Artwork Description
Hung Liu – Crossing the River: Carrying
Dimensions: 30 x 30″ paper
Year: 2003
Medium: color lithograph
Edition: ed. 24/30
(C) Hung Liu Estate/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York
Hung Liu’s favorite story was the story of Jean Christophe, from Romain Roland. In this story of optimism and belief in the human spirit, Liu found great peace during her years spent laboring in the Chinese countryside during the Cultural Revolution. In Roland’s story, the man wades across the river, carrying a young boy (representing hope for a better future). In Liu’s composition here, the down-stretched arms of the boy are echoed by the upstretched wings of the bird, forming perfect symmetry.
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.