The "Chinese Calligraphy Lanting Award Lifetime Achievement Award Artist Works Exhibition" was recently unveiled at the National Art Museum of China, which attracted the attention of many people. It is an unprecedented exhibition, and its scale is unprecedented: nineteen exhibitors, one work each, a total of nineteen works. It's small, but it's an extraordinary, important exhibition.
For more than forty years since the revival of calligraphy, there have been countless calligraphy exhibitions of various levels and of all sizes, but there is a common feature, that is, all these exhibitions, including national exhibitions, without exception, reflect the calligraphy of one person, one thing and one place. This exhibition is different, reflecting the calligraphic achievements of an era. The exhibitors are all the best people who have stood out from many books after the turbulence of an era. The so-called "lifelong achievement" can be divided into two levels: "lifetime" and "achievement": first of all, it means that the winners have struggled "for life" in the field of calligraphy, many of the winners have passed away, and they have dedicated their life's energy to the cause of contemporary calligraphy; secondly, they have achieved world-recognized artistic achievements in their lifelong struggle. Such achievements are identified through authoritative, extensive and rigorous selection. In a sense, they represent the style and highest achievement of the art of calligraphy. As far as individual writers are concerned, this is of course their personal lifelong achievement, but if they are put together, it is rather a "lifelong achievement" of an era.
Where is the so-called "lifelong achievement" embodied? From the perspective of form, although the book body is diverse, the works are exquisite, and the personality is distinct, the format is generally small, and it is not a representative work provided by me, and may not have a shocking visual impact. It doesn't seem as colorful and fascinating as other exhibitions. But beneath its calm exterior, there is the vicissitudes and grandeur of an era, implying the unremitting efforts and outstanding contributions made by a generation of calligraphy scholars to safeguard the cultural identity of calligraphy.
This is a special generation of calligraphy artists. They have undergone a cultural change unprecedented in the millennium in modern times. In the thousands of years of Chinese history, our ancestors created a glorious traditional Chinese culture, and The unique Chinese characters in China and the resulting calligraphy art are a unique and significant symbol of this culture. Therefore, from another point of view, calligraphy can only fully demonstrate its artistic value if it is attached to traditional Chinese culture. That is to say, traditional Chinese culture is the cultural identity of calligraphy art, and once this identity is lost, calligraphy will become a source of water and a wood without a root.
The first-class writers with important influence in history are all scholars, poets, and writers. Even calligraphy is not the most important achievement for them, or it is only one of their main achievements. Of course, the times are different, we can't require today's calligraphers to be famous scholars, poets, and writers, but as the minimum requirement for calligraphers, in addition to excellent techniques, there should also be considerable traditional cultural cultivation, in short, culture plus techniques. The so-called "culture" here is broad and broad, neither refers to academic qualifications, nor does it require that it must be a first-class expert in a certain field, but has a relatively comprehensive cultural literacy, a wide range of knowledge, integration of ancient and modern, and many aspects are involved, so as to achieve the use of literature to cultivate books. However, unfortunately, some people today are called "bookmakers", but due to the lack of corresponding cultural literacy, they are ridiculed as "writers".
In recent times, the European wind has gradually changed, and traditional Chinese culture has faced a huge impact. As a result, in the process of reconstructing and integrating disciplines, calligraphy loses its disciplinary positioning. In the great cultural changes at the beginning of the last century, some people advocated that calligraphy be retained within the framework of "art", which was only a helpless choice. The revival of calligraphy since the reform and opening up is still generally under such a pattern.
For example, many of our exhibitions over the decades are mainly to attract audiences with visual art; authors have deliberately worked the paper, ink and format of the exhibition, pursuing excessive deformation and exaggeration of fonts, nothing more than to enhance the visual impact of the works; our university discipline system has long placed calligraphy under fine arts, and students study lines, shapes, compositions, etc. all day long, which is almost incompatible with traditional culture. It goes without saying that understanding calligraphy only from the visual level of lines and composition is superficial; and compared with the rich visual image of art, the lines and composition of calligraphy are also too thin. Calligraphy has lost the support of traditional culture, and it cannot find a suitable position in the art science mainly from the West, thus completely losing its cultural identity.
Fortunately, in such a context, there are still a considerable number of scholars and scholars who silently watch over the temple of traditional culture, and they always put calligraphy under the supervision of traditional culture in the process of creating, researching and educating calligraphy art. The selection of the "Lifetime Achievement Award" of the Lanting Award for Chinese Calligraphy has always adhered to the purpose of leading calligraphy with traditional culture, and awarded the highest honor of this calligraphy circle to those calligraphy scholars who aspire to adhere to the traditional cultural position. The nineteen winners who have stood out in the more than 40 years of calligraphy revival can be said to be representatives of this generation of calligraphy scholars, and have made their own contributions in watching, inheriting and promoting calligraphy culture.
Especially among my predecessors, many of them are not simple calligraphers, some of them are chinese studies with profound academic skills, some are senior scholars who have in-depth research on calligraphy and philology, some are calligraphy educators and theorists who have devoted their lives to the dissemination of calligraphy culture and the construction of disciplines, and some are poets, scholars, and writers with profound learning. Over the years, in their respective posts, they have carried forward traditional culture in different ways, promoted the inheritance and development of calligraphy art in theory and practice, and struggled for the traditional cultural identity of protecting calligraphy for life. Of course, there are many people who have made outstanding contributions in this regard, but according to the selection rules of the Lanting Award, it is only awarded to living scholars, so many outstanding predecessors have not been listed among them.
A few days ago, the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council issued relevant documents, listing calligraphy and fine arts as first-level disciplines. This is a big decision of great significance. It will liberate calligraphy from the framework of "fine arts", a visual plastic art, and return to traditional culture. This undoubtedly raises a new subject for contemporary calligraphers, calligraphy theorists and calligraphy educators. In view of this, the guiding significance of the exhibition of works of the "Lifetime Achievement Award" of the Chinese Calligraphy Lanting Award is very obvious.
Promoting the traditional calligraphy culture is a lifelong career for every calligrapher who aims to climb the peak of art. Moreover, this great cause cannot be completed by one generation, but requires the relay inheritance of generations, and everyone is a link in the inheritance chain. As Mr. Wu Weishan, director of the National Art Museum of China, said in the "Preface to the Exhibition": "The progress of human society benefits from the creation of generation after generation, and this kind of creation is precisely in the change of the times to constantly spit out the old and the new." "So we must use our life's efforts to strive to contribute to this great cause." The lifelong achievements of each of us will be superimposed on the glory of the times!
Let's enjoy the works exhibited in the "Chinese Calligraphy Lanting Award Lifetime Achievement Award Artist Works Exhibition"!
(China Daily Henan Reporter Station)