Calligraphic Painting: Some Thoughts on my Work

Leonardo, Vol. 8, pp. 41-43. Pergainon Press 1975. Printed in Great Britain CALLIGRAPHIC PAINTING: SOME THOUGHTS ON MY WORK Jacques Decaux* 1. those who did not know me personally (Fig. 1, cf. Why should anyone make paintings or sculptures when so many have been and are being produced in the world, often by talented individuals? Picasso, as related by A. Malraux [I], said: ‘The need to create is a drug: there must be invention, there must be painting. ...There have been artistpainters who painted, artist-sculptors who sculpted. Happily, everythinghas not been kept: they would havebeen stacked ashigh as the moon!’ Personally, after 15years of painting, I am ashamed to say that I stillcannot give a satisfactoryanswer. Using one’s talent to make a living seems as bad a reason as becoming a civilservant for material security. Even when an artist sells one of his works, I wonder how much it communicates to the buyer. Should an art work be appreciated for its meaning or should it simply be aesthetically satisfying? Should buyers be prohibited from purchasinga work for the wrong reason? A book is sold in hundreds or thousands of copies, whereas a painting is generally seen but by very few people. Does this make a painter’s work more or less worthy than one by an artist who uses words? A painter, like other professionals, must practice strenuously to achieve a technical mastery over canvas, pigments and brushes. Once he has become accustomed to his medium and his preferred style, he must turn inward in order to select what he thinks is important to be depicted. He may, of course,be content to limit himself to studies of the possibilities of technique of a medium and of style, as the composer Charles Czerny did with his well-known piano exercises. 2. After practising Chinese calligraphy, as such, over a period of some 15years in search of a deeper understanding of the Chinese language, I realized that my evocative black brush strokes affected viewers of Occidental cultural background, even color plate, and Figs. 2-4) [2]. Certainly, there have been many artists who were influenced by Chinese calligraphy. However, I may have been the first to approach painting as a Chinese scholar would, that is, starting from the language itself and its calligraphic symbols to depict their visual aesthetic qualities. In a scroll of calligraphy, Orientals see first the strength and liveliness of strokes and the compositional aspects of the object before they get at the meaning of the characters and at their implications within the scope of the viewers’ life experience. A Western viewer is less fortunate, as he can grasp only its visual aspects, without obtaining literary reminiscences of the language, Therefore, its intellectual message is lost to him. * French artist living at Robert Mayerstr. 27, 6 Frank- Fig. 2. Untitled, extrapolation o f a Chinese character, India ink and acrylic paint, Chinese paper, 100 x 70 cm., 1972. furt-Main, Ger. Fed. Rep. (Received 11 Feb. 1974.) 41 42 Jacqircs Dccaux One of the problems that I encountered was how to avoid the simpleimitation of ChineseandJapanese calligraphy. Could I, with my Western cultural background, effectively use symbols related to calligraphic ones on a blank background suggesting limitless space? Could I use many colours rather than black on white? The artist Soshana has reported on her confrontation of these questions in Leonard0 [3]. The act of painting calligraphic pictures has a tranquilizing effect on me. By adding a touch of autogenous training, some Zen meditation and a belief in the Taoist school of thought, I achieve a serenity that transcends the brush strokes. Although one of my pictures is the result of a few seconds of actual painting, I may prepare myself for its execution over a period of several days. My aim is to discard conscious mental effort during the act of painting, because it is difficult for the mind to keep pace with the swiftness of the smooth gestures involved. Evidently, I do not practice ‘automatic’ painting, which would mean trusting to luck of a satisfying outcome. Quite a number of persons obtain satisfaction from expressing themselves by means of objects of visual art...