2010年始刘曼文接连不断地以她的《红颜》系列(周璇、阮玲玉、胡蝶、黄柳霜等)和《红颜档案》系列以及2011年的《秋水伊人》、《荷塘月色》大型三联画等，呈现在人们面前。她对于旧上海名伶影像的再叙，不仅开启了她艺术创作的一个新的时期，而且这种再叙也从历史的回看之中审视了百年女性的生存命运。其实，当下性一直是刘曼文艺术创作的主题词。这种当下性，一方面指她一直用绘画表达她作为一位女性艺术家的生活与当下现实社会构成的某种内在联系，另一方面则是指她在绘画语言上对于当代图像语言的积极借鉴与运用。

　　刘曼文并不像其它女性艺术家那样刻意用“性”去表明自己的女性主义立场，而是从爱情、家庭、生活、工作等社会学的角度表现这个时代女性生存的真实状态。生存真实、情感真实和精神真实，既是她艺术表达的动力，也是她作品始终追求的一种艺术品质。因而，她很少像其它女性画家那样，或偏爱作为“性”象征的花的艳丽描绘，或沉醉于唯美生活的叙述，或以他者眼光表现和自己生存体验无关的社会主题。她作品描写的生活，早年大多是自己生活的直接呈现，后来则转向自己对于某些女性历史人物的所思所感。但凡出现在她画面上的人物，总是和她构成了一种内在关联。而这种关系构成，既是她成长经历的遭遇，也是她切入当下社会对于某种生活现象与问题的困惑和反思的呈现。

　　当刘曼文用《平淡人生》系列组画反复描写自我以及她的家庭、丈夫与孩子的时候，她向我们倾诉的是她在现实中的生存境况。临睡之前用手指按摩敷涂面膜的时刻，或许是女性一天之中最自我也最放松的时候。刘曼文以敷涂面膜的自我形象，作为《平淡人生》系列组画的主体形象，她的这种以不同时空与不同姿态出现的自我，不断增强了她作品阐释的主题。她让观众看到，敷涂的面膜遮蔽了她的脸部表情，却凸显了她那忧郁而憔悴的眼神。那眼神里埋藏着她对于自己家庭与自我人生的审视——追求中饱含着艰辛，平淡里掩饰着无奈，牺牲间挟裹着挣扎。这些画面反复出现了她头重脚轻、紧抱双臂的形象，那是一种没有安全感的时时处于高度戒备的悬浮状态与心理暗示。在这里，面膜已从护肤养颜的化妆品转化为一种精神面具。那既是一个可以在现实中掩饰自我与伪装自我的道具，也是一个可以在无奈的现实面前保留自我与宣泄自我的遮蔽空间。掩饰真实的本身，已经揭示了包裹不了的某种真实的披露。

　　如果说《平淡人生》揭示的是她个体的女性生存体验，这种艰辛、无奈和挣扎，无不体现了当下众多家庭生活中的女性生存状态，那么，《红颜》、《写意红颜》、《秋水伊人》和《荷塘月色》等作品则是她从个体放大到人类并从现代历史的演进中寻求女性生存的集体无意识性。《红颜》、《红颜档案》、《秋水伊人》和《荷塘月色》都以上世纪三四十年代著名影星为形象，并运用一种影像留存的艺术语言以激活人们对于红颜薄命这一男权社会女性生存原型的认知。的确，这些上世纪三四十年代影星名伶的形象已经成为那个时代繁华海上的象征，她们璀璨的笑容也永远成为那个时代的一种文化记忆，但她们的生命轨迹，仍然摆脱不了中国女性在那个文化变革时代所必然面临的伦理判断的羁绊，她们的红颜薄命在某种意义上都可以说是那个时代男权社会价值观念的牺牲品。显然，刘曼文并不是只画她们娇娆可人的面容，而是画她们面容背后掩藏着的悲凉命运以及这种命运对于她心灵的撞击，画家在她们身上既看到了她自己的遭际，也读懂了中国女性一直延续到今天的在男权社会中的共同宿命。触动她内心深处的是她们那些灿烂笑容背后的辛酸与悲怆。因而，这些形象也便成为她《平淡人生》的另一种生存体验的叙述。如果说《平淡人生》是她自我形象的独白，那么《红颜》与《红颜档案》系列则是她的另一种精神自画像。

