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"I was once asked how I could feed five chickens with only a handful of rice, and I asked, 'Which one can I discard?'"

-- Xiong Bingming

Xiong Bingming, a Chinese native who died in France in 2002, was such a versatile artist that it is impossible to put his talent into a single category. He was a poet, philosopher, sculptor, painter, calligrapher and art professor, gaining international renown in all of these areas. His outstanding contribution to sculpture, in particular, has made him a legend in art circles throughout the world.

Xiong received a degree in philosophy from United Southwest University in Kunming in 1944. In 1947 he was offered a state scholarship to go to France to work on his Ph.D. at the prestigious University of Paris. The following year, he left the program and transferred to the National Advanced College of Fine Arts to study sculpture in the Saubique Class. Soon after he moved again to Guimond Class, Academy Juhen.

When New China was founded in 1949, Xiong didn't immediately return to the motherland like so many of his friends. "At that time, I had studied at Zadkine, Academie de la Grande Chaumiere for only a few months. I had studied abstract sculpture for merely one year and hadn't finished my program. Even if I had goneback to China, I couldn't have contributed to the motherland. That's why I chose to stay while my friends, like Wu Guanzhong (a renowned painter), made a resolute decision to go," Xiong recalled 50 years later. Looking back over his life, it seems that his decision to stay in France gave him the opportunity to become a world-class artist. 

In explaining why he gave up philosophy to learn sculpture, Xiong said: "It was painter Guimond who changed my destiny and the fathomless charm of sculptor Auguste Rodin that set me on the path to pursue the art of sculpture."