HUNG LIU: SANCTUARY
Retrospective View
HUNG LIU: SANCTUARY A Retrospective View
Turner Carroll Gallery
Front Cover: Sanctuary, 2019
725 Canyon Road
oil and gold leaf on canvas, 80 x 72 x 2"
Santa Fe, NM 87501 505.986.9800
Above Image: photo courtesy of Drew Altizer
turnercarrollgallery.com info@turnercarrollgallery.com
Page 96 Image: photo courtesy of Drew Altizer
©2021 Turner Carroll Gallery
Page 2 Image: Travelogue, 2004, oil on canvas, 72 x 72" collection of Tonya Turner Carroll and Michael Carroll
Essay: Tonya Turner Carroll Design: Darcy Spencer and Michael Carroll
Page 3 Image: Pigtails, 2020, oil on canvas, 72 x 72" Back Cover: Valentine’s Day, 2018, oil on canvas, 80 x 80"
Hung Liu: Sanctuary, A Retrospective View “Sanctuary” is a word loaded with meaning. Colloquially accepted as a place of refuge and safety, the word sanctuary originates from the Latin sanctus—a sacred space where one is immune from persecution and is guaranteed protection from harm. Just as Hung found sanctuary in her relationships, in the United States, and in her art, she always provided safe passage for the dispossessed and forgotten in her paintings. It is only fitting that this is the name she chose for her retrospective exhibition at Turner Carroll that occurs in conjunction with her career retrospective at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery. The landmark painting of the Turner Carroll exhibition, Sanctuary, will be featured in the National Portrait Gallery exhibition in Washington, D.C. Born in Changchun, China, in 1948, Hung Liu was forced to seek sanctuary very early in life. Her father, an officer in General Chiang Kai Shek’s Nationalist army, was sent to a labor camp by the newly triumphant Maoist regime when Liu was an infant. To escape governmental retaliation, her mother was forced to divorce Liu’s father, burn his photographs, and flee Changchun for Beijing during Mao’s Great Leap Forward which ran from 1959–1961. On their journey, Liu witnessed famine and desperation. She saw a baby abandoned on the river bank by its mother—a poignant image that remains in her mind today. She knew that the baby could have easily been herself, had her own mother not sacrificed much of her own life to keep Liu alive. This concept of sanctuary not just as a physical location, but in another person’s heart and memory grew in Liu from a very young age. When Liu witnessed her peers in the Red Guard beat and kill her high school principal, her mother and her art were her sanctuary. By the time she reached twenty in 1968, Liu was subjected to four years of labor in the Chinese countryside as part of the Chinese government’s Cultural Revolution “re-education” program aimed at re-radicalizing young people, and suppressing the intellectual class. Liu often mentions a book she clung to during her four years of toil: Romain Rolland’s Jean Christophe. In the novel a man carries an infant across the river, even as the water continues to engulf him. Symbolizing the dawn of a new day, Rolland’s analogy gave Liu the philosophical sanctuary she needed to believe there could be a better tomorrow. This experience helped her realize the transformative power of art, and that—as an artist—she could provide that same hope for others. During these difficult years toiling in the countryside, Liu also found sanctuary in photographing the people she met in villages in the countryside, and in painting small watercolors every day using a paint box she hid under her bed, and a secret camera given to her by a friend. Her “Secret Freedom” landscape paintings now reside in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the faces of unnamed common people she met in rural Chinese villages appear in many of Liu’s photographs and paintings in 1
