Yuan Xikun: sculpt the world's greats
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Yuan's sculpture of Deng Xiaoping [Globalarts.com.cn] |
Yuan left Yunnan Art University before graduation in 1966 when the Cultural Revolution started. Unlike the hundreds of thousands of educated youths who were sent to rural areas to be reeducated by farmers, Yuan was selected to stay in the city to paint the portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong.
Unable to accept the fact that his friends, relatives and colleagues had been forced to kneel down while being denounced under Mao, whose portrait he was painting, Yuan asked to be sent to rural Xishuangbanna.
Working in the forest, he observed a variety of wild animals and studied their skin textures, skeletons and behaviors. Once he came across a wild tiger. They stared at each other across a distance of no more than 10 meters.
"Thank God the tiger was probably full," Yuan said, "It all ended with the tiger walking away." Yuan explained that his observations helped him more than his technical skills. "I was sizing up Kissinger with the eyes I once used for the wild tiger," Yuan recalled.
After sketching portraits for the likes of Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro, Yuan chose to shift to sculpture.
"The essential difference between the two is that painting has to simulate a three-dimensional space in a two-dimensional one, while sculpture must authentically present an image in a three-dimensional space straightaway," he explained.
His first sculpture was a full-length statue of late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. It took him 18 weeks to finish, much longer than anything he had done before.
"Deng had a long army life, so his muscles had to be much tighter than ordinary old men," Yuan said. Completed in 2004, the statue went on show for the 100th anniversary of Deng's birth.
Last year, at the request of swimwear manufacturer Speedo, Yuan sculpted US swimming sensation Michael Phelps, eight-time Olympic gold medalist.
Yuan was first asked to portray the swimmer's energy by giving prominence to his muscularity. "Prominent muscle is not the feature a swimmer boasts. He needs a smooth body to reduce resistance in the water and to swim fast," Yuan said. He finally made the swimming cap and goggles the prominent features of the statue. Phelps thought it was "cool."
Yuan still works up to 15 hours a day and said he enjoys it. "Compared to the hardships so many people have undergone, I realize the frustration I may come across is only a storm in a teacup. It is my faith to portray those I respect to the best of my capacity, intellect and passion."
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