Han Dong, Between Brancusi and Origins: Abstraction Returns to Chinese Sculpture

In the work of Han Dong, distant teachings resonate: the drive toward formal essence associated with Constantin Brancusi and the organic sensitivity of Henry Moore intertwine with a deep engagement with the most ancient roots of Chinese sculpture. It is from this dual horizon - both modern and archaic - that Han’s practice takes shape, now brought together in an exhibition conceived as a multi-chapter journey, offering a broad synthesis of the evolution of his language and aesthetic vision. Among the most compelling abstract sculptors of China’s younger generation, Han Dong positions himself firmly against the realist tradition that has long dominated sculpture as a tool for political representation and symbolic power. The sense of estrangement that permeates his works is therefore not a rejection of abstraction, but the result of a cultural gap - between a visual sensibility shaped by realism and a sculptural form that resists direct narration. The exhibition brings to the fore a lineage often pushed to the margins, one that reaches back to Neolithic cultures and ritual jade carvings, where abstraction functioned as a vehicle for spirituality and symbolic thought. Han Dong reworks this legacy through a contemporary practice that moves beyond representation toward an archaic and contemplative dimension. His silicon bronze sculptures, refined to achieve dense yet luminous surfaces, balance weight and delicacy, matter and light. The result is a vision of sculpture as an inner resonance, restoring to abstraction a historical depth and poetic force that are rare in today’s artistic landscape.