It is not enough for an artist to be famous among his peers. A truly successful artist must be known to all women and children. For example, Wang Xizhi in Jin Dynasty, Su Dongpo in Song Dynasty and Qi Baishi in modern times. Of course, artists who enjoy such a great name are rare after all, and only one comes out in hundreds of years. If an artist can be known by people who drive cars and sell pulp in a certain area, then he is already a very successful local master. As far as Shandong Province is concerned, Mr. Wei Qihou from Jinan and Mr. Hu Qiaoran from Rushan are famous local painting and calligraphy celebrities. In the coastal city of Weihai, the most famous folk calligrapher is Mr. Shan Guofang.
Artists can be well known to ordinary people. Besides their real talents and practical learning, they have to borrow some "external forces", either for anecdotes or for prominent positions. Wang Xizhi's "Dong Chuang Tan Abdomen" and Qi Baishi's "Fake Cabbage for Real Cabbage" are deeply loved by the people and spread widely. As a calligrapher, Mr. Shan Guofang is well known to Weihai citizens, probably because of his status as the Chinese general manager of Weidong Shipping Company. But its essence should also be attributed to its good artistic level. A person with a low artistic level can hardly be recognized by people no matter what kind of strength he uses. After all, the eyes of ordinary people are discerning.
Mr. Shan Guofang's experience in learning books is different from that of most calligraphers who have been learning books since childhood. He was seriously ill at the age of thirty-five, and his life was at stake. Life and death matter, so it hurts! At this time, Shan Guofang, who had an understanding of life and death, began to practice calligraphy. It can be said that Shan Guofang's calligraphy contains the heaviness of life and the hardships of the world from the beginning, which doomed him to never go to the popular grandstanding and kitsch, and destined him to go to the frank and open artistic road.
When it comes to learning specific techniques, there are only two ways since ancient times: subtle and broad. From subtle to vast, refined and slightly pregnant; The second is to be broad first, then implicit. From vastness to exquisiteness, from exquisiteness to richness. Judging from Mr. Shan Guofang's works, he obviously took the second road. More than ten years ago, Shan Guofang was obsessed with the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and Fu Qingzhu and Wang Juesi were his mentors and close friends. A long wool moves freely between his slightly thick fingers, and the eight-foot long screen often dances and is magnificent. However, due to the lack of exquisite training in static calligraphy, such works with huge surface momentum often cannot withstand careful scrutiny, and some stippling treatments are still inaccurate. When he realized this problem, he began to practice Weibei and Zhuanli classics such as Zhang Menglong Monument. Observe its essence, imitate its preciousness, and train yourself to control the delicacy and accuracy of the brush. Then catch up with the two kings and work hard on the Preface to Lanting Collection and Wang's calligraphy. Today, his calligraphy works, especially the running script, are a little more bookish and classical than before. More importantly, elegant brushwork adds aftertaste.
Contemporary calligraphers are faced with the embarrassment that classical feelings are far from modern culture. On the one hand, we can write our desires with a brush, on the other hand, we should blindly copy the poems and essays of the ancients. More than ten years of mathematics and physics education has replaced the study of classical literature, and the charm of pediatrics in the past has become unfathomable to most people today. Under the current education system, the development of calligraphy can only become a dead end. As a result, some people of insight began to study poems and songs, write ancient poems, and advocate local traditional culture. Mr. Shan Guofang is one of them. In his spare time, he thought about the valley, pursued simple feelings and wrote more than 100 ancient poems. Most of his calligraphy works are self-created poems. Not to mention the level of his poetry for the time being. From the perspective of promoting great cultural calligraphy, this move is undoubtedly worthy of recognition and emulation.
Mr. Shan Guofang is a dragon, and this year happens to be the year of the flower. The law of calligraphy art tells us that 60 years old has just entered the golden age of creation. We expect more wonderful works from him.
(Dr. Liu Wenxue, member of China Calligraphers Association. Teacher, Academy of Fine Arts, Nanjing Art Institute. )
Life is a great work.
Gu Yalong
I often say that a real calligrapher should write his life as a great work. Mr. Shan Guofang, vice chairman of Shandong Book Association and chairman of Weihai Book Association, writes his life in a leisurely and elegant way.
