Sho. The Master Calligraphers
As part of the Japanese Arts Festival
September 16, 1986 - October 19, 1986
Opening: September 15, 1986, 8:00 pm
From September 16 to October 19, the Galerie de l’UQAM will host an exhibition of 96 works by renowned master calligraphers illustrating trends in traditional and avant-garde calligraphy. The exhibition Sho. The Master Calligraphers revolves around the most famous contemporary Japanese masters.
The exhibition
In everyday life, the Japanese use three types of characters: kanji (complicated characters using more than twenty strokes), a pictographic language borrowed from the Chinese during the 3rd century AD, hiragana, which correspond to pronounced sounds by the Japanese, and finally the katakana, also a phonetic form used to write words as well as foreign proper nouns (the latter two types having only three or four strokes). To the ideograms and the phonetic characters, are added possible variations in pronunciation and two directions for reading, which gives a fair idea of the complexity of current Japanese writing.
The word “sho” has two meanings: the general meaning encompasses all of everyday writing, while the specific meaning designates writing made for artistic purposes. It is the latter that will be featured in the exhibition. Writing in Asia has always been considered an important act. Calligraphy is still considered like a high and respected art form today. The art of “sho”, first influenced by China, quickly found its form and style. One of the characteristics of the art of “sho” is to remain faithful to an ancient tradition while learning, throughout the years, from the experiences of several generations of artists.
A large volume of around 100 pages on Japanese calligraphy, jointly edited by Éditions Marcel Broquet and the design department of UQAM, will become available in the coming days and will serve as a catalog for the exhibition.
Calligraphy demonstrations
As part of Japan Week held from September 24 to 29 in Montreal, the master calligrapher Mitjuji Taeishi will offer demonstrations at the Galerie de l’UQAM on Tuesday, September 22 at 2 p.m. and Wednesday, September 23 at 5:30 p.m.
Supported by
The exhibition was organized by the Club des amis de l’Europe et des arts as part of the Japanese Arts Festival. Its presentation is made possible thanks to the financial support of the UQAM Foundation.