摘要：曹俊先生的绘画令人恍若置身宇宙奇境。在他的笔下，传统中国水墨山水悄然幻化为浩瀚星云，在微观与宏观、东方古韵与西方当代之间，搭建起一场震撼心灵的跨时空对话。
曹俊先生的绘画令人恍若置身宇宙奇境。在他的笔下，传统中国水墨山水悄然幻化为浩瀚星云，在微观与宏观、东方古韵与西方当代之间，搭建起一场震撼心灵的跨时空对话。
The works of Cao Jun are a vertiginous plunge into a universe where traditional Chinese ink metamorphoses into cosmic nebulae, creating a striking dialogue between the infinitely small and the infinitely large, between the ancient Orient and the contemporary West.
《时间》90X207cm
附庸风雅者当谨记：当中国当代艺术以米其林盛宴般的面貌呈现时，这往往提示我们应重新审视艺术价值的测量范式、评价体系和审美趋势的预测机制。然而这位1966年生于江苏姜堰的艺术家——曹俊却不同凡响，他以令人惊叹的胆识突破了我们所有期待。
Listen to me carefully, you bunch of snobs, when Chinese contemporary art is served to us like a tasting menu in a Michelin-starred restaurant, carefully measured, politically acceptable and aesthetically predictable, it is generally a sign that we should be wary. But Cao Jun, this artist born in1966 in Jiangyan, Jiangsu province, is of a completely different caliber. He shatters our expectations with an audacity that makes the hairs on my forearms stand up.
欣赏他的"宇宙"系列，观者很难不被那深蓝与鎏金交织的宇宙漩涡所吞噬。曹俊不会温文尔雅地邀你赏景，而是猝不及防地将你推入画中。这不是礼貌的邀请，而是不可抗拒的召唤。
Look at his canvases from the "Universe" series and try not to feel drawn into a cosmic vortex of deep blues and flaming gold. Cao Jun is not the type to politely invite you to contemplate a landscape. No, he throws you in headfirst, without a lifebuoy. This is not an invitation, it is a summons.
《星际访客》90X207cm
令人称奇的是，他成功地将传统水墨技法与梦幻视界熔于一炉，这种融合甚至能让斯蒂芬·霍金为之动容。那些水墨飞溅仿佛蕴含着宇宙的遗传密码，从星云到黑洞，从螺旋星系到星爆，曹俊笔下的宇宙不是冰冷的现实，而是鲜活的梦幻体验。法国人素来赏识以智慧突破常规的人，曹俊正是这样的人，难怪他的“宇宙”系列在2013年法国卢浮宫国际美术展上斩获金奖。
The exquisite irony in this work lies in the way it manages to marry the ancestral technique of Chinese ink with a quasi-hallucinatory vision of space-time that would have delighted Stephen Hawking. These ink splashes seem to contain the very DNA of the universe. From nebulae to black holes, from spiral galaxies to star explosions, Cao Jun paints the cosmos not as an observed reality but as a lived psychedelic experience.It is no surprise that his “Universe" series won the gold medal at the Salon du Carrousel du Louvre in 2013. The French have always known how to recognize when someone was shaking up conventions with intelligence rather than gratuitous provocation. And that's exactly what Cao Jun does.
耐人寻味的是，这些宇宙景观既昭示着无限大，又暗喻着无限小。曹俊的抽象创作与道家哲学思想不谋而合，体现了老子“大与小相生相存”的哲学理念。在曹俊的“宇宙系列”中，他以视觉语言诠释了“道大，天大，地大，人亦大”的辩证关系。这令人想起波德莱尔《恶之花》中的“交感说”——“芳香、色彩、音响交相呼应”。曹俊在微观与宏观、具象与抽象间建立了类似的交感体验。透过他的水墨，观者既能鸟瞰河流三角洲，又可窥见哈勃望远镜捕捉的宇宙奇观。
But curiously, these cosmic explosions evoke for me as much the infinitely large as the infinitely small..Abstraction in Cao Jun refers to Taoist philosophy and this fundamental idea expressed by Lao Tseu that "the very small and the very large meet" [1]. In his paintings like "Turning Around the Universe" or "Opening and Closing". Cao Jun gives visual form to the Taoist maxim that "the lao is great, the heaven is great, the earth is great, and man is also great", four greatnesses that reflect each other.
