編者按：2011年6月24日，中國(guó)“杭州西湖文化景觀”在法國(guó)巴黎舉行的聯(lián)合國(guó)教科文組織第35屆世界遺產(chǎn)委員會(huì)會(huì)議上順利通過(guò)審議，正式被列入《世界遺產(chǎn)名錄》。

民俗畫(huà)家吳理人被譽(yù)為“畫(huà)說(shuō)”杭州西湖第一人。他生在西湖，長(zhǎng)在西湖，與西湖朝夕相伴，用畫(huà)筆描繪西湖，為西湖景觀幾乎傾注了他的全部心血。本刊特發(fā)表這篇專訪，以慶賀西湖申遺成功。

作為中國(guó)七大古都之一的杭州，自南宋以來(lái)就有四時(shí)賞花的習(xí)俗，并因此留下了不少賞花勝地，如西溪探梅、馬塍看花、荷塘泛舟、湖山尋桂、重九賞菊等，且官巷口還舉辦花市，生意興隆。

其中最熱鬧的，莫過(guò)于農(nóng)歷二月十二日的花朝節(jié)，這是紀(jì)念百花的生日。今年2月底，杭州市西湖區(qū)委書(shū)記鄭榮勝在上海黃浦江畔宣布，杭州將傳承傳統(tǒng)花朝文化，以花為媒，培育花產(chǎn)業(yè)、花文化、花經(jīng)濟(jì)，讓沉寂百年的花朝節(jié)再度復(fù)興。

消息一出，四座叫好。節(jié)日一至，繁花似錦。

但是，看到群芳的杭州人總有些遺憾：當(dāng)年花朝節(jié)是怎樣一幅圖景呢？

有人告訴我：不妨去看看著名的中國(guó)民俗風(fēng)情畫(huà)家、有“畫(huà)說(shuō)杭州第一人”之譽(yù)的吳理人的畫(huà)吧。那些水墨丹青里，有真正的老杭州風(fēng)情——當(dāng)然，包括花朝節(jié)的盛況。

就這樣，我找到了這位留著小胡茬，和善、敦厚、樸實(shí)，舉手投足間又充滿藝術(shù)風(fēng)度的畫(huà)家。

見(jiàn)到吳理人是在一個(gè)初春的下午，陽(yáng)光、和風(fēng)，暖和得讓人熏熏然。吳理人的工作室，就在柳枝初發(fā)、各種船舶“突突突”穿梭來(lái)回的京杭大運(yùn)河邊，窗明幾凈的中國(guó)京杭大運(yùn)河博物館里。

一張?zhí)茨編祝瑑杀悴?。他用不打擾周?chē)鷣?lái)來(lái)往往觀展客的輕聲細(xì)語(yǔ)，打開(kāi)了話匣子。

“為什么選擇畫(huà)老杭州這項(xiàng)事業(yè)？”

這是我拋出的第一個(gè)問(wèn)題。

“杭州人，當(dāng)然應(yīng)該畫(huà)杭州。我始終覺(jué)得，只有了解一個(gè)地方的過(guò)去現(xiàn)在、洞悉一個(gè)地方的風(fēng)俗民情，才能畫(huà)出最好的作品?！眳抢砣巳缡钦f(shuō)。

他搬過(guò)好幾次家，印象最深的是幼小時(shí)住在貫橋。50年代，他家的隔壁就是一家茶館，放學(xué)了，就同其他孩子一起去隔壁聽(tīng)大書(shū)。再隔壁有家小書(shū)攤，一分錢(qián)可以看兩本。要么就到對(duì)面面店里撿香煙殼，疊好了可以比賽拍洋片。高興了，孩子們一窩蜂到孩兒巷去躲貓貓兒，在一所老房子里轉(zhuǎn)進(jìn)轉(zhuǎn)出，后來(lái)才知道，那原來(lái)是大師豐子愷的舊居。

