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拍品專文
CONVERSATION WITH LIU KUO-SUNG
C: Christie's
L: Liu Kuo-sung (interview conducted in Chinese)
C: Scenery of Hong Kong belonged to Hong Kong entrepreneur Dr. K. S. Lo. How did you two meet? What is the story behind this work?
L: I was teaching at the Chinese University of Hong Kong at the time. Dr. K. S. Lo went to my exhibition at the Hong Kong Arts Centre. He then spoke to my agent Hugh Moss and asked me to paint a seascape long scroll for him. He said that he had seen masterpiece landscape scrolls of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and even of Mount Huang, but no one had ever painted seascape in a long scroll. I didn't manage it for two years until Dr. Lo invited me on his yacht for a junk trip. So one day I took my students and my painter friends and we went on his yacht. We had lunch on the boat and cruised around Hong Kong Island. In the evening Dr. Lo treated us a big dinner at a restaurant. My agent then said to me that I should finish this painting for Dr. Lo soon, as he was getting old (laugh). So I dedicated over three months to finishing the painting after that day.
C: The landscape moves in both geography and time in the painting. Where did this idea come from?
L: The scroll depicts the scenery of Hong Kong as the day progresses: from morning to noon, then the afternoon, followed by sunset. In the past I have painted another long scroll depicting the four seasons, in which the image moves from spring, summer, autumn to winter. Traditionally Chinese ink painters portray four seasons in four separate, vertical scrolls, but I combine them on one long horizontal piece of paper, likewise here I depict the changes of time within a day on the same format.
C: What were the challenges in painting Scenery of Hong Kong?
L: The first challenge was to depict water, especially when it was rough and when other boats passed, they caused those very big waves - these had not been painted by anyone before. The reflection of the sun on the water at noon was also never conceived in ink paintings. The other challenge was that I had never painted houses in my life, but to paint the scenery of Hong Kong without houses would be quite unimaginable! So in this work, I painted not only houses but also tall buildings, and if you look closely there were even boats.
C: You are known for your innovative techniques and use of material - were these used in Scenery of Hong Kong?
L: Apart from innovative techniques, it is also very important for me to explore new materials - that's why in 1963 I invented a new type of special paper. The paper surface is full of textured strips which I would tear out after painting on it, resulting in many white lines on the surface. In the past painters adhered to painting in the xieyi manner influenced by the thinking of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi, which is about binaries, like the yin and the yang. But in fact Chinese painting can only be yin painting as it only consists of black dot and black lines. I wanted to add white lines to my paintings in order to truly practise the philosophy of Lao and Zhuang. Since the paper factory did not have a name for this new type of paper, we called it Liu Kuo-sung paper. For this work I have used Liu Kuo-sung paper and you can see there are lots of white lines.
C: You are still a very active artist. How has your artistic style changed since 1987?
L: My work has changed a lot in my life; and I have experienced many different stages. I feel that human civilisation is created by two types of people - scientists and artists. A scientist is called one because he or she wants to prove a theory through experimentation. Being an artist is the same - he or she has to have the urge to express feelings and ideas in art. I have done many experiments in my life - for example in the 1980s I went to Jiuzhaigou and was so amazed by the beauty of the lakes. By using sketching paper used by architects, I succeeded in my experiment to create paintings that is entirely about water, with no mountains, trees, or houses. This is one of the series that I have been working on since the 1980s.
C: Christie's
L: Liu Kuo-sung (interview conducted in Chinese)
C: Scenery of Hong Kong belonged to Hong Kong entrepreneur Dr. K. S. Lo. How did you two meet? What is the story behind this work?
L: I was teaching at the Chinese University of Hong Kong at the time. Dr. K. S. Lo went to my exhibition at the Hong Kong Arts Centre. He then spoke to my agent Hugh Moss and asked me to paint a seascape long scroll for him. He said that he had seen masterpiece landscape scrolls of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and even of Mount Huang, but no one had ever painted seascape in a long scroll. I didn't manage it for two years until Dr. Lo invited me on his yacht for a junk trip. So one day I took my students and my painter friends and we went on his yacht. We had lunch on the boat and cruised around Hong Kong Island. In the evening Dr. Lo treated us a big dinner at a restaurant. My agent then said to me that I should finish this painting for Dr. Lo soon, as he was getting old (laugh). So I dedicated over three months to finishing the painting after that day.
C: The landscape moves in both geography and time in the painting. Where did this idea come from?
L: The scroll depicts the scenery of Hong Kong as the day progresses: from morning to noon, then the afternoon, followed by sunset. In the past I have painted another long scroll depicting the four seasons, in which the image moves from spring, summer, autumn to winter. Traditionally Chinese ink painters portray four seasons in four separate, vertical scrolls, but I combine them on one long horizontal piece of paper, likewise here I depict the changes of time within a day on the same format.
C: What were the challenges in painting Scenery of Hong Kong?
L: The first challenge was to depict water, especially when it was rough and when other boats passed, they caused those very big waves - these had not been painted by anyone before. The reflection of the sun on the water at noon was also never conceived in ink paintings. The other challenge was that I had never painted houses in my life, but to paint the scenery of Hong Kong without houses would be quite unimaginable! So in this work, I painted not only houses but also tall buildings, and if you look closely there were even boats.
C: You are known for your innovative techniques and use of material - were these used in Scenery of Hong Kong?
L: Apart from innovative techniques, it is also very important for me to explore new materials - that's why in 1963 I invented a new type of special paper. The paper surface is full of textured strips which I would tear out after painting on it, resulting in many white lines on the surface. In the past painters adhered to painting in the xieyi manner influenced by the thinking of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi, which is about binaries, like the yin and the yang. But in fact Chinese painting can only be yin painting as it only consists of black dot and black lines. I wanted to add white lines to my paintings in order to truly practise the philosophy of Lao and Zhuang. Since the paper factory did not have a name for this new type of paper, we called it Liu Kuo-sung paper. For this work I have used Liu Kuo-sung paper and you can see there are lots of white lines.
C: You are still a very active artist. How has your artistic style changed since 1987?
L: My work has changed a lot in my life; and I have experienced many different stages. I feel that human civilisation is created by two types of people - scientists and artists. A scientist is called one because he or she wants to prove a theory through experimentation. Being an artist is the same - he or she has to have the urge to express feelings and ideas in art. I have done many experiments in my life - for example in the 1980s I went to Jiuzhaigou and was so amazed by the beauty of the lakes. By using sketching paper used by architects, I succeeded in my experiment to create paintings that is entirely about water, with no mountains, trees, or houses. This is one of the series that I have been working on since the 1980s.