Mainland artist Liu Xiaodong tells Ng Tze-wei how he learned to paint from a fresh point of view
For more than a decade after he graduated from Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1988, realist painter Liu Xiaodong made his name with his studio portraits, which were free of social or political symbolism.
'It is only in the paintings of Liu Xiaodong that the people at the bottom of society show their true nature,' prominent mainland art writer and critic Ou Ning once noted. 'This truthfulness allows us to make a connection with our own life experiences, and enables us to identify with them. What he paints is his understanding of reality.'
But in 2004, the contemporary artist decided to explore a reality less ordinary: for several weeks he was stationed on the island outpost of Quemoy, just off shore from Xiamen in Fujian province, to paint 18 soldiers - nine from the mainland and the rest from Taiwan. (Quemoy is dotted with more than 2,000 military bunkers used by Taiwanese military forces to defend against mainland annexation of the surrounding islands.)
The exercise was part of a bigger project led by artist Cai Guoqiang to transform military bunkers into 'fortifications for peace'. Liu's work, entitled Battlefield Realism: The Eighteen Arhats, was subsequently shown at the makeshift Bunker Museum of Contemporary Arts, which Cai curated.
On Wednesday, the 18 life-size portraits, estimated to be worth between HK$45 million and HK$55 million, will collectively come under the hammer at Sotheby's contemporary Chinese art sales. According to the auction house, this piece is a bold statement by the artist, standing in contrast to his usual non-judgmental and impersonal approach.
