Gezhouba river closure sculpture unveiled

Donghu Fable sculpture group, “Yellow Crane Return” in front of the Yellow Crane Tower and Dong Biwu sculpture in Hongshan Square. These urban sculptures are a piece of cultural business cards. However, many people do not know that they have all come from the sculpture master Liu Chengde of the city. Another of his works, the "tetrahedron" sculpture of the giant Gezhouba river closure, finally opened its head last month. For this day, Liu Zhengde has waited for 30 years!

Creating a style of parables Liu Zhengde was born in Tianmen in 1931 and was a professor at the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts. Children outside the country, 80-year-old Liu Chengde is busy with his sculpture in Han. Recently, I talked with reporters about the obsession with sculpture art. He talked about it from childhood.

During the war of resistance against Japan, Liu Zhengde fled to Chongqing with his parents, watching folk artists weave and carve flowers in the country, and his mother was also a paper-cut expert. He took a beautiful pattern when he cut it. This made him very interested in folk art. In 1945, Liu Zhengde had the privilege to go to the fine arts group of the Yucai School founded by Mr. Tao Xingzhi in Chongqing. Wu Zuoren, Guan Shanyue and Other famous painters often volunteered to teach. The school also taught popular popular philosophy. These subtle influences made him Allegorical sculpture is fascinated. While reading the sculpture class at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Liu Zhengde spent many time in the museum of the Forbidden City, and he was fascinated by small crafts.

Although he created the "Magic Flute" and so on, he was praised as having Rodin's style, but he was not satisfied with copying the West. After several years of creation, his first allegorical sculpture "Mr. Dong Guo" was born. style. The teacher's enemies encouraged him. “Some people couldn’t find a stylish way in a lifetime and you found it.” “But if it is not serialized, society will not recognize your style.” These words made Liu Chengde insist on Take the folk and ethnic road beliefs.

The famous allegorical sculpture park In 1985, according to the needs of city construction, Wuhan set up a theme park called “Fablery Sculpture” in the East Lake Scenic Area. Liu Zhengde was stationed at the construction site for more than one year and personally directed stone carving masters to enlarge his 8 sculpture works including “Blind Touching Elephant” and “Ye Gong Hao Long”. Experts commented that "these works are well-designed, comically exaggerated, dramatic and humorous," and "the masses are united in a variety of combinations, and they are entirely beautiful in the ancient expanse of vigor." The sculptors from Shanghai and other places also made special trips to visit and study. The Parables Park has appeared in other places. But what makes him most happy is that many of the four-and-five-year-old children come to play here and they can tell what the fable is when they see the sculpture.

In recent years, the "heat" of Liu Chengde's allegory sculpture has not diminished, and he was invited to exhibit on the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street in Shanghai for two months. Liu Chengde gave a piece of work to a daughter who taught at a university in the United States. She was purchased by a friend of hers for $10,000. The auctioneer said that she was “too cheap” and said that there was no problem selling it to 100,000 US dollars. In this regard, Liu Zhengde only smiled.

"The Return of the Yellow Crane" once suffered the criticism of the bronze sculpture "The Return of the Yellow Crane" in front of the Yellow Crane Tower and was viewed by countless tourists. It is about 5 meters high and weighs 3.8 tons. The pedestal is a lover of snakes and snakes. There is a pair of yellow cranes on the turtle's back, a bowing head and a look-ahead. This is the work of Liu Zhengde and the second author Li Zhengwen.

Liu Chengde introduced the historical cloud behind him. In 1985, they spent a year in the work shed to create this work. When they were basically completed, they suddenly received a notice that they would not be placed in the Yellow Crane Tower. It was originally claimed that the snake snake design is a vulgar thing. Liu Zhengde was very angry. He explained in writing that according to ancient legends, Kameyama and Snake Mountain on the banks of the Yangtze River in Wuhan were the jade emperor's appointed turtle serpent II who will help the king of the Xiaru River and get the name for human welfare. Mao Zedong's poems also have " Turtle snakes lock the river. On behalf of the auspicious and happy bird, Huang Hefei, will return to Turtle and Snake II. How could it be **? According to arguments, this ignorant remarks have finally subsided. After the work was completed, it was well received by all parties.

“Ocean River Closure” is another 30-year dream of Liu Zhengde’s innovative work, “Gezhou Dam Monument Design and River Closure.” In 1982, the Gezhouba Engineering Bureau found the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts to collect monument designs. Initially, Liu Zhengde submitted the allegorical sculpture of “Dragonfall”, but was rejected together with numerous proposals.

Liu Zhengde pondered that the Gezhouba Water Control Project is very modern, very concise, and very atmospheric. Sculpture must adapt to the environment and must be broken before the creation of the style. At those times, Liu Chengde could not sleep at night and wondered about it all day. Liu Chengde once went to Gezhouba several times to pile up the "tetrahedron" used for river closure on both banks of the Yangtze River. A car with a weight of 50 tons can only be installed in a car with a car's height. In his eyes, these "tetrahedrons" are just like warriors who are ready to fight at all times and are impressed with him. "Altogether using a tetrahedron directly" can immediately remind people of earth-shattering battles.

After the project was completed, it caused boiling in the Gezhouba Dam. There were also amateurs accusing him of fooling people with children's building blocks. But more experts praised this. The Tony Jones, the sculptor of the American School of Chicago once called it "Chinese Sculpture." A milestone towards modernity." However, for various reasons, the design can only flow on paper. After Liu Chengde appealed to many people, in memory of the 30th anniversary of the operation of the Gezhouba Dam, the leader of the Gezhouba Power Plant worked hard to start construction of the “Ode River Closure” monument in Yichang this year. A seven-story tall sculpture stands tall on the top of the dam. .