"International Calligraphic Exhibition - 2008" exhibition news, 24-Feb-2008
Announce: "First was the word", and it is really true. For any human being a word is the beginning just because the ability to speak differentiates man from all other creatures.
Calligraphy: the Art of Humanism.
"First was the word", and it is really true. For any human being a word is the beginning just because the ability to speak differentiates man from all other creatures. Oratorical skill has always been recognized, both oral and in written form.Writing comprises two kinds of art: language and picture. Ancient Russian story-writers retired to cloisters, where in quiet cells they produced divine texts, chronicles and legends. It is not a chance thing that modern artists also "produce" their paintings. Filling their words with delicate feelings which people easily render in oral speech, ancient chronographers became the founders of Russian calligraphy.
How many types of writing are there and what is "Slavic script"? Who remembers it now and who really cares about it? The circle of specialists is rather small, and perhaps we are losing something really important by not trying to become a part of it. Modern people always hurry and are mobile, seem to feel some kind of exaltation when typing letters on the keyboards of their PCs and sending e-mails worldwide. It seems like the world belongs to us. But aren't we missing anything significant? Sooner or later anyone comes to understanding it. Searching for this "something" may be a real torture and we may even fail. The main thing is to think about it and ask yourself the question.
Through practicing calligraphy, enjoying the very process of "neat writing" and contemplating the works of distinguished masters, a man can improve his concentration, fantasy, delicacy of feelings. A child learning calligraphy at the same time learns to render his thoughts in writing. The research workers of the Institute of Physiology of Children and Teenagers of the Academy of Pedagogical Science found out that speech progress depends on the level of minor motility development, meaning that the speech area of the brain is activated by kinesthetic impulses in a child' s fingers. Through "drawing" and "producing" beautiful letters a child is becoming a Human Being who is turned to the long and rich history of his predecessors. In the computerized world where neat writing is substituted by typing a man is losing his handwriting ability; that is why calligraphy is so important for us. We back the MVK calligraphic project and hope that this forgotten art will become at least, for some, a true calling, for the State a priority.
Oksana Kulakova.