马欣乐的绘画艺术是俊发豪纵，别有风致且内涵深邃的笔墨艺术，他的中国传统绘画功底深厚，又受到系统的西方绘画教育与技巧的训练，其作品富有情趣，又言情表志。

　　不以为奇欣乐成长于中国古都长安，这个曾经历了周、秦、汉、唐等12个朝代的建都之地，又是中华艺术的摇篮，早在公元一世纪便受到印度、中亚及西方文化的影响与渗透，形成风格辉煌灿烂的中华艺术。

　　20世纪的后期给了欣乐种种机遇来研习古代及当代绘画，他大量临摹汉唐壁画又受教于数位中国当代名家。从唐代的阎立本到近代以石鲁为首的长安画派名扬画坛，尤其是受教于赵望云先生的黄胄，其创作灵魂与笔墨技巧常常体现在欣乐的绘画之中，其笔意奔放如诗，奇恣纵肆，耐人寻味。

　　千年传统文化之都显然未能满足欣乐对艺术的求知之欲。继80年代中期毕业于西安外国语学院，随即又在西安取得艺术硕士学位，90年代又移居美国，拜学于美国当今写实派大师费利甫·波尔斯坦先生，获取西方艺术硕士学位，并任教于鲍林格灵大学美术学院。

　　在鲍林格灵大学，他涉猎各种西方绘画技法，创作各类绘画题材，从人体模特到赌城拉斯维加斯，如同当年的约翰·辛杰·萨金特或者令人悲壮而耳目萧清的德国表现主义，其油画的写实手法使美国流行画家约翰·柯瑞也望尘莫及。欣乐将教学、写作、绘画融为一体，纵观美国环球出版社出版的《马欣乐画集》，读者不难以为是一本当代名家的绘画集锦。正如已故纽约收藏大家王已千先生曾言：“欣乐有如此丰富的经历，坚实的传统绘画基础和超凡的悟性，必将具有巨大的潜力和发挥空间，并跻身于当今画坛大师行列。”

　　其实风格的变化本属中国传统绘画的一部分。就像十七世纪大家之一的王能够画出范宽的风格，同时也能模拟倪瓒的笔意，欣乐兼学中西古今，如同王融合众家之长画出自己的风貌，创作风格独特的非凡作品。

　　不论工笔还是写意，欣乐的作品重在传神和气韵生动，即使其静物作品也不甘于“寂静”，笔法灵活多变，富有活力和生机。

　　他的骏马作品即是融合众家精良笔墨的结晶， 就像美国一位收藏家观赏其骏马作品时欢快而吃惊的神情，“真是活生生的脱缰野马！”

　　自从徐悲鸿之后，画马的作品陷入低谷。马晋等虽善画马，但没有脱胎于以郎世宁及十八世纪宫廷画师为楷模的风貌，欣乐的马风格独特，别具一格，它们或者逍遥漫步，神韵悠然，或者追赶戏斗，飞驰腾奔，尤有百态千姿。如果一幅山水佳作不仅是为了满足于风景欣赏，且能使人亲临其境的话，欣乐笔下的骏马则充满古代传奇猛兽般的活力，日行千里，血洒疆场，让人心胸激荡。徐悲鸿真是遇到了挑战者。

　　当然也包括其他的中国画家，欣乐不仅能以中国笔墨描绘满面皱纹，饱经风霜的西藏牧民，可以创作龙飞凤舞的书法作品，也可以用油画创作山水或人物。他的题材广博，无所不画，“落花流水皆文章”，就像他的书法作品被美国的家纺公司印织在各种面料上并流行于欧美市场，也被中国面料市场竞相“借用”，经年不衰。他新设静墨画斋于沪上，并将给中国国内书画界的朋友奉献新的作品。

　　马修·艾德伦

　　佛罗里达亚洲艺术博物馆 馆长

　　PREFACE Ⅳ

　　by Matthew Edlund

　　Ma Xinle' s art is an art of the brush of astonishing variety and versatility. Trained in both Chinese brush painting and the full techniques of Western art, he can do pretty much anything. His paintings are filled with playfulness as well as purpose.

　　It is no surprise Xinle comes from Xi' an. The great ancient capital during the Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang Dynasties was a center of great syncretic power for Chinese art. Influences from India, Central Asia, and the West were seamlessly translated in the first millennium of national unity into a distinctive Chinese art. In that way, China has operated as Robert Perry describes as a " semi-permeable" visual cultural where ideas and traditions of other regions are brought in, studied, assimilated, and ultimately turned into forms universally recognized as " purely" Chinese.

　　In the late twentieth century Xi' an gave Ma the chance to study ancient as well as modern painting. He could copy frescoes of Han and Tang tombs while busying himself with the many currents of the Chang' an School and its several prominent masters. All were artists of great vibrancy, with brushwork that can both sing and fly. The spirit of his teacher Huang Zhou is present in Ma' s figures, which often appear bracingly alive.

　　Xi' an represented a great center to study three thousand years of Chinese painting, but Ma wanted to know more. Graduating from the Xi' an Foreign Languages University with a major in English literature, he continued on to a Master' s degree in art and then made the difficult journey to the West. He ended up in the quintessentially American city of Bowling Green, studying with the great figure painter Philip Pearlstein.

　　At Bowling Green States University he learned to paint in all Western styles, and his oeuvre included comic visions of Las Vegas and nudes that can fit the refined palette of John Singer Sargent or the doleful tragedy of German Expressionism. His oil paintings display a technique " hot" realistic American painters like John Currin could hope to emulate. He taught, he wrote, he worked. Looking at his Chinese and Western paintings, you wonder how many different artists created such diverse, marvelous works. It is like what C.C. Wang, the late NYC painter and collector said: " Xinle has such a good foundation and understanding in traditional Chinese painting and rich experiences, all this gives him a great potential for the future development, and allows him to stand in the team of contemporary masters."

　　Yet that diversity is very much a part of Chinese painting tradition. Just as the great seventeenth century painter Wang Hui could create a Fan Kuan one day and Ni Tsan that afternoon, Ma Xinle can paint in the style of ancient and modern masters, Chinese and Western. But Wang Hui aimed for the " Great Synthsis" of ancient styles to create his own. Ma similarly takes the many different traditions he knows to create his own vital works, paintings that look like no one but his. Whether performing gongbi or xieyi, vitality is what you feel looking at his paintings. Still lives are neither quiet nor still. The brushwork is always active, expressive, alive.

　　The different influences and personal result of Ma' s work can be seen in his horse paintings. Some of the figures show his study of his teacher Huang Zhou, but the influence is expressive rather than direct. As one delighted art patron said when looking at one of his horse paintings, " those horses are wild!"

　　Since Xu Beihong, horse painting has been in something of a slump. There are the examples of Ma Jin and others, ultimately dependent on Castiglione and 18th century court painting for their style. But in the fifty years since Xu Beihong' s death, no one has painted horses like Xinle. They canter, they gallop, they saunter, they jump, they carouse, they fight, ride and run. If a great landscape painting is one we do not just walk through but live in, Xinle' s horse paintings are filled with the vital power of ancient legendary beasts, who sweat blood and ride 3,000 li. Xu Beihong has a real rival.

　　As can other Chinese painters, Ma can produce Western landscapes and active, amusing calligraphy. His versatility is so great that he can work in anything pretty much any style in any media. One proof is that his calligraphy is being woven on fabrics and sold all over the U.S., Europe while " cloned" all over China. His Jingmo Studio in Shanghai should enable art lovers in China to witness the evolution of his own " great synthesis."

　　Matthew Edlund

　　Vice president

　　Museum of Asian Art, Sarasota, Florida