　　于是，她蘸着幽微而优雅的笔触回放着旧日的欢声笑语、月色荷塘。在《秋水伊人》中，画家不仅绘声绘色于那些香艳迷人、韶华四射的名伶雅集，而且以张大千泼墨山水的图式渲染秋水伊人的佳境。在《荷塘月色》中，画家则借用像莫奈《睡莲》的摄影图片反衬佳丽的月夜弄箫，更显得人生月华的珍贵。画家在作品中抒发的固然是人生的美好，但也从女性自我审视的角度揭示了这种美好只能存在于女性群体的自我欢赏中。如果说《红颜》系列或《红颜档案》系列是对女性精神肖像的刻画，那么《秋水伊人》和《荷塘月色》等大型三联画则是对这些女性精神生活的一种白描。这些作品无疑放大了她们私密生活的闲散、优雅与精致。富有意味的是，《红颜》和《写意红颜》系列都借用了这些名伶最经典的影像形象，画家丝毫不讳对于图像的借用。这种借用在《秋水伊人》和《荷塘月色》中获得了更加充分的发挥，甚至于将借用的形象扩大到张大千、莫奈的名作图像，“秋水伊人”“荷塘月色”也都是名家诗句。可见，作者对于历史的叙述与阐释是通过挪用影像、名作和诗句来完成的，她通过这些历史中的经典图像的运用，使她对于有关女性生存境遇主题的揭示充满了当下的意味。

　　从《红颜》到《红颜档案》系列，从《秋水伊人》到《荷塘月色》大型三联画，这些作品在挪用经典图像的同时，也都被作者涂上幽蓝的色调。这使她开启的这一时期的作品充满了对都市人文情感的表现与想象。应该说，随着画家迁居上海，她生活中曾经的波折已成为过往，她的创作也由此转向都市与女性生存关系的探索。在这座时尚繁华的都市，女性获得了现代文明更多的关爱，甚至于时尚与繁华就是女性现代生活品质的代名词，这成为刘曼文女性问题意识一个绕不过去的心理情结。她的《蓝调》组画、《我们从哪里来?我们到哪里去?》组画，都展示了她对上海这座城市外在表象与心理表情的深刻感应。她喜爱夜色迷离的上海，那繁华的街道在夜幕下泛出的蓝蓝的幽光;她喜欢街道两侧一个挨着一个的巨大落地橱窗，国际一线品牌的新奇创意和街道上承载时尚文化信息的女性交相辉映。橱窗里模特的造型定格和街道行人无表情的冷艳面孔，已分辨不出真实与虚拟、实景与幻象之间的区别。这或许就是刘曼文酷爱描绘橱窗玻璃反射、透叠和折射所形成的亦真亦幻的城市印象的缘由。其实，她的《红颜》、《红颜档案》系列和《秋水伊人》、《荷塘月色》三联画等对于幽暗蓝调的运用和亦真亦幻图像的追求，都表现的是她对于这座城市独特的视觉记忆与文化想象。

