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Pan He

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Pan He
潘鹤
Born1925
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Died (aged 95)
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Alma materSouth China People's Academy of Literature and Arts
Notable workZhuhai Fisher Girl
StyleRealism

Pan He (Chinese: 潘鹤; pinyin: Pān Hè, 1925 – November 22, 2020) was a sculptor from Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

Early life

Pan He was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, in 1925. In his teenage years, during the Japanese occupation, Pan spent much of his time indoors, extensively reading newspapers and literature. Drawing from the illustrations in these works, he took up sculpture and calligraphy, producing busts of Beethoven, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, and Byron. For three weeks in 1942, he studied under Huang Shaoqiang of the Lingnan School; he later identified Huang as having his greatest artistic influence.[1]

As a youth, Pan developed romantic feelings for his cousin, A-Mei, who lived with her family in Hong Kong.[2] During World War II, Pan travelled to Macau, then occupied by the Empire of Japan, in 1944 to visit her;[1] she and her family had relocated during the occupation.[2] Her parents disapproved of their relationship,[1] and after Pan returned to Foshan to visit his parents he lost contact with them.[2] He reunited with A-Mei in 1993 during a visit to Canada.[1]

In 1950, after the end of World War II, Pan enrolled at the Fine Arts department of the South China People's Academy of Literature and Arts.[3] He gained national attention in the 1950s with his Hard Times (艰苦岁月),[1] which was soon featured in textbooks for primary school students.[3] Other works that date from the 1950s and 1960s include When I Grow Up (当我长大的时候),[1] After School (课余), and The Guangdong–Hong Kong Strike (省港大罢工).[3]

By 1960, Pan had begun teaching at the Department of Sculpture, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.[3] He was one of the sculptors approached by Henry Fok in 1978 when the latter was developing a hot spring hotel in Zhongshan. Later that year, Pan and other faculty members of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts used lime water to etch animal shapes from stones in Xianglu Bay [zh] near what is now Zhuhai.[2]

Zhuhai Fisher Girl and later career

In 1979, the Government of China was preparing to establish the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone. Wu Jianmin [zh], who would become the secretary of the municipal Chinese Communist Party committee, put out calls for a monumental statue that would serve as an icon of the new Zhuhai city. Pan was among the sculptors brought to the area to inspect its possibilities. Ultimately, Pan developed a design – based on a local legend – of a fisherwoman holding a pearl aloft. Installation of this statue, Zhuhai Fisher Girl, was completed in 1982. The 8.7-metre (29 ft) has since become an icon of the city.[1] The previous year, he had installed Pioneering Ox (开荒牛) in Shenzhen. Though controversial at the time,[1] the work won Pan a gold medal at the Sixth National Art Exhibition.[3]

Over subsequent years, Pan installed several further works around Zhuhai. In 1984, he completed a monument to Yang Pao'an, an early leader with the Communist Party. This was followed in the 1990s by Wild Geese Landing on Pingsha (雁落平沙), a monument to farmers who had arrived in Pingtang Village beginning in 1955. Following the handover of Macau in 1999, Pan installed the 9.9-metre (32 ft) Reunion (重逢) on Qi'ao Island. This work not only symbolized the return of Macau to China, but also Pan's reunion with his cousin.[1]

During the 2000s, Pan received several national and provincial accolades. In 2005, his Zhuhai Fisher Girl was featured on a stamp issued by China Post to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Zhuhai's founding.[4] He received the China Art Award – Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009, and the first Lifetime Achievement Award in Literature and Art from Guangdong Province in 2010. In 2011, Pan was among the first academics appointed to the China National Academy of Painting.[1]

Pan completed a sculpture of Huang Shaoqiang in 2013 and inscribed it with the teachings of his mentor.[1] In 2015, Pan installed Mother River (母亲河) in the Doumen district of Zhuhai. Intended as a companion piece to his earlier Zhuhai Fisher Girl, the sculpture depicts the fisherwoman after settling the region. Still adorned with a fishing net, she watches over her son as he learns to swim.[1] This work was completed with his son Pan Fen (潘奋), with whom the elder Pan frequently collaborated.[2]

By 2020, Pan was suffering from cerebral atrophy and restricted to a wheelchair.[2] He died in Guangzhou on November 22, 2020, aged 95. During his lifetime he completed more than one hundred large sculptures, installed in sixty-eight cities in China and abroad.[1] As of 2020, many of Pan's works are displayed at the Pan He Sculpture Art Park in Guangzhou's Haizhu District.[2]

Style and assessment

Pan held that sculpture's place was outdoors and that "socialism is the best soil for urban sculpture".[a][3] He worked with a range of materials, including bronze and granite,[1] and strove to present a realist style.[3]

In its obituary of Pan, the China Artists Association described his works as reflecting a wealth of artistic, historical, social, and humanistic values. It highlighted Hard Times, which was deemed to have "the perfect combination of revolutionary realism and romanticism".[b][3] He was included in the Soviet Academy of Sciences' History of World Art, as well as several histories of Chinese art.[3]

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Original: 社会主义是城市雕塑的最佳土壤.
  2. ^ Original: 革命现实主义与浪漫主义的完美结合.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Jiang 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g The Paper, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i China Artists Association, 2020.
  4. ^ 21st Century Business Herald, 2021.

Works cited

  • Jiang, Xinchen (November 26, 2020). "潘鹤：渔女之父的珠海情缘" [Pan He: The Father of the Fisherwoman and His Love for Zhuhai]. Southcn.com (in Chinese). China South Publishing & MediaGroup. Archived from the original on September 1, 2024. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  • "著名雕塑家、教育家潘鹤逝世" [Famous Sculptor and Educator Pan He has Passed Away] (in Chinese). China Artists Association. 2020. Archived from the original on September 2, 2024. Retrieved September 2, 2024.
  • "珠海渔女是这样来的！她的"生父"原来是..." [This is How the Zhuhai Fisher Girl Came to Be! Her "Biological Father" Turned Out to Be...]. The Paper. July 30, 2020. Archived from the original on September 1, 2024. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  • "画中有话——《珠海渔女》" [Words in Art: Zuhai Fisher Girl]. 21st Century Business Herald (in Chinese). Southern Finance Media Group. April 11, 2021. Archived from the original on September 1, 2024. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
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