Brother National Defense has been making waves in the sea for decades and has made great contributions to the economic development of Weihai. But he is most famous for his achievements in calligraphy. He learned from scratch, and after decades, he finally achieved something. The works of the elder brother of national defense, the second king of France and milk, and the Song and Yuan Dynasties have gained the demeanor of many calligraphers in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Unlike many calligraphers who only pay attention to skill training, Guo Fangge pays special attention to the study and embodiment of China traditional culture. As we all know, calligraphy is a wonderful flower rooted in the soil of China traditional culture. Practicing only by skill is far from meeting the requirements of calligraphers. A calligrapher worthy of the name, on the basis of skills, has a deeper grasp of traditional culture and greater achievements. Defence brother's books often copy his own poems. That is, at this end, we can imagine his accomplishment in traditional culture and understand his value transformation. In recent years, with the rich life experience, the ups and downs of the opening and closing of Guo Fangge's works have become increasingly obvious, and the end of the pen has become more and more old. Prosperous, boundless and desolate. Sun's so-called "people and books are old" is exactly the case. As the vice-chairman of the Provincial Calligraphy Association and the chairman of the Weihai Calligraphy Association, Guo Baowei brothers have made painstaking efforts for the calligraphy cause in Shandong, especially in Weihai, and their achievements are obvious to all. The completion of "China Printmaking Art Museum" in Liu Gongdao and the emergence of many young calligraphers in Weihai all permeated with his painstaking efforts. In recent years, the cause of calligraphy has been paid more and more attention by leaders in Weihai, and the art of calligraphy has been more and more loved by the people, which is inseparable from the strong appeal, meticulous organization and leading dedication of the national defense brother.
Guo Guofang once joked that he thought it was a "national quintessence". He is interested in all "national brands", and some categories have been studied in depth. He is a famous Peking Opera ticket, which only accepts old students, and his voice is high and desolate, just like the purport shown in his calligraphy. Singing, reading and playing are all methodical, just like his meticulous calligraphy. All these reflect the cultural identity of our national defense brothers: First, we are aiming at the traditional culture of China. It is precisely because of the infiltration of traditional culture and classical art that the defense brother appeared so calm when writing this masterpiece of life.
Gu Yalong, director of China Calligraphers Association, member and vice chairman of Shandong Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and chairman of Shandong Calligraphy Association.
Dot painting and play with ink
-Jane said Shaanxi national defense calligraphy.
Yu Mingquan
Shan Guofang works as an entrepreneur and is the vice president of a shipping company in Weihai. Needless to say, his daily work is heavy. But after years of writing, he is also an accomplished calligrapher, good at lettering. He is currently the chairman of Weihai Calligraphy Association and the vice chairman of Shandong Calligraphy Association. He not only made great achievements in calligraphy lettering, but also organized many provincial calligraphy lettering activities, which attracted the attention of the whole province and the national calligraphy lettering community and had a wide influence.
Shan Guofang has read widely since he was a child, and has accumulated profound traditional knowledge, especially cursive script. Based on the free and easy, unrestrained and ups and downs of Wang Duo Fushan, he gradually formed his own calligraphy characteristics, with bold stippling and natural and generous words. No matter whether the picture is huge or the scale is short, he has achieved the harmony of the artistic environment.
There are of course many reasons why Shan Guofang has made so many achievements in calligraphy lettering. In addition to his long-term efforts for decades, making friends, being diligent in learning and paying attention to self-cultivation are also important reasons for his success today. For example, the nourishment and edification of Beijing opera art to his calligraphy lettering is a very important factor. Shan Guofang is a veteran Beijing opera fan who can play and sing. Because we have the same hobbies and interests, every time we get together, we often talk about Beijing opera in unison. A few days ago, at the meeting of the Provincial Book Association, he specially brought me two large volumes of thick Peking Opera scores, which made me very moved. There is a program on TV where he sings and writes. He will ask me to watch it and let me cheer for him.
As we all know, calligraphy and Beijing Opera are both traditional arts and national quintessence, and naturally there are many similarities. For example, pay attention to tone and posture, such as caring about dialectical reality, such as being good at comparison, such as being good at freehand brushwork, such as pursuing charm and color, and so on. Writing always requires a stroke and a picture, and singing must be orderly. Not only that, but both of them should let readers slowly understand the charm and interest through strokes, strokes and styles, which is the most important thing. Shan Guofang certainly understood this truth, so he organically combined the two. When he plays the piano and sings, he creates his bucket flag with the rhyme of singing. He splashed ink, which is tantamount to using stippling lines to find his lingering dream with clear pronunciation and mellow voice.
Once, Shan Guofang told me that he liked singing Laoma Pai, which somewhat surprised me. Although I haven't heard his horse pie sing face to face, I always think he is more suitable for putting on airs. I don't know why, it's just a feeling. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang! Get up, walk and show your face-wow! That momentum, that energy, absolutely! The ticket play is like this, so should the ink drop.
