"What do you see in this painting? What is it about?" Those were the questions Maryanna Ramirez, Director of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA) at PSU, asked of two dozen SALC auditors on October 25.
We were gazing at a large work, entitled "Western Wind", by the late painter Hung Liu, which shows a family rising away from a town in the background. By their expressions they seem uncertain and fearful of what lies ahead. The flying ducks are also a symbol of migration, of going somewhere else. However, Hung Liu’s symbols of hope, a circle and dripping ripples of paint, are also present, indicating some positive future for these vulnerable people.
Our introduction to Hung Liu came from Anna Kienberger, Program and Outreach Coordinator for the JSMA, (photo below), whose knowledge and engaging manner provided background and context for us to examine Liu’s photo-based paintings.
In her own words, Liu states, “I paint from historical photographs of people; the majority of them had no name, no bio, no story left. Nothing. I feel they are kind of lost souls, spirit-ghosts. My painting is a memorial site for them.” A favorite of all of us was this “Manchu Bride” (photo below), bedecked in the color of fortune and happiness, surrounded by gold leaf, yet averting her gaze from the viewer, looking towards the escaping fish, while being hemmed in by the pomegranate branch, indicating her life as a seed-bearer. Yet the circle and the ribbons of paint are also showing some hope for the future.
Hung Liu’s own life with hard labor during the Cultural Revolution in China and her immigration to the US is vividly illustrated through her paintings, such as Water Carriers (first photo below) and Official Portrait: Immigrant (second photo below). The exhibition shows us in detail how she treated lesser-known people, both through the photographs she collected and then brought back to life, and those she based on work of photographers like Dorothea Lange in the 1930s.
Finally, what about The Question of Hu? This is the title of a 1988 book by a China scholar, Jonathan Spence, and the painting referring to Hu is this multi-media work (photo below), which consists of overlapping landscapes referring to home and away, glass and jade ornaments, wooden boxes of memories, and much more. Many riches remain to see and learn; the exhibition is on view until December 3, and there will be a public tour on December 2, 2023. SALC auditors have requested tours of future exhibitions, and we will schedule them.
Best regards from Linda (photo below, with Anna Kienberger)