NOTES ON CALLIGRAPHY AND PAINTING
By: C. C. Wang

People often mention the similarity between Chinese ink painting and western watercolors painting. Such remarks, I believe, are just modern day audience's misunderstanding of the art of Chinese calligraphy and painting. First of all, the Chinese brush is different from the Western brush. Secondly, the origin and development of Chinese and Western art encompass fundamental differences. In western art, the brush is a tool, which is used to illustrate the object's volume, texture, structure, light and darkness, and shadows. The Chinese brush, on the other hand, has a unique tip that can produce pointy, round, flat and bold strokes, and it is developed to suit the different needs for both calligraphy and painting. During the creative process, the Chinese brush is not seen merely as a tool for producing lines; the use of it is meant as a unique way to express the artist's individual style, because " calligraphy and painting are of the same origin". Thus as the artist searches for formal aesthetics, he must also pay serious attention to the ink work and brush work. Within the realm of Chinese painting, the depiction of lines must embody the vitality of the objects (shape) and distinct individualism (inner spirit). The Chinese brush line dual inner qualities and it also possesses dual aesthetics.

In prehistoric time, the production of earth ware has already reflected the unique quality of " calligraphy and painting share the origin." Colored pottery's simple beauty, with its decoration, which combined painting and calligraphy, indicted the early exploration in the use of ink, brush, and lines. The emphases of line drawings in early figure paintings further demonstrate the Chinese artist's relentless pursuit in this particular art form. Although many artistic traditions began with figure painting, the basic function for lines remained in the portrayal of objects. The figural wall painting and characters of ancient Egypt apparently showed the use of brush, the Chinese artist's concern for brushwork reflects rather his understanding of the beauty of abstraction. Taken the Chinese characters "tian" (sky) and "di" (earth) for instance, one cannot see the exact portrayal of the sky and the earth; instead, they are expressions of the artist's own knowledge and understanding of them. Under his brush, the artist creates his own "tiandi" (world), which expresses his inner feelings and thoughts, and reflects a clear formal aesthetic that has a concrete and independent value.

After Gu Kai-Zhu and Zhan Zi-Qian, Chinese artists started to explore the development of brushwork in the form of landscape painting, as figural narratives could no larger fully carry out the spirit of the ink and brush. Such development started to mature during Tang and Song dynasties, flourished during the Five Dynasty Period, and continued to succeed for the years followed. In my life-long pursuit of the art of Chinese painting, I am most fond of the landscape genre - its beautiful brushwork and its embodiment of calligraphy and painted quality. As Song-Xue Dao-Ren (Zhao Mengfu) proclaimed. "One should paint rocks in cursive script, trees in seal script, and bamboos following the Eight Methods of the Character 'Yong'. If one can acquire such skills, then he must realize that calligraphy and painting are fundamentally the same." Thus for Chinese art, one must first acquire the knowledge of calligraphy in order to understand the painting. In my own aesthetic experience, I pay most attention to the inner spirit and rich feelings inherited from classical landscape. My direction combines both objective portrayal and abstraction, at the same time avoids reoccurring subject matters found in classical works. Within my abstract works, which merged calligraphy and painting, I search for new interactions where the hand and mind can unite in harmony. It is not my intention to start something new in order to be different. Instead, without abandoning the basic elements of Chinese art, all I want to express through my brushwork are what my heart desires and the content of my thoughts.

C. C. Wang
August 1999
New York City