Hiking wise man
-Mr. Shan Guofang's calligraphy art
Wang buqiang
Last year, I met with Mr. Shan Guofang for nearly ten times in order to establish the China Printmaking Art Museum in Liu Gongdao, Weihai. His sincere smile and energetic gait infected me, especially I was lucky enough to see some of his works for his 60-year-old calligraphy exhibition. His works are full of escape, and I see the truth and perfection of Mr. Shan's calligraphy art and life.
Learning calligraphy was an accidental thing for Mr. Shan to support his family at the age of 35, and later it became a daily compulsory course for "aiming at Tao". This artistic pursuit of inner introspection has been cultivated into a personal style with its own language, and calligraphy has become the basis of Mr. Shan's waterway career and many arts.
When Mr. Shan just made a mistake, he spread it in Ahava and preached among the people: "Giving something away is nothing more than sending a silent stone." Nowadays, it is difficult to find traces of that era in Mr. Wang's books. He read the characters in Wei and Jin Dynasties, the charm of Minangong, Wang Juesi and the running script of Wei Bei in Qing Dynasty. In addition to the insightful and reasonable way of "business study", Mr. Shan chose the peaceful and simple way of "calligraphy study", indulged in it, and completely entered the free gallop of the mind. When Mr. Shan approached the age of "no doubt", he deeply realized this truth and held the character of a scholar alone. As for today's calligraphy, it is naturally successful.
"love the water the Wise". At the age of 37, Mr. Shan became the Chinese boss of the Sino-Korean joint venture Weidong Company. Of course, he knows the nature of water best. The calligraphy I learned for the first time has reached the spirit likeness with Xiao, or it is a shortcut to enter the book and the "fitness" of "water"; Mr. Shan, with a pair of eyes that are not blinded by "halo", has learned a lot from the past and studied it now. From discovery to performance to creation, he embodies rationality and reveals Apollo's fighting spirit, which is the change of "water". At the age of "hearing", Mr. Shan pushed his favorite cursive script onto the relief of "original". He no longer has a trace of admiration, which opens up the truth that a gentleman is magnanimous and fully shows the pulse of literati calligraphy, which is also the "communication" of "water".
Mr. Shan's poetry is admirable. In 1996 Spring Festival couplets for artists and entrepreneurs held by the Ministry of Culture, Mr. Chairman of the former China Calligraphers Association made the first part: A hundred herbs are gloomy and know autumn, and Mr. Shan made the second part: a bamboo can feel spring, which is stable and interesting. It was promoted to the top grade by experts and won the first prize in this competition. Something so elegant. Most of Mr. Shan's poems are written to excite people, express their feelings and express their thoughts. For example, the following two poems pour out Mr. Shan's inner world:
Reflections on the Worship of Yunfeng Zheng Wengong Monument
The ancestor Mobei ascended Wenfeng, and Weibei opened the world.
The essence of the book is still there today, and the style of writing and castle peak are still famous.
Experience of learning Chinese characters
It's fun to learn Chinese characters and ink, but the pens are scattered and irregular.
The brushwork is free, and the reader is wrong if he has the heart.
The ancient prose of "One of Baidu Jiya Collection" is mellow, just like today's Preface to Lanting Collection; "Looking forward to the next time!" It conveys Mr. Shan's feelings about calligraphy art, that is, "to express his feelings, to make him sad and to make him happy". Mr. Shan's literary mind makes him pay more attention to the linear refinement of calligraphy, the overall layout, the structure of Chinese characters and the use of pens to convey form and spirit. He is deeply doing the homework of "learning from the past" and "feeling the past", and he is following the track of Wang Duo's "one day sticking, one day seeking". Mr. Shan's recent works are all selected from the poems written by Ying Ru. He realized that the hole comes from the heart and reaches the hand, thus realizing Mr. Shan's calligraphy aesthetics of "sticking words with his heart".
Mr. Shan's body contains endless vitality. Peking Opera performances and Jinghu performances convey nuances with passion. In Tai Chi and swing golf, you are cautious, gentle and good at teaching by example. All these life experiences are permeated in his calligraphy art, which always gives people great vitality and sudden anger. Over the years, they have been constantly changing, choosing business, completing their self-cultivation with pen and ink, and conveying Yi Shi's personality.
