An exhibition that commemorates the centennial birthday of Zhao Lengyue (1915-2002), one of the most representative calligraphers of Shanghai, is ongoing in Pudong.

Around 40 groups of artworks will be showcased for three months starting fromt May 30 at the ground floor exhibition hall of the Shanghai International Cultural Relics and Artworks Bonded Service Center at the Shanghai Free Trade Zone. They were mostly created during the 1990s, the most energetic period in the later years of the artist, and are on exhibition for the first time.

The exhibits were arranged following the path of Zhao Lengyue's creative evolution, reflecting his superb techniques in different styles of traditional calligraphy: seal script, clerical script, cursive script and running script.

"My father used to travel around China, and marveled at the beauty of inscriptions on steles and cliffs," said Zhao Shizhong, the younger son of Zhao Lengyue. "He was so overwhelmed by the calligraphy inscriptions left by the ancient people, and was inspired to create a form of calligraphy himself."

In his later years, Zhao Lengyue made up his mind to break free from all the traditional practices and established principles of calligraphy, and just followed his aesthetic instincts and developed a distinctive style of his own.

"My father lived in a small apartment of no more than 18 square meters, and he set out to write such large characters on the dining table that my big brother had to stand by and pull the rice paper for him while he was writing," Zhao Shizhong told China Daily at the opening.

These calligraphy works, often spreading more than 2 meters high and 3 meters wide, featured a very simple style opposite from the established aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy. According to Ding Shenyang, chairman of the Shanghai Calligraphers' Association, "Zhao Lengyue hoped to usher in new aesthetic ideas for Chinese calligraphy, rather than catering to popular expectations," Ding said. "He was creating for the art history, and connoisseurs in the future."

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