Jinyang.com reporter Zhu Shaojie Xu Xueliang
Recently, the “Speaking the Voice of the Times and Forging the Soul of the Nation – Pan He Art Seminar” was held at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. More than 50 artists and critics from inside and outside the province attended the seminar. The guests discussed the creative language, theme significance, artistic style, and educational philosophy of sculptor Pan He. They hoped to gather forces and resources from multiple parties to conduct a comprehensive study of Pan He and his works, and called for the launch of the “Lingnan System” sculpture research.
” Mr. Pan from Hong Kong to the People’s Academy of Literature and Arts, and then to his exchanges with the Lingnan School of Painting, contact with Western sculptures, local sculptures, etc. are worth studying. He is the pride of Guangdong and the most worthy sculptor of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.” Li Jinkun, vice chairman of the China Artists Association, president of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, president of Guangdong Academy of Painting, and chairman of Guangdong Academy of Arts Association, said at the meeting that Pan He’s sculpture works have become the memory of a region and a country. Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts will use more power and resources to conduct comprehensive research on important artists such as Pan He and preserve this valuable academic resource. In the work, the elderly Pan He has been committed to sculpture art creation for nearly 70 years, engaged in art education for more than 40 years, and has created more than 100 large-scale outdoor sculptures, and has been involved in more than 60 cities at home and abroad.
Pan He has won many awards and titles, and is the winner of the first Guangdong Lifelong Achievement Award and the winner of the Lifelong Achievement Award of the Chinese Art Award. In the eyes of many artists and critics, he is a modern sculptor who “produces the voice of the times and forges the soul of the nation”. The mark of the times and national thoughts permeate every work. In the view of Feng Yuan, a professor of science at Sun Yat-sen University, there was an important proposition from the Chinese literary and artistic circles in the 20th century: “How to transform Western modern culture into national culture.” He believes that Pan He consciously understood the cultural mission through his personal cultural awareness and put into action to complete artistic practice, giving this proposition a good answer. His series of works represent or shape the key nodes of historical development since the founding of New China and are closely linked to the pulse of the entire era.
Li Ming, former president of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, believes that from “When I Grow Up” to the later “Hard Times”《I’m stupid to pay attention to you, and then to the later “Zhuhai Fisherman”, “The Cow of Pulling the Land”, “Commemorative Image of Liberation of Guangzhou”, “Peace”, etc., Pan He used his memory, cognition and conscience to embrace the era and ideals, so that his creations can be closely connected with the Babaylan era.
American artist Wu Xinkun also said that Pan He’s works are rich in connotation, believing that his works reflect historical stories, humanistic emotions, and people’s emotions towards social life, and integrate the destiny of the country and nation into their works. “In “Hard Times”, no one can surpass Pan He’s portrayal of the joy of old farmers after they get the land and his expectations for the future. It is the work of the times,” he said.
“The key to whether a person has nationality lies in his thoughts rather than aesthetics. Mr. Pan He’s aesthetic is extremely foreign, but his thoughts are absolutely national.” Pan Fen, son of Pan He, said that the times gave Pan He a special artistic mission, allowing him to convey national thoughts with the ultimate Western aesthetic taste in the torrent of the times.
Closely related to the Lingnan School of Painting
Pan He studied in Hong Kong since he was a child. At the age of 14, he went to Foshan, Guangdong to learn sculptures of Foshan; at the age of 19, he went to Macau to study, and met the Italian sculptor Xia Gangzhi and his wife, and at the same time met well-known statue masters such as Gao Jianfu, Yang Shanshen, and Yu Ben. Critic Liang Jiang said: “This context is the same as that of the Lingnan School of Painting. He has a very close relationship with the Lingnan School of Painting.” Liang Jiang believes that Pan He’s transformation of local factors into the historical narrative of the entire nation is an important aspect that everyone should pay attention to when studying regional art history and regional art. He gave examples of Pan He’s Lu Xun portrait sculpture “You’re stupid”, and believed that the title of this work has a very obvious Guangdong feature, and he put BabaylanThe Guangdong Cantonese cultural circle is connected. His work “Babaylan” is also an important work by local factors participating in mainstream discourse in the country.
