Portrait of Chen Yi in The Bund's Chen Yi Square (taken on August 25, 2021)
The Bund Chen Yi Square, one of Shanghai's classic red landmarks, has been waiting for the city for 28 years. August 26 marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Marshal Chen Yi, the first mayor of Shanghai and proletarian revolutionary in New China. Recently, the reporter interviewed Mr. Zhang Yonghao, the creator of the Bund Chen Yi statue, the creator of China's first Marx, the creator of the Engels Memorial Statue and the famous sculptor, and asked him to tell the stories behind the sculpture.
<h2>The bronze statue of Chen Yi shows the tall and kind image of the old mayor</h2>
Mr. Zhang Yonghao, in good spirits, holds an iPad and talks with reporters, and can quickly send and receive emails through the iPad. For many details from decades ago, he still has a clear memory and accurate words, and he really can't see that this is an old artist who has been 89 years old.
Mr. Zhang Yonghao, who is spiritually bright
Before the interview, the reporter always had a question in his mind, that is, as the creator of Chen Yi's portrait, that is, did Zhang Yonghao meet Chen Yi himself? The mystery was answered in the interview. At the beginning of 1950, Zhang Yonghao studied in the Sculpture Department of the East China Branch of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and he did not expect that on the edge of this beautiful West Lake, he actually met Chen Yi.
At that time, the location of the Academy of Fine Arts was here in today's West Lake Gushan Mountain Scenic Area, and the environment was very good, so Mr. Cai Yuanpei put the West Lake National Art Academy (the predecessor of the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts) on the edge of the West Lake in Hangzhou. At that time, after class, we often discussed and studied in a small group of three or five people in Gushan, and one day, seven or eight people from the Old People's Liberation Army walked by, and one of them had a very loud voice, saying, "I heard that there is a first spring in the world here, I will come to see if this is the case." I fixed my eyes on it, and it was Actually Mr. Chen who came. On that day, Mr. Chen was wearing a yellow-green military uniform and had a thin figure.
In May 1949, Chen Yi and Su Yu led the Third Field Army to liberate Shanghai after a bloody battle. Although Chen Yi served in Shanghai for a long time (in 1954 he was vice premier of the State Council and concurrently foreign minister from February 1958), during his tenure in Shanghai, he solved the inflation crisis, revived Shanghai's economy, and protected the Shanghai literary and artistic circles, and the shanghainese citizens loved the old mayor. Zhang Yonghao said with great affection: "At that time, Mr. Chen had a very high prestige in the eyes of the Shanghai citizens, and not only the broad masses of citizens and national capitalists, but especially the vast number of intellectuals in our literary and art circles all held a feeling of great reverence for him. ”
Around 1990, many veteran cadres (mainly veterans who participated in the liberation of Shanghai) and citizens called for the construction of a statue of Chen Yi in Shanghai. After discussion, led by the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, the "Chen Yi Statue Preparatory Committee" was established, led by Vice Mayor Ni Tianzeng at the time, and after discussion at the Mayor's Meeting, it was decided that chen Yi statue was located on the Bund of Nanjing Road, because the Bund was the most central area in Shanghai at that time, and it was also the most representative area.
Chen Yi's works are subject to a targeted call for papers. At that time, the Sculpture Department of the Shanghai University of Fine Arts, the Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Institute and the Garden Sculpture Creation Room under the Municipal Garden and Forestry Bureau collected works, and each unit selected and sent 2 works for the competition. Then, the Preparatory Committee selected 2 of the 6 selected and sent to the mayors' meeting for discussion and approval, and after a round of revision, finally selected the Chen Yi portrait plan created by Zhang Yonghao. The reporter consulted the newspaper in 1992, when both Wen Wei Po and Xinmin Evening News reported on Zhang Yonghao's creation of Chen Yi's portrait (see picture).
On December 8, 1992, Xinmin Evening News reported on the creation of Chen Yi's portrait (data map of this newspaper)
So, what adjustments did Chen Yixiang go through at that time?
