The Life of Hung Liu: Celebrating the Poor, the Imprisoned, the Forgotten
Upon arrival in Washington DC, one of the places I am very excited to visit the National Portrait Gallery (8th and G Streets, NW) – known for their collections of portraits of every presidents of the United States.
However, what interested me is not the chain of president portraits that celebrate the history of the United States, but the exhibition and memorial of Hung Liu: Portraits of the Promise Land.
“I want my work to be a comfort to people I’ve never known.”
Hung Liu, 2020
Liu was born in China back in 1948 and has experience the history of the Cultural Revolution (1966 – 76) and experienced forced fields labor for 4 years. Liu grew up with her mother, and her father was a captain in the Nationalist Army of Chiangmai Kai-shek. After the communist forces took over, her father was detained and her parents was forced to divorce.
In her portrait, Father’s Day, Liu painted a portrait of a picture of her with her father after they reunited in 1994. She realised on Father’s Day in 1994, that her father has been imprisoned and was forced into hard labor for 4 decades. Liu’s portraits has often been a way for her to summon ghosts and her memory of her family.
Coming from a single parent family myself, this portraits especially stood out to me and communicated to me like no other paintings. In Chinese culture, family is extremely important. In this portrait based on a real photograph Liu took with her father, shows the cross over of various bittersweet emotions. In the portrait, Liu is holding a tissue with her left hand, with redden eyes and tears from learning her father’s story. Her father, old and bone skinny, with neutral gaze, replicated the tiresome years and labor that he has been put in for over 40 years. He survived, but his life was taken from the him.
Hung Liu, being a immigrant herself when she came to UC San Diego after her graduation from Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Hung Liu’s work highlighted on the sacrifices of women that were displaced and forced to immigrant to safety.
Inspired by photographer Dorothea Lange (1895 – 1965), many of Liu’s portraits shows tribute to Lange’s work for her commitment of capturing the lives of immigrants in the Depression-era. In creating these work, Liu used colourful highlights to honour “the things about those people that were more important than how poor they were – their pride, their strength, their spirit.”Inspired by photographer Dorothea Lange (1895 – 1965), many of Liu’s portraits shows tribute to Lange’s work for her commitment of capturing the lives of immigrants in the Depression-era. In creating these work, Liu used colourful highlights to honour “the things about those people that were more important than how poor they were – their pride, their strength, their spirit.”
Resident Alien
Inspired by photographer Dorothea Lange (1895 – 1965), many of Liu’s portraits shows tribute to Lange’s work for her commitment of capturing the lives of immigrants in the Depression-era. In creating these work, Liu used colourful highlights to honour “the things about those people that were more important than how poor they were – their pride, their strength, their spirit.”
Hung Liu’s death
Three weeks before the opening of Hung Liu’s exhibition at the Portrait Gallery Museum in Washington DC, Hung Liu passed away with the cause of pancreatic cancer. Her exhibition represented the first Asian-American to ever have a solo exhibition there.
Reference:
- Cotter, Holland. “Hung Liu, Artist Who Blended East and West, Is Dead at 73.” NYTimes, 23 Aug. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/22/arts/hung-liu-artist-dead.html?referringSource=articleShare. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.
- I Want My Work to Be a Comfort to People I’Ve – Npg.si.edu. https://npg.si.edu/sites/default/files/hung_liu_lp_english_final.pdf.
