总是模糊地隐现于光色的震荡之中，或者说完成在色彩斑斓的背景之中。我们面对公才的村落系列，可以看出他对印象派的画风多有吸收，然而在另外一些方面，他又非常执拗，显示出毫不迟疑的探索精神和追求姿态，声情并茂地述说着自我自信的独特绘画语言。

There is nothing wrong in describing the Impressionist style as "free and easy," for the Impressionists followed no dominant trend and obeyed no fixed creative doctrine. Compared with the classicism represented by Ingres, they abandoned strict order and rigorous composition; compared with the Romanticism represented by Delacroix, they abandoned passionate and forceful brushwork; compared with the realism represented by Courbet, they abandoned clearly defined modeling. Yet "free and easy" is by no means equivalent to "effortless craftsmanship"; rather, it is supported by powerful concepts and principles. Looking at Xu Gongcai's village series, one can clearly see how much he has absorbed from the Impressionist manner. Yet in other respects he is also remarkably stubborn and determined, revealing an unhesitating spirit of exploration and speaking with vivid emotional force in a distinctive pictorial language full of self-confidence.

莫奈终于成为印象派的领袖画家，与他年青时受到风景画家布丹的影响有关。布丹坚信"当场画下来的东西会有一种在画室里无法具有的活力和鲜艳上的生动性"，因而鼓励18岁的莫奈到户外作画。在画室里作画还是去户外写生，到了印象派这里绝非是简单的作画环境问题，而是严肃的创作方法问题。他们把画室里作画秩序归于间接经验，归于知识成见，无法表现瞬间的现场的真实；只有直接面对瞬息万变的自然世界，才能迅速抓住货真价实的真实。方法的差别导致了画貌的迥异，在海岸河滨乃至大街上直面世界万象，色彩节奏于是明亮起来，画面于是鲜活起来。我不知道公才走向户外是否自觉，但是知道他的作品都是对景写生而成，而且确切地知道，他的村落系列具备了生动而鲜活的品质。

It is no accident that Monet became the leading figure of Impressionism; this was closely related to the influence he received in youth from the landscape painter Boudin. Boudin firmly believed that "things painted on the spot possess a vividness and freshness impossible to achieve in the studio." For the Impressionists, the question of whether to paint indoors or to work en plein air was a serious matter of artistic method. Only by directly confronting the ever-changing natural world could one swiftly seize the reality of things. I do not know whether Xu Gongcai's turn toward outdoor painting was entirely self-conscious, but I do know that his works are painted directly from nature, and I know with certainty that his village series possesses precisely this vivid and living quality.

毫无疑问，充分发挥色彩的魅力，在微妙的细腻的色彩变化中表现物象，或者说表达画家对于物象的感受，这是印象派画法的精髓，也是公才描画皖南村落的最为精彩之处。公才笔下的那些村落，其实就是一些黑白相间的色块和色点；其他的物象比如一棵树一座山、一片大地一线云天，也完全是色彩笔触的涂抹和覆盖。物象与物象之间关系的交代，已经不再使用清澈的光滑的轮廓线，而是依托不同色彩的并置和对比；而画面空间关系的交代，也不再使用透视法的准则和明暗的处理，而是依托色调层次的转换和映衬。

There is no doubt that the full deployment of colour's expressive charm—the use of subtle and delicate colour variations to render objects, or rather to convey the painter's response to them—is the essence of Impressionist technique. It is also the most brilliant aspect of Xu Gongcai's depictions of the villages of southern Anhui. The villages in his paintings are in fact only clusters of black-and-white colour blocks and dots. The relationships between objects are no longer defined by clear contour lines, but by the juxtaposition and contrast of different colours; and the spatial relations in the picture are likewise no longer established through linear perspective, but through the transformation and interreflection of tonal layers.

基于印象派的背景来阐释公才画作，一方面，有利于正确分析他的技法师承流变，另一方面，有利于正确理解他的创作技法与创作思想之间的联系。印象派不关心绘画的题材和情节内容，把绘画目的归结为不构感地记录生活场景。公才的视角感受与心理感受是完全统一的，他以皖南村落为表现对象至他的色彩运用，无不混合着情感的浓度。

To explain Xu Gongcai's paintings through the background of Impressionism is helpful in two respects: it allows a more accurate analysis of the sources and evolution of his techniques, and it helps us correctly understand the connection between his method and his artistic thought. In Xu Gongcai's work, visual perception and psychological response are fully unified. In taking southern Anhui villages as his subject, his use of colour is always suffused with emotional density.