The first is that Chen Yi's choice of wearing clothing changed from military uniform to Zhongshan uniform. Zhang Yonghao said: "I also initially envisioned the image I saw from afar when I saw Mr. Chen from afar — thin, wearing the uniform of the People's Liberation Army in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, but this is not easy to express in the language of sculpture." I also imagined Mayor Chen Yi wearing a military hat and made a draft, but it didn't feel appropriate. Later, after repeated discussions, everyone felt that the image of Teacher Chen was more appropriate to use Zhongshan suit. ”
The second is the height of the work. The total height (including the base) of Chen Yi's portrait we see today is 9 meters (the main height of the statue is 5.5 meters, the base is 3.5 meters), but the total height of the sculpture works planned at that time was 8 meters (the main height of the statue is 5 meters, and the base is 3 meters). Why is the height adjusted? Zhang Yonghao told reporters that since the Bund began a new round of transformation at that time, from the consideration of the centennial plan, the height of the flood control wall on the Bund increased to 3 meters. So with this in mind, the main part of the statue of Chen Yi and the height of the base of the statue increased by 0.5 meters each, and finally became the tall statue of Chen Yi that we see today. "Therefore, in the process of creating sculptures, we must also change according to the changes in the environment."
Then there is the question of the orientation of the work. According to the original plan, the statue of Chen Yi should sit facing north and south, directly facing Nanjing Road to the west, but in this way, the statue will be backlit every morning. So Chen Yi finally made a direction adjustment, moving the position of the sculpture slightly north and looking slightly to Pudong from the side, rather than facing Nanjing Road completely.
Portrait of Chen Yi looking slightly to Pudong (taken on August 25, 2021)
Chen Yi is like the location on the Bund
Zhang Yonghao explained:
Nanjing Road north-south to east-west, zhongshan shandong all the way north-south direction, we adjust the angle of Chen Yi statue, Chen Yi statue from the front of Nanjing Road to the lateral after, so that from morning to afternoon the sun goes down, the statue is always in the sun, basically no backlight. Because there is a saying in urban outdoor sculpture, there is no sculpture without light, especially as urban sculpture, lighting is very important, it is not like indoor sculpture, no, you can light it. The Bund is the starting point of Shanghai's modern city and a witness to the development and opening up of Pudong. In the early 1990s, Pudong had already implemented a development plan, when the Oriental Pearl was also in full swing, Chen Yi looked at Pudong, and a new Shanghai was about to be revealed in the vision of Mayor Chen Yi.
In order to reproduce the tall and cordial image of Comrade Chen Yi in the minds of the general public, Zhang Yonghao successively drew more than 10 sketches and made 4 small clay sculptures.
In 1992, Zhang Yonghao and his assistants made large mud samples in the shed of the compound of the Zhabei Railway Workers' Cultural Palace
On September 29, 1993, "Culture Daily", "Jiefang Daily", and "People's Daily (Overseas Edition)" all published a report under the title of "Unveiling the Statue of Chen Yi on the Bund", and the statue was unveiled by Wu Bangguo, then secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee. The statue stands in a grove of flowers and trees, sitting north and facing south, cast in bronze... The statue is designed by Professor Zhang Yonghao, head of the Sculpture Department of the Academy of Fine Arts of Shanghai University.
On September 29, 1993, Liberation Daily reported the completion of Chen Yi's portrait (data map of this newspaper)
According to reports, many comrades who attended the unveiling ceremony on the same day had also worked with Comrade Chen Yi. Chen Yi's portrait later won the "Urban Sculpture Construction for the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China" Achievement Award.
<h2>The monument to Marne shows the style of the teacher of the proletarian revolution</h2>
The Marx and Engels Memorial Statue in Fuxing Park (hereinafter referred to as the "Marne Memorial Statue") is the first large-scale granite Sculpture of Marx and Engels in China, and is also a representative work of Zhang Yonghao. In August 1982, Jiang Chunfang, an adviser to the Central Compilation Bureau, and three comrades, including sculptors Liu Kaiqu and Liu Xun, proposed to the relevant central departments to build the Man Memorial Statue in Beijing and Shanghai, and finally Shanghai quickly determined the site selection plan.
Zhang Yonghao told reporters
The final selection of the statue in Fuxing Park is based on two reasons: first, the red landmarks near Fuxing Park are concentrated, adjacent to the site of the First Congress of the Communist Party of China, Yuyangli, Zhou Mansion, Sun Yat-sen's former residence, etc., which can be described as the earliest red spread of revolutionary truth; second, Marx and Engels, the two revolutionary teachers are Europeans, and Fuxing Park is a typical European style, and the overall environment is more consistent with the spiritual temperament of Marx and Engels.