　　幽暗的蓝调与虚幻的图像，或许已成为刘曼文移用并改造公共图像的一种个人化的视觉符号。这种个人化的戳记，也有效地在图像语言与绘画语言之间互为转化。譬如《红颜》系列在借用既有肖像剧照的同时，一方面，用200cm×162cm的大尺幅呈现高倍放大的面容，以此形成强烈的视觉冲击;另一方面，画面保留了影像彼时彼地的光影记录，画家在将影像转化为绘画的过程中，并没有刻意改造光学影效而仍然自觉地用光影的真实替代结构的真实。甚至，这种光学影效还加上了她那富有动荡与悬浮感的幽蓝色调与虚幻图像。在图像语言的自觉运用上，画家还积极吸取了数码图像的色层剥离与简化方式，从最明到最暗只呈现几个色阶的递进变化。就画面整体而言，画家并没有呈现写实绘画直接画法的条件光色关系，而追求统一色调的薄透感，犹如透明胶片传递出的光色效应。在图像语言的绘画性转向上，画家既没有刻意于写实形象塑造感的表现，更没有追求超级写实主义绘画的细节毕现，而是大处实写、微观意写。她既用写意性的笔触填涂色面以增强色块的笔触跳动感，也将许多色层转化为线条并以流畅洒脱的律动增加画面随机生发的鲜活性。尤其是《红颜档案》系列，几乎是纯水墨式的色调处理与薄透色彩的油液滴流，更发挥了笔触写意与精神写意的双重功效。在刘曼文从图像语言向绘画语言的转化过程中，我们看到她对于油画本土化中书写性与意象性的双重结合，在某种意义上，这种书写性与意象性已成为民族文化审美心理的一种集体无意识。而画家对于图像语言的有机融合并非始于《红颜》系列，即使绘画语言很强的《平淡人生》系列，也呈现出诸多图像语言的探索。譬如，画面偏爱于大头小身的自我形象刻画，便是极其典型的镜头透视语言。这种镜头语言无疑赋予她的画面以“看”与“被看”的无穷意味。

　　绘画是感受的记录，影像是瞬间的留存，但刘曼文却把这两者有机地融合一体。其实，《平淡人生》是她生存状态的独白，而《红颜》与《红颜档案》何尝不是她精神的另一种肖像?有意识的笑容和无意识的独白，只是人在世间与梦境的两种存在方式。就此而言，世间的欢笑与梦境独白也便成为她生存的两种精神面具。

　　2011年9月23日、25日于CA1322广州至北京/CA1209北京至西安航班

　　Shang Hui

　　Since 2010, Liu Manwen has continuously presented her Pretty Women Series (Zhou Xuan, Ruan Lingyu, Hu Die, Huang Liushuang, and etc.), Pretty Women’s Archives Series, and the large-scale triptychs of the Beloved One beyond Autumn Water, Moonlight over the Lotus Pond, and etc, in front of the public. Her reiteration of those film stars in old Shanghai not only opened a new phase in her art creation, and also reviewed the existence of women in the last century in terms of history. As a matter of fact, contemporaneity is always the key word of Liu’s art creation. This contemporaneity, on the one hand, means she always applies painting to express the certain inner relation between her life as a woman artist and the present reality; on the other hand, indicates her active reference and application of contemporary image language in terms of painting language.

　　Unlike other women artists, Liu expresses the real status of women’s existence in the current times from the sociological perspective of love, family, life, work, and etc, instead of intentionally using “sex” to manifest her standpoint of feminism. The reality of existence, emotion and spirit is not only the motive of her art expression, but also an art quality she has always been pursuing in her works. Thus, seldom like other women artists, she doesn’t prefer the bright-colored depiction of flowers symbolizing “sex”, isn’t obsessed with the depiction of aesthetic life, and doesn’t represent the social themes unrelated with her experiences of existence from others’ perspective. The life represented in her works were mostly the direct depiction of her own life in the early stage, then turned to the comprehension and sentiment about certain historical women figures later. However, all the figures appearing in her works have a certain inner relation with her all the time. And this relation consists of her experiences during her growth and her confusion and introspection about some phenomena in life when cutting into the present society.

　　When repeatedly depicting herself, her family, husband and kid in the series of Insipid Life, she confided her situation of existence in the reality to us. The moment of spreading facial treatment on her face with fingers is perhaps the most intimate and relaxing moment in a women’s day. Liu’s image with facial treatment became the major image in the series of Insipid Life. Her self appearing in different postures in different time and space incessantly intensifies the theme elaborated in her works. She allowed the audience to see, the facial treatment covered her facial expression, but emphasized her melancholy and feeble expression in her eyes. The expression in her eyes hid her inspection about her family and life – pursuit contained difficulties, insipidity concealed helplessness, and sacrifice was mixed with struggles. Her top-heavy image of holding her arms tightly appears in the works again and again, which is a status of suspension and psychological implication of being always highly alert without a sense of security. Here, facial treatment has turned from a skin-care cosmetic into a spiritual mask, which is not only a prop covering and disguising the self in reality, but also a space of concealment reserving and releasing the self in front of the choiceless reality. The fact of concealing the reality has already exposed the revealment of a certain reality that couldn’t be hidden.

