Artwork Description
Hung Liu – Captured
Dimensions: 66 x 66″
Year: 2005
Medium: oil on canvas
Captured is one of Hung Liu’s paintings that is based on real people and historic incidents. Liu is interested in chronicling the lives of oppressed people and, in particular, portraying Chinese women and children in the context of their social history. Ultimately her paintings are about human rights and express the struggle of oppressed peoples to attain freedom.
Based on a photograph of captured women, Liu works from the viewpoint of a scholar artist who utilizes photographs as source material. Her use of photographs grows out of her experiences during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1969), when family photographs were confiscated by the Chinese government to encourage loss of individual identity. Her approach constitutes an act of rebellion, since painting from photographs was frowned upon in China, as was working without a predetermined content and composition.
Signed HL 2005