PRINTILLUSTRATED:
The Oil Painting of Lui Liu , People's Fine Arts Publishing House, Beijing, 2011, color illustrated, p. 62
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Ginger
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2006 Oil on canvas 91 x 76 cm Signed lower right LUI LIU in English and dated 2006 |
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Estimate
480,000 - 700,000 1,943,000 - 2,834,000 61,900 - 90,300
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Sold Price
480,000 1,920,000 61,935
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ILLUSTRATED:
The Oil Painting of Lui Liu , People's Fine Arts Publishing House, Beijing, 2011, color illustrated, p. 62
Catalogue Note:
Born in Tianjin in 1957, Liu Yi was admitted to the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 1978. He was a student in the first oil painting class in CAFA after the Cultural Revolution ended and the college entrance exam was restored. Many celebrated contemporary Chinese artists were his classmates, such as Chen Danqing, Wang Yidong, and Yang Feiyun. Liu moved to Canada in 1991 and returned to China sometime around 2007. Regarded as "an explorer that moves between Surrealism and Pop Art," Liu created his works with narrative and theatrical metaphors and depicted his characters with realism, using the qualities of classic oil painting to create artwork that exhales a breath of modernity.
After moving to Canada in 1991, Liu began to compose portraits mostly of Western women. "Ginger" was an important piece the artist created in 2006, one year before he returned to China. In some western nations, the word "Ginger" is an epithet for individuals with strawberry-blonde hair. Chen Danqing once said Liu's work often carries "a dramatic expression and an uninterpretable context. " The woman in the painting wears simple green clothes with unkempt hair and lowered eyes, such that she does not look at the viewer directly. The dark background conveys a profound meaning with hints of a dispirited and evil sentiment; the artist does not overdo the expression of sexual appeal as well. Such ambiguity is very common in Liu's other successful works.
Liu's portraits always carry a sort of special mysterious and theatrical effect. Most of the women he has portrayed remain unidentified, and the background, time, and location are often omitted. It seems that the artist purposefully detaches his characters from reality in order to build a kind of surreal atmosphere. The woman with unfocused eyes sometimes compresses the whole painting to one side, sometimes appears to be the center of the layout and sometimes makes gorgeous colors encircle her. Where and when does Ginger stand? In a way, the artist highlights the woman's image with his refined artistic skill, an attractive theatrical effect, and an ingenuous composition, creating a situation where real and surreal become interlaced on a single canvas. As the artist said about himself, "I don't particularly try to express classic or modern elements. I just absorb everything into my mind. "I don't have to understand what this is in my painting. The mystery of existence itself is exactly the message I want to deliver. "
After moving to Canada in 1991, Liu began to compose portraits mostly of Western women. "Ginger" was an important piece the artist created in 2006, one year before he returned to China. In some western nations, the word "Ginger" is an epithet for individuals with strawberry-blonde hair. Chen Danqing once said Liu's work often carries "a dramatic expression and an uninterpretable context. " The woman in the painting wears simple green clothes with unkempt hair and lowered eyes, such that she does not look at the viewer directly. The dark background conveys a profound meaning with hints of a dispirited and evil sentiment; the artist does not overdo the expression of sexual appeal as well. Such ambiguity is very common in Liu's other successful works.
Liu's portraits always carry a sort of special mysterious and theatrical effect. Most of the women he has portrayed remain unidentified, and the background, time, and location are often omitted. It seems that the artist purposefully detaches his characters from reality in order to build a kind of surreal atmosphere. The woman with unfocused eyes sometimes compresses the whole painting to one side, sometimes appears to be the center of the layout and sometimes makes gorgeous colors encircle her. Where and when does Ginger stand? In a way, the artist highlights the woman's image with his refined artistic skill, an attractive theatrical effect, and an ingenuous composition, creating a situation where real and surreal become interlaced on a single canvas. As the artist said about himself, "I don't particularly try to express classic or modern elements. I just absorb everything into my mind. "I don't have to understand what this is in my painting. The mystery of existence itself is exactly the message I want to deliver. "