池静石眠-木心先生诞辰九十五周年纪念展

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“月明乌镇桥边夜，梦里犹呼起看山。”乌镇古称乌墩，早在新石器时代就开始有人类聚集。春秋时期，乌镇位于吴越边境，吴国在此屯兵，因此又称之为乌戍。从秦初乌青分治，到上世纪五十年代两镇合并，这座枕水人家的江南古镇见证了璀璨而悠长的文脉足迹。

乌镇的历史上，名人尤多。南朝时，主持编纂中国第一部诗文选集《文选》的萧统，随回乡守墓的老师沈约在此读书。近代新文化运动先驱者、著名作家茅盾亦是乌镇人，且藏书丰富，版本讲究。少年时，木心就常常在放学后路过茅盾的“图书馆”借阅书本。这里不仅有书屋主人亲自圈点注释的传统古籍，还有各类外国名著，这里是他静谧而美好的文学乐园。

除读书外，木心也喜爱艺术。1946年，木心进入上海美专，主修西画，开始科班的系统学习。青年木心背着三角架、画板，提着画箱，畅游在自由繁华的大都市。这里和他出生的水乡乌镇不太一样，画风当然也不尽相同。可惜的是，我们已然看不到他的早期画作。展览中的彩墨风景画、抽象石版画都是他后期艺术风格的探索与体现。1979年的一天，木心将包括《池静石眠》在内的一系列新作在上海示于友人，其后，与画家陈巨源对此有书信往来。这封珍贵的手书回函也在展览中一并呈现。

对于文字，木心最广为传诵的作品大概就是《从前慢》了。这是上世纪八十年代，旅居纽约后的木心回忆起自己少年时的所见所闻——“从前的日色变得慢。车，马，邮件都慢”——后来收录于诗集《云雀叫了一整天》。木心拥有深厚的文学积累，总以极为细腻隽永的文笔，抒发对人、事、物的思忆与感触。展览中，木心写于1986年的《哥伦比亚的倒影》手稿，在20年后结集出版，同名散文集是木心在大陆出版的第一本书。同年，漂泊半生、已是耄耋之年的木心回到乌镇，这片他曾悄然造访又拂袖而去的桑梓，也终究是心之念之、乡音未改的故土。至此，叶落归根。

2022年，恰逢木心先生诞辰95周年之际，苏州博物馆与木心美术馆合作推出“池静石眠——木心诞辰九十五周年纪念展”，集中展示一系列难得一见的绘画、书法及手稿等，一同来回顾木心先生的文艺人生。

苏州博物馆

 Foreword

"In Wuzhen Town at night, the bright moon hangs over the bridge, and in my sleep, it seems to be calling me to get up and enjoy the scenery." Wuzhen Town, known as Wudun in ancient times, was inhabited by humans as early as the Neolithic Age.During the Spring and Autumn Period, Wuzhen Town was located on the border of Wu State and Yue State, and Wu State stationed troops here, so it was also called Wushu. From the division of Wuzhen and Qingzhen in the early Qin Dynasty to the merger of the two towns in the 1950s, this ancient town in the south of the Yangtze River has witnessed a splendid and long cultural footprint.

In the history of Wuzhen Town, there are many famous people. During the Southern Dynasties, Xiao Tong, who presided over the compilation of China's first anthology of poetry and prose, The Anthology, accompanied his teacher Shen Yue, who returned to his hometown to guard the tomb, to study here. Mao Dun, a pioneer of the modern New Culture Movement and a famous writer, was also a native of Wuzhen, and he had a rich collection of books with refined editions. As a teenager, Mu Xin often passed by Mao Dun's "library" after school to borrow books. There were not only traditional ancient books annotated by the owner of the library, but also various foreign masterpieces. This used to be his quiet and beautiful literary paradise.

Besides reading, Mu Xin also loved art. In 1946, Mu Xin entered the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, majoring in Western painting, and began to study systematically. With a tripod, a drawing board and a drawing box on his back, the young Mu Xin roamed freely in the free and prosperous metropolis. This is not the same as Wuzhen, the waterfront town where he was born, and of course the painting style is also different. It is a pity that we are not able to see his early paintings. The color ink landscape paintings and abstract lithographs in the exhibition are the exploration and reflection of his later artistic style. One day in 1979, Mu Xin showed a series of new works including Slumbering Stones and Quiet Pond to friends in Shanghai. After that, he had a correspondence with the painter Chen Juyuan. This precious handwritten letter is also presented in the exhibition.

As for writing, Mu Xin's most widely read work is probably Slow Old Time. Mu Xin, who lived in New York in the 1980s, recalled what he saw and heard when he was a teenager - -"The time in the past has become slow. Vehicles, horses, and mails are slow".Later, this work was included in the poetry collection Lark Chirping All Day.Mu Xin had a profound literary accumulation, and always expressed his thoughts and feelings about people, things and objects with extremely delicate and meaningful words. In the exhibition, the manuscript of Columbia's Reflection written by Mu Xin in 1986 was compiled and published 20 years later. The collection of essays of the same name is Mu Xin's first book published in mainland China. In the same year, Mu Xin, who had drifted for half his life and was already in his old age, returned to his hometown Wuzhen, where he had quietly visited and left. Wuzhen was ultimately the homeland where he missed all the time and his local accent had never changed. At this point, the leaves fall back to their roots.

