Like my favorite Western artists of the modern period – Picasso, Pollock, Kandinsky – the work of Chai Zushun inspires immediate response. This is art that cannot be ignored; this is art that challenges.

　　正如我最欣赏的西方当代艺术家——毕加索、波洛克、康定斯基——柴祖舜的作品能够瞬间激起观者的响应。这是不可忽视的艺术;这是向传统发出挑战的艺术。

　　Despite the apparent marriage between Chinese and Western Art, we cannot say that Chai Zushun is an Asian or even Chinese artist, although he works in a tradition that is characteristically Chinese in form and content as well as in material substance [ink on paper]. Nor can we classify Chai Zushun as a Western artist, despite the abstract expressionism that mediates his sense of space and use of colour.

　　柴祖舜的作品明显融合了中西方艺术，尽管其绘画传统在形式、内容及作画载体(纸本水墨)上均体现了中国特色，我们仍无法断言柴祖舜是一位亚洲画家，乃至一位中国画家。我们也无法将其归为西方画家，尽管抽象表现主义体现了柴祖舜的空间感和色彩运用的能力。

　　Being neither wholly Asian nor completely Western, Chai Zushun challenges the need to characterize art into genres, styles, movements and periods. Such formalism is irrelevant. Traditional Chinese ink drawing and Western abstract expressionism readily give way to an explosion of colorized energy in such works as Spirit of the Mountains or Early Spring or Gallop.

　　柴祖舜并非完全意义上的亚洲或西方画家，他挑战了以体裁、风格、运动和时期来描述艺术作品的需要。这种形式主义是无关紧要的。传统中国水墨画和西方抽象表现主义轻易让位于如《山魂》、《早春》、《奔腾》等画作中色彩能量的爆发。

　　And that is the key experience of Chai Zushun’s art: colorized energy. It is a synesthesia of eye and ear, smell and taste, as the senses overcome their specificity to engage in a total experience.

　　这便是柴祖舜艺术作品中的宝贵经验：色彩的能量。这是当各种感官在整体体验中超越其自身特性时，视觉、听觉、嗅觉和味觉的共同感受。

　　One does not just look at the Spirit of the Mountains, for example. One falls into the Spirit: walking through the glades, feeling rifts underfoot, sensing the light on one’s skin, smelling the fresh air. It is the Spirit, and not just the physical mountain, that we encounter: that spirit abides here – unnamed, unknown, mysterious, yet real beyond categorical limitations. The mystery of early spring is mauve and pink, light and shadow.

　　例如，观者不会仅仅看着《山魂》这幅画。而是会沉浸于这种山魂：穿越林中空地，感受足下的隙缝，体会照在皮肤上的光线。 我们邂逅的不只是实际的山峰，而是其精魂：这山魂存留其中——无名、未知、神秘，却真实得超越了所有类别的限制。早春的神秘感用淡紫和粉色呈现，运用了光影明暗的对比。

　　In Gallop, the ink lines dramatically define the horses and create a chaotic swirl of activity. This is not just horses painted on rice paper (Xuan) and Nijin (paper coated with glue and powdered gold or other metals), giving us a blend of traditional Chinese ink and brush techniques, accentuated with strokes of blue and gold pigment evoking Western abstract techniques. Despite being the least colorist of works, Gallop is drama felt through the animals’ glaring eyes and flared nostrils, speaking fear and turmoil. The horses in Picasso’s Guernica speak the same language.

　　在《奔腾》一画中，作者仅用水墨线条便勾勒出马匹和无序的运动的漩涡。这不仅是画在宣纸和泥金(用胶水覆以金粉或其他金属粉的纸张)上的马，它融合了中国传统水墨画技巧和以蓝色和金色笔触突出的笔法。这种笔法曾引了起西方抽象艺术的技艺。尽管《奔腾》是柴祖舜作品中色彩最少的画作，人们却能从中感受到动物炯然的双目和外张的鼻孔，诉说着它们的恐惧与骚动。毕加索《格尔尼卡》中的马传递出了同样的感觉。

　　Chai Zushun refers to his art as “modern mental imagery” – a nomenclature some, particularly in the West, may find difficult to comprehend. The image is what we see, but the meaning is what we experience beyond what we see. Notice that I did not say the meaning is what we think. Encountering this art is not a thought process; it is not simply an intellectual exercise in any Cartesian sense of knowing [I think therefore I am].

　　柴祖舜将其艺术称为“当代心象艺术”——可能有人，尤其是西方人，认为难以理解这一术语。图像即为我们所见，但含义是我们超越所见的体验。请注意，我并未说含义是我们所想的内容。欣赏这种艺术并非思考的过程;也并不仅是以笛卡尔认知的观念进行简单的理性思考(我思故我在)。

　　We cannot limit the word “mental” to an intellectual comprehension. The world of Chai Zushun is a hermeneutical circle where meaning is experienced, not just intellectualized, as a relationship between artist and viewer. Whatever Chai Zushun intends and mediates through his work is brought to life by the viewer, who mediates his/her own meaning through that experience.

　　我们无法将“心理”一词的含义限于理性理解。柴祖舜的世界是一种解释学循环，其中意义是体验化的，而非单纯的理性化，正如艺术家与观者之间的关系。无论柴祖舜想要通过作品传达什么，这些内容都被通过其体验表达自身理解的观者赋予了生命。

　　This is art that the world needs: it transcends all categories, challenges all expectations, redefines meaning and inspires awe.

　　这正是世界需要的艺术：它超越了所有的艺术分类，挑战了所有可能性，重新定义了理解，激发了敬佩。

　　Personal Information:

　　born and raised in New York City

　　Canadian citizen, residing in Toronto, Ontario

　　formal education: 5 degree programs:

　　bachelors degree: English literature and history

　　2 masters degrees: Medieval studies and theology

　　2 doctoral programs: Medieval studies and religious studies

　　hobbies and interests: reading, contemporary art, antique furniture, cooking

　　languages: read and speak English; read French, Spanish, Italian

　　个人信息

　　出生并成长于纽约

　　加拿大公民，属于多伦多，安大略省

　　正式教育：5个学位：

　　学士学位：英国文学和历史

　　2项硕士学位：中世纪研究理论

　　2项博士学位：中世纪宗教学

　　兴趣爱好：阅读、当代艺术、古式家具，烹饪

　　语言：英语读写;法语、西班牙语、意大利语