這樣的童年大家都差不多，但是小時(shí)候的吳理人還是有些同人家孩子不一樣，他4歲時(shí)還沒(méi)懂事就開(kāi)始畫(huà)畫(huà)了，街坊鄰居都知道。后來(lái)讀書(shū)了，一到圖畫(huà)課，全班50多張畫(huà)紙都疊到他的桌子上，他很快就畫(huà)好了。六年級(jí)時(shí)，他和同學(xué)畫(huà)了一張2米高的油畫(huà)“毛主席去安源”，畫(huà)就立在校門(mén)口。

吳理人畫(huà)畫(huà)是跟父親、姐姐學(xué)的。父親原是個(gè)琴棋書(shū)畫(huà)樣樣拿得起的中學(xué)校長(zhǎng)，姐姐是美術(shù)特級(jí)教師。良好的家庭美術(shù)熏陶，讓繪畫(huà)理所當(dāng)然地成了兒時(shí)吳理人的愛(ài)好和特長(zhǎng)。從小學(xué)到中學(xué)的美術(shù)課，幾乎都成了吳理人的專場(chǎng)演出。畢業(yè)幾十年后的同學(xué)會(huì)，老同學(xué)們見(jiàn)到他第一句話還是：“你從小就最會(huì)畫(huà)畫(huà)啊?！?/p>

說(shuō)起這些童年的記憶，吳理人格外靦腆。之后，他又不無(wú)得意地講起年輕時(shí)做美工助理的經(jīng)歷：“那時(shí)候我做一部電視劇的美工助理。老美工想要刁難我，突然修改場(chǎng)景，要我在第二天早晨開(kāi)工前完成50多朵牡丹花的場(chǎng)景繪制。那時(shí)候已經(jīng)下午四五點(diǎn)鐘了啊，他料定我是做不完的。結(jié)果我讓人幫忙裁紙碾磨，40多分鐘就完成了?！?/p>

1985年，吳理人28歲，事業(yè)蒸蒸日上，卻飛來(lái)橫禍，遭人誣陷，被作為“大案”隔離81天，最后查不出什么，只好說(shuō)他“脾氣不好”。吳理人一怒之下交了張請(qǐng)假條一走了之，臨走丟下一句話：“啥時(shí)弄清爽啥時(shí)回來(lái)。”幾年后給他平反，他卻發(fā)誓再也不捧“鐵飯碗”。

沒(méi)有了工作，他反而可以一門(mén)心思畫(huà)畫(huà)了。他畫(huà)杭州，畫(huà)烏鎮(zhèn)，畫(huà)西塘，畫(huà)紹興，畫(huà)所有看到的江南民居。上世紀(jì)80年代末大批舊房開(kāi)始拆除，老街開(kāi)始改建，看到自己筆下的老杭州正在消失，吳理人決定專畫(huà)杭州。這時(shí)的他不僅身無(wú)分文，而且常常是家無(wú)分文。住在米市巷時(shí)，他家只有20平方米，一張小八仙桌一半是他的畫(huà)桌，另一半吃飯。拆遷到莫干山路一個(gè)墻門(mén)后，他的畫(huà)桌是一張方凳，顏料等等只好將就放在地上了。

這樣一畫(huà)，就是20年。

這些歲月里，吳理人踏遍杭州的街巷里弄，走過(guò)京杭運(yùn)河沿線，繪就了包括照片在內(nèi)的30000多幅作品。他說(shuō)自己的心愿是畫(huà)出1000幅精品，集畫(huà)成冊(cè)，畫(huà)說(shuō)杭州。如今，他已經(jīng)畫(huà)完了20多本寫(xiě)生本，幾千張成品。

“欣賞您畫(huà)的老杭州、老西湖，在我們外行看來(lái)，覺(jué)得多了些味道。在技法、思想上，您有哪些獨(dú)到的見(jiàn)解？”

聽(tīng)完吳理人講述的創(chuàng)作史之后，我又拋出了第二個(gè)問(wèn)題。

他的回答是，畫(huà)杭州沒(méi)人能畫(huà)得過(guò)他，他是用心在畫(huà)，用他的經(jīng)歷、情感在畫(huà)。

他在杭州的老街巷里到處轉(zhuǎn)，在老墻門(mén)四周東張西望，那些警惕性很高的大伯大媽還當(dāng)他是小偷，有時(shí)好一點(diǎn)，當(dāng)他是拆房隊(duì)的。他就拿出自己的畫(huà)兒給他們看，“噢，是畫(huà)家?！庇谑悄脧埖首樱帽?，講老房子的故事給他聽(tīng)……

