At Ease With Hand and Mind: Calligraphy, Literature, and Contemporary Art
Throughout Chinese history, literati calligraphy has been considered an elite art form. Its practitioners were poets, writers, scholars, and statesmen with deep cultural cultivation, not merely skilled artisans. The selected works represent a continuation of the tradition’s interdisciplinarity, as many of the exhibitors move freely among literature, calligraphy, contemporary art, and other spheres, taking on multiple identities. However, departing from this convention, this exhibition is not a showcase of contemporary literati calligraphy; rather, by presenting various kinds of works, it explores the relationship between mind and hand, between text and imagery, and the ways these relationships transform between elite art and everyday writing, between tradition and the contemporary.
Compared to primary or spontaneous writing, most modern and contemporary calligraphic works are created for aesthetic purposes; that is, they are to some extent interpretive or secondary practices. Every act of copying literary works becomes a rereading, a moment of appreciation and resonance—another performance and visual interpretation. On one hand, it is a silent recitation of the words themselves; on the other, it is a new rendition, or even a breakthrough, of historical calligraphic exemplars.
The interchange between calligraphy and painting can be considered an important strand in Chinese abstract art. Text has appeared in visual works throughout a long, rich history. Curator Xie muses, “When Chinese painters inscribe poetry on their works, is it an expression of lingering emotion after the painting is done, or is it a way to extend and supplement the visual’s inherent limitations? In traditional Chinese painting—often reusing age-old formulas of brushwork and composition—artists might be unable to fully convey their feelings, so they rely on inscriptions in language to guide the viewer’s imagination beyond the painting, endowing it with deeper emotion and meaning.” Language is a tool of thought, and may even be classified as thought itself. Words flash, extinguish, and linger in the mind. As syllables and images flow, text becomes narrative, an utterance, and an expression of ideas. In Western contemporary art, incorporating text and combining image with text is commonplace. Conceptual art often takes advantage of the directness and abstraction of language itself to reduce or even remove the visual aspects of traditional art.
The history, forms, and stylistic nuances of Chinese characters are remarkably rich and subtle, their unique visuality perhaps tracing back to their origins as pictographs. As curator Ouyang Jianghe aptly notes, “Chinese characters were specifically invented for writing. Without practicing calligraphy, one cannot fully appreciate the profound depths of these characters.” Indeed, calligraphy has always held a particularly significant place in the history of Asian art, as well as in contemporary artistic practice. This exhibition provides abundant examples and opportunities for exploring Chinese character writing both as a medium of communication and as an aesthetic creation, as well as the delicate interplay between text and vision.
This diverse exhibition spans contemporary calligraphy through interdisciplinary works from prominent practitioners, including writers and scholars such as Jia Pingwa, Li Xianting, Ouyang Jianghe, Xi Chuan, and Yu Jian; calligraphers Gu Gan, Liu Zhengcheng, Shao Yan, Wang Dongling, Yu Mingquan, Yang Tao, and Zhao Xuesong; and artists Fong Chung-Ray, Gu Wenda, Wang Tiande, Xie Xiaoze, Xu Bing, Yang Jiechang, and Zhang Xiaogang.
Adapted from Xie Xiaoze’s curatorial essay, available upon request and to be included in the forthcoming exhibition catalogue.
