Manuscripts that burn: calligraphy in the era of computers

The whole world celebrated National Handwriting Day on January 23rd. The date was suggested by the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association (WIMA) in 1977, back in the days when the era of computers was at its dawn causing the fade-away of handwriting culture (together with typewriters). The main goal of this holiday is to remind people how extremely important it is to keep up calligraphy traditions.

This idea has found its realization in the exhibition at Prozritelev and Prave State Museum of Local Lore, which has been held there for a month already. The exhibition is dedicated to Vasily Smirnov, an artist from Stavropol, a calligraphy teacher of the 19th — early 20th centuries. According to Maria Denisenko, Ph.D, Head of the Department of History in the Museum of Local Lore, Smirnov was born in Uglich, Yaroslavl Oblast (Region) in the family of hereditary priests. He left his hometown to get into the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, where he studied together with Ilya Repin, Konstantin Savitsky and Vladimir Makovsky. Having graduated from the Academy, Smirnov was appointed as a teacher of drawing to Stavropol non-classical secondary school and to Stavropol male gymnasium, where he taught from 1873 to 1922. At the exhibition visitors will be able to observe the archival documents with calligraphy samples dated to that times, notes by Smirnov, letters of congratulations featuring drawings made by his students, as well as blotters, fountain pens, inkwells and other writing utensils. The exhibition runs until the end of January.

According to Maria Denisenko, starting with the 19th century the style of writing by hand is changing a lot. Judging by the numerous archival documents stored in the museum’s funds, by the end of the 20th century writing becomes easier, the decoration elements like «hooks» and «loops» are dropping down.

Within the framework of the project called Vasily Smirnov’s Lessons of Drawing and Calligraphy, a series of master-classes in calligraphy (pishikrasivo — «write beautifully», an interactive website, which is still on) were held. A competition in calligraphy works also took place, having involved students from the following Stavropol universities and secondary schools: Sholokhov Moscow State University for Humanities in Stavropol; North Caucasian Federal University (NCFU); Stavropol College of Economics and Law; Stavropol College of Arts and many more.

Marina Chesnyak, Department Head of the Museum’s cultural and educational activities shared with Stavropol Today, online magazine, that the competitors were to write on a sheet of A4 or A3 paper with a pencil, ink, Indian ink or paint one of the text fragments the organizers proposed. Everyone could submit up to five calligraphy works. The competition was held from December 1st — 20th with the results announced at the end of the month. The judges’ panel, which was to select the best works, included qualified representatives of the Museum and Elena Vasilyeva, a teacher of specialized subjects at Stavropol Art School. Each of the winners has received a book, dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Stavropol Local Lore Department of the Union of Artists of Russia, which is entitled as: The Past. The Present. The Future.

Marina Chesnyak underlined that the Vasily Smirnov’s Lessons of Drawing and Calligraphy museum’s project, the interactive website, the master-classes and the competition in calligraphy were very popular among citizens. Since 2014 is to become the Year of Culture in Stavropol, it is negotiating on the conduction of similar projects in the future, which would help to keep up the culture of handwriting.

Manuscripts that burn: calligraphy in the era of computers

Source: stavtoday.ru