ph. Situ Zhixia

text by Elisa Debernardi, photos courtesy of Situ Zhixia.

On November 24, the “Sculpture of Life”- Mr. Situ Zhaoguang’s memorial service was held in the exhibition hall of the CAFA Art Museum, where until Dicember 12, 2021, will be host the “Light of Inner Beauty” Situ Zhaoguang’s retrospective exhibition.

ph. Situ Zhixia

ph. Situ Zhixia

The memorial service was presided by Zhang Wei, director of the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

ph. Situ Zhixia

ph. Situ Zhixia

Fan Di’an, President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and Chairman of the Chinese Artists Association, said that the leadership of the Department of Sculpture attaches great importance to this exhibition, and the curatorial team led by Mr. Duan Haikang has put a lot of effort into formulating a planning plan.

Dean Fan Di’an recalled the deep impression that Mr. Situ left him. “Mr. Situ’s art” said Fan Di’an “deserves more research. Several generations of teachers and students of the Sculpture Department gathered together, not only remembering Mr. Situ’s outstanding contribution to the development of the new Chinese sculpture industry, but also an opportunity to talk about the inheritance and innovation of the sculpture education and teaching of the Central Academy of Fine Arts.”

ph. Situ Zhixia

ph. Situ Zhixia

Duan Haikang, professor of the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and the executive curator of this exhibition, introduced the curatorial approach, and explained that: “In the exhibition hall, you can see a lot of pictures of Mr. Situ at various stages and photos of life details. The exhibition team also magnified some important small works of Mr. Situ using 3D scanning and three-dimensional engraving.”

He concluded the speech with an hope: “I also hope that everyone can feel Mr. Situ’s Wisdom thoughts, broad personality, outstanding sentiment, quiet aesthetics, and the brilliance and inner vitality of humanity exuded by his works“.

ph. Situ Zhixia

ph. Situ Zhixia

Among the various guests who spoke, also Ms. Zhao Ruiying, an old professor of the Department of Sculpture of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, delivered a speech. Ms. Zhao Ruiying recalled the three years spent together in Tibet and Mr. Situ’s creative work there: “Situ was very fascinated by creation. All day long, there are only two things: creation and sleep“.

ph. Situ Zhixia

Mr. Situ Zhaoguang’s widow, Ms. Jin Tingting, and his son, Mr. Situ Xiaochun, expressed their sincere gratitude to the school and the sculpture department for carefully organizing and planning this exhibition on behalf of their relatives.

ph. Situ Zhixia

At the end of the memorial service, Ms. Jin Tingting shared a lot of details about Mr. Situ’s life and artistic creation that were not well known when he was alive.