Qian Shaowu 

Journalist: Mr. Qian, were you a schoolmate of Mr. Liu at CAFA?

Qian Shaowu: Yes, yes. He was a grade higher than me. There were very few people studying at CAFA at that time. Though we were in different grades, we were as close as classmates and always spent time together.

Journalist: So how do you feel when you see his works today?

Qian Shaowu: The essence of his works is the sincerity, the real emotion, real excitement, real opposition, and real irony presented in his art. He has this sincere sympathy towards the underprivileged. He’s genuine and honest and is never pretentious as some of the other sculptors. The themes and phenomena he has covered have never been touched by other sculptors, but I say these topics are the real treasure of China, full of childishness and playfulness. Chinese art has a splendid past, for example, the brilliance in the Han Dynasty, when all the rules and regulations were abandoned. Mr. Liu is a prolific artist who can make everything that exists in the world. He can record all he sees in life, and if he intends to cover a certain topic, he can create art in a quite interesting way. These qualities make him a real artist. His emotions and feelings come from real excitement and real stories, which made him an artist who truly understands the world and thus made him a very friendly and kind person. He breaks all the rules and restrictions, and these are the good points worth noticing in art. Even a theme as general as a boat on the Yellow River, could still be made into a good artwork by him.

Journalist: What do you think is the unique value that lies in Mr. Liu's works? 

Qian Shaowu: The unique value in his works is the quality of real art, not being fake. He only expresses what he really feels, loves, sympathizes and cares about,  which were things that have derived from his observation. His works move us with his affection and we all feel that they are interesting. Sei, Shonagon in Japan, a saying goes as “that’s very interesting”. I think this is an appropriate comment for all his works. His works are interesting, reflecting his personal taste in art, and he shows thoroughly his love, his sympathy, and his compassion.

Journalist: Mr. Qian, I think you must be very familiar with Mr. Liu’s works from his early years till his later works. What do you think is the fundamental key of his works through his whole life?

Qian Shaowu : Sincerity, I think. There are no conditions or methods that could ever restrict his works. When he makes sculptures, he uses clay to knead all his feelings.

Journalist: Do you prefer his early works or the ones after he came back to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in the 1980s?

Qian Shaowu: I like all his works. Art, like his works, are treasures of mankind, no matter when they are created, who created them, or if they are advanced or backward.  

Journalist: How did you get to know his works before the 1960s?

Qian Shaowu: We participated in the Land Reform together, where he saw hope in the peasants. He hence created the Measuring the Land, which is very good. It was once exhibited in the Czech Republic and was later collected by the National Museum. It is still there. He is a real artist. He was very fond of the Henan Opera artist Ma Jinfeng back then. He liked her so much that he covered his room with his paper-cuttings of her. You see, we lived together in those years. He stuck the cuttings on the walls of my part after he had covered his own. He’s just like that. He does things without thinking about the consequences.

Journalist: Do you think his admiration and friendship with Ms. Ma Jinfeng had affected his art?

Qian Shaowu: Oh yes, greatly.

Journalist: Can you give an example?

Qian Shaowu: His feelings towards her is a kind of spiritual admiration, a kind of pure love. That’s all. The influence of his art is the sincerity. Emotions and feelings are all like this. They are generated from affection and love, without rules and restrictions to limit them. Not many artists could be like this. He’s a real artist, like the French artist Van Gogh, who was dedicated to art wholeheartedly with love.

Journalist: Mr. Qian, what do you think is the unique status of Mr. Liu’s sculpture in contemporary times?

Qian Shaowu: Unique status... Well, there is no other artist like him today. He is unique. This is his unique status. Many artists believe that expressing stupid things is not art. In fact, it’s good art as long as it benefits the people. But during the Great Leap Forward period, all our artists truly believed that this principle could save the Chinese nation, and truly believed that this was the only hope for the nation. Their hearts were filled with pride back then. This is the real art.  

Wu Jing 

Journalist: Are you a friend of Mr. Liu?

Wu Jing: We were classmates.

Journalist: What is your biggest impression of this exhibition?

