More than 2000 years ago, artisans of the earliest
Chinese dynasties raised the art of metal
sculpture to its highest point.
The unique sense of vigor and fullness of bronzes
of Shong (triumphantly imitated in many instances
by the ensuing Cho, Ch'in and Han dynasties)
became ideals that future generations, not only of
sculptors, but also of potters, hoped but never
quite succeeded to emulate.
In the style that many modern abstractionist would
have loved to possess, ancient Chinese masters
made tortoises, dragons, horses, goats, flowers
and human faces and bound the surfaces of wine
jugs, basins, ceremonial urns with these contorted
beings:
Pure forms that the universal heart never fails to
respond to and yet, to those who have learned to
recognize it, also robustly proclaim Chinese
spirit.
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