A few days ago, I went to the Sunrise Art Center to appreciate the famous traditional Anhui-style architecture and to give some advice on an oil painting show to be held soon. It was out of my expectation that when I entered the Sunrise Art Center, I was soon absorbed by the "modern calligraphy" works hung in it. These works pursue balance in steepness and focus on the interest of typeface, creating an intuitive appeal. They not only express the unrestrained mentality of the author but are also full of a happy atmosphere. I don't call them calligraphic works here because they should be otherwise categorized according to the generally accepted standards of the calligraphic community. In fact, the author often goes beyond the traditional format and norm of calligraphy from the perspective of a modern person's aesthetic pursuit. He uses characters as the basic material of the holistic space freely and boldly, and also pays particular attention to the composition of the picture plane and the expression of instantaneous feelings, giving the audience special feelings that are different from traditional calligraphy. It was later known that these "modern calligraphy" works were created by the owner Chen Qiuzhi.
　　In the past, Chen Qiuzhi dealt with oil painting creation mainly. During the decoration of the Sunrise Art Center in recent years, he suddenly got the impulse to create "modern calligraphy" works when he was inspired by the interior space in a free schedule, and this impulse has become out of hand. If we use the world art history as a clue, it is not difficult to find that Chen Qiuzhi has incorporated some characteristics of Western abstract expressionism cleverly, such as the pursuit for moldability, expressionism and plane constitution. For this reason, his "modern calligraphy" works have a loose relationship with traditional calligraphy. Let's make an improper comparison. They are just like a father and a son. Although the son has ties of blood with the father, he can never be his father and can only be himself. Of course, Chen Qiuzhi's "modern calligraphy" is far from abstract painting. Those familiar with the modern Western art history should know that abstract painting is relative to representational painting. Such works abandon not only the reproduction of images and objects, but imagination on the basis of images and objects completely as well, and constitute the picture plane with pure visual elements, such as point, line and surface. Chen Qiuzhi's "modern calligraphy" works are clearly different. Although he goes far beyond the pattern of traditional calligraphy in his works, his works are still an inherent inheritance of traditional calligraphy because the basic elements of traditional calligraphy are kept effectively. Specifically, first, he pays particular attention to line quality during creation, and still emphasizes that recognizable Chinese characters be treated with touches in traditional running cursive handwriting, except that he focuses on pure aesthetics of line, writing, modeling, inking and constitution for representational purposes; second, he still attaches great importance to the one-off or non-modifiable nature, which makes his works momentous and exhibits a sense of order and time. Through the superimposition and connection of touches and the variation of ink colors in his works, more sophisticated viewers can easily understand how Chen Qiuzhi used his pen during creation.
　　It is based on the above reasons that I think Chen Qiuzhi's works have established a horizon different from the traditional calligraphy norm successfully, and will have a great prospect. Associated with this, his "modern calligraphy" works are more suited to modern architecture and the way in which modern people appreciate works. An important reason is with the change of society and cultural background, the practical social function of calligraphy has been weakening, while its social aesthetic function is developing. Especially in modern times, since calligraphic works are exposed to the audience in the manner of distant appreciation other than close contact in the past, people are paying more attention to the abstract beauty of calligraphic works. Undoubtedly, this is just the foundation of birth and development of "modern calligraphy" works.
　　Before this article is about to end, I'd stress that I have no intention to debase traditional calligraphy at all while affirming Chen Qiuzhi's breakthrough strongly. In my case, I want to stress the idea that different value orientations in artistic creation arise from different trends of age and interest. In an ultimate sense, we cannot tell which of the past and present norms is better. Nevertheless, any norm is always time-bound. If artists always followed the past norm and could not create any new norm, there would be no history. This is the logic of development of art history. Who could have any objection to this?
　　This is the preface.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　April 15, 2010, Shenzhen Art Museum

作者：Hong,Lu