区别于“85美术新潮”的一种静悄悄的新潮，不单是古典风，它还有上海的一些几乎不大参展的抽象风，北京的新写实风。他们都有一个共同的特点：重视视觉语言和方式的探索。正是从这个意义上，我推崇陈文骥这些油画。    
　　其实，陈文骥在画这批画之前，曾数易画风，试验过各种绘画材料，并一度迷恋抽象艺术。这个过程也是他寻找自我的过程。他不擅思辨，则难入抽象主义的理性堂奥，但直觉细腻，又使他能对现实物象有更细微的观察；生性幽默中透着顽皮，使他找到了写实与荒诞的联结点；清淡而入微的感情方式，又把他推进了类似于超现实大师马格里特的冷冷的诗意中，这便构成了陈文骥作品风格的完整性。    
　　陈文骥的作品是写实的，但写实并非一定是现实主义。现实主义的基本特征是以生活的本来样式反映现实，它虽不拘泥于实有的现实的场景，但须尊重现实生活的逻辑，正因为它的这个特点，对于诸如一种梦幻的境界，莫名其妙的荒诞感，说不清的烦躁等，现实主义这种语言则无能为力，20世纪现代艺术语言的非现实主义的倾向，正是适应了这个世纪人的一种普遍的荒诞意识。陈文骥的作品几乎保持了一个现实场景，超现实主义的荒诞感的造成，是靠一种画面大的构架和支解了的现实物象（如达利），而陈文骥作品的荒诞感，只是略微改变了现实物象的、那种属于生活样式的组合。如《黄色的沙发》，这几乎就是生活中觉的情景 ，但沙发属于人住的环境这个充满生活味的背景被剔除掉了，变成了一个毫无感情倾向和人情味的深灰背景，现实中的沙发放在一个非现实的空间中，这种矛盾便造成了荒诞感。《粉红色的纸》，网与纸的组合；《红色的墙》，暖气与红纸的组合等，都采用了同样不近情理的组合，造成荒诞感的。另外，请注意这几张作品画面异常简洁这个关键点，诸如《黄色的沙发》，就因为只取了沙发这几件东西，而不是生活中“有沙发的房间一角”，沙发就脱离了它在生活中的含义，而变成一种视觉符号，隐喻一种精神空间。这就是我说的虽然是写实的，但不是现实主义的那种语言方式变革的第一层含义。    
　　其二，不合理组合所造成的荒诞感，是一个模糊境界，这对于现实主义作品往往有一个明确有主题思想来说，无疑是一种丰富性，这点类乎音乐，或者说，就音乐可以涵盖一切艺术的多义性这个本质特征而言，勿宁说它更接近艺术的本质。比如《蓝色的天空•灰色的环境》，如果再现一个生活环境，固然可以一目了然，然而，除了是个房间还是个什么呢？但这件作品或许使人想到现代社会的冷漠，或许静得那么令人不安，仿佛要发生什么事情等等，这可以因人而异。这当然不是含糊不清，因为荒诞、冷漠的基调是规定了的。就像我们不能从贝多芬《庄严弥撒》中听出欢快，但在每个人的心中又造成不同的崇高与神圣。陈文骥作品中模糊境界的造成，还由于他在作品对色彩的“中性感”的塑造：①大多数作品都有没有色彩倾向的大片黑灰色。②尽管用了不少纯色，但所有的明暗变化，不用色彩冷暖规律，而全部用黑和白来调整，这就使纯色的色彩感也趋向“中性”了。色彩是富于感情的，中性是模棱两可的，色彩的感情性便被这中性的灰剔除了，于是，画面避免了由于明显的色彩倾向所造成的强迫人的、太个人化的表现性，作者的主观色彩也在一种距离感中变成了多义性。    
　　因为没有宏大的构建，没有强烈的色彩对比，陈文骥的画便不会令人激动，但平凡的细节，均衡的构图，却使他的画富于一种诗意，也正因为这种冷冷的诗意，把它的荒诞深层化了。所以，我更喜欢《粉红色的纸》和《蓝色的天空•灰色的环境》，与其它几张明显专注于视觉语言本身相比，这两张作品所昭示的精神意蕴更明显些，都在平静的背后隐藏了一种不安。《蓝色的天空•灰色的环境》中那冷漠无人性的环境，让人想到死亡，那蓝色的天的深不可测，那怪诞云形的轻柔，仿佛引诱人们坠入蓝色的深渊。《粉红色的纸》是什么？是引人走向另一个世界的请柬吗？网那边就是另一个世界吗？那么空旷，那么凄清，那强硬得令人窒息的血红的网，那通向遥远无尽头的小路，那埋藏了希冀的严峻的地平线……现代人的茫然感，就在这静悄悄的诗意中向人袭来。这就是我说的第三层——引起艺术家语言变革的深层意识。    
　　探求人生的精神层、荒诞感的审美层、诗意的超现实语言层。陈文骥作品的这种结构式，颇相似于“85新潮”中的理性绘画，只是他更强调了视觉语言的精到和细细的休会，正是从这个意义上说，他的画是一种对以往模式的静悄悄的革命。         
                                            　　　　　　　　　　　　1987年《美术》第10期
                                     　　　　　　　　　　人民美术出版社2006《陈文骥》个人画集


 ^_^
　　A quiet new wave different with the New Wave of Fine Arts in 1985 is not only a wave of classic but also a wave of abstract from Shanghai which is almost out of exhibitions, and a wave of new realistic from Beijing. They have a common feature: to value vision language and method exploring. Precisely for this significance, I praise highly those oil paintings by Chen Wenji.