Wu Jing: I think it is very difficult for him to create such a number of art pieces with a bad health condition. This is respectable. What he chased for is an entirely different path that carried creative ideas inherited from the Chinese tradition. His works all come out of his feelings without any wishes of showing off or pleasing others.

Journalist: What do you think is the unique status of Mr. Liu’s sculpture?

Wu Jing: What I said just now could answer your question. 

Journalist: What impressed you the most when you interact with him?

Wu Jing: Oh, there is so much to talk about. This man is an art piece himself. His experience, thoughts and everything else about him show the quality of an artist. He cares for nothing except his art. Who can do this? He pursued art without a salary, job title, or a house. At the time he was in, it was not so easy to live like this in such a time. Just think about it, who can live like him? How many Chinese people can be like this? It's amazing.

Nowadays, many artists make performances and show off, showing people how great and gentle they are. But all these performances are acting and pretending, far away from the essence of real art. As Zen Buddhism says, real art is regardless of human nature and reflects directly the heart of people. Liu did this. Every piece of his work is moving. Look at this one. This was done very early on. You said that was the front of the stage, but actually, this is the backstage, behind a scene, with a chicken eating something there, very cordial, and very touching. A Western writer once said that a writer should be writing like a woman giving birth to a baby as if it was the time for it to come out and you could not stop it, so that the words he wrote down would be a natural flow instead of making things pretentious. Liu is just like that. If he comes up with an idea, he has to create it, otherwise, he would feel uncomfortable all the time. This is what a real artist is.  

Yuan Yunsheng 

Journalist: When did you start to interact with Mr. Liu Shiming?

Yuan Yunsheng : We started to get friendly with each other in the small pottery kiln shed, which belonged to the Sculpture Department on the old campus of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Back then, the school gave me a small house to live in. In 1989, because of the murals, I went to the United States. After I came back in 1995, I asked him to take classes in the pottery studio. The students were very fond of him.

Generally speaking, works reflect a man, and you could discover what a man really is through his works. Though he lives a rather careless life without noticing much stuff, his art shows all the necessary details, including everything one must notice. This is a quality an artist should have. He was born with this nature and shows it through his art. His acuity, this acuity, is expressed again through the work. He knows what to hold and what to lose. Liu lived at the bottom of society for many years. Look at what he has created. We can’t even imagine how to make them ourselves, but he can do it with a good mastering of unique quality. This is due to his acuteness and sensitivity. What he used are just normal and common methods, but what he created was often profound.

Some artists may be very sophisticated in form, but they often lose the most ordinary things, which are very romantic. I think modern artists lack this kind of spirit. Because art is not like copying, which produces values through the process itself. This ordinary stuff is something that is disappearing from a nation. Many people are obsessed with these things and they instilled the most common feelings and emotions into it to create. But without such emotions, the work would be meaningless if time changed.

I think Liu is a man with self-esteem. I believe it’s sad for a person who has self-esteem without his own culture. But his works are filled with esteem and culture. An artist must be very confident with high self-esteem. If he has these two qualities, then his artistic creativity would be a tree with roots and a river with a source. 

Journalist: Mr. Yuan, you are not in the sculpture circle, so what do you think about Mr. Liu's sculpture status in China and across the world?

Yuan Yunsheng : I don’t want to say much about this status issue. The question of status is another matter. His sculptures can withstand the test of time in both China and abroad. Even the most famous artist in the world dares not to despise Chinese sculpture art. But the current problem we are facing right now is that Chinese artists themselves don't value it, not to mention the Chinese young people. However, we also need diversity. China is a very open country and has a great variety of arts which have been prosperous for thousands of years, but people never treasure them. 

Li Tianxiang 

Journalist: Have you seen the exhibition?

Li Tianxiang: I haven’t started yet, but I saw it before. In 1950, when the student representatives went abroad for the first time, I brought some works from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Among them, there was one created by Liu Shiming , called “Measuring the Land”.

Journalist: Yes, he created it when he graduated. And his work was then exhibited in the Soviet Union.

