Existing comment:
Refugee: Opera
Hung Liu, who is empathetically drawn to mothers and children, depicts a depleted woman nursing her baby in Refugee: Opera. The situation is reminiscent of what the infant Liu and her mother endured in 1948, when the city of Changchun was under siege and its citizens were forced to flee their homes to escape starvation.
While Liu centered the painting on the breastfeeding mother and child, she chose to include other weary figures in the frame. This decision, along with the way she cropped the image and incorporated half-hidden faces into the composition, hints at Liu's desire to draw attention to those who are unseen. Specifically, her focus on mothers and children in this portrayal and in her other complex, layered portraits of refugees, is her way of advocating for those whom she believes are the most vulnerable refugees in the world.
Oil on canvas, 2001
Collection of Peter and Dorothea Perrin |