(“clerical” script) their artful simplification into abbreviated forms (“running” and “cursive” scripts) and the fusion of these form-types into “standard” script, in which the individually articulated brushstrokes that make up each character are integrated into a dynamically balanced whole. (known today as “seal” script, after its use on the red seals of ownership) their gradual regularization, culminating with the bureaucratic proliferation of documents by government clerks during the second century A.D. He was also exposed to the way in which the forms of the ideographs had evolved: their earliest appearance on bronzes, stones, and bones about 1300 B.C. He copied the great calligraphers’ manuscripts, which were often preserved on carved stones so that rubbings could be made. The student was gradually exposed to different stylistic interpretations of these characters. Traditionally, every literate person in China learned as a child to write by copying the standard forms of Chinese ideographs. The discipline that this kind of mastery requires derives from the practice of calligraphy. Instead, he relied on line-the indelible mark of the inked brush. He also rejected the changeable qualities of light and shadow as a means of modeling, along with opaque pigments to conceal mistakes. Like the photographer who prefers to work in black and white, the Chinese artist regarded color as distraction. To accomplish his goal, the Chinese painter more often than not rejected the use of color. This is the aim of the traditional Chinese painter: to capture not only the outer appearance of a subject but its inner essence as well-its energy, life force, spirit. It does so because the artist has managed to distill his observations of both living horses and earlier depictions to create an image that embodies the vitality and form of an iconic “dragon steed.” He has achieved this with the most economical of means: brush and ink on paper. Miraculously, the animal’s energy shines through. Originally little more than a foot square, it is now mounted as a handscroll that is twenty feet long as a result of the myriad inscriptions and seals (marks of ownership) that have been added over the centuries, some directly on the painted surface, so that the horse is all but overwhelmed by this enthusiastic display of appreciation. However it is just as common to find Chinese and Japanese screens decorated with bamboo motifs made up of just 1 or 2 simple brush strokes, made with a long haired goat brush.The Chinese way of appreciating a painting is often expressed by the words du hua, “to read a painting.” How does one do that?Ĭonsider Night-Shining White by Han Gan ( 1977.78), an image of a horse. If you visit a Shinto shrine in Japan you will find the interior decorated with creatures such as dragons, where every scale has been painstakingly rendered. Eastern art is known to be highly meticulous and detailed as well as very gestural, simple and understated. it is more common in far eastern art for backgrounds to remain blank. The whole picture surface is not always covered, and in some instances eastern artists are known to only paint the part of the subject that interested them, and disregard what is thought to be superfluous i.e. Chinese painting and Japanese painting techniques tend to have very simple compositions. Traditional Far Eastern Art methods share many common principles as well as aesthetic aspects that many artists around the world wish to try and emulate, or take samples of when creating original contemporary work.
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