Evolution of metal sculpture

Metal sculpture in the 20th century has an important influence in the history of modern sculpture and the whole history of sculpture art. Chinese modern metal sculpture is the product of the worldwide development and influence of western modern culture. While accepting the influence of western modern art language forms, they also strive to maintain their own national cultural characteristics. Compared with the West in terms of language form, Chinese modern metal sculpture has obvious traces of learning from the West. Decorative language has developed more widely and lacks the characteristics of integration and growth of modernity and national traditional cultural spirit. In short, the existence of modern metal sculpture in China is a process of continuous development, negation and negation.

Metal material is only a kind of material for sculpture from the perspective of traditional art, but it is of great significance for modern art. The metal sculpture in the 20th century has an important influence in the history of modern sculpture and even the whole history of sculpture art. In the History of Western Modern Art, Anason said that "direct metal sculpture" is "the main means of modern sculpture". The "direct metal sculpture" mentioned here refers to the metal sculpture works made by directly forging, welding, polishing, compressing and other processing means of metal, while the traditional metal sculpture production means is mainly metal casting. Modern metal sculpture is undoubtedly one of the most important components of modern sculpture art.

1、 Chinese modern metal sculpture in the world art order

1. Chinese modern metal sculpture is the product of the worldwide development and influence of western modern culture.

The modern metal sculpture art is the modern art movement since the end of the 19th century in the West, especially since the beginning of the cubism movement, with the profound changes in the form of sculpture art. Modern metal sculpture is a revolution in the western sculpture tradition. It has almost subverted the tradition of the western traditional sculpture art in terms of the expression of volume, the use of carving and molding language techniques, and gradually formed the combination of metal casting, forging, welding and other metal processes with sculpture art, and developed sculpture into an art of expression space. After decades of development, western modern metal sculpture has formed a mature form and language system.

The western modern art at the beginning of the 20th century is an era of great changes and ups and downs in which various styles and schools are noisy and contending. After the war, it was a century in which tradition and modernity alternated, and modern metal sculpture developed, matured and spread in the global style. This is the so-called "style diffusion" period in art history. Reid pointed out: "The characteristics of the post-war situation, especially in sculpture, are expressed as a determination not to be subordinate to any movement, and as an artistic 'free thinking'." ② This characteristic is embodied in the fact that the revolutionary movement before the war and various declarations with fierce rhetoric have become history. Like other art forms, metal sculpture has become more mature and sophisticated. Various styles and genres are no longer like fire and water. Instead, they have begun an era of "peaceful coexistence" and common development. Various styles and genres have spread, fused, grown and produced new evolution worldwide. Modern Chinese metal sculpture is the product of this "style diffusion".

2. While accepting the influence of western modern art language forms, Chinese modern metal sculpture strives to maintain its own national cultural characteristics.

The history of modern art in China has only lasted for more than 20 years since the reform and opening up. For various reasons, the development of modern metal sculpture, which marks the revolution of western modern sculpture art, is later in China. Although as early as May 1983, Jiao Yaoming's metal welding sculpture appeared in the "Five People's Modern Art Works Exhibition" held in Xiamen, Fujian Province in the form of internal observation, and the sculptor Fu Zhongwang also carried out a series of metal welding sculpture experiments in the 1980s, however, the real rapid development of modern metal sculpture in China is only a matter of nearly ten years. In this short ten years, the development of modern metal sculpture in China has also shown a conscious trend of nationalization.

After the cold war, the contradictions and conflicts between class and ideology have gradually been replaced by the differences and conflicts between nations and cultures, which is also the inevitable outcome of the trend of globalization and the worldwide economic and cultural exchanges. In art, this trend is reflected in the fact that the expression center of art will inevitably change from purely artistic issues such as language and form to the identification of cultural identity and political or other broad ideological issues. In front of these issues, artists have to make choices. If a country or a nation cannot maintain its own national cultural heritage and its own artistic and humanistic spirit, it will be completely assimilated by the powerful western culture since modern times, and its culture and art will lose its independence. The world cultural and artistic order should be diverse rather than single. In recent years, the heated discussion on "cultural colonialism" and "architectural colonialism" in the domestic academic circles is the reflection of this trend of thought.

Compared with the West, the development and existence of modern metal sculpture art in China has extremely distinctive characteristics. This kind of characteristic has both linguistic form and cultural tradition; There are both developmental and ideological aspects. To understand these characteristics of modern Chinese metal sculpture, we must take the above factors into account. The understanding of a thing needs to take other things corresponding to it as the reference frame. Only by observing and exploring in the process of comparison and development can we grasp the essence of things. Chinese modern metal sculpture art is existing and developing in a way different from that of the West.

2、 The problem of form and its integration with the spirit of traditional Chinese culture

The unremitting exploration and research of form and the pursuit of the creation, beauty and performance of formal language are the important characteristics of modern art. Compared with the western countries in terms of language form, Chinese modern metal sculpture has the following characteristics:

1. Concrete works, abstract works and imagery works coexist at the same time. The exploration and research of material language has reached a certain level, and the traces of learning from the West are obvious in the early stage of development.