The Man Memorial Statue is made of the famous sculptor Mr. Liu Kaiqu as the artistic consultant, Liu Kaiqu is the head of the relief creation team of the Tiananmen Monument to the People's Heroes, known as the pioneer of the new Chinese urban sculpture, it is said that Zhang Yonghao also studied under Liu Kaiqu and regarded him as a lifelong teacher. Liu Kaiqu suggested at the time that the Statue of Mann was located on a large lawn. This large lawn is about 6600 square meters, the proportion of the spatial environment, garden style and monument scale is relatively harmonious, both open and concentrated, and the original fountain flower bed and pattern layout in the south form a relationship between the main and auxiliary axes, coordination and unity, making people feel that the Marne memorial statue and the park are integrated.
In order to design the monument to Man, Zhang Yonghao changed his manuscript three times. His "Design No. 6" stood out among the forty-nine conscripted designs and was selected as the best solution for the Shanghai Mane Memorial. The original plan for the Mahne memorial statue was to use the "Victory" (victory) as the theme of the memorial statue, but after reading the biographies of the two revolutionary mentors, Zhang Yonghao felt that Marx and Engels should be the image of fighting side by side for the cause of communism, and was touched by their family life, feeling that in artistic creation they should not be shaped into the ideal "superman", but the harmony between comrades-in-arms and the solemnity of the revolutionary mentor.
Sketch of the first draft of the Mahne Memorial Statue (information map of this newspaper)
Zhang Yonghao, who is working on "The Statue of Man"
At that time, I squeezed two manuscripts in one breath, one was a separate portrait, and the other was a three-dimensional composition of one sitting and one station, and the results were not ideal. The former does not conform to the habit of appreciation, while the latter overemphasizes the primary and secondary relationships between the two teachers. Marx and Engels were both great revolutionary teachers, and this must be shown very appropriately. So I started a new idea, trying to make the two characters appear to be both primary and secondary, but also complementary to each other. In the process of creation, he received the care and help of the municipal leaders and Mr. Liu Kaiqu, and gave specific opinions on the handling of some details. In the end, Marx contemplated, stroking the stone with one hand; Engels's slightly open coat, solemn and elegant.
In that year, the Shanghai Oil Sculpture Creation Studio specially invited eleven stone carving workers from the Beijing Architectural Art Sculpture Factory, which participated in the stone carving project of the Monument to the People's Heroes on Tiananmen Square. In order to grasp the stone carvings, they did not live in a hotel with favorable conditions, but slept in a very simple grass hut next to the memorial statue. In the final stage of the stone carving, eleven of them worked three shifts and worked day and night. It was these eleven workers who completed the stone carving of the Monument to Man with Zhang Yonghao.
Zhang Yonghao and the stone carving workers together at the stone carving production site
The Monument to Mann that we see today, 6.4 meters high and weighing 70 tons, is carved of granite, and the monument faces due south and is the best direction for lighting. The commemorative statue adopts the artistic technique of upper and lower virtual. Zhang Yonghao said that in terms of the overall concept, it is like a monument. The blur of the following section reflects the communist beliefs of the two mentors and the rock-solid friendship between them. At the same time, the partial blurring can direct the eyes of the admirers to the appearance of the two teachers, and achieve the harmonious unity of the solemnity and intimacy of the entire memorial statue.
Monument to Man in Renaissance Park
The ManNe Memorial is a landmark piece in Shanghai's urban sculpture. Since 1985, the Mahne Monument has become a new landmark in Shanghai. At that time, some foreign dignitaries would pay special flowers when they visited Shanghai. In 1987, the Monument to Marne won the "First National Urban Sculpture Outstanding Work Award".
<h2>Urban sculpture is the symbol of the city
</h2>
Speaking of sculpture, in Zhang Yonghao's view, Shanghai is the birthplace of modern sculpture in China, where there are first-class art institutions, Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Institute, Shanghai University Academy of Fine Arts, which have cultivated a large number of sculpture talents and given birth to many first-class sculpture works.
When asked how he got along with the sculpture, Zhang Yonghao told reporters:
In fact, the family has not learned to paint, but he has loved painting since he was a child, and his father saw that he was very spirited in painting, so he gave a copy of "Mustard Garden Painting Notation" to let himself study.
