上周揭幕的香港國(guó)際藝術(shù)展充分展現(xiàn)了中國(guó)當(dāng)代藝術(shù)的活力。遙想二、三十年前，業(yè)余收藏家還在北京和上海的各個(gè)破陋的藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作室搜羅，以幾百美元一件作品的低價(jià)收購(gòu)那些窮困潦倒的藝術(shù)家的作品。如今，全世界的頂尖收藏家云集香港，把香港打造成全球藝術(shù)市場(chǎng)的交易高地。香港能有如今的全球藝術(shù)中心地位，很大程度上歸功于當(dāng)代中國(guó)藝術(shù)的成就和中國(guó)市場(chǎng)的購(gòu)買力。單從經(jīng)濟(jì)的角度看，中國(guó)當(dāng)代藝術(shù)作品的價(jià)格節(jié)節(jié)高升。許多持自由主義政治立場(chǎng)的評(píng)論者都不愿意直面這一現(xiàn)實(shí)，因?yàn)榘凑账麄兊睦碚摻忉尣煌?。他們一貫的思路是：?chuàng)作自由是孕育偉大作品的前提條件；中國(guó)的威權(quán)主義政治極大地限制了創(chuàng)作自由；缺乏自由的中國(guó)不可能創(chuàng)造真正偉大的文化成就（也即所謂的“軟實(shí)力”）。

市場(chǎng)的看法完全與之相左。隨著巴塞爾和邁阿密的熱度逐漸下降，世界各國(guó)的畫廊、藝術(shù)品交易商、收藏家和藝術(shù)家們匯集中國(guó)，這20多年來(lái)當(dāng)代中國(guó)藝術(shù)的飛躍看來(lái)會(huì)不斷延續(xù)。

自由主義對(duì)藝術(shù)的解釋并沒(méi)有事實(shí)依據(jù)，而是受了意識(shí)形態(tài)的歪曲?；仡櫬L(zhǎng)的人類藝術(shù)史，所謂的藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作自由可以說(shuō)是個(gè)很晚才出現(xiàn)的異?，F(xiàn)象。米開(kāi)朗基羅為教皇畫畫。中國(guó)的文人畫家都是朝廷供職的官員。莫扎特在盛氣凌人的神圣羅馬帝國(guó)皇帝帳下創(chuàng)作樂(lè)曲。1984年出品的傳記電影《莫扎特》生動(dòng)地展現(xiàn)了兩人的關(guān)系，皇帝對(duì)他吼道：“你寫的音符太多了，莫扎特！”

事實(shí)上，只要隨便瀏覽一下紐約大都會(huì)藝術(shù)博物館和盧浮宮等世界頂尖的文化機(jī)構(gòu)便會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，絕大部分受人推崇的藝術(shù)作品都是在沒(méi)有藝術(shù)自由的條件下創(chuàng)作出來(lái)的。無(wú)論哪個(gè)文明，哪種文化，其多數(shù)偉大的藝術(shù)品都是在政治、宗教的權(quán)威體制或命令下完成的。甚至最嚴(yán)酷的獨(dú)裁統(tǒng)治也創(chuàng)造出了流芳千古的偉大藝術(shù)。金字塔為法老而建，肖斯塔科維奇在斯大林統(tǒng)治下創(chuàng)作出美麗的交響樂(lè)。

中國(guó)當(dāng)代藝術(shù)界的狀況頗為復(fù)雜。國(guó)家同時(shí)為藝術(shù)的贊助者和審查者。政府投入大量資金發(fā)展藝術(shù)活動(dòng)，比如最近上海美術(shù)館與紐約亞洲協(xié)會(huì)美術(shù)館合作，在紐約舉辦吳冠中畫展。近些年來(lái)政府加大了對(duì)藝術(shù)院校的投入，許多創(chuàng)作出價(jià)值不菲的藝術(shù)作品的藝術(shù)家都是中國(guó)藝術(shù)院校的畢業(yè)生。

就藝術(shù)家個(gè)人而言，中國(guó)的藝術(shù)家，無(wú)論是已經(jīng)成名的還是新生代，都在進(jìn)行著大膽的藝術(shù)實(shí)驗(yàn)。國(guó)內(nèi)外的知名畫廊與交易商依靠當(dāng)代中國(guó)藝術(shù)家的作品搭建起一個(gè)龐大的藝術(shù)品商業(yè)王國(guó)。世界各地的策展人來(lái)到中國(guó)活動(dòng)，將中國(guó)視為藝術(shù)創(chuàng)新的熱土。不過(guò)，他們進(jìn)行藝術(shù)活動(dòng)的同時(shí)，必需遵循著強(qiáng)大的中國(guó)政府制定的規(guī)則。當(dāng)然也有艾未未之類的例外，但他們的遭遇表明，規(guī)則絕不是兒戲。

只有歷史才能檢驗(yàn)這個(gè)時(shí)代是否在創(chuàng)造真正偉大的藝術(shù)作品。但沒(méi)人能否認(rèn)，這個(gè)世界上最大的威權(quán)主義國(guó)家正培育著健全的藝術(shù)環(huán)境，以及極為活躍的創(chuàng)造力。