The significance of modern metal sculpture lies in that it is no longer a traditional sculpture modeling method to a large extent, but a challenge to the natural language of sculpture. Modern metal sculpture has broken the single mode of carving and shaping of traditional sculpture with its rich language forms, such as forging, welding, compression, assembly, etc. The evolution of this language mode has made modern metal sculpture develop into a kind of space art, and also into a mature abstract art form. Chinese modern metal sculpture, in terms of its language, is characterized by the simultaneous existence, mutual influence and common development of concrete, abstract and imagery works.

Because it is not an art growing on the land of China, but a form of "taking" from the West, the traces of learning from the West are obvious in the early development of Chinese modern metal sculpture in the 1980s. Relatively speaking, the artist's personal language is not mature enough. The sculptors of this period, such as Jiao Yaoming, Fu Zhongwang, Li Xiuqin and others, have carried out a series of metal welding sculpture experiments, but they have basically focused on the exploration and research of language techniques, and have not yet formed a truly mature personal artistic language. However, their experimental exploration has made technical and linguistic preparations for the later development of Chinese metal sculpture. With the passage of time, after nearly 20 years of exploration and experiment, many artists such as Fu Zhongwang, Wang Zhong, Li Xiuqin, Wang Peibo, Zhou Shangyi, Pan Yiqun, etc. have gradually formed mature personal art language, and formed the current multiple coexistence way of life.

2. Decorative language has been widely developed, but there are conceptual problems in some environmental sculptures.

The decorative art movement at the beginning of the 20th century quickly spread to many countries in Europe and affected China. After China's reform and opening up, the development of modern art also first manifested as the widespread popularity of decorative art. The reasons are as follows: First, decorative art pursues the beauty of form more, has the aesthetic characteristics of the masses, and is easy to be accepted by the masses; Secondly, in the early stage of the development of Chinese modern art, the development of more radical modern art in China has some insurmountable difficulties; Third, the language of decorative art has no obvious ideological color and is easy to get the permission and support of relevant departments; Fourth, the college's art education has made positive contributions to the development of China's decorative arts. At that time, the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts was active and flexible in art teaching. A group of old artists who had studied in Europe in the early years and accepted modern art ideas led the young students at that time to make great efforts to explore and study art forms, and made great achievements. The metal studio established by Mr. Zheng Ke and the decorative art specialty established by many colleges and universities have directly had a positive and far-reaching impact on the development of modern metal sculpture and promoted the general development of decorative metal sculpture in China. This development has had a significant impact on China's emerging public environmental art. One of its important signs is the establishment of many urban sculptures around the country and the widespread popularity of decorative metal sculptures. In a large number of works, many excellent works have emerged, but there are also some problems, mainly manifested in the tendency to model. There are many reasons for these problems, including artistic reasons, because China's modern metal sculpture is not yet fully mature; Due to institutional reasons, our public art formation mechanism is not sound enough; There are also economic impacts, especially the wave of commercialization, impacting the fragile nerves of some artists. These problems still exist to some extent today.

3. Modernity and the spirit of national traditional culture have been integrated and grown to a certain extent, showing the thinking and humanistic care for the common problems such as the environment faced by mankind today. This is also the development trend of art in the world today.

In the past decade, China's sculpture industry has developed rapidly and has been very active. Many talented sculptors and many excellent metal sculptures have emerged. The most prominent feature of the development of metal sculpture in China today is that many artists are trying to seek the combination of the modernity of the artistic language and the traditional culture of the nation, based on the rich cultural soil of the nation, to express the development of the cultural and artistic spirit of the nation, and to explore the integration of the artist's personal spirit, national culture and artistic language. With a critical eye and a sense of hardship, he re-examines the past achievements of the development of society, culture and art, and ponders over many problems faced by the development of today's society. It is a common feature of metal sculpture and even world art to pay more attention to nationality, regionalism, ideology and humanistic care for society. Another notable feature of the development of metal sculpture in China today is that both eastern and western, traditional and modern art languages have become the possible choice of artists. Formalism is no longer the only purpose of artists but a means to realize artistic values and ideas. "Art for art" has become the self-intertainment of the ivory tower of artists yesterday. Fu Zhongwang's tenon and tenon structure series, Outlook's stainless steel rockery series, Li Xiuqin's use of braille in her works, Chen Yungang's research on Chinese traditional Taoist thought, Lao Zhuang's aesthetics and their application in sculpture works, Jiao Xintao's use of metal-welded language method to express Chinese traditional drama characters, and his "talent" and "beauty" series works are all excellent representatives in this field.

The British art theorist Reed said: "All art schools... must meet a simple test standard (otherwise they are not works of art): they must continue to exist as objects worthy of contemplation." ③ The development of modern metal sculpture in China is also presenting itself as an art of thinkers, a comprehensive art and a national art. It should be seen that the existence of modern metal sculpture in China is also a process of continuous development and negation of negation. Both its early exploration of pure form and today's reflection on national culture are inseparable parts of its development process.