一九八四年，北京承古斋为画家刘永明举办了个人画展，开展首日，艾青先生、张仃先生、吴冠中先生和白雪石先生等老一辈艺术家们，都专程前来参观。这足以说明美术界对永明先生的肯定与期待，更说明了这次展览的意义和影响力是深远的。我就是在这次画展上认识永明的。他的绘画深深地吸引了我，让人有一种耳目一新的感觉，在心中留下了深刻的印象。三十多年来，我和众多美术界的同仁一样，都非常关注刘永明先生和他艺术创作的发展历程。吴冠中先生在文章中写道：「刘永明的作品力求高度完整，天衣无缝。他的画面明快、开朗、舒畅、是田园诗。他倔强地走自己的路，他的路会越走越宽，因为他实力雄厚」。我完全同意吴先生的看法。我认为，永明先生的艺术创作面向生活，师法自然，融汇中西，感人至深。他创造了一种具有鲜明个人风格的的绘画语言，以其动人的欣赏性，强烈的艺术性和深刻的时代性，为中国美术注入了全新的生命。

　　二十世纪九十年代，刘永明先生创作了《家乡的河》、《三月》、《夕阳红》、《玉米花开》等重要作品。在这些作品中，北方的山村是他永恒的主题，他把对童年的回忆和对家乡深深的眷恋，充分地表现在自己的画作中。永明先生把自己创作的视角锁定在人们身边的景物，以朴实无华的艺术语言，充满诗意的表现形式，对北方的乡村做了艺术的升华和完美地诠释。

　　进入二十一世纪，刘永明先生创作了以《秋水》、《午后的阳光》、《秋天的白杨》、《源远流长》等为代表的一系列重要的作品，这一系列的作品，在永明先生的艺术道路上，具有承前启后的作用，更具有里程碑般的意义，画家根据对象的特点，寻找表现的方法，把内心敏锐的感受，淋漓尽致的展现在画作中。使画面的内涵与效果完美地结合，达到了炉火纯青的境界。

　　几十年来，永明先生的足迹行遍祖国的大江南北，天山戈壁，更遍及欧美多国。近些年，他的巨幅创作如《万山红遍》、《武夷雄峰》、《卡布里岛》、《西岳华山》等，更是将他的艺术语言发挥到了出神入化的境界。他运用自己探索多年的，成熟的表现方法，以色彩为主线，创造性的运用彩墨，把艺术家对生活的体验和创作的理念，做了最直接和强烈的表达。

　　正是基于美术界对刘永明先生艺术成就的高度肯定，和海内外收藏家的广泛喜爱与推崇，荣宝斋先后于一九八八年，一九九二年，二００七年，在香港、日本和北京为他举办了个人画展。为同一个画家，在不同国家和地区，连续举办个人画展，这在荣宝斋的历史上是罕见的。

　　刘永明先生的艺术从生活中来，到生活中去，真诚感人。他从大自然和现实生活中汲取养份，把学院派严谨的技法，和中国传统精神的内涵巧妙地结合在一起，形成了他独特的艺术语言，使中国绘画的色彩又一次丰满而生动，使中国绘画的形式又一次得到了拓展。永明先生以其敏锐的艺术视角，鲜明的艺术风格，带领中国美术走出了新的方向，开创了新的道路。是继林风眠、吴冠中先生后，中国当代美术界最具代表性的艺术家，他的艺术创造与成就必将在美术史上留下其动人的篇章和永恒的印记。

