USCHINAPRESS’ Reporter Guan Liming reports from New York on March 12.
Translated by: Chirui Cheng, Liu Shiming Art Foundation.
The Liu Shiming Art Gallery, named after the late renowned sculptor Liu Shiming, celebrated its grand opening in Midtown Manhattan on the evening of the 12th. Over a hundred guests from New York's art community attended the event, which also launched a retrospective exhibition of Liu Shiming's works titled "From the Beginning," showcasing 35 lifelike sculptures.
The unveiling ceremony was hosted by famed publisher and former editor-in-chief of “Fortune Magazine” and “Yahoo Finance”, Andy Serwer. Liu Wei, Liu Shiming's son, addressed the guests via video from Beijing. He shared the touching story of how his stepfather Liu Shiming met his mother during difficult times, dedicated his life to caring for his family, and persisted in his artistic creation despite hardships, moving all attendees.
Fran Kaufman, the Curatorial Director, noted that Liu Shiming ingeniously used readily available materials for his creations during his lifetime. His miniature sculptures not only captured intricate details but importantly, they grasped the spirit of the subjects rather than merely their exteriors. Each piece reflected his exquisite skill and passion for art.
Renowned art writer Richard Vine, who is about to release a monograph on Liu Shiming's works, commented at the opening that Liu's uniqueness lies in three aspects: His work transcends gender, race, and other societal issues, inviting viewers into completely different cultural, social, and historical contexts; his work has revitalized figurative art, infusing it with new vitality and offering a fresh perspective on realism; Vine remarked that Liu's works encourage viewers to look beyond the artist himself and embrace a broader artistic horizon.
The Liu Shiming Art Gallery's exhibition is open from now until this summer. The gallery is located at 15 East 40th Street, 5th Floor, in New York, NY.
Liu Shiming's works have been exhibited internationally, including tours in New York and Washington, D.C., in 2019, and a public exhibition at the Oculus, World Trade Center in New York during the 2020 Spring Festival. These exhibitions, launched by the Liu Shiming Art Foundation, have received widespread acclaim.
Born in Tianjin in 1926, Liu's father was a railway engineer who studied in Detroit, USA, in the late 1920s. Despite his engineering background, Liu was fascinated by art from a young age and was admitted to the National Beiping Art School, now known as the Central Academy of Fine Arts, in 1946. He graduated from the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1951 as part of the first generation of sculpture postgraduates trained in New China. Under the guidance of renowned teachers such as Wang Linyi, Hua Tianyou, and Zeng Zhushao, he received a solid Western art education. In 1950, his student work “Measuring Land” became the first sculpture sent abroad for exhibition after the founding of New China and was collected by the National Museum of Czechoslovakia at the time. In 1953, he participated in the creation of the bas-reliefs for the “Monument to the People's Heroes” in Tiananmen Square. In 1955, he joined the China Sculpture Factory (later renamed the Sculpture Creation Research Institute of the Central Academy of Fine Arts), contributing to numerous public sculptures based on ordinary workers. Moreover, the Liu Shiming Art Foundation has established art scholarships in dozens of countries worldwide to encourage young people to pursue art.
Fran Kaufman, the Curatorial Director of the Liu Shiming Art Gallery, delivers a speech at the gallery's unveiling ceremony (Photographed by Guan Liming)
Guests view Liu Shiming’s sculpture (Photographed by Guan Liming)
This article is reprinted from https://www.uschinapress.com/static/content/HS/2024-0313/1217463455772217344.html.
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