In 2022, on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of Mu Xin's birth, Suzhou Museum and Muxin Art Museum jointly launched "Slumbering Stones and Quiet Pond- Exhibition for the 95th Anniversary of Mu Xin's Birth", focusing on a series of rare paintings, calligraphy and manuscripts, to review the literary life of Mu Xin.

Suzhou Museum

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木心（1927-2011）是一位传奇性画家、诗人、文学家。在他前辈与同代的艺术家中，我们不曾遇到相似的个例。

五十六岁移居纽约前，他从未在大陆发表过一篇文字。七十九岁归国，他的十余册著述方始出版。而当他八十四岁离世，他的画作从未在本土办过展览。

今天，他的画作第一次离开乌镇，与公众见面。

1946年，木心就读上海美专。五十年代结识林风眠先生，此后的纸本与彩墨画风，受其影响。他的早期画作均已散佚，唯余七十年代末创作的三十三幅彩墨转印小画，随他辗转赴美，为耶鲁大学美术馆收藏，并于2001-2003年分别在耶鲁大学美术馆、芝加哥斯玛特美术馆、夏威夷美术馆、纽约亚洲协会美术馆巡展。

此外，本次展览收集的画作分为三个时期，三种作风。其一，旅美前后的彩墨纸本风景。其二，留洋初期的石印抽象画系列，其三，上世纪九十年代到新世纪初制作的微型转印风景画。他的书法条幅、手写书信，他囚禁期间与旅美初期的手稿散页，同场展出。

自纽约时期石版画系列，木心以偶发性抽象构局，走出林风眠影响。七十年代自创的转印画意境，渊静、旷远、幽邃、空灵，连接北宋山水的伟大记忆，而以小幅纸本出之。因文学创作而中辍绘画二十载，暮年返回微型转印画，更其放诞恣肆、变幻多端，所作近二百帧。

如同他兼蓄中西的文学抱负与实践，木心的绘事，亦将华夏传统精粹置于世界性与现代性美学观照，如他自撰匾额所言：“卧东怀西”。

 旅居纽约期间，木心与贝聿铭先生交往甚笃，每次画展，贝先生均到场申贺。如今，二位旅美江南老人先后故去，木心画作得以在贝先生设计的苏州博物馆展示，允为美谈。

感谢苏州博物馆，感谢到场的观众。    

                                                                                                          乌镇木心美术馆

Foreword

Mu Xin (1927-2011) was a legendary painter, poet and writer. Among his predecessors and contemporaries, we could not find another artist similar to him.

Before moving to New York at the age of fifty-six, he had never published an article on the Mainland China. It was until he returned to China at the age of seventy-nine that a dozen volumes of his writings were published. When he died at the age of eighty-four, his paintings had never been exhibited in China.

Today, for the first time, his paintings leave Wuzhen Town for public exhibition.

In 1946, Mu Xin studied at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts. In the 1950s, he met Mr. Lin Fengmian, and his style of painting on paper and color ink was influenced by him. All of his early paintings have been lost, except for thirty-three small color ink frottages created in the late 1970s, which traveled with him to the United States and were collected by the Yale University Art Gallery. From 2001 to 2003, these frottages went on tour exhibition to the Yale University Art Gallery, Smart Museum of Art in the University of Chicago, Honolulu Academy of Arts and the Asia Society Museum in New York.

In addition, the paintings collected in this exhibition can be divided into three periods and three styles. First, landscape paintings of color ink on paper before and after Mu Xin’s traveling to the United States. The second is the series of abstract lithographs in his early days of studying abroad, and the third is the miniature landscape frottages created from the 1990s to the beginning of the new century. His calligraphy scrolls, handwritten letters, and loose pages of manuscripts created during his imprisonment and in the early days of his travels in the United States are also exhibited.

Starting from the lithograph series created in New York, Mu Xin had gradually gotten rid of Lin Fengmian’s influence through episodic abstract compositions. His frottages in the 1970s, which  were small in size, were quiet, detached, serene, and aloof in style, evoking the memory of the great landscape paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty. He suspended painting for some 20 years to pursue literary creation, and picked up miniature frottages in his late years. He wantonly created nearly 200 works that were unrestrained and ever-changing in style.

Just as he aspired to absorb both Chinese and western styles in his literary creation, Mu Xin also contemplated Chinese traditional essence from the perspective of cosmopolitan and modern aesthetics in painting, as is evidenced by the inscription on his self-made plaque that reads “embracing the west based on the east”.

During his sojourn in New York, Mu Xin had been on good term with Mr. I. M. Pei. Mr. Pei would show up at all his art exhibitions to extend his congratulations and supports. Though the two old gentlemen, who were both born in South China and met in the United States, had successively passed away, it’s awesome that Mu Xin’s paintings should be exhibited in Suzhou Museum designed by Mr. Pei.                        

Many thanks go to Suzhou Museum and the audience.

                                                                                 Muxin Art Museum