Here in the western world, painting and writing are in general seen as distinct disciplines
of practice. Although both can be creative in nature, and there are definitely contemporary
artists who create text based art, in most of western history - the practice of writing
has never really been a major player in the visual arts. This is not so much the case
in other parts of the world. For millennia, as well as today, the art of Calligraphy is
a major artistic practice in many East Asian countries such as China, Japan, Korea and
Vietnam. Today we’re going to focus specifically on the history of Chinese calligraphy.
Historically, in China, many artists who painted picturesque scenes would have also been trained
in the art of calligraphy. And artists would often write lines of poetry or prose along
the sides of painted scenes. In fact, during some historical periods, painting was often
seen as a secondary practice compared to the prestigious practice of calligraphy.
The primary reason the visual arts and the practice of writing are so closely linked
in Chinese culture, is due to the fact that the written characters themselves are pictograph
based. When one writes a Chinese Character, they are essentially drawing an abstracted
picture. Thus, through the art of calligraphy, Chinese writers and poets were not only able
to express their creativity and personality through the meanings of the words they wrote,
but also in the forms and brushstrokes of the words themselves.
The Chinese form of writing, often referred to as “characters” or “ideograms”,
are composed of usually square shaped symbols, each representing a word or meaning. They
evolved from an ancient pictograph based language that was abstracted and simplified over time.
For example, during the Chinese Bronze Age, the Shang dynasty, roughly around 1400 BCE,
the character for horse pretty much looked like this, over time it was standardized to
fit into the square character ratio, then it was abstracted even further and the modern
symbol for horse looks like this.
The basic tools that are generally used by Chinese calligraphers are black ink or ink
sticks, ink stones, brush, traditional calligraphy paper, and sometimes also a paper weight,
seal and red seal paste. We will cover more of what the materials are used for as well
as their history in the next episode.
So there are a lot of formal rules regarding how to properly write a Chinese character
as well as how to used traditional calligraphy methods - such as how to properly grind the
ink you’re using and how to properly hold a brush. Basically, for every single character,
the stroke has to be written in a particular sequence. So not only do you have to remember
how to write the thousands of commonly used Chinese characters, you also have to remember
the sequence the brush strokes go in, for every single character. Seriously, compared
to that, English class was a breeze.
When writing these words, the creativity and individual personalities comes from qualities
such as stroke thickness, light and dark contrast, the amount of ink used, the pressure of the
hand, speed, motion, and the texture of the brushstroke.
It is also takes a lot of practice to learn proper control of the brush and ink - since
Chinese black ink is a really tricky and medium to work with. For those of you who haven't
tried to paint with traditional black ink, you may think oh it shouldn’t be that hard
to make a stroke on a piece of paper - but believe me when I say it’s not easy. Most
people’s first attempt in using it usually involves getting ink everywhere, not being
able to make straight lines at all and just having the ink basically bleed all over the
page. Or maybe it was just me.
So when an artist finishes a calligraphy work, they would seal it in red, this effectively
acts as a signature. Seals were not only used by artists, but they were also used by emperors,
courts, families and basically any organization or person that wanted to identify itself.
Over the years this art form has become more than just works done on paper. In the early
1990s a small street phenomenon called "Di Shu", meaning ground calligraphy or street
calligraphy began in a park in Beijing, and eventually grew into this huge urban phenomenon
that swept through the entire country. It's where anonymous calligraphers would just show
up in city squares, streets and parks with these huge brushes and sometimes even mops,
using water as ink, and the pavement as paper, and would paint huge characters, words, poems
and other literary works right on the ground. Creating these beautiful and ephemeral performances
of linguistic and visual expression.
Some of you may ask - is it possible to appreciate Chinese calligraphy without knowing how to
read Chinese? I certainly think so. I think anyone can appreciate they beauty of the stunning
linework, the sharp and bold black strokes, contrasted with glistening red seals. Appreciating
the style, meticulousness and control of a calligraphic stroke is in a way very similar
to appreciating the brushstrokes of an impressionist painting. You may not read Chinese, but we
can all read picture.
So can you think of other examples of creative uses of words or languages in visual art?
Whether it’s eastern art or western art. Let me know in the comments.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community