Max LIU

Taiwanese　1912 - 2002

Liu spent his formative years in Japan and graduated from the National Railway Technical College in Tokyo. He moved to Taiwan in 1945 and held his first watercolor exhibition in 1951. In 1962, the Art Society of China in Taiwan awarded First Prize in watercolors. Liu has traveled extensively in South America and Southeast Asia in order to gain a better understanding of primitive art and culture. His works in early periods mostly are scenic sketch and portrait. Afterward, Taiwan aborigines' memorial ceremony, dressing and building became the subject matters of his paintings. Besides, he finished the work - "An epic of Indochina", which was plain in model and mysterious in color. He expresses the works by using simple figures, lines, and color painting, also made the subject in images through the abstract thinking. In his later period, Liu signed in Chinese phonetic alphabet and Chinese number for marking the date, those made his works full of interest. Liu's eighty-year retrospective exhibition was held at the National Museum of Art in Taichung, Taiwan in 1990.