1956年出生于江苏省靖江市。1982年毕业于南京艺术学院。毕业后至1997年任新华日报美术编辑；1997年至今工作于江苏省国画院。现为江苏省国画院副院长，傅抱石纪念馆馆长，国家一级美术师，第十二届全国政协委员，江苏省美术家协会副主席，江苏省文联委员，中国艺术研究院特聘美术创作研究员、中国艺术研究院研究生院博士生导师，享受国务院专家特殊津贴，江苏省艺术类高级职称专业评审委员会委员。2013年，获得由江苏省委省政府颁发的首届“紫金文化奖章”；2014年，获“江苏省艺术成就奖”。作品多次参加国家级、省级展览，曾获国家级金奖一次，国家级银奖三次，省级银奖三次，省级铜奖一次，省级学术成就奖四次。多次在国内外举办个人画展。出版个人画集六部，近十件巨幅作品被国内各大美术馆、博物院、中南海、毛主席纪念堂等政府机构张挂收藏。

 薛亮功力深湛，学识广博。他对历代先贤都有深入钻研，并从东瀛、欧美艺术中汲取养分，画学、文学修养均极深厚。通过对自然物象与传统语言的整合重构，结合其独特的审美观和思维方式，创造出当代心象山水的一种新的审美图式，人称“薛家样”。其作多呈视觉冲击力强烈的几何形结构，追求艺术形式的单纯美和耐读性的统一，在当代中国画坛领袖群伦，广有影响。花鸟画则构图独特，色彩丰富，创造了花鸟画的一个新面目。

薛亮的画作，一直受到市场的持续追捧。据雅昌国画100指数的追踪统计，截至2012年4月，薛亮2000年以来的总成交额已逾5000万元，雄冠江苏；其单价亦为江苏当代国画家中最高者在全国范围内亦名列前茅。量价齐增，说明了薛亮作品持续而广泛的市场影响力。

论者指出，薛亮之作，笔笔源自前贤而显非前贤，终至大成。其绘画作品面目独特，风标落落；技术之难，洵难模仿；学方养厚，乾乾惕厉。而此三者，恰是由绘者而入艺术大家之不二法门。有评论认为，薛亮之于美术史之意义，必非“薛家样”所可囿限。

 薛亮山水画的独创性

马鸿增（中国美协理论委员会副主任）

凡是优秀的山水画作品，都具有“人化的自然”之品格，但因处理主客体关系的艺术表达方式不同，又可区分为实象、意想、心象三种类型。心象山水往往是以经过重新建构的传统语言形态，构筑非现实的山水时空，由此而开拓出一种现代的、全新的审美境界。中年画家薛亮就是当代中国心象山水方阵中的杰出代表。

展读薛亮的作品，令人沉迷于那静穆、幽邃、清逸、纯净的审美意境，震惊于那奇特、神秘、非凡的结构张力，陶醉于那缜密、灵动、精到的笔墨功力。这种似真似幻、理想化、情感化的心象山水，虽然不合实景，不合常理，但却合乎常情，而且与现代人回归自然、亲近自然的心态相合拍，与现代审美视觉求新求异的需要相适应，因此不期而然地具备了时代性和现代感。

薛亮的心象山水来自于整合与重构，这当中既包含对自然物象的整合重构，也包含对传统语言的整合重构，而贯穿其始终的则是艺术观念的变革。

为了体认薛亮山水画的独创性，有必要先从“形而下”的角度来探究其语言特色。

由毛笔、水墨、色彩等媒材在纸（绢）上运动而产生的勾、皴、点、染等技法，是构成传统山水画的基本造型元素，需经画家的序列组合才产生特定的、完整的形象和意味。薛亮清醒地认识到，若是有意识地将它们从旧有的形式格局中剥离出来，以现代人的自然观和新山水的价值观，强化和规范它们的个体特征，再根据它们各自的语义特征和笔墨特征，赋以全新的序列，重新和谐地构成，必将创造出既源于古人，又异于古人；既有传统精练的“修辞”，又有现代“文采”意念的新“句式”和新“篇章”。