Li Tianxiang: Not only in the Soviet Union but also in Prague, Czechoslovakia during the Second Student Congress. Liu Shiming and I are very good friends. We often went to school together, and spent time together after school as well, because his legs were in a bad condition back then. He is a very nice person.

Journalist: Yes, yes.

Li Tianxiang: There are many interesting things about him. He’s very good at making sculptures and one of his works was sent to an exhibit on behalf of Chinese students at the Second World Student Congress in Prague, Czechoslovakia. There were two works chosen from the Sculpture Department among the representative works, one of which was created by Liu Xiaocen. She also graduated from the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts like you.

Journalist: She’s also Liu’s classmate, I guess.

Li Tianxiang: Yes, they were classmates. We were all in the same class. Liu Xiaocen’s work was about a militiawoman, and Liu’s was the one called “Measuring the Land” which had received extraordinary praise at the exhibition. This sculpture is a real-life art piece in which he instilled his own experience of Land Reform he gained this experience after the foundation of the People’s Republic of China. A commentator introduced him today as the people’s artist. I think this is a very appropriate title. He knows people well, and he’s a good person himself. The only pity is that he has difficulties with his legs.

Journalist: Is his sculpture so different in style from other sculptors in his class?

Li Tianxiang: Well, let me tell you a secret but please don’t record it. When we were in Czechoslovakia, we thought the paintings and sculptures there were all strange in style. They were anti-traditional, modernism, or post-modernism, whatsoever. And their portraits of leaders displayed on the streets did not resemble them at all. Extremely ugly. They became extraordinarily excited when they saw our exhibition.

Journalist: Not the same? 

Li Tianxiang: It’s very different. They couldn’t understand how we could make such good works. I once made products with the local clay sculptors there, but they could not understand the works went that way at all. It’s terrible.

Journalist: Then what do you think is the biggest difference between Liu’s works and others?

Li Tianxiang: The biggest differences I feel in his works are: first, simplicity. The simplicity he showed in his art is exactly like Miller’s, but Miller is pessimistic, he is optimistic. Second, he has very solid basic skills. When we were training in sketching in school, he could draw different aspects respectively. He had studied the human structure very well. Third, his art is consistent. He had formed his personal style when he was still studying at school, and no one can ever reverse it. Besides, he also studied Chinese ancient poems, which he has learnt very well. His study spirit is particularly strong, and so is his personality. 

Journalist: I see. He’s very hard working. That’s why he creates so many works.

Li Tianxiang: Yeah. There were three students in his class. They were all outstanding. One is called Yu Jinyuan, who passed away very early, and the other was Liu Xiaocen, who has a health condition now. Only three of them, three back then, and Linyi taught them.

Journalist: Yes, yes.

Li Tianxiang: And Zeng Zhushao was their teacher, as well. 

Journalist: At that time, Western sculptures started to gain influence in China. How did they view the Western art back then?

Li Tianxiang: No, the Western works haven't been introduced into China yet at that time. I only had the chance to see the Western sculptures when I went to the Czech Republic.

Journalist: You mean you saw foreign sculptures?

Li Tianxiang: The Czech Republic was influenced a lot by the West, but they also wanted to restore their realist tradition. They used to have a very good realist tradition and painted very well. But later, Western art flourished in their country and confused the artists. 

Journalist: They might be puzzled about what to learn.

Li Tianxiang: They couldn’t tell what is good and what is not. It’s all equally dangerous for us in China. First, Westerners are rich. Second, they have a large market. They don’t care if you like it or not. Those works are very expensive. Most people think that the higher the price is, the better the work is. But in our current society, the expensive things are not necessarily good, right? Some people may fail to figure out the logic behind it for quite a long time, but people from the lower end of society understand it well. This is why there were many people gathered around to see the art piece when we first exhibit it.

Journalist: Foreigners can also appreciate and understand Chinese sculptures.

