▲《山水四屏》
361cmX144cm
2001年作
▲ Four Screens in Landscape
361cmX144cm
Created in 2001
如何解释这一转向的原因始终是批评家、艺术史家们的兴趣所在。在这里，也许我们应该意识到，正如艺术史的拐点往往不是依循惯例系统中那些可见的因素，而是基于某种意外的力量一样，艺术家由庸常跃升为天才也同样如此。在所有的“意外的力量”中，疾病往往扮演着重要的角色。对艺术史稍有了解的人均知道，以生理疾病的方式而跃升至超越性精神状态，并由此实现创作的跨越性转向，是艺术天才们一再上演的剧情。这方面的例子可谓比比皆是。梵高晚年的眩晕症是其旋转性星空图式的来源，而石鲁晚年之疯癫，则带来了其图像中的神秘符号与华山图式。这种现象，我们不妨称之为“精神的基因突变”。
How to explain this turn has always been of interest to critics and art historians. Here, perhaps, we should realize that just as the turning point in art history is not often based on the visible elements of the conventional system, but on some unexpected forces, so is the leap of the artist from mediocrity to genius. Of all the "unexpected forces”, disease often plays an important role. Anyone who knows a little about art history knows that the leap to a transcendent mental state by means of a physical illness, and thus achieving a leapfrog turn in creation, is a drama that artistic geniuses have repeatedly staged. There are abound examples. Van Gogh's vertigo in his later years was the source of his rotating starry sky schema, while Shi Lu's madness in his later years brought with him the mysterious symbols and Huashan schema in his images. This phenomenon may as well be called "genetic mutation of the spirit".
与梵高、石鲁相似，由生理疾病所导致的精神基因突变，或许是孙博文晚年人格变异与创作风格转向的原因。1997年，孙博文在一场几乎致命的脑垂瘤手术后，人格一分为二：清醒的、具有日常意识形态属性的人；半清醒的、半癫狂的、具有形而上属性的艺术家。如果我们稍加辨析，不难发现，对孙博文的人格与艺术观而言，所谓的精神基因突变，其意涵是多重的：首先，来自于死亡的追逐，迫使孙博文重新思考生命的价值与本原意义，在内省中成为一个生命的觉者。其觉悟的鲜明标志是人格上的由“老”返“童”，即由复杂的、成熟的、世俗的人格不断向纯真的人格与生命状态还原；其次，由生命、人格的本真状态向形而上世界的跃迁与升华，不仅构成孙博文晚年精神生活的主要内容，也使其从世俗画家状态飞升至超越性主体的状态。无论批评家们在这方面存在多少争议，都无法否认这样的事实：疾病已成为精神超越的方法与路径。疾病的发生、疗愈以及对死亡拒绝的过程，就是孙博文升华为生命的觉者与超越性主体的过程。
Similar to Van Gogh and Shi Lu, mental gene mutations caused by physiological disease may be the reason for Sun Bowen's personality variation and creative style shift in his later years. In 1997, after surgery for a nearly fatal pituitary tumor, Sun Bowen's personality was split in two: a sober person with daily ideological attributes; a half-awake and half-delirious metaphysical artist. If we analyze it a little, it is not difficult to find that for Sun Bowen's personality and artistic outlook, the so-called spiritual gene mutation has multiple meanings: First, the chase from death forces Sun Bowen to rethink the value and original meaning of life, and to become a perceiver of life in his introspection. The clear sign of his consciousness is the return of personality from “old" to "childish", that is, from a complex, mature, and secular personality to a pure personality and life state; Secondly, the transition and sublimation from the true state of life and personality to the metaphysical world has not only constituted the main content of Sun Bowen's spiritual life in his later years, but also has made him soar from the state of a secular painter to the state of transcendent subject. No matter how much critics dispute in terms of this, it is impossible to deny the fact that illness has become the method and path of spiritual transcendence. The process of disease occurrence, healing, and rejection of death is the process by which Sun Bowen is sublimated into a perceiver of life and transcendent subject.
▲《禅意直上锦山顶》
123cmX245 cm
2001年作
▲ Zen Spirit Goes Straight to the Top of Jinshan
123cmX245 cm
Created in 2001
准确地讲，生命的觉者与超越性主体，是孙博文晚期新艺术观的人格基石与精神源泉。以此为始，对生命价值与生命本原的觉悟与思考，并在形而上世界中追寻其意义，已成为孙博文晚期创作的主要价值皈依——其神秘的山水、宇宙图像与大泼彩所发散出的生命意识，均来自于此。
To be precise, the perceiver of life and transcendent subject are the cornerstone and spiritual source of Sun Bowen's late new art view. Starting from this, the awareness and contemplation on the value of life and the origin of life, and the search for its meaning in the metaphysical world, have become the main value conversions of Sun Bowen's late works—from which the consciousness of life emanating from his mysterious landscapes, cosmic images and big splash color paintings come from.
考虑到疾病的作用是在神秘主义层面上发生的，犹如来自于冥漠的启示，难以获得终极性解释，所以，我们可将之视为“神启”——一种开启人类智识与灵感的，引导人格、灵魂进化方向的，不可见的精神力量。从高更、梵高、石鲁、孙博文的实例来看，“神启”并非无处不在，它只对那些非凡的、有慧根的、心中理想主义之火永不熄灭的天才们感兴趣。因而，在此有必要对孙博文的修为、慧根以及理想主义作一点必要的描述。
Considering that the effects of disease occur at the level of mysticism, like revelations from the underworld, and it is difficult to obtain ultimate explanations, we can think of them as "divine revelation"—an invisible spiritual force that enlightens human wisdom and inspiration and guides the evolution of personality and soul. Judging from the examples of Gauguin, Van Gogh, Shi Lu, and Sun Bowen, "divine revelation" is not ubiquitous, it is only interested in those extraordinary, intelligent geniuses whose idealistic fire will never be extinguished. Therefore, it is necessary to make a necessary description of Sun Bowen's cultivation, wisdom, and idealism.
