About MPU

Professor Wu Weishan, an eminent sculptor, is President of the China Academy of Sculpture, Director of the Institute of Fine Arts of the Chinese National Academy of Arts, Director of the Academy of Fine Arts of Nanjing University, a PhD student advisor in the areas of Fine Arts, Design and Religious Studies, Honorary Fellow of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Honorary Doctor of Philosophy of Korea Inje University, amongst other obligations.

Professor Wu is dedicated to promoting Chinese culture via the art of sculpture. He is a pioneer and advocate of a new style of “freehand sculpture”, a technique which seeks to integrate the concept of traditional Chinese philosophy with aesthetics, blazing a new trail of expressive sculpture in China. He has published 18 monographs and albums as well as over 40 papers, including The Psychology of Visual Arts, Thus Saint the Sculpture, The Poetry of Sculpture, and Wu Weishan’s Sculptures. He is also the principal researcher of the project entitled “A Study of the Evolution of Chinese Style of Sculpture in Ancient Times” funded by the Chinese National Social Science Foundation.

Professor Wu has engaged in the creation of sculptures for more than 20 years, producing more than 500 pieces on themes including historical and cultural notables as well as ordinary people. Among his sculptures, the “Sleeping Child” was presented the Pangolin Award of the Society of Portrait Sculptors in the UK while the sculpture of Lao Tsu and the sculptures he created as a memorial to the victims in the Nanjing Massacre during the Japanese invasion attracted the New China City Sculpture Construction Achievement Award. His exhibitions have been held in countries including China, the Netherlands, the US, Canada, the UK, Portugal, South Korea and Japan. His works have spread throughout more than 20 countries, with the Wu Weishan Sculpture Park built in South Korea, for instance, and two different sculptures of Confucius displayed in Fitzwilliam Museum in the UK and in front of the National Museum of China at Tiananmen Square in Beijing respectively.