Yin Shuangxi, a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, also said: “Mr. Pan He’s works can resonate and respond at every historical node. His works can grasp the most important moments of the theme, plot, historical development and the psychological and mental state of the characters, and use sculptures to turn the moment into eternity.”
In addition, Yin Shuangxi mentioned that a sculptor can leave a city mark in a city in his life, and the people of this city will always remember him. Mr. Pan He left landmark works in two important cities in Guangdong Zhuhai and Shenzhen. The spirit expressed by Shenzhen’s urban landmark “Cinema生活” has not only become the spirit of Shenzhen, but also the spirit of reform and opening up.
Pan He is good at capturing the details and refining core traits. Most of his classic works come from the wonderful moments that touched him. “When I Grown Up” created in the early 1950s was a creation that he was inspired by the situation of rural teachers after participating in the “land reform”. Chairman Mao allegedly gave a high evaluation. This work also represented China in attending the International Mothers Festival held in Switzerland and the Fifth World Youth Festival held in Poland, which caused a sensation.
To this day, Pan He has recorded the century-old development history of China’s modern and contemporary with his sculpture art, and has also embodied the spirit of China’s reform and opening up. His outstanding contributions to socialism’s urban construction and cultural construction are obvious to all, beautifying the urban space and enriching the urban connotation.
Excellent in artistic form
From form to theme, Pan He’s sculpture art has a distinct personal style and an irrepeatable uniqueness. “This is a reflection of the artist’s wisdom and personality, and it is also a precious quality and pure realm.” Huang Qiming, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, believes that as a sculptor who grew up with the Republic, Mr. Pan He always revolves around the melody of the country and the times, but in terms of artistic form, he isYou can always come up with new ideas and find the perfect combination between form and theme.
The Hard Years, created by Pan He in 1957, has become one of the must-have works for various art appreciation textbooks for primary and secondary schools and century-old art. This classic work has always been interpreted as a firm belief in expressing the hard environment of the Red Army. Previously, Pan He explained that the work did not express the Red Army, but the Hainan guerrillas. But no matter what, the works reflect that in that difficult era, the revolutionary ancestors’ belief in life and Komiks‘s belief in life directly conveyed an optimistic spirit.
“The work conveys a sincere belief in human nature. No matter how many difficulties and hardships there are in life, how many deceptions and negative existences exist, it still maintains a good belief in life and the future.” Yin Shuangxi believes that Pan He closely connects the fate of art with the fate of a country, an era, and a nation. The work has a strong thematic nature, but his thematic nature is not rigid and symbolic, but grasps the characteristics of art, so that the sculptural language and plot and theme are balanced, attracting a wide audience.
Exploring Lingnan sculptures through Pan He
In addition to independent creation, Pan He also has an inescapable identity that he is a teacher. From a lecturer at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts to a tenured professor in the Sculpture Department of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, he has been teaching for forty years and has cultivated a group of outstanding artistic talents with his unique educational concepts.
The American artist Wu Xinkun became a graduate student of Pan He during the first national graduate student recruitment in 1978. In his impression, Pan He’s usual teaching does not emphasize basic skills and techniques, but rather focuses on ideological education. “He himself is an aesthetician and thinker. What he said has a great influence on me. For example, he said, “Not having any habits, no harm, no real.” He believes that literary and artistic works should not be perfect, and its shortcomings are its personality.” Wu Xinkun recalled.
Pan Fen revealed that Pan KomiksHe’s educational philosophy is related to his learning experience. Pan He has always had a very personality in his studies, believing that the teacher is not technical, but ideological, and he believes that the thought is ten thousand times stronger than the technique.
Pan He’s sculptures have profound cultural significance for contemporary art, and the seminarThe participants at the meeting all proposed that we should gather forces from multiple parties to collect and organize resources and conduct a comprehensive study of Pan He and his works; we hope to establish a team of sculpture theory research as soon as possible, sort out the development context of sculpture theoretically, and promote the development of disciplines. In the process of Guangdong art’s transformation from tradition to modernity, it has always been the first, the era is the first, and the path of change. It should pay attention to the in-depth study of the Lingnan School of Painting by Komiks, and conduct vertical and horizontal comparisons by artists such as Pan He to deeply explore Lingnan sculptures.