Unique way to write on the music stage

26 years old, a calligraphy artist, Vo Tuan Xuan Thanh chose a calligraphy style that few people follow. His way of spreading the art of calligraphy is also very bold.

L TAKE THE SHAPE OF THE LETTERS

In just 2 years, Vo Tuan Xuan Thanh (currently working and living in Ho Chi Minh City) will celebrate 20 years of his calligraphy journey. In June 2022, I had the opportunity to watch Thanh "dance with the pen" at Bach Viet Assembly Hall in Hoi An (formerly Quang Nam , now Hoi An Ward, Da Nang City) in the Hoi An Nostalgia program to celebrate his 15th anniversary of writing. Thanh's calligraphy story after 3 years also has a lot to tell, especially the journey to build a theoretical foundation and practice of Vietnamese calligraphy.

Although he is 26 years old, Xuan Thanh has spent 18 years on his artistic journey.

PHOTO: SX

"Many people who have seen my calligraphy say: the Vietnamese script is modern but the spirit of calligraphy is traditional. Therefore, depending on aesthetic taste, viewers have two opposing schools of thought," Thanh said.

Nostalgic people who like to read steles, horizontal lacquered boards, parallel sentences, etc., when standing in front of Xuan Thanh's calligraphy, will surely feel that his writing has the breath and strokes of ancient Han-Nom, although it is a bit difficult to recognize, but can be completely read and has clear meaning.

Thanh was drawn to calligraphy when he was only 8 years old. He did not seek out a specific teacher but instead chose to learn from many previous generations, selectively. While self-studying and finding a writing style that he was passionate about, it took him 7 years (2015) to form his own calligraphy style. That is a style of writing that uses the image of words.

Xuan Thanh's graceful handwriting

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"To suit the younger generation, I think calligraphy needs to have a modern feel with a strong personality. My writing is not simply normal writing, but has innovative and varied strokes to create works that are not only to be read but also to be looked at and contemplated," Thanh shared.

As a person who studied design at the University of Fine Arts in Ho Chi Minh City and is currently a freelance singer, Thanh said that seemingly unrelated fields are actually complementing each other in an interesting way. If design gives Thanh's calligraphy a unique chapter, music makes his calligraphy sublimate on stage, so that each song becomes a new form of promotion and dissemination.

"I once performed the song One Round of Vietnam and used a brush to write the letters right on stage. Everyone followed each stroke and when it ended, the two words "Vietnam" appeared, making pride in the country and the Vietnamese people rise," Thanh said. In some other music performances, he also chose suitable letters and wrote them in front of the audience.

BUILDING "FRAME" FOR NATIONAL LANGUAGE CALLIGRAPHY

Design and singing are two great passions and also the supporting means for Vo Tuan Xuan Thanh to reach a higher goal in his calligraphy career: building "methods" for Vietnamese calligraphy.

The calligraphy uses Vietnamese script but still has the classic features of ancient calligraphy.

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Young people are fascinated by the new calligraphy style of calligrapher Xuan Thanh.

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Quoc Ngu calligraphy in the style of Han-Nom calligraphy by Xuan Thanh

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"Many people still do not fully recognize that the National Language has "law" but that it is a copy of text. I do not think so. If we know how to learn, inherit and develop the National Language on the basis of Han-Nom calligraphy combined with the aesthetic and aesthetic values ​​of literature and art, it will be a field that has both "law" and international character, similar to Japanese calligraphy which uses Han characters but has its own unique features," Thanh said.

That is why Thanh always retains the vertical, horizontal and horizontal strokes which are the basic lines in Chinese calligraphy. The Vietnamese script with many curved strokes when used in calligraphy has been controlled by him in moderate proportions. The classical strokes of Chinese calligraphy are skillfully incorporated by Thanh into the Vietnamese script and are also a way to maximize the function of the brush pen.

During the research process, one of the biggest difficulties Thanh encountered was the difference between pictographs (Han characters) and phonetic characters (Quoc Ngu). According to Thanh, Han - Nom characters often have a square structure, while Quoc Ngu characters have different lengths and are written horizontally, making it difficult to apply calligraphy.

Vo Tuan Xuan Thanh introduces the calligraphy he composed

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Xuan Thanh performs calligraphy right on the music stage

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The calm demeanor of calligrapher Xuan Thanh

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"The second difficulty is that Quoc Ngu calligraphy is based on Vietnamese aesthetics, without a pre-existing theoretical system. Vietnamese has long and short letters, so arranging them logically, without any difference in spacing is very necessary. The syntax accounts for 60-70% of the beauty of a calligraphy piece. However, the variation of the writing must be within the allowed framework of Quoc Ngu, and cannot be too extreme, causing the Vietnamese letters to become convoluted, difficult to read and deformed. Luckily, I studied design, so I have an advantage in arranging letters to be both aesthetic and in accordance with conventions," Thanh shared.

The success of calligrapher Xuan Thanh is using pictographic strokes to write onomatopoeia.

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The word Dao with two famous verses of Nguyen Dinh Chieu

Quoc Ngu calligraphy in the style of Han-Nom calligraphy by Xuan Thanh

PHOTO: SX

Perhaps his greatest success is being loved and accepted by his seniors. He has collaborated and conducted research with Luu Thanh Hai, Dang Hoc, My Ly, Thanh Son, Minh Hoang, Hoa Nghiem many times. Thanh is also proud that in the past 10 years he has taught and trained many students, the oldest of whom is over 60, the youngest is 17. In 2027, marking the 20th anniversary of pursuing calligraphy, he plans to publish his first book on Vietnamese calligraphy. "I always wish to lay the most basic and reasonable theoretical foundation for Vietnamese calligraphy, which is still quite new," Thanh said. (continued)

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/doc-chieu-thao-chu-tren-san-khau-am-nhac-185251017221841539.htm