　　If we say Insipid Life reveals her individual existence as a woman, all the hardship, helplessness and struggle manifest the women’s status of existence in various family lives, then she sought for the collective unconsciousness of women’s existence from individuals to humankind during the evolution of modern history in the works of Pretty Women, Impressionistic Pretty Women, the Beloved One beyond Autumn Water, Moonlight over the Lotus Pond, and etc. The series of Pretty Women, Pretty Women’s Archives, the Beloved One beyond Autumn Water and Moonlight over the Lotus Pond evolve around the images of famous film stars in the 1930s and the 1940s in an art language of reserved images to activate people’s cognition about the prototype of unfortunate pretty women’s existence in the male-centered society. Actually, the images of these famous film stars have become the symbol of the prosperous Shanghai at that time, and their brilliant smiles have also permanently turned into a certain cultural memory. However, the tracks of their lives still couldn’t get rid the inevitable obstacles of ethical judgment during that period of cultural transition, and their fates could be regarded as the sacrifice of values in the male-centered society at that time in a certain significance. Obviously, Liu didn’t merely portray their beautiful and attractive faces, but manifested their desolate fates hidden behind and the impact to her soul. The painter not only sees her own vicissitudes in their stories, but also comprehends the common destiny of Chinese women always continuing till today’s male-centered society. What touches the depth of her heart is the sadness and sorrow behind their brilliant smiles. Thus, these images become narration of another sort of existence experiences. If we say Insipid Life is the soliloquy of her own image, Pretty Women and Pretty Women’s Archives are another sort of spiritual self-portrait of her.

　　Therefore, she applied the profound and elegant brushstrokes to replay the cheerful chatting and laughing and the moonlight in the lotus pond in the old days. In the Beloved One beyond Autumn Water, the painter not only vividly depicted those fascinating and charming famous actresses, but also exaggerated the pleasant atmosphere in the way of Zhang Daqian’s ink-splash method. In Moonlight over the Lotus Pond, the painter borrowed the photo like Monet’s Water Lily to set off the beautiful women playing flute in a moonlit night, further reflecting the preciousness of lunar corona in life. The painter not only expressed her feelings about the beauty in life, but also revealed this beauty only existed in the self-appreciation in the women’s group from the perspective of women’s self-introspection. If the series of Pretty Women or Pretty Women’s Archives are women’s spiritual portraits, the large-scale triptychs of the Beloved One beyond Autumn Water, Moonlight over the Lotus Pond and etc are a sort of line drawing of these women’s spiritual life. These works undoubtedly amplify the casualness, elegance and exquisiteness of their secret life. What’s significant is, the series of Pretty Women or Pretty Women’s Archives borrowed the most classic images of these famous actresses, and the painter never denied her borrowing these images, which was exerted to a more sufficient extent in the Beloved One beyond Autumn Water and Moonlight over the Lotus Pond. She even extended the borrowed images to the images in those famous works created by Zhang Daqian and Monet, and the titles of the Beloved One beyond Autumn Water and Moonlight over the Lotus Pond also originated from the lines of famous poems. Thus, the artist’s narration and elaboration about history were realized through borrowing from famous images, paintings and poems. Through the application of classic images in history, her revelation on the theme of the circumstances of women’s existence is full of contemporary significance.

