To get a sense of the remarkable growth of the Chinese contemporary art market, look no further than the artist Zeng Fanzhi.

想对中国当代艺术市场的飞速发展有所了解，看看艺术家曾梵志就够了。

Mr Zeng, 51, has seen his work bring in the second-highest price for a living Chinese artist, according to Artnet.

根据Artnet报道，51岁的曾梵志的作品创下了在世中国艺术家作品的第二高价。

In 2013, his 2001 tribute to Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper sold for $23.3 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, setting what was then a record auction price for a work by a contemporary Chinese artist.

2013年，他2001年创作、向莱奥纳多•达•芬奇(Leonardo da Vinci)《最后的晚餐》(The Last Supper)致敬的作品在香港苏富比以2330万美元成交，创下了中国当代艺术作品在当时的拍卖纪录。

Last weekend, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing unveiled Zeng Fanzhi: Parcours, a major retrospective that runs through Nov. 19

上周末，曾梵志：散步展在北京的尤伦斯当代艺术中心揭幕，这场大型回顾展将持续到11月19日。

The exhibition covers nearly three decades and features works central to the artist’s oeuvre, including his early Hospital series, which Mr Zeng painted based on memories of a hospital where he used the toilet because he did not have one at home.

展览涵盖了曾梵志近30年的作品，其中包括他的核心创作，比如早期的协和医院系列，在这个系列里，他凭借记忆绘制出一个医院的场景，因为家里没有厕所，他需要到那家医院解决内急。

It includes his Masks series, which depicts well-dressed urbanites wearing white masks, a commentary on China’s rapid social transformation in the mid-1990s, and his haunting, thicket-filled abstract landscapes.

还有他的面具系列，描绘了若干衣冠楚楚的都市人，脸上戴着白色的面具，影射了20世纪90年代中期中国飞速的社会变革。此外还有他那些令人难忘、灌木丛生的抽象风景画。

And, for the first time in China, the show displays Mr Zeng’s most recent works — a series of ink on paper — which signal a shift by the artist toward an engagement with ancient Chinese painting.

展览还在中国首次展出了曾梵志近期的一系列水墨画，标志着这位艺术家开始涉足古老的中国绘画这一转变。

In an interview, Mr Zeng discussed traditional Chinese culture, China’s art market and mixing politics and art.

在采访中，曾梵志谈了中国传统文化、中国艺术市场以及艺术和政治的融合。

Your latest works on paper suggest a turn toward traditional Chinese culture.

你最新的纸上作品表明你在转向中国传统文化。

Why the shift?

为什么？

This shift came about for several reasons. For example, I like designing gardens, and to do that, you have to have a certain appreciation for the natural beauty of things like stones and plants.

这个转变有好几个原因，比如说，我喜欢设计花园，做这项工作的时候，你得懂得欣赏石头和植物这些自然事物的美。

Emperor Huizong’s painting Listening to the Qin is the most beautiful painting from the Song dynasty.

宋徽宗的《听琴图》是宋朝最美的画。

For more than 10 years, I’ve been observing the beauty of the pine tree in that painting.

十几年来，我一直在观察这幅画里那棵松树的美。

And when I travel to Japan and elsewhere, I now pay special attention to the pine trees.

现在去日本之类地方旅行时，我会特别注意松树。

So it’s a combination of studying paintings and observing the real world.

所以这是把绘画研究和对现实世界的观察结合起来。

Over time, I began to realize that traditional things have their own beauty.

随着时间流逝，我开始意识到，传统事物有它们自身的美。

Perhaps it also has to do with my age.

或许这也和我的年龄有关。

When you reach a certain age, you naturally begin to turn to a spirit of introspection.

到了一定的年龄，你自然而然就会有一种反省精神。

What does the motif of the branches signify in your large-scale abstract landscapes?

你的那些大幅风景画里那些树枝是什么意思呢？

People in the West initially thought of it as a type of expressionistic brushwork.

西方人一开始觉得这是一种表现主义的手法。

Early on, I, too, thought of it like this.

早年间我也是这么想的。

But later I began to think of the branches as being related more to traditional Chinese calligraphy.

但到了后来，我开始认为这些树枝和中国传统书法关系更大。

So when painting, I would pay special attention to the rhythm and the spirit of the brush stroke with the belief that each stroke has its own movement and its own internal beauty.

所以画画的时候，我会特别注意笔触的节奏和神韵，相信每一笔都有自己的运动和内在之美。

It’s different from Western expressionism, not because Western expressionism is superficial, but it is characterized more by an external view of the brush, whereas calligraphy has more to do with the internal state of mind.

这和西方的表现主义是不同的，不是因为西方的表现主义肤浅，而是因为它更多以笔触的外观为特征，而书法则与内心境界关系更大。

Looking back at your career through this retrospective, is there a particular period of time that you feel nostalgic about?

通过这次回顾展回望你的艺术生涯，有没有哪个特定阶段是你特别怀念的？

Not really.

并没有。

Each of the works represents my life and feelings at that particular time, and all of the stages are closely linked.

每件作品都代表着我在那段特定时期的生活与情感，所有阶段都是密切相连的。

For example, I went from doing large-scale abstract landscape paintings to making small works on paper.

