Ceng Xiang's Artistic Experience

Wang Keyu, a scholar, believes that Ceng Xiang is a controversial calligrapher in contemporary book circles. Praisers lamented Ceng Xiang's incredible creativity and amazing diversity of expression, while critics thought that Ceng Xiang challenged the elegant bottom line of traditional calligraphy and regarded Ceng Xiang as the representative of contemporary ugly books. However, the true value and significance of Ceng Xiang can only be appreciated under the background of tradition and modernity. China's calligraphy is as broad as the Yellow River, the great mother of the Chinese nation, and flows like the water of the Yellow River, surging and clamoring. Ceng Xiang, a Beijing calligrapher, is a trendsetter of our time. He dared to jump into the noisy calligraphy river, fighting and swimming in the river ... Ceng Xiang graduated from the Military Academy of China People's Liberation Army, and studied under Wang Ren, Liu Bingsen and Shen Peng. He is good at calligraphy and cursive. His book is based on monuments and columns, and two inscriptions, epitaph and Han Li's will are added. The written language is thick and simple, and the book style is quiet and handsome, which is a bit more interesting and dissipated. His works have a profound tradition, a strong sense of the times and a flying personality. The style of his works is unique in contemporary book circles, which combines the strengths of all kinds of works and seeks its diversity, giving people a simple and frank feeling.

His works won the first prize in the 7th and 8th National Young and Middle-aged Calligraphy and Seal Carving Exhibition, and were selected as the "Top 20 Nomination Exhibitions of Contemporary Calligraphy in China, the most influential exhibition of contemporary calligraphy in China" for five consecutive years. Calligraphy seal cutting works were selected in Sixty Years of China Fine Arts, National Calligraphy System and Contemporary Art History-Calligraphy Volume; He has been invited to Japan, Korea, France and Germany for many times to participate in art exchange activities. His works have been collected by China Art Museum, Guangdong Art Museum, Zhongnanhai, Today Art Museum, Rong Baozhai Painting Academy, Kunluntang Art Museum, Wuhan Art Museum, Hubei Art Museum, Friends International and private collection institutions. He has published Collected Works of Ceng Xiang's Calligraphy and Seal Cutting, Ceng Xiang Volume, Impression of Chinese Characters, Introduction to Cursive Calligraphy, and Qigong's Stone Pen Copy of Calligraphy, etc. "Honest and clean, pay attention to moral cultivation and integrity, itself will respect. As for art, in the words of Mr. Li Keran, it is: hit it with a hundred times of strength, and hit it with a hundred times of strength. Artistic creation can't follow the trend, just like a cat painting a tiger. " In an interview, Ceng Xiang said this.

Ceng Xiang's understanding of tradition is broader and deeper than that of ordinary people. He broke the boundary between famous calligraphy and non-famous calligraphy, stele study and post study, and took his knowledge background, experience and experience as the basis for his judgment and choice. As long as Shang and Zhou inscriptions, Qin Zhuan Han bamboo slips and Northern Wei inscriptions are in his field of vision and think beautiful, he takes them as objects for my use. This is a longer tradition than the famous calligrapher represented by the "Two Kings", just because it was unearthed late, and its important value was not fully excavated until the rise of stele study in Qing Dynasty, and it shone brilliantly.

Ceng Xiang's persistence and excavation of tradition is also reflected in his efforts to seal script. On different occasions, he often said that if you want to make achievements in contemporary cursive script, you have to make up the course of seal script. He said so and did so, and he also made great efforts in seal script, which is reflected in his seal script works, that is, the lines are full and the shape is strange and simple.

In Ceng Xiang's view, all traditional learning should ultimately point to creation. If it can't be implemented in creation, this kind of learning is invalid. Therefore, Ceng Xiang's study of classics has a strong purpose, and he often only takes what he sees, and only takes a little of what is useful for his own creation, which is not as good as the rest, rather than aiming at the image and similarity of the original post. This is an effective learning method. From "Praise of Oriental Painting" and "Ling Fei Classic" to Ergui, then to Yang Weizhen and Jin Nong, then to the calligraphy of Er Wang Tie, and then to the calligraphy of Han Li, Jinwen and Bamboo Slips, this course clearly shows the course of Ceng Xiang's discovery and sublimation of tradition.

In order to get rid of the shackles of the established modeling and writing inertia of Chinese characters, Ceng Xiang also adopted some extreme unconventional writing methods, such as inverted books, reversed books, left-handed books and even blind books. Ceng Xiang, as a calligrapher, suffered from illness, while Ceng Xiang, as an artist, was rewarded. There is no shortage of calligraphers in calligraphy, but artists. Wei, a famous painter and critic, commented: "Our natural works are bold and tough with pens. Pay attention to his works and follow his thoughts, and you will feel his thought of "one stone in spring, one smog in cure" through the meaning expressed by the scenery and his pictures. When you chew these works, you will feel that they have the same high mood as nymphs. The lofty feelings he exudes by expressing his inner world are also out of the nature of my Chu people. "

Ceng Xiang said: "Calligraphers should be the designers of Chinese characters first. In the past, the writing of Chinese characters was always confined to calligraphy. If we extend the study of calligraphy to "study the art of Chinese characters" and focus on the artistry of Chinese characters and the beauty of Chinese characters, it may be more valuable, the thinking will be broader, and the boundaries between avant-garde, tradition and classicism will no longer exist. "

If modern composition is a formal symbol of the modernity of calligraphy, and popularization is the most typical spiritual feature of modern art, in this sense, Ceng Xiang's folk spirit and folk taste of calligraphy make him one of the most representative calligraphers in the avant-garde calligraphy art camp. The difference between him and other avant-garde artists is that he found the most exciting expansion space of calligraphy from its ancient source. This discovery enabled Ceng Xiang to personalize the meaning of classical calligraphy and take root in the local cultural soil, without taking into account the unavoidable "identity anxiety" problem of local avant-garde artists in China.

Gauguin, an impressionist painter, once said in a letter to Strindberg, "Civilization makes you suffer, and barbarism makes me rejuvenate", which is quite appropriate for Ceng Xiang. Compared with the classic calligraphy created by traditional literati, Ceng Xiang's calligraphy is undoubtedly "barbaric" and lacks "elegance", but it is full of vitality. Simplicity, happiness, innocence and happiness constitute the quality of Ceng Xiang's calligraphy. Every time I look at his handwriting, I seem to hear his hearty laughter and heartfelt "fun" exclamation when he writes.

Ceng Xiang, who has just passed his destiny, is getting better and better, but the characteristics of China's calligraphy determine that this is only the beginning. Therefore, there are still higher goals waiting for Ceng Xiang to move forward.