Professor Wo Xinghua of Fudan University is one of the representatives of contemporary new calligraphy, and his calligraphy is also controversial.
This is mainly because his innovation in calligraphy is considered "ugly book" by most people, or for most people who believe in tradition, his innovation is to desecrate the classics and tarnish calligraphy.
In fact, his new type of calligraphy is also based on tradition, not blindly behind closed doors.
Mainstream and non-mainstream
Ancient calligraphy, as it is today, was different from mainstream and non-mainstream, just like official book associations and civil society.
Like Wang Xizhi, Wang Xianzhi, Zhiyong, Ouyang Qian, Chu Suiliang, Su Shi, Dong Qichang, etc., belong to the mainstream;
The history books do not record the author's name, and the works are passed down in the form of bricks and tiles and cliff inscriptions, which belong to the non-mainstream.
The mainstream is more common and is mostly used by posterity to learn.
It is common because there are many posters that have been handed down.
Nowadays, a person who studies calligraphy, when asked which one he studied, he either said "Two Kings", or Ouyang Inquiry, or Chu Suiliang, or...
Non-mainstream uncommon few people learn from it.
There are few surviving quantities, and most of them are from bricks and tiles, and even orphans.
If you ask today's calligraphy enthusiasts, very few people say that they are learning Qin bricks and Han tiles.
The difference between the two
The mainstream is dominated by ink.
The author is distinguished and has a very high level of calligraphy.
Of course, there are also inscriptions, that is, written by the author first, and then engraved by others, such as "Seventeen Theses", "JiuchengGong Liquan Ming", "Yanta Sacred Order" and so on.
The non-mainstream is mainly brick and tile, cliff carving.
Most of the authors are ordinary craftsmen, using the knife cone as a tool to engrave words directly on the bricks and tiles, and some of them are molded.
It is said that in ancient times, in order to be beautiful, some auspicious words or animal patterns were engraved on the bricks and tiles, or fired in a certain year.
The blank is soft, and after firing it into a hard brick tile, it is inevitable that it will not deform in the process.
The craftsman's firing level is superb, but it does not mean that the writing level is also superb, even if the writing level is equally superb, it is inevitable to deviate from the firing process.
The difference between the two is that the ink is clear and the inscription is correct, both are from the hands of famous artists, while the bricks and tiles and cliffs are just the opposite.
Woon calligraphy
Wo Xinghua's mainstream calligraphy skills are very deep, and his early works can be seen.
Later, he went against the mainstream and learned from the carved stones of the Qin brick Hanwa Mo cliff and the engravings of the tomb bricks.
These calligraphies are different from the mainstream, and the writers are mostly people at the bottom of society who do not contain historical records.
There is a voice in the calligraphy circle that believes that the handwriting marks from people at the bottom of society are more simple and more written than the handwriting of those famous artists.
Whether it is the handwriting of famous artists in ancient times or the handwriting of people at the bottom of society, it seems that they all belong to traditional calligraphy today.
Wo Xinghua inherited the latter, and although we think that what he wrote was ugly, it did not affect the fact that he inherited the tradition.
I used to resist the new type of calligraphy and write a lot of critical articles, but I don't know when I started, I didn't have this idea.
However, for now, it is still limited to writing with a brush as a tool, and does not include "shooting books" and "blind books".