Artwork Description
Hung Liu – Travelogue
Dimensions: 72 x 72″
Year: 2004
Medium: oil on canvas
(C) Hung Liu Estate/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York
Travelogue by Hung Liu was recently highlighted in at the Honolulu Museum of Art’s exhibition Reveries: The Art of Hung Liu. Liu premiered the painting in Hong Kong at the Elizabeth de Brabant Art Center.
The painting is a quintessential work by Hung Liu in that it embodies multiple layers of her personal symbolism. The Buddhist goddess-like figure of Tara, representing mercy and safe passage, holds the migrating family as they make their journey. The red bovine figures reinforce the perseverance that will be necessary for their success. The painting embodies aspects of her work such as her “weeping realism” drips and circles, as well as issues of migration, humanism, and references to the greatness of Chinese culture of the past.