I met Gao in the late 1980s. At that time, he was in his twenties and made frequent appearances at the national calligraphy exhibition. Young, mainly seal cutting, brilliant pen and knife, showing a steady and energetic look.
At the beginning of the new century, I learned that Gao was transferred from Heilongjiang Provincial Committee to the Provincial Book Association, and soon became the vice chairman and secretary general of the association, only 36 years old. Generally speaking, at his age, he is still a novice in calligraphy, but he acts as the leader of a provincial calligraphy team, which shows that his calligraphy is not handsome. I am curious about Gao, who debuted very early, so I pay more attention and ponder. So I found that before he was 40 years old, he was definitely a frequent visitor to the national calligraphy exhibition and an award-winning professional.
It was not until 2004 that the "First National Youth Calligraphy and Seal Cutting Exhibition" was awarded in Zhengzhou. Because I am a judge, I met Gao for the first time. This 12-year-old young man whose calligraphy achievement is higher than mine looks thin and light, but he walks slowly and firmly, speaks slowly and confidently, and has a maturity earlier than his age.
After that, I had more contact. In 2006, Gao came to Beijing and was hired as the executive editor of China Calligraphy Newsletter. In the same year, he served as Secretary-General of cursive script and seal script professional committees of China Calligraphy Association. Four years later, he was transferred to the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles. In Beijing, in the world of books, we meet from time to time.
Frankly speaking, I am not an expert in seal cutting, and I am not qualified to make academic comments on Gao's seal cutting. I can only analyze the reasonable reasons from the special phenomenon that high fame leads young people.
Nowadays, the prosperity of calligraphy, the excitement of the book world and the activity of calligraphers are undoubtedly unprecedented. In just 20 13 years, there were as many as 30 national calligraphy exhibitions sponsored by China Calligraphers Association. If 300 people attend each exhibition and 30 people win prizes, about 9,000 people will attend the exhibition and 900 people will win prizes in one year. This is a huge calligraphy force and an excellent reserve team. I have participated in many exhibitions, and I really feel that the contemporary book world has really entered a gratifying situation of learning from the past, learning from hundreds of teachers and creating diversity. At the same time, I also saw an unavoidable basic fact: the source of the work was not obvious and it was eliminated; Three or five points in ancient times, entering the exhibition; 78 points won the prize in Gu Lin. Strong imitation, temporary writing like, great grasp of the progress of the award. The judges didn't mean to, but they all understood the importance of not understanding the harm of the past and personality style. However, if someone, by virtue of his talent, is bold and cautious, gets rid of the object of scholars and writes novel and unique pen and ink, it may make some judges shine at the moment, but it is difficult to get unanimous approval from all the judges and get high votes. Therefore, under the control of the desire to enter the exhibition smoothly, win the prize as soon as possible and join the club as soon as possible, and in the desire to become famous and start a family, many young scholars have chosen the method of capital preservation and the smooth road. They resisted the impulse to create, resisted the wings of imagination, followed the footsteps of the ancients, equated copying with creation, and dared not cross the line. Therefore, on the one hand, we lament that the current scholars have the right methods and methods, a high starting point and quick results, on the other hand, it is difficult to remember the names of those winners and their calligraphy images.
Gao is not. He studied fundamentally and went directly to the oldest seal script. To write Xiao Zhuan, first exercise your wrist strength, standardize your brushwork and temper your lines. Then traced back to "Da Zhuan", in order to seek truth from facts, copied the wall pan and Mao, and put forward the pan in order to be bold and open. He also concentrated on Chu bamboo slips, silk scripts and Warring States scripts, especially Baoshan bamboo slips, Guodian bamboo slips and bullet library silk scripts. In this way, the experiment of integration, integration, flexibility and grafting was carried out rationally and bravely, and the naive romance of bamboo slips and silk books was integrated into the rich and dignified bronze inscriptions, and the confrontation between knives and stones was transformed into the softness of paper and pen. His series of explorations with clear thinking not only avoided the stagnation of dying inscriptions, but also weakened the sharpness, thinness, smoothness and floating of Zhili bamboo and silk books, and cultivated their own characteristics with strong recognition. Gao's seal cutting lags far behind the ancient seals in the pre-Qin period, involving Han seal, pottery seal, clay seal and brick writing, and is close to Wu Changshuo, Qi Baishi, Lai Chusheng. It not only attaches importance to the writing of seal script, but also emphasizes the performance of seal script, and integrates its own seal script with bamboo slips and silk scripts into printing, creating a unique symbol printing style.
