I was ruminating about how unfamiliar we Westerners are with the very long, total History of Art and how Writing and Calligraphy have played such a major role in that story. For some back-story to those thoughts, you'll enjoy reading a nice little bit of history and explainations Here. A more concise read on the developement of the styles can be found Here. There are five major scripts of Chinese calligraphy. The most expressionistic is Kuang Cao, or wild cursive calligraphy style, an important achievement of the Tang Dynasty. The two most notable examples of this style were Zhang Xu and Huai Su.* No doubt, these images and the text you'll find in the links, will confirm your suspicions that these very old calligraphic works might in fact be the beginnings of abstract expressionism. I've often thought of the saying, "the acorn didn't fall far from that tree" when viewing contemporary art. What we see and take for granted today is simply the iterations and reincarnations of previous styles and genres.
This image by Huai-su is from earlab where you'll find an entertaining story. Go Here for a short bio. This is just a portion of the original, long scroll.
.Top image by Zhang Xu is from China The Beautiful. A short bit of info about him Here.
.*This information was found on pages 1 & 2 at China Culture Information Net. Or go here and click on the calligraphy icon for the full menu.
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