文/馬安娜

從誕生以致死亡，玫瑰常用于表達情感。

在某些文化中，玫瑰被賦予不可思議的魔法力量。概觀不同世代，玫瑰已成為各種禮拜儀式之裝飾品。

玫瑰的蓓蕾象征著新生命。

玫瑰更融入我們的語言中——生命并不如玫瑰般美麗。

縱橫歷史，由于玫瑰外表美麗且帶神秘感，眾人皆把玫瑰譽為花中之后，并給予玫瑰許多含意。玫瑰源自亞洲，從遠古時代起已存在。到了羅馬帝國時期，玫瑰才開始在歐洲繁殖。

在神話故事里，愛神維納斯之子丘比特，也送上玫瑰給沉默之神哈伯克拉底斯，請求沉默之神對他的風流韻事守口如瓶，不可讓他母親知悉。

埃及艷后克麗奧佩托拉，不僅把玫瑰花瓣撒滿她路經之處，還在一間玫瑰花瓣堆積及踝的臥室中，接見安東尼。

古羅馬人以玫瑰花瓣來覆蓋宴會廳。尼祿王在帕拉庭山丘之金殿，舉行極盡奢華的宴會。宴會廳之天花板，也懸掛著玫瑰花作裝飾。

希臘詩人亞奈科理翁曾頌揚，以玫瑰提煉之香膏，對苦惱而引起之心跳悸動，起鎮靜作用。

文藝復興期間著名畫家波提且利，把愛與靈性加以演化。在《維納斯的誕生》這畫中，盡情展示出完美之女性美。可是，我們卻常常忽略了畫中被風吹卷之玫瑰花。

日本古典文學《源氏物語》曾提及紅玫瑰。在江戶時代，俳句詩人松尾芭蕉和小林一茶的作品內，亦有描述玫瑰花。

我老是喜愛玫瑰花，因在許多生活片斷中，玫瑰擁有不同的象征意義。因此，在羅發輝的花園看到玫瑰花，不足為奇。然而，他選擇成都市郊作為工作室之地點，實在意想不到。成都總是給人陰沉寒冷的感覺，很難想象如玫瑰般美麗及芳香的花，生長在這樣的城市里。

事情總不可先入為主。縱使羅氏的繪畫以玫瑰為題，但他不是繪花的畫家，盡管主題及概念獨特，他的玫瑰卻不一樣，別樹一幟。

羅發輝1961年生于重慶，時值中國遭受天災。1967年考進小學，正巧毛澤東發動紅衛兵。

當時社會秩序大亂，并沒有所謂傳統家庭生活。在掙扎求存的過程中，羅氏開始喜歡上繪畫，天天跑到街外寫生。

當時許多房子外墻涂上白色，顏色既吸引又富誘惑性。我把木枝燒成碳，用作畫筆在墻上亂畫，之后又抹掉。在這期間，我聽聞和目睹文化大革命殘酷和了不起的一面。

對于1994年之畫作，羅氏說：繪畫是我在自己的空間里企盼希望的升華。藝術創作使我體驗思想自由、生命的完美、語言之創意和探索內心深處。因此，繪畫給我自由且無憂生活所需的元素，延生命的流逝。

在1978年，羅氏考入四川美院附中。三年后，考入四川美術學院（現為高等美術學院）繼續進修。

這三年里，羅氏的同僚兼好友馮斌，對他有以下的評價：在艱苦的生活中，他仍十分勤奮。當時學校的伙食糟透，每周只提供一餐有肉的飯菜。在上午，我們很早便往揚子江岸邊寫生，之后疾步如風跑回學校，免得錯過了午飯。

羅氏于1981年首次往北京，看到德國表現主義派畫展。

翌年，羅氏的作品在中國美術館展出，并由館方收藏。在高名潞著的[中國當代美術史1985-1989]，羅氏亦被收錄其中。羅氏在國內及國際間享負盛名。在這本場刊的背面，列載了他的詳盡履歷。

在1999年，他放棄繪畫風景，改畫女孩及玫瑰花。有時，這兩主題同時并置，但作者總以觀賞者的身份，做一種有距離的敘述。

楚桑在其文章[羅發輝的變異]中指出，很明顯羅氏借用了奧基弗（Georgia O′ Keeffe）的原創，但卻按照他所理解的后現代形式進行了精心改造。

事實上，羅氏顛覆了奧基弗樸素的想法——曾經引發弗洛依德主義者之論證——但羅氏的玫瑰花更具說服力，它們已不再擁有純潔的愛。

隨著時間變遷，羅發輝的玫瑰起了許多變化。

他的玫瑰很大，顏色灰暗、沉重和冷淡。栗憲庭認為這些玫瑰花遠離現實。

在羅發輝的近作里，玫瑰花變得更透亮，再不是暗淡沉重。花的體積變大，更肉欲及成膠狀。漸漸地，玫瑰花的喻意力增強，變得愈來愈情色。

在中國，雖說女人與性屬敏感題材，但也非全然，看看明代的言情話本和春宮畫卷，也有赤裸裸直來直去的。

羅氏最新的玫瑰用色淺亮、像巧克力透明體。如星利所說，充滿誘惑與眷戀。

羅發輝的玫瑰園現已移植到澳門東方基金，園內充滿了含意各異的玫瑰。

馬安娜
東方基金會澳門——中國代表處
展覽協調員

A GARDEN OF ROSES

Rose are used as a way of expressings feelings at various occasions from birth until death.

