Chinese Urban Sculpture in 50 Years

Author: Compiled by the National Urban Sculpture Construction Guidance Committee
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1999-08-01
Features: Ancient Chinese sculpture art has an extremely brilliant and splendid history. However, modern urban sculpture started relatively late. After the founding of New China, under the care and guidance of the Party and government, the art of urban sculpture in China has achieved unprecedented development. In the early years of the founding, major works such as the large-scale bas-relief of the Monument to the People's Heroes and the sculptures of the Ten Great Buildings in Beijing for the 10th anniversary of the founding were completed. With their successful combination of revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism, they bloomed like new flowers in the field of urban sculpture. The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China ushered in the spring of reform and opening-up, as well as a golden period of vigorous development for urban sculpture. In March 1982, the Central Committee of the Party approved the "Proposal on Developing Sculpture Construction in Key Cities Nationwide" submitted by the China Artists Association. Under the joint leadership of the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Culture, and the China Artists Association, the National Urban Sculpture Planning Group was established (in 1992, it was renamed the National Urban Sculpture Construction Guidance Committee by the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Culture). Subsequently, urban sculpture leadership and management institutions were successively established in all provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across the country. Since then, under the care and guidance of the Party and government, China's urban sculpture art has adhered to the direction of "serving the people and socialism" and the principle of "let a hundred flowers bloom and let a hundred schools of thought contend," achieving unprecedented development. A large number of outstanding urban sculpture works, deeply loved by the masses, rich in connotation, exquisite in art, diverse in themes, and varied in style, including various schools, have emerged across China. Examples include the "Mausoleum of Martyrs at Gele Mountain" in Chongqing, the "Pioneer Ox" in Shenzhen, the "Mother of the Yellow River" in Lanzhou, the "May Fourth Movement Monument" in Shanghai, the "Statue of Sun Yat-sen" in Beijing, as well as various types of sculpture parks and sculpture ensembles, such as the Jinggangshan Sculpture Garden, the Guangzhou Sculpture Park, the Qingdao Sculpture Corridor, the sculptures in Shanghai's Longhua Martyrs' Cemetery, and the Changchun International Sculpture Park, among others. Urban sculpture has become an indispensable part of urban construction and urban environmental art, serving as an important art form to enrich people's cultural life, commemorate major historical figures and events, and promote the spirit of the times, making significant contributions to building socialist spiritual civilization and developing Chinese-style socialist culture. At the same time, sculptors in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan have also achieved outstanding accomplishments in urban sculpture art. With the deepening of reform and opening-up, China's urban sculpture has taken great strides toward the world. Works by Chinese sculptors have been erected in more than 30 countries, including the United States, Japan, Russia, former Yugoslavia, Canada, Switzerland, Singapore, Thailand, Egypt, Italy, Germany, the Philippines, Tonga, and North Korea, as well as the United Nations, receiving widespread international acclaim. Among them, the "Peace Girls" in Nagasaki, Japan, the "Towards the World" at the headquarters of the Olympic Games in Switzerland, the "Ascent" at the United Nations, and the "Unity, Peace, and Future" at the headquarters of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in the Philippines, have been highly praised by international peers and people around the world. Chinese urban sculpture has now stood tall among the world's modern urban sculpture arts, continuously shining with artistic brilliance, playing a unique role in promoting exchanges between China and other countries, and contributing to the cause of world peace. The 50 years of Chinese urban sculpture have been a period of gradual growth and openness. Although it started late, its development has been rapid, and it has now entered a comprehensive period of prosperity. Since reform and opening-up, under the attention and support of the Party and government, Chinese sculptors have studied Deng Xiaoping's literary theory, "promoting the main melody and advocating diversity," resulting in thousands of urban sculpture works in various schools, forms, styles, and themes, all flourishing across the land. China's urban sculpture has presented an unprecedentedly prosperous situation. This year, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the great socialist motherland, we have selected representative urban sculptures from the past 50 years to compile this volume. It serves as both a review and summary of the artistic path of China's urban sculpture over the past 50 years and a report and gift to the motherland.