Chinese Calligraphy: An Introduction to Its Aesthetic and Technique Book

This book was given to me in the big pile by webcowgirl and I did enjoy it immensely. It was written in the 1930s for Westerners to be able to appreciate the art of Chinese calligraphy and even be able to start learning how to do it themselves. Because of the time period there was a very interesting link between the surrealists and Chinese calligraphy. The book outlined, and included lots of different examples of, the main styles of calligraphy (I realised I'd been mislabeling grass style as running style for years) as well as the different strokes, and instructions for beginning to write correctly. It also tried to explain where to look for the beauty within the strokes and the characters, even if you didn't know what they meant. In one of the examples of how to do this he had characters next to images, the most striking was a flourishing grass script character next to a picture of a dancing girl with veils flowing around her. I'm not sure I will be able to separate the good from the bad yet, but I think I have a better idea of what to look for. It was very useful book and really made me want to take out my brushes and start practicing again.