｜Artist Hsiung Ping-Ming (1922-2002)

Hsiung Ping-Ming was born in Nanjing, China in 1922. His ancestors hailed from Mile County, Yunnan Province. He graduated from the Department of Philosophy and Psychological Education, National Southwestern Associated University in 1946, and enrolled at the University of Paris as a state-financed student of philosophy in 1947. He visited Marcel Gimond’s studio in 1948, and ergo decided to be a sculpture major instead of a philosophy one. He taught at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations from 1962 and retired in 1989. In 1999, he was invited to stage “A Touring Exhibition of Hsiung Ping-Ming’s Art—An Odyssey Abroad and Return” in Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming, Taipei, and Kaohsiung. In 2002, he suffered from a sudden cerebral hemorrhage and passed away in Paris at the age of 80.

Hsiung Ping-Ming was an erudite artist who devoted his energy to poetry, calligraphy, watercolor, printmaking and papercutting. He also published several monographs, including About Rodin: Selections from My Diary and The Theoretical System of Chinese Calligraphy. Nonetheless, his achievement in art manifests itself mainly in his sculptures.

Hsiung Ping-Ming’s sculptures can be roughly categorized into two series in terms of form. The first is the “Soldering Series” in the 1950s featuring minimalism and abstraction. The second is the “Bronze Sculpture Series” after he resumed artistic creation since 1960, which is sensitively realistic in style and brimful of kneading traces.

Residing in France for more than five decades, Hsiung Ping-Ming once talked about the development and practice of Chinese culture in the Occident. He stated:

Hsiung Ping-Ming was an erudite scholar and artist. He reflected on his own cultural genealogy when residing in the Occident and responded to the arts he cognized with his unique and inclusive insights. His art is not only oriental but also occidental. Art critic Shao Da-Zhen argued:

Hsiung Ping-Ming studied sculpture in Janniot’ atelier from 1950, and completed three large-scale human statues within three years. The first piece, titled [The Monument to the Student Victims on 1 December], was created in remembrance of the student movement in Kunming, China, followed by the other two pieces titled [The Fleeing Mother] and [Father and Son].

At that time, Hsiung was uncertain about his artistic approach. “The three statues are bound to be politically incorrect in China, while they exhibit conspicuous descriptive realism from the occidental perspective, which renders them anachronistic.” On top of that, the financial burden after getting married further urged him to find a new way out for his artistic creation.

In 1953, Hsiung Ping-Ming completed [Crane], the first piece of his “Soldering Series.” He presented his work [Howling Wolf] at the Salon for Young Sculptors in Paris in the following year, and garnered hordes of accolades at the Salon de Mai for his work [Raven] in 1955.

Hsiung’s “Soldering Series” consists mainly of iron plates, iron sticks, and wire mash, because bronze was much more expensive than scrap iron in the post-war era. Even though his financial situation improved later, he remained using iron as his creative medium. “We are young sculptors who survived the war, which is why we have special attachment to welding fires and scrap iron,” he explained.

“Soldering Series” brilliantly depicts the modalities of life with simple, abstract contours, seeking to preserve the spiritual quintessence of the subjects when detaching them from their physical forms.

Wu Guan-Zhong described Hsiung’s “Soldering Series” as follows:

｜Raven (partial) ｜Hsiung Ping-Ming, Raven, 1959, 54x37x51cm, Iron

Hsiung’s work [Raven](1959) ingeniously captures the mien of a raven lowering its head with simply a couple of iron plates. The gaps among these iron plates not only leave the viewer’s line of sight partly unobstructed, but also demarcate the raven’s body and wings. This work even resembles an abstract sculpture from certain angles. However, pure abstraction was probably not Hsiung’s artistic orientation. He titled this work “raven,” implying that it bears the traces of natural life.

The pieces in Hsiung Ping-Ming’s “Bronze Sculpture Series” were cast in plaster molds, and those on the subject of “buffalo” are the best known pieces.

｜Buffalo (partial)  ｜Hsiung Ping-Ming, Buffalo, 1965, 29x44x18.5cm, Bronze

Hsiung not only linked buffalo to his memories of his hometown (Kunming), but also treated it as the spiritual emblem of his nation. The buffalo struggling to stand up in a muddy paddy field is reminiscent of the Chinese people who suffered a lot in modern time but still demonstrated their sheer courage and perseverance in face of trials and tribulations.

Of all his works on the subject of “buffalo,” [Kneeling Buffalo] (1969) is the most special in terms of form. Hsiung captured the posture of an overloaded buffalo falling to its knees of its forelimbs and struggling to stand up with its back arching and head turning up. Besides, the buffalo’s rugged physique bristles with uneven texture created by pounding and chiseling. The perseverant quality of tormented life manifests itself in these salient handmade traces.

｜Kneeling Buffalo (partial)  ｜Hsiung Ping-Ming, Kneeling Buffalo, 1969, 33x69x26cm, Bronze

Apart from “buffalo,” Hsiung also created sculptures of horse and camel. His work [Thin Camel] (1959), for example, features a bony double-hump camel.

At first glance, we may notice its front hump covered with several vertical, deep notches, as if they were majestic fjords. Its hindlimbs seem to be charred, with remnants of muscle attaching to the straight bones. Suffering notwithstanding, this camel walks alone with steely determination, confronting hardships of all stripes in its life.

Lu Bing-An, ed., In memory of Hsiung Ping Ming (Shanghai: Wenhui Press, 2005).