abstract sculpture

Abstract sculpture is the young artist’s step towards complete non-figuration, breaking the identifiability prescribed by “writing”. This late breakthrough is both difficult and easy. The difficulty is that the Qi-Xu compromise system supported by the old and new traditions is strong and sturdy, and breakthroughs are easier said than done; the easy thing is that the thousands of years of Chinese painting and calligraphy “brush and ink” experience and the oil painting “brush” experience introduced, digested and absorbed on this basis have enabled Chinese artists to “Abstract ink painting” and “abstract oil painting” have a good artistic sense and the ability to grasp the proportions. But when the resistance of old habits gradually weakened, the familiarity of brush and ink made Chinese artists relatively slow in the non-figuration of smooth materials and the non-figuration of geometric composition, so that the sense of handwork always surpassed the sense of industry in their works. Of course, the global scope of figurative and symbolic works, including ready-mades, performances, etc., is theoretically and practically powerful, and it also greatly weakens the exploration of Chinese and even global artists in the non-figurative field: the combination of purely formal elements seems to became the designer’s patent.