.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Heralded as the father of contemporary ink art, Liu Kuo-sung spent formative years studying under traditional Chinese painter and calligrapher Pu Ru and Chinese-French abstract painter Chu Teh-Chun at the National Taiwan Normal University. Upon graduating in 1956, Liu began to forge his own artistic language. Rebelling against the conservatism prevalent at the time, Liu was interested in modernising ink painting and began a period of intensive experimentation with both brushwork techniques and paper composition.
The culmination of his efforts can be seen in Roof of the World Series No. 5. Incorporating many of the techniques he had developed over the years, Liu evokes a snowy mountainscape by sweeping washes of black and blue ink over the surface of his own specially-made textured paper. After letting the ink dry, Liu removed the coarse fibres from the surface of the paper to reveal dramatic white lines carving into the soiled mountainscape and deep indigo sky. This use of the paper grain technique allows Liu to emulate the iconic misty mountaintops of traditional Chinese landscape paintings with a modern twist. Pushing the boundaries of conventional ink, brush and paper, Liu creates striking white lines that could not be produced by brushwork alone.
The culmination of his efforts can be seen in Roof of the World Series No. 5. Incorporating many of the techniques he had developed over the years, Liu evokes a snowy mountainscape by sweeping washes of black and blue ink over the surface of his own specially-made textured paper. After letting the ink dry, Liu removed the coarse fibres from the surface of the paper to reveal dramatic white lines carving into the soiled mountainscape and deep indigo sky. This use of the paper grain technique allows Liu to emulate the iconic misty mountaintops of traditional Chinese landscape paintings with a modern twist. Pushing the boundaries of conventional ink, brush and paper, Liu creates striking white lines that could not be produced by brushwork alone.