Visitors take a close look at a marble sculpture by Costa Rica-born artist Jimenez Deredia.

Artists in charge

Fu Jun, a deputy director at Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Institute and art critic, said there is no fundamental change in the aesthetics of the city's public art partly because artists have to yield to the opinions of authorities commissioning the works.

It's common for sculptors to get requests to revise their creations, and the final work may not be even close to their original idea.

"Such sculptures lack personality, and the artists may even feel ashamed to leave their names on their works," Fu said. It has become a matter of bread and butter rather than artistic expression.

The critic also said that the concept of an overall plan on the development of city sculptures itself is negotiable.

In the outline released in October 2004, she points out that the municipal government clearly marks the public sites for statues and sculptures, and dictates the categories or themes to focus on. It also lists important projects in the medium term, and spells out the exact number of public art works that must be in place by 2020.

"It is fine to lay out where to have the public art works, but how can you decide how many public sculptures to have in a certain time frame like in 10 to 20 years? It is like developing culture and art as if it is an engineering project," she said.

Wei Tianyu, a member of China Artists Association and the dean of art at the East China Normal University, zeroes in on the lack of signature monuments in the city's important or historical areas in recent years.

"The government is too cautious not to embroil itself in trouble, and it will not erect major sculptures on important dates," he said.

As a result, the last influential piece the city has on its horizon is a sundial-shaped sculpture called Light of the East erected in 2000 to usher in the new millennium next to Century Park on Century Avenue.

There are a lot of small-scale sculptures around Shanghai, partly because larger works in important areas need to undergo more complicated procedures, said Wei, the chief designer commissioned to plan a number of major sculptures in the Expo Park during the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

It's easier to push through projects on a smaller scale.

The different districts in the city often adopt this line of least resistance. Each has an appointed commission who then decides on when a sculpture is needed, figure out where to have it, and commission a panel of experts to complete it.

"There is no recourse to seeking public opinion in the process," Wei said.

The artist also blames the deference to foreign influences in art. "Foreign sculptors are favored and designs by local artists few and far between,"he said, adding that Chinese artists actually have a better understanding of local culture.