本兩年期計劃關注於亨利‧盧梭（Henri Rousseau, 1844-1910）的叢林畫系列，近三十幅的叢林和野生動物畫作，以「素樸」（naïve）又人工化的手法，具現了十九世紀末現代人對原始自然的想望，並蘊藏了來自流行書刊和參觀巴黎植物園、世界博覽會的視覺經驗。以盧梭的創作為研究核心，且探討殖民時代如何形構「原始」、「異國」的概念和形象，將有助於我們瞭解現代藝術吸收和轉化自然史的底蘊和面貌。本計劃訂「自然的奇觀」為標題，用意是描述藝術家將自然的素材轉化和建構為不尋常的景觀，將自然當作裝飾圖案的母題和視覺語彙，並將人工化的自然作為想像遠方他鄉的催化劑，因此繪畫的製作歷經了層層的媒介化過程。本計劃聚焦以下議題：一、盧梭在素樸的標籤之外，他個人的寫實目標以及他如何開闢另一種「寫實」美學？ 二、由於素樸和寫實主義有密切淵源，因此需考察十九藝術史中追求原初真誠的傾向。三、盧梭所營造的叢林世界富含裝飾性，帶給觀者什麼樣的視覺愉悅和聯想空間？四、在現代生活越來越遠離自然，又同時需求接近自然的情況下，盧梭的叢林畫如何降低野性自然的威脅感，以及提示一種潛在的都會凝視？五、在殖民時代的異國「自然」展示脈絡中，藝術是否難免成為文化消費和娛樂的對象？六、柏格森（Henri Bergson）的創造演化論攸關達爾文「適者生存」和「自然選擇」學說的重要修正，其生命哲學可否增潤對於盧梭作品的詮釋？This two-year project will study the nearly thirty jungle paintings created by Henri Rousseau. In a “naïve” and artificial style, these works embody the modern man’s aspirations toward the primitive nature and suggest visual experiences accumulated from the popular books and visits to the Jardin des Plantes and Exposition universelle. The research on Rousseau and the concepts and imagery of the primitive and the exotic shaped by colonialism will help us understand the modern art’s adoption and transformation of natural history. This project is entitled “The Spectacle of Nature” to underline the fact that nature is used by the artist to construct a striking spectacle, and that nature is employed as a decorative motif and visual language. The composition of artificial nature serves as a stimulus for imagining a distant exotic land. Therefore, the process of picturing nature undergoes layers of mediation. This project will address the following issues: 1. Laying aside the label of “a naïve artist”, what is Rousseau’s aesthetic and how does he create an alternative realism? 2. What are the 19th-century artistic tendencies toward primal and naïve expressions? 3. How do Rousseau’s strongly decorative jungle paintings bring the viewer visual pleasure and elicit psychological responses? 4. As modern life is estranged from nature yet in need of nature, how does Rousseau reduce the sense of threat of the wildlife and encourages a metropolitan gaze? 5. In the context of colonial display of nature, does art inevitably become the object of cultural consumption and entertainment? 6. Henri Bergson’s thesis of “creative evolution” proposes a major revision of Darwin’s “the survival the fittest” and “natural selection”. Can Bergson’s philosophy of life give insights to the interpretation of Rousseau’s art? 研究期間：10008 ~ 10107