香港國(guó)際藝術(shù)展人潮涌動(dòng)、熙熙攘攘，那些還在布道“藝術(shù)自由”的人覺(jué)得似乎有些不對(duì)勁。中國(guó)繁榮的藝術(shù)市場(chǎng)在他們信奉的意識(shí)形態(tài)里講不通。但中國(guó)其實(shí)并非特例。無(wú)論何種政治體制，人類文明都可以誕生令人贊嘆的藝術(shù)作品。有些人受了意識(shí)形態(tài)的干擾，以為只有一種政治體制能夠發(fā)展文化。反諷的是，恰恰是持這一看法的人把藝術(shù)政治化了。

難道他們想說(shuō)達(dá)明安?赫斯特（Damien Hirst）比米開(kāi)朗基羅的藝術(shù)水準(zhǔn)更高超，Lady Gaga的音樂(lè)比莫扎特更優(yōu)秀，地鐵站的涂鴉比埃及金字塔更輝煌？中國(guó)的當(dāng)代藝術(shù)正在擊破他們的謬論。

李世默（Eric X. Li）是上海的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資家

朱新偉 / 譯

本文同時(shí)刊發(fā)于香港《南華早報(bào)》、美國(guó)《赫芬頓郵報(bào)》，英文版請(qǐng)見(jiàn)下頁(yè)。轉(zhuǎn)載須注明觀察者網(wǎng)。

AUTHORITARIAN ART  

By: Eric X. Li

HONG KONG – The vibrancy of contemporary China’s art world is on full display at this week’s Hong Kong International Art Fair. Barely a generation ago, amateur collectors braving the shabby studios of starving artists in Beijing and Shanghai were buying art for a few hundred dollars apiece.

Today, the world converges in a Hong Kong well on its way to becoming a leading hub of the global art market, driven in large part by the art being created in China and the buying power of the country’s rising wealth.

Prices of contemporary Chinese art continue to reach commanding heights. It is a phenomenon many liberal political commentators rather ignore. It does not fit their narrative. The story they prefer to tell goes as follows: Artistic freedom is the prerequisite of creating great art; China’s authoritarian politics places severe limits on artistic freedom; such lack of freedom makes it impossible for China to attain real cultural achievements - the much craved “soft power”.

Well, the market says otherwise. As things slow down in Basel and Miami, leading galleries, dealers, collectors, and artists who congregate here are setting the art world of the People’s Republic abuzz. It seems to be only an interim culmination of a 20-year trend that shows no sign of slowing.

It turns out that the liberal narrative is based not on facts but on ideology. In the long history of man’s endeavor to create art, the so-called artistic freedom is a very recent anomaly. Michelangelo worked for the Pope. The Chinese literati painters were Mandarins serving the imperial court. Mozart composed at the pleasure of a rather overbearing Holy Roman Emperor, as brilliantly depicted in the 1984 film Amadeus – “Too many notes, Mozart!”

In fact, if one takes a stroll in the corridors of the world’s premier cultural institutions such as the New York Metropolitan Museum and the Louvre, the vast majority of art works being admired were created with no artistic freedom at all. In every culture and every civilization, most great art was produced under, or at the service of, political and/or religious authorities. Enduring artistic achievements were realized even under the harshest forms of dictatorial rule. The pyramids were built for the Pharaohs and Shostakovich composed, with real discomfort, beautiful music under Stalin.

The contemporary art scene in China is a mixed one. The state is both a patron and a censor of art. Large investments have been made by the government to promote artistic activities. The recent partnership between the government-run Shanghai Art Museum and New York’s Asia Society for the exhibit of the late Wu Guanzhong’s work is a case in point. Many of the artists whose million-dollar works are on exhibit at the art fair are graduates from art institutes that have been receiving dramatically increased government funding in recent years.

In the private sector, Chinese artists, successful and aspiring ones alike, are conducting wide-ranging and far-reaching artistic experiments. Galleries and dealers, both local and leading international names, are building a vast commercial empire on their works. Curators around the world work in China and find it to be a most fertile soil for ground breaking artistic interpretations. Yet, they all work within the restrictions set by a strong political authority. Exceptions exist, like Ai Weiwei, but they prove the rule.

Only history will tell whether truly great art of enduring value is being created here and now. But no one can deny that creativity of a most vibrant kind is driving a robust art ecosystem within the world’s most significant authoritarian state.

Amid the hustle and bustle of the Hong Kong International Art Fair, those who have been preaching “artistic freedom” seem rather out of place. For them, it is not supposed to be like this. For any objective observer, it is not unique at all. Human civilization has been blessed with marvelous artistic creation under all different kinds of political systems. Those who claim that only one form of political governance is conducive to the development of culture are under the spell of ideological self-delusion. It is an irony that they are the ones who seem to be politicizing art just as much as, if not more than, the authoritarian state they detest.

Are they really prepared to pronounce Damian Hurst inherently superior to Michelangelo, Lady Gaga more enduring than Mozart, and subway graffiti greater cultural monuments than the pyramids? The thundering footsteps of Chinese art are leaving them far behind.

Eric X. Li is a venture capitalist in Shanghai.