Strong recognition, quite symbolic, this is the result of high-depth classics and hard work, and it is the fruit of his learning from China and the West and learning from others. In the era of China's calligraphy history, when there are many peaks and famous artists come forth in large numbers, it is very difficult to write a book and take a knife to take care of printing in the contemporary calligraphy world where people go to the sky and Qian Fan is competing for beauty. Gao has become one of the weathervanes of seal cutting, which has led the creative trend of seal cutting to a great extent. It is really commendable!
Of course, as far as calligraphers are concerned, Gao is still quite young, steady and wise. He knows that calligraphy culture is profound and endless. Creation makes him enter a new realm of calligraphy art, and creation will also make him leap into a high realm of calligraphy art, which is the significance of creation and the foundation of his high position in contemporary calligraphy.
June 5, 20 14, I was in Beijing Banzhai.
(The author is the director of China Calligraphy Association and the deputy director of the cursive professional committee of China Calligraphy Association) Huang Qiushi.
In 2002, Gao was elected as the vice chairman and secretary general of Heilongjiang Calligraphers Association at the third congress, at the age of 36; In 2003, Gao was approved as the director of China Calligraphers Association, becoming the youngest national director in China at that time.
It is no accident that Gao went to the national calligraphy exhibition as a powerful figure in calligraphy creation and became a leading figure in calligraphy in our province and a calligraphy seal engraver with great influence.
Twenty years ago, Gao, who was less than twenty years old, began his difficult artistic life journey in the torrent of national calligraphy fever. He learned from visiting friends and asking questions, from correspondence to seeking advice from famous artists, and practiced while pasting. After grinding around the inkstone for nearly 20 years, he finally knocked on the door of one prize contest after another with his diligence and persistence. Calligraphy seal cutting works have won 7 national exhibitions, such as the National Exhibition held by China Calligraphy Association and the China Youth Exhibition, and more than 30 national individual exhibitions, such as couplets exhibition and seal cutting exhibition. His works have been collected by foreign friends and Zhongnanhai, Chairman Mao Memorial Hall and China Art Museum. For a time, Gao's name could be seen in almost all kinds of calligraphy exhibitions at home and abroad. Some people jokingly call it the "professional household" of Heilongjiang calligraphy award.
High efforts have created a world and won praise from both inside and outside the book world. In addition to serving as the fourth and fifth directors of China Calligraphy Association and the secretary-general of the Seal Calligraphy Professional Committee of China Calligraphy Association, he also served as a member of the Heilongjiang Provincial Political Consultative Conference, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Youth Federation and the Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and concurrently served as a national calligraphy judge and professor of the China Calligraphy Association Training Center. These honors show Gao's artistic position, influence, social attention and recognition in calligraphy.
If China divides Gao's calligraphy life into two periods: the early stage of consciously entering and the late stage of doing it by himself, then 200 1 is the dividing point of these two periods, which is also a major turning point in Gao's calligraphy life. Before 200 1, no matter how hard Gao worked in calligraphy, he was also engaged in amateur activities based on hobbies, and his main business was not calligraphy. However, when Gao was officially transferred to the Provincial Calligraphers Association this year, the art of calligraphy changed from amateur to main business for Gao. This change not only created an opportunity for the accelerated enlightenment of calligraphy for senior individuals, but also greatly promoted the development of calligraphy in the whole province.