In 1948, he transferred to an art research institute in Hangzhou to study Western painting, and in the second year he was admitted to the Hangzhou National Art College. In 1950, the Hangzhou National Art College was renamed the East China Branch of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and in this year, by chance, it chose sculpture as the direction of his lifelong struggle. In the top of the class, he was once recognized by everyone as choosing Western painting as the general direction of the future, but he did not expect that when he was divided, he saw that no one signed the sculpture department, and resolutely signed the sculpture column and set it for life. After graduation, he entered the newly established Shanghai Sculpture Studio (now Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Institute) in Shanghai, where he was one of the members of the three core leadership teams.
In 1983, Zhang Yonghao was appointed as a member of the delegation of Chinese sculptors to go to the Soviet Union for an inspection, and after returning to China, he went to all parts of the country to hold an inspection report, which caused a strong response in the Chinese sculpture community and effectively promoted the development of urban sculpture at that time. In 1985, Zhang Yonghao transferred to the Academy of Fine Arts of Shanghai University and was responsible for organizing the Department of Sculpture, serving as the first head of the Department of Sculpture. In 1992, he enjoyed the special allowance for outstanding contributions of the State Council.
Looking back on these decades, the reporter roughly combed through some of Zhang Yonghao's representative works and found that from the end of the Cultural Revolution to the early days of reform and opening up was the peak period of Zhang Yonghao's creation. In 1978, he created "Wedding on the Execution Ground" (FRP), in 1979 he created "JiaoLin Morning Song" (wood), "Yingchun" (Han Baiyu), in 1980 he created "Longhua Martyrs On The Place of Remembrance" (FRP), in 1985 he created "Marx and Engels Memorial Statue" (granite), in 1988 he created "Chen Congzhou" (cast bronze), in 1993 he created "Mayor Chen Yi Memorial Statue" (cast bronze).
Zhang Yonghao said that the peak of his creation was after the end of the Cultural Revolution, and he threw himself into his creation with great enthusiasm. The reporter entered Zhang Yonghao's showroom, and among the sculptures in the room, except for one old farmer (see picture) from 1959, the rest were created in the decades after the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Zhang Yonghao's early works: "Old Farmer" (cast bronze)
In 1995, Zhang Yonghao was at the production site of the "Tian Han Memorial Statue"
Sculptures in Zhang Yonghao's personal showroom
In 2020, Zhang Yonghao's sculpture "Song of Pairs" was placed in the Sculpture Park of Famous Chinese Artists on the shore of Dishui Lake. Zhang Yonghao said: "The best time to watch this work is at the moment when the sun sets, when the teenager returns from school, leisurely plays a cheerful music, sings with the lamb, and in the poetic and picturesque socialist new countryside, there is a new atmosphere of happy and idyllic life. ”
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"Song of Pairs" (stainless steel)
In Zhang Yonghao's view, sculpture has three elements: theme, artistic expression and material. As for how different sculptural works use different raw materials, the sculptor explains:
The Manne memorial image uses granite because granite is more expressive;
Chen Yi statue can use cast copper for texture effect, cast copper is suitable for heroic figures;
Song Qingling is like using marble, because the material of marble is particularly suitable for female characters and can express the femininity of women;
"Song" uses stainless steel, because stainless steel is more general and ornamental.
Zhang Yonghao told reporters that as a sculpture creator, he is most concerned about the recent situation of these representative sculptures he participated in designing. After the portrait of Chen Yi is completed, he will also take a look at it from time to time, including looking at the environment around the work. Zhang Yonghao explained: "Foreign countries attach great importance to the maintenance of urban sculpture, urban sculpture is the face of a city, and it needs to be shown in the best image. ”
Today's portrait of Chen Yi on the Bund (taken on August 25, 2021)
Since 1993, the statue of Chen Yi has been cleaning and color repair from time to time, but because of the long time, after experiencing sun and rain, the surface of the bronze cast statue has partially faded and appeared mottled. Beginning in April 2011, on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of Chen Yi's birth, Chen Yi's statue was overhauled, and Zhang Yonghao, who was nearly 80 years old at the time, was also invited to repair the girder, polishing and sandblasting the surface of the sculpture, and re-reinforcing and welding the interior of the sculpture. After the Bund was remodeled, a granite stele (see above) was added to the statue of Chen Yi, which engraved the life of Comrade Chen Yi and why the project was established here, and the Chinese and English methods were used to compare.
"I will always pay attention to these sculptures, because urban sculpture is the symbol of the city." Zhang Yonghao said so
Source: Thoughtful