杭州人自己說(shuō)，老杭州“是座破爛的城市”，但在吳理人眼里，一些“破爛”里都是故事，是老杭州最豐富的表情。那些衰敗的街巷、零落的民居，因?yàn)橛腥嗽谧邉?dòng)，有人在生活，所以充滿了老杭州的人情味。

老杭州是啥樣子的？一條條小街，寬不過(guò)兩輛黃包車(chē)；一個(gè)個(gè)墻門(mén)，白墻黑瓦，堂前天井；一排排沿街商鋪，木板門(mén)晨開(kāi)暮閉；一座座石橋，夏天芭蕉扇搖搖乘涼最好……有人看了“噢喲”一聲說(shuō)：“這就是我住的地方！”

這就是吳理人筆下的老杭州。用圈里人的眼光看，吳理人是個(gè)業(yè)余畫(huà)家，但是，畫(huà)老杭州已經(jīng)成了他的專業(yè)，成了他的全部生活。

另一方面，吳理人畫(huà)山水，比一般畫(huà)家更能感受杭州的味道。他畫(huà)西湖，不著意于山水，而是回憶童年時(shí)在西湖邊避雨，看到雷雨強(qiáng)風(fēng)之中，西湖荷葉翻起，韌而不屈之美。就是如此，才與其他畫(huà)家形成了質(zhì)的區(qū)別。

他到處寫(xiě)生，在寫(xiě)生中積累了大量的寫(xiě)生經(jīng)驗(yàn)和寫(xiě)生作品。所謂抽象，是說(shuō)他作畫(huà)不是對(duì)真實(shí)民居、橋等景物的簡(jiǎn)單復(fù)制，沒(méi)有完全拘泥于表面形似，而是求整體神韻。所謂意象，則是指畫(huà)面體現(xiàn)的含蓄內(nèi)涵、空靈厚重的意趣，是“外師造化，中得心愿”的結(jié)果。此外，他還注重畫(huà)面的氣勢(shì)和整體走向，但大塊面的整體上又不乏精練的局部，其作品特有一種韻律和美感。

他的杭州山水畫(huà)構(gòu)圖注重層次，以氣取勝，用筆堅(jiān)勁，濃淡枯潤(rùn)多變流暢，還追求心理上、畫(huà)面外的意境表現(xiàn)和精神升華。他強(qiáng)調(diào)自然而然，有感而發(fā)，用心畫(huà)來(lái)，水到渠成。所以他的作品中始終充滿了一股靈氣。特別是作品中體現(xiàn)出來(lái)的那種悠遠(yuǎn)而又古老的老杭州風(fēng)韻，不僅與畫(huà)家所選擇的再現(xiàn)手法相得益彰，而且給人以無(wú)限美感與深遠(yuǎn)的記憶。

“今后，您會(huì)把畫(huà)杭州、畫(huà)西湖的事業(yè)繼續(xù)下去么？”

聽(tīng)到這個(gè)問(wèn)題，吳理人的眼睛里流露出許多感慨。

“堅(jiān)持、傳承”，這是他說(shuō)的最重的幾個(gè)字。

吳理人說(shuō)，想用自己的畫(huà)，畫(huà)出一部民俗史。那些用清淡的筆墨勾畫(huà)出的錢(qián)塘風(fēng)情，不只是山水和花卉，更融入了綿遠(yuǎn)的歷史感和深刻的人文精神?！爱?huà)這些畫(huà)，不只要懂國(guó)畫(huà)，還要有扎實(shí)的西畫(huà)功底，更要有對(duì)歷史文化的了解和對(duì)這座城市發(fā)自內(nèi)心的熱愛(ài)。我想在自己的畫(huà)中，去掉當(dāng)代繪畫(huà)里普遍的浮躁之氣，而體現(xiàn)一種氣質(zhì)，將文化內(nèi)涵融入畫(huà)里?！彼押贾莳?dú)有的吳越文化、南宋文化、運(yùn)河文化、西湖文化都化成了水墨丹青。