Li Tianxiang: Actually, anything realistic can be appreciated around the world. Everyone can understand what the works are depicting, because the normal language of art is used and not nonsense. You see I’m Chinese and I don’t know English at all. If a Chinese artist used English deliberately to make his audience unable to understand his art, then the art he created would be separate spiritually from his audience. Both painting and sculpture are visual arts. You need not learn to understand any work of these kinds. Once you see it, you know what it is and understand it. There is another advantage of painting, which is that you have to look at it on the spot. Right? Therefore, even junk works that receive a lot criticisms could still be sold at a good price, as long as there is enough publicity, because rich people do not understand paintings. But this will not happen in the film industry. If a film is bad, people will leave after a few minutes of watching. Thus, as for art, even though Western art has cast a great influence in China nowadays, we need to have our own standard of appreciation. There is one basic requirement for our art, which is serving the people. 

Journalist: Mr. Liu Shiming is just like this.

Li Tianxiang: Yeah, he is. His art belongs to the common people. You must have noticed his small clay sculptures. They are very good, right?

Journalist: Yes. Thank you very much. Take your time to look around.

Li Tianxiang: OK, I will. You are from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, right?

Journalist: Yes.

Li Tianxiang: Which department do you come from?

Journalist: Department of Art History, School of Humanities. 

Li Tianxiang: Yes, it is necessary to engage in humanities and liberal arts. It would be bad to be a human without humanity.

Journalist: (Laugh) Thank you!

Yang Li and Lyu Pinchang 

Journalist: Mr. Lyu and Mr. Yang, let’s have an interview together. Just a relaxed chat, don’t worry.

Yang: This is the Dean of the Sculpture Department!

Journalist: Which piece of work do you like best?

Lyu: Let me think it over, which piece...

Journalist: “Splitting the Mountains to Let the Water Flow”? 

Lyu: No, no, not that one. It’s the one about opera, the one called “Performer Backstage”.

Journalist: Ah, yeah, there is a series about that.

Lyu: That one was created first. The ones created later are very beautiful. The technique, the shape, the expression and posture and the expressions ... all are very interesting. Besides, it was created about a story which originally was...

Journalist: Ms. Ma.

Lyu: Yes. That’s why that work was very well done. I especially like that one.

Journalist: Which one do you, Secretary Yang like?

Yang: It’s hard for me to pick one.

Journalist: Which one do you think is more interesting?

Yang: Some are very vivid. I would say that his works are rather non-academy.

Journalist: The education he received was academic.

Yang: He was indeed educated in an academy, but he learned more from the people in his life, and then he thought about what he observed himself. Look at the works he created, including the ones made in 2006, they all have a strong sense of life. He has abandoned the Western realistic style he had learned in the Academy. Why? It’s due to his life. After graduating, he spent a lot of time among local folk and villagers. He also saw a lot of classical Chinese arts from Qin and Han dynasties in the museums and was deeply influenced by them. These arts moved him, so he felt the necessity of having his own personal style as a Chinese artist. He believed he needed to develop his style by following a path of national customs, so he abandoned the techniques he had mastered previously and adopted a traditional Chinese mode of expression which is rather natural and casual. The way he created is very casual and simple, just like playing. He doesn’t have any rules in his mind. He takes what he is interested in and fond of as materials, and there are no rules or limitations that restrict his creation.

Lyu: He just follows his will, but also expresses his understanding of sculpture. You can find the answer in his works. Seeing his quadrangle courtyard and the little characters, you can find the prototypes from the Han terracotta warriors.

Journalist: He once worked in the Henan Museum.

Lyu: Yes, I’m very familiar with him. I make porcelain myself, and we spent a lot of time working together as he often came to my studio. He does not find travel very convenient due to his health. During the time we were together, my colleagues and I often watched him make sculptures. He’s a very friendly man who often told stories to us about his love and his life. We became very good friends and now I visit him every year during the Spring Festival, and he sends us gifts in return. He’s a very interesting man, very casual and gentle.

Journalist: Okay, thank you both, and please go on with your visit. 

Cao Chunsheng 

Journalist: Hello Mr. Cao, may I take a few minutes of your time for an interview? Have you finished seeing the exhibition?

Cao: Yes. I understand his works. Where are you from?

Journalist: We are students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and also researchers at Liu Shiming Sculpture Research Center.
 