薛亮这种创造性的探索起始于上个世纪80年代后期，成熟于90年代后期。这得力于他自70年代以来对传统的深入研习和苦临苦练，对宋、元、明、清代表性山水画家作品的解读，使他对传统造型符号有了深层次的理解。再则是对中外艺术理论的潜心研读，又使他确立了山水画由传统向现代转型的坚定信念。还有不可忽视的是，他用七、八年的时间游历名山大川，在对大自然的写生中感悟种种美质，并将传统笔法墨法在真景实境中加以印证。正是在这一过程中，他深切地认识到传统绘画中的笔墨符号是脱胎于自然景观的艺术形态，是主观世界对客观世界的重新塑造，是最纯粹的艺术语言元，它们积淀着民族的审美理想，比之西方的再现艺术、抽象艺术，从更高层面上迫近了艺术本体。

正是在上述基础上，薛亮有智有勇地进入了心象山水创作阶段。他对传统和自然进行重构，彻底告别了追摹自然感觉的写生状态，转向内心精神的探求，将主观意识和情感渗入到具体物象之中，将它们重新编排，整合出真正“物我合一”的、个人化的新山水。视觉冲击力强烈的几何形结构，是薛亮山水图式一大特色。他的许多作品都以几何形的构成、或方或圆的大块山石造成一种整体肃穆的内聚力，精心设计的穿插于其间的树木、云水、溪涧等都被变形强化乃至符号化，而“有意味的形式”就潜藏在经过主观重建的几何结构之中，有一种恍兮惚兮的梦幻美。在他的笔下，北派的斧劈皴、钉头皴与南派的披麻皴、解索皴，工笔青绿与水墨写意，传统神韵与现代意味，都被奇妙地融为一体，共同构成其心象山水的标志性图式。这种视觉图式完全打破了传统意象山水的陈述性，而强化了表现性，用虚拟的实笔，造成似曾相识又出乎意外的神秘性和梦幻感。

追求艺术形式的单纯美和耐读性的统一，是薛亮山水图式的又一特色。单纯美中有丰富的内涵，有强化了的内聚力，有严谨的画面结构。造型整体简约而重视细节描绘，用笔节奏单纯而精到，色调设置简洁而明净，章法结构均衡而奇特。这一切，使欣赏者游弋于真切和幻觉之间，产生一种穿越时空隧道的灵境感。他将映射自然的镜子打碎，将传统的形式格局打碎，重新用意蕴丰厚的点、线、面、色，勾、皴、擦、染，整合出他理想中的“伊甸园”。这是高度理性而又高度感性的抉择。

从“形而上”的角度来审度薛亮心象山水的美学内涵，其现代审美理念却也是源自民族传统美学精神——“澄怀观道”和“澄怀味像”。

在中国古典哲学中，“道”是宇宙万物的根本，所谓“澄怀”，即要求作为艺术家的审美心胸，必须排除各种主观欲望和名利观念，具备一种虚静纯洁的心境，才能认识“道”之玄妙。而“道”的特点是“惟恍惟惚”或“大音希声”、“大象无形”。希声是静，无形是虚，通过虚静却可以观照或反映天地万物的本质，体现出这种既属于感觉又超越于感觉的至美之境，以达到艺术的最高境界。

可以看出，薛亮正是继承和发扬了中华民族虚静美学观的精神，并在新的历史条件下将其发挥到一个极致。他的作品大多从虚静接物，经过丰富的想象和联想，使作品表露出冰清玉洁、寂静玄幻的美学特征，呈现出顶级的含蓄性、暗示性和虚拟性，他笔下那些单纯、简洁、整一的艺术图象，如鬼斧神工，散发着一种空灵静穆的崇高美，构筑出一种天地万物在浩渺时空中冥冥运化，大音希声的永恒境界。需要强调指出，这里所说的“虚”，不等于“虚无”，而是老庄哲学中虚实相生的“虚”；这里所说的“静”，不是无生命的静止，而是老庄哲学中静中寓动的“静”。这正如苏东坡诗云：“静故了群动，空故纳万境。”试看薛亮之作，同是虚静之美，倾向却各有差异，或幽玄，或清旷，或纯净，或冷寂，或诡异，或柔和。多样而又统一的审美形态，在整体上都使人浮想连翩，产生一种宇宙感、人生感、历史感和沧桑感。

