Hung Liu Analysis

Hung Liu's paintings are of photographs. She paints from them because she wants to set free the messages that are locked inside the photograph. In Liu's painting Virgin/Vessel the woman's feet are disfigured because of foot binding. Chinese women did this in attempt to raise their status. They were unable to walk and forced into prostitution. The women became a sexual vessel and there was one in front of the girl in the painting. This shows the isolation and vulnerability. In Liu's Three Fujins, The women are shown with birdcages in front of them with represents the women's spiritual captivity. Their pose is uniform and shows that they have given in to the forces of the rulers in their time period. They did this in order to fit into the roles

Hung’s portrait reminds me of Frida Kahlo’s portrait as both artists include nature to represent life and imagination. Both portraits depict a woman with a neutral but almost pained expression, surrounded by various symbols of life. In addition, Hung appears to be trapped in her high collar much like Kahlo is caged in by her thorn necklace. Essentially the style of this self-portrait is realistic while simultaneously expressing the artist’s innermost thoughts and emotions. The portrait emanates a psychological appeal as Hung highlights the distinction between the dullness of her image and the color of mind, thus expressing her longing for creativity. Aside from the style of this portrait, I found that Hung’s profile was drawn in a traditional manner. In contrast, there was originality in the way the colors of the image contrasted. I found it very bold and powerful for Hung to contrast her black and white image with surrounding bright colors. It definitely draws a focus onto her face, but it’s done in a subtle way so that the painting overall represents the distinction between the inner and outer

To begin, the artist has depicted to people in the

fabric was the technique he used for his artwork. In the foreground, there is a cliff,

“The mind changes, the word changes, time doesn't stay still, history is a verb, it is ongoing, there is no past tense, future tense, history is constant” Hung Liu told interviewer Rachelle Riechart (Riechart). Hung Liu is a Chinese woman who was born in Changchun, China in 1948. She was born during the age which we call the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which heavily impacted her life. She lived in China for 36 years and then left for the United States. She now resides in Oakland, CA, where she teaches art at Mills College (“A World of Art”). A lot of her artwork is based on photographs and memories she has from China and photographs she’s taken in the United

Mckissick, Floyd. “CORE Endorses Black Power.” In Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices of Resistance, Reform and Renewal: An African American Anthology, edited by Marable, Manning, and Leith Mullings. Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.

Hung Liu Regarded as one of the greatest Chinese painters in the US, one of Hung Liu’s oil on canvas art pieces, Loom (1999), is located in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Hung Liu, born in 1948 in Changchun, People’s Republic, China, is a contemporary artist, and one of the first Chinese artists to make a successful career in the western world. Months after she was born, her city was sieged under the People’s Liberation Army; over a hundred and sixty thousand citizens starved to death.

The medium used for this work of art is oil. In this technique the oil acts as a binder and causes a quick drying layer that can built upon. The formal elements of a painting include line, color, space, light, texture and pattern. The line appears to be an implied line in which the work creates directional movements from top to bottom. But also forces the viewer to see how the figures stand out and there importance in the painting. The color shows a subtle spectrum with a detailed background from the skies to the mountains to the artist table canvas. The light is somewhat even throughout the painting showing emphasis on every figure holding something in their hands; and more so the final product of the artist that are being captured on the canvas. The visual texture of the painting appears to be smooth and the pattern is decorative and somewhat vibrant. The principle of unity and variety are evident in this painting, the design itself shows a sense of community of important figures throughout African American history. I was drawn to this piece because it embodied the heritage of African American art through history. This painting by Hale Woodruff displays many of the significant contributions that African Americans made to the world of Art. Not necessarily “picture art” but all realms of life art: cooking, liberal arts, politics, labor, law and many more through his vibrant

painted motifs, such as brightly colored lines or wide-open eyes painted all over the figure,

He achieves this by using oil paint on canvas. Its main focus is that of a nude European woman in the foreground, the woman stares apathetically at the viewer. Her body is lounging on a blue couch, with rich linens crumpled beneath her. There are elaborately embroidered curtains hanging behind her. The only thing adorning her body is a turban in her hair and a peacock feathered fan clutched in her hand.

The Ming and Qing dynasties, has had many key people that contributed to the China. One of the individuals that appears in my mind is Dai Jin, a painter from the Ming dynasty. He was a big supporter of the Zhe School, which they studied former traditional painters like the Four Great Masters. Dai Jin style of paintings involved using elements of nature and zig-zag patterns. In the painting “Returning Home at Evening”, Dai Jin has similarities to Ni Zan painting, like possibly copying his work.

Picasso's painting entitled "Standing Figure" depicts a nude woman with her arms crossed behind her head. It was painted in 1908 during a key period of invention and experimentation, as Picasso began to construct his paintings in a new way. The figure is translated into simplified, geometric forms, reflecting Picasso's interest in the art of Africa and Oceania. Using only a few colors, he focuses the viewer's attention on the intersection of these geometric forms. It seems as though Picasso uses the blue lines in this painting like some sort of directional device, drawing attention to the outline of the woman's figure. As we discussed in class, the style of cubism uses multiple or contrasting vantage points. Another element of cubism is simplifying more complicated scenes into geometric forms. Cubism rejected the inherited concept that art should copy nature, or that they should adopt the traditional techniques of perspective, modeling, and foreshortening. They wanted instead to emphasize the two-dimensionality of the canvas.

The China project contained what I consider to be his best work, including my favorite image “Old Factories #6”. Compositionally this is hands down his best image. He uses the edges of the different pieces of metal as leading lines, in order to grab the audience’s attention and direct their eyes to the center of the frame. The image is also rich with texture. You can see how rough and beat down the metal is… it almost seems as if you could scratch the golden brown rust right off the metal. I am usually against a lack of color in a color image, but in this particular case I think I works quite well. The varying tones of the same shade of brown helps the image achieve a sense of unity. There also seems to be a distinct rhythm and movement to the image as a result of the curved metal sheets playing off one another. Being one of the main industrial hubs of the world, I think China is extremely relevant to Burtynsky’s work and his audience really need to see what is going on in the world. While the images tend to highlight the effects of industrialization in a somewhat negative light… his images still serve to show everyone just how far we have really come as a

Then there are also many psychological lines to be seen in the work. One such line is of the woman and the floor, where she is staring down towards it. Another is from the young child and the store clerk, showing a defiance between the two. Next, light and value are not very contrasting in this painting, with only the basic highlights and the shadows seen. It isn’t completely contrasting or contradicting since the colors blend well together with close to the same value ranges, dark colors seen throughout except for the people’s pale faces. There also seems to be a variety of light sources since the woman’s face along with the shop clerk and the young boy’s is lit up by what seems to be a light bulb since they’re much brighter and highlighted and then the men and women in the back aren’t really as bright, except for the ones who close to the open door, creating a blue tinge from the outside light. The shapes shown through the painting is shown to be either very round or very geometrical. There are organic shapes in things such as the umbrella or even the back of the chair, but mostly it is either straight lines and geometrical shapes. The volume shown in the painting is very much implied, correctly showing the

Line is used in every artwork ever painted. There are many lines in the tree, people, and mountain. The mountain has very curvy line just like the tree does. Lines are also used to separate where the farm ends and where the mountain begins. The lines also help give depth into the artwork where is separates the mountain and