Cao: That’s very good. Mr. Liu is a very special person among us sculptors. He has been appreciating, admiring and pursuing the traditional folk sculptures in China since he was a young man. Of course, he had accepted the formal training in art school, not to mention the good foundation and basic skills he had mastered, but his creations are closer to folk art. I think this tendency originated from his working experience in the museums and at the grassroots level, especially due to his study of Chinese pottery figurines of the Han Dynasty. He made a good study about this stuff, and he persisted in his path. Even if he likes it but does not combine his interest and life with his creation, he can not create such wonderful works. Therefore, he absorbed the nutrition from traditional Chinese art and combined it with a modern and contemporary life to create art. 

He is a very simple person and never seeks fame. He always works silently. After the Reform and Opening Up in the 1980s when we finally had a chance to return to CAFA, there was only a crappy kiln shed there. It was a small workshop that was very badly constructed, and winds blew in from every direction. Despite the poor conditions, he made a lot of things every day. We liked his works very much at that time. He had lived at the grassroots level for many years and had accumulated a great number of materials. His familiarity with common people’s lives enabled him to create works that were real and interesting. Artists nowadays, especially those of the younger generations, do not have enough observation or experience of life. They are often eager to gain success, urging themselves to make more creations. All they want are success and acceptance in society. This is too impatient. I think art depends on accumulation, you have to have a sincere heart to create. The premise of art creation is feelings. You have to have a feeling that generates within yourself after your observation and experience. I think Mr. Liu is very outstanding in this aspect. He has stuck to this principle for decades. 

Some urban sculptors get paid a lot, but he doesn’t chase money. He always focuses on his own creations and gives away valuable things he has as gifts. You can notice that there are many objects he possessed that were broken or damaged, but he doesn't care. He’s also a very diligent man who has created many pieces. He rode a bike to work with a lunch box every day, living a rather simple life. Though he may look poor, I think he is rich inside. I think we should publicise this kind of person. The truth of art is that you should connect your sincere heart with society and reflect on life with your eyes. This is what we lack in our life. We sometimes lost control of ourselves in the hustle and bustle. Even though some of us have our own ideas, we are not allowed to act as we wish. We just have to obey and do what society asks us to do. But he doesn’t. We just can’t be like him. Though we have our own thoughts from time to time, we could not concentrate on them.

Journalist: Every artist wants to concentrate on their creations.

Cao: Although an artist should close their door to avoid disturbance from the outside world, he may also need to experience life and then come back to a quiet environment. Mr. Liu was not affected by the disturbance that others face, for he did not have any disturbance. He was not a group leader nor director of a department. His job was only about teaching students and he asked no more, so he could have more time to create.

Journalist: OK, thank you very much.

Zou Peizhu

Reporter: Hello Mr. Zou! You must be delighted to see this exhibition today!

Mr. Zou: Yes, I am very happy. It is not easy to hold such an exhibition.

Reporter: You and Mr. Liu are old acquaintances in CAFA. Can you share with us some stories from being back in CAFA?

Mr. Zou: I have been working in the Central Academy of Fine Arts since 1946. He just enrolled when I was teaching there.

Reporter: Are you familiar with most of Mr. Liu’s creations?

Mr. Zou: Not really. We were very close when he was in CAFA. At that time, we often talked about art and opera. When we talked about opera, it’s mainly about Ma Jinfeng. His artwork “Splitting the Mountains to Let the Water Flow” was created during the Great Leap Forward Movement in 1958. I was then working in the creating studio as a team leader. At that time, there were only three of us. Zhao Ruiying was in charge of life studies, and I was in charge of the academic business. The third one was Liu Shiming. “Splitting the Mountains to Let the Water Flow” was first produced in colours that I had designed. It took us several days and nights to make one. During the Great Leap Forward, we copied this work in a larger size and put it up in front of the archway in Zhongshan Park, later we copied more. But Liu left CAFA and went to the countryside. Though I saw some of his later sculptures, I found them fresh every time I saw them. His work is full of a sense of life. To me, the vitality of art is life, especially the reflection of today’s life, which makes the work interesting. Look (note: point to “Net and Birds”), we all did such things when we were kids. This is an interesting one. Look at these birds. They like gathering in their nest. Works like this are filled with a sense of life. He is imaginative and knows well how to express it.

