For over 40 years, Ma Desheng has painted, produced drawings and sculptures of his studies of the mineral forms. For the artist, the stones are endowed with a soul. To try to define it simply, the soul (from the Latin anima meaning “to breath/breathing”) is a vital and spiritual, immanent or transcendent element to life that animates every human live.
In addition to the religious, philosophical, psychological or popular conceptions of the soul, Ma Desheng reveals his artistic vision.
Presented for the first time anywhere in the world, a selection of Ma Desheng’s monumental sculptures in bronze and his acrylic felt drawings are to be exhibited. This selection of works feature depersonalized figures that transcend the human condition and weave the links between the palpable elements (the earth), on which a human body stands, grows and the immaterial elements (the sky) with which man rises and begins to dream. For Ma Desheng, the stone is the catalyst element of all being with energy and the energy is the foundation of the eternity.
This physical and sensitive relationship between the stone and human-being, carries a hope of eternal life: Harmony. From this, we can sense the Taoist philosophy on which all the basis of Ma Desheng’s thought and inspirational influence is based. In Taoism, humans are not at the center of the universe but one element among others. The human has no right to prevail over nature and it is taught that he must respect and live in harmony with nature. Therefore, Ma Desheng’s expression is guided by the “vital breath” - the famous qi.
