Travelogue
(C) Hung Liu Estate/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

Hung Liu (b. 1948, Changchun, China; died 2021) has a personal history intertwined with significant changes in her homeland. Born under Mao Zedong’s communist regime, she spent her early 20s working in rice and wheat fields during the Cultural Revolution. After earning her degree in art and education in the 1970s, she relocated to the United States in 1984 for additional studies at the University of California, San Diego.

During her first trip back to China in 1991, Liu discovered a collection of 19th- and early 20th-century photographs of marginalized Chinese women such as prostitutes and laborers. Fascinated by how removing these images from their original context could transform perceptions of these women, Liu began incorporating them into her paintings.

Her mature style combines these historical photographs with traditional Chinese painting elements, featuring delicate brushwork and vibrant colors. Liu uses objects like ancient pottery to enhance her work and aims to portray her subjects as dignified figures, stating, “I hope to wash my subjects of their ‘otherness’ and reveal them as mythic figures in the context of history painting.”