有关方召麐画家的天才与成就的赞扬，很多人已说过了，重复再写，有点不必要吧？我敢说方召麐将来会被人们所怀念，犹如西方国家怀念米罗（Miro）和毕加索（Picasso）是现代的创拓大师一样。方召麐这女子，早年丧夫，有八个子女要抚养教育，竟能以无比的毅力，赋与中国画以新生命，新面貌。她将传统的中国画带上了更为宽阔的道路；从而使它踏上了真正具有时代面目的新境界！

　　许多人在贰崇方召麐艺术成就方面，会讲得比我更彻底、更好。当我第一次被邀请主持她1961年在新加坡举行的个展时，我已被这位女画家画风的雄伟气魄所吸引而深为感动。由于她是位思想比较前进的女子，当时的经济情况又不宽裕，可以说是处在极为艰难困苦的逆境里。尤其因为她是女性，许多人并不能正视这位画家的不平凡表现！

　　六十年代与现在的方召麐比较，她还是一位较传统的画家。然而就以那时的作品而论，已表露出内在的气魄，丰富的想象力。许多画的宏伟表现大大地吸引着我对她的注意。自从星马几次个展之后，方召麐一直严肃地、继续不断地刻苦用功，为她的艺术开拓新的方向，并努力追求新的表现方式。当时我是否觉察出方召麐是个天才，我不能肯定地说这句话，但那时我的确对自己说：方召麐这些画作本身已有足够抵抗一切无聊批评的力量，在许多平庸和摹仿者面前，她的作品已显露出初步的峥嵘而不平凡的表现了！

　　二十三年之后，在方氏的艺术确立自己风格、举世已承认她成就的时候，我为自己早期在荆棘中发现奇葩的心情而感到欣慰。

　　对于方氏的一切，我并不想居功。我是作家，象画家一样常常要寻求新的表现方式。我对方召麐从未指示过应走的方向，只有她自己，从心的寂寞孤独里，从她坚毅不屈的精神引导下，果断地追求，不停地探寻真理，最后使她接近人性的理解而找到了自己的道路。

　　在追求探索的崎岖道路上，方氏遭逢到艰困与压力，她远离温暖舒适的家庭生活，从古往今来难于逃出的妇女职责和无尽期的束缚中勇敢坚毅地去追求较高的理想，——只此一点已看出她是位了不起的天才，使我对她异常的钦佩！

　　在这里，我不谈方氏的师承问题。老师的教导是重要而必不可少的。中国绘画一贯的教育方法，注重临摹。时到今天，这一点已值得思考议论了。老师首先要从他们所指导的学生中激发起他们本身的力量和创新的勇气；要鼓励他们脱开传统的束缚，不应只事临摹而忽视创作。方召摩一向尊师重道，敬重她的老师们。但是她敢于脱出她老师们已铺设的轨道而行。这是非常值得我们学习的一课。

　　方氏认为中国的艺术根植于中国。只有中国自古至今的伟大文化，才能孕育出伟大的中国艺术。而且将继续不断源远流长地孕育下去。当有人坚持不回中国时，方氏敢于谏说，敢于争论。由于她对自己的祖国有信心，深切了解中国的永恒与伟大，也就是这种对自己祖国无比的坚毅信心，引导她继续不断地努力工作。为开创中国艺术新道路而努力。更为丰富伟大的中国传统艺术而工作，而努力下去！

韩素音一九八四瑞士洛桑

　　What can I write about Fang Zhaoling that would not. merely repeat the well deserved praise and admiration her genius has already earned for her? I can say that she will be remembered in years to come as the West now remembers its great innovators in painting amongst the Impressionists and in such modern Masters as Miro and Picasso. Alone, a woman, a widow with eight children to feed and educate, Fang Zhaoling has brought a new dimension to Chinese painting. She has taken the tradition of her art and broadened it and widened it to make it truly accessible and compelling in the perspective of China's modern period.

　　Many others can say so much more than I about the art of Fang Zhaoling, so I will tell of the woman : the woman whose enormous power already mesmerized me when I first met her officiating at the opening of her one-woman exhibition in Singapore in 1961. Then, everything seemed against her. Personal, political and economic factors seemed to conspire against her, but above all she had to overcome the hurdle of being a woman in a field where women were seldom taken seriously.

　　She was then a more classical artist than she has become, but even in that classicism there was already a power, a life-giving energy, an inner fire which struck me greatly. Since then I have learned that it was after that exhibition that Fang Zhaoling began to take seriously the idea of carving out a new path for herself, a new road of expression for her art. Perhaps I felt the pulse of that first stirring of genius-l don't know. All I know is that I thought to myself: tHere is something great which will stand firmly in the face of foolish criticism, mediocrity and repetitious conformism'. Now that twenty-three years have gone by, and Fang Zhaoling has found her own way in her art and been acclaimed for it by the whole world, I am satisfied that what I felt then was right.

　　I had no share in this - except as a fellow artist also trying to find new ways of expression in her own art. I did not tell Fang Zhaoling what to do. She alone, in the silence of her heart and the greatness of her spirit, in that perpetual search for ultimate reality which is mankind's very soul, found her own way.

　　In doing so she encountered many obstacles, both physical and spiritual. She chose a lonely struggle for her art over the temptations of settling down as a placid housewife in a wealthy household. She broke away from the established role of a woman and mother in pursuit of her own accomplishment. I revere and praise such a spirit - it is what makes her a genius in her own right.

　　I shall not talk in detail about her many teachers. Teachers are necessary and valuable so long as they do not insist only on conformism, on being imitated by their students. A teacher must first develop in the pupil the strength and courage to be different, to break away from slavish imitation. Fang Zhaoling has always honoured her teachers. We have often talked of them and she always rc ders themhonour and respect. But she could also diverge from them and this is a lesson that all of us must learn. Thus when one of them decided never to return to China she had the courage to argue that it was in China that lay the essential life-force which had given birth to Chinese painting and that it was China that would continue to nourish it. Her faith and trust in her own country, her ability to discern the Eternity of China, is also part of her ability to continue the process of enrichment of and innovation in the ancient art of Chinese painting.

1984 Han Suyin

Lausanne, Switzerland