狂草馬Kuang Cao Ma

Heavenly Horse in Grass Script, Kuang Cao Ma（狂草馬）
Adopting the Chinese calligraphy grass script（cursive hand）to create the painting lines, utilizing the interplay of Chinese brush with ink to create on unsized Xuan paper （生宣紙）the expression of thick, thin, dry, wet, deep, light, fast and slow brush strokes, vividly portraying these elegant horses engaging in running or jumping activities. Such an unprecedented painting technique was created by Kwan Yan （關仁）, the painter in Chinese paintings and calligraphy and hence the name “Heavenly horse in Grass Script, Kuang Cao Ma（狂草馬）” was hereby formally coined by the artist , this new term, Kuang Cao Ma, is never used by any artist before in Chinese Arts History.
The relationship between Grass Script （cursive hand）and Heavenly Horse in Grass Script（Kuang Cao Ma）.
In Chinese calligraphy there are four styles, namely Seal script（篆書）,Official script（隸書）, Regular script（楷書）and Grass Script（草書）.
Grass Script began in Han Dynasty, and evolved from Han Seal script, then was known as Zhang Cao （章草）. Already widely used toward the end of Western Han. The emperor Zhang Di （章帝）of Eastern Han was very fond of it, Zhang Di （章帝）ordered prime minister Du Dao （杜度）to standardize it. It was until middle of Eastern Jin （東晉）Calligrapher Wang Xi Zhi （王羲之）and others modified it further to contemporary. Grass Script Jin Cao（今草）,then joining the prevailing official script to become a newly created calligraphy.
In splendid Tang Dynasty（唐朝）,the so called Saint of Grass Script Zhang Xu（張旭） attempted to connect the upper and lower character of a line to look like one character, sometimes one character began to look like two character, and the spacings between the characters were widely variable, then was referred to as Kwang Cao（狂草）, giving a new outlook to the art of Chinese writing and the enthusiasm of Grass Script arts continue to prosper in present day and age.
Horses have always been a noble and elegant creature, symbolizing the combination of strength and beauty. In nowadays or ancient times in China or abroad horses were not only just working companions in riding or transportation, often they were symbolic of prestige and social status of the upper class. Chinese people believed that horses are dragons that walked on Earth. The Arabs hold that horses are gifts from their God Ala justifying that horses should be loved and well taken care of.
Arts related to horse have always been popular. Famous horse painters including Cao Ba （曹霸）, Han Gan （韓幹）, Wei Yan （韋晏）, Chen Hong （陳閎）, in Song Dynasty, Li Gong Lin（李公麟） also known as李龍眠（Li Long Mian ）, in Yuan Dynasty Zhas Meng Fu （趙孟頫）, in Qing Dynasty Lang Shi Ning（朗世寧）,in 20th century Xu Bei Hong （徐悲鴻）, all the above horse painters had different unique ways to paint horses. Nowadays 21th century Kwan Yan （關仁）created Kuang Cao Ma（狂草馬）using grass script calligraphy lines （狂草書法線條）to form the horses. Just as described in this artist’s poem concerning painting horses:
余幼好馬龍眠馬，秀逸風骨屢畫成。
書法卻學旭素草，畫馬神速如狂草。
提筆一轉雙瞳現，側鋒飛過四蹄風。
再把乾毫空中捺，鬣尾順勢真龍中。
In artist’s poem, there was mentioning of artist was very fond of horses since young age, trying to follow李龍眠（Li Long Mian）painting horses. The results here always elegant and stylized horses of the scholarly painter. For grass script calligraphy, artist was particularly fond of Zhang Xu （張旭）and Huai Sou（懷素）. Naturally the speed of running horses was depicted by swift excursions or grass script brush strokes. One stroke from the lifting elbow would create the horse eyes, the side brush stroke would form the four galloping hooves, a slanting wave like stroke with little water and ink to create the mane and tail in concert with horse running movement. In the end a dragon like horse was created to life.
Special features of Kuang Cao Ma
1. The spiritual and physical forms are faithfully addressed. Indeed the strong body build of the Tang palace horses are coming to life. More interestingly, there are also gentle elegant horses of Song scholarly artist in contrast to the fully liberated forms of Chinese ink brush work.
2. Full of motions just the same as the real horses. The power and speed of running horses are becoming real before the viewer.
3. In addition to expression of joy and anger, the character of individual horses are revealed.
4. There is vigorous interplay of Chinese brush work and unlimited variations of ink and water mix.
5. The abstract art of grass script merging with the art of painting horse.
6. The allocation of large area to complementary poetry about horses giving an additional touch of literature enrichment. As a result the integration of poetry, calligraphy and painting becomes realistic as there is poetry in painting and painting in poetry.
Exhibitions of Kuang Cao Ma
1991: Taipei Howard Plaza Hotel Art Gally solo exhibition of Kwan Yan’s Chinese Paintings and calligraphy. In addition to Kuang Cao Ma there were other classes including landscape（ink paintings, light color, heavy color）, portraitures（zhong kui鍾馗、Guan yin 觀音）, flowers（ink lotus, coloured lotus and peonies）, together with calligraphy totally number over 30 items. This exhibition was highly regarded. Famous painters including Li Chi Mau李奇茂Liou Shiou Ping廖修平also attended. During that time President of Taiwan Li Dun Fei 李登輝總統pronounced the extraordinary achievement of the Artist and congratulated the artist’s great fame and success among the overseas Chinese and included in his collection the Double-horse Kuang Cao Ma “The Arrival of the Noble Horses” 狂草雙馬“飛黃則至”and a complementary grass script couplet, concerning horses 狂草對聯.