this catalog as well as in her National Portrait Gallery retrospective. Possibly because her own family photographs were destroyed, Liu came to realize that preserving someone’s image in art is a gift of sanctuary she could offer. When Liu returned to Beijing to complete her formal artistic education at The Central Academy of Art, she was trained in Socialist Realism, and studied mural painting. Rather than using her artwork to glorify the Maoist regime, she chose to paint humble humans, animals, and poetic cave paintings from another time. When David Hockney visited Liu’s school, he was impressed by her humanist iconography, and remarked about Liu’s artistic bravery in his 1982 book China Diary, even including a photograph of Hung Liu in his book. After graduating, Liu petitioned the Chinese government for a hard-to-get passport so that she could travel to California and study with experimental artists like Alan Kaprow at UC San Diego. In 1984, Liu finally received her passport and entered graduate school at UC San Diego. She left behind her only family—her mother and her six-year-old son, and she found sanctuary not only in the United States, but also in the whole new experience of contemporary art. Her artistic teachers and colleagues at UCSD included Moira Roth, Carrie Mae Weems, and her husband of 35 years, Jeff Kelley. Liu dove into the international art world head first, interacting with the top contemporary artists in the world. She often recounts the time she met Robert Rauschenberg at the Venice Biennale shortly after graduate school. When she met him, he signed her Chinese passport. Rauschenberg proclaimed that she now had a passport not only to the U.S., but also to the art world. Liu taught at Mills College for more than two decades, and she became a lifelong, beloved mentor for her students. She received accolades like the NEA Painting Fellowships, Joan Mitchell Foundation Awards, trusteeships at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and San Jose Museum of Art, and in 2021, she is the first-ever Asian-American, woman artist to have a retrospective at the National Portrait Gallery. Smithsonian curator Dorothy Moss declares Liu “one of the most influential artists of the last 100 years.” Liu has had countless museum exhibitions and her works are now included in the permanent collections of more than 50 of the world’s most prestigious museums.
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From the time Liu arrived in the U.S. in 1984 and continuing through 2015, she expressed her art through Chinese subject matter. She gave Chinese prostitutes, workers, and the peasants she knew from her time in the countryside sanctuary in her paintings. She transformed painful realities like the Chinese practice of foot binding, mothers not having enough milk to feed their babies, or having to pull a plow with one’s own body, into beautiful examples of human resilience. In doing so, Hung Liu allows us to see ourselves in the struggles of others who often look and live differently from ourselves. 2015 marked a turning point in Liu’s career. It was thirty one years since she arrived in the United States, and she had been a U.S. citizen for twenty four years. She spent almost half her life in the U.S. by then, and became intrigued with Dorothea Lange’s Dust Bowl era Farm Security Administration photographs of American migrant workers. Like Liu had done with her own photographs of Chinese peasants in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution, Lange captured the dignity of these dispossessed American souls in her photographs. In Lange’s photographs, Liu saw herself. She realized that she was the farmer leaving his homeland to find a better life; she was the child with tattered clothes not knowing what the future would bring. It was as if she lived a parallel existence to American migrants on the other side of the world. Liu began painting works inspired by Lange’s photography. When asked why she felt she could authentically paint people whose lives she had not herself lived, she insisted that “if we can adopt each other’s children, we should be able to adopt each other’s ancestors, as well.” Hung Liu is one of the most significant humanist painters in history. Her artworks allow us to see the dignity in all living beings. Whether her subjects’ names are remembered or not, she calls them home to her art, giving their images a place of sanctuary for eternity. It is with enormous pride that we present a retrospective body of Hung Liu’s paintings encompassing her Chinese as well as American subject matter. Turner Carroll congratulates Hung Liu on surpassing political, gender, race, and social barriers in the contemporary art world, with 2021 seeing solo exhibitions in museums from coast to coast, and an exquisite new monograph published by Yale University Press. Tonya Turner Carroll Santa Fe August 2021 3
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Red Bird Me
2008
mixed media
13.5 x 13.5"
Hung Liu created these works from her own Cultural Revolution era photography.
