THE STATUS OF ZHANG DAWO
The position of ‘Contemporary Calligraphy’ in contemporary art is a contentious issue. But few are aware of the importance of classification to theory and critic. If we do not classify logically we cannot evaluate the meanings and values of a piece of ‘Contemporary Calligraphy’ artwork. What are considered as ‘Contemporary Calligraphy’ artworks include various works which are different in writing construction, art history direction, meanings, critic’s criteria and viewer’s expectation.
The ‘Contemporary Calligraphy’ artworks can be classified as ‘Traditional Style Calligraphy’, ‘Modern Style Calligraphy’ and ‘Originated from Calligraphy Creation’. The second type retains the Chinese characters and is executed in one single movement but deviates in form from the traditional calligraphy. The third type retains the essential features of calligraphy such as the concept, the pictogram resources and the method of execution (not necessary in one single movement). Here calligraphy refers to Chinese Calligraphy. If the meaning of calligraphy is extended to all other language writings, then works of many western artists can be included, for example, the works of Antoni Tapies. The work of Xu Bing in ‘Tian Shu’ and that of Gu Wenda in ‘Lianhe Guo’ can be recruited under the ‘Originated from Calligraphy Creation’ camp. They keep the writing characters or pseudo-characters but exclude the single movement execution.
Zhang Dawo discarded the characters but could not leave the pleasure and exhilaration connected with the single movement execution. Naturally this encounters great difficulty and challenge. Thus his work belongs to the third category but sits in between type one and three, on the edge………
He follows the more stringent requirements of single movement execution, using the technique of Caoshu script and thus captures the many features of the Caoshu script i.e. giving consideration to the spatial arrangement but continuing in one single brush-stroke.
Zhang Dawo is most sensitive to the delicacy of brush strokes and lines. He exhibits a gifted combination of exhilarated brush stroke movement and contemporary art construction: rich in contemporary artform and satisfying the hunger of contemporary art viewers. At the same time, he kindles their reminiscence to tradition.
Among the many artworks of the 20th Century, it is rather difficult for an artist to create an unique artform. Zhang Dawo has selected a special focal point: he adopts tradition as the basis of his unique artform. When everyone else is contemplating how to move further away from ‘Calligraphy’, he marches on continuously right into it.
Qiu Zhengzhong
National Institute of Art, Beijing, China
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