It should be said that Longjiang's calligraphy industry has been brilliant in history. After more than ten years of silence, it began to rise slowly in the 1990s, but it still lags far behind several major calligraphy provinces in China. After the Third Provincial Book Fair, Gao began to preside over the daily work of the Provincial Book Association. With a keen perspective, he immediately aimed at the top level of the country, combined with the needs of the provincial party Committee to build a frontier cultural province, and put forward the strategic concept of building a calligraphy province in Heilongjiang Province, which was recognized and supported by the provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the presidium of the Provincial Calligraphy Association. He achieved five breakthroughs in calligraphy work in Heilongjiang Province from three aspects: grasping creation, grasping fine works and grasping talents, that is, realizing the history of Heilongjiang Province. Make a breakthrough in expanding the publicity of famous calligraphers in Heilongjiang, and carry out activities to commemorate Mr. You Shou's birthday100th anniversary; In the past two years, the province has commended more than 40 award-winning authors in national exhibitions, with a prize amount of 60,000 yuan. Make a breakthrough in building a working brand, and achieve good results in the fifth national seal cutting exhibition and the fifth national seal cutting exhibition, ranking second and third respectively; There was a breakthrough in organizing the production of fine calligraphy. On the basis of holding two fine exhibitions in succession, Heilongjiang, the first national youth exhibition in 2004, was selected to rank fifth and won the third prize, ranking among the top in the country.
Gao's leadership position in the Provincial Book Association is only four short years, but he can achieve such remarkable results, which is undoubtedly closely related to his own quality. Practice has proved that as a leader in the book industry, one must be a top professional with good character cultivation, and both are indispensable.
Gao's calligraphy and seal cutting have had a great influence throughout the country. I think at least two points can't be ignored: first, accurate positioning. In his own words, it is "borrowing the brushwork of Xiao Zhuan, which is located on the bronze inscriptions of Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and the works show a rigorous and concise atmosphere in structure and brushwork." The second is personalization. Gao is good at seal script and seal cutting. After years of in-depth research and accumulation, Gao's calligraphy has formed its own unique artistic style. The seal script is based on the big seal script, which contains bronze inscriptions and bamboo slips, forming a simple, handsome and vivid style; Cursive script has always been based on Cao Zhang, with modern grass as the surface layer and Cao Zhang as the inner layer, forming the simple and elegant style of Gu Zhuo; The seal cutting takes the ancient seal cutting, and integrates personal creativity, which is implicit, meaningful, natural and vivid. Authoritative figures in the national calligraphy circle, such as Zhang Hai, the current chairman of the China Calligraphy Association, and some leading figures in the calligraphy circle, have highly praised his artistic creation. It is believed that "Gao's calligraphy and seal cutting have rich and unique artistic language", "Gao's seal cutting is both classical and novel" and "seal script and cursive script have their own aesthetic images and values".
For Gao's books, what you see in the newspapers and periodicals now can be said to be obedient, but little is known about his character. Gao is an introverted and unsociable person. His first impression is that he is elegant, slightly Mu Na, and may feel indifferent to strangers. However, if you really go into Gao's inner world, you will feel that he is a pertinent, mature and serious artist, full of gratitude and sympathy. As a young man, he is first and foremost a person who respects and loves the old. During his work, he successfully held calligraphy exhibitions of ten 75-year-old artists in Heilongjiang, and printed and published calligraphy works for ten artists for free with his personal friends. As far as I know, Gao is cooperating with two or three book lovers to publish a collection of works for his first teacher. Gao is also a volunteer who is enthusiastic about social welfare. In all social donation activities organized by China Book Association and other provinces and cities, he gave generously to Mo Bao. Not long ago, he took the initiative to participate in the "dream-realizing plan" for poor students to go to college, and joined hands with a liberal arts student with high scores in the college entrance examination in Tailai County to donate money to school.
Today, when we see the smooth progress of calligraphy in Heilongjiang in recent years during the reign of Gao Zheng, we feel that as the leading figures in calligraphy art, those with both ability and political integrity can't afford it.
July 29(th), 2006
(The author is the former vice chairman of Heilongjiang Federation of Literary and Art Circles and a consultant of the Provincial Book Association. )
Wu Zhenfeng
Gadamer believes that art is a unique cognitive model. Its uniqueness is precisely because works of art have their own ontological significance. In fact, artists use their works to speak out to the society in order to seek social understanding and recognition. However, due to the richness of artistic connotation and the complexity of human nature, it is not easy to understand art, and it is even more difficult to understand an artist with "ideas". The reason why this article is called "understanding" is precisely because of the difficulty of "understanding". Take Gao's calligraphy as an example, and talk about my understanding, probably more than knowing a calligrapher.