Some cultures bestow magical powers on roses,and over the centuries they have become a form of adornment at many different places of worship.

The rose bud itself symbolizes new life.

Roses have even become part of our language-life is not a bed of roses.

Throughout history , the rose has been considered, by many, to be the Queen of all flowers because of all flowers because lf its beauty ,and whilst remaining a mystery it has had a variety of meanings attributed to it. Roses originated in Asia, where they existed from a prehistoric period and were only brought to Europe during the time of the Roman Empire.

In mythology, Cupid was given responsibility for hiding the romance of his mother, Venus, and he did it by sending roses to Harpocrates, God of Silence, asking him to keep his lips sealed so as to keep the secret.

Cleopatra had rose petals strewn in her path, and once received Mark Anthony in a bedroom knee-deep in rose petals.

The Romans covered their banqueting halls with carpets of rose petals and Nero had roses hung from the ceiling of his Golden palace for one of his most extravagant banquets on the palatino hill.

The Greek poet, Anacreon, sung that the balsam made from roses calmed any heart beating in anguish.

The Renaissance painter, Botticelli, evokes love and spirituality and projects the perfect female beauty in the ″Birth of Venus″, a work in which we often ignore the roses thrown into the wind.

In classical Japanese literature, the red rose is mentioned In the Tale of Genji. During the Edo period, the rose can be found in the haiku of the poets Basho and lssa.

I have always loved roses since they have a symbolic representation in many aspects of life, so I should not have been surprised to find them in Luo Fahui′s garden. Perhaps the surprise was to see the location of his workshop in the outskirts of cold, grey, Chengdu, a city which, at first site, seemed to me to be no place for the beauty and perfume of flowers.

But, contrary to how things can seem at first sight, Luo Fahui is not a painter of flowers, even if the theme of his paintings is roses. Whilst the theme and concept is unique, his roses are not-they are very different.

Luo Fahui was born in Chongqing in 1961, at the time when China′s greatest natural disasters were happening. He entered primary school in 1967, at the time when Mao Tse Tung launched the Red Guard Campaign.

Society, at that time, was in chaos, family life was far from traditional and it was whilst struggling with all these questions, that Luo discovered his love of drawing and he passed his days in the streets making sketches.

At that time many houses were painted white and the white was both an attraction and a temptation. ″I burned sticks into carbon and drew things on the walls-doodling, coaxing, destroying, Saw and heard various and fantastic cruel affairs during the Great Cultural Revolution.″

Talking about drawing in 1994, Luo said″Drawing is a sublimation of desires in my own space. The creation of artworks lets me experience the liberty of thinking, perfection of my innermost heart. Consequenlty, it will lead to that I seek for a carefree life, continue the life′s passing away in time.″

In 1978 he was admitted to the Sichuan Affiliate School of the institute of Fine Arts and three years later entered the institute of Fine Arts of that province (now the Academy of Fine Arts).

During the following three years, his friend and colleague, Feng Bin, describes him as being a colleague who studied hard, when life was not easy. We were rationed with only one meal with meat every week. But we studied even harder. Many times, we went to paint alongside the Yangtze in the morning and walked back the school for cheap lunch.

It was when he visited Bingjing for the first time in 1981,that he saw an exhibition by German Expressionists.
The following year, he exhibited for the first time at the Chinese National Museum Art, which bought his collection. Gao Minglu included him in his ″History of Chinese Contemporary Art 1985-89″. The extensive curriculum, presented at the back of this catalogue, leaves no doubt that his national and international recognition is far reaching.

In 1999 he abandoned landscapes in his paintings. It was at this that women and roses emerged. These images which were sometimes juxtaposed but always from a distance, as if the artist considers himself to be a spectator.

Chu Sang observed in his article entitled ″The Variation of Luo Fahui′s Art, that it is obvious that the artist had borrowed the original idea from Geogia O′Keeffe, carefully reformulating it according to his own understanding of post-modernist forms.

There is, in fact, a subversion of O′Keeffe′s simple ideas-once a cause of Freudian arguments-but still his roses prevail easily since they are no longer pure love(……)

As time passes Luo Fahui′s roses have been subject to various changes.

His first roses were enormous, grey, heavy and cold. Li Xianting speaks of these roses as being flowers distant from reality.

Luo Fahui′s most recent roses have lost their dark, heavy greyness, becoming more transparent and brighter. Their volume has increased and they have gained a more sensual and gelatinous feeling. Little by little the rose have greater expression and are increasingly sexual.

Women and sex are delicate subjects in china, but even in this question there is contradiction when we consider the love stores and erotic images of the Ming Dynasty.

The latest roses have become light, translucent acrylic bodies and in the words of Xinli, full of temptation and affection.

Luofahui′s rose garden is here, full of its various connotations, at the Casa Garden, to be visited for the garden that it is.

Anabela Maia De Pablos
Coordinator of Exhibitions
Macau-China Delegation·Orient Foundation.