I’m glad to see this exhibition. He was one of the first graduate students of Central Academy of Fine Arts. I know it’s not easy to organize such an exhibition, for sculpture itself is not an easy thing. Some sculptures in society now should learn from other countries, to learn their advantages but we should analyze them first before learning. We should consider more the national things when it comes to the spiritual aspect. Form should also be considered. We should think more. We must learn.

All in all, it’s a great pleasure to be here today!

Reporter: Thank you, Mr. Zou, and wish you good health!

Mr. Hou Yimin

Reporter: Mr. Hou, hello! Can you talk about your feelings about Mr. Liu Shiming's works?

Hou Yimin: I saw his first piece in the art school examination we took together. He was sitting next to me, and I saw him picturing a pencil box, but it was actually a coffin (laugh). He’s excellent, after all, he became a teacher at CAFA after he graduated. Later, he gave up his job and went to Henan Province, which was a silly thing for him to do then, but he came back to Beijing after wandering around, duplicating a lot of cultural relics. I am very close to him and know him very well. In my opinion, he is a cultural relic himself. I once made a joke about him saying that he could be a very good artwork himself with a label on him! (laugh)

If I have to say a few words, I would like to say that a lot of sculptors’ works today make me sick, but Liu’s works are lovely. Many sculptors and painters highlight the concept of "emptiness" in their works, but Liu’s works are not empty. Diehards like us always want to draw materials from people to gain their love, but it seems that this idea is outdated now. Is it outdated? Let the works speak for themselves through this exhibition!

Liu Huanzhang

He has always paid a lot of attention to the aspects of life. He used to talk about his idea of creation, and it was very different from others. Some only wanted to create big scale sculptures and do not know what to do when there’s no order from clients. There are still many sculptors living like this. They only fulfil requirements but rarely create on their own. But Liu Shiming frequently creates. Later he went to Henan province. We all advised him to stay, knowing that it would not end well if he went there. But love is powerful. He insisted on going. Life was not satisfying there. After he came back, he told me that during that time when the Cultural Revolution broke out, people were making sculptures of Chairman Mao everywhere. He was involved in local conflicts and was somehow locked away. People forced him to create sculptures of Chairman Mao and bring food and drinks to him every day. But all these sculptures were smashed with none of them left. 

Later, he came back, only to find he had nothing at all. People like him had studios, but he didn’t. He then travelled to Hebei province and Henan province for work but was transferred to Beijing in the end. Many sculptures in this exhibition were created after he came back to Beijing. “Splitting the Mountains to Let the Water Flow” was a piece he made at that time, and the others were made later. These works were all generated from his own feelings and thoughts, and are hence vital.

My works followed the style of aestheticism, for I have learned seal carving and focus much on shape and lines, but his works are casual, and there’s a kind of real, simple and innocent quality hidden in them. You can learn technology and science through hard work, but emotional stuff like creation and inspiration are what people can’t learn. It is hard to learn something that has vitality. You see, some people’s paintings are vulgar, but some are not. This is related to one’s hobbies, self-cultivation, and moral standing. Chinese people often say “what one writes reflects oneself”, which is true in most cases. Though Liu’s works are not huge nor depict any magnificent themes, they are reflections of life, which are more touching and more vital.

We are old friends for so many years, so it is easy to get emotional when talking about him.

Wang Shaojun (Deputy Director of the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts)

I am a junior member, but I got to know Mr. Liu a while back. He was working in the pottery studios in the Central Academy of Fine Arts in the 1980s when I was enrolled. In my words, Mr. Liu is an Arhat in the art circle, an old gentleman with great cultivation. Now I have a deeper understanding of him. His works convey a strong sense of life, which touches me very much.