Village Portrait: Broken Bridge
2013
Grandma I 2012 ed. 3/27 mixed media on panel 5 x 4" ed. 4/9 mixed media, duotone print on panel 13.5 x 10.25"
5
6
Souvenir 1990 oil on canvas and mixed media 48 x 64 x 8" Goddess of Love, Goddess of Liberty 2013 ed. 1/9 archival pigment print
17 x 22"
Grandma
1993-2013 oil on canvas and antique architectural panels 99 x 55" Beauty and the Beast 1994 oil on shaped canvas 112 x 90" Strange Rocks 1995 oil on canvas, triptych 75 x 120"
7
8
Musicians Storyteller
1992 2000
oil on canvas oil on canvas
72 x 96 x 8.5" 77 x 77"
Tibetan Man
2000
oil on canvas
64 x 48"
9
10
Little Lama III
2011
mixed media on panel
26 x 26"
Little Lama
2009
ed. 4/18
cotton Jacquard tapestry
60 x 30"
11
12
Last Emperor
2009
ed. 5/6
cotton Jacquard tapestry
87.5 x 73"
Grandfather’s Mountain: The Rock
2013
BAT, ed. 10 single-color lithograph with hand color and chine collé Grandfather Liu and His Qian Shan Friends 2013 oil on canvas
24 x 20" 80 x 96"
13
14
Women Warriors II 2003 oil on canvas 25 x 25" Tis the Final Conflict V 2007 oil on canvas 60 x 72"
For the Struggle Carries On
2009
oil on canvas
36 x 36"
15
16
Walking the Water
2009
mixed media
41 x 72"
Madame Shoemaker
2012
ed. 3/12
cotton Jacquard tapestry
55 x 72"
17
18
Golden Autumn
2014
mixed media on panel
60 x 60"
Ma I
2014
mixed media on panel
41 x 41"
19
20
The Path
2011
mixed media on panel, triptych
41 x 87.5"
21
22
Mother and Child - Gold Edition
2020
ed. 4/9
pigment print on paper
32 x 31"
Crow Song
2008
oil on canvas
36 x 48"
23
24
Carry On!
2017
mixed media on panel
50 x 60"
Dragonflies 2011 Apsaras Black 2009
oil on canvas oil on canvas
80 x 140" 72 x 72"
25
26
Sisterhood
2013
HC 1/2
archival pigment print on paper
36.5 x 35"
Two Sisters
2010
oil on canvas
80 x 80"
27
28
Her Mountain II
2010
mixed media on panel
48 x 48"
Pomegranate Bowl
2008
oil on canvas
25 x 25"
29
30
Mission Girls Series
2013
mixed media on panel
13.5 x 13.5"
Persephone
2021
mixed media on panel
41 x 41"
31
32
A Thousand Blessings
2020
mixed media on panel
41 x 41"
Flower Girl I
2021
mixed media on panel
41 x 41"
33
34
Nanking 1
2003
oil on canvas
12.75 x 17"
Nanking 2
2003
oil on canvas
12.75 x 17"
35
36
Baptism
2011
mixed media on panel
41 x 60"
Garden Scene
2003
oil on canvas
60 x 60"
37
38
Imperial Garden Study II
2014
mixed media on panel
25.25 x 41"
Mu Gung Hwa (Korean Comfort Woman)
2003–10
oil on canvas
48 x 54"
39
40
The Unknown V
2016
mixed media on panel
41 x 82"
Golden Glyph
2006
SP 2, ed. 10
cotton Jacquard tapestry
79 x 81"
41
42
Snow Lotus II
2013
mixed media on panel
41 x 41"
Ceremonial Lady
2016
mixed media on panel
50 x 50"
43
44
Bygone Time II
2012
mixed media on panel
20.5 x 30.5"
Da Fan Che - Gold II
2018
mixed media on panel
41 x 41"
45
46
Remote Portrait IX (White)
2015
mixed media on panel
20.5 x 20.5"
Strings
2015
mixed media on panel, triptych
60 x 92"
47
48
Mountain Lady
2018
mixed media on panel
41 x 41"
Hesheng: Chorus
2021
mixed media
41 x 41"
49
50
Venus I
2009
mixed media on panel
41 x 72"
Transformation
2020
mixed media on panel
50 x 50"
51
52
Deva III
2020
mixed media on panel
41 x 41"
Flower Girl III 2021
mixed media on panel
41 x 41"
53
54
March (Four by Four)
2012
mixed media on panel
20.5 x 20.5"
Apple
2011
ed. 7/9
mixed media on panel
20.5 x 20.5"
55
53
56
Music of the Great Earth II
2008
mixed media on panels 80 x 480 x 4"
57
58
Dream Catcher
2014
cotton Jacquard tapestry
ed. 5/8
75 x 75"
Sanctuary
2019
