Ai Weiwei may be China's most famous artist in the West, but it is his older half-brother who commands recognition, respect and top yuan among mainland Chinese collectors.
未未可能在西方是最知名的中国艺术家，但在中国内地藏家中，获得认可和尊重、作品卖价高的却是他同父异母的哥哥。
Ai Xuan, 65, is a realist painter based in Beijing. Known in China as 'Master Ai, ' he is best known for his finely rendered large-format portraits of Tibetan nomads.
65岁的艾轩是一位驻北京的写实派画家。他在中国被称为“艾大师”，他最知名的作品是用细腻的手法描绘西藏游牧民的巨幅肖像画。
His works often spark bidding wars at auctions, and 4 million yuan is considered a fair price. A collector at a 2011 Poly Auction sale in Beijing famously paid 28 million yuan (about $5 million) for one of Mr. Ai's oil-on-canvas pieces, among the highest prices ever achieved by the work of a living artist in China, according to Artron, a Chinese art-data provider.
他的作品常常在拍卖会上引发竞拍大战，动辄拍得人民币400万元。据中国艺术数据提供商雅昌(Artron)说，2011年保利拍卖(Poly Auction)在北京举行的一场拍卖会上，一位藏家以人民币2,800万元的价格拍下了艾轩的一幅油画作品，属在世中国艺术家创作的作品中价格最高之列。
'I think people are attracted to my paintings because of the solitude, the pride of the individuals despite the harshness of the natural environment, the bitterness of life, ' Mr. Ai told the Journal this month, as he visited Hong Kong to open the exhibition 'Colors From Ink.' Presenting the artist's new works on paper, it's just the second solo show of his career, despite Mr. Ai's stature in China.
艾轩本月到香港举办名为“粉墨登场”(Colors From Ink)的作品展时接受了《华尔街日报》的采访。他在采访中说，我认为人们之所以被我的画所吸引，原因在于它们所展示出的在艰苦的自然环境下，在艰难的生活中，人们表现出的孤独和骄傲。尽管艾轩在中国知名度很高，但香港的展览才只是他绘画生涯中的第二场个展，展品多为他的新作。
Hong Kong art dealer and gallery owner Catherine Kwai attributes this lack-Mr. Ai's only previous solo exhibition was in 1987 in New York-to small output. Even at his peak of production, exacting brushwork limited the artist to perhaps 12 oil paintings a year, Ms. Kwai said. With advancing age his pace has slowed to about two.
香港艺术品交易商及画廊所有者季玉年(Catherine Kwai)将艾轩个展数量少归因于产量小，此前艾轩唯一一次个展是在1987年于纽约举行的。季玉年说，即使在他最多产的时期，受限于细腻的画法，这位艺术家可能每年也只能画出12幅油画作品。随着年龄的增长，他的速度放慢至每年两幅左右。
'It's impossible for a gallery to do an exhibit of his oils, ' said Ms. Kwai. But Mr. Ai has become more prolific in recent years, since turning to less-time-consuming Chinese-style ink painting. He can produce dozens of ink-on-paper works a year.
季玉年说，画廊是无法举办他的油画作品展的。但近几年由于转向耗时较短的中式水墨画，艾轩的作品产量有所提高。每年他能画出几十幅水墨画。
The exhibition at Ms. Kwai's gallery space, Kwai Fung Hin, assembles 30 examples priced at 150, 000 Hong Kong dollars to HK$2 million (US$19, 350 to US$258, 000). Two of his ink pieces, depicting pretty Tibetan women, sold at Sotheby's last weekend for HK$1.24 million, well above their high estimate of HK$260, 000.
此次在季玉年的画廊季丰轩(Kwai Fung Hin)举办的画展共展出30幅水墨作品，价格在15万港元至200万港元之间。其中两幅描绘美丽的西藏妇女的水墨画在上周末苏富比(Sotheby's)拍卖会上以124万港元的价格成交，远远高于26万港元的估价。
Mr. Ai began to experiment with Chinese-style ink painting in 2008, following in the footsteps of his wife Jin Tao, an artist who works in the medium. With ink, which he applies to traditional Chinese art papers, he uses Western watercolor techniques of shading, hue and line to realistically render the faces of his figures. His backgrounds, meanwhile, are almost black and white, employing the abstracted brushstrokes of Chinese classical painting.
艾轩从2008年开始追随他妻子艺术家金涛尝试中式水墨画。在画水墨画时，他在宣纸上使用西方水彩画的描影、色调和画线技巧来描绘人物的脸部。与此同时，他画作的背景几乎都是黑色和白色，使用了国画的抽象绘画技巧。
Bespectacled and scholarly, Mr. Ai holds to a rigorous daily routine. He starts his day at 6 a.m., exercising religiously before going on to paint in one of two studios. In the morning, when natural light is best, he focuses on oil painting in one space, shifting to ink at the second studio in the afternoon. He sticks to a diet of 'peasant food' and goes to sleep by 9 p.m., he said. His only child, a daughter, recently began high school in the U.S.
