Bull market

National Art Museum celebrates strength and modesty of the ox with range of works spanning decades, Lin Qi reports.

French sculptor Jean Cardot was, in more ways than one, a monumental artist. Two months after he died, the 90-year-old artist's work, Bull Under the Sun, was unveiled in December in Beijing, as part of a long-term display in the National Art Museum's sculpture park.

Cardot is noted for creating three seminal statues which grace the streets of Paris: Thomas Jefferson (on the Left Bank of the Seine), Winston Churchill (on the Right Bank) and Charles de Gaulle (on the Champs-Elysees).

He donated 11 works including the bull sculpture to the National Art Museum in 2019.

Bull Under the Sun reflects Cardot's belief in the truth and power of traditions.

It was created in 1968. Didier Bernheim, a member of the French Academy of Fine Arts, says Cardot was inspired by Spanish bullfighting to make a series of bull sculptures.