比如，我是从绘制大幅抽象风景画转向绘制小幅纸上作品的。

All of these stages have a certain element of contrast.

所有这些阶段都含有一种对照的成分。

If you look at my earlier works, there are also big differences.

如果你观察我的早期作品，就会发现很大的不同。

There are three early paintings in the show that I drew when I was in the third year of university.

这次展览上有我的三幅早期作品，当时我还是大学三年级的学生。

My teacher told me not to paint like this.

老师告诉我不要这样画。

Look at your paintings, the teacher said, you didn’t use any color.

那个老师说，看看你的画，你根本没用上任何颜色。

According to them, you had to paint according to very strict guidelines.

他们说，你得按照非常严格的指导方法来画。

The colors had to represent what the subject really looked like in real life.

色彩必须表现事物在现实生活中的本来面目。

But I didn’t want to follow these guidelines.

但是我不想按这些指导方法走。

I thought if I did, I would be fenced in by them and there would be no way to explore creativity through my feelings.

我觉得如果这么的话，就被它们困住了，就不能按照自己的感受去探索创作。

So at that time, color wasn’t that important to me.

所以那时候，色彩对我来说并不重要。

If you look at those early works, they seem a little dark.

如果你注意我的早期作品，就会发现它们有点黯淡。

I used a lot of black paint and the people seem very gray.

我使用了很多黑色颜料，上面的人看上去非常灰暗。

In the beginning, most of the collectors who bought your work were foreign.

一开始，很多购买你作品的收藏家都是外国人。

Then you started to see more interest from Chinese collectors.

然后才开始有更多中国收藏家对你感兴趣。

Can you describe this shift?

你能谈一下这种变化吗？

I first moved to Beijing in 1993.

1993年我搬到北京生活。

The people who bought my works back then were mostly Western, like people who worked in the foreign embassies or taught at universities.

那时候买我作品的大都是西方人，比如在外国使馆工作或者在大学里教书的人。

Then, around 2004 and 2005, we started to see more and more Chinese people buying art.

后来，大约是在2004到2005年，我们看到越来越多的中国人都在购买艺术品。

I remember it very clearly because before no one was buying and for 10 or so years the prices for our works hadn’t changed at all.

我记得非常清楚，因为之前没有人买艺术品，大约十年的时间，我们的作品价格都没变过。

We didn’t really know these new Chinese collectors, and we couldn’t tell if they actually liked the art.

我们不怎么了解这些新的中国藏家，也不知道他们是不是真的喜欢艺术。

But then, starting around 2007, we started to see a lot of people flipping works.

但在后来，大约是从2007年开始，我们看到很多人都来看作品。

At first I thought the buying was good, but when the market began to overheat, I went on alert.

起先我觉得有人买艺术品是好事，但后来市场变得过热，我开始警惕起来。

I didn’t sell to a person who wanted to buy 20 of my paintings because I was suspicious.

如果有人说想买我的20幅作品，我是不会卖给他的，因为我会觉得可疑。

And then what happened?

然后发生了什么？

Then, in 2008, there was the financial crisis and all of a sudden a lot of galleries in China closed.

后来，2008年发生了金融危机，突然之间，中国的很多画廊都关门了。

Some people had bought so many paintings.

有些人之前买了太多的画。

One person even bought 100 paintings from one artist.

有个人甚至买了一个艺术家的100幅画。

After having gone through 2008, most of the artists here have matured.

熬过2008年之后，大多数中国艺术家变得成熟起来了。

The art market is something you can’t mess with.

艺术市场不是闹着玩的东西。

Just take it one step at a time, develop slowly, and honestly work together with galleries to sell works to people who actually like art and not to people who are trying to speculate on art.

要一步一步走、慢慢发展，要老老实实地与画廊合作，把作品卖给真正喜爱艺术的人，而不是那些想靠艺术投机的人。

Now that we’ve worked with a lot of international galleries and museums, artists here pretty much get it.

现在，我们和许多国际画廊与美术馆合作，这里的艺术家们都很明白这一点了。

It’s not like 2007 anymore.

现在和2007年完全不同了。

We needed this time to mature.

我们需要这段时间变得成熟起来。

Do you ever feel pressure either to avoid or to engage with politics in your work?

你是否曾有在作品中回避或加入政治题材的压力？

I think every artist chooses his or her own way of expression.

我认为每一个艺术家都会选择自己的表达方式。

I personally choose to create works on subjects that I am interested in.

我个人选择创作那些自己感兴趣的题材。

I won’t make works on subjects that I’m not interested in just to appeal to more people.

我不会为了迎合更多人而创作自己不感兴趣的题材。

But it doesn’t mean that I’m not paying attention to society either.

但是这并不意味着我不关注社会。

For example, in my early Hospital works, I was very interested in basic issues of humanity.

比如，在我早期的协和医院系列里，我对人性的基本问题非常感兴趣。

I pay attention to society and to the lives of people around me. But I won’t make something just for the sake of being provocative.

我关注社会，也关注身边人的生活，但我不会为了引起争议而刻意创作什么。