In the 1980s and early 1990s at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, there was an old man who always wore a pair of light blue trousers and a dark grey Zhongshan suit and rode a tricycle around the campus in the morning and evening in a hurry, with his crutches lying across the tricycle. He worked in a small pottery kiln at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and every day, with a slight limp, he made various small sculptures that reflect the life of the common people in that small, crowded kiln of about 20 square meters, and he could always be seen busy there whether it was cold or hot. He himself and his works were not valued under the circumstances at that time, but the creative passion surging in his heart always supported him to keep on going. This is Liu Shiming.

He was one of the first students personally recruited by Xu Beihong after the establishment of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and one of three students in the Sculpture Department. “Measuring the Land”, a work Liu created during his college days, was the first sculpture sent abroad to attend an exhibition since the establishment of People’s Republic of China and it was collected by the National Museum of Czechoslovak (now the Czech National Museum). In 1952, Liu Shiming participated as an assistant in the creation of the sculpture of the Monument to the People’s Heroes. His work in 1959, “Splitting the Mountains to Let the Water Flow” (also known as Moving Mountains and Making the Sea) representing China in the Art Exhibition of Socialist Countries held by the Soviet Union appeared in the pages of various newspapers and periodicals, becoming a household name. From 1961 to the present, he disappeared from the young people’s view. In fact, he has never left us, he has been creating, insisting on participating in National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, China since the 1980s, and in 1998 a solo exhibition of his work was held at the Corridor Gallery of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. His life experiences, his artistic spirit, his sculptures that stray away from the mainstream and carry forward the traditional style of the nation, slowly leap back into view, becoming clearer and clearer, inspiring us to think about the direction of the development of modern Chinese sculpture. This is also Liu Shiming.

Born to a family of a clerk in Tianjin, Liu Shiming’s father was an excellent railway mechanical engineer who had returned from studying abroad in the United States, and his mother, who had a primary school education and was kind-hearted, raised seven children over her lifetime, four boys and three girls. He was the second child who had polio and a lame leg. He was impatient, quick-spoken, unsociable, and even in the arms of his nanny sprang up a friendly and caring feeling for common people from his heart. In his childhood, he revealed his love for folk and classical cultures. He loved comic books, Buddhist music, and folk statues in temples, to a state of obsession. He was a regular visitor to the small bookstalls, a collector of the Buddha of Joy, all these factors had bred the birth of a distinctive national sculptor.

He can be described as an extremely artistic man, as shown by his appearance, behaviour, state of life and artworks. His cheeks are particularly long and narrow, as if they were a third narrower than those of normal people, and he believes in all kinds of ghosts and superstitions, usually quick-spoken, but whenever he talks about the strange powers, ghosts or spirits, he becomes eloquent. He has a pair of shining eyes, which are said to be the result of “meditating” and practising “night eyes” every night. It is said that once he startled the night house patrol (the Kuomintang had this position), because he was dressed all in black and sitting still, and all that could be seen in the dark was a pair of big glowing eyes.

His realm of life can be described in two words, “weird” and “demented”.

Regarding “weird”, in the time of the National Art School in Beiping (the predecessor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts), people nicknamed him Er Gui (the Second Ghost). This ghost might have something to do with ghostly talent, ghostly behaviour and the belief in ghosts and gods. His hobbies were strange, young students at that time loved to listen to Mozart, Beethoven, while he was unique in his love for opera, not the prevalent Peking Opera, but local operas, Hebei Bangzi, Shanxi Bangzi, Henan Zhuizi, etc. and he was madly in love with them. His paraphernalia was also odd. The pencil case he used was coffin-shaped and filled with various items, and his clothes were also weird, black coat, black trousers with the leg-bottoms tied. All this shows he is a man of distinction.

When it comes to “demented”, he was an art nerd, and the roof of the pottery kiln he used at the Central Academy of Fine Arts was covered with iron sheets, with no heating in winter, surprisingly cold when he wasn’t firing the kiln, and surprisingly hot in summer. As it was a bungalow, there were fleas inside the house, which often made his body red and itchy all over, and every day when he sat down at noon to doze off, small mice occasionally crawled onto his legs. Under such harsh conditions, he braved the odds and devoted himself to the art to produce a large number of works. Now there are over 200 pieces preserved in his home, and countless others that have been given away, destroyed or lost in a muddle. 

His mature style of art was created under very difficult conditions, and the last 15 years in the Central Academy of Fine Arts were his creative peak. In 1961, he resigned resolutely at CAFA, went to work in Henan and Hebei for 13 years, and then worked in National Museum of Chinese History (now the National Museum of China) for 7 years. After going through the vicissitudes, he returned to his hometown in 1980 and began to continuously explore art, but the past 15 years have not been sunny days. He was only a part-time teacher, his art was not recognized by everyone, and the part-time pay was only paid for almost 2 years. In the remaining 13 years, the Central Academy of Fine Arts had no classes for him to teach. The burden of supporting the family, the inconvenience of movement owing to his health and the indifferent eyes and gossip from his colleagues were always with him, but he had accumulated 20 years of source materials and 20 years of creative passion in his heart. At that time, he had nothing else to ask for. He said: “I only want to have a place that can fire things. Although the voltage is very low, I can manage to fire. It doesn’t matter if I get no pay, anyway, I can bring food from home to eat. The winter is very cold, and the summer is very hot, but I never think of that.” Riding a tricycle every day, holding crutches, leaving early and returning late, exploring alone, he created a large number of works, which formed his unique style.

He is such an eccentric, such an idiot, such a man who makes art for the sake of life, such a person who is indifferent to fame and fortune, such a person who has strong beliefs and unique opinions about art. Anyone who understands his state of existence and his pure desire for art will be moved by it. When we look at his boat series, cave dwelling series, farmhouse yard series, loess plateau style series and urban sight series, we can deeply understand this point. His works do not have the ugly paranoia brought about by his physical discomfort, with nothing crazy or weird or unreasonable, but are full of human warmth. He observes life vividly and minutely, the characters he has created are optimistic and uninhibited, passionate and tasteful. The “Ansai Waist Drummer” is of rousing and fevered beatings. Behind the shocking sound of the suona, the sadness and sorrow of the performer’s heart is hidden. The sense of beauty, sound, touch and reality are integrated into one unity. Carefully appreciate it and you will find the music is passionate and powerful. He has peace of mind, not showing the slightest hint of resentment or dissatisfaction with society, but full of affection and loving everything around him and appreciating everything.

We cannot help but admire his spirit of being a man of art. Finally, may the tree of his art be evergreen.