Liu Ye

Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
Acquired by the present owner from the above

This painting is in very good condition overall, there are no apparent condition problems. It was not examined under UV light. The work is framed and was not examined out of frame.
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The painting of Liu Ye acts as a bridge between the realms of childhood and maturity and in so doing, it makes much wider comments on the adolescence of China as it evolves into a global power after decades of international isolation.  Liu's angel-faced children display innocence and perfection, glimmering smiles and frolicking play.  They cavort and giggle but often in uniform, whether school attire or military garb, hinting at more regimented adult activities.  By presenting his cherubic children in such a manner, Liu Ye appears to be advancing a coded critique of his native China and its predilection for fast growth and development.  He seems to hold high the playful spirit of youth, urging us to partake in the fun for as long as possible, leaving the work of economic development and trade domination to the stuffy adults chained to their desks and cellular phones. 

In Untitled (2000), the artist figures a young boy and a little girl in sailor suits at the center of the canvas, poised upon rocks on a turbulent shore, their stoic poses reminiscent of Mao-era propaganda posters celebrating the Chinese laborer.  The boy holds up his right hand, pointing into the distance, while the little girl leans slightly forward, clutching what is undoubtedly Mao's Little Red Book under her left arm.  The bright red ground against which the pair is posed, a brilliant sun, is a further reference to the symbols of China's communist past.  We know not if these children are made happy by what they see, or if it is instead a terrifying vision; their faces are awash with unreadable emotion, their mouths agape.  This is clearly Liu Ye's plan, to keep the viewer guessing about what lurks off the canvas at stage right.  Is this unknown entity the communist past, the visual legacy of which Untitled so clearly references, or perhaps the cruise ship of the capitalist future, running aground on a distant rock?  Untitled is an arresting image of both innocence and trepidation, bound together as the future is bound to the past.

Angel wings are an unusual recurring detail in the artist's Untitled watercolor and ink work of 1997.  Here, school children assemble in a hallway, reading their schoolbooks with concentrated attention.  The earthy ink tones used for this work on paper lend it a respectable, somewhat Old Master-ish air, much in keeping with the seriousness of the assembled students.  The angel wings on their little backs may suggest an optimistic faith in the erudite leadership of China's rising generations, or it might rather convey the hope that the purity and innocence of their youth will endure.  As elsewhere in Liu's intriguing oeuvre, the charming imagery refuses to yield definitive interpretive clues.

-Eric Shiner