Generally speaking, Liu Shiming’s journey in sculptural art has gone through two major stages. One is the Mao Zedong era upon the founding of New China, and the other is the new era upon the reform and opening up. I believe both stages demonstrate the characteristics of Liu Shiming as a contemporary and creative sculptor, and also a shift in his journey from the centre to the edge.
In the Mao Zedong era, Liu’s works including Measure the Land and Splitting the Mountains to Let the Water Flow were closely related to the ideological requirements of the Chinese Communist Party then. Meanwhile, these two works vividly expressed the theme of the times and the personal life experience of the artist. Measuring the Land was created in 1950. At that time, as a student of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Liu took part in the land reform organised by the Academy. He witnessed the joy of the farmers to whom the land was allocated in the land reform that followed the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Subsequently, Liu created this sculpture to reproduce the scene when farmers were measuring the land upon allocation. The other piece, Splitting the Mountains to Let the Water Flow created in 1958, reflected the Chinese people’s bold imagination of transforming of nature during the Great Leap Forward era when people were enthusiastic about the ideals towards socialism. In terms of techniques, the former sculpture adopted a realistic approach and an approachable artistic perspective, whereas the latter was daring and unique as the artist, influenced by the art wave of the time, applied the revolutionary romanticism promoted by Mao Zedong for literature and art.
As a new stage developed, Liu’s art reached a pinnacle. The works produced in this period put Liu’s name firmly in the history of Chinese contemporary sculpture, for the unique technique and approach. Allowing me to elaborate the following aspects:
First, since the 1980s, Liu freed himself from the mainstream techniques in contemporary Chinese sculpture and shifted his attention to traditional Chinese sculpture. He drew on the essence of pottery sculpture since Qin and Han dynasties to represent the daily life of ordinary people, thus breathing fresh air into the field of Chinese sculpture and pioneering a new path. As we all know, since the 20th century, Chinese sculptural art has evolved along the direction of learning and studying Western realistic sculpture. The Western formats based on humanism and scientific concepts have certainly exerted a huge impact on traditional Chinese sculpture, for the latter used to mainly serving religious activities and witchcraft, develop from an intuitive and secular standpoint, and focus on the spirit rather than the accurate and proportional beauty of the human body.
It is fair to say that the impact was an echo from the field of sculptural art in response to the enlightenment that advocated democracy and science since the 20th century. It was in this historical context that through the efforts of several generations of sculptors, Western sculpture formats achieved rapid progress and remarkable results in China. On the other hand, when the realistic sculpture developed in the West from ancient Greece occupied the centre and constituted the mainstream, traditional Chinese sculpture was interrupted and marginalised. Take Rent Collection Courtyard for example, even a classic piece considered to have absorbed copious elements of folk art was in fact created in the Western realistic sculpture language in general. In this sense, Liu’s return and innovation in traditional sculptural art was highly significant.
Secondly, we must see that Liu is not an artist who creates art for the sake of art, who follows tradition for the sake of tradition, or who pursues a certain format for the sake of the format. His choice of the traditional format dating back to Qin and Han dynasties fundamentally served the life experience he aims to express. Of course, the historical context of reform and opening up facilitated Liu’s art creation, specifically in two ways. One was via the ideological emancipation movement as part of the general environment. It allowed artists to explore options of formats and concepts in art. The other was via the discussion on humanity and humanitarianism since 1978, which gave rise to scar art and rural realism that reflected on the Cultural Revolution.
Obviously, Liu’s return to traditional Chinese sculpture and his reflections on it after the 1980s, that is, adopting the pottery format originating from Qin and Han dynasties for artistic creation, these were closely connected to the historical context of the period, especially the trend in art towards rural realism. In other words, when Liu entered the 1980s, both the social and cultural environment provided him with opportunities and conditions to return to his personal life experience and apply it in his artistic exploration.
Thirdly, as mentioned above, I regard Liu as an artist representing rural realism in the field of sculpture in the new era, but as an artist whose life and art creation experience concurred with the history of the People’s Republic of China, Liu has the technique and approach clearly different from those of the younger generation of artists. For example, unlike Chen Danqing, Luo Zhongli, He Duoling, etc., who also represent rural realism, Liu creates art largely from his memories of past life experience, instead of the direct feelings towards the countryside, farmers or Tibetans. As Liu recounted in the article “Personal Narrative”, “I have experienced ups and downs and endured hardships in my life, and I have pursued life. I love the folk cultures on the Loess Plateau and the Yellow River. I love the cave dwellings and the customs in Shanxi and Shaanxi regions. Having been drawn to them, I eventually spent a decade on the Central Plains experiencing the real love, laughter and curses in the lives of the working people, and expressing their feelings and love without any reservation.” “These living men and women are deeply imprinted in my memory, and they are also the resilient roots of my desire to create.” In my opinion, it was based on such a rich life experience and deep love for the countryside and farmers that Liu found the best way in art to express those feelings. This is also a reason why I hold that Liu is not an artist who creates art for the sake of art, or who follows tradition for the sake of tradition.
Furthermore, although pottery sculpture as a traditional form of art had served witchcraft for a long time, when lit by the light of Western industrial civilisation, it automatically acquired a cultural identity pertaining to agricultural civilisation. As a result, in my opinion, Liu’s choice of the traditional form of pottery over the westernised realistic sculpture to reproduce the daily life of farmers living on the land of China and his deep feelings for the countryside and farmers was undoubtedly the most appropriate, regarding both format and content, and also the most significant regarding art and culture.
Frankly speaking, it is not easy for those of us who have been deeply influenced by Western culture and art to truly appreciate the significance of Liu Shiming’s sculptural art or to comprehend his critical position in the history of art since the start of the 20th century. But I believe that as history advances, people will increasingly understand the importance of Liu’s sculptural art. In this aspect, his art not only belongs to the past, but also belongs to the future to a greater extent when the history of effect is considered.
