FILTER RESULTS
© Estate of Hung Liu
Three Fujins
199596 x 126 x 12 in. (243.8 x 320 x 30.5 cm)
Hung Liu
United States (Changchun, China, 1948 - 2021, Oakland, CA)
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Oil on canvas
Credit Line:
Gift of Gerald and Ellen Sigal and Marion Stratton Gould Fund
Accession Number:
2015.10
Location: Currently on view
Hung Liu is a Chinese-American artist known for her paintings based on historical photographs. After growing up in China under the Maoist regime, and later studying painting at the University of California, San Diego, Liu has spent her career exploring personal conflicts of identity. Three Fujins is a part of her "Last Dynasty" series from the 1990s, featuring subjects drawn from historic photographs documenting the Qing dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China.
The women in this painting were fujins, or concubines in the Qing court in the late 1800s. The source photo shows them adorned in beautiful clothing and painted faces. Hung Liu’s addition of the small birdcages to the front of the canvases, one for each woman, makes reference to their captivity and powerlessness. Liu’s signature drip asserts her hand in the creation of the painting, a 20th-century modernist impulse, while also referencing Chinese traditions of landscape and calligraphy.
[Gallery label text, 2016]
The women in this painting were fujins, or concubines in the Qing court in the late 1800s. The source photo shows them adorned in beautiful clothing and painted faces. Hung Liu’s addition of the small birdcages to the front of the canvases, one for each woman, makes reference to their captivity and powerlessness. Liu’s signature drip asserts her hand in the creation of the painting, a 20th-century modernist impulse, while also referencing Chinese traditions of landscape and calligraphy.
[Gallery label text, 2016]
Provenance
The artist; her dealer, Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, New York; purchased from them by Gerald and Ellen Sigal, Washington DC; their gift to the Gallery in 2015.
Additional Images
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
- Hung Liu: A Ten-Year Survey 1988-1998 3/27/1998 - 11/28/1999
Bibliography
This object has the following bibliographic references:
- Article Author: Spevak, Jeff. Article Title: Re-arranged MAG Showcases New Acquisitions. Article Scope: Discussion and reproduction. Democrat and Chronicle. Rochester, NY: Rochester Print Co. Issue Date: August 23, 2015.
- Article Title: Hung Liu's Three Fujins. Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Henry M. Sayre. A World of Art. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1994. Page Number: 88-89, Figure Number: 117
- Article Title: Artistic Acquisitions. Article Scope: Mention and reproduction. Rochester Review. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press Issue Date: Sept-Oct 2015. Page Number: 15
- Memorial Art Gallery. ARTiculate. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 2000--.
- Article Author: Rafferty, Rebecca. Article Title: In with the New: New Acquisitions and Reimagined Spaces at MAG. Article Scope: Review. City Newspaper. Rochester, NY Issue Date: August 26, 2015.
- Kathleen McManus Zurko, ed. Hung Liu: A Ten-Year Survey 1988-1998. Wooster, OH: The College of Wooster Art Museum, 1998.
- Women Artists at the Memorial Art Gallery. Rochester, NY: Susan B. Anthony Center, University of Rochester, 2017.