带着眼镜、极具学者风度的艾轩遵循严格的日常作息习惯。他每天早上6点起床，雷打不动的进行锻炼，然后到他的两个画室中的一个进行绘画。早上在自然光线最佳的时候，他在其中一间画室集中精力画油画，下午他就去另一间画室画水墨画。他说，他坚持吃“农家饭”，并且每天9点前睡觉。他唯一的孩子(女儿)最近已开始在美国读高中。
The artist's work is sought after by China's wealthy and powerful. Filmmaker Feng Xiaogang, China's 'box-office king, ' owns several of his paintings, according to a representative of the director.
艾轩的作品受到中国富人和有影响力人士的追捧。据导演冯小刚的一个代表说，这位“票房王”就拥有艾轩的几幅画作。
Yet Mr. Ai's works rarely translate outside of China today. Beryl Chan, an independent art adviser based in Hong Kong, describes them as 'very traditional, academic and... repetitive' in terms of subject matter.
然而，艾轩的作品很少反映今日中国以外的主题。驻香港的独立艺术品顾问Beryl Chan认为这些作品的主题“非常传统、属学院派而且具重复性”。
While his sibling Ai Weiwei's conceptual, politically rooted works resonate internationally, the older Mr. Ai's realist, technically meticulous precise oil paintings are seen as outdated in Western contemporary art circles.
尽管他的弟弟艾未未概念化、具有政治意义的作品在国际上赢得共鸣，但艾轩细致入微的油画作品在西方当代艺术圈中被视为过时了。
'It's not Western collectors' taste, ' Ms. Chan noted.
Chan说，艾轩的风格不符合西方藏家的品味。
Born to different mothers, the artists are both sons of the poet Ai Qing, who was persecuted and banished to do labor in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Although the brothers live just minutes apart in Beijing, the last time they had a conversation was in 1996, as their father was dying.
艾轩和艾未未是同父异母的兄弟，他们的父亲是诗人艾青。艾青曾在文化大革命时期遭到迫害，并被流放到农村进行劳动改造。尽管他们兄弟在北京的住所仅相隔几分钟的路程，他们上一次对话还是在1996年，也就是他们的父亲弥留之际。
'We are very different, have had different paths and don't have much in common, ' the older artist said of his relationship with his younger brother. 'We didn't grow up together.'
艾轩在谈到他与弟弟的关系时说，我们非常不同，我们走在不同的路上，没有太多共同点，我们没在一起长大。
Despite his family background, 'I am not interested in politics at all, only humanity, ' Mr. Ai said. 'I want to be remembered as an artist from China who expressed the inner feelings of the simple people of this time.'
艾轩说，尽管有这样的家庭背景，我对政治完全没有兴趣，只关注人性，我希望被视为一名来自中国的表达当下普通人内心感受的艺术家。
Mr. Ai became fascinated with oil painting as a pupil in the 1960s at Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts. At the time, 'it seemed so new, so different, ' he said.
艾轩在上世纪60年代就读于北京的中央美术学院期间开始对油画着迷。他说，当时它看起来非常新鲜，非常与众不同。
His style has its roots in Soviet romantic realism, but also owes a debt to the late American painter Andrew Wyeth, whose work he encountered in the rare foreign magazines that circulated among his fellow students.
他的风格源于苏联浪漫现实主义，但也借鉴了美国已故画家安德鲁•韦思(Andrew Wyeth)，他当时是在同学中传阅的稀有外国杂志上看到了韦思的作品。
He also credits his father's influence. Although China celebrates Ai Qing as a great modern poet, in his youth he was a painter, studying under the influential French-trained artist Lin Fengmian at what is now the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou.
艾轩还表示他的父亲也对他产生了影响。尽管在中国艾青被视为一位伟大的现代诗人，但年轻时，他曾是一位画家，曾在杭州目前名为中国美术学院的学府跟随具有影响力的、曾在法国学习过的艺术家林风眠学习。
After graduating, Ai Xuan joined the People's Liberation Army, where his duties ranged from farm work to painting front-line soldiers. Like many men and women of his generation, he was sent to the countryside. From 1973 to 1984, he was stationed in Sichuan province, an area populated by Tibetan nomads-a subject that has captivated him ever since.
艾轩在毕业后加入了中国人民解放军，在那里他的职责包括干农活和为前线战士画像。像许多同代人一样，他也下过乡。1973年至1984年期间，他被分配到四川省工作，那里有很多西藏游牧民，自那以来他一直为这个主题所吸引。
As for ink, it represents 'a new challenge.' While his ink paintings evoke a lighter feeling than his oils, they convey a similar emotion.
至于水墨画，他说这代表“一个新的挑战”。尽管他的水墨画给人的感觉没有油画那么强烈，但他们传达了同样的情感。
'Oil is a Western medium, while ink is a real Chinese tradition, ' Mr. Ai said. 'There are so many possibilities.'
艾轩说，油画是西方的画法，而水墨画是中国真正的传统艺术，存在许多可能性。
'Colors From Ink, ' showing at Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery in Hong Kong through Nov. 3.
“粉墨登场”作品展11月3日前在香港季丰轩画廊展出。
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