Wang Guowei, a master of Chinese studies, once said: "The essence of life is desire, which is a combination of life, desire and pain." Mr. Shan Lang talks about life with a smile and practices an important fact:
/kloc-0 presided over the first national lettering art seminar in may, 1995;
1February, 1998, the work "World Peace Bell" is an inscription stone for Buddhist stupa temple in Jeju Island, South Korea;
1999165438+10, Shandong Book Cooperation commended its outstanding contribution to foreign cultural and artistic exchanges;
In 2007, The History of Korean Calligraphy was translated and published, which filled the gap in the study of Korean calligraphy theory at home and abroad.
20 12 presided over the establishment of China printmaking art museum;
. . . . . .
Mr. Shan's successful attempts and explorations in Waterway and Book Road are integrated with life and melt sadness.
Mr. Shan is a legendary figure. From him, we can directly feel the new social life force existing in contemporary literati, and the successful cultural value model he embodies is far greater than the interpretation of his works.
20 12.8. Yu Laughter Hall
Author: Wang Buqiang
Member of lettering committee of China Calligraphers Association, Deputy Secretary General of Shandong Calligraphers Association.
Vice President of Calligraphy College of Qufu Normal University, Dean of Hanbei College, and Master Tutor.
Freedom to write about life
-Interpretation of the Collection of National Defense Calligraphy in Shan State
Compared with the concepts of "Confucianism" and "merchants are valuable" in China's history, entrepreneurs and calligraphers are a cultural phenomenon with the most modern social color today. Weber, a famous western economist, once summarized the healthy business thought in modern western times as "doing the cause of joining the WTO with the spirit of being born" If an enterprise wants to embody a certain cultural character, then people who pursue this cultural character must first have the corresponding humanistic spirit. It can be manifested in the intervention of history and philosophy, so as to deeply understand and grasp life; It can also be manifested as the infiltration of culture and art, thus radiating elegant personality and demeanor. Mr. Shan Guofang belongs to the latter type. At the same time, he is deeply attached to the free and holy spiritual home of calligraphy art, which makes him not only more poetic, more free and easy, but also more fighting spirit compared with those pure entrepreneurs. More importantly, when this humanistic temperament is integrated into his business activities, it becomes more profound and full of the charm of Confucian businessmen. He claimed to be a "duet" (channel, book route), which appropriately expressed his pursuit of life.
According to Mr. Shan Guofang's self-report, he taught himself calligraphy on the basis of Chu Feng Ni Kuanzan in 1986. 1987, he consulted Yang Zaichun, a calligrapher in Kyoto, and was accepted as a member of China Calligraphers Association in 1995. As far as we can see, during these eight years, his calligraphy was basically in the shadow of Yang Zaichun style. However, as a tough guy who has suffered hardships since childhood and is "old-fashioned", a leader who grew up by the sea, can look at the international situation, start shipping between China and South Korea and earn 60 million US dollars a year, and a talented Shandong man who is friendly all over the world, generous and often helps the poor. It is not his nature to be handsome and smart. Therefore, when he stepped into the door of calligraphy, he began to break through the barriers that had previously imprisoned his personality, and suddenly came out, broad, heavy, heroic and atmospheric. Although, on the surface, his calligraphy at that time gave people a feeling of "retrogression", in essence, he was consciously or unconsciously looking for a form that was most suitable for self-expression. This is a rough "cocoon-breaking" process, as opposed to "crusting", and it is also an important barrier that many calligraphers must break through to gain new life. Of course, in the pursuit of calligraphy art, this process is often performed as "intermittent" long years to complete. It can be seen from this episode that in order to narrow down his research scope as much as possible, Mr. Shan Guofang first converged with ordinary amateur calligraphers, and then chose a path to expand the field of pen and ink as much as possible to enrich it; The objects of taking the law are from Zhong Ding in pre-Qin Dynasty to Han bamboo slips, Wei Bei, two kings, famous figures in Tang and Song Dynasties and outstanding figures in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Formally, there are seal, official, mold, line and grass. This reflects his attempt to systematically grasp the bright spots in the history of calligraphy, so as to achieve the ambiguous situation of taking into account all kinds of methods and integrating classics to change. As the saying goes, art is endless. Mr. Shan Guofang's calligraphy attainments are still a long way from this realm, but this is the dividing line that distinguishes him from those who also publish books and participate in exhibitions, but still belong to graffiti. More than that, just because it is never satisfied, it absorbs the artistic vitality of many people and is divorced from the diversity of creation. Aren't those professional calligraphers who have long been famous but have a single font or have remained unchanged for decades enough to ask themselves and think deeply?