I have been away from Beijing for a long time, so I didn’t have a chance to see his works during those periods. Now I see a large number of his works one after another, especially today, which is very exciting. After seeing his works today, I have realized that his value is far-reaching in the Chinese sculpture industry. His works have changed our view towards the value of the nation and national cultures. He is a practitioner, a civilian artist and a folk artist.

Fan Di'an 

This exhibition is touching in several ways. First, in terms of academics, we have rediscovered Liu Shiming. In such a media age, it is basically impossible to discover an artist. “Discovery” is a word we often used to describe people in Van Gogh’s time. Liu Shiming is an isolated, rare person forgotten by the times. His works were well known as early as the 1950s. But later, he went far away from the mainstream and disappeared from the art trend. Now, we have suddenly discovered him again, finding his sculpture world is so rich, verdant and broad.

Second, it is the aspect of academic history, where he is of great value to contemporary academic research on sculpture. His path is distinctive. Modern Chinese sculpture is derived from the modern Western sculpture. Liu Shiming was once included in this system as well, but there is another important sculpture resource that has been forgotten, which is the traditional Chinese sculpture. China’s sculpture tradition has two sections. One is the elegant and graceful sculptures supported by the royal family such as those located in Dunhuang, Yungang, and Longmen, while the other is the simple sculptures scattered in the countryside of China. Liu Shiming’s artworks belong to the latter. Coincidentally, his personality and temperament are also closely related to this art form. He has transcended his original education and the dominant sculptural language in the art field, and made new findings himself. Through Liu Shiming’s works, we can see that China also has very dynamic sculptures.

Third, we all live a very urbanized life, but Liu Shiming focuses on rural China, which is very valuable. He depicts the life there and its history forgotten by urbanization. Furthermore, from an aesthetic point of view, his works require the audience to slow down to feel the many touching things that happen in ordinary life and the rural areas. There is no flamboyant personality in his works, you need to slow down to really understand what they express. What I have seen in his art is not the style or personality, but the trivial things he was touched by in life.

Jin Zhilin

We are old classmates, and old friends, and we have similar experiences. It is difficult to write criticism about Liu Shiming’s sculptures. Taking him as the first research object is very good, but you need to study him with a more in-depth study. 

His works are impressive, which is what everybody knows, but how he managed to express these impressions through the language of arts is what we need to study. The art circle hasn’t studied this yet, and there is a large gap in research. There is a very long history gap from the Han Dynasty figurines to the Song Dynasty that people have long forgotten to study. This is a large topic, but Liu Shiming did all this research on his own. His works are the modernized versions of the Han Dynasty figurines by using his own personal language in art. The sculpture will advance other modelling arts. I often say that he is the most avant-garde artist today and even after fifty years. It is not enough just to use words like “romantic charm” and “vividness” to describe his works. Western sculptures and paintings also possess such quality but are different from Chinese ones. What Chinese artworks possess are spiritual interactions that bring with them cultural genes of the Chinese nation. Chinese traditions were completely lost as Western learning spread eastward in the 19th century, especially after the May Fourth Movement. Now, what we have lost from inheriting has been added to by Liu Shiming. However, this is not broadly known across society.

I am an alienated and foreignized Chinese, but he’s not. He has never been abroad or studied abroad. He truly maintained the innocence of human beings and a traditional Chinese folk system. His language is an artistic language derived from China’s artistic genes. If we use it in teaching as new construction, it will make innumerable contributions to the development of the world and the Chinese nation.

Reporter: Then how do we apply it to teaching?

Jin Zhilin: The first thing to do is to research. He told me that Wang Linyi did not teach methods. He discarded the unnecessary stuff completely when creating. The inner structure was not the Western one, but followed the structure of the Han figurines. It’s totally natural, and completely romanticized, exaggerating its spiritual quality and temperament in a Chinese way, instead of a Western way, showing all kinds of details that express even the simplest feelings. As Liu said, even a single toe is full of emotion. But when it comes to less important details like patterns on cloth, they were discarded. What he emphasized is the rhythm of motion, not a sense of anatomy, but something related to expressions and temperament. This is an emotional motion and rhythm, a kind of life pattern. Therefore, each of his works is vitally endless, this rhythm is different, and this artistic conception is different from the West.

