A sculptor and teaches at the University of Washington.

　　With the support of the University of Washington Royalty Research Fond Grant Committee,sculptor and professor John T.Young and his graduate research assisrant, Wu Hai-Ying,spent several mouths in the People’s Repubic of China in 1995 ducumenting public art and intercviewing artists in 30 cities throughout the country.

　　Like all of China,Chinese art is in the throes of dramatic change.The culture is full of contrasts:it is a developing nation,yet it has existed for over 5,000 years;it is a society of tremendous poverty,yet it manufactures much of the world’s goods and is embracing technology at a rapid pace; it is controlled by an authoritarian communist government ,yet its free market sector is reminiscent of the boomtown era of the California gold rush.All of these contrasts and the resulting anxieties are reflected in the provocative Chinese art that has been exhibited in galleries around the world in the last 10 years.

　　But what of China’s public art? There is no question that public art is important to China. The sheer quantity reflects this; since 1949 more than 10,000 public works have been created, most since 1980.During our research we found that the individual works in this vast public art arena tend to fall into four categories:the first is traditional figurative portraiture, usually of leaders or cultural heroes . These are generally extremely well executed figures or busts by highly trained sculptors. This same group of artists is asked by the government to create works in the second category of public sculprture, known in China as Social Realist Romanticism.This work usually memorializes anonymous soldiers or workers, or martyrs of the revolution(often in narratives that refer to ancient Chiese legends).This work is clearly influenced by the social realist statues of the former Soviet Union, but Chiese versions generally depict subjects in a more dramatic or theatrical manner.

　　A third type of public artwork is becoming extremely common in China:abstract sculpture.Usually made of stainless steel, fabricated bronze, painted, welded steel or carved stone, these works are very reminiscent of the abstract sculpture created for U.S cities in the ‘60s and ‘70s. These abstract works are always symbolic of the site or the event that they commemorate, and many include a ball, representing the globe and wholemess,and also images of flight, representing spiritual freedom. Another common practice is to mix abstract symbols with human figures. Ye Yushan(former director of the Sichuan Fine Arts Academy) has remarked: “Many younger artists are doing contemporary abstract art which is good. Howerver, often they are imitating the Western abstraction.”Many of the works are indeed formulaic, but a few are quite handsome---particularly a work by Yu Zhi Qiang in Chengdu. His works are also well fabricated, which is not always the case.Many artists, throughout the country and in all disciplines,complain about the poor level of fabrication assistance.

　　Very little Chiese abstract sculpture focuses on materials in the manner of much contemporary Western or Japanese art. A notable exception is Fu Zhong Wang, of the Hubei Fine Arts Academy in Wuhan. His work in stone and wood timbers is unique in China in its exploration of the textural and structural characteristics of hi chosen materials.

　　The fourth category of public sculpture and the least common is contemporary or progressive in character. It is practiced by only a handful of young artists who are exploring new artistic territories, with the tentative backing of the academies or public art committees that license artists and commission projects.These works deal with issues of contemporary Chinese culture. Some artists work on temporary installations that cry out about ecological issues in this over-crowded and environmentally ravaged country. Other artists address property and development issues. Zhan Wang is a 33-year-old sculptor whose more conventional work includes abstract sculpture as well as a superrealist portrait of a pot –bellied,middle-aged man, seen as he truly is,rather than as a perfect hero. He recently completed a performance-installation work for which he spent many days attempting to “restore” a recently demolished building whose site was soon to be occupied by a new skyscraper .He polished ceramic tiles in the ruins, repainted door trims and patched the mortar of the collapsing brick walls.This work was a poetic reminder of the Chinese architecture and material culture that are rapidly being replaced by the construtions of international developers.

　　Such artists, like some of their Western counterparts, publicly critique their culture, something that has not occurred in China for over half a century. No one knows how long these brave individuals will continue to be sanctioned or tolerated. Some of the work suggests the limits of this public sanction:artist Xiao Lu did an intriguing and provocative public performance-installation involving a telephone booth and firearms. She procured a handgun from her soldier boyfriend, Tang Song, a collaborator in this work (private ownership of handgun is prohibited) and used it to interact with a telephone booth,. Ultimately destroying the booth with shots from the gun(no one was injured but both were arrested).The artist now lives aboard, possibly because of the pressure and criticism resulting from her work.

　　There are artists who are able to express a subtle individuality and poetry in their work within the boungaries of pubic commissions. Sculptor Pan He,who was hailed as a hero of the revolution and then later imprisoned by the “Gang of Four” as a capitalist sympathizer, includes layers of meaning in his works that seem to fly over the heads of commissioning bureaucrats. When I suggested this to him,he responded with delight, “It’s like riding a bicycle----a balancing act. But if you are too flexible, too adaptable,you won’t survive, you give up your own personality as a human being.”His recent sculpture depicting Lu Xun, the famous poet,is a portrait of an aloof and critical thinker, outside the bureaucracy; Pan He views the piece as a selfportrait. Unlike most of the artists over the age of 50 that I interviewed, Pan He is not a member of the Communist Party.

　　Since the 1980s, artists have gained power in the public art arena because government officials are relying on professional artists to determine the subject matter, the site and the selection process for a given project. Artists also often serve as official representatives for communities in their requests to the government for the commissioning of public art projects.

　　A significant factor affecting contemporary art in China is the dearth of contemporary museums, galleries and art critics. Professional curators and critics would encourage artists to surpass the shallowness of much of the abstract public sculpture and the current tendency to imitate in a superficial manner the formal aspects of international art. But there are encouraging signs for the future of Chinese public art,including new private commission for international construction projects and new civic works projects( often involving design teams). With the development of knowledgeable critics, with more museums showing the best of the world’s art, more galleries showing contemporary art and more exchange programs bringing aritists to China, Chinese artists are hoping to become more active participants in the international art world.

作者：John,T.Young