Existing comment:
Hung Liu as a graduate student, Central
Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
From 1979 to 1981, Hung Liu attended graduate school at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where students were trained in the style of socialist realism. China had adopted the propagandist aesthetic from the Soviet Union in the mid-1950s, and it subsequently dominated the country's public spaces and educational institutions. Liu felt constrained by having to adhere to the school's restrictive approach and found she could exert a greater freedom of expression while working on large-scale murals.
As part of her graduate studies, Liu traveled to the Buddhist caves of Dunhuang, in the Gobi Desert, along the Silk Road, and spent forty days examining the stylized forms found in the cave murals. She also visited religious shrines throughout China and engaged with Chinese literary history.
The painting you see in this snapshot was a product of her trip. It was inspired by the ancient feminist poem "Mo Shang Sang," from the Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), as well as the cave murals.
Unidentified photographer; Reproduction of photograph from 1980; Courtesy of Hung Liu and Jeff Kelley |