Undoubtedly, China's calligraphy has experienced the most extensive popularization and development in the past 30 years. There is no doubt that calligraphy has also encountered many unprecedented problems. Only a series of cultural events in the previous century, such as the discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the excavation of bamboo slips and silks, the withdrawal of brush from daily life, the simplification of Chinese characters, the vernacular movement, the abolition of the imperial examination system, the discovery of Dunhuang documents, the input of Chinese characters into computers, the change from vertical writing to horizontal writing, and the decline of a great poetry country, have profoundly affected the development of contemporary calligraphy, and its far-reaching significance may be that we have not had time to ponder, digest and fully understand it. This is the problem scene faced by our contemporary calligraphers. However, in the face of great historical changes, how a calligrapher "stands on his feet" and how to solve the problem of "settling down" is exactly what a real artist must answer with actions. The author once used "freedom of mind" to summarize the "* * * stage" of artists in this era and "choice of mind" to summarize the "individual stage" of artists in this era. In fact, the establishment of "this one" in art is related to this. Among the calligraphers who have grown up in the new period, those who have this "cultural consciousness" have undoubtedly become the "trendsetters" of this era. Gao is an example.
First of all, it is wise to be high. High wisdom lies in his choice of artistic language. As far as I know, Chun Qing started to cut into calligraphy from seal cutting. He and my friend Wei Jie spent a long time learning seal cutting. After achieving "phased achievements", he expanded his vision to the whole history of calligraphy. In the end, he was based on two mines, one was Chu Silk Calligraphy, and the other was Cao Zhang. The first discovery of Chu silk was in the 1940s. From 1952, ten years after Chu silk books were unearthed in Changsha, three batches of Chu bamboo books of Warring States were discovered in the suburbs of Changsha. This is an important discovery since the discovery of bamboo books in Jizhong in the second year of Jin Taikang (28 1), which has attracted much attention from the archaeological community. In the next 50 years, more than 20 batches of bamboo slips were published in Hunan, Hebei and Henan. These cultural relics buried underground for more than two thousand years provide rich resources for contemporary calligraphers to grow their own calligraphy personality. The remarkable thing about high wisdom is that once he found that it was an "alternative" value different from the huge inertia of calligraphy culture, he devoted himself to mineral processing, screening, polishing and refining this "ore spot" without hesitation. In fact, he had the same idea when he chose the book Cao Zhang. This is the "courage" of a contemporary calligrapher to think and choose art from a historical perspective. As Chun Qing said: "This half-baked font can arouse the desire to create, but it needs to be refined, borrowed and enriched." Say "courageous" because this choice requires courage. Faced with this "half-life" resource, it is an artistic adventure anyway. As far as cultural inertia is concerned, it has accumulated a mature system of brushwork, calligraphy, composition, reasoning, psychology and so on, compared with many artistic classics in China's calligraphy history. If you follow the routine of "following the map", it is not a shortcut to the south, but it is relatively safe. This is especially true in contemporary times. However, it is inevitable to explore in a field that has not been fully recognized, and its hidden difficulties and risks are also inevitable. Therefore, in this sense, walking high is risky and exciting. While getting professional pleasure, he has to face the test of his own "strength" and "scheming". Therefore, I want to pay tribute to him and his calligraphers.
Secondly, the ability is high. It is said that he has the ability, which is manifested in the grasp and excavation of traditional resources. Because the "calligraphy" in the Jin Dynasty is characterized by writing, it devoted itself to it without hesitation. He made use of Chu bamboo calligraphy to get the charm of bronze inscriptions, and used the "knife method" of seal cutting and the "brushwork method" of big seal cutting to form his own face, which is tough, wild, spicy, bold and heavy. The recent "Snow Bone and Ice Soul" and "Mao" series are excellent. However, seal script couplets, set sentences and so on. They are spontaneous, brilliant, overlapping and full of true qi. From this heroic "heroic temperament", we can see how Gao, who is slim, has a passionate heart. The high pen is steady, and the rhythm is between the style of Magnolia officinalis and the dryness, which is quite impressive. Knives and pens, in particular, are more interesting and beyond words. I remember when I was evaluating Shen, I said, "The ancients were born in harmony, and the wonderful ones were out of date." Zhang even used the word "Qiao Qi" to evaluate it. Chun Qing has the shadow of sleepiness, but it is only slightly inferior in the meteorology of "the combination of the ancient and the living" and "the strange beauty". Qingchunjun can still think about it.