吳理人到底畫(huà)了多少畫(huà)？恐怕連他自己都說(shuō)不清。有些賣(mài)掉了，留在手上的還有好幾千幅。他說(shuō)，這些畫(huà)他不會(huì)賣(mài)：“我希望杭州能在我的筆下被更多人認(rèn)識(shí)，被更多人喜愛(ài)，為下一代留下更多有關(guān)這座古老城市的記憶?！?/p>

所以，他給自己訂了一個(gè)目標(biāo)，就是完成一幅《京杭大運(yùn)河民俗風(fēng)情全景圖》，希望它能成為一幅運(yùn)河版的清明上河圖，流傳下去。

就在結(jié)束本稿采寫(xiě)的前夕，我又得到一個(gè)信息：

吳理人和京杭大運(yùn)河博物館合作，免費(fèi)開(kāi)設(shè)了培養(yǎng)孩子、提攜后進(jìn)的美術(shù)指導(dǎo)班，每周六下午授課。因?yàn)閳?bào)名的孩子太多，為了保證教學(xué)質(zhì)量，他就把孩子們分為兩批，兩周一次講授。

面對(duì)這位憨憨的“畫(huà)家伯伯”，孩子們交口稱贊：“他不像美術(shù)老師只教我們繪畫(huà)技巧。講課時(shí)候，吳伯伯還給我們講故事，比如他小時(shí)候杭州是怎樣的風(fēng)景啦、他畫(huà)畫(huà)前后是怎樣采風(fēng)思考啦之類的，反正特別有意思?！?/p>

看著孩子們純真的臉龐，我忽然覺(jué)得，杭州民俗畫(huà)的事業(yè)，實(shí)在太值得延續(xù)——今天的實(shí)景，恐怕又是明天的民俗呢——感謝老杭州，感謝吳理人?！?/p>

Hangzhou Artist Retains Ancient Urban Scenes

By Xiao Qi

If you want to find out what Hangzhou looked like 30 years ago， you may have a number of choices. If you want artistic impressions of the city of these yesteryears， you go to Wu Liren to find out. Wu Liren， in his early fifties， is a local artist dedicated to capturing the lost charms of his hometown in drawings and paintings.

I have a chat with him one sunny， breezy spring afternoon in Hangzhou. We sit in his studio in the Hangzhou-Beijing Grand Canal Museum. The diesel engines of barges make loud noisy as they push their way up or down the canal outside the windows of the studio. The man now and then glances at young visitors milling around the museum while chatting in a light voice. We talk over a cup of green tea.

I ask why he chooses to focus on Hangzhou of its good old days. He has a ready explanation. “As a Hangzhou native， I feel I am bound to portray my hometown in artistic creations. The best artworks come from an artist’s profound knowledge of the place and history.”

Born in 1957， Wu Liren grew up in old downtown Hangzhou. He was little bit different from other boys of his age: the genius boy started drawing at the age of four. The child artist enjoyed a reputation in the neighborhood. He often did drawings for all other classmates in the art classroom when he was in primary school. At class reunions， everybody remembers him. He was the class artist.

The kid artist got the art from his father. His sister is now a special-class art teacher. An all-round scholar， the father worked as a schoolmaster of a middle school before he fell down in the world due to political reasons in the 1950s. The father had been exiled to the countryside before the junior was born. The father came back home in 1958 and worked as a bricklayer until he passed away during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Wu remembers the down-and-out life of his family in those difficult years. In one painting he paints his mother and younger sister washing rags at a river dock.

The Wus has moved homes in Hangzhou several times. He says his childhood years in the neighborhood of Guanqiao in the 1950s and the 1960s are most memorable. His family lived next door to a teahouse. Every afternoon after school he and other boys went to the teahouse to enjoy a story-telling performance. Two doors from his home was a picture-book rental shop where one could pay a cent to read two books. Sometimes they boys went to an old house in a lane not far from their homes， where they played hide and seek. After he became an adult he got to know that Feng Zikai， a prominent artist in the first half of the 20th century China， once lived in the house.

