Yu Yu Yang (1926-1997) was one of the most critical artists during the post-war period in Taiwan. He was so versatile that no single artistic titles would suffice to describe him. He was an oil painter, a graphic artist, a photographer, a cartoonist, a product designer, a sculptor, a landscape planning specialist, and even a laser artist. It is because he had worked on so many fields of art, applied such a great variety of materials to his works, developed such unprecedented avantgarde techniques and expanded his profound thoughts of art, that he had become so influential.
Among his various achieved works, Yang's series of sculpting art is recognized by both researchers and the general public for its strong coherence and completeness. This article examines the artist's development course of sculpting art by dividing it into four periods: the initial period in which "form" was explored; the period of "image" during his years in Italy; the period of "ideas" when he returned to Taiwan to create the "Taroko Gorge" series; and the "concepts" period when he incorporated traditional Chinese cultural symbols, such as dragons, phoenixes, the Sun, the Moon, and the Universe into his stainless steel sculptures, while reflecting on the meanings of landscape sculpting.
It is hoped that, by analyzing the course of development of Yang's sculpting art, this article would serve as reference not only for researchers to further explore his works, but also for other artists to learn about and interested members of the public to appreciate Yang's creation.
The paper mainly discusses Hsin-yu Huang's 2001 to 2006 artistic creations. It is as well an attempt to analyze the Huang's logical thinking as well as Huang's soul perception, which together take form into a complete personal ideology and the core of her work.
The reading will explain important details during the construction of Huang's artwork of the physical and psychological importance of the choice of materials, the reason behind the repetition of the Huang's works and motions, the coexisting partnership and collaborative approaches during the construction of the artwork, as well as the concerns for the relation between space and atmosphere of the place during the exhibiting process, etc. The paper is an attempt to discuss the present, past and future creations identifying the author, which searched for the meaning of Huang's life.
藝術的代價——蒲添生戰後初期的政治性銅像與國家贊助者The Price of Art Creation—The Three Political Bronze Statues by Pu Tien-Sheng and His National Patrons in the Initial Episode of Post-war Period of Taiwan
Studies on Taiwanese sculptor Pu Tien-Sheng have not yet escaped from the perspective of artistic individualism, which glorified the talent and achievement of the artist, but at the cost of concealing the real predicament of artists lived in the post-war period of Taiwan. In opposition to this viewpoint, this article tries to discuss Pu Tien-sheng's three bronze statues in the initial episode of post-war period: Chiang Kai-Shek in military uniform, Sun Yat-Sen, and Koxinga within a political and economic context. Those statues were commissioned by official institutions. In Chiang Kai-shek sculpture's case, government officials supervised the making of the work, determined its aesthetic criteria, even threatening to put the artist into jail, in order to make the sculpture's inaugural on schedule. The official powers also raised money for the cost of bronze statues and artist' s living. The expenditure of Sun Yat-Sen Sculpture heavily depend on the raised money by illegal means of exert latently pressure on basic functionary and people. Those fundraising activities in turn formed a democracy fiction of people's supporting the regime of official powers. However, in an era of economical crisis, Pu Tien-Sheng can only received financial support from official powers, and made claim of his artistic idea of making art for the nation's people in authoritie's favor. Finally, the official authorities also control artwork's image, before the making of Koxinga bronze statue, the image of Koxinga had raised a hectic dispute in late 1940's and early 1950's, the debates was not only a pure academic discuss, but also stamped by the political ideology with the slogan of "guang fu" (Taiwan Restoration) and "fan gong" (Recover the Mainland China), which the sculptor must obey in his work's form. Pu Tien-Sheng had to negotiate with the political hegemony, and compromise is an important stake. However, when the martial law period of Taiwan ended in 1986, the discourses about him always glorify his talent and his idea of "art for art' s sake," and in contrary concealing the political involvement of the artist. It also omits an important issue in modern or contemporary Taiwanese art, about where the moral line of an artist's compromise is and where the one of personal social responsible is in such an involvement.
Keywords
Pu Tien-Sheng, The Initial Episode of Post-War Period, Political Bronze Statues, Chiang Kai-shek, Sun Yat-Sen, Koxinga
The methods of expression for Hiroto Kitagawa's figure sculpture are currently highly diverse, but the recurring features of his works are nonetheless very numerous. In particular, Hiroto Kitagawa's terracotta figures have been getting a lot of attention lately. The sculptures have bony bodies like Western models, and the characters are young with very unique costumes. The figures also have the faces of an idealized Asian young person with a cold look and straight posture, giving them a very distinctive look. Although at first glance his works appear in the Manga style, they are really the result of a long development. The works have a spirit of an era, a folk quality, and an individuality which combines both the western and the Asian.
