Chih-Mai, Ch'en — Chinese Calligraphers and Their Art

Book Good Dust Jacket Included 1st Edition Melbourne University Press English text.; Hardcover (with dust jacket).; 22.5 x 28 cm; 1.2 kg.; 286 pages with black and white and colour illustrations.; Used with signs of wear on the exterior and interior. The dust jacket shows wear marks, scuffs and scratches, and some peeling of the laminated layer on some parts. The dust jacket is price clipped and as a brown sticker glued to the bottom of the rear of the front cover (only seen if the dust jacket is removed). Interior with minor signs of wear.; Calligraphy is a major art form. This book deals with the lives of the great Chinese calligraphers, and with the aesthetics of their work. It is the first to study these masters of the brush from the European viewpoint. It is intended largely for those who do not read Chinese, but who do appreciate the beauty of its characters. Dr Ch'en combines both Chinese and European scholarship. He begins with a detailed description of the various scripts of Chinese written language, from the earliest inscriptions on bronzes and oracle bones through the innovations of subsequent centuries. He identifies the major calligraphers from Wang Hsi-chih to Yu Yu-jen (d. 1964). He then discusses calligraphy as an art, as it is seen by the Chinese, and its relation to such theories of modern art as abstractionism, constructionism, and action painting. Eighty selected masterpieces of Chinese calligraphy are reproduced and discussed.