Period:Unknown Production date:1985
Materials:paper
Technique:
Dimensions:Height: 95.50 centimetres Width: 87.50 centimetres
Description:
Framed calligraphy; ink on paper. The artist has used the form of the characters to reinforce the message of a verse by Li Bai that from a great upheaval new and good things would emerge. He achieves this through the strength and composition of the two main characters in the piece: in the upper left-hand corner a large character for ‘mountain’ (‘shan’) looked as if being overturned by the force of the other main character, ‘cui’ (‘destruction’ or ‘overturning’). Dated and inscribed with the title.
IMG
![图片[1]-calligraphy BM-1996-0614-0.25-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Unknown/Calligraphic works/mid_00144656_001.jpg)
Comments:Barrass, 2002:In 1985 Huang Miaozi, Gu Gan, Li Luogong and others held China’s very first exhibition on Modernist calligraphy in the China Art Gallery in Beijing. The exhibition attracted huge crowds and aroused a great deal of controversy: many visitors simply could not understand what the Modernists were doing, and those who did were either delighted or outraged to see so many long-standing conventions being flouted. The icon of this exhibition was this work by Gu Gan, “Overturning the Mountains”, which expresses the idea that the time had come for China to set aside old ideas and press ahead with reform. This approach marked a major break with tradition, representing a move towards the idea that the form of a calligraphic composition and the arrrangement of the characters within it should reinforce the meaning of the piece. The focus of Gu Gan’s work lay in the strength of the overall concept it conveyed, as opposed to poetic imagery or a narrative or allusive stringing together of words.
Materials:paper
Technique:
Dimensions:Height: 95.50 centimetres Width: 87.50 centimetres
Description:
Framed calligraphy; ink on paper. The artist has used the form of the characters to reinforce the message of a verse by Li Bai that from a great upheaval new and good things would emerge. He achieves this through the strength and composition of the two main characters in the piece: in the upper left-hand corner a large character for ‘mountain’ (‘shan’) looked as if being overturned by the force of the other main character, ‘cui’ (‘destruction’ or ‘overturning’). Dated and inscribed with the title.
IMG
Comments:Barrass, 2002:In 1985 Huang Miaozi, Gu Gan, Li Luogong and others held China’s very first exhibition on Modernist calligraphy in the China Art Gallery in Beijing. The exhibition attracted huge crowds and aroused a great deal of controversy: many visitors simply could not understand what the Modernists were doing, and those who did were either delighted or outraged to see so many long-standing conventions being flouted. The icon of this exhibition was this work by Gu Gan, “Overturning the Mountains”, which expresses the idea that the time had come for China to set aside old ideas and press ahead with reform. This approach marked a major break with tradition, representing a move towards the idea that the form of a calligraphic composition and the arrrangement of the characters within it should reinforce the meaning of the piece. The focus of Gu Gan’s work lay in the strength of the overall concept it conveyed, as opposed to poetic imagery or a narrative or allusive stringing together of words.
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