Third, the enlightenment of high right. In a sense, man and art are ontologies. In the present, we are all "present" in history. Everyone is equal in the enjoyment of cultural resources. But if you have a kind of "cultural consciousness", "occupy" some areas, and then sow hard, then as long as the sunshine is suitable, you will only wait for the golden autumn. Gao has his own "home", which is where he lives. He is already building his own height, and I sincerely admire him for having such a "preset". In fact, since the new era, people have gained a lot in Chu silk books, and it is natural for Gao Zicheng to become a family. Of course, there are a group of contemporary calligraphers who have absorbed the newly unearthed writing resources in the last century and made their own achievements. Their art comes from the "metaplasia" of national culture and grows in their own hearts. Therefore, I think the enlightenment of Gao mainly lies in how to ask the truth of artistic creation in multi-culture, so as to effectively grow up "self". This requires wisdom, means, resilience and patience. In a word, you need "determination". The value of "determination" is particularly obvious in the current materialistic situation. This is my understanding of Gao.
(The author is a member of the Academic Committee of China Calligraphers Association, a researcher at Shaanxi Provincial Museum of Literature and History, and director of the Collection Research Department of Shaanxi Provincial Art Museum. )
Appreciation of Tao Yuanming's Poem Drinking in Gao Zhuanshu
Ye Pengfei
Liu Xizai, a Qing Dynasty man, said in "Introduction to Art": "Books are cherished by God, and God is different from my God and other gods. If I enter other gods, I will become ancient; Whoever enters my God will become me. " After reading the banner of Gao's book Tao Yuanming's Drinking, I feel that he has reached the realm of "turning the past into me".
Twenty Drinking Poems is the most prominent chapter among the poems written by Tao Yuanming at the age of 53. Because the poet foresaw that the crisis was coming, he felt heavy, that is, he used drinking as a topic to express his feelings and satirize current events, and his language contained indignation. Gao's Love Letter in Spring is the fifth poem. The beauty of the whole poem is that it is intentional or unintentional, mysterious but not mysterious, and it is thought-provoking. Because this poet is well known, most people will recite it, even if it is a seal script, it will not hinder reading.
Reading Gao's seal script works, I first feel that he is familiar with Chu characters. Chu bamboo slips are complex in shape, and the study of their characters is also a new discipline, which is used as a calligraphy style for calligraphers to create. If you want to create with Chu seal, you must read and master its glyph, which shows that Gao has made great efforts in this respect. As can be seen from his banners, he absorbed the combination of Pan's and Wu Changshuo's seal scripts with the shape of Chu's seal scripts, and formed the shape change of "the old woman cherishes the young", which made the font structure uneven and coordinated. Seeing that the length of the glyph he made changes with the change of the text structure, I feel very graceful when reading it. Seeing that his book emphasizes lines, narrows the gap between structures, and makes the glyphs more tense, thus highlighting the rich and simple atmosphere, which has also become a major feature of high calligraphy. In terms of brushwork, he enriched the brushwork of Chu seal. Because the strokes of seal script are relatively simple, it is basically the trajectory of equal lines, which is a strictly controlled movement mode. And because of the characters in Chu bamboo slips, the fine print has been passed down from generation to generation. Creating large-scale works is not simply to enlarge small print, but to enrich brushwork, lines and artistic expression. Therefore, Gao is not satisfied with the mediocre collocation of stippling and lines. He emphasized the use of pen, using dry, wet, thick and light to change and enrich the brushwork, "changing the old into the new", created a new look, and formed his unique and free and easy seal script style. He also became the representative calligrapher who created Chu seal script among contemporary calligraphers.
As a calligrapher, everyone has his own artistic path, but no matter who he is, his goal is clear and solid. The artistic appeal of Gao's works is also the result of his "infatuation with me, turning it into my past self", and his seal script has formed a form of inseparable or detached from the ancients and people at the same time. It is both quaint and novel, which is the depth and value of high calligraphy.
(The writer is a member of the Academic Committee of China Calligraphy Association and a national first-class artist. )