Author: LUI LIU 刘溢
Size: 120×150cm
Signed and dated: Painted in 2008
Estimate:
Final Price: unsold
LITERATURE
2011 The Oil Painting of Lui Liu / P84-87 / People’s Fine Arts Publishing House
2012 Lui Liu Behind The Works / P80 / People’s Fine Arts Publishing House
2013 1978 China Central Academy of Fine Arts First Oil Painting Class Thirty Anniversary of Graduation / Jilin Fine Arts Press
signed in English and dated 2008
EXHIBITED
2003 Sidney Pike Gallery， Dallas，USA
“In February， all the hibernating creatures will wake up at spring thunder and lightning， and awakening insects appear” （A Collective Interpretation of the Seventy-two Phenological Terms）. “Insects Awaken” is the third in the 24 solar terms. During this time， thunder rolls； spring rain is coming； all insects are awake； all creatures come to life. The east winds thaw the coldness， and insects start to wake up. The common English translation of this solar term is Insects Awaken or Spring Awaken. Less romantic and poetic as it is， the transltion is undoubtedly straightforward and pertinent.According to Lui Liu， Insects Awaken was inspired by several pictures that a Ningxia painter posted online， and Liu drew it to express his love for the nation. Although the Yellow River is the cradle of Chinese civilization， it has also brought devastating disasters to tens of millions of people. Over the past one thousand years， the Yellow River has claimed countless innocent lives each time it breached the dike. Since the 1980s， escalating water source crisis has inflicted drought on people in the Northwest and North China. For people who live at the mercy of the elements， precipitation in Insects Awaken would decide the yield of their farmland， and that is why people “start spring farming immediately after Insects Awaken.” Hence， it their eyes， Insects Awaken is not only a solar term， but also a kind of expectation or even destiny.Lui Liu adopted his usual motif of human body and demonstrated his typical magic realism in Insects Awaken. The audacious delineation of two girls lying on the sloped roof with elegant postures and face up to the sky is already remarkable in terms of the disruption of mechanics principles， let alone its sophisticated image layout. We could tell from the grey tiles， withering woods and a well probably dried for years that the painting is about an arid region in Northwest China， and then we could be certain that it is about the Loess Plateau after seeing the girls’ ruby cheeks. The joyful and immersed faces of the two girls at the advent of spring rain makes people realize that the rain in Insects Awaken does not only moisturize the earth but also light up their hearts.Graduated from the Department of Oil Painting in the Central Academy of Fine Arts as Grade 1978， Lui Liu was among the first group of students studying at CAFA after the Great Cultural Revolution and later grew into a prominent figure in Chinese abstract oil painting along with Chen Danqing， Yang Feiyun， Chao Ge， Xia Xiaowan and others. After the 1990s， Liu moved to Canada and became one of the most active Chinese painters overseas. His works reflect great global perspective and concerns over the contemporary era while retaining classic European oil painting techniques， which makes Liu stands out in the contemporary realist paining. It is also worth-mentioning that Insects Awaken is different from the previous political work in that it shows both painter’s concerns over the times and conveys the nurturing power of spring rain.
