One of the most striking features of Chinese women's art, which emerged in the 90s, was the separation from the male discourse and the search for self-worth. The establishment of women's discourse also begins from this kind of self-exploration, starting from a unique female perspective and a high degree of personal experience, starting from a keen perception of life and multiple emotional experiences, and using their unique intuition and survival instinct to understand the natural life, emotions or facts full of life meaning. One of the earliest attempts to embark on this path of self-discovery was the exhibition "The World of Women Painters" held in 1990. Liu Liping is one of the eight female painters who have just left school to distance themselves from male painters and senior female painters with a new female perspective, and show their exploration results with a distinct spiritual orientation. Her exhibited work is the oil painting "Earth Branch" series.
The first time I saw Liu Liping's paintings, it was also at this exhibition. Since then, her paintings with the theme of "ground" have remained in my memory. The profundity of the impression does not come from the thrilling of the painting, nor from the intensity of the visual stimulation. She painted only unnoticed ground. Muddy rain, snow, reclaimed wasteland, or moist bluestone slabs as the snow melts...... There is no sky, no depth of field; There are no traces of life nurtured by the earth, and few people in society attach "masterpieces" to it. She only shows the ground itself. Because in her opinion, it is already a vast world with rich connotations. She depicts every insignificant detail with great interest, bringing out their life one by one. A small pebble seems to be a character, a circle of small water waves seems to be an interesting plot, the stone tips and grass drilled out of the covered snow seem to tell the experience of harsh winter, and the beautiful patterns on the bluestone slab are bidding farewell to the remnants of snow that are about to disappear between the stone crevices...... In a materialistic modern society, who would pay attention to all this happening on the earth? Who would bother with these trivialities that don't have any "meaning"? Only women, only poets and artists among women, only they will pay attention to these ordinary and trivial things in nature, to perceive these unconscious changes in nature, they are not like male artists, they pay attention to the major themes of society and the great mission of culture, and they are not accustomed to those macro metaphysical thinking. They like to treat art in a leisurely and plain state of mind, and they like to repeat and lay out. Make a big fuss, like to breed, multiply, and create something out of nothing. They are close to nature, close to the earth, and they are naturally "naturalists".
The closeness to nature has formed the basic orientation of Liu Liping's art. In some of her subsequent works, she also took nature as the theme: the series of "Winter Snow", "Autumn Lotus", "Winter Lotus" and "Green Corn", as well as some prints and sketches, repeatedly showed the rare affinity between her and nature. From her work, it is not difficult to feel the excitement she exudes when she eloquently narrates her experience of natural life, and her passionate celebration of natural life; For example, "Autumn Lotus" and "Winter Lotus" show that although they are all remnants of branches and leaves after completing a life cycle, the densely crisscrossed lotus pond landscape can still make the viewer feel the splendor of life, the fullness and vitality of life, and the infinite vitality it contains, without the mood of depression and sentimentality.
If in works such as Autumn Lotus and Winter Lotus, the main formal factor that constitutes the picture is the organization and structure of the "line", then in "Green Corn", the distribution of "light spots" is the main opportunity to form the form of the picture. This group of works is no longer purely objective depiction of the object, but more of a feeling. The leafy cornfields block sunlight, and the contrast between the large areas of darkness and the fine and bright spots of light that falls on the foliage creates a mystical atmosphere and a sense of music like a tropical jungle.
From a formal point of view, Liu Liping's paintings have always shown a strong sense of "abstraction" since the "Earth Branch" series. She often subtly alludes to "abstraction" and "concreteness". If the image can be ignored, her work can be appreciated as abstract works. The horizontal and vertical branches in the "Lotus" series, the mottled ground parts and the regular bluestone slabs in the "Earth Branch" series, and the light and shadow scattered on the branches and leaves in the "Green Corn" series are all extremely abstract factors and factors that constitute the beauty of form.
Liu Liping became famous as an "oil painter", but her "main business" is printmaking. This young painter, who graduated from the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, also has a number of wonderful printmaking works and sketches that few people know. She started with prints full of local and folk tastes, and then turned to depictions of pure nature, which spiritually shared the same path as her oil paintings.
(Text/Jia Fangzhou)
Work appreciation
Autumn Load, oil painting, 130cm×97cm, 1993
"Blue Load" oil painting, 130cm×97cm, 1998
Snow, oil painting, 130cm×97cm, 1990
Green Corn (Far Coke), oil on canvas, 100cm×80cm, 1995
Barbed Wire, oil on canvas, 130cm×97cm, 1989
Bathroom, oil on canvas, 130cm×97cm, 1989
Thick clay, oil painting, 130cm×97cm, 1989
Rain, oil painting, 130cm×97cm, 1993
Winter Snow, oil painting, 130cm×97cm, 1993
Ink Load, oil painting, 130cm×97cm, 1993
Golden Ball Rice, oil painting, 130cm×97cm, 1994
Green Corn (medium coke), oil on canvas, 130cm×97cm, 1997
Warm Snow, oil painting, 79cm×87cm, 1993
Snowy Ground, oil painting, 45cm×45cm, 2004
First Snow, oil painting, 45cm×33cm, 1993
Remaining Snow, oil painting, 38cm×45cm, 1992
Landscape, oil on canvas, 33cm×45cm, 1994
Blue Stone Tablet, oil painting, 38cm×45cm, 1993
Tai Xiao, oil painting, 45cm×45cm, 2004
Sunshine, oil on canvas, 30cm×60cm, 2018
(Source: Meijian @ Beijing Shenzhou Painting and Calligraphy Garden)
Artist Profile
Liu Liping graduated from the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1987 with a bachelor's degree and stayed on to teach, and graduated from the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1996. She is currently a professor of the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, a doctoral student, a master's supervisor, a member of the Chinese Artists Association, and the president of the Beijing Women Artists Association.
Solo exhibitions
1992 Liu Liping Solo Exhibition, Gallery of Central Academy of Fine Arts
2002 Per Wedges Lotus – 刘丽萍作品展，德国汉堡
2007 "Lotus Landscape" Liu Liping's Painting Exhibition, CAFA Art Museum
2008 Liu Liping's Twenty Years of Art Exhibition, Jiujiu Gallery, Aschaffenburg, Germany
Group Exhibition
1990 The World of Women Painters, CAFA Art Museum
1993 Oil painting "Autumn Lotus" won the Academy Award of the China Oil Painting Biennale, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
1998th Century - Women's Art Exhibition, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
2003 "Human Body Series", "Open Era", National Art Museum of China, Beijing
2004 "Movement and Stillness", Galerie Jiujiu, Essafenburg, Germany
2009 Printmaking "Lotus Land" was selected for the 60th Anniversary Exhibition of the Founding of the People's Republic of China, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
2013 Printmaking "Female Body" participated in CAFA Teacher's Works Exhibition, CAFA Art Museum
2017 Nomination Exhibition of Female Painters from China Performing Arts, Dayuntang Art Museum, Beijing
2018 Contemporary Art Exchange Exhibition from the Balkan Mountains to the Black Sea, Taimiao Art Museum, Beijing
2019 She. Art Chinese Contemporary Women Painters Invitational Exhibition, National Art Space
2022 Theatre Impressions - CAFA Famous Artists Sketch Exhibition, National Centre for the Performing Arts
2023 Spring Art - Exhibition of Chinese and Spanish Women Artists, Chinese Cultural Exchange Center, Madrid, Spain