Three years after his last solo exhibition in Hong Kong, Liu Yuanshou returns to Galerie du Monde with his sensual photo realism oil paintings that celebrate the human body. The show, which runs from today to October 30 is entitled 'Allure'. It features some 20 works, which mark a further step in his evolution from the 'Red' series in 2007.
The Beijing-born artist began his artistic career painting works in photo realism. Vivian Har, assistant manager of Galerie du Monde, says a few years ago Liu decided to move away from creating paintings that looked exactly like pictures and make them more like paintings.
'The technique of 'realism' in painting is bounded by its images within the limited size of the painting,' Liu says . 'The concept or feeling that the artist wishes to convey to the audience should be excluded from the painting itself, but conveyed through the spirit visually. It requires more freedom and vision in expressing the concept of the painting to overcome the limit of size so as to raise the level of communication in two ways.'
His works in Allure demonstrate this shift. Although the main subject, a woman, is depicted as if in a photograph, complete with such details as the veins in her fingers and feet, the works are finished off with rough, fast brushstrokes in the background, drips of paint dribbling down the canvas, and even white areas where the paintings seem unfinished.
He continues with the theme from the 'Red' series with a model dressed in white with a crimson sash draped around her body in various compositions.
One of the stronger pieces is Warrior which shows two figures. The one on the right strikes a strong dance-like pose, knees bent and arms stretched out, the right hand pulling on a red sash. The other figure is behind her, kneeling with her head down and arms outstretched. While the women are for the most part-finished, the background is abstract, with broad strokes in black and grey, and the right hand in the latter figure still shows Liu's original sketch markings. It is a visually arresting painting, with technical finesse and artistic merit that makes it so appealing and invites various interpretations.
In 2007, Liu did not want to explain why he used the colours white and red. 'I believe the works speak for themselves and a narrator is utterly unnecessary,' he wrote. 'It is only a piece of red cloth beside a woman who wears white clothes often. Everyone is free to imagine what red represents and, as for the woman in the paintings, she may be objectively perceived or caused to exist in one's subjective consciousness.'
