PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH ; © HUNG LIU
23
Communist sympathizers who sacrificed their lives for their country during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45). Hung Liu’s imagery blurs together fragments of intensely personal and historical collective memory. Across time and place, Liu creates a powerful connection with her subjects, who appear compelling and enigmatic, and are no longer forgotten. Orin Zahra is the assistant curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
//
Hung Liu In Print, presented in the Teresa Lozano Long Gallery of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, is organized by the museum and generously supported by its members. Notes 1. Hung Liu, interview with the author, December 27, 2017. 2. Hung Liu, interview in OKTP (Berkeley, CA: Paulson Bott Press, Feb. 1, 2013). 3. Hung Liu, interview in OKTP (Berkeley, CA: Paulson Bott Press, Nov. 1, 2008). Liu was trained in socialist realism, a type of propaganda art that created a highly positive image of Mao Zedong and glorified Communist values. 4. Han Qing, “The Many Faces of Hung Liu,” trans. Luisetta Mudi, Radio Free Asia, Oct. 18, 2005, http://www.rfa.org/english/china/ china_artist-20051018.html.
Left: Hung Liu, Sisters, 2000; Lithograph with chine collé on paper, 22 × 29 ¾ in.; NMWA, Gift of the Harry and Lea Gudelsky Foundation, Inc.
Above: Hung Liu in the Tamarind studio creating Breast Milk (2016)
WO M E N I N T H E A RTS
PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH ; © HUNG LIU
PHOTO BY JEFF KELLEY
graininess of fading memories. By incorporating flowers, animals, insects, and circles, which reference traditional Chinese painting and Eastern philosophies such as Zen Buddhism, she further enriches each story, allowing viewers to uncover the layers of meaning. Shui-Water (2012) alludes to a Chinese water landscape painting that Liu has outlined in the background, overlaid by a graceful woman embellished with flowers and butterflies. On closer inspection, however, one sees a sinking boat, and Liu’s drip marks make the figure appear to be melting or encased in dark rising smoke. What initially seems to be a straightforward portrait of an anonymous courtesan transforms into something more ominous. Liu’s work poignantly delves into the spectrum of women’s misfortunes, hopes, and interrelationships. In 2001, Liu created her “Unofficial Portrait” series, depicting the stages of a woman’s life in three prints: the youthful, carefree Maiden, the solemn Bride uncertain of her future, and the aged Martyr. Describing the bride, Liu states, “This is the point at which a woman becomes someone’s wife, someone’s daughterin-law, and later a mother, so it’s an important transition.”⁴ These single portraits yield a rather different psychological impact than Liu’s depictions of groups of women. Whereas the young prostitutes and brides are isolated, works like Sisters (2000) represent the bonds and innocence of childhood. Contrasting blood relations to ideological sisterhood, Sisters-in-Arms I (state II) (2003) depicts the connections between women who commiserate in shared hardships and grief. According to the artist, these women soldiers were likely
Hung Liu, Sisters in Arms I (state II); 2003, Lithograph on paper, 30 × 36 in.; NMWA, Promised gift of Steven Scott, Baltimore, in honor of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the National Museum of Women in the Arts