拍品专文
Born in Kamakura, Hidai studied calligraphy with his father Hidai Tenrai (d.1939), who was one of Japan's leading calligraphers and a member of the Imperial Art Academy. Hidai graduated from Tokyo Technological College in 1934 and, upon his father's death, succeeded him as President of the Shogaku-in (the Institute of Calligraphy Studies), continuing to publish calligraphic model books from the family's collection.
Basing his work on classical Chinese forms Hidai, in 1945, painted calligraphic abstractions that were exhibited for the first time the following year. These pieces provoked great controversy as they so clearly and definitively broke with tradition. In 1948 he exhibited in and judged the All Japan Calligraphy Exhibition sponsored by Mainichi Shimbun, and in 1954 he began to work in the manner of hihaku, the so-called 'flying ribbon' style of calligraphy derived from ancient Chinese models, a style that has influenced modern abstract calligraphy.
In 1955 Hidai showed calligraphic works on canvas, painted in oils, at the All Japan Calligraphy Exhibition, further breaking with tradition in his choice of material and, in 1956, he used Chinese ink on lacquer-coated fiber board, thus combining old and new techniques. In 1956 he organized the first annual Avant-Garde Calligraphy Exhibition, which he dedicated to the memory of his father.
Hidai exhibited 13 works in a four-person exhibition Tradition and Renovation in Japanese Art in 1959 in Holland, and he was represented in the 5th Sao Paulo Biennial. In 1960 he gave private classes in Chinese and Japanese calligraphy in San Francisco, taught at Rudolph Schaeffer's School of Design, and had a one-man exhibition at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. Hidai had solo shows at the Mi Chou Gallery in New York in 1961, 1963, and 1965, at the David Cole Gallery in Sausalito, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Nippon Club in New York.
At the time of Hidai's 1961 exhibition at the Muramatsu Gallery in Tokyo, Elise Grilli of the Japan Times wrote, "The prime criterion of fine Oriental ink line is the vigor of life and movement, the much-discussed quality of 'life-force' in Chinese and Japanese aesthetics. This line, has a manifest will, a sense of direction, a propulsive movement that cannot be reversed or halted or corrected or tampered with."
Hidai was a major proponent of calligraphic abstraction in Japan and his stature in the international art world grew as he lectured at various universities in the United States, including Rutgers in New Jersey and Columbia University in New York. Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967) a leading figure of the New York school of abstraction twice invited Hidai to speak at Brooklyn College in the 1960s, as New York critics and artists were eager to make a philosophical and visual connection between the New York school and Japanese calligraphy.
Basing his work on classical Chinese forms Hidai, in 1945, painted calligraphic abstractions that were exhibited for the first time the following year. These pieces provoked great controversy as they so clearly and definitively broke with tradition. In 1948 he exhibited in and judged the All Japan Calligraphy Exhibition sponsored by Mainichi Shimbun, and in 1954 he began to work in the manner of hihaku, the so-called 'flying ribbon' style of calligraphy derived from ancient Chinese models, a style that has influenced modern abstract calligraphy.
In 1955 Hidai showed calligraphic works on canvas, painted in oils, at the All Japan Calligraphy Exhibition, further breaking with tradition in his choice of material and, in 1956, he used Chinese ink on lacquer-coated fiber board, thus combining old and new techniques. In 1956 he organized the first annual Avant-Garde Calligraphy Exhibition, which he dedicated to the memory of his father.
Hidai exhibited 13 works in a four-person exhibition Tradition and Renovation in Japanese Art in 1959 in Holland, and he was represented in the 5th Sao Paulo Biennial. In 1960 he gave private classes in Chinese and Japanese calligraphy in San Francisco, taught at Rudolph Schaeffer's School of Design, and had a one-man exhibition at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. Hidai had solo shows at the Mi Chou Gallery in New York in 1961, 1963, and 1965, at the David Cole Gallery in Sausalito, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Nippon Club in New York.
At the time of Hidai's 1961 exhibition at the Muramatsu Gallery in Tokyo, Elise Grilli of the Japan Times wrote, "The prime criterion of fine Oriental ink line is the vigor of life and movement, the much-discussed quality of 'life-force' in Chinese and Japanese aesthetics. This line, has a manifest will, a sense of direction, a propulsive movement that cannot be reversed or halted or corrected or tampered with."
Hidai was a major proponent of calligraphic abstraction in Japan and his stature in the international art world grew as he lectured at various universities in the United States, including Rutgers in New Jersey and Columbia University in New York. Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967) a leading figure of the New York school of abstraction twice invited Hidai to speak at Brooklyn College in the 1960s, as New York critics and artists were eager to make a philosophical and visual connection between the New York school and Japanese calligraphy.