Guo Xiaotu – Chinese Calligrapher & Painter

About the Artist

Guo Xiaotu is a rare all-round artist who unites poetry, calligraphy, painting and seal carving in one body of work. A member of both the China Artists Association and the China Calligraphers Association, he excels in freehand flower-and-bird painting, wild cursive calligraphy and classical seal carving — the complete literati ideal.

Artist Introduction

Guo Xiaotu (郭晓图), from Heze, Shandong, is known by the sobriquet “the sketcher by the ancient Yellow River road”. A painter, calligrapher, seal carver, art theorist, poet and scholar, he unites the four arts of poetry, calligraphy, painting and seal carving in the grand literati tradition. He has served as President of the China Zhongci Painting and Calligraphy Academy, a council member of the China Youth Calligraphers Association and the China Traditional Culture Promotion Society, and is currently Honorary President of the Caozhou Painting and Calligraphy Academy, Chairman of the Shandong Qilu Painting and Calligraphy Society, and a special art consultant to the Shandong Fine Arts Publishing House and the People’s Fine Arts Publishing House. Born into a scholarly family, he studied the great traditions from Tang-Song through Yuan-Ming-Qing, and was successively influenced by Xu Wei of the Ming dynasty, Bada Shanren and Shi Tao of the Qing, and modern masters Wu Changshuo, Pan Tianshou and the Lingnan school founders Gao Jianfu, Gao Qifeng and Chen Shuren. He developed a spontaneous freehand flower-and-bird style rich in ink variation and bold, flowing brushwork. His calligraphy — particularly his wild cursive after Zhang Xu and Huai Su — is grand, free and full of momentum, while his seal carving follows the Han tradition with refined single- and double-edge cutting. His works won first prizes in the national cursive calligraphy competitions of 2008 and 2010 and a Lanting Award cursive first prize in 2012, and are collected by the Great Hall of the People.

Works Appreciation

Application Scenarios

Guo Xiaotu’s works span media, making them versatile for collectors of literati art: paintings for walls, calligraphy for studies, seals for connoisseurs. His mastery of all four arts — rare in the modern era — gives his oeuvre a completeness that collectors of traditional Chinese culture particularly treasure.