oil and gold leaf on canvas
80 x 72 x 2"
59
60
South
2017
monotype
ed. 5/9
38.75 x 31" paper
Howard Family
2018
oil on canvas
66 x 66"
61
62
Migrant Child: Puppies
2017
oil on canvas
60 x 48"
Mississippi
2014
mixed media on panel
60 x 60"
63
64
Migrant Baby II
2019
mixed media on panel
41 x 36"
Migrant Dream
2018
mixed media on panel
82 x 82"
65
66
Migrant Boy with Bunny
2021
mixed media ensemble, oil, UV acrylic on aluminum and canvas
54 x 51 x 2"
Migrant Girl with Puppy
2021
mixed media ensemble, oil, UV acrylic on aluminum and canvas
55 x 45 x 2"
67
68
Dustbowl Portrait I
2019
oil on canvas
13 x 13"
Thunder
2020
oil on canvas
48 x 48"
69
70
Migrant Child with Kitty
2021
mixed media on panel
60 x 60"
Migrant Child with Cat
2021
mixed media on panel
60 x 60"
71
72
Migrant Family
2019
mixed media on panel
41 x 41"
South - Gold
2018
mixed media on panel
60 x 60"
73
74
Three Okies
2020
mixed media on panel
41 x 35"
Habit
2020
oil on canvas
48 x 48"
75
76
Okie Boy
2019
mixed media on panel
48 x 48"
Little Farmhand III
2018
mixed media on panel
41 x 41"
77
78
Dustbowl Portrait VI
2019
oil on canvas
13 x 13"
clockwise from top left: Dustbowl Portrait VIII Dustbowl Portrait VII Dustbowl Portrait XII Dustbowl Portrait IX
2019 2019 2019 2019
oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas
13 x 13" 13 x 13" 13 x 13" 13 x 13"
79
80
Dandelion - Dragonfly
2016
mixed media on gilded panel
60 x 60"
Dandelion - Fish
2016
mixed media on gilded panel
60 x 60"
81
82
Right Bend
2019
oil on canvas
36 x 36"
Dandelion 13B
2015
oil on canvas
48 x 48"
83
84
Dustbowl Portrait IV
2019
oil on canvas
13 x 13"
Blue Moon
2019
oil on canvas
36 x 62"
85
86
The Crop
2017
mixed media on panel
41 x 53"
Deep South
2020
mixed media on panel
41 x 41"
87
88
Pea
2020
oil on canvas
48 x 48"
Cotton Carrier
2019
mixed media on panel
80 x 80"
89
90
Migrating
2017
mixed media on panel
33 x 41"
Plowboy - Red
2021
mixed media on panel
48 x 48"
91
92
By the Horns
2020
oil on canvas
60 x 60"
Reader
2018
mixed media on panel
60 x 60"
93
94
Laborer: Filipino Field Hand
2016
oil on canvas
36 x 36"
The Seasons
2021
mixed media on panel
41 x 41"
95
Hung Liu Selected Collections Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA AT&T Corporation, New York, NY Baruch College, William & Anita Newman Library, CUNY, New York, NY Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY City & County of San Francisco, Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco, CA City of San Jose, San Jose, CA Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN The Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO Library of Congress, Washington, DC Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA Mills College, Oakland, CA 24 Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC State of New Mexico, NM Arts in Public Places, Santa Fe, NM Oakland International Airport, Port of Oakland, CA Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA Palmer Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL Rutgers Archives, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ San Francisco Federal Building, San Francisco, CA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS The St. Paul Companies, St. Paul, MN United States Federal Building, San Francisco, CA University of Arizona, Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Painted Candle I
2020 mixed media on panel
20.5 x 20.5"
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