EPISODE THEME
Painting x3
SUBJECT
Hung Liu
GRADE RANGES
K‐12 & Post‐secondary
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
Visual Arts & Language Arts
OBJECTIVE
Helping pupils grasp the evolution of personal art works and their connections to bigger social themes and ideas, abstract notions,
And art history, looking at, making,
Talk and write about artworks
ARTIST PROFILE
San Francisco painter Hung Liu mixes Western and Chinese traditions to create portraits of regular people lost in the
History sweep. SPARK visits Liu's studio asShe works on a new canvas seriesNew York's forthcoming show.Liu was born in China in the 1940s.
Mao Tse Tung's Cultural Revolution. AsA young woman, Liu was sent away to workVillage and learn Chinese misrepresentation
History in her "re-education." Four years ofShe later trained as an artist in Beijing.Learned to paint in Social Realist style
Could benefit the state by making massiveMao's mural and other prominentCommunist Party members. After years
Working as China's artist and teacher, Liu: LiuImmigrated to the United States in 1984.Informing artworks from a larger perspective
History of her nation. Her work was improvedWhile Liu discovered China in 1990,Several hundred images to date
Cultural revolution that established the basis forMuch of her work. Personal photographsEra is unusual as families generally remove images
That may be used as evidence they weren'tThe proletariat.SPARK Educator's Guide Hung LiuMany of these photographs are quite rare.
Prostitutes in modest numbersDistribution to consumers. Liu updated seriesMonumentalizes anonymous young womenPictures in a style usually reserved for
Historic figures. Her canvases are renderedPhotorealistic mode reflecting her workCommunist Party, yet populated by
Individuals, rather than the thingHistory subject. The works' photorealismFurther tempered by Liu's dilution approachLinseed oil paint, then drizzled onto
Political personalities. Historically, both styles of painting have been utilised to disseminate people in power's beliefs and ideas. Liu usurps commonplace
Intention of these practises, usingTypical approaches to memorialise orCelebrate political or historical figuresTo highlight those disenfranchised by
Society, denying political representation.History painters portrayed subjects from the WestMythological or biblical sources, usually in
Secular frameworks serving contemporariesAllegories. Allegories. This design was particularly popularMid-seventeenth to late nineteenth
Centuries, when art was deemedEurope's highest form of academiesHighly realistic style and painting
Philosophical intent. History painting
Followed by genre-painting (scenes)From daily life) and landscape painting,Life at the bottom of the list
History painting can address a multitude of topicsMythological or biblical historical events,Although frequently as allegories serving
Secular contemporary surroundings. From the EarthSeventeenth to late nineteenth century,Arts considering history painting
Academies in Europe leading the hierarchyPainting, genre painting following (Everyday situations representation), and
Landscape, with still life at the bottom.In the late eighteenth, early nineteenth,History was often painted in a neo-painter
Classic style, as in Jacques-Louis David,Known 1784 Horatii artwork. The The ThePainting represents the Horatii brothers.
Fighting the Curiatii to save RomeAvoid a full-scale war. Even though all three will beKilled, they challenge courageously without fear
For their life. Painted just before the turmoilFor the French Revolution, classical canvasSubject matter and stances to suggest
Contemporary morality of civic responsibility. The The ThePainting in the formal Neo-classicalStyle; figures, realistically portrayed,
Like players on stage, set in an austereArchitectural set-up. Many of these featuresWould be adopted by Stalin's official
Communist style, comprising style, realismUsing motion to imply clear meaning.Such historical painting remains
Europe's popular 19th-century upheavalsDominance challenged the early 20th century. During the period1918 Soviet Revolution, historical painting
Rejected for non-objective, abstractPainting. Painting. Soviet revolutionaries felt theTraditional method of depicting history
Leaders and imperialist expansion...Unfit to represent the spirit ofRevolution. Revolution. The Soviets sought to re-invent it
Visual language for historical representationEvents, events. Their early years of revolutionUsed abstract, geometric compositions
Events and spirit of the emerging Soviet state,Lissitzky's 1919 poster Beat the WhitesWedge. Wedge.Jacques-Louis David, Horatii, 1784.
El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites, Red Wedge, 1919.When Stalin came to power in the 1930s,Stop non-objective painting and make
Photorealism the official state stylePropaganda then used by Mao TseTung's 1950s Communist China. The style ofWas routinely utilised in unabashed glorifications
Leader, people's allegoriesSupporting him,And celebrating the work as examplesIndividual's contribution to state achievement.
Under the graphic, unattributed poster,A man, a manSatisfied as he fights hard for his nationBullets flying past him. Since state artists were compelled
To produce these masterpieces on a huge scale,Worked regularly from pictures.Divide into grids, reproduce as large-scaleWall pictures.
Liu's training in political propagandaPainting informs her work today, whichSmall photography images onA big one
Scale. Scale. The stable tranquilly of theLiu's paintings mimic the oldChinese photography portraits used asSource material, proving remarkable
Early photographic conventions resemblanceWestern and Eastern. Intense colours, symbols(Fruits, animals, Chinese characters...)
Liu's iconographySeveral picturesTraditions, including art Western historyChinese landscape, commemorative portrait
Painting. Painting. In both Western historiesChinese landscape painting, symbolsExtending particular morals or values To viewers or to symbolise the values
Possessed by persons in the paintingOr those that commissioned it Masters.
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