China's calligraphy art is an innate art form, and he has a shallow understanding of the ideological field. Therefore, most scholars in China regard it as a kind of "carefree tour" that alienates and downplays life. This is manifested in the negative, easy to form an old complex that is too idle and not enterprising. Needless to say, in today's calligraphy army, a considerable number of calligraphers present a phenomenon similar to "parabola" trajectory. Almost in sync with the rise and fall of life energy, about forty years old is the critical point, and the level of calligraphy gradually declines, from bad to worse, and even eventually disappears. The reason is nothing more than being driven by utilitarianism or unbearable artistic pressure and insufficient academic support in character. Generally speaking, this school is the only one that will persist for a lifetime. No matter how much he advocates seal script, or he is a high-standard Wei Bei Jin paper, or he is a scavenger in Mi Fei, or he specializes in Zhao Dong's coquetry, or he imitates Xu Wei's madness, or he is infatuated with Fu and Wang, or he is a gaffe in the Qing Dynasty. As long as he is stubborn, he will be born, grow and get old, although he may be affected by the wind. "Putting law first" and "grasping law at the same time" are the integration concepts with high difficulty, breadth and depth. Only by setting one's artistic realm at the highest level can one inspire a sense of urgency to forge ahead from the difficulties and remoteness in the future, generate motivation from pressure and generate opportunities from challenges. Otherwise, it is easy to indulge in a shallow sense of success because the ideal is too vulgar. Some young and middle-aged people who are still in the green fruit or mature state are already arrogant when they are young, or feel good about themselves when they go downhill. The lack of fusion consciousness is probably a sharp knife to dispel the calligrapher's artistic life. Compared with the general disadvantages, its harm lies in that it often covers inertia with piety, shallowness with shallowness, and pallor with purity, and even treats pus and phlegm as cheese and swollen poison as peach blossoms, which makes the plague widely spread and causes long-term harm. Thus, in contrast, Shan Guofang's exploration heart is increasingly strengthened with the richness of life perception and artistic experience. With a long-span dialogue with history, he tried to revive the classical soul in the new era, and also let the modern spirit take off with classical taste. His pursuit of ancient modeling with both form and spirit and modern style with ancient meaning are interdependent, forming an art series with continuous thoughts. His calligraphy world is still as restless and exhausted as the business world. Sometimes quiet as a virgin, sometimes free and easy, or as firm as turquoise, or as easy as peach blossom, as anxious as a monk in a Tibetan bamboo courtyard. At first glance, it was snowing in the empty valley, and I smelled the reed warbler in the lotus pond. Style is man, and his rich inner spiritual world has been strongly objectified in the change of calligraphy line structure. As far as I can see, in recent years, the trajectory of his calligraphy creation has become more and more uncertain with the passage of time. But this is not superficial, but an innovation based on self-challenge; It is not an idle artistic betrayal, but a renewal of spiritual connotation and expression through constant negation. An old calligrapher may not be blessed with the capricious flowing state, but it is a normal sign for a middle-aged calligrapher. Because premature maturity or stagnation means death. From this point of view, how can we not sigh the admirable ambition and kindness of Mountain Defense?
Of course, the innovation of calligraphy is extremely difficult, and it must be based on the individuality and exquisiteness of the works, which requires courage, rational restraint, time guarantee and experience guidance. Therefore, it is one thing to have the impulse of aesthetic breakthrough, but it is another to turn this impulse into a harmonious and independent art form. Mr. Shan Guofang always feels the impact of the wave of world economic integration, and at the same time he is also experiencing the bath of the comprehensive atmosphere of world culture. This made him get rid of the fatal isolated island emotion in his calligraphy creation, and he was trying to open his mind and learn from all sides. He spent almost all his spare time reading posts, doodling, creating and thinking, in order to accumulate rich artistic experience and strive to complete aesthetic breakthroughs. In this sense, calligraphy has indeed become a part of his life ontology. It is not surprising that his works present a grand scene of flying kites and jumping fish. However, the mature picture finally revealed by this absorption should not reveal a romantic situation, but should naturally hide a clue composed of life consciousness and personalized aesthetic style; We should not tolerate the erosion and interference of vulgar ills such as simplicity, vanity, impetuousness, rudeness, ugliness and mess, but should take as many beautiful factors as possible as the keynote. Frankly speaking, this kind of hidden lines and beautiful tone has begun to appear in Mr. Shan Guofang's works, and has not yet reached the perfect state of unity and harmony of series scales. We look forward to his early completion of the qualitative leap beyond the present!
(Zhang Xunzuo)