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Creative calligraphy master’s work on display
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IT is simply a black paper with some white lines if you are looking at it from far away. And the painting still appears as a dark piece if you stand too close. Only when standing 1 or 2 meters away can one understand it is a magnificent ink painting of mountains.
Ink is purely black, yes. And over 95 percent of the painting, named “Black Mountain and Thick Earth,” is black. When ancient Chinese artists brought up the concept that “ink has five colors” they meant ink coupled with water can be two shades of light grey, two shades of dark grey, or black.
Zeng Laide, adventurous and sophisticated, uses only ink in his calligraphy and paintings. One of his pieces is the first modern calligraphy work collected by the renowned British Museum.
But you don’t need to go to London to appreciate the work, because from this week until June 1 about 160 of his pieces are exhibiting for free in the Zhejiang Art Museum in Hangzhou.
“Many artists want to have solo exhibitions in Zhejiang, a traditionally cultural place, and I finally come,” Zeng said in his speech at the opening ceremony.
The artist, 58, is deputy director of the China National Academy of Painting. He only started studying calligraphy when he was 20. Critics call him a “genius,” while he calls himself “crazy.”
“I like to brag, but if I brag I will do something well, I must do it very well,” he said.
Zeng’s art pieces, like his personality, are unconventional and unconstrained.
“Black Mountain and Thick Earth” is one of his many pieces of pure-ink paintings of mountains. The paintings, lacking color and technique — such as oil painting’s scrapping or piling — give perspective and have a three-dimensional look.
“Black and white are the most high-class colors,” said Zeng.
He also believes “dots and lines are the most uncontrollable elements,” He feels challenged to show calligraphy in a distinguished way, and hence with his “Ink and Music” he writes calligraphy during musical performances.
The representative work of this series was taken in 2005, when British cellist Rohan De Saram played music and Zeng wrote famed Chinese poet Du Fu’s poem “The Lady Gongsun Dancing with Sword” in a wild, cursive style on 10 huge pieces of paper.
This work is now shown in the Zhejiang Art Museum.
“I enjoy listening to the friction sound from brush and paper when I write; it’s like music,” the artist explained. “Music and calligraphy share one thing: They are both composed with dots and lines.”
He has also performed “Ink and Music” in France and northern Europe.
In contrast to his wild cursive style, Zeng also does xiaokai — regular and neat small characters.
“Many artist use art as an entertainment, but not Zeng,” said Chen Zhenlian, deputy president of the China Calligraphy Association. “He writes calligraphy of two extremes because he takes any cost to develop the art.”
However, his xiaokai remains distinctive from others’ because Zeng’s brush touches paper at an oblique angle, a “daredevil” behavior that few in history dared try, critics say.
Date: Through June 1, 9am-5pm (closes on Mondays)
Venue: Zhejiang Art Museum, 138 Nanshan Rd
Tel: (0571) 8707-8700
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