PASSAGES: Sculpture by Liu Shiming celebrates the art of noted sculptor, Liu Shiming (1926-2010), in a retrospective of works covering six decades of artistic inquiry. Godwin-Ternbach Museum (GTM) at Queens College (CUNY), is proud to present the first exhibition in the borough of this work. In a career running from 1950 - 2008, PASSAGES brings to light one of China’s first generation of truly modern sculptors, schooled in both ancient and traditional Chinese art and restoration techniques, and at the same time, influenced by Western artists such as Auguste Rodin and Henri Matisse. Liu’s work successfully married these disparate worlds. The exhibition will run from July 6 to August 18, 2022.
Exhibition View
“Passages” in the title refers to the artist’s life and art, inextricably linked throughout his oeuvre. In the exhibition, sixty-two sculptural works in bronze, ceramic and wood, along with twelve drawings demonstrating the artist’s visual practice, will be shown in the museum’s intimate spaces. Humanity in all its unidealized nature is fodder for his modest, but masterful sculptures demonstrating daily life in China’s cities and towns. For example, portrayals of boatmen living on the rivers of China concerned him from a period of over fifty years from 1950 to 2004. The theme of relationships of families, parents, and children also fascinated Liu Shiming during his entire life. In other works, unsentimental self-portraits coexist with representations of sinuous female models, their forms reduced to simplified shapes reminiscent of Matisse’s reductive sculptural practice.
Left: Louise Weinberg, Co-Director; Director of Exhibitions/Collections and Curator｜Right: Maria Cristina Pio, Co-Director; Director of Education and Administration
Frank H. Wu, President of Queens College
Stephanie Hyacinth, Associate Vice President, External Relations，Macaulay Honors College
Angela Goh (The First Liu Shiming Scholar from CUNY)
Right: Liu Wei, the Son of Liu Shiming｜Left: Andy Serwer, Editor-in-Chief of Yahoo! Finance
Liu Shiming was one of the first 20th century Chinese sculptors to emerge from the generation trained in traditional and folk techniques after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. His particular contribution though, merged this history with modernist Western ideas about the human form, into a completely new genre. This unique perspective brings a freshness and a lively dialogue to what sculpture can be.
Exhibition View
This presentation of PASSAGES: Sculpture by Liu Shiming at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum would not be possible without the generosity of Mr. Liu Wei and the Liu Shiming Art Foundation. This exhibition represents GTM’s first collaboration with Macaulay Honors College (CUNY), TheBlanc Art Space, and Liu Shiming Sculpture Museum at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing.
Maria Cristina Pio, Co-Director; Director of Education and Administration
Louise Weinberg, Co-Director; Director of Exhibitions/Collections and Curator
