Liu Guosong

signed in Chinese and dated in 1982, marked with an artist seal

Private Collection, China
China Guardian, Beijing, 15 June, 2008, lot 1116

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In the early years of his career, Liu Kuosung, always a rebellious spirit, became deeply dissatisfied with the conservative approach prevalent in  Taiwanese art. He was passionate about European and American modern art, and founded the Fifth Moon Group which played a significant role in the beginnings of Taiwan’s own modern art movement. After 1959, Liu began to reflect upon his earlier approach of “total Westernization”, and realised that “as a Chinese painter, one should understand him/herself. With a strong sense of pride in his/her own cultural identity, s/he would then not be led by the nose.”; it was at that point that he embarked on his reformation of Chinese Ink Painting.

 

The artist began using xuan paper for his paintings at the start of the 1960s. In place of traditional brushstrokes, he applied “tuomo” (rubbing ink) as well as collage techniques. Later, he came across a special type of paper made with coarse fibres – after paint is applied, fibres can be torn off the surface to create an effect resembling the contours of muscles or the “feibai” technique (white space showing through the strokes to convey a sense of speed and movement) in Chinese calligraphy. As a result of this discovery, he asked a paper manufacturer to make this special type of “Liu Kuosong” paper, and used this in conjunction with rubbing ink and collage. He created thick, rugged, abstract brush strokes imbued with a strong sense of motion, then he removed the fibres from the surface, and used different techniques including ink rubbing and “xuanran” (ink-wash), to conjure images of clouds, mists and snow-covered mountains, which he gave such poetic titles as “lian zhang qi” (mountain ranges rising). By infusing modern artistic elements from Abstract Expressionism with traditional brush, ink and paper, Liu created a new style and technique. His work displays a beauty that extends beyond the external form, making it at once traditional and modern, and  establishing a new style of modern Ink Painting.

 

Created in 1982, Snowy Mountains is an exquisite example of the combination of the poetry of Ink Painting and elements of Abstract Expressionism that characterises Liu Kuosung’s work; as the renowned Chinese poet Yu Kwang Chung once described it: “It is the feeling of water, the feeling of clouds, and the feeling of wind. It is a yearning for the boundless by those within boundaries. It is the pursuit of eternity by a fleeting moment.”