Chinese calligraphy. The art of brush writing.
| N° d'inventaire | 22558 |
| Format | 23 x 32.5 |
| Détails | 298 p., paperback with flaps. |
| Publication | Paris, 2020 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782330129514 |
Of all the original aspects of Chinese civilization, the most singular are undoubtedly language, writing, and painting, an inseparable trinity with countless purposes: communication between men and with the beyond, mastery of gesture, harmony of mind and body, an instrument of social success and power, a hidden path to self-realization, etc. Chinese characters were born more than three thousand years ago: since then, the practice of calligraphy has known such permanence that its history is intertwined with history itself, and that it has been for many, and still is, both an addiction and an asceticism. This prodigious art of graphic and pictorial lines deserved to be recounted in detail other than for the purely decorative and distracting, if not speculative, functions that are too often reserved for it today. This richly illustrated work reveals its principles, presents its tools and techniques, defines its styles, its spiritual background, its historical and social contexts, and the role played by the greatest masters. It is completed by a chronology, a bibliography, an index and the location of the collections preserving the rarest calligraphies throughout the world. Intended for the amateur curious to discover the world of ideograms, as well as for those seeking to enrich their knowledge and practice, this work closely identifies the true nature of an artistic commitment that still today mobilizes an entire civilization eager for communion with a sumptuous past as well as renewed aesthetic pleasures.
Of all the original aspects of Chinese civilization, the most singular are undoubtedly language, writing, and painting, an inseparable trinity with countless purposes: communication between men and with the beyond, mastery of gesture, harmony of mind and body, an instrument of social success and power, a hidden path to self-realization, etc. Chinese characters were born more than three thousand years ago: since then, the practice of calligraphy has known such permanence that its history is intertwined with history itself, and that it has been for many, and still is, both an addiction and an asceticism. This prodigious art of graphic and pictorial lines deserved to be recounted in detail other than for the purely decorative and distracting, if not speculative, functions that are too often reserved for it today. This richly illustrated work reveals its principles, presents its tools and techniques, defines its styles, its spiritual background, its historical and social contexts, and the role played by the greatest masters. It is completed by a chronology, a bibliography, an index and the location of the collections preserving the rarest calligraphies throughout the world. Intended for the amateur curious to discover the world of ideograms, as well as for those seeking to enrich their knowledge and practice, this work closely identifies the true nature of an artistic commitment that still today mobilizes an entire civilization eager for communion with a sumptuous past as well as renewed aesthetic pleasures.