　　Actually, Chen Wenji had changed the style of painting before this series work, practicing various materials and been infatuated with abstract art. The period is a way to find his himself. He is not good at mental analyzing to step into the rational profundities of abstract art. But his exquisite intuition enables him to have a slighter observation to the realistic objects, his natural humor with naughty lets him discover the connection of realism and fantasy; his light and fine way of sentiment advances him a cool poetic sense similar with Magritte, the master of surrealism. Those constitute the integrity of Chen Wenji’s painting style.
　　Chen Wenji’s painting is factualitic, but factuality is certainly the realism by no means. The basic characteristic of realism is to reflect the reality by original life style. Although it does not rigidly adhere to the reality scenes really happened, it respects the logic of real life. Just because of that, regarding such as one kind of illusion state, bewildered incredible feeling and agitation which can not be talked clearly and so on, the language of realism is helpless. The tendency of non-realism of the language about modern art in the twenty century adapts the kind of universal incredible consciousness of people in this century. Chen Wenji’s painting benefits more from the surrealism, but compares that kind of surrealistic partial factuality, Chen Wenji's painting maintains a realistic scene. The creation of incredible feeling of surrealism depends on a skeleton of grand image and realistic objects dismembered (like Dali). But the incredible feeling inside Chen Wenji’s painting is a combination, which belongs to the life style, changing the realistic objects.
　　Yellow Sofa, for example, it is a common scene in daily life, but it rejects the environment sofa belonged to which fills with taste of Beijing life to turn into a deep grey background without any sentiment and touch of humanity. The sofa of the reality is placed in non-reality, this kind of contradiction then has created the incredible feeling. Pink Paper, combination of paper and net; Red Wall, combination of red paper and heating, are all used an unreasonable combination to create the incredible feeling. Moreover, please have a notice on this key point that these paintings are concise unusually. Such as Yellow Sofa, just because it takes some stuff like sofa, but not something in the life as a corner with a sofa in the room, the sofa has been separated from its meaning in the life to be a visual symbol with the metaphor of spiritual space. This is the first meaning of what I said that although it is factualitic, but not the way of language transforming on realism.
　　Second, the incredible feeling created by unreasonable combination is a vague state which is an undoubtedly enrichment for realism art always with an explicit thematic thought. It is like music, or, as speaking of the substantive character of that the music can cover all artistic ambiguities, rather to say that it approaches closer to the essence of art. For Blue Sky, Gray Environment, if to redisplay living condition, it is no doubt to be clear at a glance, but what will that be except a room? This work perhaps makes people to think of the unconcerned modern society, or it is so disturbingly in the silence as if something must be happened, it maybe different from various person. Of course, this is not uncertain, because the incredible and indifferent main theme has stipulated. Just like we are not able to hear out the joy from the Missa Solemnis by Beethoven, but it creates different lofty and holiness in different people’s heart. The creation of vague state in Chen Wenji’s painting is also because he makes mold to the color of neutral sense: 1, large piece of black grey without color favor in most of his paintings; 2, although many pure colors has been used, but all light and shade changing are not ruled in temperature and adjusted completely by black and white, which make the feeling of pure color as neutrality. Color is rich in sentiment and, neutrality is ambiguous, the sentiment of color is rejected by the neutral grey. Therefore, the painting avoids too personalized expression with forcing created by obvious tendency of colors. And the painter’s subjection of color also becomes ambiguity in a distance of sense.
　　There are no great construction, no intense color contrast, that make Chen Wenji’s painting not be exciting. But there riches a poetic sentiment in his painting for the ordinary details and uniform composition, and just because of the cool and calm poetic sentiment, the incredible feeling turns more much deeper. So I like better Pink Paper and Blue Sky, Gray Environment. To compare several other pieces of painting concentrated obviously in visual language, these two works discover an energetic implication more obviously, hiding a restlessness behind the calmness. In Blue Sky, Gray Environment, the indifferent and inhuman environment let us think of the death; the blue color of the sky is immeasurably deep and the weird cloud shape is gentleness, tempts us to crash into the depth of blue. What is Pink Paper? Is it an invitation to guide us to move toward another world? Is it another world on the other side of the net? So spacious, so chilly, the bloody net too strong to stop breathing, the little path forward to the endlessness, the stern horizon burying hopes... the feel at a loss of modern people is raiding in this such quiet poetic sentiment. This is the third meaning of what I said—a depth consciousness causes the language transforming of art.
　　The energetic level of discovering life the esthetic level of incredible feeling the surrealistic language level of poetic sentiment. This kind of structure of Chen Wenji’s painting is quite similar with the rational drawing in the New Wave of Fine Arts in 1985, and he just emphasizes the visual language much better to be precise and meticulous. For this significance, his painting is a quiet revolution to old style.
                           selected from the tenth issue of Fine Arts magazine in 1987