The reference and sublation of Western modern metal sculpture by Chinese modern metal sculpture

At the beginning of the 20th century, people focused on learning from and drawing inspiration from Western sculpture. However, at that time, people paid attention to traditional realistic sculpture, which had lost its former glory in the history of Western art, while ignoring modern sculpture, which was maturing.

This choice was inseparable from the realities of Chinese society and culture at the time, which will not be discussed in detail here due to space limitations. What I am concerned with is the impact of this choice on the future development of Chinese sculpture. For more than half a century afterward, Chinese sculpture remained under the comprehensive influence of Western traditional realist sculpture. Although it achieved remarkable success, due to strong intervention and control from political, social, and other factors, sculpture lost the space for self-development and improvement. The "external regulation" of art outweighed its "autonomy," constraining both content and form, thus hindering the development of sculptural art. The field of metal sculpture also faced many problems during this period. Metal was always treated as a tool for transforming material forms, lacking a voice for self-expression. Moreover, due to economic reasons, metal sculptures were extremely rare during this period; people often used oil or acrylic paints on other materials (plaster, cement) to imitate the effects of metal.

Beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the deepening of economic reforms and the increasing openness to the outside world, China was opened up, and advanced science and technology and outstanding culture and art from all over the world poured into China. Social stability, economic recovery, and political democracy all contributed significantly to the prosperity and progress of sculpture art. It was against this backdrop that Western modern metal sculpture emerged on the Chinese art stage. As mentioned earlier, Western modern metal sculpture art is a modern art movement that began in the early 20th century in Western society. It was a revolution in Western sculptural tradition, overturning the traditional Western sculpture art's focus on expressing volume and its primary techniques of carving and shaping. It gradually formed a combination of metal casting, forging, welding, and other metalworking techniques with sculpture art, developing sculpture into an art form that expresses space. The changes in the understanding of form and materials in modern metal sculpture profoundly influenced the development of modern metal sculpture in China. Furthermore, due to the realities of modern metal sculpture in China, a relatively unique view of form and materials, different from that of Western modern metal sculpture, has emerged.

The key lies in the transformation of form. A typical characteristic of modern metal sculpture is the gradual abandonment of "thematic imagery" in artistic expression, moving towards formalization and abstraction. However, Chinese modern metal sculpture has encountered an awkward situation in terms of formal transformation. On the one hand, due to the lack of the dramatic social changes seen in early 20th-century Western societies, young sculptors' exploration and learning of modern metal sculpture forms remained at the stage of simple imitation and replication. On the other hand, mature sculptors deeply influenced by realism sought a path of eclecticism, avoiding the psychological loss of abandoning realistic techniques while still achieving the possibility of participating in avant-garde art and keeping up with the times. Against this backdrop, Chinese modern metal sculpture rarely produces abstract works like those in the West, but rather more intentional works that retain realistic elements while also incorporating a certain degree of generalization.

Secondly, there was a relative limitation in material selection. A prominent feature of the evolution of modern metal sculpture is the shift in material choice. With scientific advancements and technological progress, more and more new materials and processes have been invented, discovered, and applied to the creation of modern metal sculptures. However, in its early stages, Chinese modern metal sculpture faced an awkward situation: China's relatively backward industrial technology at the time. This meant that many new materials and techniques already available and used in the West could not be used by Chinese modern metal sculptors, limiting their material choices to a few metals such as stainless steel and iron, resulting in a relatively limited selection.