Saturday, June 27, 2015

2015年 中国好书画走入东南亚 - 书画展

由新加坡布莱德岭华族传统艺术中心与新加坡美术总联办的中国好书画走进东南亚  -  新马泰国际书画交流展于2015年2月1日至5日在布莱德岭民众俱乐部5楼展厅举行。

展览地点选择在布莱德岭民众俱乐部的五楼展厅,相信主办单位希望借此将书画作品向社区推广,与普通百姓共同分享,让民众有更多机会接触高雅艺术。

为了这次的展览,由中国书画艺术促进会在全中国范围內评选出具有代表性的知名书画家二十五名,还有没能亲自前来参展的书画家作品,组成“中国好书画走进东南亚”代表团进行展出与交流。

此次书画展主办单位中国书画艺术促进会秘书长李甲利介绍说,共展出作品115件,包括书法、水墨画、水彩等,其中有几幅作品还是来自中国当代书画名家,如欧阳中石、张海、刘大为、苏士澍等。

这些展出的作品师承前贤、笔精墨妙,融贯中西,充分体现了中国博大精深的传统书画艺术。

新加坡、马来西亚与泰国是东南亚地区三个具有代表性的国家。由于华人居多,与中国有着共同的中华民族传统文化的渊源和氛围。相信这次东南亚三国的展览,能够促进与巩固中国与东南亚各国的书画交流与发展,为中国书画走向世界起到积极的推动作用。

开幕式吸引到近百人出席,现场气氛热烈,同欢共庆的温馨场面让人似乎提前感受到新年的喜乐美好。


Sunday, June 14, 2015

陈振光谈受英文教育者学书法

今天,陈振光,一个受英文教育者,与我们分享他学习书法的历程与决心。

华人说,‘活到老,学到老’。在今天的社会,为了能跟得上社会的不断改变,不断与快速地学习是很重要的。我在读中小学时,新加坡的学校分为华校与英校。我们必须选读一科第二语文才能毕业。我当时读的是英校,而华文就是我的第二语文。在我们那个时候,华文科所学的东西相当基本,不外是口试与作文。每一次的班上考试,听写或默写,对我来说都是一种挣扎。这些学习其实都只是死记措词及苦练写法。字的笔画并不重要,只要字形在纸上看起来有点象,句子通顺就可以了。我对中国古典文学与历史所知不多,虽然我愿多学些成语,写作文时就可以多得些分数了。那时完全没用过毛笔。而书法对我来说是属于一部分华人高级知识分子的东西。我经历过了这样的教育系统。现在,这些都成为历史了。

对我而言,以华语交谈与阅读繁体字一般没有问题,而日子就这样一天天过去。在我的工作环境里,华文并不常用。一年过一年,过去所学的,都已经还给华文老师了。随着日子的过去, 需要与中国做生意,因为无人能忽视这个大而快速增长的经济体。这就给我麻烦了。如果我能说流利的华语,再加上能够阅读华文,在华人生意环境里,就能处于有利的位置。可是以前所学根本就不足够。中国丰富而长远的历史,远远多过我以前所学;而中国文学、古典经文、诗词、文字以及其他的东西,对我而言,形同外星人。

不去埋怨过去,我尝试寻找机会来读与写华文。每个周末,我会将本地主要的中文报 -- 联合早报和每天都读的英文海峡时报一齐读。为了加强华文学习,也观看华语古典电影,如‘三国演义’、‘水浒传’、‘康熙王朝’、‘大宅门’。我也很轻松地从这些连续剧得到中国一些历史与其他方面的知识。

智者言‘移公移山’是指‘信念可以移动山丘,没有信念,不存的山丘就也存在’。亦言:‘千里之行,始于足下。’这些含有积极与鼓舞意义的成语都是我想与大家分享的 ,有利于我们应用于日常生活之中。我鼓起勇气参加了书协的三年书法与文学课程。在这三年间,我庆幸能从我的师长、学长 、同学中学习。以后,我将继续与各位分享我的学习过程中的甘与苦。

最后,我要说的是‘我能,你当然也能!’每一位受英文教育者,只要他有意志力,学习华文与书法是没有障碍的。

资料来源:http://icalligraphy.blogspot.sg/2010/10/johnson-tan-chin-kwang-on-learning.html

陈振光与他的书法 Johnson and his calligraphy

Today, Johnson Tan, an English educated, shares with us his determination and experiences in learning Chinese calligraphy.

As the Chinese saying goes ‘live and learn’, continuous learning is so important in today’s fast changing world that one must learn fast to catch up with the pace. In my days of primary and secondary education, the schools in Singapore were divided into English stream or Chinese stream. All students needed to study a second language in order to complete their studies. For me, I studied in an English school and Chinese was my second language subject. Chinese studies during my time were very basic and it was more a language consisted of oral practice and composition writing. It was always a struggle for me when it came to class test, examination on dictation or write from memory. We needed to memorize all the wordings and writings by heart. How strokes were written was not considered to be important as long as the words look recognisable on paper and the phrasing is proper. I learned very little about Chinese classical literature or history, although I memorised some idioms that could be used in composition in order to get extra marks. No Chinese brush was used then and Calligraphy to me was just something for a small elite group of Chinese educated scholars. I survived through this education system. And it is history now.

For me, conversational Chinese and reading the classic/complicated font are quite manageable and life goes on. Writing in Chinese is generally not common in my working environment and as years passed by I have returned what I have learned to my Chinese teachers.