2002: Grand Exhibition of the “The World’s Longest scroll of 100 horses” by Kwan Yan in Chinese ink monochrome 53 Meter × 1 Meter (176.3 × 3.13 ft2) in the Art Gallery, Arts Department, The National Taiwan Normal University Taipei.The Exhibition was high lighted by the presentation of a Giant Flower Trophy by the Mayor of Taipei City, Ma Ying Kau（台北市長馬英九先生）Mr. Mayor also praised “Elegant Horse with Calligraphy” 駿馬書畫and selected into his collection the Grass Script horse-painting “The arrival of the Horse of Success.” Kuang Cao Ma（狂草馬 馬到成功）.Pofessor Lothar Ledderose, the Institute of History of Arts, the University of Heidelberg, Germany （德國海德堡大學中國藝術史研究所雷德侯教授）commented that Kwan Yan’s Kuang Cao Ma “Inspiring and wonderful work.” And Ledderose selected into his collection the Kuang Cao Ma “The Drinking Horse.”（狂草馬:飲馬圖）
During the exhibition many distinguished academic guests turned up. Professor Jiang Ming Sheng head of the Arts Department, the National Taiwan Normal University（國立台灣師範大學美術系主任，中國書畫專題江明賢教授）. Also of the Arts Department Professor She Cheng, former senior researcher in Chinese Paintings The National Palace Museum Taipei（佘成教授前台北故宮書畫處研究員，現師範大學、文化大學中國畫教授）Professor She Cheng in 2004 was appointed researcher in ancient Chinese paintings Nation Palace Museum Beijing（佘成教授現亦是北京故宮博物院中國古畫研究員）. Also of the Arts Department National Taiwan Normal University Professor Huang Yau Chun（王友俊教授）、Professor Lau Wen Tam（劉文潭教授）、Professor Zhang Bo Zhou（張柏舟教授）head of Institute of Design the National Taiwan Normal University and Professor Ye Bao Qian（葉寶琴教授）of the same department. And Professor Guo Wen Fu（郭文夫教授）Chinese Arts Institute National Taiwan University all honoured the occasion and all commented favourably. This exhibition had not only successfully attracted large number of spectators including experts, artists, Arts teachers, scholars, painters, research-students, students and noble citizens but also created a focus of attention and appreciation in the painting circle.
Using unprecedented grass-script brush strokes and techniques vividly portrayed 100 horses in various activities and forms and the vigorous lifeful forms of these magnificent horses were vividly displayed and coming to life beyond the paper surface. 91 years old an authority in Chinese paintings Mr. Hau Xiu Ji 侯修紀先生expressed very clearly that this painting technique of the artist is new and unique and this is a new method of painting horses that has never been done before in the arts history of Chinese paintings.
The difficulty in making such a remarkable achievement was fully recognized by Horse Painters and consequently the term “KWAN YAN HORSE”（關仁馬） was coined to signify its uniqueness.
Establishments and celebrities holding “Kuang Cao Ma” as collections:
1. 2000 The University Of Hong Kong “ Horses of a thousand miles”
2. 2002 Professor Lothar Ledderose Institute of Chinese arts history. The University of Heidelberg, Germany Kuang Cao Ma “The Drinking Horse.”
3. 2005 Xia Hai City God Temple,
4. 2006 Art museum The Chinese University Shatin, Hong Kong Kuang Cao Ma “Heavenly Horse”
5. President of Taiwan Li Dun Fei 李登輝總統Kuang Cao Ma “The Arrival of the Noble Horses”
6. Mayor of Taipei City, Ma Ying Kau（台北市長馬英九先生）“The Arrival of the Horse of Success.”
7. Mr. Lin Jin Chairman of the National People’s Party (KMT) 國民黨主席連戰先生Kuang Cao Ma “Double Horses”
Related publications
1. Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy by Kwan Yan 1991 indexed and assessed by the National Central Library Taipei. The University Library, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
2. Poetry Album by Kwan Yan 2002 indexed and assessed in The University Library, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Art Museum and Art gallery. The University of Hong Kong
3. The World’s Longest Scroll of 100 Horses by Kwan Yan 2005 indexed and assessed in The University Library, The Chinese University of Hong Kong The Art Museum The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
4. 30 years of the medic circle（杏林半甲）medic 75 anniversary book organized by Dr. Chan Wai Man assistant Director. The Health Department. Hong Kong Government
5. The exhibition of the scroll of 100 horses by Kwan Yan
Reported by Xuan Lin
Kuang Cao Ma: the unprecedented painting techniques, Grace and Power
Bulletin of the Academy of Chinese Calligraphy . The Republic Of China Publication No.76 page 76-77 January 2003
6. Notice of the exhibition of The World’s Longest Scroll of one hundred Horses by Kwan Yan
Bulletin of the Academy of Chinese Calligraphy .
The Republic Of China, Publication No.74 page 27 2002
Reference: web site
書法教育會訊76期2003January http://163.20.160.14/~edu/uploads/tadbook/76.swf