The Calligraphy of Liu Fang Yuan 流芳園
The Huntington
INTRODUCTION
Words are everywhere in Liu Fang Yuan, The Huntington’s Chinese Garden. Names adorn rocks and buildings; poetic couplets frame entryways and vistas. Since 2007 The Huntington has commissioned more than thirty contemporary artists to create the original works of calligraphy—artful brush writings in ink on paper—that served as the models for these inscriptions. The artists include professional calligraphers and avid amateurs, scholars and physicians, a Chinese painter living in New York and a New York photographer residing in China.
This webpage provides a brief overview of the art of calligraphy and introduces some of the highlights of the ninety-five inscriptions found in Liu Fang Yuan. At the bottom of the page, you will find a map that shows where each work appears in the garden itself. Interact with the map to see photographs of the inscriptions and to learn more about their content and creators.
Throughout the Chinese Garden, calligraphy serves to record the names of landmarks and to transcribe poetic couplets. These inscriptions are read according to historical convention: Horizontal placards are traced from right to left; vertical writings, from top to bottom; couplets, from the right column to the left.
Calligraphy is created with only three basic materials: an animal-hair brush, some soot-based ink, and a sheet of paper or silk. In combination, these materials can create an almost infinite variety of visual effects. Before a work is considered complete, the artist signs their name in ink and impresses a seal (a block of stone, metal, or ceramic inscribed with their name or sobriquet) that has been dipped in a red paste.
Five basic types of calligraphic scripts are generally recognized today. Calligraphers typically begin with the study of regular script, the most formal (and legible) form of writing. After mastering its precise brush movements, they may turn to the dynamic abbreviation of running or cursive scripts, or they may study the archaic forms of seal and clerical scripts. Fusing their study of various script types and of earlier calligraphers’ works, they develop their own personal style.
Calligraphy is perhaps most easily appreciated as a dance-like art of line. Imagine the brush as a dancer that rises and falls, twists and turns in space, leaving lines of ink on the paper as indexes of its motion.
HIGHLIGHTS
MAP
Click on any of the dots on the map to find out more about the inscription, including who created it and what inspired its content. You will also find photographs of both the original work of calligraphy and the inscription in the garden. (If you are viewing the map while walking through the garden, enable “location tracking” on your smartphone to trace your steps on the map and to learn about the inscriptions that you see immediately around you.)
Photography courtesy of Michelle Bailey, Martha Benedict, Phillip E. Bloom, Manuel Flores, Bob Maronde, Jamie Pham, John Sullivan, and Tang Qingnian.