In China, the idea that one's character can be judged by the quality of his or her writing is more than an adage. Sloppy handwriting has felled many a hopeful candidate for the country's notoriously difficult official examinations.

A new exhibition at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum puts the spotlight on a form long associated with Chinese elites, who for thousands of years have valued both poetry and the ink strokes in which it's rendered. Through Jan 13, Out of Character: Decoding Chinese Calligraphy is showcasing 40 calligraphic works borrowed from Yahoo Inc co-founder Jerry Yang and three pieces by American abstract-expressionist painters Brice Marden, Franz Kline and Mark Tobey.

The exhibition, which includes 15 noted masterworks, will travel to New York City's Metropolitan Museum in 2014.

"Calligraphy is alive and well in contemporary China," said Michael Knight, the museum's senior art curator. "It has been China's highest, most respected art form for 2,000 years and it continues to be a source of both fascination and frustration. It's an ancient tradition, loaded with such strong ties to cultural identity. Many Chinese artists deal with it in one way or another even today."

Although the oldest work on display is from the late 13th century, the exhibition includes a playful animation by the contemporary Chinese artist Xu Bing, who is famous for creating thousands of meaningless characters in approximation of the Chinese language.

Out of Character is the first show of Chinese calligraphy in the US since 1999, according to the San Francisco museum. Also included are noted master works, including the painting Lotus Sutra (late 13th to early 14th century) by Zhao Mengfu, and a piece by Dong Qichang.

"There aren't many opportunities for the public to see and experience firsthand the complexity and diversity of Chinese calligraphy," Yang said. "The goal with this collection is to provide audiences with a taste of major calligraphers from the Yuan through the Qing dynasties (1271-1911), but also vary them in style and script and focus on the personalities of the artists to give audiences a view into the distinct differences and styles of each artist. You don't have to read Chinese to see the graphical power of the brush in such huge characters and bold strokes."

Yang, who Knight describes as a "serious collector with a powerful mind and a great eye," became interested in Chinese calligraphy when a friend suggested he might balance his immersion in modern technology with an interest in ancient art. He began with a hand scroll, and a hanging scroll by Mi Hanwen.

"When I unrolled the (piece by Dong Qichang, the fluidity, ease and beauty of the words he wrote in the late 16th century struck me," Yang recalled. "Childhood memories of practicing calligraphy came back to me and I connected to this art form strongly. This began my collection."

His collection now has over 200 pieces. He believes calligraphy fills a desire to connect with his past.

"The simple answer is that for me, understanding and appreciating Chinese calligraphy is a journey of discovery, inspiration and fulfillment. The more complex answer is that it has allowed me to bridge the many layers and intricate connections of people, places and time.

"It is also about paradoxes: Calligraphy is outside my comfort zone, yet it feels comfortable and homey. It allows me to understand the past and see the future. It brings me back to my culture and heritage."

For Western viewers, it can be difficult to connect with calligraphic art, Knight said. In fact, calligraphy is probably the most challenging art form for Western audiences to appreciate, he said.

"Most Western audiences, when they're looking at a painting, don't even know where the calligrapher started, where the brush was first laid, where it begins and finishes, and what exactly it is as an art form," he said.

"People will sometimes say that calligraphy is boring, because they don't understand how it works and it doesn't have visual power. So we've tried to give the pieces as much visual impact as possible. We're trying to get people to get a sense of the glorious visual nature of the art."

One wall in the exhibit displays 85 pages of an album; elsewhere, a hand scroll that's meant to be viewed 32 inches at a time is presented with all 300 inches visible.

The museum chose to include the three American artists because they all exhibit Asian influences in their work, Knight said.

"This is a way for Western audiences to think about abstract expressionism as connected to Chinese culture," he said. "A number of abstract-expressionist artists do write about East Asian calligraphy, as a point of departure. It's a visual art form that they think about; it's abstract to them because they don't read the words."

Kline, who died in 1962, denied the influence, but Knight believes the similarities are worth examining nonetheless.

The commissioned animation by Xu Bing also attempts to modernize the art form, Knight said. The 18-minute piece, which is the artist's first animation, features thousands of careful drawings presented at 25 frames per second.

"The written language is Xu Bing's art form, and here he is talking about both calligraphy and language in a marvelous way," Knight said. "It's insightful and playful, and deep with lots of literary references. You can see the seeds of the thought processes of a very creative mind."

Yang said the work in the collection has stood the test of time. If Western audiences approach the exhibition with an open mind and an appreciation of the intricacy and difficulty of the technique, there is much to appreciate, he believes.

"We want audiences to decide for themselves what they find beautiful in each piece."

kdawson@chinadailyusa.com