袁元作品展
袁元1990 年从美院附中考入美院，那时候美院的油画专业强调传统的教育方式，讲求扎实的基本功训练。袁元一直属于造型能力比较强的学生，毕业之后又去到工艺美院继续研究生学习，之后回到美院教书、读博士，现在又是美院基础部的副主任，可以说这么多年袁元从没有脱离对油画本体语言的追求。 让我觉得非常珍贵的是，在袁元艺术的转变中，最基本的对于“水平”的要求从没有松懈过，他一直在和油画“较劲”。至于说主题，主题是由每个人的生活、经历所决定的，每个人自身的经历决定了创作的主题。我的经历也决定着我的作品，这是不能管的，我只管最基本的问题——水平怎么样。
——靳尚谊
前言
Preface
Yuan Yuan was admitted to the academy of fine arts in 1990 from the affiliated middle school of the academy of fine arts. At that time, the oil painting major of the academy emphasized the traditional education method and solid basic skills training. Yuan Yuan has always been a student with strong modeling ability. After graduation, he went to continue his postgraduate study in the Institute of Arts and Crafts, and then returned to the academy of fine arts to teach and study for a doctor degree. Now he is also the deputy director of the basic department of the academy. It can be said that Yuan Yuan has never been separated from the pursuit of painting noumenal language.
What makes me feel very precious is that in the transformation of Yuan Yuan's art, the most basic requirements for "level" have never been relaxed, and he has been “competitive" with the painting. As for the themes, the theme is determined by each person's life and experience, and each person's own experience determines the theme of creation. My experience also determines my work, which is not to be controlled, and I'm concerned with the most basic requirements of all -- what the level is.
——Jin Shangyi
I have always appreciated Yuan Yuan's dedication to art. At such an age, it takes more faith to keep this dedication, and Yuan Yuan sticks to his own role as an artist. His exploration of language has no boundaries. Themes, brush strokes, tone, space, texture, form, national character, time character, He has never given up any of the items, deducing his honesty and love for art as a whole, Yuan Yuan has done very pure, his art has fully possessed all the attributes of a mature artist. Today, to say that more serious, the persistence of language itself is a test of an artist's will, but I believe that the persistence of language is not an adventure or a gamble. Yuan yuan's painting also showed me the ease that today's Chinese people have mastered the tool of oil painting. It is already a completely Chinese face, completely free from the Affectation and embarrassment that imitate others and thus lose one's own individuality for more than 100 years, and has no trace of oil painting as an imported goods. This is very comforting.
It occurred to me that Johannes Vermeer, the Dutch painter who had been absent from us for three hundred years, was called the lyric poet, and the master of language. Years ago, I had seen a retrospective of Vermeer in Metropolitan Museum, New York. In the cold wind, a long queue outside the Metropolitan Museum purchasing tickets in sequence. Vermeer is not for any other reason, only because the excellence of language that constantly remembered by people. Obviously, art is immortal because of language. I have no doubt about it. I know that Yuan Yuan has this perseverance in his heart.
——Du Dakai
全具备了一个成熟的艺术家的所有秉赋。今天看来，说得严重些，对语言的执着本身就是对一个艺术家意志的考验，但我相信，对语言的执着不是一种冒险，也不是一种赌博。袁元的画还使我看到了今天的中国人驾驭油画这种工具的从容与自在，它已经是一幅完全的中国面孔，全然摆脱了一百余年来邯郸学步似的矫饰与尴尬，已没有半点舶来品的痕迹。这让人十分欣慰。 我忽然想到约翰内斯•维米尔，那个已离开我们三百余年被称作抒情诗人的荷兰画家、语言大师。多年以前，我曾经在纽约大都会看过维米尔的回顾展。寒风中，大都会博物馆外有一排长长的身影依序购买参观券。维米尔不是因为别的原因，只是因为语言的精湛被人们不断记起，很显然，艺术因语言而不朽，我对此毫不怀疑，我应当知道袁元心里也有这份坚持。
——杜大恺
我一直很欣赏袁元对艺术的执着，在袁元这样的年龄，持守这一份执着更需要一种信念，袁元坚守着作为一个艺术家的本份。他对语言的探索是没有边界的：题材、笔触、色调、空间、肌理、形态、民族性、时代性，一样也不放过，整体的全方位地推演着他对艺术的诚实和钟爱，袁元已做得很纯粹，他的艺术已完