Go to an exhibition with Ms.Hadley's class

We went to an exhibition of sculpture in Nanjing University on December 2nd, 2008 . Some of the artworks were traditional and some were contemporary.

Most artworks are very beautiful. My favourite artwork is “Confucius”. It was made in 2006 by Wu Weishan. The artist has used geometric solid to represent the body of Confucius. The whole artwork is brown and made of bronze. Roughly looking at the sculpture, I found Confucius standing and smiling. Through careful observation, it was not hard to notice that Confucius is crossing his two hands. It is one way to show manners when two persons meet in ancient times. In addition, it is interesting to discover that Confucius is smiling pleasantly and naturally so that his eyes are almost like straight lines. In the artwork, the artist also sculpted the finely chiseled features ,ancient clothes and hat. In general, this sculpture reflects that Confucius is tall and has big eyes, nose and mouth. He wears ancient traditional costumes.

The artwork "Confucius" dose not only show the appearance of this great thinker and philosopher , but also shows characteristics of him. Confucius's smiling face shows his own attitude of life. I remember that Confucius was the first person to make education available to everyone, so that it was no longer the privilege of the noble or wealthy people. This fact reflects the Confucius pursued fairness in his life. Taking this fact into consideration, the happy face of Confucius represents his peaceful, serene, impartial and equitable attitude. Next, taking a look at the body of Confucius, the artist made his body look very stable and motionless. In my point of view, artist wants to show the integrity and rectitude of Confucius. As you know, Confucius' thoughts and philosophies have a great influence on Asian people’s daily life. His first thought is the combination of politics and morality. The second thought was to reach a peaceful world by establishing a society filled with manners. The third thought concerns humanity. Look through these thoughts, all of them are related to nobility of mind---probity.

I like this artwork very much. I found the more carefully you look at this artwork, the more feelings you will gain. When I saw this artwork at first time, I just felt a little confused, because the body of Confucius is sculpted very roughly and harshly. I couldn't see the exact position of Confucius’ arms and the shape of his ancient traditional costumes. Furthermore, the hands and feet were sculpted very roughly as well. But when I looked at the face of Confucius，it was very easy to notice his happiness by his smiling eyes and opening mouth. This little expression made me a little more interested. I was beginning to observe the deep feeling that artist tries to tell us. I looked back at the body of Confucius. The shape of it is geometric solid. This special shape represents integrity. This quality matches Confucius’ identify. Another reason why I like this artwork is the meaning of the big body of Confucius. I think artist sculpted the big size of body is trying to tell us that Confucius’ thoughts, nobler instincts and his higher nature have far-reaching influence.

I think some people who do not know Confucius very well might not appreciate this artwork. The artist sculpted Confucius according to his understanding of Confucius’ thoughts, characteristics, and influence. If someone do not know Confucius very well, it will be hard for them to understand deeply about what the artist tries to tell us.

Visiting an exhibition is a good way to learn art. I will visit more exhibitions in the future.