清代康熙年间，侨寓扬州的徽州盐商程庭回老家省亲，面对群山之间的皖南村落，惊诧不已。从建筑形制上看，皖南村落独鳌壁瓦，屋宇错落，街贯巷连，万家烟火，堪称魏魏大片的奇观。公才运用了四两拨千斤的方法，他描绘的皖南村落不过是影影绰绰身依稀朦胧的印象，又把这印象融化在并置震荡、流动飘散的绚丽色彩中，然后，听凭你们去无穷无尽的遐想吧！

During the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty, the Huizhou salt merchant Cheng Ting returned home and marveled at the villages of southern Anhui. From the perspective of architectural form, these villages constitute a truly magnificent spectacle. Xu Gongcai has adopted the method of "lifting a thousand pounds with four ounces": the villages he paints are no more than shadowy, dimly discerned impressions, and he then dissolves these impressions into gorgeous colour—juxtaposed, vibrating, flowing, and dispersing—and after that, he leaves the viewer free to wander in endless imagination.

这以后我们隔个一年半载相聚一下，但很少在交流"艺术"，更多的只是白酒与猪乡芍兰之间的交流和切磋了。后来我去德国，一晃就是十多年。而公才却一直默默无语，留着长发，蓄着他的小胡子。在艺术和生活的园地里来回地奔走着。出于他对艺术特别的钟爱包括他对自然的留恋，二十多年来他几乎走遍皖南的所有角落，画了无数张油画作品，参加了无数次各种规模的展览。作为一个艺术院校的老师，他十分热爱艺术教育事业，在教书育人的同时十分留心他脚下适合自己的艺术道路。

After that, we would get together every year or so, though we rarely talked much about "art." Later I went to Germany, and in a flash more than ten years passed. Yet Gongcai remained as always, quiet and taciturn. He kept moving back and forth through the fields of art and life. Out of his particular devotion to art, and also his attachment to nature, over the past twenty-odd years he has wandered through almost every corner of southern Anhui, painted countless oil works, and participated in exhibitions of every scale.

和北京，上海这样的大都市相比较，合肥在地理和文化位置上如同一个大集镇。它没有什么机遇，亦缺少一流的展览和一流的画廊，更缺少一流的收藏家和艺术收藏机构。但正是这样一种被忽委弃和一种被抛弃的感觉，造就了像公才这样一批苦苦劳作，孜孜探索的画家。这儿因为没有什么名利的诱惑，使他（们）更真实地贴近自然，几乎在一种无望中把自己整个人身心投入皖南山野的怀抱。

Compared with major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, Hefei, in terms of geography and culture, is like a large market town. It offers few opportunities, lacks first-rate exhibitions and galleries, and is even more lacking in first-rate collectors and art institutions. Yet it is precisely this sense of neglect and abandonment that has produced painters like Gongcai—artists who labor bitterly and explore tirelessly. Because there is little temptation of fame or profit here, he is able to draw closer to nature in a more genuine way.

艺术是什么？艺术有时什么也不是。它可能就是一种逃逸，去逃逸城市的压力；去逃逸家庭的不快和人事的纠葛。艺术也或是一种追求。公才近期的油画作品在很大程度上逃离了长期以来周遭环境加给他同时代人的许多不必要的约束和绳绑，也远离古学院派危险刻板的程式化的审美趣味。公才用流畅的极富音乐特质的油画书写了一部皖南风情的印象"田园畅想诗"。

What is art? Sometimes art is nothing at all. It may simply be a kind of escape—an escape from the pressures of the city, from the unhappiness of family life and the entanglements of human affairs. Gongcai's recent oil paintings have broken away from the unnecessary constraints that the surrounding environment has long imposed on him and on others of his generation. With fluid, highly musical brushwork, Gongcai has written an impressionistic "pastoral rhapsody" of southern Anhui.

我在公才画室中看到一批这样的作品，如同一群在梦中相互追逐的精灵。它们的叹息声，道出山水间的隐秘和内涵。这是他在自然中的一个新的发现。"清新，美好，精致"。

In Gongcai's studio, I saw a group of such works, like a cluster of spirits chasing one another through a dream. Their sighs speak out the hidden meanings and inward depths of mountains and waters. This is one of his new discoveries in nature. "Fresh, beautiful, exquisite."

