As the name suggests, "ugly calligraphy" is calligraphy that looks ugly, which is very different from the traditional calligraphy style in terms of perception, and has become one of the most controversial topics in today's Chinese calligraphy circle. The disgusted believe that it is a desecration of traditional culture, a manifestation of the extremely evil atmosphere of the industry, and the beginning of the destruction of calligraphy.
Although there is no shortage of "ugly calligraphy" in the history of Chinese calligraphy, today's "ugly calligraphy" refers to the avant-garde calligraphy style that completely subverts the tradition, and the origin of this calligraphy style is not in China, but from Japan, and "ugly calligraphy" has become a typical case of Japanese calligraphy reversing Chinese culture.
Japanese calligraphy originated from China, for a long time, Japanese calligraphy has been strictly inherited from traditional Chinese calligraphy, due to the lack of traditional roots, the development of Japanese calligraphy has been very limited, and has not been valued by the Chinese calligraphy circle, and no Chinese calligrapher will go to the in-depth study of Japanese calligraphy.
Until the emergence of the Japanese avant-garde calligraphy style, due to the influence of Western art aesthetics, it has incorporated a lot of Western abstract art concepts, which has been valued by the Western art world, and has been the darling of major auctions, and has been auctioned off continuously, which has greatly shocked the domestic calligraphy world, and the domestic calligraphy world has begun to re-examine Japanese calligraphy, and some people have learned to imitate it, and the "ugly book" was born.
In 1935, the Japanese calligrapher Hitabi Tenrai was influenced by the Chinese calligraphy tablet and modern art concept, and proposed that calligraphy should be an artistic style that is "neither a word nor a painting", which is considered to be an important guiding ideology of Japanese avant-garde calligraphy, but Hitabi Tenrai did not practice his own theory in the incident.
In 1951, at the Japan Art Exhibition, Ueda Kuwado launched his first avant-garde calligraphy style work "Love", which seems to be a work of "Pin", but was replaced by Ueda Kuwadou as "love", according to Ueda Sangou, this work is inspired by the child's attitude and attachment when following his parents.
The top one of the works is written slightly naïve, representing the child, and the bottom two "mouth" characters are written very solidly, and slightly mountain-like, and close to each other, representing the child's parents behind the child's care, the whole work embodies the infinite "love" between the family, husband and wife, and the elderly.
The work caused a great sensation in Japan and received a lot of controversy, and eventually Ueda Kuwado was forced to withdraw from the exhibition and withdraw the work. The first attempt at avant-garde calligraphy ended in failure, and after that, another calligrapher, Masatake Osawa, whose avant-garde style work "Kurotake Black Stream" was criticized for "filth" and expelled from the exhibition.
Although Japanese avant-garde calligraphy did not succeed, it did not die out, but was carried forward by Ueda Kuwado's ** Inoue Ichi, and the key to Inoue's success in avant-garde calligraphy is that he has had in-depth exchanges with many Western avant-garde artists in the creative process, and his works have been recognized by these people and achieved prestige in the international art world.
A work by Inoue was auctioned for 5 million, which caused a sensation and greatly stimulated the nerves of domestic calligraphers. And Inoue's creative concept of breaking free from all shackles and showing a complete self is also in line with the rebellious character of the current Chinese people. As a result, some domestic calligraphers began to accept and pursue this avant-garde calligraphy style, and surpassed it, and all kinds of "ugly calligraphy" came into being.
Nowadays, the avant-garde calligraphy style represented by Inoue has completely failed in Japan, but it has been inherited and developed very strongly in China, and most of the calligraphers who advocate this style serve as university tutors, which makes many Chinese people very worried about the impact of "ugly calligraphy" on the development of Chinese calligraphy.
Judging from the origin and development process of "ugly books", capital has always been dominant. After overthrowing the aesthetic rule of the feudal dynasty, calligraphy quickly fell into the monopoly of capital, and the distance from the aesthetics of the common people became larger and larger.
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