The cultural and ideological factors “anthropocentrism”, “personal centralism”, “progressive theory” and “new” worship are the four main characteristics of modernist culture, profoundly affecting modernist art, and modern metal sculpture is no exception. This section will divide the four characteristics of modernist culture into two aspects to discuss its impact on modern metal sculpture.
From anthropocentrism to individual anthropocentrism, anthropocentrism and individual centralism are two prominent features of modernist culture, but their origins and core are identical. They are all derived from the 16th century Western Renaissance. “Theism”, anthropocentrism is the macroscopic existence of man as a whole, and individual centralism is the microscopic existence of “humanism.”
Anthropocentrism consists of two meanings: one refers to the central position of human beings in the universe: the second refers to the legitimacy of human beings to conquer nature and rule nature. Before the Enlightenment, anthropocentrism referred to the former interpretation, whether it was the “same form of God and man” in ancient Greece and Rome, or the appearance of God who was divine after the separation of the gods of the Middle Ages. Man is a kind of “divineness” that is dominated by all things.
After the Enlightenment, the significance of anthropocentrism was more focused on the latter explanation, that is, the legitimacy of human conquest of nature. If the anthropocentrism before the Enlightenment is still embodied in the form of “God”, then the anthropocentrism after the Enlightenment is embodied in the face of the human being, and the human being is the master of all things. Personal centralism was in a vague state in the early history of Western society. After the Renaissance, it gradually awakened. The concept of “natural human rights”, “freedom” and “equality” in the Enlightenment made personal centralism gradually established. After the middle of the century, it reached its peak and regarded each individual as the center of the world and even the universe.
Anthropocentrism is explained from the macro definition of human beings. It is a macroscopic whole. It marks the conquest and occupation of human beings in the external world. Personal anthropocentrism is explained from the perspective of each individual. It is microscopic. , individual, it marks the human venting and release of the inner world of the modern metal sculpture is produced in this human conquest of the outer world and the expression of the inner world.
On the one hand, the metal material itself is not naturally formed, but human beings have been explored in the constant conquest of the external world, especially the modern metal materials such as steel and its processing methods, and it is the powerful force of people exploring the external world. Symbol. On the other hand, modern metal sculpture itself is a powerful tool for modern humans to vent their self and release their hearts. Different metal materials have different textures and feels in terms of texture color, feel, etc., which makes the metal material itself have a full personality, and some unique characteristics of metal sometimes match the mood of modern people. It is a powerful tool to show people’s inner world.