And then there is a need to do business with China, as most businesses today cannot miss the opportunity created by this big and fast growing economy. However, this is becoming a challenge for me. If I can speak fluently in Mandarin and am able to read Chinese, I can position myself well within the China business circle. But, the fact is that what I learned in school is not good enough. The rich and long history of China is much more than what I had learned before and the Chinese literature, classics, poems, writing and many more are just alien to me.

With no regrets for the past, I try to find opportunities to read and write in Chinese. Now my weekends mean having to read the Singapore main Chinese newspaper Zaobao together with my daily Straits Times. In order to brush up my Chinese, I also watch Chinese classic serial movies like the ‘The Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, ‘Water Margin’, ‘Kangxi Dynasty’, ‘The Grand Mansion’. These are just some very good serial movies that conveniently provide me with some facts on Chinese history and other Chinese knowledge.

A Chinese folktale talks about ‘The old man moves a mountain’, which is actually about how ‘Faith can move mountain and without Faith, non-existing mountain will just be created’. There is also a saying that ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step’. All these encouraging and positive idioms are very useful and applicable in our lifestyle that I would like to share with you. I take the courage and determination to enrol in a 3-year learning course on Chinese Calligraphy and literature at the CCSS. During the 3 year period, I had the privilege to learn from my teachers, my seniors and peers. There are many pains and gains through this learning process which I can share with you in future.

To end this note, I must say that ‘If I can make it, you can make it too’, as there should be no hurdles or obstacles for an English educated person to learn Chinese writing or Calligraphy if he or she has the will power.

Source: http://icalligraphy.blogspot.sg/2010/10/johnson-tan-chin-kwang-on-learning.html


Monday, June 1, 2015

廖荣君:重新认识被埋没的本土艺术家

201561日新加坡联合早报

王瑞璧
刚来新加坡的时候书法界只听说潘受的名字,后来才慢慢听说林子平、杨昌泰等其他书法家。近来才发现王瑞璧的书法,惭愧自己的孤陋寡闻,同时也慨叹原来新加坡有这么多书法人才被埋没,在其他艺术领域有才华而不为人知的艺术家一定不在少数,等他们一一被重新发现,作品的艺术价值被重新评估,新加坡的艺术史恐怕要重写。

新加坡一位藏家收藏了颇多王瑞璧的书法作品,他认为王瑞璧的书法不输潘受的,但名气远不如潘受,价格也低,所以性价比更高,值得收藏。不过他也承认,收藏界对王瑞璧的书法的流动性不好,因为很多人不知道他。收藏前这位藏家做足了功课,他认为王瑞璧不出名,一是他的旧学根底不如潘受深厚。潘受文学修养很好,会写旧体诗。历史上书法家多为文人士大夫,至今仍然不变,人们很看重书法家书法以外的修养。

这一点,王瑞璧不如潘受。文字写出来是文章,说出来是话,所以一般文学好的人,口才多数也都好。口才是处理人际关系时很重要的才能。王瑞璧文学根底没有潘受好,因而在处理人际关系方面也不如潘受。

张瘦石
第三点,是王瑞璧的强项,同时也是他的弱项,是他擅长指墨。说是他的强项,是因为他的指墨作品非常好。手指不吸墨,为了连续书写,他用海绵或棉花饱吸墨后握在手里,一边写一边挤,挤出的墨汁顺着手指流到指尖,完成书写。这是他的创新。

说是他的短项是因为,目前在书法界人们都还是认为毛笔书写是正统,认为毛笔的表现力比手指强,指墨不是很入流。指墨在书法界的地位,要远逊于其在国画界的地位。因为在国画里,有指墨大师潘天寿,其指墨国画的意境完全不输毛笔画的国画的意境,指墨画在国画界是已经被主流接受的画种,但目前在书法界还不行。

黄火若
藏家说这种情况的改变,可能要等一位指墨书法大师被书法界广泛承认已入一流作品,重新界定指墨在书法里的地位。那时,王瑞璧作为指墨的创新者,或许会被重新认识和确定地位。但这样的事情发生要很多天时地利人和的因素汇集,目前还没看到可能发生的迹象,因而也就注定王瑞璧在可见的未来,名气不会有太大变化,价位也不会大幅升高。

本地另外两位未被充分认识价值的书法家,张瘦石和黄火若,集菁艺社的艺术总监何邵斌先生开始收集,并进行系统地整理和推介。

以笔者对新加坡艺术界有限的接触,仅书法界已有王瑞璧、张瘦石、黄火若的价值未被充分认识。绘画界的林木化,师从陈宗瑞,很多绘画界的朋友认为他的水平不在陈文希之下,只因吃了不善交际的亏,目前在南洋画派第二代代表人物中几乎不怎么听得到他的名字。

注:王瑞璧的资料:http://icalligraphy.blogspot.sg/2009/12/wang-sui-pick.html
注:张瘦石的资料:http://icalligraphy.blogspot.sg/2010/09/zhang-shoushi.html
注:黄火若(1910 - 1994)生前住在东海岸富兰克道(Frankel Avenue)附近,离已故新加坡总统黄金辉的住家不远。60岁后,他专攻今草。笔走龙蛇,字如其人。黄火若也常为人题匾,“金门会馆”和大礼堂内的“庆昌堂”便是他的杰作。他在1992年出版“今是堂剩稿”一书,收集了他的诗、文章和书法。