This approach reminds me of Baudelaire's concept of "correspondences", when he wrote in Les Fleursdu Mal that “perfumes, colors and sounds correspond" [2]. Cao Jun establishes similar cogrespondences between microcosms and macrocosms, between the tangible and the ethereal. The streams of ink on his canvases can evoke both an aerial view of a river delta and a photograph taken by the Hubble telescope.
《永恒》210X500cm
这位艺术家的生平同其作品一样引人入胜。他1989年毕业于山东科技大学矿业工程专业后，毅然弃矿从艺。这条另类之路赋予其作品以科学理性与艺术感性交融的特质。
The trajectory of this artist is as fascinating as his work. Graduating in Mining Engineering from the Shandong University of Science and Technology in 1989, he gradually left this predestined career to devote himself to art. This unconventional path is undoubtedly what gives his work this quality of scientific observation coupled with unbridled artistic freedom of expression.
But curiously, these cosmic explosions evoke for me as much the infinitely large as the infinitely small..Abstraction in Cao Jun refers to Taoist philosophy and this fundamental idea expressed by Lao Tseu that "the very small and the very large meet" [1]. In his paintings like "Turning Around the Universe" or "Opening and Closing". Cao Jun gives visual form to the Taoist maxim that "the lao is great, the heaven is great, the earth is great, and man is also great", four greatnesses that reflect each other.
细品曹俊荷花系列的用墨技法，他不仅以画笔捕捉植物之美，更似生物学家解剖标本般解析荷花，却又带着诗人的敏感。这不是林奈式的科学分类，而是堪比兰波《元音》的诗意体验。尤其令人惊叹的是，他将摄影般的精准对焦与泼墨的恣意挥洒完美结合，令现实在眼前渐渐消融。
Look at how he manipulates ink in his series of lotus flowers. These compositions are not just pretty botanical representations. Cao Jun dissects the lotus flower like a biologist analyzing a specimen, but with the sensitivity of a poet. It's not Linnaeus cataloging species, it's Rimbaud exploring vowels. I find particularly striking the way he juxtaposes the quasi-photographic precision of details with ink splashes that seem to come from another world, as if objective reality dissolves before our eyes.
《哲人心影》 144X104cm
2002年，曹俊移居新西兰，在奥克兰创立了一家画廊。这一地理迁移与其艺术创作的转折相契合。西方的影响开始渗入其作品，但这绝非对新市场的妥协，而是对全新表达可能性的真诚探索。
In 2002, Cao Jun emigrated to New Zealand and founded a gallery in Auckland. This geographical uprooting coincided with a turning point in his artistic journey. Western influence began to permeate his work, not as a concession to a new market, but as a sincere exploration of new expressive possibilities.
此时，他的作品焕发出令人振奋的活力。他超越了“东方艺术”与“西方艺术”的二元对立，既不囿于中国传统，也不盲从西方规范。他不是在表层融合中稀释两种传统，而是创造出独属于自己的视觉语言。
That's when his work becomes truly exciting for me. He begins to transcend the easy categories of "Oriental art" or "Western art". He is neither in the pure continuation of the Chinese tradition, nor in the servile imitation of Western codes. He is not in a superficial fusion that dilutes the two traditions. No, Cao Jun creates a visual language that belongs only to him.