——（荣宝斋总经理米景阳）

　　RongBaoZhai, Chief Executive

　　Mi Jing-Yang

　　In 1984, Beijing Cheng GuZhai Gallery presented Mr. Liu Yong-Ming’s solo exhibition. Amongst the audience were a bounty influential artists, including Mr. Ai Qing, Mr. Zhang Ding, Mr. BaiXue-Shi. Also in attendance was the notable Mr. Wu Guan-Zhong, whose presence indicated a prominent appreciation and great expectation for Mr. Liu Yong-Ming’s work. It was clear that Mr. Liu’s work would continue to cast a significant influence on Chinese ink painting. This was when I first met Mr. Liu. I was completely captivated and refreshed by his paintings. His work left a strong impression in my heart ever since. Over the past thirty years, like many colleagues in the art society, I have paid close attention to Mr. Liu’s art performance and evolution. Mr. Wu Guan-Zhong commented once in his writing, “Mr. Liu Yong-Ming strives to express seamlessly integrated presentations in his works. The general impression of his work is bright, cheerful, soothing, and idyllic. He insists on going his own way and his path will be full of prospects because of his true talent.” In my opinion, Mr. Liu Yong-Ming’s creative works are true to life and nature. He successfully fuses the unique qualities of Western and Chinese styles to create paintings that touch the heart. His works blend together brilliant visual presentations with the deepest of emotions. He has a dis- tinctive personal style that captures rich and profound vocabularies of visual arts, and his works present a powerful artistic nature that marks the era and breathes new life into the development of fine art in China.

　　In the 1990s, Mr. Liu Yong-Ming created several significant works, including “River In Homeland”, “March”, “Red Setting Sun” and “The Cornfield”, all sharing images of Northern villages as the main theme. His childhood memories and nostalgia towards his hometown were fully imparted in his portrayal of these landscapes. His art had always focused on small things in everyday life, seemingly mundane but often imbued with hidden and true happiness. His paintings were simple, pure and without fancy embellishment. Through seamless integration of landscape elements and poetic artistic impressions, Liu Yong-Ming shared with his audience a genuine interpretation on the Northern country, as ingrained in his memory.

　　In the 21st Century, Mr. Liu Yong-Ming created a highly representative series, including “River In Autumn”, “Afternoon Sunshine”, “Poplar Tree In Autumn”, and “Long Passing Of Time”. Mr. Liu’s style, at first taking root and burgeoning in his previous paintings, further developed and flourished with this collection, marking a milestone in his artistic development. These pieces focused on the presentation of the respective subject’s specific characteristics. During this stage in his craft, Mr. Liu’s sensitivity toward every minute detail became fully manifested. He harmoniously merged the connotations of images with the representations of composition and layout. Mr. Liu’s artistic prowess had reached a pinnacle.

　　Through the past decades, Mr. Liu traveled across China, from the Tianshan Mountain to the Gobi Desert, then from the European to American continents. His recent large-scale paintings, including “Reddened Mountains”, “Wuyi Mountain”, “Island of Capri”, and “Hua Mountain”, reflected Mr. Liu’s astounding ability to express his interpretation of nature through his craft. As his techniques grew ever more sophisticated, his exploration of stylistic possibilities escalated. Using color as the essence of his art, he imaginatively used inks to illustrate and bring to life his personal experiences through his aesthetic ideals.

　　Because Mr. Liu Yong-Ming was a highly achieved creative artist and his artworks had been collected by many international collectors, RongBaoZhai Gallery was proud to organize solo exhibitions for Mr. Liu in Hong Kong, Japan, and Beijing in 1988, 1992, and 2007 respectively, despite the fact that organizing exhibitions in different countries for the same artist was unprecedented in the history of RongBaoZhai.

　　The essence of Mr. Liu Yong-Ming’s art is being true to life; they reach the hearts of his viewers. By marrying deep-rooted techniques from various academic styles with traditional approaches to Chinese art, Mr. Liu personifies the beauty he finds in nature and life. He creates unique artistic vocabularies and enriches poetic monochromatic Chinese ink painting styles with vivid colors. His ability to synthesize and unify these elements has brought infinite possibilities to the art of Chinese painting. Mr. Liu Yong-Ming’s sensitivity and brilliant artistic style have ushered Chinese traditional ink painting to a new direction and opened a whole new path of possibilities. The basis and core of Mr. Liu Yong-Ming’s art is and has always been the virtue of being true to life. These are the values that have reached the hearts of his audience. Mr. Liu Yong-Ming is one of the most representative artists in Chinese fine art society after Mr. Lin Feng-Mian and Wu Guan-Zhong. We are certain his art will leave a chapter of brilliant achievement in the history of Chinese fine art.