Liu Kuo-sung: The Ink Painting

Michael Goedhuis is expanding in London - 10 years after opening his New York gallery – and his first ambitious presentation will be a mini-retrospective of the artist Liu Kuo-sung, one of the founders of the 'New Ink Painting' movement, who enjoys wide international acclaim.

Most of the works featured in this presentation represent the cream of Liu Kuo-sung's recent retrospective traveling exhibition. This important show, The Universe in the Mind: Master Liu Kuo-sung 60 Years, traveled to many of the key museums in China including the Hubei Provincial Museum, Wu Han; National Palace Museum, Beijing; the Three Gorges Museum, Chongqing, and the Yaming Art Museum, Anhui, and provides an overview of Liu Kuo-sung's stylistic development—from his early experimental period to the signature mature style of fusing landscape monumentality and abstraction. We are delighted to have the rare opportunity to offer works that have been selected from the museums exhibitions

Among works to be featured at Bloomfield Terrace are examples of his 'Space' series that he began in the 1960s, initially inspired by the Apollo 8 Space mission, and more recently, from his appreciation of China's astronomical developments. There will also be examples of his 'Tibetan landscape' series, in which he departed from his ink rubbing technique to experiment with light ink painting as well as the abstract expressionist paintings that he has developed throughout his career.

About the artist

Born in Bangbu, Anhui, in 1932, Liu Kuo-sung is universally recognized as one of the earliest and most important advocates and practitioners of modernist Chinese painting.
He moved to Taiwan from Mainland China in 1949. In 1956, Liu graduated from the Fine Arts Department of the National Taiwan Normal University, in which he studied both traditional brush-and-ink and western-style painting techniques.
As one of the co-founders of the Taiwan's Fifth Moon Painting Society (Wuyue huahui) in 1957, Liu Kuo-sung sought a new approach to art, which was inspired by both traditional Chinese painting—especially the style of the late Tang period (618–907) and the monumental landscape painting style of the 10th to 11th centuries—as well as modern styles and techniques, such as Abstract Expressionism.
Before turning to ink painting in 1961, Liu experimented with abstract oil painting. By the mid-1960s, Liu gradually developed his own personal pictorial formulae, in which he combines ink painting with collage and applies ink and colour on special paper.

Exhibitions and Shows
Liu Kuo-sung has had numerous solo exhibitions over the past 60 years in museums and galleries in mainland China, the United States, Germany, France, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, and in a number of other countries.

Collections
He is represented in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Cleveland Museum of Art, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Phoenix Art Museum, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Museum für Kunsthandwerk in Frankfurt, Museum für Ostasiatische Künst in Cologne, Universita degli Studi di Messina in Italy, Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery in England, Museum Rietberg in Zürich, National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, National Art Museum of China in Beijing, Shanghai Museum of Art, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Hong Kong Museum of Art and many other museums in Asia.


For further inquiries, information or images please contact:
Michael Goedhuis +1 212 535 6954 / michael@michaelgoedhuis.com
Tara Heffler +44 (0) 20 7823 1395 / tara@michaelgoedhuis.com
or Stella Yu +1 212 535 6954 / stella@goedhuiscontemporary.com