这种创新令人联想到哲学家弗朗索瓦·朱利安关于中西思想根本差异的论述：西方追求事物的本质，中国更关注持续的变化。这一特质在曹俊的作品中得到完美诠释：他的构图不拘泥于固定形式，而是捕捉瞬息万变的自然之美。
His approach reminds me of what the philosopher Francois Jullien writes about the fundamental differences between Chinese and Western thought. Jullien notes that where Western thought seeks to grasp the essence of things, Chinese thought is more interested in continuous transformations [3]. In Cao Jun's works, this perspective is manifest: his compositions do not fix a stable reality but capture transitory states, mutations, passages.
《亘古一瞬》 90X138cm
曹俊的“新宋式”系列既汲取宋代绘画精髓，又融入当代审美意识，这并非简单的怀旧再现，而是成就跨世纪对话的一种重构。在他笔下，传统山水画转化为时间凝固般的半抽象作品。正如中国艺术评论家尚辉所言，曹俊的作品“既古典又现代”。
Take his "New Song Style" series, where he draws inspiration from Song Dynasty painting （960-1279）while infusing it with contemporary sensibility. This is not a simple nostalgic reproduction, but a vital reinterpretation that makes the centuries dialogue. Traditional mountain landscapes transform into semi-abstract visions where time itself seems suspended. "The old and new times coexist", as Chinese art critic Shang Hui writes about his work[4].
曹俊的用色尤为夺目。尽管中国传统水墨山水注重墨色层次的微妙变化，他却大胆运用清澈灵动的蓝色、浓烈奔放的红色和璀璨夺目的金色。这种色彩运用绝非随意为之，而是服务于其宏大的宇宙视野。他独创的"曹俊蓝"已成为艺术标志，被西方艺术品供应商推广。这抹蓝似海洋之深邃，如苍穹之辽阔。恰如瓦西里·康定斯基探索色彩背后深邃的精神内涵和情感力量，曹俊同样坚信，色彩不仅是装饰，更具有超物质性。“曹俊蓝”不单是一种颜色，更是通往意识新维度的门户。
What I find particularly stimulating is the way Cao Jun uses color. While Chinese tradition often favors subtle variations of black, Cao Jun does not hesitate to employ electric blues, blood reds and flaming golds. This bold chromatism is not gratuitous but serves his cosmic vision. His signature blue, literally called "Cao Jun blue", has become his trademark, to the point of being marketed by a Western artsupply company. It is a blue that evokes both ocean depths and celestial vastness.
This palette is not without recalling the experiments of Vassily Kandinsky. who sought to explore the spiritual and emotionaf properties of colors[5]. Cao Jun shares this conviction that color is not merely decorative but possesses a metaphysical dimension. His blue is not just blue, it is a gateway to other dimensions of consciousness.
《冲气为和》 90X138cm
在近期作品中，曹俊融入金箔等材质，创造出随视角和光线变幻的画面。作品常以互动性引导观者的视线流动，以捕捉每一钟微妙变化。这种电影般的特质为画面增添了时间维度，一种超越二维画面的第四维度。
In his more recent works, Cao Jun integrates materials such as gold leaf, creating surfaces that change according to the viewing angle and light. These works become almost interactive, inviting the viewer to move around to capture all the nuances. This cinematic quality adds a temporal dimension to his work, a fourth dimension that transcends the two-dimensional surface.
但切勿误解，曹俊不只是技艺精湛的画师或风格炫技者。在形式之美背后，蕴藏着他对“人在宇宙中的位置”的深深叩问。他的宇宙观既让我们在浩瀚星空下深感渺小，又提醒我们人类与星辰同源同构。
But do not be mistaken, Cao Jun is not just a virtuoso technician or a juggler of styles. Behind the formal beauty lies a profound questioning of our place in the universe. His cosmic landscapes confront us with our insignificance in the face of the immensity of the cosmos, while reminding us that we are made of the same matter as the stars.
