From the Series: The Coming

1970

Liu Kuo-sung 劉國松

(Chinese, b. 1932)

Taiwan

Hanging scroll; ink and collage on paper

Overall: 207.4 x 81.1 cm (81 5/8 x 31 15/16 in.); Painting only: 141.5 x 73.6 cm (55 11/16 x 29 in.)

Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Ku Yin Lin 1970.111

Location: not on view

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Did You Know?

Liu Kuo-sung envisioned the Fifth Moon Group bridging the deep ravine between Chinese and Western painting.

Description

A pioneer in modern Chinese ink painting, Liu Kuo-sung left mainland China at the age of 17 for Taiwan where he founded the progressive Fifth Moon Group (五月畫會) in 1956. While artists in mainland China still used socialist realist styles and political propaganda, the group in Taipei already began to assimilate Western concepts and techniques such as American Abstract Expressionism with traditional ink painting. Impressed by the Apollo missions that landed the first human on the moon in 1969, Liu started to create series of moonscapes or landscapes of the cosmos (taikong hua 太空畫), like this one, reflecting his newly gained vision of nature and the universe.