Contemporary Artist: Hung Liu

April 1, 2005

Hung Liu was born in China in 1948. She and her family fled the city of Communist territory in search for food during the Mao Regime. She went back to Beijing and earned her BFA, then immigrated to the US. She received her MFA at UCLA San Diego in 1986.

While in high school, Hung Liu was forced to be "re-educated" during the "Cultural Revolution." She was also ordered to paint "Tractor Art," which was pure realism glorifying the Mao Regime. During this time, she discovered and fell in love with old photographs, fading portraits of Emperors, their wives and concubines. The faces of these portraits and photographs were sad and without hope. They reminded her of present day Chinese women doing hard labor. These photographs are the basis for her paintings, some dating as far back as 2,000 years, (Tamarind Institute) to help viewers experience and feel her personal history, and the history of Chinese women's experiences, both past and present. (Revolutionary Daughter)

Her works of installations, paintings, and prints are combined with photolithographs. These works consist of limited color palettes, and are also overlaid with washes and drips. She uses traditional Chinese symbols of birds, butterflies, fish, dragonflies, etc. to "co-mingle" with applied printed images. She relates past and present, real and symbolic, in her work. (Revolutionary Daughter) This contemporary artist juxtaposes images from ancient and modern times to form "history paintings in which the subjects from one era witness and comment upon those of another, keeping the idea of history open and fluid." (Tamarind Institute) Personal issues of being a woman, a Chinese immigrant, and an artist are reflected as well. Hung Liu's work shows her personal experiences and her beliefs and values of Chinese women, and even today, Hung Liu is still looking for the "mythic pose beneath the human figure."

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"Hung Liu Biography." 2004. 1 May 2005. .

"Hung Liu ‘Revolutionary Daughter.' September 12 - November 29, 2003." Michael Berger Gallery. 2003. 1 May 2005. .

"Hung Liu." Tamarind Institute. 10 May 2004. 1 May 2005. .