From Imitation to Creation: Self-Portrait Sketches

Author: Jiang Liping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-14
Features: From copying to creation, it is a topic that every calligrapher must face. The artistic characteristics of calligraphy determine that it places greater emphasis on "copying" as an entry and practice method compared to other arts, while also pursuing the realm of "creation" as a transformation and sublimation. However, the relationship between the two is not a simple or absolute causal one, but rather involves a transcendent, transformative mystery. Since ancient times, accomplished calligraphers have all achieved success by penetrating this mystery. However, due to differences in the context of calligraphic studies, ancient masters rarely preserved their copies, and their distinction between copying and creation was not as clear or well-defined as it is today. The practical trajectories and inner journeys of generations from copying to creation have also become blurred and lost over time. To promote the development of contemporary calligraphy and explore the transformative mystery from copying to creation, we have organized the writing of this series, "From Copying to Creation." Through the excavation of methodologies and values in the ancient calligraphic system for progressing from copying to creation, this series takes individual calligraphers or specific works as its subjects of interpretation. It strives to comprehensively integrate multiple types of information, such as origins and schools, imitation and innovation, subject and object, will and law, as well as textual materials and visual resources, in order to provide readers with beneficial reflections and insights. For those calligraphers in history who established schools, bridged past and present, and left a lasting legacy, the series not only organizes their works and documents related to copying and creation but also attempts to analyze their implicit, relatively rational approaches and transitional methods. For those brilliant, timeless masterpieces in calligraphy history, the series analyzes their technical features and artistic styles while also focusing on how later generations understood, drew inspiration from, and made selections from them at different levels across various eras. Of course, during the writing process, the same source materials may lead to different perspectives, interpretive methods, and presentation effects; and the same interpretive subjects may result in certain degrees of overlap. However, all of this will contribute to helping us find the points of convergence between tradition and contemporary from a broader, more flexible, and thus more comprehensive standpoint. This is also the overall effect that this series aims to achieve.