Hiroto Kitagawa studied creative sculpture at the Kanazawa College of Arts, and then engaged in further studies in Italy where he learned the traditional terracotta ceramic method. He also actively investigated the features a sculptured figure should have, according to his own ideals. His past works show he has ceaselessly sought new inspiration and vitality for sculptured figures. For example, it has been said, "For searching and showing the truth of human beings, Hiroto Kitagawa uses the soil to express their spirit and shape." This paper introducing his background and early studies, as well as his Italy period and terracotta work. The paper goes on to discuss the development of his art work, special features of his works, and provides a thorough overview of Kitagawa's creative endeavors.
Keywords
Kitagawa Hiroto, Figure Sculpture, Terracotta, Anime and Manga Styles
For his 2009 residency at the Tung-Ho Steel Enterprise Corporation, Liu Po-chun bent strips of discarded industrial steel to fashion his series of figurative sculptures entitled Vajra. Composed of puffed-up outlines that remain empty at their centers, these figures represent a key transition in Liu's recent work. In the past, his sculptures occupied a thematic realm which both retained the representation of human forms and suggested ready-made objects. Liu's work from this earlier stage embodied the gap between the articulable and the visible which was often present in the work of various generations of Taiwanese artists; specifically discourses of Liu's generation, who called for social commentary yet did not create corresponding perceptual expressions. Vajra is unlike this preceding work, and therefore the beginning of a new phase for the artist.
First, vajra is a mythological prototype higher than all living creatures, and therefore a ready-made image of preeminence. Next, moving into the mediate realm of semiotics, Liu has eliminated the flesh-and-blood body in this work, which hastens the viewer toward the object itself. Finally, Liu arrives at a loose and referential polysemy; but postmodern theory alone cannot explain away the reflexivity in Liu's self-mocking Vajra. Such reflexivity, unlike the popular yet ultimately inconclusive identity issues prevalent in 1990s Taiwan, suggests "the possibility of a creative (self-) destruction for an entire epoch." (Beck 2) In this regard, discourses of subjectivity wrapped in issues of identity must first be destroyed before Vajra can permeate certain social milieus of Taiwan's cultural field.
Keywords
Liu Po-Chun, Sculpture, Body, Subjectivity, Reflexivity, Mediate, Contemporary Taiwanese Art
American Post-Minimalism artist and steel sculptor, Richard Serra has had 40 years of experience. His works were undertaken the influence of Abstract Sculpture and Minimalism in conjunction with his personal literature background. After proposed Verb List in 1967, Serra continually published various stages of work, such as Splash, Prop, Elevate, and Arc. Serra was the pioneer of contemporary sculpture as he interfered art with social sites for critical thinking. During the development of Post-Minimalism, Serra created a series of works based on the perception of human body. His early years were influenced by ontology, combining linguistic and philosophical thinking. Serra used steel in his works, integrating form structures to replace traditional hand-made labor work and to remove referential themes. In his later years, Serra returned to the essence of his works to focus on the exploration of time and space.
This article focuses on "site" to pinpoint the visual perception in Serra's works by using three topics. There are: 1) expansion of site awareness, 2) establishment of visual perception, and 3) spirit of spatial orientation. Serra explored the interrelation between space and time created through his works in particular sites by examining urban and rural atmospheres, the contract between organic ground change and dull industrial materials, and indoor and outdoor spaces. Serra created his works by integrated iron and steel materials; he aimed to highlight the existence of body in the space and the spirit associated with the particular site.
Keywords
site, visual perception, mapping, time, spatial orientation
In the Dong-Hun Sung and Po-Chun Liu duo exhibition (entitled "Metallic Heroes and Demythification") held in May 2011 at the Juming Museum, two Asian sculptors engage each other in a clash-cumdialogue. They do so, coincidentally, with steel sculptures. Steel as a sculptural material dates back more a hundred years to the beginning of the 20th century. Having different plastic vocabularies between themselves, the two Asian artists each respond to the qualities and complex history of this particular medium. Dong-Hun Sung chooses to bypass the issues unfurled by steel throughout the history of modern sculpture, and directs steel on the onset towards a narrative, symbolic or allegorical purpose. Exercising heterogeneous assimilation, Sung combines heterogeneous materials (such as found objects and industrial refuse) into humorous, bizarre and polysemic hybrids of different cultural components, and chooses Don Quixote as a spiritual icon. Po-Chun Liu, on the other hand, thinks deeply about the properties of steel as a medium, as well as the questions it has been raising throughout the history of modern art, so as to deliberately distance himself from sculpture, as it were. He carries on the post-Picasso subversion of the nature of sculptures, and delves into the dialectics between painting and sculpture to resolve the conflict between planar and 3D space. With a deceptively simple approach, Liu presents a complex enfoldment of many of modern sculpture's basic questions, including those about structure, space, light, sound, kinetic energy, site and reproduction. His choice of subject (Vajra) is a symbol for the pandemonium of the Information Age. In post-industrial society and the so-called New Media Generation, Dong-Hun Sung's and Po-Chun Liu's steel sculptures meet on the brink of modernism's collapse. The result is an attempt to open up new horizons in the 21st century for this shared medium.