In the Mao Zedong era, Liu’s works including Measure the Land and Splitting the Mountains to Let the Water Flow were closely related to the ideological requirements of the Chinese Communist Party then. Meanwhile, these two works vividly expressed the theme of the times and the personal life experience of the artist. Measuring the Land was created in 1950. At that time, as a student of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Liu took part in the land reform organised by the Academy. He witnessed the joy of the farmers to whom the land was allocated in the land reform that followed the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Subsequently, Liu created this sculpture to reproduce the scene when farmers were measuring the land upon allocation. The other piece, Splitting the Mountains to Let the Water Flow created in 1958, reflected the Chinese people’s bold imagination of transforming of nature during the Great Leap Forward era when people were enthusiastic about the ideals towards socialism. In terms of techniques, the former sculpture adopted a realistic approach and an approachable artistic perspective, whereas the latter was daring and unique as the artist, influenced by the art wave of the time, applied the revolutionary romanticism promoted by Mao Zedong for literature and art.
As a new stage developed, Liu’s art reached a pinnacle. The works produced in this period put Liu’s name firmly in the history of Chinese contemporary sculpture, for the unique technique and approach. Allowing me to elaborate the following aspects:
First, since the 1980s, Liu freed himself from the mainstream techniques in contemporary Chinese sculpture and shifted his attention to traditional Chinese sculpture. He drew on the essence of pottery sculpture since Qin and Han dynasties to represent the daily life of ordinary people, thus breathing fresh air into the field of Chinese sculpture and pioneering a new path. As we all know, since the 20th century, Chinese sculptural art has evolved along the direction of learning and studying Western realistic sculpture. The Western formats based on humanism and scientific concepts have certainly exerted a huge impact on traditional Chinese sculpture, for the latter used to mainly serving religious activities and witchcraft, develop from an intuitive and secular standpoint, and focus on the spirit rather than the accurate and proportional beauty of the human body.
It is fair to say that the impact was an echo from the field of sculptural art in response to the enlightenment that advocated democracy and science since the 20th century. It was in this historical context that through the efforts of several generations of sculptors, Western sculpture formats achieved rapid progress and remarkable results in China. On the other hand, when the realistic sculpture developed in the West from ancient Greece occupied the centre and constituted the mainstream, traditional Chinese sculpture was interrupted and marginalised. Take Rent Collection Courtyard for example, even a classic piece considered to have absorbed copious elements of folk art was in fact created in the Western realistic sculpture language in general. In this sense, Liu’s return and innovation in traditional sculptural art was highly significant.
Secondly, we must see that Liu is not an artist who creates art for the sake of art, who follows tradition for the sake of tradition, or who pursues a certain format for the sake of the format. His choice of the traditional format dating back to Qin and Han dynasties fundamentally served the life experience he aims to express. Of course, the historical context of reform and opening up facilitated Liu’s art creation, specifically in two ways. One was via the ideological emancipation movement as part of the general environment. It allowed artists to explore options of formats and concepts in art. The other was via the discussion on humanity and humanitarianism since 1978, which gave rise to scar art and rural realism that reflected on the Cultural Revolution.
Obviously, Liu’s return to traditional Chinese sculpture and his reflections on it after the 1980s, that is, adopting the pottery format originating from Qin and Han dynasties for artistic creation, these were closely connected to the historical context of the period, especially the trend in art towards rural realism. In other words, when Liu entered the 1980s, both the social and cultural environment provided him with opportunities and conditions to return to his personal life experience and apply it in his artistic exploration.
Thirdly, as mentioned above, I regard Liu as an artist representing rural realism in the field of sculpture in the new era, but as an artist whose life and art creation experience concurred with the history of the People’s Republic of China, Liu has the technique and approach clearly different from those of the younger generation of artists. For example, unlike Chen Danqing, Luo Zhongli, He Duoling, etc., who also represent rural realism, Liu creates art largely from his memories of past life experience, instead of the direct feelings towards the countryside, farmers or Tibetans. As Liu recounted in the article “Personal Narrative”, “I have experienced ups and downs and endured hardships in my life, and I have pursued life. I love the folk cultures on the Loess Plateau and the Yellow River. I love the cave dwellings and the customs in Shanxi and Shaanxi regions. Having been drawn to them, I eventually spent a decade on the Central Plains experiencing the real love, laughter and curses in the lives of the working people, and expressing their feelings and love without any reservation.” “These living men and women are deeply imprinted in my memory, and they are also the resilient roots of my desire to create.” In my opinion, it was based on such a rich life experience and deep love for the countryside and farmers that Liu found the best way in art to express those feelings. This is also a reason why I hold that Liu is not an artist who creates art for the sake of art, or who follows tradition for the sake of tradition.
Furthermore, although pottery sculpture as a traditional form of art had served witchcraft for a long time, when lit by the light of Western industrial civilisation, it automatically acquired a cultural identity pertaining to agricultural civilisation. As a result, in my opinion, Liu’s choice of the traditional form of pottery over the westernised realistic sculpture to reproduce the daily life of farmers living on the land of China and his deep feelings for the countryside and farmers was undoubtedly the most appropriate, regarding both format and content, and also the most significant regarding art and culture.
Frankly speaking, it is not easy for those of us who have been deeply influenced by Western culture and art to truly appreciate the significance of Liu Shiming’s sculptural art or to comprehend his critical position in the history of art since the start of the 20th century. But I believe that as history advances, people will increasingly understand the importance of Liu’s sculptural art. In this aspect, his art not only belongs to the past, but also belongs to the future to a greater extent when the history of effect is considered.
5 December 2006 in Wangjing Garden