姑苏繁华录

苏州桃花坞木版年画特展

序言

桃花坞木版年画是苏州文化宝藏中的独特瑰宝，享有“东方古艺之花”之美誉。作为国家级非物质文化遗产（桃花坞木版年画）保护单位，苏州市公共文化中心藏有清末以来400余幅古版年画，弥足珍贵。为让桃花坞木版年画“走出深闺”，经两年多艰苦筹备，《苏州桃花坞木版年画特展》入选国家艺术基金资助项目，即将展露“芳容”。

今天，当我们以全相天下的视角，聚焦镜头观照桃花坞木版年画在明代以降历史、文化、艺术、商业及对外交往之独特地位，桃花坞木版年画就不仅仅是一种“考究日用”之物，更可以转化成艺术史学、广义历史学、人类学、经济学和社会学的宏观视野，“拨开云雾见青天”。一幅幅精美绝伦画面背后引人入胜的真实面目，将由静而动地徐徐展开。许多更富意义的问题值得深入探讨并尝试阐释，比如，桃花坞木版年画的艺术价值有哪些？她在明清以来江南商业及社会生活中所独具的作用是什么？她作为商品是如何流通到海外，并对日本、韩国等地文化艺术产生影响的？

数百年沧海桑田，事物代谢，宛如川上逝水，但文脉百世薪传，岿然独存。黯然回眸，试图从宏观全相的大历史大视野，综合运用文献资料和档案史料，忠实勾勒出桃花坞木版年画在历史长河中的精彩全貌和动人意蕴，确实是我们之宏大心愿。兹事体大，即便特别延请中国美术馆研究与策划部主任张晴先生担纲策展及学术主持，同心协力，殚精竭虑，但自身学识、能力有限，更兼驾驭纷繁史料之功力不足，鲁鱼亥豕在所难免。期待美轮美奂之桃花坞木版年画所带来的历史文化思考，更期请观者不吝指教。

曹俊

苏州市公共文化中心主任

苏州美术馆馆长

The Record of Suzhou's Glory

Suzhou Taohuawu Woodcut Prints Exhibition

Foreword

Enjoying a high reputation of “the Flowers of Oriental Ancient Arts”, Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Painting is a gem among Suzhou cultural treasures. As the National Intangible Cultural Heritage (Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Painting) Protection Unit, Suzhou Municipal Center of Public Culture has a collection of over 400 precious ancient New Year Paintings since the late Qing Dynasty. In order to lift the veil of Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Painting, we have made great efforts for two years, and Suzhou Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Painting Exhibition has been chosen as one of the National Art Fund Projects and will be held.

Today, when we focus on Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Painting to examine its unique status in the fields of history, culture, art, commerce and foreign exchanges since the Ming Dynasty from a synchronic perspective, we can see that Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Painting is not only an “exquisite article of daily use”, but an object to be studied from a macro view of art history, generalized history, including Kobe City Museum, Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, the National Library of France and so on, and domestic loan institutions are Liaoning Provincial Museum, the Shenyang Palace Museum, Nanjing Museum and others. At the same time, an illustrated album will be published to keep a record of the grand event. anthropology, economics and sociology to “dispel the clouds and see the sun”. Behind those supremely exquisite paintings, the alluring true beauty will be revealed slowly from static images to lively dynamics. Besides, there are more meaningful questions worth further discussion and tentative interpretation. For example, what are the artistic values of Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Painting? What special role has it played in the commercial and social life in regions south of the Yangtze River since the Ming and Qing Dynasties? How did it spread overseas as commodities and influence the culture and art in places like Japan and South Korea?

Great changes have taken place in hundreds of years, and everything has renewed with times. History is gone like a river flowing over mountains, but culture alone has been preserved and passed on from generation to generation. When looking back, we still have the great aspirations to faithfully present the outline of the splendid panorama and moving connotations of Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Painting throughout the human history by employing all sorts of literature and archives from a macro historic view. This is indeed a matter of great significance, so we invited Mr. Zhang Qing, director of the Research and Planning Division of the National Art Museum of China to be the planner and the academic director of the exhibition, who has collaborated with us and made painstaking endeavors. Nevertheless, owing to our limited knowledge and capabilities, as well as the incapability of handling complicated and abundant historical materials, mistakes must be inevitable. Even so, we still hope the elegant and beautiful Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Painting can bring about further historical and cultural reflections. Moreover, we expect generous comments and suggestions of spectators.

Cao Jun

Director of Suzhou Municipal Center of Public Culture

Chief Curator of Suzhou Art Museum