我再次意识到合肥隔离"大都市"的可爱和重要。这儿做艺术的特别因由甚至"愚顽"。这个城市相对安静，是从事某种研究工作的好地方。它使我们消除了许多不必要的负担和幻想，冷静安娴地做自己喜欢的事。"委弃与孤独"是人类十分恐惧的，但凡高如果没被人类世界"委弃"，没有那份在今天看来十分珍贵的痛苦与孤独作为上帝最好的礼物……今天他的名字再也不会写进美术史，教科书中。

Once again, I became aware of how lovable and important it is for Hefei to remain apart from the "metropolis." This city is relatively quiet, a good place for engaging in certain kinds of research and work. It helps rid us of many unnecessary burdens and illusions, and allows us to do what we truly like in a calm and composed way. "Being abandoned and being lonely" are things humanity greatly fears. But if Van Gogh had not been "abandoned" by the human world, if he had not received that pain and solitude as the finest gift from God... then today his name might never have been written into art history.

这批新作，沿袭与突显了他已形成的绘画风格。色彩高度概括，现实的色彩被简化了。强化黑白构成，但又不像印象派那么强烈，常常以过渡的灰色作基调。山头、线、面作符号，既脱俗又物象特征，不完全具象。让人在宁静、柔和的心境中获得审美享受。

These recent works continue and intensify the painter's already formed artistic style. Color is highly generalized; the colors of reality are simplified. The black-and-white structure is strengthened, though not with the aggressive force of Impressionism. Instead, transitional greys often serve as the dominant tone. Mountains, lines, and planes become signs—both detached and still suggestive of the object.

他的画，既现代，又传统。既有现代派的色、线、形的味，又有新世纪的当代思维观念。而骨子里却隐含着中国传统的艺术精神。运用了中国传统的线画技法；注重画面的整体效果，表现的是一种主观感受的"情中之景"。追求情景交融的意境。

His painting is at once modern and traditional. It carries the flavor of modernism in its colors, lines, and forms, yet beneath it lies a spirit deeply rooted in the Chinese artistic tradition. He employs the linear methods of traditional Chinese painting and emphasizes the overall pictorial effect, expressing a "scene infused with emotion," a world where feeling and scenery merge into one.

如果说，以表现为主的抒情、写意、诗境，是中国文人画的传统，那么，做为新徽派、新意象的代表，当代实力派画家徐公才的作品，却是以西方印象派和后印象主义为艺术语言，结合中国画的传统，来表现中华民族的传统艺术精神，表现当代东方艺术的向往与神韵。如何来概括油画家徐公才的绘画特点呢？抒情写意，以诗为魂；主客交融，自然人性；扎根本土，继承创新。

If lyricism, freehand spirit, and poetic mood are the tradition of Chinese literati painting, then the works of Gongcai Xu, as a representative of a "new Anhui school" and "new imagery," take Western Impressionism and Post-Impressionism as artistic language while integrating the traditions of Chinese painting. His work displays the artistic ideals of the Chinese people today. His essential qualities can be summarized in three aspects: lyrical and freehand, with poetry as their soul; fusion of subject and object, revealing natural humanity; rooted in the local soil, yet carrying forward tradition through innovation.

我觉得实力派画家徐公才的作品，洋溢着一股浓郁的诗情。欣赏公才的油画作品，沉浸在他所创造的意象世界里，总是让人情感起伏，时有发现。有时，你会怡然自得，似有所悟；有时，又让人神情荡漾，浮想联翩……

I feel that the works of this powerful painter are suffused with rich poetic feeling. To appreciate Gongcai Xu's oils is to enter the imagistic world he has created, where the emotions rise and fall, and one constantly discovers something new. At times one feels serene and quietly enlightened; at others one is stirred into reverie and imagination.

公才笔下的皖南山水，有着自己独特的个性。这是一片有着独特意蕴的审美天地。他汲取先民们依山傍水的环境选择是如此的宁静、优美，而人与自然的相处，又是如此和谐相融。于是，他在他的意象世界里，营造了一片自然人性的天地。

The landscapes of southern Anhui in Xu's brush possess a character all their own. They form a distinctive aesthetic world rich in implication. He draws from the wisdom of earlier people, who chose to build by mountains and water, creating an environment both peaceful and beautiful, where human beings lived in harmony with nature. Thus, in his imagined world, he creates a realm of natural humanity.

公才的画——他所创造的意象世界，发掘了蕴含中华文明的皖南山水固有的人文情怀，所以，它才更加宜人，更加丰厚，更加得到世人的喜爱与欢迎。

The paintings of Gongcai Xu—the imagistic world he has created—have uncovered the innate humanistic sentiment embedded in the landscapes of southern Anhui, landscapes that are deeply infused with the spirit of Chinese civilization. And it is for this reason that his art becomes more intimate, more profound, and more beloved and welcomed by the world.