Wang Shuwen
Mastery, Signature Works & Repertoire
Male, of Han ethnicity, born in 1943, a native of Beijing. He is a national representative bearer of Ivory Carving, a first-batch national intangible cultural heritage project, and a Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts. In 1959 Wang Shuwen entered an arts and crafts school to study carving. Upon graduation he was assigned to the ivory-carving workshop of the Beijing Arts and Crafts Factory, where he studied under the renowned veteran ivory carvers Yang Shizhong and Yang Shihui; he is a third-generation inheritor of the Yang school of Beijing ivory carving. He combined traditional arts and crafts with Western aesthetic tastes and carving techniques, and he had a thorough command of the properties of diverse materials: ivory, jade, gems and jewels, gold and silver, designing and producing works in which multiple crafts and materials are ingeniously layered. The refinement of his workmanship is astonishing. In 1974 he led the design and production of Wanli Shanhe Zhan Hongtu (A Grand Panorama of Ten Thousand Li of Mountains and Rivers), a large-scale ivory carving rarely seen in history; it was highly praised by state leaders and is permanently displayed in the hall of the United Nations. Wang Shuwen has taught a great many apprentices, but the great majority no longer practice the craft, and the Yang school of art faces a shortage of successors.
References & Archival Sources
Representative Items of This Bearer
- Xiangya Carving Ⅶ-27
- Xiangya Carving Ⅶ-27
- Xiangya Carving Ⅶ-27
Profile
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