薛亮心象山水的静态美是传统的静态美的延续，更是扩展。他的审美心象决不同于古代文人画家笔下所展露的那种封建文人式的清高孤傲和闲情逸致，也不同于当今某些貌似静态而其实浮躁的山水画。他的静，凝聚着神气和力量，凝聚着当代人的感情和理性，凝聚着经过转型的传统笔墨形态的精华，因而薛亮的心象山水饱涵着深刻的当代性意义。在现代工业化、都市化的强大压力下，充满了喧闹、拥挤、污染、烦躁和紧张的生存竞争，使许多人感到厌倦和心烦意乱。渴求回归自然，渴求片刻宁静，渴求视觉安慰，成为普遍性的现代社会心理。薛亮准确地把握了时代的心理脉搏，创造出令人心醉神迷的、超人间的净土世界，在这里，人们完全放松地领略静穆之美，倾听隐于其间的天籁之音。如此，他的作品受到有眼光的众多欣赏者的关注，是极其顺理成章的。

薛亮以他沉静的性格，睿智的思考，浑厚的功力，诗人的气质，通过对民族文化的整体把握和现代理念的转换，通过对自然物象与传统语言的整合重构，创造出当代心象山水的一种新的审美图式，一种新的山水形态。近 年来他的作品受到全国美术界和艺术爱好者的普遍关注和高度赞扬，独具个性的具有时代特征的绘画风格正越来越广泛的影响着当代的山水画创作。几十年如一日的默默耕耘，而今名至实归也是顺理成章的事。

 《中国当代著名画家个案研究·薛亮心象山水》

《当代名家青绿山水精品---薛亮》

《名画典藏》

《荣宝斋画谱.195，山水部分》

 Born in 1956 in Jingjiang, Jiangsu Province. He graduated from Nanjing Academy of Art in 1982. After graduation, he was an art editor of Xinhua Daily from 1997, and has worked in Jiangsu Traditional Chinese Painting Academy since 1997. He is now vice-president of Jiangsu Academy of Traditional Chinese Painting, director of Fu Baoshi Memorial Museum, first-class national artist, member of the 12th CPPCC National Committee, vice-chairman of Jiangsu Artists Association, member of Jiangsu Provincial Literature Federation, specially appointed researcher of fine arts creation of China Academy of Art, doctoral tutor of Graduate School of China Academy of Art, and enjoys special allowance from experts of the State Council, senior title of Jiang Member of the Professional Review Committee. In 2013, he won the first "Zijin Culture Medal" awarded by the provincial government of Jiangsu Provincial Committee; in 2014, he won the "Jiangsu Art Achievement Award". His works have participated in national and provincial exhibitions for many times. He has won one national gold award, three national silver awards, three provincial silver awards, one provincial copper award and four provincial academic achievement awards. Many personal exhibitions have been held at home and abroad. Publishing six collections of personal paintings, nearly ten huge works have been collected by the major domestic art galleries, museums, Zhongnanhai, Chairman Mao Memorial Hall and other government agencies.

The Originality of Xue Liang's Landscape Painting

Ma Hongzeng (Vice-Director of the Theoretical Committee of China Association of American Arts)

All excellent landscape paintings have the character of "humanized nature". However, because of the different artistic expression ways dealing with the relationship between subject and object, they can be divided into three types: real image, intention and mental image. Mind image landscape often constructs unrealistic landscape space-time by reconstructing the traditional language form, and thus develops a modern and brand-new aesthetic realm. Xue Liang, a middle-aged painter, is an outstanding representative of contemporary Chinese mind image landscape array.Reading Xue Liang's works makes people indulge in the quiet, quiet, elegant and pure aesthetic mood, shocked by the peculiar, mysterious and extraordinary structural tension, and reveled in the meticulous, smart and exquisite brushwork. Although unrealistic and unreasonable, this kind of seemingly illusory, idealized and emotional mind is in line with the common sense and the modern people's mentality of returning to nature and being close to nature. It is also in line with the need of modern aesthetic vision to seek novelty and difference. Therefore, it unexpectedly possesses the sense of the times and modernity.

