WORKS BY VISITING ARTIST HUNG LIU TO BE EXHIBITED AT OU’S FRED JONES JR. MUSEUM OF ART

kh/3-14-08

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                            

CONTACT: Kristal J. Hamm,
(405) 325-3178 or khamm@ou.edu


        NORMAN – “Hung Liu: Now and Then,” featuring works by renowned Chinese contemporary artist Hung Liu, will open Thursday, April 3, at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, 555 Elm Ave., on the University of Oklahoma Norman campus. Dr. Melissa Chiu, Asian Society Museum Director, New York will speak at 6 p.m. on “Chinese Contemporary Art: Seven Things You Should Know” and there will a reception for Hung Liu from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

        Liu – the second holder of the Jerome M. and Wanda Otey Westheimer Distinguished Visiting Artist Chair of OU’s School and Art and Art History – was born in China in 1948 and grew up in Mao Zedong’s China. She lived through the turbulent “Cultural Revolution” era and moved to California in 1984, where she attended the University of California San Diego as a visual arts graduate student. Liu currently is a professor of art at Mills College in Oakland, California.

        “Hung Liu is one of the hardest working artists I’ve ever met; she has boundless energy that is reflected in the way she paints – it’s very thoughtful, but very physical at the same time,” said guest curator Alan Atkinson.

        “Hung Liu: Then and Now,” curated by Alan Atkinson, is made possible through the endowment of the Jerome M. and Wanda Otey Westheimer Distinguished Visiting Artist Chair, generously given by the Westheimers in 2004. It will remain on view at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art through July 6.

        “We are very grateful to Mrs. Westheimer to give us the opportunity to bring to OU major contemporary artists, who will teach and share their knowledge and passion with the School of Art and Art History students. Art and education are Mrs. Westheimer and OU’s main mission,” said Ghislain d’Humieres director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art.

        Liu’s paintings modify historical photographs of Chinese individuals and groups in China and America. The paintings are layered with photo-based images, traditional Chinese painting motifs and three-dimensional elements that mirror Liu’s contemporary view of Chinese culture.

        “Perhaps the most beautiful paintings in the show are a series of landscapes that she painted secretly in the 1970s during the Cultural Revolution. They are truly tiny master-pieces and are being exhibited here at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art for the first time anywhere,” said Atkinson.

        In celebration of the exhibition, a poetry reading and lecture are scheduled for Friday, April 4.    A poetry reading from China’s most well-known living poet, Bei Dao (the pen name of Zhao Zhenkai), is set for 11 a.m. in the Molly Shi Boren Ballroom, Oklahoma Memorial Union, 900 Asp Ave. Hung Liu will present a lecture that afternoon at 2 p.m. in the museum’s Mary Eddy and Fred Jones Auditorium about the evolution of her work from early photographs and drawings made of farmers and their families during the Chinese Cultural Revolution to her current paintings, which combine Western aesthetics with Chinese subject matter.

        Admission to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is free to all OU students with a current student ID and all Museum Association members, $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $3, for children 6 to 17 years of age, $2 for OU faculty/staff and free for children 5 and under. Admission is free on Tuesdays.  For information and accommodations on the basis of disability, please call (405) 325-4938.

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