His sculptures will influence painting, too. Han figurines include both figurines like storytelling figurines and flat portraits like portrait bricks and portrait stones. This is how figurines acted in essentially promoting paintings. The breakthrough in sculpture will be a great reference for painting.

Liu Shiming is a sincere person. He didn't care about anything but art when he was young, but later he bumped into various life experiences and difficulties. Another one is imitating. You can’t learn without copying, like learning Peking Opera and Chinese paintings, if you don’t imitate previous artworks, you won’t be able to understand the essence of the art. Therefore, Liu Shiming could never be who he is right now without Han figurines and Han portrait stones. Second, Liu could not achieve such works without sincere feelings and accumulation of cultural emotions.

When we learn from Liu Shiming, the emphasis should not be on his techniques or methods. The same is true in teaching. In order to learn and apply what is being learned, one should first understand all the concepts and feelings, and this would not be an easy thing to achieve. Westerners may not be able to recognize or understand Liu’s works. I assume that many can understand the surface and many may explore the form, but rarely can they understand the feelings instilled inside. There are few as sincere as Liu, and still, fewer can have such an understanding of the culture, thus there’s only one Liu Shiming who can make sculptures as he wishes. What he has absorbed is the original cultures of the nation, covering a vast source from painted pottery, Han figurines to Zhang Haier of the Song Dynasty. They have the same vividness! These are completely different from the Western anatomic structure system. After the Western study was introduced into China, people’s emotions were weakened. The vividness of China could be seen after the formation of feudal society, which started in the Han Dynasty as the era of sun-rising and peaked in the Tang Dynasty. Back then, Chinese art was vivid and complete.

Liu Shiming’s works are realistic, but not the Chinese kind of realism. They are romantic realism. There is a lyrical rhythm of life in all his works and it’s very difficult to achieve this. Research around him must be combined with practice. Teachers should only teach knowledge and skill after doing comprehensive research, but now can only advocate for students.

Ma Jinfeng 

I am very happy to participate in this exhibition today. This is also a good opportunity for me to learn. I have known Liu Shiming for fifty years since 1957. He’s obsessed with drama. Although he is a sculptor and I am an opera performer, in two completely different lines, the arts we devoted to are the same, and we both follow the principles of serving the people, from the masses and to the masses. We all refine our arts in life.

Liu spent quite a long time in Henan province. He does not talk much. His work inspires me. I, being eighty-three years old this year, am three years older than him, so he calls me older sister, and I call him a younger brother. He has had a big influence on me. You see, I’m still acting on stage even at this age. Liu does not have a very good health and he often told me how he lived in a bad environment when he was an apprentice, he had to sleep on a wet concrete floor at that time, which made his legs hurt. So, whenever I had any difficulties, I would think of Liu Shiming’s experience and his persistence in creating. I would find myself in a better condition compared to him. He has inspired me a lot throughout his life, and I should learn from him. Liu Shiming not only made sculptures, he also had a great influence on opera. Look at the little clay figurines. When I was singing on the stage, he would watch the play and knead the clay figurines under the stage. Sometimes, he also pointed out to me some of my movements and expressions that should be improved. He has indeed affected me a lot. 

Our country cares a lot about artists, and we are grateful for the concern for us. We are happy that we can live in such an age. Thanks to the sponsor for his publicity, and we wish him good health!

Ms. Sun Yimiao

Journalist: Can you talk about your feelings about the works?

Ms. Sun: His works reflect people's lives well. And unlike abstract art, his works are easy to understand.

His works reflect reality without any exaggeration, and are very real and easy to understand. There are many abstract sculptures nowadays. You often see abstract sculptures in the city that are really incomprehensible. I asked the locals if they understand them, but they couldn’t either. I like this kind of realistic work, and it is easier to be accepted by the public, arousing feelings and emotions among the audience, as well. 

Works that reflect the countryside and the underprivileged of society are also in great need. We should not create works all about the talented young men or beautiful women, but should also cover daily life of rural labor, production processes and different aspects of life. I have just overheard some foreign guests that also like it.