“Heritage and Innovation—Shih Chun-mao 80 Calligraphy Exhibition,” organized by National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Ministry of Culture, will be grandly held at Chungshan National Gallery from December 11 to January 17 next year (2022). The opening ceremony was held in the afternoon today (Dec. 11). The exhibition selects 81 sets of works to exhibit the calligrapher’s skills of integrating the essence of the ancient steles and rubbings. The visitors will be able to understand the formal beauty of calligraphy art and the new level of appreciating and reading contemporary calligraphy art.
Born in Tianliao Township, Kaohsiung, in 1942, Mr. Shih Chun-mao has been dedicated to the creation and education of calligraphy art for long and actively promoted calligraphy to take root in Taiwan all over his life. He excels in all scripts of calligraphy, including regular script, running script, cursive script, clerical script, and seal script and integrates the skills and spirit of western painting to create an unprecedented world of contemporary calligraphy art. Shih established the first calligraphy classroom in Taiwan when working at Taipei Municipal Dongmen Elementary School. At present, he teaches the calligraphy class of Presidential Office. This time, invited by Chungshan National Gallery, he holds the solo exhibition, and President Tsai Ing-wen sent a congratulatory message to wish the success of the exhibition.
In his speech, Director-general of National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Wang Lan-sheng, mentioned the importance of finding the good models and copybooks to imitate according to his personal experience of learning calligraphy. Mr. Shih’s hard work in calligraphy education in the past years is well-acknowledged. As the writer of “The Chart of Standard Forms of Common National Characters” of Ministry of Education, he also promotes calligraphy teaching in many places and has numerous students. Besides his solid foundation of calligraphy, Mr. Shih also emphasizes the creative performance of integrating the heritage and making innovations and further “introduces painting into calligraphy.” This time, the traditional and innovative styles of Mr. Shih’s calligraphy art are exhibited at the same time at the north and south rooms of Chungshan National Gallery. The commendable exhibition is worth a visit. Welcome to seize the opportunity and pay a visit.
On behalf of Minister of Culture, Director Liang Chin-chih of Department of Arts Development, MOC, attended the opening ceremony and expressed two thanks and one wish. He expressed the gratitude to Mr. Shih for his long cultivation in the field of calligraphy art and education and his selfless devotion to promoting art and culture to take root and to the team of National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall for working together to perfectly present Mr. Shih’s works. At the same time, he expressed the best wish to the success of the exhibition and continuous creation of Mr. Shih.
In his speech, the artist Shih Chun-mao expressed his gratitude to the work team for the hard work and his family for the support all the way. They are the greatest spiritual support for him to persist in calligraphy creation. This exhibition has the theme of “Heritage and Innovation.” “Heritage” is the learning process and afterthought of his personal calligraphy learning. “Innovation” is the long thinking and exploration about how to present traditional calligraphy in modern times. At the age of 80, Shih humbly said these works may not be fully mature, but he was truly happy to have to the opportunity to discuss and exchange thoughts with everyone.
The exhibition shows the formal beauty of calligraphy art. “Zheng Ban-qiao’s Five Poems of Dao Qing,” ten scrolls in a set in the cursive script, are displayed on the main wall. The 12-meter work looks grand and magnificent. There are also several interesting works such as “Foggy Rain,” “Lingering Dreams,” and “Hairpin Turn” displaying Shih’s skills of integrating the essence of ancient steles and rubbings and applying them to the contemporary creation of calligraphy art. The visitors will experience the new level of appreciating and reading calligraphy art through the works of both calligraphy and painting. Besides, the seminar of “Heritage and Innovation—Shih Chun-mao 80 Calligraphy Exhibition” will also be held at Chungshan Lecture Hall in the afternoon of January 8, 2022. For more information, please visit the official website of National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall www.yatsen.gov.tw or call the service counter, (02) 27588008, ext. 545, 546.