Artwork Description
Hung Liu – Unofficial Portraits – “The Bride”
Dimensions: 30 x 30″ paper
Year:
Medium: lithograph
Hung Liu was well-known for re-imagining historical Chinese photographs and most commonly depicted Manchurian brides in their traditional imperial garments and headdresses. Liu’s fascination with these particular portraits stems from her own ancestral background—her grandmother had Manchurian blood which allowed her to wear the very embellished headdresses and the imperial colors of red, blue, yellow, and white as it appears in this portrait. In addition, there are added elements in the headdress (or commonly called Da Fan Che in the mid 1800s) like the bat and dragon which symbolizes luck and good fortune.
Hung Liu was well known for her printmaking and she won the Lifetime Achievement Award for her innovation in printmaking. We are proud to announce that the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation has acquired the largest print archive of Hung Liu’s prints, and the Williams College Museum of Art and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University have both acquired a substantial collection of Hung Liu’s prints so that curators in future years can continue to learn about Hung Liu as they curate exhibitions at their respective universities.