從巴黎左岸到台東比西里岸–江賢二2014個展

主辦人/單位: 台東縣政府

首次展演日期: 2014-12-20    結束展演日期: 2015-02-03

活動地點: 台東美術館
活動地址: 台東市浙江路350號

「從巴黎左岸到臺東比西里岸—江賢二 2014個展」是藝術家江賢二送給臺東的一份特別禮物。

長年旅居異域的江賢二，自 2008年開始定居臺東金樽，也因而展開了他藝術生命的全新篇章。本次展覽受到臺東縣政府邀請，由李玉玲博士擔任策展人，精選 24件畫作，回顧藝術家超過四十年的創作歷程，從其早年為探索生命價值、存在的意義而自我流放異鄉的作品，一直到近年創作的巨作群《比西里岸之夢》、《乘著歌聲的翅膀》系列，本展也是江賢二回國以來，最大型且完整的一次展出。

《比西里岸之夢》系列，見證藝術家移居臺東後畫風的轉變，從早期用色暗鬱凝重，轉向繽紛瑰麗，而風格上的轉變其實也代表著江賢二在多年的生活歷練後，逐步走出早年對自我內心世界無盡的探究，轉而面向大自然造物的謙卑禮讚，臻至大開大合純熟而內斂的絕佳創作狀態。

本次展覽將呈現出江賢二長年來對藝術「神聖性」探究的成果，從具宗教意涵的畫作，一直到坦然面對自然造物，禮讚其奧秘的創作，希望提供觀眾一個豐富的心靈暫憩之所。誠摯邀請各位蒞臨觀賞。

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「從巴黎左岸到台東比西里岸」象徵一趟追尋的旅程，一趟讓藝術家江賢二花了近四十年歲月才完成的旅程。

巴黎對江賢二而言曾經是永恆的精神原鄉，巴黎代表的是一切他心所嚮往的，創作現代藝術所必要的自由開放的環境與思想的養分。這種對巴黎左岸所象徵的精神自由與靈魂救贖的想望，加上現代性藝術強調抽象形式的影響，讓蟄居紐約創作逾三十年的江賢二，選擇封窗作畫，堅決地將自己的創作與現象世界分離開來，為追尋藝術的「純粹性」，而不斷對內在自我進行探求與淨化。

直到九〇年代因故返鄉，卻因而得以在南臺灣臨接太平洋的台東比西里岸，尋獲心靈的歸鄉，自此燦爛陽光，與暢快淋漓的自在空間，完全迸發並且完成於畫布之上。台東的明亮光線，豐盛多彩的自然景象與溫暖人情，讓長年漂泊的藝術家，釋放自我迎向外在世界，終於在故鄉完成了他追尋精神原鄉的漫長旅程。從巨作群「比西里岸」系列開始，江賢二的繪畫一改過往的陰鬱、暗沈，轉變為色彩繽紛，充滿了生之能量與喜悅。盈滿色彩、帶有光線感的巨大畫幅，形成另一種神聖的空間，是歷經四十年歲月淨化而成的心靈鏡面，方能映現的自然本質。

歷史哲學家湯恩比在討論「社會與個人」的論文中提出：「創造性的個人，其行為可用『退離與復返』（Withdrawal and Return) 這一雙重行動來加以描述：退離是為了他個人的啓悟，復返是為了要啓發他的族人。」「從巴黎左岸到台東比西里岸—江賢二 2014個展」記錄的正是藝術家江賢二的「退離與復返」，也是他送給台東以及家鄉台灣的一份珍貴禮物。

From La Rive Gauche to Pisilian symbolizes a journey of pursuit, an odyssey which artist Paul Chiang spent nearly four decades to complete.

To Paul Chiang, Paris was once his eternal spiritual home. Everything about Paris represented all that he yearned for in his youth days. Paris had represented the free and open environment and nutrients of thought necessary for modern art creation. When Chiang left for Paris in 1967, he had anticipated to bid farewell to hometown Taiwan, then a spiritually suppressed island under martial law. However, Chiang ended up living in New York for the following thirty years, but “Paris” was never far away from him. Rather, Paris became his inner imagination and perpetual pursuit. In other words, as Paris was detached from the phenomenal world in front of his eyes, it in turn became a kind of spiritual symbol that continued to drive Chiang deeper into his internal world to conduct self-excavation that bordered the edge of cruelty.

It could be said that the spiritual freedom symbolized by la Rive Gauche, the longing for spiritual salvation that art seemed to promise, as well as the influences of the abstract form emphasized by modernist art became the driving forces for Chiang during his New York years when he chose to paint in seclusion behind the sealed windows. He was determined to separate his creative world from the phenomenal world in search of “pure” art, as well as the potential salvation perhaps promised by this purity. For a very long time, Paul Chiang’s paintings featured dark brown, or even pitch black, tones accompanied by heavy and thick texture of oil paints, like traces left behind by his struggling soul crawling over the canvas.

In late 1990s, Chiang was brought back to homeland Taiwan unexpectedly. This originally intended to be a short visit, nevertheless, led to the artist’s eventual settlement in Pisilian, a village in Taidong of southern Taiwan by Pacific Ocean. Rich and colorful natural scenes under the bright sunlight in Taitung allowed the artist, who had been prisoned in self-woven cell for years, to finally embrace the outer world, and ultimately, to complete his odyssey in search of a spiritual home in his birthplace Taiwan. Beginning from the Pisilian series of gigantic paintings, Chiang’s works suddenly abound with all kinds of bright colors, and open to embrace the vitality and joy of life. However, Chiang, instead of representing the world, reveals the essence of Nature that can only be unveiled through his mental mirror formed by continuous self-purification over four decades. 

Historian and philosopher Arnold J. Toynbee proposed in his paper on “society and individual” that “creative individuals’ behaviors can be described by the process of ‘withdrawal-and-return’: withdrawal for the purpose of his personal enlightenment, return for the task of enlightening his fellow men.” From La Rive Gauche to Pisilian –Paul Chiang Solo Exhibition 2014 is the chronicle of the artist’s “withdrawal and return”, as well as his precious present to Taitung and his hometown Taiwan.

策展人Curator／ 李 玉 玲 Yulin Lee

（節錄自「江賢二生命之旅：從巴黎左岸到台東比西里岸 」文Adapted from “The Odyssey of Paul Chiang - From La Rive Gauche to Pisilian）

主辦單位：台東縣政府
協辦單位：財團法人大隱文化藝術基金會、財團法人公益平台文化基金會
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