法国哲学家巴斯卡尔在《思考》当中指出「人在大自然当中不过是一根最柔弱的芦苇而已。人正是思考的芦苇(un roseau pensant)。」相较于广大无边的宇宙，人类几近于无，诚如一根芦苇，既柔弱且悲惨。然而如同这根柔弱与渺小芦苇般的人类，透过思考能够将宇宙包含起来。对于萧如松而言，他的艺术成就，在思考当中体现出伟大，在思考当中拥有整个宇宙。在台湾美术史上，萧如松就是一根思考的芦苇，他所建构出来的画面充满深度哲思的内涵。他把水彩提升到彷彿油画那种厚度感，使得景深丰富，洋溢着稳定、深沉、静谧的精神层次。他的作品，不论是人物、静物或者风景画，都展现出高度哲思，追寻对象色彩、造型、情绪、感受的高度统一效果。他经历二次大战以及战后的荒凉，还包括自由禁锢的不安，于是将早期肃然的教育精神提升成洁净特质，并将其对于人生以及艺术的追求热忱提炼成色彩象征和造型隐喻，最终演变成繁复时空辨证上的心灵观照的作品。

主办单位：亚洲大学、亚洲大学现代美术馆、新竹县政府、新竹县议会
合办单位： 新竹县政府文化局
法律顾问：益思科技法律事务所 刘承庆 律师
借展单位：国立台湾美术馆、阿波罗画廊、名冠画廊、东之画廊、国立竹东高中
特别感谢：  林高椿、范正秋、洪翊翔、陈登寿、刘达治、简秀枝）  先生/女士 （排名按姓氏笔画序）

The French philosopher Blaise Pascal pointed out in Pensées that “Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed (un roseau pensant).” Compared with the infinite universe, humanity is close to insignificance, like a reed that is weak and pathetic. Nevertheless, like the weak, insignificant reed, humankind can encompass the universe through thinking. As far as Xiao was concerned, his art achievement manifested greatness in thinking, having the whole universe in thinking. In the art history of Taiwan, Xiao Ru-Song was a thinking reed. The pictures he constructed are filled with contents of philosophical thinking in depth.

Xiao was the first domestic painter that presented watercolor in such a diverse fashion. He elevated watercolor to the thickness as that of oil paint and enriched the depth of field, overflowing with stability, profundity, and serenity in the spiritual level. His works, either portrait, still life or landscape, demonstrate a high degree of philosophical thinking, seeking the highly unified effect of colors, forms, emotions, and experiences of objects. He witnessed the Second World War and the desolation afterward, including the disturbance of freedom in shackles. Hence, the artist elevated the solemn educational spirit in the early days into a quality of purity. Also, he refined the passion in the pursuit of life and art into color symbols and formal metaphors, which ultimately evolved into complex space-time dialectic works of mind reflection.