从中国画史的视角来看，现代都市水墨画，无疑是一个新概念、新画种。

　　“现代都市水墨画”，由于其画风新奇独特而成了引人注目的新国画亮点。香港著名画家王秋童便是这一新国画的先行者与成功者，他新颖独特的现代都市水墨画，已傲然独树一帜于当代中国画坛。

　　王秋童已不知多少次，在晚霭晨雾中、在阴晴风雨中、在夜色沉沉、月色朦胧中，登上太平山观察、体味眼前这绝世繁华璀烂的神奇景观。他终于发现在晚雾、灯光、霓虹、昏霭交融中的香港都市景观最为精彩绝伦。五光十色、变幻莫测，使都市密密麻麻的高楼大厦浮动在灿烂的彩雾中，如大海中的水晶宫、海市蜃楼;一幢幢冲天拔起的高楼，有如金银、琉璃筑成、景云弥漫、流霞四溢、璀灿悦目。此景此情，奇特超妙、令人如梦如幻、如醉如痴。王秋童不止一次地被感动而陶醉过，他一遍又一遍地描绘着、创作着。经过一年又一年的艰辛探索，终于达至理想的艺术境界。当我们在观赏这幅奇神夺目的《金色都会》画作时，不能不为之叹绝：“东方明珠”香港太美了!这真是艺术创造的生命力啊!

　　王秋童在写实风格的现代都市画获得理想成功后，便步入了以形写神的半工带写风格的探索和创作。如与《金色都会》类似的《华灯初上》、《丽彩华章》等作品，已加强了写的技法，只是受形的束缚还较强。而如《铜锣湾夜色》、《铜锣湾猎影》、《香港中环》、《夏晚》等作品，已摆脱了形的束缚，加强了“写神”的功夫。对景象彩取了猎影式的描写，着力表现夜色和灯光霓彩辉影中的模糊市景市容，笔调显得泼辣奔放，水墨淋漓酣畅、点彩轻快随意、晕染自然。使都市街景在虚虚实实、似是而非中，更显得多姿多彩、沉雄磅礴。

　　王秋童的艺术创作并不就此止步，他努力着向更难更高的艺术境界攀笔墨被实景所束缚登。他总结自己的创作，自己以前多是在“香港画我”，主观受制客观，，情感难以自由发泄;他觉悟到应该“我画香港”，画我心中的香港。这样他便从理念到创作实践进入得意忘象的大写意现代都市水墨画风格的创造阶段。这标志着他的艺术创作已由必然王国进入自由王国的大飞跃，他画的虽然还是香港，却已超以象外、得其神韵了。这种象外之象、无象之象，乃是孕育于王秋童心灵中的心象，是意象的艺术外化，它是物我合一又物我两忘的艺术升华——是现代都市的独特气象、气质、旋律、神韵和情彩。他的笔调也因此大变，采取了西方印象派对空气、光、色的描绘技巧和抽象派重主观意念的特点及中国大写意花鸟的一技法，以写为功，点、刷、泼、破、渍，随意而发、随情而驱，彩墨与水混然天成，笔不到而意到，磊磊落落随意气而为。

　　王秋童现代都市水墨画风格的形成，大致是在他知天命之年后，他的修养与悟性已进入一个很高的境界。从他的作品中可以看出其心物不二、依正不二的艺术创作理念和实践，从而逐步进入物我两忘、以无为本、得意忘象、超以象外、随心所欲、得心应手的理想境地。因此，使他的作品能达到“出新意于法度之中，寄妙理于豪放之外。”(苏轼语)

　　就他作品的技巧而言，乃是中西绘画合壁的成功典范，他不仅在技巧上有机结合、形式风格上浑然一体，而且十分注重从理念、神韵的高度上的融合。因此使他的现代都市水墨画在艺术上取得令人为之瞩目的卓越成就，从而成为开创此画派的一代大家。

　　[原刑2006年7月20日台湾《新生报》《艺术名家》版、9月23日《美术报》]

　　Wong Chau Tung: A Pioneer of Urban Ink Painting

　　Su Dongtian (Painter, Professor & Art Critic)

　　From the historical perspective of Chinese painting, ‘Modern Urban Ink Painting’ is undoubtedly a novel concept and genre.

