Hung Liu

Hung Liu (劉虹) was a Chinese-born American contemporary artist. She was predominantly a painter, but also worked with mixed-media and site-specific installation and was also one of the first artists from China to establish a career in the United States.

Hung Liu was born in Changchun, China in 1948 and endured a difficult childhood marked by war and political upheaval. Before becoming a celebrated painter, she spent four years working in the countryside as part of Mao Zedong's re-education program and later taught art at a university in Beijing.

• •Hung Liu was detained in a labor camp for four years during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, where she worked in the rice and wheat fields.
• •Liu often incorporated 'weeping lines' in her paintings, inspired by traditional Chinese art and representing the passage of time and the erosion of memory.
• •She used traditional Chinese techniques in her art, such as incorporating the 'drip' and the use of vibrant colors layered on top of one another to create an almost blurry effect.
• •Before becoming a painter, Hung Liu was trained in the Socialist Realism style and tasked with creating propaganda art for the Chinese government.
• •Her works often feature historical photographs of women, children, and refugees, giving voice to marginalized people and forgotten stories.