Xue Liang's mind image landscape comes from integration and reconstruction, which includes not only the integration and reconstruction of natural images, but also the integration and reconstruction of traditional language, and throughout it is the change of artistic concept.

In order to recognize the originality of Xue Liang's landscape painting, it is necessary to explore its language characteristics from the perspective of "form-down".Skills such as hook, chaff, dot and dyeing, which are produced by brush, ink, color and other media moving on paper (silk), are the basic modeling elements of traditional landscape painting. Only through the sequence combination of painters can a specific and complete image and meaning be produced. Xue Liang is soberly aware that if they are consciously separated from the old pattern of form, strengthened and standardized their individual characteristics with modern people's view of nature and new landscape values, and then given a new sequence according to their respective semantic characteristics and ink characteristics, and reconstructed harmoniously, they will create a new one that is both from the ancients and different from the ancients. The succinct "rhetoric" has a new "sentence pattern" and a new "chapter" with the modern "literary grace" idea.

Xue Liang's creative exploration began in the late 1980s and matured in the late 1990s. This is due to his in-depth study and painstaking training of tradition since the 1970s, and his interpretation of representative landscape painters'works in Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, which has given him a deep understanding of traditional sculpture symbols. Thirdly, his devoted study of Chinese and foreign art theories has established his firm belief in the transformation of landscape painting from traditional to modern. What can not be neglected is that he spent seven or eight years traveling famous mountains and rivers, perceiving all kinds of beauty in nature's sketch, and verifying the traditional brushwork and ink method in the real scene. It is in this process that he deeply realized that the brush and ink symbols in traditional paintings are artistic forms born out of the natural landscape, the re-shaping of the subjective world to the objective world, and the purest language element of art. They accumulate national aesthetic ideals, and are closer to the artistic noumenon from a higher level than the Western reproductive art and abstract art.It is on the basis of the above that Xue Liang enters the stage of mind image landscape creation with wisdom and courage. He reconstructed the tradition and nature, completely abandoned the sketch state of imitating the natural feeling, turned to the inquiry of inner spirit, infiltrated subjective consciousness and emotion into concrete images, rearranged them, and integrated them into a truly "thing-self-unity" and personalized new landscape. The geometric structure with strong visual impact is one of the characteristics of Xue Liang's landscape schema. Many of his works are composed of geometric shapes, or square or round boulders, which create a solemn cohesion as a whole. The trees, clouds, streams and so on, which are carefully designed, are strengthened by deformation and even symbolized. The "meaningful form" is hidden in the geometric structure which has been subjectively reconstructed, and has a kind of vague dreamlike beauty. In his writings, the northern school's axes, nails and nails, the southern school's hemp and rope, the Meticulous Brushwork of green and ink freehand brushwork, the traditional charm and the modern meaning are all amazingly integrated, which together constitute the symbolic pattern of its image of mountains and waters. This visual schema completely breaks the statement of the traditional image of landscape, and strengthens the expressiveness, using virtual real pen, resulting in the mystery and fantasy of deja vu and unexpected.Pursuing the unity of pure beauty and readability of artistic form is another feature of Xue Liang's landscape schema. Simple beauty has rich connotations, strengthened cohesion and rigorous picture structure. The overall shape is concise and pays attention to detail description. The rhythm of the pen is simple and delicate. The tone setting is concise and clear. The structure of the composition is balanced and peculiar. All of these make the viewer wander between reality and illusion, creating an inspiration to cross the tunnel of time and space. He broke the mirror reflecting nature, the traditional form and pattern, and integrated his ideal "Garden of Eden" with rich points, lines, faces, colors, hooks, chains, erases and dyes. This is a highly rational and highly perceptual choice.

From the perspective of metaphysics, the aesthetic connotation of Xue Liangxinxiang's landscape is also derived from the traditional national aesthetic spirit - "Chenghuai Guantao" and "Chenghuai Taste Image".In Chinese classical philosophy, "Tao" is the foundation of all things in the universe. The so-called "Chenghuai" means that the aesthetic mind of an artist must be excluded from all subjective desires.