Wu remembers his early years as a young artist. In the first half of the 1980s， he worked as a commercial artist. His master and he once worked as artists for a television production. One afternoon， the master gave him a mission impossible: he was supposed to create a setting of more than 50 roses before the next morning. He got the assignment at five o’clock. The master thought the young artist would have to work through the night. Wu Liren completed the work within 40 minutes.

In 1985， the 28-year-old artist was witnessing his career takeoff when he was wrongly accused of a crime. He was acquitted after 81 days in police custody. Enraged by the unfair treatment， the artist took a long sick leave. Though he was rehabilitated a few years later， he chose not to forget and forgive. He quit the job and became a full-time artist on his own. He traveled across Zhejiang and created quite a great amount of paintings.

His decision to retain his hometown in his paintings came about in the late1980s when the dilapidated old city was disappearing at an alarmingly fast rate， replaced by a new urbanization.

To translate his decision into reality was hard， for he was financially down and out in these years. As his old house was demolished for construction， he had to stay in a rented home of 20 square meters. But he persisted.

In the next 20 years he painted nothing but his hometown. His sketches， paintings and photographs now amount to a huge collection of 30，000. His ambition is to create 1，000 fine paintings of Hangzhou and get them published in albums.

Wu says no one in Hangzhou captures the charms and looks of yesteryear Hangzhou better and more than he does. He has put his heart to his pet project. He puts his story and emotion into sketches and his paintings. He loves wandering through the labyrinth of lanes and narrow streets of old downtown Hangzhou and oftentimes he is mistaken by some old residents as a thief. Some suspect him as a spy for companies that want to tear down old houses but are definitely unwilling to pay fair compensation for relocation. He shows his drawings to these people. When they find he is an artist， old residents become warm. They fetch chairs， bring him a cup of tea and sit around him relating their life stories in these streets and lanes.

The old-generation Hangzhou residents agree unanimously that the city was dilapidated， but Wu regards the dilapidated downtown as a cornucopia of stories and legends of a kind of life that is disappearing fast.

How did the old Hangzhou look like? Wu Liren’s sketches are a truthful record of everyday life of the city he has seen. Narrow streets are just wide enough for two tricycles to run side by side; courtyard residences feature white walls and black-tiled roofs and a patio; streets are lined with shops where multiple plank doors are removed in the morning and put back in the evening; stone bridges are everywhere; in summer nights， people sit in outdoors and cool themselves with fans.

If measured with professional art standard， Wu Liren may be considered an amateurish folk artist. For Wu， capturing the old Hangzhou is all he does with art and it is now his way of life.

As the West Lake is the most eye-catching part of Hangzhou， it is only natural that Wu recreates it in his art. However， he draws more than the scenery. He recalls a scene in a summer day when it was raining hard. Watching the storm on the lake from a shelter， Wu was deeply impressed by the lotus leaves that turned against the winds. The beauty of the lotuses in the storm is now deeply in his aesthetics of his graphic memories of his hometown.

While reinterpreting the beauty of the mountains and the lake in Hangzhou， Wu seeks an overwhelming energy and flowing rhythm， creating a big space for spiritual sublimation. To him， Hangzhou looks natural， ancient， and yet endearing.

I ask whether Wu will continue to draw Hangzhou and the West Lake. He will persist and he will carry his cause forward to the future. He looks determined and fully committed when saying these words.

Wu says he aims to create a history of folk lifestyle of Hangzhou in his art. “One needs knowledge of traditional Chinese painting as well as that of western art before one can embark on such an ambitious art project， but the most important thing is one needs to understand history and culture and one must have a love from the bottom of the heart for this city before one is able to create such paintings. I want my artworks free from the flippancy that can be seen everywhere in today’s world of art. I want to inject a quality， a sense of culture and rich content into my art.”

He does not know exactly how many paintings he has created in his career. He has sold many. And his collection at home holds thousands more. He says the thousands are not for sale. He hopes his paintings will open a door to the old charms of Hangzhou and will keep memories fresh for next generations.

Wu dreams of creating a huge masterpiece， something that resembles in scope and significance the “Qingming Festival on the River”， a timeless artwork created in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). He will set his painting against the Grand Canal that traverses downtown Hangzhou and past his studio and meanders zigzagging all the way northward to Beijing. □