　　With unique artistic style, it has become the highlight of New Chinese Painting. And the Hong Kong artist Wong Chau Tung, as a pioneer and outstanding representative of this new genre of art, has won a significant place in contemporary Chinese art scene.

　　Countless times, Wong had climbed up the Victoria Peak and watches the bustling city unfolding in front of him—in dawn or dusk, in wind or rain, in the gloom of the night or under the low-lit moon—and he eventually found that the Hong Kong cityscape was most spectacular when the neon lights were glistening in the dreamy evening mist. So colourful and changeable was the mist that the skyscrapers seemed like neon mirages or the Crystal Palace in the depths of the sea. They must have been made of gold and silver, otherwise how could they be so bright and glamourous? Wong was touched and entranced by the ethereal beauty time and time again, and he recreated it in his paintings over and over until he reached a high artistic level—with his Metropolis of Gold. Viewers can truly feel the magnificent beauty of the Pearl of the Orient and the tremendous vitality of artistic creation.

　　After his success in realistic urban painting, Wong turned to the exploration of a new style seeking to convey ‘spirit’ through ‘form’, which combined fine brushwork and freehand brushwork. In Night in city and Chapter of Colours, which are deemed similar to Metropolis of Gold, we could already spot the strengthened freehand brushwork, but it is still bound by ‘form’ in a way; in his later works such as Night at Causeway Bay, A Sketch of Causeway Bay, Central of Hong Kong and Summer Night, the shackles are broken and the ‘spirit’ is further revealed. He depicted the scenery with a glimpse-like casualness, with the focus on the blurred cityscape in the neon lights. The tone of the paintings is dynamic and bold, the stippling brisk and bouncy, and the shading natural and lively. The city appears particularly colourful and magnificent in the blend of solids and voids.

　　Wong didn’t stop there either. He felt that his pursuit for higher artistic level was constrained by actual scenes. He realized that ‘Hong Kong had been painting him’ in the past, that his emotion could not be freely expressed because the subjectivity is limited by the objective; and now it’s time that he started to paint Hong Kong, the city in his heart. The realisation prompted him to enter the freehand creation of urban ink painting, and marked his great leap from ‘certainty’ to ‘freedom’. Hong Kong was still the protagonist in his works, but now it broke free from images and presented itself as a ‘spirit’. The spirit was an externalisation of the image conceived in his heart, and it symbolised an artistic realm where the artist and the outside world became one and then faded into oblivion. We could see the unique disposition, rhythm and colour of a modern city. The tone of Wong’s paintings also evolved. He adopted the Impressionist skills to portray air, light and colour, the Abstractionist emphasis on the subjective, and the traditional Chinese freehand techniques in flower- and-bird paintings. He developed on the foundation of fine brushwork, and freely used stippling, brushing, splashing, breaking, and staining to create the art of ink and water.

　　Wong’s modern urban ink painting was established roughly after he stepped into his 50s, a period in life when you are supposed to ‘know the mandate of Heaven’.  He has reached a very high artistic level. His works embody his philosophy, which is the unity of mind and matter and the oneness of life and its environment. From there he gradually enters the ideal realm: the artist forgets about himself and the outside world, everything is rooted in nothing, the spirit is obtained and the image forgotten. His works are truly an embodiment of ‘expressing novelty within the measures of rules, and lodging subtlety beyond heroic abandon’ (Su Shi, ancient Chinese artist and writer).

　　Wong Chau Tung perfectly integrates Eastern and Western painting traditions, not just in skills and schemas, but also in concept and spirit. As a result, his urban ink creation has achieved remarkable artistic accomplishment, making him the pioneer of this new art genre.

　　(Published in the Artistic Section of Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News, 20 July 2006; and China Art Weekly, 23 September 2006)