《和声》90X138cm
这种无限与有限、短暂与永恒之间的张力贯穿其作品，恰如哲学家埃米尔·齐奥朗在《落入时间》中所言：“我们在两个深渊之间摇摆、在两种极端之间摇摆。”曹俊的墨彩旋涡为这种令人眩晕的摇摆赋予了具象表达。
This tension between the infinite and the finite, between the ephemeral and the eternal, runs throughall his work. It reminds me of what the philosopher Emil Cioran wrote in "The Fall into Time": “We oscillate between one abyss and another, between two equally hostile infinities" [6]. The swirls of ink and color in Cao Jun seem to visualize this vertiginous oscillation.
《第一步》207X90cm
不过需注意，若过度强调哲学和宇宙学解读，对于首先以视觉冲击力取胜的作品而言，未免过于理性化。曹俊并非纯粹的抽象画家。他的作品先震撼心灵，后启迪思考。它们是感性的、触觉的和近乎本能的存在。
But beware, if l speak to you of philosophy and cosmology, it is not to over-intellectualize a work that functions first on a visual level. Cao Jun is not an illustrator of abstract ideas. His works hit you first in the gut before rising to the brain. They are sensual, tactile, almost carnal in their materiality.
曹俊的最大成就也许正在于此：他在艺术创作中实现了感性与理性、肉体与精神的完美调和。在当代艺术界，当人们必须在不可言说的自然至美与循规蹈矩的概念化创作之间做出选择时，曹俊为我们提供了另外一种可能：以感官激活思维，以理性拥抱感受。
That is perhaps where his greatest feat lies: reconciling the sensible and the intelligible, the body and the spirit, in a single artistic gesture. In a world of contemporary art where one often feels compelled to choose between meaningless beauty and arid conceptuality, Cao Jun reminds us that it is possible to think with the senses and feel with the intellect.
《港湾》207X90cm
早年的工程训练使他深谙材料的化学组成与物理特性，其画作兼具科学家的精确与诗人的自由，这尤其体现在矿物颜料的运用及其与水墨间变幻莫测的互动中。
His initial training in engineering gave him an intimate understanding of materials, their chemical composition and physical properties. He approaches painting with the precision of a scientist and the freedom of a poet. This duality is particularly evident in his way of manipulating mineral pigments, of which he exploits the unpredictable reactions with water and ink.
曹俊宛若站在文化的交界处，其绘画视界既非纯粹中式，亦非完全西化，而是立足于丰饶的中间地带，在这里，显见的矛盾悄然消融，取而代之的是一种崭新的艺术融合。这令人想起霍米·巴巴提出的概念——“第三空间”：一个既非此亦非彼、具有杂糅性的新空间。曹俊作品完美体现了这种文化与美学交融的第三空间，不同传统在此对话，而不是相互稀释。
One could see in this approach a metaphor for his position at the crossroads of cultures. Neither completely Chinese in his practice, nor Westernized in his vision, Cao Jun occupies this fecund space of the in-between, where apparent contradictions dissolve to give way to a new synthesis.
This positioning reminds me of the notion of "third space" theorized by Homi Bhabha, that liminalspace which is neither one nor the other, but something new and hybrid [7], Cao Jun's works perfectly embody this "third space" cultural and aesthetic, where traditions dialogue without diluting.
曹俊从中国到新西兰再到美国的跨境之旅映射出他的艺术轨迹：无论是在身体上，还是智力和精神上，曹俊都称得上是一位艺术游牧者，他跨越边界，就像墨色渗透纸背，流畅而坚定。
His geographical journey, from China to New Zealand and then to the United States, reflects thisartistic trajectory. He is a nomadic artist, not only physically but also intellectually and spiritually. He crosses borders like his inks cross paper, with fluidity and determination.
