许静 / 山行 / 纸本酒书 / 2017 / 180x97cm
许静有两副身手，能写“不耐看”的现代书风，也能写“耐看”的传统文人书法，长此以往，她的现代书风比别人耐看，而她的传统书法比别人当代。而且动静皆宜，能写小楷，也能写草书，现代书风尤其是她目前的拿手好戏，这和她的性子对路。许静浑身是胆，出手敏捷，实在适宜写大字，她轮得起大笔，流动有气势，巨笔也反过来给予她重量感。而许静也长袖善舞，大字写得书非书，画非画，舞非舞，另是一境。过去也有把字当做画的，俗套如水则画水波，山则画山，至于“鸟虫书”、“龙虎精气神”之类，更不入流，但少字数书法是严肃的，并非此类老伎俩，虽然近于画，然而不是画，其中差异，有如贝律明在苏州博物馆水池边白墙下布置的山峦与花鸟市场的假山之间的差异，其实，贝律明的假山和苏州古典园林中的假山也不可同日而语，因为中间隔着现代观念。以许静为列，她的大字作品得益于设计的介入，而设计与时代的关联，往往比纯艺术更直接更紧密，甚至，设计即是时代，即是生活，而纯艺术表现生活，揭示时代。此一介入，无异于现代观念的介入，因而她写起大字，似书非书，似画非画。许静自幼习字，打的是童子功，大学念设计，阴差阳错歪打正着。大凡有童子功且长期沉溺者，容易躲进传统不出来，幸好她长大后学设计，与当代艺术不隔，眼界与思维不受限于传统书学，而能自由往来于传统与当代之间，她的大字，也给人予解脱自在之感。
Ms. Xu Jing practices both modern calligraphy, which doesn’t seem to bear much aesthetic scrutiny, and classic calligraphy, which has a lasting appeal. Now her modern calligraphy has more lasting appeal than that of others, and her classic calligraphy looks more “modern.” She can alternate between the dynamic of cursive script and the decorum of regular script. Now she is particularly good at modern calligraphy, which suits her character well. Her great courage and dexterity makes her a good calligrapher in terms of large-sized characters. With fluency and great style in movements, she has a good control of a large brush, which, in turn, lends her a sense of weight. When writing large-size characters, like a long-sleeved dancer, she was creative enough to blur the lines among calligraphy, painting, and dance. Some people used to write calligraphy in a way to imitate paintings, and the stock-in-trade was to add ripples or hills when it came to writing water- or mountain-related characters. The “bird-and-insect” script and the works on the theme of the spirit of dragons and tigers don’t deserve much mention. However, calligraphy with few characters is not about such artistic flirtation or old tricks. Although similar to painting, it is not painting after all. Their difference is comparable to the contrast between a rock from the bonsai market and the rock arranged by Ieoh Ming Pei beside a pool against a white wall at Suzhou Museum. In fact, Ieoh Ming Pei’s rock and the artificial rocks in Suzhou traditional gardens cannot be mentioned in the same breath, for it is modernity that sets them apart. Take Xu Jing’s works for example. The beauty of her calligraphy with few characters lies in its integration with design, which is more closely related to modernity than pure art. In other words, design is synonymous with modernity and life, and pure art is their expression and reflection. For Xu Jing’s calligraphy with few characters, it is the integration with modernity that blurs the distinction between calligraphy and painting. Xu Jing began to practice classic calligraphy since her childhood, an experience that threatened to confine her to traditions. Fortunately, somehow she studied design in her college years, which opened her eyes to contemporary art beyond classic calligraphy and enabled her to shift freely between modernity and tradition. That explains why her calligraphy with few characters has a sense of unrestrained boldness.
