Salt of the earth

"I experiment with the clay while I conceive. Only when I keep working with pottery can I become excited and have a great idea emerge in my mind," he said.

After Liu died in 2010 at age 84, his family donated dozens of his works to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, the institution from which Liu graduated and where he once taught. Based on this donation, the school opened a gallery named after Liu with an exhibition showing more than 90 of his sculptures, photos, manuscripts, drafts and personal belongings on its Xiaoying campus in northern Beijing.

The ongoing exhibition will run until Jan 19, 2020. It will reopen on Feb 24 and continue until May 5, 2020.

The exhibition is dedicated to the critical period in Liu's career when he began to find his own sculptural language-the years between 1961 and the mid-1970s when he lived and worked in Henan and Hebei provinces, and frequently traveled to Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces.

He was extensively exposed to the diverse and rich customs in these regions, particularly the areas along the Yellow River. He was inspired to use clay to portray the dynamics of nature and life on the Loess Plateau, which he would continue for years, even after he was transferred back to Beijing in the late 1970s.