众所周知，中国画之根基、之高度，在于儒释道多元一体所构成的人文主义体系。从诗文、题跋、印章诸方面透露出的信息，可大体勾勒出孙博文人文修养的轮廓：以“禅”修为统领，其中既内蕴着“充实之谓美”“格物致知”的儒家进取精神，又包含着道家道法自然的理念。其诗文中不断出现的道家仙山，如峨眉、云隐、西极、罗浮、南溟、昆仑等，鸟瞰式地勾划出孙博文精神遨游的廓然图景。至于释家之观，多呈现于《涅槃》《一念般若生》诸作品中。“禅”修是孙博文的日课，其“虚静”“万法皆空”与“人格化自然”之旨，高度合成了孙博文创作的哲学基础与宇宙观，也是其主体意识不断丰盈的思想源泉。在一个艺术家主体普遍俗化的时代，孙博文不退反进，从人格精神到创作理念彻底完成了自我超越，端赖于其深厚的人文修养。
As we all know, the foundation and height of Chinese painting lies in the humanist system composed of the pluralistic integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. The information revealed from poems, inscriptions, and seals can roughly outline Sun Bowen's humanistic cultivation: with "Zen" practice cultivation as the rule, it not only contains the Confucian enterprising spirit of "enrichment means beauty" and "investigation of things to knowledge", but also contains Taoist philosophy of following nature's course. The Taoist immortal mountains that constantly appear in his poems, such as Emei, Yunyin, Xiji, Luofu, Nanming, Kunlun, etc., depict a bird's-eye view of Sun Bowen's spiritual journey. As for the concept of Buddhism, it is mostly presented in works such as Nirvana and Prajna Born in Thought. "Zen" practice is Sun Bowen's daily lesson, and its aims of "void and quiet", "all laws are empty" and "personified nature" highly synthesize the philosophical foundation and cosmology in Sun Bowen’s creations, and also the source of thought for the continuous enrichment of his subjective consciousness. In an era where artists' subjects are generally vulgarized, Sun Bowen has not retreated but forged ahead, and completely realized self-transcendence from personality spirit to creative concept, relying on his profound humanistic cultivation.
▲《一念般若生》
123cmX123cm
2001年作
▲Prajna Born in Thought
123cmX123cm
Created in 2001
倘若从20世纪中国画变革的角度来评估孙博文，我们可以毫不犹豫地讲：孙博文是20世纪之子。以内心湧动的创新性渴望，以及图像、笔墨方面的维新实践，来回应20世纪中国画现代形态的建构，是孙博文持之以恒的创作姿态。20世纪是中国画由旧入新，体系化建构现代形态的世纪。在孙博文的认知中，20世纪中国画变革的图景一直在暗示这样的真理：只有在“自我优化”与“跨文化融合”的双重坐标中，中国画才能获得自己的历史属性与现实价值。传统之所以成为传统，正在于它不断地从创新动力与成就中获取绵延至未来的合法性，传统从来都不喜欢自己的复制品。如果我们仔细地梳理一下孙博文不同时期的作品，便可意识到，上述认知已在岁月的变迁中内化为一种生命诉求，它决定了孙博文作品的创新性品格。因此，我们没有理由在下述的看法上含糊其辞：孙博文及其作品都是20世纪中国画变革逻辑的产物。
If we evaluate Sun Bowen from the perspective of the transformation of Chinese painting in the 20th century, we can say without hesitation: Sun Bowen is the son of the 20th century. Responding to the construction of modern forms of Chinese painting in the 20th century with the creative desire surging in his heart, as well as the innovative practice in images and brush and ink, is Sun Bowen's persistent creative posture. The 20th century is a century in which Chinese painting systematically constructs its modern form from the old into the new. In Sun Bowen's cognition, the phenomenon of the transformation of Chinese painting in the 20th century has always implied the truth that only in the dual coordinates of "self-optimization" and "cross-cultural integration" can Chinese painting acquire its own historical attributes and realistic value. What makes a tradition a tradition is that it constantly derives legitimacy from innovative impetus and achievements into the future, and tradition has never liked its own copies. If we carefully sort through Sun Bowen's works in different periods, we can realize that the above cognition has been internalized as a life appeal in the changes of the years, which determines the innovative character of Sun Bowen's works. Therefore, there is no reason to be ambiguous about the idea that Sun Bowen and his works are the products of the transformative logic of the 20th -Century Chinese painting.
创新性冲动一直是孙博文诗歌的主题：
The creative impulse has always been the theme of Sun Bowen's poetry:
山 水
浮生长恨新意少，提笔规矩老一套。
绿杨烟外晓云轻，且向花间留晚照。
Landscapes
I hate the lack of new ideas,
and I always have the same old rules.
When I see the green poplar trees and light clouds being surrounded by the smoke,
the flowers at dusk are also kept in my memory.
用笔随想
大破大立画家胆，删繁就简诗人魂。
提笔方知功夫浅，落笔静思情不深。
Random Thoughts
Painters should have the boldness in disruptive breakthrough.
Deleting the complexity and leaving the simplicity is the poet’s soul.
When you pick up a pen, you know that your skill is shallow.
When you settle the pen, you know your emotion is not deep enough.
