A visitor stops at Gimbaled Klein Basket by American artist Tim Hawkinson at the ongoing exhibition. (China Daily/Jiang Dong) |
Two ongoing exhibitions at the National Art Museum of China look at art history from the perspective of looking back, and looking forward.
One presents nearly 79 sculptures and drawings to show the evolution of Spanish sculpture in the 20th century; the other provides interactive experiences with new media artworks mostly created since 2005.
Conquest of Three Dimensions: From Picasso to Barcelo traces the renewal of Spanish sculpture after it took an aesthetic departure from the first avant-garde movement.
It encompasses many of the main styles and genres of the past 100 years, beginning with the modernist ideas of Antoni Gaudi, up till Miquel Barcelo.
Viewers will need to disassociate from conventional ideas of sculpture - the human body presented in a realistic manner - if they want to understand more about the works on show. The sculptors appear to no longer favor powerful or heavy masses and volumes, but consider space an equally or even more important element of a work.
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