Hung Liu

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Hung Liu

American, Chinese born, 1948-2021

BiographyHung Liu was born in Changchun, China in 1948. She grew up in
Beijing during the time of communist force, Mao Tse-tung, the
Cultural Revolution, Tieneman Square. After graduating from high
school in 1968, she was sent to the countryside where she worked
with peasants seven days a week in the rice and wheat fields, over a
four-year period
During this time she photographed and drew portraits of local
farmers and their families. In 1972 schools in China began to reopen
and Liu entered the Revolutionary Entertainment Department of
Beijing’s Teachers College to study art and education. She graduated
in 1975 and began teaching art at the Jing Shan School, an elite
Beijing school. She also began weekly art lessons for children on
television. Her program “How to Draw and Paint,” was renowned,
and lasted several years. In 1979 she was accepted to China’s two
leading art schools; she chose the Central Academy of Fine Arts
where she majored in mural painting.
In 1980 she applied to the visual arts graduate program at the
University of California at San Diego. She was accepted in 1981. Her
passport was delayed until 1984 when she departed Beijing and
began her graduate studies. In 1991 she returned to China for the
first time and discovered a treasure trove of turn of the century
photos of Chinese prostitutes, which became source material for her
paintings.
Hung Liu’s unusual biography infuses her work with a unique
richness; her paintings are steeped in Chinese culture,
contemporary and ancient. While she has a foot in both
cultures—China and the United States—her art is born of a
traditional Chinese art education. She fuses images from 7th
Century Tang tomb mural paintings of princes and princesses with
Western imagery such as St. Christopher carrying a baby across the
river, surrounded by her signature circles of color, an abstract
pattern which dances energetically across the surface.
Liu plumbs the depths of her life experience as well as all that
interests her about history, gender, identity, Chinese politics and
culture and combines this broad range with her intelligence into
compositions that pose questions while offering a moment to stop
and contemplate all that is bold and beautiful in her universe.
[Nancy Hoffman Gallery]

Hung Liu passed away on August 7, 2021.

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