Page 142 - Bonhams September 10 2018 New York Chinese Works of Art

JINSHI CALLIGRAPHY FROM THE
QING XING ZHAI COLLECTION

Over the course of nearly 1,500 years, Chinese calligraphers
adhered to the orthodox tradition, a strict reliance on the styles of
past masters beginning with Wang Xizhi (307-365) and thereafter a
canon of accepted artists and masterpieces. In the middle of the
eighteenth century this orthodoxy was challenged. Calligraphers
began to explore even deeper into the past--prior to Wang Xizhi--to
inscriptions inscribed on stone stelae and cast onto bronze vessels.
Observing, replicating, and re-interpreting ancient styles of clerical
and seal script that pre-dated regular script, calligraphers created
Jinshixue (literally studies of metal and stone) calligraphy. The result
was at once a dramatic departure from the accepted tradition and
an embrace of an even earlier tradition, infusing the written language
with a distinctly archaic appearance.

While sharing a common ancient aesthetic, jinshi calligraphy drew on
different script sources and interpretations to yield a rich visual variety
with broad stylistic vocabulary, even when artists were inspired by
contemporaneous styles. Qian Yong’s (1759-1844) Calligraphic
Couplet in Clerical Script (lot 199) draws on the techniques of Han
Dynasty government clerks, with solid strokes with distinctive flaring
tips. Yet, it contrasts markedly with the clerical script employed in
Yang Xian’s (1819-1896) fan (lot 201), with his wavering strokes
emulating a monumental inscription engraved on a cliff face (moya)
rather than a sober a government document that would have been
the source for Qian Yong. Wu Xizai’s (1799-1870) Calligraphy in Seal
Script (lot 205) with its fluid, even strokes--as if written by stylus for
a ritual bronze vessel—bears an elegant demeanor. However Zhang
Zuyi’s (1849-1917) large Calligraphic Couplet in Seal Script (lot 206)
demonstrates unabashedly that calligraphy is the art of the brush.
Although the brushstrokes retain their rounded form of seal script,
the artist employs the flying white technique, exposing the paper
ground where the ink thins.

Based on the study of ancient texts, jinshi calligraphy would often
be didactic as well as aesthetic. Li Ruiqing’s (1867-1920) eight
panel set (lot 208) ends with a brief essay of script styles from the
state of Qi during the Warring States period, and clearly announces
his stylistic influence for this opus. Likewise, Wu Dacheng (1835-
1902) in Calligraphy in Seal Script fan (lot 205) cites the calligraphy
engraved on the Han Dynasty stone towers near Mount Song for
his inspiration. John Wei’s (Wei Letang, 1921-2012) Calligraphy in
Northern Wei Style Script (lot 212) is a fitting bookend to this single
owner group of calligraphy lots. The only artist of the group that
traveled and lived in Europe and North America, he was exposed to a
far wider range of influences that the other calligraphers. He painted
in oil as an Abstract Expressionist and hung his work in exhibitions 199
alongside the paintings of Hans Hartung (1904-1989). Despite that,
John Way also authored publications on oracle bone script and
bronze inscriptions, and here he has copied the Cuan Bao Zi stele,
an anonymous stone inscription dated to the year 404.
PROPERTY FROM THE QING XING ZHAI COLLECTION
Ultimately jinshi calligraphy sought a vision of the past in a quest
for the authentic, early sources of the Chinese visual language. This 199
aesthetic movement upended the orthodox tradition that persisted QIAN YONG (1759-1844)
for a millennium and a half, and brought the eyes of calligraphers and Calligraphy Couplet in Clerical Script
scholars to the earliest traces of Chinese culture. By reviving and A pair of hanging scrolls, ink on paper, with one dedication, signed
re-fashioning these texts from antiquity, the calligraphic tradition was Liangxi Qian Yue, with three seals of the artist, reading Meixi, wuyue
expanded to include the long-ignored roots of the written tradition, wangsun, and Qian Yong zhi yin.
and thus it is strengthened by the embrace of its own past. 64 1/4 x 12in (163.1 x 30.6cm) each scroll

For an excellent synopsis of jinshi calligraphy see Lothar Ledderose $3,000 - 5,000
“Calligraphy at the Close of China’s Empire” in Art at the Close of
China’s Empire, Phoebus 8, p. 189-207, and Qianshen Bai “Chinese 錢泳 隸書七言聯 水墨紙本 立軸一對
Calligraphy in the Mid to Late Qing and Republican Periods” in New
Songs on Ancient Tunes, 19th -20th century Chinese Painting and Provenance
Calligraphy from the Richard Fabian Collection, p. 66-79. Formerly on long term loan at the Honolulu Art Academy

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