Art Life---Getting Closer to Master Lu Weizhao

Author: Xing Xiuhua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-25
Features: Lu Weizhao (1899-1980), originally named Ziping, styled Weizhao, and later signed Shao. His study was named Zhuanghuishi, also known as Yuanshanglou, and he was from Xincang. He was a modern educator in China, a renowned calligrapher, painter, and seal carver, as well as a famous scholar and poet. His uniquely created "Lu Weizhao style" stood out in the calligraphy world, gaining fame both domestically and internationally. In 1920, Lu Weizhao enrolled in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Nanjing Higher Normal School. In 1924, he was hired as a teaching assistant at the Institute of Chinese Studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing, serving as Wang Guowei's assistant. Later, due to the illness of his grandfather and mother, he resigned in 1926 and returned south, teaching successively at Songjiang Girls' High School, Hangzhou Girls' High School, and Shanghai St. John's University. After the liberation, he taught at Zhejiang University, Zhejiang Normal College, and the Chinese Department of Hangzhou University. In 1960, he was transferred to the Chinese Painting Department of the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts as a professor. In 1963, at the request of the then president Pan Tianshou, he was entrusted to establish the Department of Calligraphy and Seal Carving, serving as its director and filling a gap in China's art education.
Lu Weizhao was a versatile talent, skilled in poetry, calligraphy, painting, and seal carving. His calligraphy expertise was particularly profound; from an early age, he copied famous works from past generations, demonstrating deep proficiency in oracle bone script, bronze inscriptions, seal script, and running script. In his later years, he forged his own path, creating a calligraphic style that was neither seal script nor clerical script, yet combined elements of both, establishing a unique position in the calligraphy world and becoming a master renowned both domestically and internationally. His painting adopted the "Southern School" method, integrating calligraphy into his art. He excelled in ink-wash landscapes, characterized by high artistic conception and profound meaning, often accompanied by poetic inscriptions, earning him the reputation of "three perfections" in the painting world.