2018年，波士顿麦克马伦艺术博物馆为其举办大型个展“曹俊：大自然的赞美诗”，标题意味深长。尽管技法与理念极其复杂，曹俊艺术的本质仍是对大自然的礼赞——不是明信片式的风景，而是广袤无垠、神秘莫测、震撼心灵的大自然。这次展览由哲学家约翰·萨利斯与艺术史家南希·内泽共同策划，突显了画作的哲学维度。萨利斯写道：“曹俊作品是对人类与宇宙关系的视觉哲思。”这种哲思不是抽象的思考，而是让绘画回归本质。
In 2018, the McMullen Museum of Art in Boston dedicated a major exhibition to his work, titled "Cao Jun: Hymns to Nature". This title is revealing. Despite all its technical and conceptual sophistication. Cao Jun's art remains fundamentally a hymn to nature, not the domesticated and picturesque nature of postcards, but nature in its cosmic, mysterious and sometimes terrifying dimension.
This exhibition, curated by philosopher John Sallis and art historian Nancy Netzer, highlighted the philosophical dimension of his work, As Sallis writes, "Cao Jun's works are a visual meditation on the relationship between the human and the cosmos" [8]. This meditation is not abstract but incarnate in the very matter of the painting.
《栱门》90X207cm
在充斥着愤世嫉俗和自我指涉的当代艺术界，曹俊作品无疑为画界带来了一股清新的气息，更准确地说，是一种投身海洋与星空深处的奇妙体验。它提醒我们，艺术依然能让我们震撼、沉醉，带领我们进入比我们自身更宏大的境界。
In a world of contemporary art often cynical and self-referential, Cao Jun's work offers a breath of freshair. or rather, a plunge into the oceanic and celestial depths. It reminds us that art can still amaze us, disorient us and reconnect us to something greater than ourselves.
因此，当你下次欣赏曹俊的作品时，不要仅仅将其视为一种装饰，而要让自己沉浸在那奔涌的水墨波浪中，陶醉于他的宇宙之蓝中。或许，只是或许，你将体验到伟大艺术带来的那种不可言说的震撼。
So the next time you come across a work by Cao Jun, do not just admire it politely as a beautiful decorative object. Let yourself be overwhelmed by his waves of ink, lose yourself in his cosmic blues, and perhaps, just perhaps, you will feel that metaphysical thrill that only great art can provoke.
（文/柯弗.兰斯林(Hervé Lancelin)，著名收藏家、策展人，法国当代艺术收藏家协会ADIAF的成员，翻译/彭建武，复旦大学博士，河南大学博士后，山东科技大学外国语学院原院长，教授，研究生导师）
注释：
1. Lao Tseu, "Tao Te King"，translation by Liou Kia-hway, Gallimard, 1967.
2. Charles Baudelaire, "Les Fleursdu Mal", poem “Correspondances”, 1857.
3. Frangois Jullien, “Proces oucreation. Une introduction a lapensee des lettres chinois" Seuil, 1989.
4. Shang Hui, “Cao Jun: In Search of Deep Philosophical Meaning in the Creation of Ink Painting", Journal of Chinese Culture，2024.
5. Vassily Kandinsky, "Concerningthe Spiritual in Art”, Denoel，1954.
6. Emil Cioran, “La Chute dans letemps", Gallimard, 1964.
7. Homi K. Bhabha, "The Location of Culture", Payot, 2007.
8. John Sallis, "Cao Jun: Hymns to Nature", exhibition catalog, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, 2018.
艺术家简介
曹俊，中央美术学院（国际学院）特聘教授、中国传媒大学国画专业博士生导师，旅美艺术家。先后获得巴黎卢浮宫国际艺术沙龙展金奖，纽约、洛杉矶杰出艺术家称号。作品参加第十三届全国美展进京展等中国重要展览。先后在中国美术馆、美国波士顿学院美术馆、北京荣宝斋等地举办个人画展十余次。代表作入编中、美大学教材，及《荣宝斋画谱》。作品《春消息》悬挂于人民大会堂；《荷语凝香》等作品陈列于新西兰国会及多国使馆。
来源：文化视界
