Girl and Piggy

Liu Ye creates visions of ambiguous and tautly contained emotions; his works are full of private symbolic motifs and mythologies, vibrating with rich and carefully balanced colours, all brought together by his own eccentric sense of humour and philosophical curiosity. The present lot, Girl and Piggy, painted in 2002, is a work that brilliantly captures Liu's playful sensibility. The motif here is compelling yet baffling; a pious parody of Madonna and Child and the traditions of religious painting. With the vibrant pink background, Liu stages a scene reminiscent of his Madonna with Naughty Child painted two years earlier, in which young soldier-angels are depicted playing their musical instruments in a celestial panorama. A twist of a classical mythology into an erotic reverie, all the figures are caught in exaggerated, lyrically ebullient expressions. In both paintings, the sumptuous palette and delicate layers of paint handling are teamed with the caricatured protagonists and humourous motif of the slipped breast. At the same time, Liu's childlike world is imbued with smirking references to the uncertainty and anxiety felt towards the dubious priorities and politics of a new China. Girl and Piggy is essentially his reaction against ideology, a work that bespeaks Liu's appeal and insight in his appreciation of dreams and fantasies.