　　From the series of Pretty Women and Pretty Women’s Archives, to the large-scale triptychs of the Beloved One beyond Autumn Water and Moonlight over the Lotus Pond, these borrowed images were also painted in the deep blue hue, which made her works starting this phase full of expressions and imaginations for urban humanistic feelings. With the painter moving to settle down in Shanghai, the previous vicissitudes in her life have become the past, and her creation began to turn to the explorations about the relations of urban women’s existence. In this stylish and prosperous city, women obtain more care of modern civilization, and even the words of vogue and prosperity have become the pronoun of the quality of women’s modern life, which becomes an unavoidable psychological complex in Liu’s feministic concept. Her series of Blues and “Where Did We Come from? Where Will We Go?” show her profound perception about the exterior phenomena and psychological expressions of Shanghai. She loves Shanghai in the indescribable night, as those prosperous streets emit quiet blue light at night; she loves the huge shop windows one after another on both sides of the streets, and the innovative ideas of international first-class brands and the women carrying the stylish and cultural information on the streets enhance each other’s beauty. We couldn’t tell the difference between the lifeless models in shop windows and the expressionless faces of these pedestrians on the streets, real or invented, actual or illusionary. This is perhaps the reason why Liu really loves depicting the partially real and partially illusionary urban impressions of the reflection and perception in the glass of shop windows. As a matter of fact, her application of deep blue hue and the pursuit of real and also imaginary images, in the series of Pretty Women and Pretty Women’s Archives and the triptychs of the Beloved One beyond Autumn Water and Moonlight over the Lotus Pond, reflect her visual memories and cultural imaginations about this city.

　　The deep blue hue and illusionary image perhaps have become an individualized visual symbol of Liu’s borrowing and innovating public images. This individualized mark also efficiently transforms back and forth between image language and painting language. For instance, the series of Pretty Women borrow the existing portrait stills, on the one hand present the highly enlarged facial features in the large size of 200cm×162cm to form a strong visual impact, on the other hand maintain the record of light and shadow at that time. During the course of transforming video image into painting, the painter didn’t intentionally change the optical effect, but voluntarily applied the reality of light and shadow to replace the reality of structure. She even added her deep blue hue and illusionary images full of feelings of turbulence and suspension to this optical effect. In the voluntary application of image language, the painter also actively absorbed the digital picture’s methods of peeling off color layers and simplification, only presenting the step-by-step development of several color levels from the brightest to the darkest. In terms of the whole composition, the painter didn’t represent the relations between color and light in the direct painting method of realistic painting, but pursued the feeling of being thin and translucent of unified hues, as if the effect of light and color delivered by transparent film. When changing the direction of the painting element of the image language, the painter neither purposefully manifested the molding of realistic images, nor pursued the vivid details of super-realistic painting, but applied the method of being realistic in the general composition and impressionistic in the specific details. She used impressionistic brushstrokes to fill the color fields to enhance the dynamic feeling, and also transformed many color layers into lines and applied fluent rhythm to increase the vitality of randomness. Especially in the series of Pretty Women’s Archives, the color treatment of almost pure ink style and the flowing oil of thin and translucent colors further exerted the double effects of brushwork impressionism and spiritual impressionism. During Liu’s process of changing from image language to painting language, we could discern her double integration of writing and imagery in the localization of oil painting. In a certain sense, the elements of writing and imagery have become a collective unconsciousness of national cultural aesthetic psychology. However, the painter’s organic integration of image language didn’t start from the series of Pretty Women, and even the series of Insipid Life in a strong painting language also represented explorations of various image languages. For instance, the preferred depiction of self-image of big head and small body was very typical perspective language, which undoubtedly endowed her picture with endless significance of “watching” and “being watched”.

　　Painting is the record of perception, and video image is the reservation of moments. However, Liu Manwen organically integrates them together. As a matter of fact, Insipid Life is the soliloquy of her existence status, and Pretty Women and Pretty Women’s Archives are another sort of spiritual portrait. Intentional smile and unconscious soliloquy are only two ways of existence in the world and in the dreamland. Hence, the laughter in the world and the soliloquy in the dreamland also become two spiritual masks of her existence.

　　Written on the flight of CA1322 (from Guangzhou to Beijing) and the flight of CA1209 (from Beijing to Xi’an) on September 23 and 25, 2011.