The idea of "hybrid" comes into contemporary fine arts in a very early stage. In ancient mythology, it's often to see hybrids between human and creature, or between beings. These legends or anecdotes are a kind of worship that people at that time had toward the unusual phenomenon, in terms of interpreting as supernatural.
Contemporary artist, Ping-Cheng Liang (1958-), who is famous by using the techniques such as "quality-lightening", simulative abstraction, simulative practice, and complex materials in his creations, has stands out by the concept of "hybrid" and "simulative beings" wrapped up in his pieces. This article is mainly focused on Liang's dynamic creating outcome. By discussing his techniques in presenting the art craft between organic and inorganic in a way of supernatural deific attaché, and applying complex material in transcending the lines between convention and avant-garde, we can explore the infinite possibilities for sculpture. His finesse of prototypical carving shows the fluid texture in his works, which has regained the concretion of the stain-less steel artistry. Liang's works have deconstructed the dichotomy of simulation vs. reality; supernatural vs. natural; mythology vs. history, and thus summoned the rawest cosmology in human being. By relating oneself to all the beings in the world, we can discover the infinite possibilities in life as well as art.
Return to the essence of creation of art, has been always my central idea. Its highest realm should be not bounded by form and just be made naturally. It must be achieved by the creator's rich life, the sublimation of his spiritual concentration, and also the proficient performance in technique and endowment. Although the highest creation realm should not be bounded by the form as I had said, however, in the process of creation, still fulfill the form, but not indulge in the form. As the Tao Te Ching has been carried: "The Law often inactive, but is all." The nature things grow up from each their natural spontaneity. It seems like they accomplish nothing, but actually they comply their form by the natural development. It is so not artificial, so not affectedly to present the works. That is precisely my portrayal of my created mind and practical life. The three-dimensional form exists in the substantive space. That kind of space is not only the space inhabits the physique work. When we make the dialog between the feeling in visual and the aesthetics in work, that space will have the inexhaustible possibility. As I treat as entrusts the sense of reality and the shape into my work itself, the spatial and time namely existence closely. My creation idea of space and time as I mention above, is different with the scientific realism and the philosophical debates. It is one kind of subjective intuition comprehension, one kind of metaphysical state of mind.
Keywords
space and time, nature, intuitive comprehension, threedimensional form
Since the advent of object art in the beginning of the 20th century, the concept of sculpture has been expanding constantly. The diversification of materials and the vanishing of what delimits an artwork constitute the most important changes. By now, any work of any material that deals with three-dimensional space or presents itself as a three-dimensional installation would undoubtedly fall under the new categories of sculptural arts.
In the history of art, the oldest or most primal of sculptural materials had been clay from the ground. For most of the time, however, it had only been used as the base material for formulating images. It was after the 1950s that the seminal idea and challenge of using clay as a creative material in itself spread from USA to the rest of the world. This wave first landed in Taiwan in the early 1960s and rose to its height in the 1980s. The greatest significance of ceramic art-making as such is that it opens up new possibilities for sculpture. Compared to their other sculptural counterparts, ceramic materials are unique in their beauty and artistic qualities. This uniqueness lies mainly in the way that the materials' expressiveness is presented and employed, and also in the interpretation of the existing cultural semantics of clay and ceramics. The fact is: as far as earth-based art is concerned, we see in a ceramist's creations not only the unique expressiveness of ceramics, but also more of the possibilities of clay in the artist's innovations.
This paper comes in four parts. The first looks at the historical development of how artistic materials diversified over time, on which basis it elucidates the roots of the changes in the materials and notion of sculpture. The second part gives a brief account of the hows and whats of the evolution of ceramics in USA, the country from which the worldwide "clay revolution" was set off. The third part goes on to outline the historical development of Taiwanese ceramic arts, focusing mainly on ceramic art-making that treats ceramic materials as sculptural ones. The final part touches on the beauty and artistic qualities of ceramic materials, and explains how contemporary artists make use of them to unleash new forms and ideas for sculpture.
Keywords
clay, ceramics, ceramic arts, material arts, sculpture
