“红灯区，绿灯区，人间甘苦，都市之夜入画图。”这是我对自己80年代所作油画《香港夜景》的画外题词。自50年代别离了巴黎的霓虹灯，30年来没有见过城市的花花世界。80年代突然从北京来到繁华的香港，却首先想到红灯背后的苦难的人群，享乐的人们，人生的纷乱。不同于夜晚的彩色缤纷，白天从高楼上看香港，满眼楼房屋宇，道路奔驰，密密层层的线、面交错，构成直与曲的协奏。我用线勾勒那天旋地转的海市蜃楼，画面已经密不通风了，更加彩点击节，煞是热闹。

　　"Red-light district or green-light district, men's joy and misery are all told in a night-scene painting." These are the words I added to the piece I did during the 1980s, "A Night in Hong Kong." Since I parted with Paris's neon lights in the 1950s, I had lived away from cosmopolitan glamour for about thirty years. Then suddenly, I found myself in a prosperous Hong Kong of the 80s, far removed from Beijing's quietude. Despite that initial shock, what subsequently crossed my mind were still life's sufferings, joy and clutter, be it in Hong Kong or anywhere else. Looking down from a skyscraper during the day, with blocks of buildings rising over each other, and streets and roads crisscrossing amongst them, I was a Hong Kong different from the one at its varicolored self at night. Lines and planes overlapped and were tightly knit together, creating a concord of straightness and curviness. I used lines to sketch the contours of this swirling mirage. Upon the already overloaded picture, I threw colored dots here and there to highlight all that hustle and bustle.

　　90年代初，香港土地发展公司邀我前去画“吴冠中眼中的香港”专题，画了一个月的素材，返京后用油彩及水墨表现香港的旧貌与新装，及用水墨表现夜香港，却屡屡失败。水墨之优势在于渲染，所谓水墨淋漓。昏昏暗暗的一片水墨夜色中浮现灯光闪烁，总嫌太弱，易落入灯光渔火之冷落旧腔。我作了各种探索，竭力想表现夜都市之亮度。

　　In the early 1990s, the Land Development Corporation in Hong Kong invited me to paint a "Hong Kong in Guangdong Wu's Eyes." I did my rough drawing for a whole month. After I was back in Beijing, I tried using both oil and ink colors to depict a Hong Kong at once new and old, as well as ink colors to show it at night, but without success. The advantage of ink and wash lies in its use of bold colors, or what we call "a profuse spattering of water ink." Lights flicker amid a murky expanse of ink-and-wash night. Wouldn't that look too weak? Besides, such a scene fell into the stereotype of twinkling lights and fishing fires, all too familiar to the Chinese eye to be truly creative. I wavered between different tricks, trying to bring out a brightness that would match the metropolis's night.

　　中国水墨画虽着重讲究所谓笔墨，但这只属局部表现手法中的变化，大部分作品挂上墙后，因缺乏强力的整体效果，显得极其虚弱，观众享受不到视觉美感。我竭力在构架方面经营，我感到传统水墨特别在构架方面日趋衰颓，弱不禁风。要讲构架，必须重视整体面积的分割，不可浪费画面方寸之地，我不让自己的作品留有多余的或非属结构的空白，尽力追求画幅上墙后的视觉效果。

　　Notwithstanding traditional Chinese painting's stress on "ink-splashing," it is, after all, a technique used for local variation. Once they are hung on the wall, due to the lack of a compelling overall effect, they mostly look very feeble, incapable of arousing a desire for aesthetic appreciation in the viewer. I am keenly aware of the constant decline of traditional ink painting, especially insofar as its general layout is concerned, and I've been trying to find a way out. Artists must give due attention to planar partitioning for an overall effect. We should not waste any of the space available on paper. I, for one, make a point of leaving no unnecessary or nonstructural space when painting. I'm all for the visual effect of a painting, focusing on how it will look after it gets hung on the wall.

　　以上这些构想和因素无意中都体现在这幅1997年所作的水墨《都市之夜》中。我首先着力于浓墨粗笔的横与直的交错，楼层间参差错落的错觉，似楼非楼都是楼，前楼后楼碰撞不相让，极目层楼，谁主沉浮，顶天立地争春秋。其实画面表现的是楼群之整体而非具体的楼与楼的加法，因而其中并无某一座具体而独立的楼，而且也不是香港，不是东京，不是纽约，不是北京、上海或深圳。大点小点，是窗是户，非窗非户，都属楼形之辅助，线、面之帮腔。那浓重的红、黄、绿色块色点，跳跃着镶嵌在黑、白、灰的层面上，是夜之眼，灯红酒绿的喷发，画面的最强音。

　　These thoughts and factors have all been unwittingly embodied in this piece, "A City Night," done in 1997. First of all, I used heavy strokes to show crisscrossing vertical and horizontal lines and building's varying heights, enhancing a feeling of dreamy soulfulness. Front and back buildings collide without yielding. Looking across the rooftops, one might feel lost as to which of all the buildings were the highest. In fact, the painting is intended to show the cluster of buildings as a whole, not buildings individually. There is no concrete or isolated building. For that matter, the scene is not taken from Hong Kong. It is not taken from Tokyo, New York, Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen. The dots, big or small, are windows but at the same time no windows at all—they are symbolic additions to symbolic buildings and "servants" of lines and planes. Those heavy red, yellow or green patches and dots are vividly inlaid on planar layers of black, white and gray. They are evening's eyes and the strongest touches of the whole picture.

　　积累多次表现夜都市的成败，这幅作于78岁的《都市之夜》，可说体现了我对中国画现代化的观念，透露了我所感到的芸芸众生的挣扎之苦乐，时代飞速变化，令人目眩。

　　Drawing lessons from past attempts to show a metropolis's night, this piece, done at age 78, embodies my perspective on how to modernize Chinese painting. Meanwhile, it bespeaks ordinary mortals' joy and sorrow as I feel both. Time elapses at a dizzying speed, indeed.